Study Guide arrived today, no more excuses.

Orvar

Since passing ICND2 in january I've been trying to decide which cert to study for next.
I've been going between RHSA, Linux+, continuing on to CCNP, CCNA-Voice or CCNA-Security.

Well I've decided to go for CCNA-Security but with a twist, I'm going to do the all the note taking, labs and remote sessions on Linux computers, that way I'll be able to get familiar with working on Linux and yet continue on the Cisco path.

Anyway, the 'Authorized Self-Study Guide' by Catherine Paquet arrived today, so no more excuses, the plan is to read at least two chapters a week plus CBT nuggets and labs and hopefully do the exam in August/September.

p.s. Anyone else think it's strange the dude on the book cover has no console cable hooked up to his laptop and that he's standing at a patch panel rack with no switches?

lochmoigh

That is a good idea. May slow you down initially as you search for ways to make things work, but overall you are building knowledge on two areas. Dead smart.

amb1s1

Orvar wrote: »

Since passing ICND2 in january I've been trying to decide which cert to study for next.
I've been going between RHSA, Linux+, continuing on to CCNP, CCNA-Voice or CCNA-Security.

Well I've decided to go for CCNA-Security but with a twist, I'm going to do the all the note taking, labs and remote sessions on Linux computers, that way I'll be able to get familiar with working on Linux and yet continue on the Cisco path.

Anyway, the 'Authorized Self-Study Guide' by Catherine Paquet arrived today, so no more excuses, the plan is to read at least two chapters a week plus CBT nuggets and labs and hopefully do the exam in August/September.

p.s. Anyone else think it's strange the dude on the book cover has no console cable hooked up to his laptop and that he's standing at a patch panel rack with no switches?

That is a really good idea.

jamesleecoleman

It's a really good idea that you have there. I think it'll be a great start to the linux track. I actually did the same thing but with CCNA but I had to put the linux on hold.

viper75

The Catherine Paquet is a good book. That's what I used to study for my CCNA:S. The chapters are long, but there's a lot of useful information in that book. Everything you need to pass the test is in that book.

Good Luck!

Dakinggamer87

Great study plan!!

Orvar

Thanks guys.

A little update.

I installed Ubuntu 11.04 last night on a Dell XPS laptop, everything worked out of the box even the wifi, which is great.
Couldn't tell you how many times I've burnt a Linux cd and installed it in dual boot or a virtual machine and just ended up abondoning it. The problem is there that you always have the option to go back to windows but this time it's a full install. No option but to learn.
So yesterday I played around with Emacs a little bit and the terminal, now I just have to find a good remote desktop client, so far I havent seen anything as good as Microsoft's Remote Desktop so I guess It'll have to be some sort of a VNC client.

Went through a few pages in the book, looks like it will be pretty heavy going, very detailed but I can already see Linux was a good choice since it has so many network tools already installed (or builtin rather).

Tonight I'm going to try and install vmware infrastructure client on the laptop and then BackTrack linux on the virtual server which will be directly connected to the cisco boxes.

Should be interesting...

P.s. I'm not going to turn this into a Linux thread as I know there's the Linux forum for that, but if it is ok with the moderators I might post an update once in a while on which Linux tools I think are good to use while studying for CCNA-S and ofcourse others are also free to contribute with any tips and tricks.