ICND1 in ~2 months

The oppurtunity just presented itself in the form of a free test voucher for ICND1. I have to take it before July 15th.

What I want to know are (and sorry, these questions are asked a million times!) what books should I buy? What is a cheap physical lab I can setup? What is the best lab sim out there (free preferably

). What are some good methods to learn subnetting (I dislike the graphic ruler idea)

I am on a budget when it comes to building a lab but I can afford to spend enough to build a decent one I think.

About my prior networking experience.. I took roughly a year of CC for network administration and I work in a enviroment where I can at least watch other people work on cisco products and sometimes get to do some stuff myself. As far as IT experience goes I pretty much only know what I learned from Sec+, CC, and my love of computers.

Any study tips are appreciated; I'd love to know the secrets that other people have used to pass this test! Also, I don't just want to pass the test, I want to retain the knowledge so I can put it to use at work, so I want to avoid any type of brain **** or what-have-you.

Thanks in advance for any tips that you guys or girls give me! Time to hit the

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Comments

FloOz

Personally I would avoid rushing to pass the test since you don't have that much networking knowledge. However if you are very inclined to pass asap I would recommend using packet tracer or gns3 along with the CBT nuggets. I also recommend the cisco cert library books. You are really going to have to give it your all in your studies, meaning studying everyday for multiple hours.

newt.chapman

My thoughts are that I study my ass off and even if I fail it there is always next time and I will have 2 months of solid study already under my belt.

Thanks for the response!

dave330i

Don't need a physical lab for CCNA. I used Odom's simulator, CBT nugget & Lammle.

newt.chapman

dave330i wrote: »

Don't need a physical lab for CCNA. I used Odom's simulator, CBT nugget & Lammle.

Thank you for the resources. It's great to hear I don't need a phyiscal lab yet, it should give me some extra time to save towards a better one down the line

bbarrick

I'm using the Cisco Press ICND1 CCENT/CCNA cert guide written by Wendell Odom right now. It's a good read I think.

shezy77

I think 2 months is more than enuff for ICND1...
CBT Nuggets and Wendell ODOM is what I used for my foundation and then started practicing subnetting (should be able to do it in sleep)... and then few **** from different websites.
I think if you all the above you should be good...
Good luck... lemme know if you need any help (you can PM me)

NotHackingYou

It should be enough time if you spend enough time each day on it. I used Todd Lammle's book and thought it was great.

newt.chapman

OK so I pretty much have subnetting down really well I think! Only a couple days of practicing and I'm feeling very confident

There is one snag I keep running into though.... OK so say I get any random IP and the mask is like /16 (255.255.0.0) or /24 (255.255.255.0). How do I find my block size? Normally I would do it like this. If I had a subnet that was /17 (255.255.128.0) I would simply do 24-17 to come to 7. and then do 2^7 to get 128 as my block size and then go from there.

Where I get stuck is like I stated above.. if I do 16 -16 I get 0 and if I do 24-16 I get 8. 2^8 is 256 and I can't implement a block size that big can I?

If anyone can shed some light on this I would appreciate it so much!!

newt.chapman

I'm curious.. If I take the 'old' icnd1 exam and then I don't test on icnd2 before the new one comes out will I have to take icnd1 over?

sigsoldier

newt.chapman wrote: »

Where I get stuck is like I stated above.. if I do 16 -16 I get 0 and if I do 24-16 I get 8. 2^8 is 256 and I can't implement a block size that big can I?

If anyone can shed some light on this I would appreciate it so much!!

For the masks of /8, /16, /24 the blocks are always 256.

newt.chapman wrote: »

I'm curious.. If I take the 'old' icnd1 exam and then I don't test on icnd2 before the new one comes out will I have to take icnd1 over?

If you're going for the CCNA, you can take the new ICDN-2 and still get your CCNA with the old ICND-1 cert (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

newt.chapman

sigsoldier wrote: »

For the masks of /8, /16, /24 the blocks are always 256.

If you're going for the CCNA, you can take the new ICDN-2 and still get your CCNA with the old ICND-1 cert (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

Could you give me a couple of example questions demonstrating how to solve them using 256 as the block size.

Also, thanks for clearing that up, I hope your right.

sigsoldier

newt.chapman wrote: »

Could you give me a couple of example questions demonstrating how to solve them using 256 as the block size.

So for class C, the mask would be 255.255.255.0, and the block size is 256. 32-24=8, and [2^8]- 2 = 254 hosts per subnet.

DoubleNNs

I'm currently using CCENT for dummies, which seems like a great book so far. (Only on chapter 7/20 at the moment.) I'm also using CBT nuggets.

For some reason, I feel confident that I could probably do some labbing and pass just w/ those 2 study materials - and when I'm done studying them I might just jump right into the exam. However, I DO have both lammle's and Odom's book in my closet right now. Even if I pass the ICDN1 pretty easily, I'll most likely end up reading those 2 books after before taking the ICDN2.

paul78

shezy77 wrote: »

... and then few **** from different websites.

I would not agree that a few **** is a good way to legitimately learn and pass the exam.

newt.chapman

Yeah, I don't plan on using **** at all. Trying to learn AND retain the material.

newt.chapman

Got my book in today; time to start devoting some serious time to studying!

newt.chapman

Covered 4 chapters today. I felt like I retained most of it but I haven't put it to test yet.

Does anyone have good review methods they'd like to share?

aarond23

Very doable, esp if you have alot of time to study, but with the horizon for the 'old' CCNA coming, if that is your final goal you would then have to really stick with it for 2-3 mos after that to get CCNA.

DoubleNNs

Wow 4 chapts in 1 day? Impressive. Maybe I'm a slow reader or take too many notes, but I'm usually content to just get a single chapt done in a day. 2 chapters and I feel great.

What book did you end up getting? Odom's?

Cubuntu28

I was unemployed when I studied for the CCENT, and I studied intensely, and it took me about that long (no previous networking knowledge besides some material that was on the Comptia A+). Oh, I took the old ICND1 not the new one.

Good luck,

newt.chapman

DoubleNNs wrote: »

Wow 4 chapts in 1 day? Impressive. Maybe I'm a slow reader or take too many notes, but I'm usually content to just get a single chapt done in a day. 2 chapters and I feel great.

What book did you end up getting? Odom's?

Yup I got Odom's book. I found the first few chapters to be like reading a novel or something. But since then my pace has slowed to around a chapter a day, sometimes two. I've been labbing a lot on packet tracer and watching cbt nuggets here and there. I feel like the biggest help by far is the book during the day and then later on in the evening I'll lab things related to the days reading.

Staying motivated so far!

Cubuntu28

newt.chapman wrote: »

Yup I got Odom's book. I found the first few chapters to be like reading a novel or something. But since then my pace has slowed to around a chapter a day, sometimes two. I've been labbing a lot on packet tracer and watching cbt nuggets here and there. I feel like the biggest help by far is the book during the day and then later on in the evening I'll lab things related to the days reading.

Staying motivated so far!

A chapter a day is what I tried to stick to while studying for the ICND2. Just a note, the chapters get smaller and smaller after about half way through the book, which is a nice change.

effekted

Since the voucher was free, worst case scenario you have to purchase another voucher if you fail but you'll have the upper advantage since you've already gotten a feel for how the test goes, and you'll have a print out for areas you need to improve on.

Read Odoms book, use the free INE CBT's, and lab with packet tracer/GNS3 if you can't get a few pieces of actual gear to lab with and you should be fine. As others have mentioned, try and be 100% with subnetting so they're free points come test time.

Ivanjam

+1 for CBTNuggets, Packet Tracer and CCENT for Dummies.