New to CISCO

. The title says it all. I wanted to ask couple of questions about CCNA course as a whole:

Q1: Which book do you strongly suggest to buy in order to understand they theory and the exam for CCNA.

Q2: I live in UK and I find it hard to find a decent academy or a boot-camp to learn practical from it. , I got couple of websites, but they do not seem legit, can someone recommend?

Q3. If I am new to CCNA, is it a good start?

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TehToG

Book: There are two. I used and will recommend Todd Lammles 7th Edition CCNA book. (sybex). There is an equally good odom book too.

Method: Self study and buying your own gear is the cheapest if you can stay motivated. Avoid 'practice exams' or ****. These are cheating and can get you banned from cisco certifications for life. Bootcamps are only good if you know the material (Work in the industry) and need to (re)certify fast.

Path: CCNA is a hefty certification. If you are completely new to PCs I'd suggest CompTIAs A+ first. If you are good with computers and new to networking I'd recommend looking at CompTIA Network+ or Cisco ICND1. ICND1 will get you half way to CCNA but the material tends to assume you know a bit about the subject.

What level of background do you have in computing? Why do you want to do the CCNA course?

I presume 3 is a good start into the world of networking. That's also the right book. GNS3 can't do switching which i'm sure ICND2 needs for spanning tree.
VVV

oli356

1) The usual books are the Odom ones CCNA 640-802 Official Cert Library: Amazon.co.uk: Wendell Odom: Books
and the Sybex, Lamme ones which I think is this: CCNA: Cisco Certified Network Associate Study Guide 640-802 : Exam 640-802. 640-802: Amazon.co.uk: Todd Lammle: Books
I bought the The Ultimate CCNA Study Package 2012, thought it was good for the price

2) Either buy a lab (3 routers, 3 switches is best) or use packet tracer/gns3 as they are free and learn the Cisco IOS that way and setup networks. And then self study with books, find questions to answer online (not ****).

Good luck

Illumanati

makronik wrote: »

Hi . The title says it all. I wanted to ask couple of questions about CCNA course as a whole:

Q1: Which book do you strongly suggest to buy in order to understand they theory and the exam for CCNA.

Q2: I live in UK and I find it hard to find a decent academy or a boot-camp to learn practical from it. , I got couple of websites, but they do not seem legit, can someone recommend?

Q3. If I am new to CCNA, is it a good start?

A1: I like Cisco.com but if you must have a book, I like Dummies CCENT and the 233 page Sybex Ccna Review Guide just to get your taste buds popping.

A2: the class is unnecessary largely due to the time(slow or fast) it takes for each class and sometimes there is up to a year or longer wait to complete all 4 depending on whether its credit level or continuing ed.(mine)

A3. yes, the ccent is low lying fruit but the composite is the test to target, imo.

SecurityThroughObscurity

I used only CCNA Exploration and Packet Tracer, when I was preparing to CCNA. It's a good bargain.

Illumanati

SecurityThroughObscurity wrote: »

I used only CCNA Exploration and Packet Tracer, when I was preparing to CCNA. It's a good bargain.

Yes, Exploration net acad class can enhance learning but you have to find one first and get into one and hope for a quality instructor WHOSE BEEN DOING IT A LONG-TIME but it's all dependent on availability and instructor's "style" which can be hands-on or hands-off. Success must remain invariable.

If people do not find and use Packet Tracer, they are simply missing out on a wonderful tool worth the price of academy class admission!

SecurityThroughObscurity

He can study by himself.

Roguetadhg

He can. Most people here do. But that doesn't mean you can't get help from friends and IT professionals to help fill in strange gaps.

makronik

thanks for help! I will try a company that offers comptia A+ training, and then w7 followed by ccna if I pass, and after that I will get 100% work experience for about 1 month and then a real job within the networking industry, though I need to pay £2000 for the process. The price is not an issue for me, and I will get benefits at the end, gonna stick with them. thanks for the help again!

Roguetadhg

Just remember that you get out of it what effort you put into it.