Paper Cert?

jim_stasz

I apologize if this has already been addressed in a previous post.

Is the CCNA a cert / test you can pass by just studying or do you need to have hands on, practical experience to pass? I have my A+, Net+, 270, and soon 290. I've worked in the IT field for 15 years, but I've never worked on enterprise level routers.

TIA,
Jim

Webmaster

In short: yeah, you absolutely need hands-on. Using a simulator is doable, but buying some used equipement is basically 'the' way to go if you don't have experience and/or access to Cisco devices. Check out the following recent topic for more info:
www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13950

mikej412

jim_stasz wrote:

Is the CCNA a cert / test you can pass by just studying or do you need to have hands on, practical experience to pass? I have my A+, Net+, 270, and soon 290. I've worked in the IT field for 15 years, but I've never worked on enterprise level routers.

You have to start somewhere -- and you probably won't get to touch the enterprise level routers (except for racking and cabling them, and you can do that with an A+) until you're a CCNP with experience anyways

Hardware helps and can make it easier to learn. The simulators can be annoying when they don't work, but are still probably good enough if you use the labs that come with it (Boson NetSim).

Humper

mikej412 wrote:

jim_stasz wrote:

Is the CCNA a cert / test you can pass by just studying or do you need to have hands on, practical experience to pass? I have my A+, Net+, 270, and soon 290. I've worked in the IT field for 15 years, but I've never worked on enterprise level routers.

You have to start somewhere -- and you probably won't get to touch the enterprise level routers (except for racking and cabling them, and you can do that with an A+) until you're a CCNP with experience anyways

Hardware helps and can make it easier to learn. The simulators can be annoying when they don't work, but are still probably good enough if you use the labs that come with it (Boson NetSim).

Enterprise routers is considered what? Cisco in general?

I don't have my CCNA yet, I am 20 years old and going into my 4th sem of telecom and I work on a huge variety of Cisco equipment everyday. I don't know that much about networking but I am constantly learning, I guess you can call me lucky !