Is this enough?

I'm currently working away at my CCNA, and I hope to get it within the next couple of weeks. I'm trying to read all the material I can get my hands on, but I'm a little worried that I need to buy some more.

I'm using the Sybex CCNA 4th Edition by Todd Lammle. Has the exam changed enough to justify buying the 5th edition? Ideally I don't want to have to fork out more if its not really necessary.

I've read that book through front to back three times now, twice in the past week. I've a fair bit of background in networking so feel like I've picked it up really quickly. But is that book (plus the Technotes here) really enough to pass with? (I really can't afford to buy any equipment right now, I've 0 money until I start my new job in Japan in a few months time)

Thanks everyone

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garv221

All I can say is there is a reason they printed a fifth edition. I would take a bunch of practice tests that ARE up to date, not from the fourth edition and see how you do. I really try to have the most up to date reading material possible, it would frustrate me to study hard for something out dated.

Danman32

A good rule of thumb, if you see a focus on IPX routing, it is outdated. You may see a mention of IPX in an up-to-date book, as it is still covered in Intro if I recall as a protocol that's still out there, but it is not mentioned in ICND any longer.

wildfire

Hi Tesl and welcome,

To answer your question, how much of a Cisco background do you have? CCNA is a very hard exam, although its the Cisco entry exams Its by far one of the hardest hurdles not to be taken lightly. If you work on Cisco day in day out, a book may act as a good revision and add the conecpts to you technical knowledge.

What are you using to prepare for the sims (the practical element of the exam?)

My advice is have a read through similar topics in this forum (and trust me theres plenty) and take some practice tests to gauge your knowledge.

Tesl

wildfire wrote:

Hi Tesl and welcome,

Hey! I actually signed up on this site ages ago (when I did the N+ sometime) but have since lost username/password, setting post count to 0

To answer your question, how much of a Cisco background do you have?

Admittedly, not that much. Obviously the N+ helps and I've limited experience with simple cisco router configurations, but since I don't have my own equipment its hard to practise. My new job is actually not in the IT field, although I will be looking for work in the Networking/Linux field not too long after arriving in Japan.

I've spent quite a bit of the time in the past writing a lot of networking code, including a linux kernel module that altered how the OS would respond to certain TCP/IP requests (for security reasons).

Some of that was a while back though, and obviously doesn't help with things like WAN technologies and the equipment/protocols used within those. I would say that is my weak point.

What are you using to prepare for the sims (the practical element of the exam?)

Alas, not that much. More or less just what I can find online, since I don't have access to the equipment right now. I would honestly love to hit ebay and buy some bits and pieces, but it really isn't ideal right now. Once I get my own place to live sorted out, I may buy some cisco gear and set up my own lab once in Japan

My advice is have a read through similar topics in this forum (and trust me theres plenty) and take some practice tests to gauge your knowledge.

I was away for a week where I picked up that book for the first time in about a year or so, and read it twice through. Doing the practice tests here and elsewhere I'm scoring anywhere between 65% - 90%. Not really good enough, but thats before finding this site or doing any further work.

The CCNA doesn't strike me as being difficult per se, there is just quite a wide variety of information that needs to be memorised =/

mikej412

Tesl wrote:

More or less just what I can find online, since I don't have access to the equipment right now. I would honestly love to hit ebay and buy some bits and pieces, but it really isn't ideal right now.

Since you mentioned Linux -- search for dynamips. If you have a Linux box running, it may be worth looking into. I've been playing with dynagen and dynamips on Linux. I did load the windows versions also. The current rough version of dynamips may have just added a virtual ethernet switch with VLAN and VTP support -- I was reading about it last night when my main desktop lost its boot drive. You do need a 7200 IOS image to run it. Its not for everyone, but it seems to be getting there really quick.