Network Design Competetion

jeremy8529

Hello, some of you might recognize me from the security+ section, I am a high school student from the great state of Tennessee that in in FBLA that competed nationally this past summer, and this was possible in part to your help recommending study materiel, I was able to place top 10 nationally in the cyber security competition mainly by reading so much security+ materiel that I could remember it in my sleep.
This year, as a finale for my senior year in high school I desire to make it to nationals again, but this time in a network design competition. The competition, is a 2-3 person competition, consisting of a written test and a judged practical exam. In the judged section, you are given a scenario, a white board, and 20 minutes to design a rough draft for a network solution for any given scenario. Usually it is designing a network for a small to mid size business from the ground up. When your 20 minutes is up, you and your team go in front of the panel of judges and get to play “network design team” and they pretend to be customers/ critics.
So my question is this, what certification materiel would help me this most with this, im thinking about learning network+ and server+ to learn the ins and outs of how everything works, but I need something that would help me in a more hands on situation, like which switch to use, what kind of network cable, and how to estimate the cost of a deigned network. I'd like to learn some vendor specific stuff as well, such as Cisco and novell. I know somoene recommended CCNA. I already have a good security+ background so that should help, but what I need is some specific recommendations as far as books and materiel for me and my team to read. We have like 7 months to get ready for the first competition, so we can cover a lot of materiel.

These are the exam objectives listed for the written test, they are kinda vague, but can anyone think of a certification that fits most within these realms?
o network installation—planning, configuration, and topology
o problem solving and troubleshooting
o network administrator functions
o configuration of Internet resources
o backup and disaster recovery
o configuring network resources and services

Thanks in advance.

Jeremy Langford

mikej412

Check out the Cisco Design Zone -- Design Zone - Cisco Systems

The "By Place in the Network" section is probably a good place to start. Start with a Branch Office solution, poke through the docs & design guides, and don't get bogged down with specific configurations. Then work through the list to Campus, and Data Center, and MAN/WAN -- try to pick out the parts you may need to worry about, but don't get caught up the excitement of the Enterprise or Global Enterprise Networks.

The Cisco Internetworking Technology Handbook is a good first place to check for some high level overview type information on topics/technology the design docs point you towards.

Check out the Cisco CCDA and CCDP Certifications for some ideas and scope of topics.
CCDA - Career Certifications & Paths - Cisco Systems
CCDP - Career Certifications & Paths - Cisco Systems

If you follow the links to the DESGN & ARCH courses that would also give you an idea of topics and scope for your studies. For small to medium design you'd probably focus more on the DESGN (and CCNA) topics -- depending on what they consider "medium."

darkerosxx

Very awesome, Jeremy. Good luck with it. I'm sure I speak for most of the people on the boards here in saying we support you and your team, so keep in touch.

You definitely can cover CCNA and CCDA material in 7 months and that would give you a very strong base of knowledge to design small business networks.

jeremy8529

Thanks guys for the help, it's support like this that makes great things possible.
Is their a preffered study book for CCNA and CCDA? I know for Security+ it was split even between Sybex and Syngress. I will also make sure to check out the links in that post mike, Im should be able to pull plenty of usefull materail out of that! I will update as soon as I have more news!

darkerosxx

jeremy8529 wrote: »

Thanks guys for the help, it's support like this that makes great things possible.
Is their a preffered study book for CCNA and CCDA? I know for Security+ it was split even between Sybex and Syngress. I will also make sure to check out the links in that post mike, Im should be able to pull plenty of usefull materail out of that! I will update as soon as I have more news!

The Cisco Press Books will describe the elements covered in the greatest detail, in my experience. I've used Exam Cram/Prep books and they're great, but they're more for prep for the exam than they are for explaining the details of the concepts.

I'd suggest these:

http://www.ciscopress.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=1587201828

CCNA ICND2 Official Exam Certification Guide (CCNA Exams 640-816 and 640-802), 2nd Edition - $31.99

Designing for Cisco Internetwork Solutions (DESGN) (Authorized CCDA Self-Study Guide) (Exam 640-863), 2nd Edition - $52.00

The CCDA is focused on taking the business requirements and determining a strategy to meet those requirements with proper equipment. The CCNA is focused on taking the strategy and implementing it.

You *might* be able to get away with studying CCDA material moreso than CCNA mainly because the CCDA is meant to be vendor-neutral (thus lending to greater design flexibility). However, the CCNA will give you ideas of equipment to use and best practices for implementing that equipment in a small business.

Since you're limited in the amount of time you have (7 months vs. unlimited amount of time) to prepare, I'd suggest starting with CCDA material and the links Mike supplied, then move onto the CCNA material, because that will give you a better gauge for what topics you can skip as you go through it. That might save you some wasted time.

Forsaken_GA

darkerosxx wrote: »

You *might* be able to get away with studying CCDA material moreso than CCNA mainly because the CCDA is meant to be vendor-neutral

Well, the CCDA may be meant to be vendor neutral, but the Cisco Press book is anything but. It's a very large cheer leading effort for Cisco products and solutions hehe

katakatak

Wow! Good luck with everything man! I did the same thing back in my senior of high school. I also was in FBLA. We made it to States with 3rd Place in our County (Miami-Dade) for Network Design, and didn't pass the first stage of States, which I think is a written exam, between you and your members. If you are in the Cisco Networking Academy, take a look at most of their Semester 1 & 3 stuff. Good luck!

Btw are you guys staying at the Peabody in Orlando still? Good memories

darkerosxx

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

Well, the CCDA may be meant to be vendor neutral, but the Cisco Press book is anything but. It's a very large cheer leading effort for Cisco products and solutions hehe

Which book did you use? The Diane Teare book is fairly neutral. I didn't do much more than skim the Bruno book.

Forsaken_GA

darkerosxx wrote: »

Which book did you use? The Diane Teare book is fairly neutral. I didn't do much more than skim the Bruno book.

I used the Teare book as well, and I would hardly call it vendor neutral, not much beyond the first couple of chapters anyway, when they actually mention tools that Cisco does not make. But since SONA pretty much dominates the philosophy of the entire book, it takes a heavy Cisco bent on the entire track. In the one case study where they actually ask you to select equipment from the list it is, of course, all Cisco gear. Then there's the simple fact that correct answer to pretty much any IGP question is EIGRP. That's not only promoting Cisco's own protocol, but also promoting vendor lock in.

The security chapter is the most guilty of cheerleading though. It absolutely does not stick to generics, instead identifying specific Cisco solutions and no other vendor or product is even considered. The Wireless section is guilty of this as well.

I don't fault any of this of course, Cisco is a vendor after all, so I don't expect their exams to be vendor neutral. Most of the time, the vendor specifics can be overlooked, as network related concepts are network related concepts, whether you're using Cisco, Juniper, Nortel, or a Unix based open source solution. But the entire network design track can be pretty much summed as 'the gospel according to Cisco'

jeremy8529

katakatak wrote: »

Wow! Good luck with everything man! I did the same thing back in my senior of high school. I also was in FBLA. We made it to States with 3rd Place in our County (Miami-Dade) for Network Design, and didn't pass the first stage of States, which I think is a written exam, between you and your members. If you are in the Cisco Networking Academy, take a look at most of their Semester 1 & 3 stuff. Good luck!

Btw are you guys staying at the Peabody in Orlando still? Good memories

Im not sure were we are staying to be honest, I know this past year it was the Hilton, Anaheim since it was in Anaheim, CA. I have a November Conference in Orlando, that might be in the Peabody, who knows. Im sure it will be if it's close to the convention center. Im not in the Cisco Academy, is that something that schools offer, because my school doesn't offer it.

Once Again, thanks for all of your support, I will keep posted here for sure. I think i'm going to go with the CCDA, and then CCNA next. This will be my first foray into Networking, other than what I've picked up at school, and what I learned by studying Security+.

Forsaken_GA

Unless you already have a strong network background, you will probably want to review CCNA material along with the CCDA material, as the CCDA's recommendation is that you have some CCNP level knowledge, and some design considerations do require being conversant with the underlying technology

jeremy8529

Thanks for all of the help, these are the books that I have decided on using for now atleast. After I take my SAT this october, ( got a book for that too lol!) Im going to hit these Cisco Books hard all the way to the week before the competetion.

CCNA
Amazon.com: CCNA Certification Kit: Exam 640-802 (9780470447253): Todd Lammle, William Tedder: Books

CCDA
Amazon.com: Designing for Cisco Internetwork Solutions (DESGN) (Authorized CCDA Self-Study Guide) (Exam 640-863) (2nd Edition) (9781587052729): Diane Teare: Books