Day 1!

This will be Day 1 of studying for my CCENT certification, and then moving on to my CCNA certification. I am starting out with a bare minimum of knowledge in networking, and hope to get the CCNA in four to five months. I am using Odom's Official Cert Guide for the 100-101, and plan to spend a month getting through the material. I also am using Bryant's Boot Camp videos from Udemy, and plan to watch the related video after I read the chapter. After getting the material in my head, I am planning on using the last month to Packet-Trace, take practice exams, flash cards, re-read the material, etc.Then rinse and repeat for CCNA if all goes well. Any tips are welcome! :)On a side note, I happened to get the Udemy videos for $31 by using the "FRIDAY" promo code. I also have a promo code for 50% off any course, if someone might be looking for a discount on a particular video there.

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Comments

DoubleNNs

You're at an amazing and exciting point right now. I remember when I first dove into the CCENT material. The Net+ and the CCENT were actually the only 2 certs I legitimately had FUN studying for.

The main thing I'd recommend is to start using packet tracer DURING your studies. For the ICND1, understanding how to navigate IOS is almost just as important as the actual commands and theory. So you're going to want to start early so a lot of little things that might be new to you now quickly become second nature/elementary.

However, w/ the ICND2 you'll already have a good grasp on the OS and general commands. It'd be a lot easier to get thru the book 1st and then go back and lab extensively for the ICND2 than it would be for the ICND1.

Good luck on your studies!! Hopefully you'll have as much fun as I did!
Remember to drop in periodically and keep us updated on your progress, or ask any questions you may have.

Jon_Cisco

I look forward to seeing your progress. I'm hoping to get me CCNA by the end of the summer. I will probably take the two test in May and June. That gives me the summer for retesting if needed.

Good Luck

Trashman

Use Packet Tracer while studying to set up trunking, VLAN, Telnet / SSH password, duplex, speed etc. it makes so much more sense.
Also the labs that comes with the CD attached to the book is useful, though not as nice environment to play around in as Packet Tracer as the commands are very limited.

7255carl

i wish you the very best of luck with your studies, just as a quick word of advice with the Odom book, which by the way is excellent, ensure that you download the errata from cisco press as there are a few typos, correct them before you study so that the entire book is correct before you start

Keep us informed as to your progress

Carl

kbowen0188

I will definitely use PacketTracer as I read through the book, thank you. So far I am on track, though it has only been a few days. Reading a chapter a day and watching the associated Udemy videos has been pounding the information into my brain. Odom's little "mind map" technique is actually pretty useful so far, too.

A fellow tech recommended me to a site called 9 t u t. Are any of you folks familiar with this?

EDIT: I am assuming that since it is treating it like a curse word when I spell it without the spaces, something is horribly wrong?

DoubleNNs

If it gets censored in the forum it is an illegitimate study resource and probably a cheating (brain ****) website. If it wasn't, the forum would allow you to post about it.

advanex1

It is a test **** website, otherwise known as cheating.

kbowen0188

That is a bit depressing. I wondered how he had gotten his certification so quickly, though I marked it up to him just being a tad smarter than me in the networking field. I'll mark that site off my study list. Is there a way to make sure I don't accidently study a braindump, or are such websites usually very open about what they are giving you to study?

I am about on Chapter 3 of the Odom book! I just finished up some cable types (crossover and straight-through), the idea of how these work (transmitting on 1,2, receiving on 3,6) and how that all determines what sort of cable you need to use. They briefly touched on fiber cable as well, and it now looks like we are going to briefly touch on MAC addresses (layer 2 address, burned-in address). I paused right before ending the chapter because I noticed the "end of chapter" review was pretty hefty, and it was getting late. It'll be a little extra studying for me today!

In other news, I am making the exciting step of setting the test date today! I'll be paying and scheduling, so that'll cement the goal!

FloOz

You can verify your study resources with CertGuard | IT Certification Exam Security & Integrity

kbowen0188

Thank you very much for the resource. There are a lot of places out there that don't check out, so I am just sticking to my books and my videos.

Day 8, and I just finished Chapter 5 of Odom's book this morning. I have learned a lot about IP addressing and routing, the OSI layers and each of their functions, how packets/frames/segments are made and tore down, etc. I am currently working hard to memorize the exact ranges of Class A, B, and C addresses. A lot of the small detail memorization stuff I may just jot down on a flash card, and then study that when I find the free time (or after I complete the book). This seems like an important one though, so I am doing what I can.

Odom's book is a tad dry, but I find it easier to understand than the small sample of Lammle's book that I read. At the same time, I liked Lammle's writing style a bit more. For some reason though, it feels like Odom explains out every single detail a bit more (even if it isn't a key topic for the test). Since I know NOTHING about networking going in, I feel like this helps a lot.

Out of the videos I am watching, the CBT Nuggets are probably the best lectures I have ever listened to on any topic. The author for those videos is extremely good at explaining how things work, so much so that I watch his videos before tackling the book chapter. Udemy is good as well, but the CBT guy has a personality that makes me laugh for whatever reason.

Out of the small section I did read in Lammle's book, he spend a large portion of chapter trying to drill Broadcast Domains and Collision Domains into the reader. With Odom, I don't believe I have come across this yet. It may be a later chapter. Is this an important concept that I need to make sure I eventually cover in Odom's book?

Cleverclogs

I agree about the Nugget Videos. Jeremy could read the ingredients from a box of cornflakes and it'd still be more interesting than anything else. I'm presently practising my Subnetting. My copy of Odom's book came with a DVD that has some excellent Subnetting stuff on it, I highly recommend it.

Bellman80

kbowen0188 wrote: »

Out of the small section I did read in Lammle's book, he spend a large portion of chapter trying to drill Broadcast Domains and Collision Domains into the reader. With Odom, I don't believe I have come across this yet. It may be a later chapter. Is this an important concept that I need to make sure I eventually cover in Odom's book?

Yes, collision domains and especially broadcast domains are very important concepts. They are not terribly difficult to understand though.