Anybody else think this is wrong?

Breadfan · October 2005

I started reading new Exam Cram lab manual by David Prowse last night and in the first chapter (I forget which lab it is) he says to go to his website to research network components (www.technicalblog.com)

I go there thinking that it will bee good to see some of the equipment I am unfamiliar with (and that isint drawn by someone). It is this guys personal website. I have no problem with that. The problem I have is all over the website he has provided links to and files of braindumps (as well as other files like packet sniffers, etc.)

But does anyone else see a problem with an author condoning and using braindumps? To me, braindumps cheapen the certs we work so hard to obtain. I gues to each his own though.

I am really gald I found this site and Johan is THE MAN. Without the help of everyone posting on here and his hard work, I wouldnt have passed my certs.

OK, the rant is over. Just wanted to know if everyone thought this was wrong or right.

seuss_ssues · October 2005

It appears that your right, there are links to braindumps.

I pains me to know that ive spent hours reading and learning where others have spent a weekend memorizing.

I guess we all know 1 more site not to visit.

mobri09 · October 2005

Yeh, but memorizing will not get your far.

Breadfan · October 2005

yet...do they even care. Certainly they cant condone this.

The book is great and very well written (which is why I bought it of course) but it does make me wonder that if the publisher allows this, it must be all about the $$$$ then.

No biggie. Just wanted you all to know.

cestricklin · October 2005

You are absolutely right, brain **** are just that BRAIN ****!. Some people just try to live down the hard work we all go through to get what we study so hard for. CERTS!javascript:emoticon('

')
Laughing You have to be careful which sites/books you use cause you can spend hours reading either wrong information. The microsoft press books even contain errors. The best, in my opinion, are the syngress books...they helped me more than any of them...the best advise I can give is too focus on one core at a time and not get side tracked...This is definately the best forum I\ve seen, people ine here are genuine and offer very good advise..good luck with your serch for certs!!

~C

determinedgerman · October 2005

Hey all,

Ok this is a topic that gets me all fired up. I am getting so upset when I hear about braindump sites or when I find them while researching.
Here is why:

1.) If I go to a job interview and one of the people that used braindumps to get certs was there before me it will just reflect bad on me because most likely they won't know what they are talking about. It just makes certs so much more worthless.

2.) I can't believe that some people can actually **** their way through the exams and somehow get a job and stay there. For 2 years while I was in College I worked as Account Executive and was selling anything network and computer related to big fortune 1000 companies. I talked to IT Managers, IT Directors and Systems and Network Administrators day in and day out and most of them didn't know anything. They would call me and asking me questions about certain projects and needed my help to figure out the problem. Sorry but if there is a CCNA certified Network Administrator that doesn't know what the difference between switches and routers is then I have to wonder how they got the cert.

3.)I am working for a huge Telecommunications company. All the engineers in our department have to be CCNA certified. A couple weeks ago a lot of people all the sudden got CCNA certifed. Some of those people don't know anything. That made me wonder and research. I found out that a lot of the people used the same website to study. They sell screen shots of all the questions that are on the CCNA exam. You can even send them your information and they go take the exam for you. *****If anyone knows how I can get that website shot down and where do I have to go and what to do I would appreciat it *****

The website is xxxxxxx. I am not sure if it is allowed to post the link here. If it is not Johan and others please remove it or let me know and I will edit it.

Thanks

RussS · October 2005

g'day dude

I suggest that you PM Johan or myself with that site address and we will look into it.

cheers
Russ

unknown1234 · October 2005

Now lets give the owner of the site the benefit of the doubt. They could be web search engine generated ads. My thoughts on braindumps are, yes they will get you the cert but not give you the knowledge. Interviewers can spot a fake, therefore what would be the point of getting the cert in the first place? It just ends up being a waste of money.

keatron · October 2005

Just a suggestion. Email the author about your concerns. As it has already been stated they could possibly be ad generated. Although if it were my site, I'd regularly check the links being put there, or at least have someone do it.

skully93 · November 2005

I had just come accross one of those sites too. I HATE them. One where you pay, and they take the exam for you.

How that could possibly work is beyond me, and it really does devalue the cert. To have something as difficult as Cisco be devalued is a tragedy. All of us work very hard to get these certifications, so I think these people should be publicly flogged.

Plus, and this has been discussed tons of times, what do they hope to accomplish? I mean, it's not like they know anything. How can you get a job like that?

FijianTribe · November 2005

Years ago when I first started out I paid a couple grand to take a few weeks of training in networking, etc. I felt the class was very educational in and of itself, however the instructor at the end of the class encouraged and even gave links to BD sites. At the time I had no idea even what they were. And have done my best to choose non-BD sites.

Personally I find a few issues with this:

1) Its hard enough to find good exam prep sites that also provide quality questions and educational answers. Even BD sites are trying to disguise themselves more like exam prep sites versus actual ****. (THANKS JOHAN FOR YOUR SITE, I ONLY WISH THERE WERE MORE OF THEM.)

2) Instructors (and authors) should be helping students get real world knowledge and education. I work with a lot of banks who have hired morons with certs. One such bank we recently vistited, no one in their IT department even knew how to join the server to the domain. We told them how to do it and they told us we were wrong, so we asked permission to do it for them, not one of them was not amazed we could do it.

3) There are still a lot of smaller companies that hire these guys because the interviewers really do not know anything. I've seen lots of companies that just throw a few employees together to create some sort of interview type committee.

Anyhow just some thoughts. Thanks again guys for keeping this site going.

Slowhand · November 2005

Unfortunately, in this industry, we find a lot of high-level executives who don't know the difference between a toiletpaper-certification and a qualified candidate. My networking instructor is also a networking consultant; in his previous permanent job, he was responsible for doing a lot of the interviews. (It's a large medical campus in San Francisco, that's about all I can say.)

One hopeful was both MCSE and CCNA certified, trying out for a position involving network security and administration. When my instructor asked him to go hook up the router to a server, and log in to do some basic configuration on both machines, this was the response: "Which one's the router?"

In this case, it was easy to spot a fake, but it's not alway so. Even knowledgable managers and hiring admins can be hindered by idiotic and constraining company policies that don't allow them to really test each candidate's knowledge, just get them in because they're certified. As it is, large corporations and big businesses don't really let the admins do the qualifying, they write the rules and expect their employees to make them work.

Between unknowing managers and odd company policies, a lot of toiletpaper-certified people get hired, and they stay in their jobs by either learning just enough to get by, or doing the liecheatsteal thing which is very common in a lot of companies.

Anybody else think this is wrong?

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