Another successful CCENT adventure completed. I've been studying on and off for 3 months but finally decided it was time to either conquer or die in the battlefield.
Here is a summary of my resources:
1.
CCNA Official Exam Certification Library, Third Edition by Wendell Odom This was my main source (ICND1 book). There are detailed explanations, in some cases way more than necessary to cover the exam objectives. At times I got lost in all the detail but solved that quickly by switching temporarily to Todd Lammle's book. Tried watching the videos on the included disk but in my opinion they are not worth your time. Go with CBT Nuggets if you want video.
2. Todd Lammle's
ICND1 book - very helpful when Odom's stuff was overwhelming.
3. ICND1 CBT Nuggets with Jeremy Cioara - love this guy.
http://www.cbtnuggets.com/it-training-videos/series/csco_640_822
4. Bryant Advantage $25 package - I hated this from day 1. The e-book format from 1994 that he uses makes me want to kill myself. I read through a couple of chapters and just couldn't take it anymore. Don't get me wrong, it's not the material, it's the presentation. $25 down the drain
5. Cisco Learning Network - Browsed through their discussion boards identifying where people had t
6. TechExams - we all know how valuable this community is. Learning from other cert freaks like yourself is priceless. For example, subnetting was my Mount Everest. The mistake I made when learning how to subnet was switching "methods" trying to find one that I liked. I ended up hating every single one because I did not understand them. It was only when I saw the
http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccna-ccent/38772-subnetting-made-easy.html thread that everything made sense. Also, read those stickies, they are there for a reason.
7. Home lab - although it is true that you could pass using GNS3/Packet Tracer, having a physical lab was a great driving force for me. Given that my Cisco work duties are less than 1% of my time, being able to play with the cables, cards etc. brought a whole new interactivity level to the process. Also, the lab is a great conversation piece. The comments from family, friends and even the cable guy were priceless. My lab consists of 3 2950s from eBay, 2 2610XMs (bought from a TE member) and 1 1721 also from eBay. Everything is on a
Skeletek C16-U rack. Lab pic:
http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/2884/ciscolab1.jpg
8. Subnet practice:
IP Subnet Practice and
subnettingquestions.com
Notes:
- eBay kits suck for the most part. Do your homework and build up your lab piece by piece
- I think it is a very fair test and covers the objectives pretty well
- If you can't subnet, you will most likely fail the test. This is a key topic
- If you find this test hard, you should've studied more
What's next? Not sure. Logic says ICND2, but my work is pushing me towards Exchange and Lync. On the other hand I really want to tackle CISSP. We'll see.
