CCENT

bshay

Does anyone know what book would be most helpful to study for the CCENT? I have the Cisco Press book, but i'm looking for another good book and possible hardware to set up a lab.

mikej412

From the CCNA FAQ

Odom Certification Library AND Todd's Sybex book (6th Edition)
The Wendell Odom Cisco Press CCNA Official Exam Certification Library (CCNA Exam 640-802), 3rd Edition and Todd Lammle's CCNA: Cisco Certified Network Associate Study Guide: Exam 640-802, 6th Edition are the books most recommended by TechExams.Net members.

There is also a Lab section in the FAQ -- one of the hardware lab difference between the old 640-801 exam and the new 640-802 exam is the requirement to practice SDM. So you'd want one of your lab routers to support SDM.

From the ICND 1 exam blueprint you have a some requirements that would require a SDM capable router for your ICND 1 studies

# Enable NAT for a small network with a single ISP and connection using SDM and verify operation using CLI and ping
# Configure, verify and troubleshoot DHCP and DNS operation on a router.(including: CLI/SDM)

bshay

thanks for your help

ajs1976

I never rely on one book. I have both the Lammle (Sybex) and the McQuerry / ICND1 (Cisco Press) books.

tech-airman

bshay wrote:

Does anyone know what book would be most helpful to study for the CCENT? I have the Cisco Press book, but i'm looking for another good book and possible hardware to set up a lab.

bshay,

Which "Cisco Press book" do you have? The Self-study guide or the Exam Certification Guide?

bshay

tech-airman, i have the Exam Certification Guide....

TMM3

I used the Cisco Press book and found that the book covered everything that was on the exam.

bshay

TMM3, Did you use any hardware (routers, switches) to help study?

aragoen_celtdra

I'm using Wendell Odom's Exam Guide from CiscoPress. While I haven't taken the test, so I have no way of validating it's effectiveness in exam preparation, I'm quite happy with his style and his presentation. The Sybex guide is also highly recommended by everyone, but I have no experience with it.

Since I'm not using any other books, I also make sure to supplement my learning by going through some other sources such as wikipedia, and other web sites that has anything to do with CCENT. One such example, I've probably used at least 5 other sources just to get different perspectives on the subject of subnetting alone.

Lastly, I invested a lot of money on buying lab equipment as I feel that to fully "delve in" to the subject matter, I need to actually practice what I'm learning on real routers and switches. I have heard of people who passed the CCENT without a real lab but used simulators or routing emulators such as Dynamips/Dynagen instead.