Working towards CCENT/CCNA... How I plan to pass them.

Hello all,

I am really thankfull for your site and all of the great participants! I have already gained so much insight into becoming CCNA certified from just a few hours of reading on these forums.

I am a Nortel DMS (voice switching) support engineer of 7 years now. Dodging the daunting CCNA during the last 3 of those 7 years was becoming quite a skill until just recently. My company has started to invest in the newer Nortel switches that are packet DMS'S/IP based voice switches. So... no more dodging, it's time to get down to learning!

After being lost in the endless sea of google finds on books, long drawn out courses, and $3K a person week long 'boot camps', I gave a big sigh of relief after finding you guys. My plan of attack for accomplishing the CCENT first and then the CCNA is found below. Please take a look at what I am planning and let me know if I am heading for success or utter failure.

CBTNuggets for CCNA/CCENT I will use this as my introductory into CCENT until I get the book by Todd Lammle since he seems to be a highly recommended author on these forums.

CCENT book by Todd Lammle Again, one of the most mentioned authors in these forums. The book isn't out until March 04, 2008 though. Should I buy a different book until then, or will the CBTNuggets tide me over until it comes out?

CiscoKits which is also recommended by this web site. It looks to cost a pretty penny, but I don't trust myself with this router stuff to buy from E-Bay and get a dud for equipment. Is that sufficient equipment in the link to help me with the hands-on portion of my study plan?

Anyways, thanks again for a great site! Both my wife and I are working towards the CCENT, as she has just moved to a job within the same company where she has to work on CISCO stuff. She is a little less technically proficient then me, but I think with both of us working on this at the same time, it will be a little easier. Also, if you see something that I left out in my plan, please don't be shy to point me in the right direction.

Oh, did I mention that you guys are awesome to have such a great site? :P

Thanks X3!!!

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Comments

Project2501

It would be worth looking at CCNA Official Exam Certification Library (CCNA Exam 640-802) (Exam Certification Guide) by Wendell Odom.

Here's a link to the amazon listing.

I've started studying for the CCNA as well and after reading through the forums and finding that some books lacked the detail that Odoms book had I bought the above instead.

Good luck with your studies.

Mrock4

Welcome to the site. I'm sure your experience will be a great asset. I love how hopeful most people are here.

Bit of a comment on the routers. I'm not sure if you're absolutely set on the CiscoKits routers yet, but have you given thought to dynamips? It runs on real Cisco IOS images, and is free. Granted, you have to have access to a router image, but other than that, it's great. It's pretty awesome. Just a thought.

Also, I used the Wendell Odom book..I was generally satisfied, although I made sure to use plenty of hands-on experience to supplement the reading.

freetech

The Odom books are better, IMHO, for their content. They probably give way too much detail for the exam; but if you do this for a living, it might be a better choice.
The Lammle books seem more geared toward the test.
I used CiscoKits when I got started and they are very reliable, very helpful and very expensive for what you get. What I did, more or less, is start out buying some CiscoKits stuff; but as I gained more knowledge I began to venture out and finish my home lab from eBay.
People on this forum are very helpful with home lab advice.
Don't hesitate to try out Dynamps, it can be very helpful in augmenting that lab, but nothing beats hands-on practice.
Best of luck to both of you!!

Netwurk

CiscoKits are pretty fair with their prices, so you're OK there if you want to avoid ebay. Just stay away from the kits that include the 1900 switches. The 1900's are basically junk these days.

Crucio666

i used the CBTNUGGETS for the CCENT.

It is by far the best video ever. THe instructor was so interesting to listen to and broke everything down into simple terms, explained everything and showed how Cisco relates to the real world.

I would watch the video first so you can get a understanding of everything and then breeze through the books.

I went this route and got a 922 on my exam, very happy.

elegua

Hi jmoss,

First, Welcome to the Forum.

Now, i think for my own experience that for CCENT you don't need to buy any router/switch and the CBTNuggets will be enough for you to pass this exam, also if you need to cover something in more detail use google.com, it has all the info you need to know.

About Ciscokits, i never bought any from them but before buy anything search,ask here in the forum, go to google.com and search for CCNA Lab or CCNP Lab, do you homework.

This is my point of view, minimun watch the cbtnuggets 2 times, very close attention to jeremy doing all the configurations (if you don't have any router/switch to practice), and you'll be fine for your CCENT cert.

Now, i'm complete sure after you passed the CCENT exam you will know what do you need to buy for your ICND2, you'll see it after you complete your CCENT CBTNugget video.

Hope this Help.

PS: Remember: "GOOGLE IS YOUR FRIEND"

networker050184

elegua wrote:

Now, i think for my own experience that for CCENT you don't need to buy any router/switch and the CBTNuggets will be enough for you to pass this exam, also if you need to cover something in more detail use google.com, it has all the info you need to know.

It may be enough to "pass the exam" but your goal should be to get a solid understanding of the material not to just pass. Any one can memorize a bunch of stuff and pass. You will be better off buying equipment and getting plenty hands on experience to go along with your CBT Nuggets and Cisco Press books. Welcome to the forums and good luck on your studies!

Crucio666

networker050184 wrote:

elegua wrote:

Now, i think for my own experience that for CCENT you don't need to buy any router/switch and the CBTNuggets will be enough for you to pass this exam, also if you need to cover something in more detail use google.com, it has all the info you need to know.

It may be enough to "pass the exam" but your goal should be to get a solid understanding of the material not to just pass. Any one can memorize a bunch of stuff and pass. You will be better off buying equipment and getting plenty hands on experience to go along with your CBT Nuggets and Cisco Press books. Welcome to the forums and good luck on your studies!

Actually, i did not buy any equipment to practice for the CCENT.

the exam tests you on the extreme basics of configuring a router/switch/identifying platform/hardware.

All i did was go to the CCNA prep center on cisco's website and did all the simulations on there. And as to my expectation, the exact sims were very very similar to what was on the exam.

for icnd2 i will surely get the routers as that exam will require more indepth configurations.

networker050184

You are correct you can pass the exam with no hands on, I'm not arguing that fact. I have seen people pass the CCNP exams with out ever touching real hardware. Would I let them touch my network? NO WAY! Passing an exam is nothing if you are not proficient implementing the technologies in a real world scenario or at least a lab environment.

elegua

networker050184 wrote:

You are correct you can pass the exam with no hands on, I'm not arguing that fact. I have seen people pass the CCNP exams with out ever touching real hardware. Would I let them touch my network? NO WAY! Passing an exam is nothing if you are not proficient implementing the technologies in a real world scenario or at least a lab environment.

I think you went little to far, we're talking about CCENT here, not ICND2 or CCNP, when i said you don't need to buy routers/switches i was talking about CCENT, also he mentioned his wife is working with real cisco equitments so i thought why to buy when they can access to them.

Hope this help.

flipmad

DMS guy huh, I was in the similar boat...

I was so used to TBerds and Frame Switches and DACS commands. I never worried about the router.

Its a whole new world. I do recommend purchasing equipment though. hands-on is the best way to leanr in my opinion

mikej412

Welcome to the forum!

Yep -- get the Odom books too. Real hardware works the best for learning. Avoid the 1900 switches.

AlexMR

networker050184 wrote:

elegua wrote:

Now, i think for my own experience that for CCENT you don't need to buy any router/switch and the CBTNuggets will be enough for you to pass this exam, also if you need to cover something in more detail use google.com, it has all the info you need to know.

It may be enough to "pass the exam" but your goal should be to get a solid understanding of the material not to just pass. Any one can memorize a bunch of stuff and pass. You will be better off buying equipment and getting plenty hands on experience to go along with your CBT Nuggets and Cisco Press books. Welcome to the forums and good luck on your studies!

That is absolutely right. I could have passed the CCENT exam last week buit I have been messing around with dynamips/dynagen and a router I got. I am into learning and right now I am without a job and waiting only for the cert to start working. I just dont want to get the job and be clueless as I hear so many cvertified people are (I dont know how that is possible though, specially with cisco exam being so hard as everybody say).

I bought the Lammle's CCNA book and it is not very well organized for the two exams path, but if you check the blueprints you should be fine. I have practically covered the whole material and im still going for the two exams path, because ive heard a lot of people having problems with the time in the 640-802, and Im slow to be honest.

I have compared the Lamle's book to examcram and the official guide and i think Lammle's is much better.

Good luck!