CCNP from Nortel/Enterasys?

wes allenwes allen Member Posts: 540 ■■■■■□□□□□
Hope all is well!

I just passed CISSP and was thinking of doing CCNP (maybe +S) next. I have been working with wellfleet/bay/nortel/avaya and cabletron/enterasys for a while, but no Cisco gear - they are not on the state contract that most of my customers buy off of. I am pretty solid with the basics/IP v4/802.1q stuff, but not a lot of time with more advanced routing in a while. I did work for Nortel for a bit 10 years ago, but don't think what I remember of ATM/IPX/Appletalk is going to help much these days. Most of the networking I do is pretty basic vlans/acls/static routes/simple RIP.

I am self employed and have plenty of free time, but not a lot of $ to spend, so buying a rack of Cisco gear is probably out. Is it reasonable to do CCNP+S with just online sims/rack rental? I saw a list of providers, but does anyone have a recommendation for my case?

Thanks much!

Comments

  • xXErebuSxXErebuS Member Posts: 230
    wes allen wrote: »
    Hope all is well!

    I just passed CISSP and was thinking of doing CCNP (maybe +S) next. I have been working with wellfleet/bay/nortel/avaya and cabletron/enterasys for a while, but no Cisco gear - they are not on the state contract that most of my customers buy off of. I am pretty solid with the basics/IP v4/802.1q stuff, but not a lot of time with more advanced routing in a while. I did work for Nortel for a bit 10 years ago, but don't think what I remember of ATM/IPX/Appletalk is going to help much these days. Most of the networking I do is pretty basic vlans/acls/static routes/simple RIP.

    I am self employed and have plenty of free time, but not a lot of $ to spend, so buying a rack of Cisco gear is probably out. Is it reasonable to do CCNP+S with just online sims/rack rental? I saw a list of providers, but does anyone have a recommendation for my case?

    Thanks much!

    Get your self the GS3 emulator... do research and youll see exactly what you need.

    Just an FYI; I've worked with Nortel equipment and where concepts are similar they are still completely different; and don't get me started on how different the commands are. IMO CLI on Cisco is a lot easier; I usually use Device Manager for Nortel switches that don't have the built in gui like the baystacks; Cisco does have some config tools but most if not all of the time they are not built in.
  • wes allenwes allen Member Posts: 540 ■■■■■□□□□□
    Thanks much!

    Started studying for CCNA today - picked up a couple books at half price books, installed GS3 and built a small routed network. Cisco commands seem pretty close to Enterasys so far, though I am sure there are differences, esp once you get into some of the higher level stuff and interface names are different as well. Will see how it goes with CCNA, might do CCNA Sec next and hold off on CCNP until I see where I am heading next.

    Yep, I usually use DM for older switches and the web GUI for the new ones. Have to watch code versions though - DM can corrupt the config on some of the new code! I just use CLI for Enterasys, so doing the same for Cisco shouldn't be a problem. Just build the txt files and cut and paste.
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