Ccent/ccna icnd1 & icnd2

TexNolan

I have 2 books from ciscopress.com written by Wendell Odom Second Edition
The question is: I ordered them off Amazon and they came in a case that reads Third Edition. Is there a third edition? and is the second edition going to teach me enough to get through the exam?

Home studying sucks! any suggestions on what will help in this case?

ChickenNuggetz

Yes, there is a third edition that was released not too long ago by Cisco Press for both the ICND1 and ICND2. My understanding is that the third edition reorganizes (and consolidates) a few of the chapters from the second edition to make the learning progression a bit more logical. Additionally, some updated information has been added to the third edition that does not appear in the second edition. For example, 802.11n information was added to the third edition, whereas the second edition only really mentions it in passing (as it was a fairly new technology at the time of its initial printing).

Personally, I did not see enough new material in the Third Edition to warrant a purchase and I've been using my Second Edition book with pretty good results. I will say though, the disc that is included with the third edition seems to be pretty good (I think it includes some labs/practice tests) and that right there might be a good enough reason to pick it up for some.

As for other materials, I'd definitely recommend CBT Nuggets (CBT IT Training Videos Online, Certification and Education | CBT Nuggets), its a video training series that I feel compliments the Odom book rather well. It made subnetting super easy for me to understand. Many on this forum also like Todd Lamele's CCNA book, although I've never tried it myself.

I'd also like to recommend Packet Tracer and/or GNS3 if you can get those. They'll give some "hands on" experience actually working with the command line.

Hope that helps! Good luck to you!

TexNolan

ChickenNuggetz wrote: »

Hope that helps! Good luck to you!

Yes this helps, Thank you

Roguetadhg

There's a lot of ways people study. Really though, I found it was easiest for me - unfortantly I just really realized this - to try to recall the information. Not just to try to keep pounding my head against the book forcing words into my mind.

I've read that people like to "Lab" first, knowing "How or Why" something is the way it's labbed isn't important. Then they read the chapter, recognizing the commands and the output makes digesting the reading easier.

Actually I found doing "Anything" before reading makes reading a chapter less blurry. You'll be interested in the chapter, as you've become aquainted with the material. You may not know squat, but atleast when you read over "CHAP" you'll be like "Oh Yeah, PPP Authentication". I prefer video watching. Understanding something from two different teachers view points help me.

The "Third Edition Library" has 2 "Second Edition Books". It confused me because the then sealed box said "Third" but the books both said "Second". What the difference is, I don't know. The box got a lot of use >.> it's not in a dumpsite somewhere.

I know the feeling of self-studying. Thankfully, there's a lot of resources for CCNA candidates: Books, Videos, Bootcamps, Rack Rentals, Ebay, Simulators, Emulators...

Hands On:
I used Boson NetSimulator for my ICND1 and most of ICND2 studies. I don't have any workbooks so it's easy to pickup and go. But it's simulated, and sometimes your curosity might get the best of you for commands. I didn't check out how to make any labs with Boson's, but I read it's possible. Again, simulated.

It does a few things right, and supports telnet (Win7 needs to enable the client to make it work) but doesn't support any other clients past that windows telnet or the bottom-pane. It guides you along what you need to do, unfortantly it seems to do this too much, and to actually weed through the instructions gets tiring when all I wanted to do was "configure, break, debug, play" with the instructions. Again, simulated.

It also does a few things wrong. Access-lists are a pain in the arse with NetSim8. If you disable an ACL, reload the router, and reload another "ACL" lab, or the same lab... The ping from the host will come up with "UUUUU". There's no ACL configured anywhere and I've spent hours to make sure everything was correct.

GNS3 has horrible switch support. It's not supported like a router. Instead the best bet to do any "switch" commands is to configure a router with a switch module. Which is to say, not all that well and is still not a switch. I really love the fact that it's capable to emulate (not simulate) routers and the IOS. Attaching VirtualBoxes (Emulated desktops), as well as being able to capture real/emulated packets for all ports with Wireshark as well as transfer packets out a real physical NIC to routers and desktops (if you have the computer power to do this) is amazing and gives incredible flexibility and a feel that's amazing. Trust me when I say it - Setup an XP machine in virtualbox, connect it to your network, watch the ICMP packets fly by, watch the routers react to each other... Oh! it gives a real sensation and a feeling "Damn, I just built that. and IT WORKS!"

It's all well and good to type in simulated commands, and emulated networks. But I have a feeling actually being able to physically touch routers, switches, the cables - dealing with the problems of having them physically (Upgrade memory, search cisco's website, IOS issues...) will be even better. Im getting all excited!

I liked using Boson NetSim for ICND1, it did the job perfectly. ICND2 it got stretched and needed to learn GNS3 to compensate for the desire of handson. Im not going to try Boson Netsim for CCNP. I'd rather buy switches and emulate the routers until I can cough up the dough for the routers. Again, building a working network. An honest to goodness I can file share between networked computers and cut it off mid-stream with an ACL. Watching EIGRP converge so quick that pinging doesn't get stopped. Exciting!! Really, it's sweet.

Videos: I've been using CBT nuggets for the longest time. I've just recently discovered INE.com, like CBT it covers the material in videos. INE is more geared to a CCNA composite, while CBT has ICND1/ICND2 formating. INE is less strict about the teaching and more readily integrates cisco.com as a learning source as well as other materials that can help if you want to pursue Cisco further for a deeper understanding. It seems more "Real-world". It's dry though. CBT is fun to watch, while still educational. Sometimes it doesn't cover the depth of the materials. CBT makes a more round-about way to explain situations, I think. INE is more "This is what it is". Both are great sources I've seen.

CBT, however, has a library that's.. amazingly large. (That's what she said).
Books:
I like Cisco press. I've had issues with non-official books before with information, while studying for my N+ and A+, I ran into mountains of books - yet little direction as to "Which is good". Not to mention the library has 4 discs. I really only say "Three" as the DVDs cover the same material - subnetting. The discs include a lot of extras, and even an exam.


Reading: Read a chapter each day. Take notes. Do the memorization questions in the back of the chapter and do the test - answer the test logically; Why is it the right answer, or why not.

Oh yeah - Time. It takes time to understand, a full you know that this command does this, and can only be applied at this interface, and it works this way and I think that this should be happening, but its really not - why the hell doesn't it work like I think it should... It's an uphill climb, every-freaking-time. And then you get to the point where you know a lot of something, eventually you'll get to the point of knowing a lot about any topic tossed at you in that book. That's a good feeling



But, it takes time to fully understand it, the time to soak in the information beyond just memorization for the test. If that's what you want that is, that's my goal. To become a turgon and grab the CCIE status right from under him and be god's gift to earth

Find out what you love about this. For me, and yes, I admit this is pretty bad - I think of the internet as a universe. I've wanted to know how the universe worked since I was playing my Atari 2600 and that space game (screen saver?). Thinking about the internet, I think of it as the universe. Packets of information are just electrical (Or optic) signals across vast spans of distances. We complain about speed, but really when you start to think about what you think you know and how it all relates (so far) it blows your mind. It's, in a way, living.

Anyways. Welcome! Good luck!

JDMurray

Yes, Cisco Press has just released the 3rd ed. of Odom's ICND1/2 books. There is new material in them, but they are still a rather dry read. I think the Sybex CCNA book is much more reader friendly.

And I'm using both Packet Tracer 5.3.3 and GNS3 and finding them quite sufficient for CCNA work. GNS3 doesn't give nearly a full switch emulation, but Packet Tracer is adequate in that area.