CCNA Thread

Deathgomper

Like the saying goes: if you fail...try, try again. Basically don't give up and you'll be fine.

Enjoy re-certifying your Baby+!!!

YFZblu

veritas_libertas wrote: »

Failed a second time. I haven't been sleeping well lately and this really hurt me. I will say that after two tests I'm a lot more knowledgeable on what I do need to know. It will probably be another month before I take another shot. My wife is due any time now and the family needs some more of my time. I'm going to keep on studying and I know I will fulfill my goal of finishing the CCNA in 2012.

Yeah, the sleep thing killed me my 2nd time as well. Actually the night before an exam our pet's health took a turn. We spent 8pm - 12am at the animal hospital and had to put him down. We then spent the next three hours stunned at what just happened to our guy, and I didn't get to sleep until around 4am. I got about four hours of sleep before my 9am exam I failed with a 776...I'm taking two weeks to reflect and lab. Hopefully the 3rd time is the charm.

j.petrov

cyberguypr wrote: »

Don't forget this thread. IT made my subnetting ridiculously simple.
http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccna-ccent/38772-subnetting-made-easy.html

So true, I didn't even read the Lammle chapters on subnetting and took a glance at the CBT Nuggets on subnetting.

This way of doing it is so simple and easy to understand. You can't go wrong!

Excellent1

Sorry to hear it didn't work out for you on the 2nd shot. I don't know what areas you came up short in, but if your subnetting was one of them, I would recommend this site: Practice Subnet Skills: Design a VLSM Network I'm not part of it or endorsing it in any way other than to say that you can practice pretty much every facet of subnetting, including random vlsm problems. At work during breaks and at home when I had a few spare moments I would practice over and over again until subnetting is just plain easy. While it does take some practice, having it down cold makes a pretty big difference for the exam. I was 100% for both ICND1 and 2 for subnetting, and that definitely helped me pass the exams.

Also, I'm with you 100% on the family time. I'm working on my CEH currently but we have a little one that is scheduled to arrive next week. Stressful, but you can't go wrong with prioritizing family. Best of luck to you and congratulations on the addition to your family.

veritas_libertas

I've started re-reading material and trying to nail down my weak areas. I'm trying to read a chapter a day of Odom's ICND2 book. I find that this works great since I have Lammle's book practically memorized. Odom's goes a few steps further and I feel like I'm building on top of what I already know. Nice.

Am I the only one that some times confuses VLAN theory with STP at times? I sometimes get Root ports confused with Trunk ports...

@Excellent1: Yes, that's a good site. VLSM is something I have to just keep doing. Cisco = Subnetting, and it demands constant practice.

Congrats on child. I assume he/she is born by now Mine is due any time now.

drkat

Congratulations! We just had our latest one (girl) 6/18 - it's tough trying to study with kids and a wife (thank god we dont have 2 or 3 of those lol, we'd never grt anything done)

veritas_libertas

drkat wrote: »

Congratulations! We just had our latest one (girl) 6/18 - it's tough trying to study with kids and a wife (thank god we dont have 2 or 3 of those lol, we'd never grt anything done)

LOL! This will be my second. I'm told having two running around is a good thing because they will entertain each other. I made the mistake of teaching my daughter how to plug in serial cables and patch cables. She gets a kick out of helping me setup different scenarios, but when I came home yesterday I found my lab unplugged. Ah well, at least she is having fun...

drkat

Lol, nice.. my daughter she's 6 came to me the other day and was like "So Daddy are we gonna talk about vlans?" -- I was bored one day and was reading her a vlan lecture lol.. kids say the darndest things!

veritas_libertas

It's been awhile since I posted. My brain is still very fuzzy from lack of sleep, but I'm trying to ease my way back into studying. ARGH, the commands don't come back as quickly when you haven't used them in over a month.

jdballinger

No they don't! I passed my INCD1 in April, studied for ICND2 until the end of June. I stopped at that point because work sent me to a Security+ training class, and I wanted to focus on one thing at a time. I spent the rest of the summer not really thinking of anything at all, just playing with virtualization a bit. I picked it back up towards the end of August, and I have to say that I have a renewed vigor for Cisco. The little breaks can do wonders, and for me I think it allowed information to sink in a bit. I find myself understanding certain concepts a lot better, especially since I started watching the INE videos. McGahan is pretty dry but the information he gives is fantastic!

veritas_libertas

Dry for sure! I've learned a few things from him, but my mind wanders quickly when I listen to him lecture.

veritas_libertas

My child has finally started sleeping through the night. This is major step on my way to passing the CCNA It's nice when you get up in the morning and your first thought is not about Caffeine.

I've started flipping through my INCD2 material, my notes, and reading a chapter here and there on EIGRP and OSPF to refresh my mind. I've also started firing up GNS3 at work during downtime to test different routing scenarios. I'm excited about passing the ICND2 and I know that if I had a solid two weeks I could knock this thing out of the ballpark.

I just realized the other day that I have been with my company now for over three years doing mainly desktop support work. While it's a great company to work for, I'm very tired of my role. I'm ready for a new challenge.

Mike-Mike

Hey, dont let the fails get you down, you probably dont remember, but Mr. Awesome Face aka Mike-Mike failed 3 times before passing on the 4th.... just stay at it, those commands only stay in the brain if you use them

Deathgomper

It's good to hear you'll be able to get back on the train again. You'll get it.

Patel128

Yeah you got this! I'm waiting for you to make a thread saying that you passed and how easy it was.

@Mike-Mike - failing 3 times and not stopping you, that my friend is sheer determination. Great job.

veritas_libertas

Still in the catch-back-up mode. I'm using the 640-816 Blueprint as my map. Trying to find time is my current problem. First quarter of 2013 is my goal.

veritas_libertas

Oh man, I just have to say that when Frame-Relay finally makes sense it's actually kind of cool I have a lab running right now on GNS3 that is running with a Point-to-Point and Multi-Point. The concept that the CCNA books seem to leave out is that you have to know how to create a Frame-Relay switch to get the other routers to communicate. I realize that goes beyond what you HAVE to know, but for me it brought clarity to see the big picture.

veritas_libertas

I just put together my topology that I'm going to start using over this week. I'm going to be out of town for Thanksgiving, so I will have some time to study in the airport, etc.

veritas_libertas

Ouch. Almost my entire Thanksgiving week was crushed by the flu running through the family (no traveling for me). Anyhow, today the office is about as quiet as the stores are noisy for Black Friday This has worked in my advantage and I was able to almost completely put in action my network topology above. GNS3 did a few strange things though and I could eight of my ten routers running. Odd! I'm finding this technique of studying more fun than I was doing before. I think my weak areas at this point are down to:

* Troubleshooting Switching
* ACLs
* IPv6
* OSPF
* STP (Not the basics, but questions where you are asked what the L-2 topology will look like after convergence. ARGH, talk about a lot to think about, especially if they throw in multiple VLANs.)

I think I will be ready to kill this thing a few months. This month and December are going to be hard because of all the Holiday related things.

veritas_libertas

Spent time yesterday night reading through Odom's chapter on STP. I was stunned by how much additional information was provided that was not given in the Lammle book. I felt sheepish, and at the same time happy about the new information that filled in questions I have had for a while. RSTP is very cool in my opinion.

Anyone find Boson sims to be frustrating? I don't mean in difficultly, but I hate, I mean HATE the way the information is provided. The window is tiny and you have to scroll to find the pertinent information. It really should be done in a way where I don't have to write everything down to figure it out :P

Mike-Mike

veritas_libertas wrote: »

The window is tiny and you have to scroll to find the pertinent information. It really should be done in a way where I don't have to write everything down to figure it out :P

I find most testing software to be like this, except Sybex, which is why I love the Sybex test engine, it's really annoying

veritas_libertas

Yikes, my thread got corrupted by a dumper!

Anyhow, I had some fun today with getting OSPF to inject a default route. I had no idea it wouldn't simply add 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 x.x.x.x to the mix. I'm sure the CCNPs already knew this, but for those that want to over study, and it seems I'm one of them: OSPF conditional default route injection - Packet Life. I'm learning that OSPF can be very complex and somewhat frustrating at times. For instance, fixing a DR election does not always work the way you plan.

veritas_libertas

Got some more studying in today during some down time at work:

• OSPF DR/BDR
• NAT
• IPv6

I had some fun setting up IPv6 on a couple of routers. Interesting stuff and I plan to study it some more AFTER the CCNA LOL To easy to get distracted if I don't pay enough attention.

veritas_libertas

Scheduled my exam for next Tuesday. Excited! If I can pass the CCNA in 2012 than I will get the only Christmas gift I want for this year.

gadav478

I've been reading your thread @veritas, and it's really inspirational... we're pushing for you. Next Tuesday is the day.

Hopefully next week we'll have some good news to bring back to TE... I'm testing for ICND1 again on Friday...

Psoasman

Good luck! Bring back that pass!

jsb515

veritas_libertas wrote: »

Scheduled my exam for next Tuesday. Excited! If I can pass the CCNA in 2012 than I will get the only Christmas gift I want for this year.

Good luck man!

veritas_libertas

Thanks guys I'm hoping this will be the one. I'm re-reading through the objectives again and making note cards. Our network administrator loaned me some unused switches to use during downtime at work. I'm going to try to start mastering VLSM questions and I think I'll be good.

veritas_libertas

I have most of the 3x5 cards memorized which is cool. The USB-to-R232 and Cross Over cables came in the mail. I'm trying to clean up my lab some more. Fun stuff!

My small switching lab:




I rarely use my routers for anything beyond Router-on-a-Stick. GNS3 has become my primary study tool. It's just way to easy to spin up a nice sized lab with it.

minnowALE

Hello all,
brand new to the forums here. If I'm in the wrong area for this question please direct me to the right place. I have my first networking class next semester, for the first CCNA, and in preparation I bought a few pieces of gear.
so far I have:
2501 router
2950 switch
2 console cables

I don't have a background in networking at all. With all of that I am wondering what I can do to begin learning, rather... To all of you who are in the middle of this or near the end, what would be the two or three most important things to get a jump on? I'd be working with either those two pieces or with packet tracer (but I'd like to mess around with the physical ones... ya know...). I just want to get a jump start.
thanks!