Do I need to take a separate class.

Hi there, I'm a college freshman and I work as a student employee in the IT department in my school. Specifically, in the networking department. I'm studying for the CCNA exam and was wondering if this experience combined with my self studying will be enough to pass without having to take a separate class. . . I also wonder if my unhealthy unix addiction will be of any help? I guess not much, from what I've seen of IOS so far it is of limited use. Here are some of the experiencese i'm getting this summer:

We're working on a project this summer converting all of our edge switches from 3com 3300/4400s to cisco 3560s and 2960s. I have to set up and configure each new one. VLANs, trunking, etc
When one of the old 3coms dies, i need to replace it with a new one.
We're instaling a new wireless network with cisco aironet devices instead of older proxim devices. ~300 access points.
working with bother fiber and copper cables, terminating, making custom patch cables, etc.
general network troubleshooting and maintenance
and of course, lot's of unix scripting. I guess it's somewhat relevant becuase i wrote up a little script that logs into each of the new cisco switches and sends the config to a tftp server.

I'm extremely interested in networking and unix and this job is absolutely amazing. There's another studendt that works with me, but he's not interested in the things the way i am. he just wants to make some extra money. I'm looking at it as paid training for future jobs. But, is it enough? I'm reading the two books from cisco press, the INTRO and ICND books. ICND looks like it's basically a course in IOS.

If i'm lucky, i might get to do some configuration on the 6513 switch.

Thanks in advance,
Matt

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mikej412

Rearden wrote:

I'm studying for the CCNA exam and was wondering if this experience combined with my self studying will be enough to pass without having to take a separate class.

Yep, lots of people self-study (and don't get the hands-on experience that you seem to be getting).

Rearden wrote:

I also wonder if my unhealthy unix addiction will be of any help?

You've already found one use..... I've been using shell scripts on one of my Linux systems to do the config saves and to reload some of my different configurations -- saves a lot of time.

DW [banned]

Darby

Rearden

Well, that's encouraging. I think you guys will be seeing a lot more of me with questions and such. I'll try to answer whatever questions that I can as well. This seems like a nice place.

HELLZxPHADER

If your aiming for ccna certification, that can be done with no hardware. But for me I get a kick out of configuring as much stuff with hardware as possible, it helps for the test too.

If you got the hardware for it, try to setup and configure these things...

1.Setup your router for telnet access to and from every piece of lab hardware. Successfull telnetting to other devices indicates that all layers in the osi model are working correctly, so far.

2.Setup tftp server, upload your router and switch settings to the tftp folder location. upload ur ios, and vice versa back to router and switches. Learn how to manually edit the configs and download them from the tft. Experiment with different conifg register settings, know the difference between each (ex diff between 2102 and 2142).

3. apply routing protocols to your routers, eigrp, ospf- configure each of these , learn as much as you can about each. These are more important than the other ones like rip rip2 igrp. I dont remember seeing any igrp/rip question on my test- only eigrp, ospf specific.

Also setup ur serial connections to your other routers, start with hdlc encapsulation, then configure ppp with authentication, then move on to frame relay switch.

4. configure the router and switches for use with internet. To do this you will need to learn nat. Theres 3 types of nat- static dynamic and overload, you will most likely be using overload and static. Along with dhcp pool or static configuration for internal nodes.

5. apply standard and extended acl. Start with a standard list, apply it to your nat inside source line for your lan hosts, connect to the internet. Once thats done experiment with extended acl and apply to the router interfaces and test it each time u modify it. do the acl stuff till you understand it as good as subnetting. Because you will need to be able to answer them fast in the test and in real life. To do them fast is not an overnight process, this takes practice and time. It only gets easier once you practice.

6. intervlan routing with the 2960 only. (dont use 1900 switches they suck, there is not one 1900 specific question on the test, get at least a 2924 or higher switch-that is my recommendation)

7. vtp with multiple switches. Experiment with all the possible configurations like client, server , transparent, experiment with all the show commands.

8. Frame relay switch, theres a link in this site that shows you how to for a 4 router setup, i used a 3 router setup.

9. Isdn you wont have to worry about on the test too much. I only had one or two questions regarding it. It is a good idea to buy a basic bri0 card from eaby, they are cheap, I use it for show commands mainly. I prefer using show commands from hyperterm than from netsim type stuff. But if it bothers you to not be able to mess with isdn, then get a simulator, or find isdn sims or something lol.

Keep in mind, this isnt needed for passing the test. People have passed without touching hardware. If you do happen to get into this stuff and have questions, you can message me or post questions. If you get more in depth then i recommend tek-tips.com for hardware related problems. Thats where the cisco hardware specialists are, they love troubleshooting the more expensive stuff, but they will still answer your questions, alot can be answered from just searching for it specifically from that site and this site.

And when you do take your test, be ready for questions relating to 1-8 along with osi rules and stuff like frame addressing, format bah, theres muuuuuuuuuch lol.