New Guy here!

Smitty74

Wanted to Hello and that i've been checking out the forum and would like to say that it's awesome. I'm looking to take my CCNA exam at the end of July. I have been studying at my own pace for the last 3 month or so. Any advise, hints or tips would be great. I have had some bumps in the road while study, mainly time issues becuasue of the family, married and I have two boys 10 and 2. The only thing that i don't have access to is a switch, i do have a router at home. Now for my job i do work with Cisco 800, 1721 and a some 7204 everyday.


Thanks in advance,

Smitty

-prophet-

Just to let you know, for my CCNA study I had 3 2501 routers and a 2900XL switch.

I think I used the switch about 3 times during my whole study. I really could have passed the exam without it. Don't get me wrong, hardware is fantastic for real life experience but don't go overboard on a switch if you can't afford it u n l e s s you are thinking of progressing to CCNP.

Cheers,
-prophet-

Pash

-prophet- wrote:

Just to let you know, for my CCNA study I had 3 2501 routers and a 2900XL switch.

I think I used the switch about 3 times during my whole study. I really could have passed the exam without it. Don't get me wrong, hardware is fantastic for real life experience but don't go overboard on a switch if you can't afford it u n l e s s you are thinking of progressing to CCNP.

Cheers,
-prophet-

Just to add to this. You can probably do without any hardware at all to pass the CCNA, but the real thing is always helpful. The CCNA really is a huge cram of theory and information rolled into one exam (or two depending on your choice).

If im honest I have already forgotten a lot of my CCNA core theory, because I simply don't do enough practice at work. If you are getting experience at work good on you and my advice is to work through the subjects one by one and break it up with labs. This way you wont get "sick" of theory and you can have a play in the labs.

Cheers and goodluck.

Netstudent

Pash wrote:

-prophet- wrote:

Just to let you know, for my CCNA study I had 3 2501 routers and a 2900XL switch.

I think I used the switch about 3 times during my whole study. I really could have passed the exam without it. Don't get me wrong, hardware is fantastic for real life experience but don't go overboard on a switch if you can't afford it u n l e s s you are thinking of progressing to CCNP.

Cheers,
-prophet-

Just to add to this. You can probably do without any hardware at all to pass the CCNA, but the real thing is always helpful. The CCNA really is a huge cram of theory and information rolled into one exam (or two depending on your choice).

If im honest I have already forgotten a lot of my CCNA core theory, because I simply don't do enough practice at work. If you are getting experience at work good on you and my advice is to work through the subjects one by one and break it up with labs. This way you wont get "sick" of theory and you can have a play in the labs.

Cheers and goodluck.

but having the gear reinforces the theory right? Would you say it makes it harder to pass without having some kind of equipment or simlulator to practice the theory?

widjerd

dunno about you but i did the first 2 semesters of the net academy and thought 'yeah i know it all' then got down with the routers and switches only to find i actually didnt know basic concepts of networking.

I think real practice is invaluable

Paul Boz

Simulators are fine for the CCNA.

Welcome.

totts

Paul Boz wrote:

Simulators are fine for the CCNA.

Welcome.

I've been reading posts on simulators and the one most people recommend is Boson's Netsim. Never tried it before myself, but it seems to be popular.

Smitty74

Thanks everyone!!

Paul Boz

totts wrote:

Paul Boz wrote:

Simulators are fine for the CCNA.

Welcome.

I've been reading posts on simulators and the one most people recommend is Boson's Netsim. Never tried it before myself, but it seems to be popular.

I used the Boson netsim for most of my CCNA, but now that I've moved on I've switched to Dynamips. In hindsight I should have dedicated more effort to learning Dynamips in the beginning, because Boson is a buggy, some times outright wrong piece of software.

Pash

Netstudent wrote:

Pash wrote:

-prophet- wrote:

Just to let you know, for my CCNA study I had 3 2501 routers and a 2900XL switch.

I think I used the switch about 3 times during my whole study. I really could have passed the exam without it. Don't get me wrong, hardware is fantastic for real life experience but don't go overboard on a switch if you can't afford it u n l e s s you are thinking of progressing to CCNP.

Cheers,
-prophet-

Just to add to this. You can probably do without any hardware at all to pass the CCNA, but the real thing is always helpful. The CCNA really is a huge cram of theory and information rolled into one exam (or two depending on your choice).

If im honest I have already forgotten a lot of my CCNA core theory, because I simply don't do enough practice at work. If you are getting experience at work good on you and my advice is to work through the subjects one by one and break it up with labs. This way you wont get "sick" of theory and you can have a play in the labs.

Cheers and goodluck.

but having the gear reinforces the theory right? Would you say it makes it harder to pass without having some kind of equipment or simlulator to practice the theory?

As Paul says you can pass with simulators, no problems there.

Playing with the real equipment is VERY important if you aspire to be a long term Cisco engineer. It's all very well if you can configure multiple routing protocols and debug them etc, but if you cant upload/download a config to a router or switch using a tftp server, console into a router or switch using one of those magical blue cables, replace a WIC and some RAM in a router etc etc.....then whats to stop the second guy with a CCNA and some hands on getting that job before you?

Btw I have probably only spent about 2 weeks infront of a good cisco lab at my old college, at work I only get to touch some L2 & L3 switches and maybe some low end routers IF im lucky. I need much more practice myself and im constantly looking to attain the extra practice.

So in short, bust a nut to get hands on if you can, it will be worth it.