Coming back to Cisco

So after moving away from the cisco world for about 18 months or so im back

Various things came up which meant i was never able to complete studying for CCNA at the time, kind of feels like im starting from scratch but Ive watched a few of the ICND CBT videos and things are slowly falling back into place.

Has anyone else been in this situation where it feels you are re-learning things you did know but now are more than a little hazy??

Any tips for where to start again?

I still have some kit from 18months ago:

1 x 2950
4 x 2610
1 x 2611
1 x 2509

Of course the books I had are out of date

Looks like I need to buy the new ones which relate to CCENT / CCNA, the ones I have are the CCNA all in one and the INTRO / ICND ones...

So this weekend ill be dusting off the kit and watching some cisco videos - im sure the wife will be really please

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Comments

Turgon

paule999 wrote:

So after moving away from the cisco world for about 18 months or so im back

Various things came up which meant i was never able to complete studying for CCNA at the time, kind of feels like im starting from scratch but Ive watched a few of the ICND CBT videos and things are slowly falling back into place.

Has anyone else been in this situation where it feels you are re-learning things you did know but now are more than a little hazy??

Any tips for where to start again?

I still have some kit from 18months ago:

1 x 2950
4 x 2610
1 x 2611
1 x 2509

Of course the books I had are out of date

Looks like I need to buy the new ones which relate to CCENT / CCNA, the ones I have are the CCNA all in one and the INTRO / ICND ones...

So this weekend ill be dusting off the kit and watching some cisco videos - im sure the wife will be really please

I had a study hiatus myself between 2003 and 2005 where I concentrated on my work in the field as opposed to working towards more certification. Using equipment again will help you but the best advice I can give is to forget videos and nuggets for a while and immerse yourself in six weeks of daily reading from one of the larger books dedicated to CCNA. Nothing beats total immersion in hard reading topped up with some hands on examples to work as you go along, but prioritise reading first. Try and get through a large book and dont rush the reading. A decent book offers you lots to absorb even in a single chapter so set a realistic timetable and don't rush through the reading.

paule999

Cheers for the reply

I've ordered the new book from Amazon (now to sell the other two on fleabay to recoup some cash!)

I've noticed two additions at least since I last looked at CCNA, now seems to be definite involvelment with IPv6 and Wireless. Guess its an excuse to buy a cisco wireless router at some point to replace teh crappy BT Homehub...

Been messing about a bit with Dynamips on my work PC over lunch just to refresh my mind.

Just been on a proxy course this week learning all about Finjan, really impressed with it cant wait to get my grubby hands on ours when it turns up - not cheap by any stretch of the imagination but the filtering it does was impressive

Plazma

It was very slow at work for me for 4-5 months so i was able to get a lot accomplished in that time, but now things are picking up triple time.. so I have had to put off some of my CCIE studies as well.