Network + good place to start?

zenlakin

Hey guys, I am just curious if the Network + exam would be good to study for and get to show that I have a good handle on networking concepts as well as IP addressing? Or would that be more of a CCNA thing?

dynamik

I'd download the Network+ exam objectives and see if that is the material you want to master: http://certification.comptia.org/network/

The CCNA is more difficult and will include a lot of Cisco-specific information, but it will also give you a solid foundation in TCP/IP and general networking concepts as well.

If you're a novice when it comes to networking, you should probably start with the Network+.

sthomas

I think Net+ is a good place to start if you have little to no knowledge of Networking. If you are planning on doing the CCNA and money is tight then you may just want to skip Net+ and go straight for CCNA. Although there are some who say CCNA is not really entry level because most jobs that involve configuring Cisco devices are not usually entry level. Others will say CCNA has helped them get an entry level job and Net+ was not worth it.

zenlakin

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking about the CCNA because i was looking to learn more about actual IP addressing and working out subnets and such. Need to get better at that. LOL!!

brad-

zenlakin wrote:

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking about the CCNA because i was looking to learn more about actual IP addressing and working out subnets and such. Need to get better at that. LOL!!

That was not in my N+ experience.

I think subnetting comes in 70-291 in the MS series. Havent gotten there just yet.

hypnotoad

Cisco requires you to do a lot of subnetting.

In N+ you learn about other stuff besides just internetworking -- such as UPSes, Backups, RAID, and all the other good stuff you'd find in a server room.

You also learn about protocols such as IPX, whereas Cisco is pretty much straight IP.