Newbie questions

If I'm only going to buy one book, which one is the holy grail of CCNA?
Will router sims be enough to pass or must I buy a Cisco switch?
Is there a link to the "official" CCNA site with all of the objectives, etc?

Thanks in advance.

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Comments

Webmaster

1. I'd go for Todd Lammle's CCNA guide from Sybex (Todd has been awarded 'best tech author' several years in a row, which all started with his excellent CCNA guide)
2. www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15604
3. www.cisco.com/go/ccna

Also recommenend getting at least one decent set of practice questions, e.g. preplogic's.

garv221

Yeah Todd's book is very good. I currently have that book and use it for refrence. I actualy bought it twice.

Danman32

You will need to know how to manage a Cisco 2500 series switch and some of the commands that go with it. This includes configuring VTP, VLANs, determining the root switch, etc. You might be able to study this all from just reading a book, but like in routing, nothing beats playing with the stuff.

w^rl0rd

I'm checking eBay to see if I can get a good deal on a used 2500 series but they all appear to be routers, not switches. I'm familiar w/ the difference but does this matter for practicing?

Webmaster

There are no switches in the 2500 series. Cisco switches have other 'numbers', e.g. 1900 2900 3500 etc. Routers series include 1600, 2600, etc.

The following show the more current versions:

www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/index.html

www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/index.html

Danman32

My oops. I believe I meant the 2950, which is what the course and test is based on.

w^rl0rd

Is the exam exclusive to routers, switches, or both?
I noticed that the hardware tech lab actually uses a 2500 series.

Webmaster

w^rl0rd wrote:

Is the exam exclusive to routers, switches, or both?

Both, though some more on routers than switches.

I noticed that the hardware tech lab actually uses a 2500 series.

That's because it is still 'the' most common used router for practice. Old, hence cheap, but still very useful for in a home lab (and still used in corporate networks). Especially a 2501 is very common, it has 2 serial interfaces and an ethernet interface allowing you to practice both wan (between 2 router's serial interfaces, back to back) and lan connections. Because they are so cheap, you can easily create a large wan which is useful for practicing routing protocols (many things possible with two routers, but 1 more adds a lot). If you see some of the labs some of our members have, like Mike, you'll notice they almost always have a whole bunch of 2500 series. So again, old, limited, but still useful, and cheap.

For the CCNA exam the 2600 series routers and 2950 switches are 'the' devices, but if you do not plan to continue with the CCNP after CCNA, those can be a bit too large an investment for the CCNA exam, and than a simulator becomes a good alternative.

Even if you get a simulator, I recommend buying at least two 2500 (e.g. 2501) routers, just to get a feel with the hardware, the connectors, cables etc. You will run into issues you can't with a sim.

The following is a somewhat older topic, and very long, but still very useful if you do decide to set up some equipment yourself:

www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3349

As for the 1900 switches, I suggest getting one only if you can very cheap (below $50) and/or when you have no actual experience with switches or vlans whatsoever. They are hardly any useful for the current CCNA exam. If you do buy one, make sure it is an Enterprise version, ie. 1912-EN or 1924-EN. Better add a couple of hundred dollars and get a 2924xl or even better, the 2950.

TeKniques

I was bored and decided to check the prices of some of those on Ebay and the 26xx and 2950 are expensive.

Johan is right about the 2501 routers, saw like 3 of them for 'Buy it Now' for about $40.00 - $60.00 as opposed to the others which were all in the hundreds (couple of hundred - especially the switch) at a quick glance.

Webmaster

Though they are expensive, they retain their value for quite some time, so you usually can sell the equipment for a similar price later (if you can let go

w^rl0rd

Does this sound like a good buy?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Cisco-1912-w-Enterprise-9-00-07-IOS-Kit-1900-WS-1924-C_W0QQitemZ180003216538QQihZ008QQcategoryZ51255QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

wildfire

The 1900 is not used on the CCNA, or any Cisco exam for that matter, the command set is different to the IOS. Ideally a Cisco 2950 is what you need, but the 2924XL is also a cheap alternative.

This topic has been raised a few times before regarding the switch choice.

http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15291

http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15195

http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15125

Webmaster

w^rl0rd wrote:

Does this sound like a good buy?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Cisco-1912-w-Enterprise-9-00-07-IOS-Kit-1900-WS-1924-C_W0QQitemZ180003216538QQihZ008QQcategoryZ51255QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

Webmaster wrote:

As for the 1900 switches, I suggest getting one only if you can very cheap (below $50) and/or when you have no actual experience with switches or vlans whatsoever. They are hardly any useful for the current CCNA exam. If you do buy one, make sure it is an Enterprise version, ie. 1912-EN or 1924-EN. Better add a couple of hundred dollars and get a 2924xl or even better, the 2950.

Based on your previous posts and questions I know you spent a lot of time getting to know the details behind certain technologies and concepts, so I don't think you will learn much from the 1900 especially for the current Cisco exams. As Wildfire mentioned, knowing how to configure a 1900 won't help you configuring the current switches.

w^rl0rd

OK. I'm almost done beating the dead horse.

Here is a 2924XL:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Cisco-2924-WS-C2924M-XL-A-FAST-SHIP_W0QQitemZ230003451109QQihZ013QQcategoryZ51256QQssPageNameZWD7VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Now this sounds like what I need.
My only questions is what does the "WS-C2924M" and the "-A" mean?
Aside from the model, are there some other specs I need to look out for like firmware versions etc?

Webmaster

I'll leave the suggestions for a good deal on a switch to others as, well, anything beyond 2500 is new for me

w^rl0rd wrote:

OK. I'm almost done beating the dead horse.

Don't worry about that, you named the topic appropriately, and as long as you try to keep the basics in this topic we'll be able to use this one to refer others to.