Can you go from CCNA to CCNA voice

I am currently studying for CCENT/CCNA and I was wondering if I can go from CCNA to CCNA voice. A lot of people say you should do CCNP first but to me CCNA is getting more and more like CCNP with all of the stuff they are adding to it. Anyway I have a Telecommunications background and been in IT for close to 10 years but I would say my passion is voice. I was just wondering.

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Roguetadhg

http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccna-ccent/74444-moving-into-voice.html
Sharkdiver has CCNA:V and CCNP. I would listen to him as he passed both exams and can tell you if things overlap.

beach5563

Roguetadhg wrote: »

http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccna-ccent/74444-moving-into-voice.html
Sharkdiver has CCNA:V and CCNP. I would listen to him as he passed both exams and can tell you if things overlap.

Thanks so much. I just checked out Sharkdivers post. I will probably just go ccna and CCNA Voice because I want to get right into it.

chmorin

There is no reason you should feel required to go get your CCNP before you attempt any of the other CCNA specialties. To me, the point of the CCNA specialties is to give you an insight into which part of the networking world you want to live in. Try a few of them, or at least poke around in their study material, before you go full fledged into any of the professional level certifications. I tried to pass my BSCI exam and my SWITCH exam before I tried to get my CCNA:Voice, and I failed both of them. Once I touched voice topics, I knew why I couldn't pass the CCNP exams: It wasn't the same passion.

That being said any of the specialties are assisted by a solid understanding of routing and switching, but that does not mean you need to dive into the world of BGP and MPLS before you learn to make a phone ring.

Roguetadhg

You don't need to pass your CCNP prior to anything else.. It's generally suggested that you do pass your CCNP, as a way of solidifying your knowledge of the technologies that are dependent of Routing and Switching. However, you aren't required to pass them, in most cases (besides CCDA, CCIP).

beach5563

chmorin wrote: »

There is no reason you should feel required to go get your CCNP before you attempt any of the other CCNA specialties. To me, the point of the CCNA specialties is to give you an insight into which part of the networking world you want to live in. Try a few of them, or at least poke around in their study material, before you go full fledged into any of the professional level certifications. I tried to pass my BSCI exam and my SWITCH exam before I tried to get my CCNA:Voice, and I failed both of them. Once I touched voice topics, I knew why I couldn't pass the CCNP exams: It wasn't the same passion.

That being said any of the specialties are assisted by a solid understanding of routing and switching, but that does not mean you need to dive into the world of BGP and MPLS before you learn to make a phone ring.

Man you could not have said it any better. I have talked to recruiters who have told me if I could get CCNA and CCNA Voice they could hook me up with some cool Cisco Unified communications stuff especially since I have a Telecom background. I feel you have to be passionate about what you are studying. I am very passionate about Cisco technologies, especially voice. I feel I need to jumpstart my skills and all right now and this would be the perfect route for me to take. I am using packet tracer for the CCNA stuff. I wonder if you can use it for CCNA Voice. Maybe I can get a small Voice lab or maybe GNS3?
Thanks for your advice.

stlsmoore

beach5563 wrote: »

Man you could not have said it any better. I have talked to recruiters who have told me if I could get CCNA and CCNA Voice they could hook me up with some cool Cisco Unified communications stuff especially since I have a Telecom background. I feel you have to be passionate about what you are studying. I am very passionate about Cisco technologies, especially voice. I feel I need to jumpstart my skills and all right now and this would be the perfect route for me to take. I am using packet tracer for the CCNA stuff. I wonder if you can use it for CCNA Voice. Maybe I can get a small Voice lab or maybe GNS3?
Thanks for your advice.

You'll want to get some real equipment for sure; there's nothing cooler than making an IP phone ring for the first time.

beach5563

stlsmoore wrote: »

You'll want to get some real equipment for sure; there's nothing cooler than making an IP phone ring for the first time.

Yea I agree I was just looking at some labs on ebay today.

chmorin

stlsmoore wrote: »

You'll want to get some real equipment for sure; there's nothing cooler than making an IP phone ring for the first time.

I squealed like a little girl when I made my first phone ring.

True story.

On the lab topic, most VoIP technologies from cisco should not be emulated (At least not in GNS3). CUCME can be in some cases, but it's better (and more fun) to do with with real equipment. As for the routing equipment in-between... feel free to think creatively with GNS3.

SharkDiver

Beach,

Seriously, there was nothing in the CCNA Voice that I thought was above the CCNA level. Having a CCNP first really wouldn't have helped much at all.

CCNA:V covers getting IP phones working and then making them do what you want them to do. Getting them working involves VLANs, DHCP Pools, Subnetting and PoE. The only topic there that you may not know about from the CCNA is PoE, and it really can be completely covered in less than 10 pages. Then, you get into programming the phones for features and programming buttons. This is all very unique to the CCNA:V and you won't learn any of this in the CCNP.

As I said before, there is very little VoIP in the CCNP material. In the Chris Bryant CCNP material, there is one section in the CCNP SWITCH material for IP Telephony, and it is a very short section.

With a background in Telephony, you should be able to simply skim over several of the sections dealing with regular Telephony (loop start and ground start trunks, T1, etc.). I went through the CCNA Voice stuff and passed the exam in about 3 months.

Good Luck!!!

ddcengineer

I passed CCNA in Nov, CCNP Route in Jan, and started studying for NP-Switch. But I'm actually switching gears and aiming to pass CCNA Voice before completing the NP.
good luck!