Passed my CCNA :D

I'd like to chime in here too (instead of opening a new thread) and thank everybody on the forum for the invaluable help they've provided. Even though I mainly lurked I would not have passed my CCNA today without this place.

Keep it up.

Nate

thedude666

Ola_CISCO wrote: »

How long did it take you to study for the CCNA?

I think a few months...
Probably because I took the absolute wrong approach (first reading the whole Todd Lammle book and afterwards rereading it and doing all the exercises)
Also there have been a few weeks I didn't read anything in the book.

I managed to postpone my target date around 5 times:p because of course I enjoy other things in life that are not IT related as well

beach5563

thedude666 wrote: »

I think a few months...
Probably because I took the absolute wrong approach (first reading the whole Todd Lammle book and afterwards rereading it and doing all the exercises)
Also there have been a few weeks I didn't read anything in the book.

I managed to postpone my target date around 5 times:p because of course I enjoy other things in life that are not IT related as well

Congrats
I have the lammle book too and packet tracer. I have taken cisco classes in the past and I may use the cbt nuggets videos too. Did you have a real lab? Was the book all you used?

Nate--IRL--

For me all it took was Lammles book, CBT Nuggets and Packet tracer/GNS3, That's all you need.

Nate

Roguetadhg

Congratulations Dude!

What do you would be the correct approach for studying?

Oh, angel. I seen you on the learning network commenting on the OSPF thread :P

beach5563

Nate--IRL-- wrote: »

For me all it took was Lammles book, CBT Nuggets and Packet tracer/GNS3, That's all you need.

Nate

yea thats pretty much what Im gonna do. I dont have GNS3 my computer is old and slow but I have Packet Tracer. So you just took the Composite test instead of the two tests?

Nate--IRL--

beach5563 wrote: »

yea thats pretty much what Im gonna do. I dont have GNS3 my computer is old and slow but I have Packet Tracer. So you just took the Composite test instead of the two tests?

Yeah took the single test, from what I'd read if you feel you know your stuff, it is the easier route. As long as you can subnet quickly in your head and get plenty of Lab Scenarios to practice, it will be very doable.

The only thing is that exam flies by - with the Sim scenarios eating into your time before you realise it. In order to make room for the Sims, the questions have to go pretty quick. So subnetting should be nearly sub-conscious to do in your head - practice it often until it is natural. (EDIT:- Subnetting only really clicked for me after watching Jeremy explain it in CBT nuggets - so look out for that)

Packet tracer is ok too, and now that I think about it I did use it more than GNS3. Get as many scenarois as you can. This is a fantastic resource for GNS3 labs - Free CCNA Workbook

EDIT:- BTW I run GNS3 just fine on my 1.8ghz pentium laptop with 2gb, albeit I am running Ubuntu. But it works perfectly.

Good Luck.

Nate

Roguetadhg

Ive had issues with GNS3. mostly the cloud. Darned cloud. It won't work for my loopback interfaces. I've read it works for XP, 7 if you use administrator to run it... but nothing on words about using 64-bit.

I hate the thought to downgrade, and loose other bits of ram because of the cloud.

Nate--IRL--

Odd - works ok on my main computer in Win7 64bit.

Nate

beach5563

yea i really want to check out GNS3. As soon as I get a better computer I will definitely give it a shot. Maybe for CCNP stuff or maybe a mixture of a small lab plus GNS3 too.

ampdeck

i can help if you're planning for Routing......

Nate--IRL--

ampdeck wrote: »

i can help if you're planning for Routing......

Do tell.....

Nate

Roguetadhg

Nate--IRL-- wrote: »

Odd - works ok on my main computer in Win7 64bit.

Nate

How do you setup the cloud? I have a loopback interface, selected and okayed. The link shows connected to the router with a 10.0.0.1 /16 address.

On the windows side, I've assigned it with a 10.0.0.2 /16. default gate way 10.0.0.1.

Ping from the router shows nothing.

Nate--IRL--

Roguetadhg wrote: »

How do you setup the cloud? I have a loopback interface, selected and okayed. The link shows connected to the router with a 10.0.0.1 /16 address.

On the windows side, I've assigned it with a 10.0.0.2 /16. default gate way 10.0.0.1.

Ping from the router shows nothing.

I have it setup the same apart from the Gateway, I didn't assign that. Not that that would make any difference anyway. I can ping back and forth and telnet into the router the cloud is connected to. Could be your firewall getting in the way?

Nate

Roguetadhg

I shouldn't have a firewall on. The group policy disables firewalls automagicly. I'll keep that in mind tomorrow at work just to make sure.

Thank you. It works, the windows firewall did come on. I went to work just to try this :P