I need some advice & Help with a home lab

Hello. First, I'd like to apologize for my post's redundancy; I know this question has been asked a billion times. Also, please forgive any of my ignorance, as I'm still trying to sort things out.

I'm currently a full-time (re-entry) student, two quarters away from obtaining my BS in Computer Science. I really want to break into the InfoSec field - particularly Network Security (Network Security Engineer/Admin), or even something like a Data Security Analyst. I don't have any work experience in this field, so I'll have to leverage my degree as best as possible.

I would greatly love to hear your advice and/or suggestions, and feel free to correct me and point me in the right direction. I started this out with wanting to obtain a CISSP cert, but, yeah the whole 5-years-of-experience thing. So, I looked at the SSCP cert, but I still need a year's worth of experience for that as well. So, what can I do at this point? I'm thinking to start with the CCENT. As I mentioned before, I only have two quarters left and would really like to obtain the CCENT as soon as possible, with the hope that it'll help me in the interviewing process.

Here's a rough idea of the path I want to take, cert-wise: CCENT -> CCNA Security -> SSCP (after 1-year exp) -> CISSP (after 5-years exp).

This coming quarter's workload should be somewhat light, so I should be able to devote at least 10 hours/week for studying (CCENT). I know this is objective, but is this amount of time sufficient over 2-4 months?

Roguetadhg's post has been invaluable, and I've been reading through that daily.
Re: home lab. Will 1760 (x2) and 2950 (x2) suffice for the CCENT?

As far as study materials go, I have: Odom's OCG for the ICND1 and CBT Nugget's CCENT videos.
Any other recommendations? Also, where can I get labs?

I also plan to buy Boson's ExSim Max practice exams, unless there are cheaper alternatives.

Any advice/suggestions/wake-up calls will be greatly appreciated.

Happy New Year!

TL;DR: Will 1760 (x2) and 2950 (x2) suffice for the CCENT? Any other recommendations? Also, where can I get labs?

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Comments

JeanM

For CCENT/ICND1 you can get by with just packet tracer if you like. But yes, 2 routers and two L2 switches are fine for CCENT.

Jon_Cisco

What you have will work for now. I would not buy more equipment until you come up with a real need for it.

I think 2 - 4 months at about 10 hours a week is no problem for CCENT. It has a lot to do with your reading retention rate. Most people fall asleep trying to read the books. If you don't have that problem studying should be pretty easy. Since your close to finishing a computer science degree I assume that most of the topics will at least be familiar to you. When I did it last year I learned that I was able to read faster if I watched a video series first. If I read first I spent to much time trying to understand the little details before I knew where it was heading. With video the guy just keeps going. I never went back to make sure I understood anything in the videos. I know other people like to take detailed notes. I'm sure you know how you like to study by now.

Are you planning to finish CCNA-Security before job hunting? If not you might want to think about something like security+ just to express your interest in the field.

Good Luck and welcome to the forum!

ubo

Jon_Cisco wrote: »

Are you planning to finish CCNA-Security before job hunting? If not you might want to think about something like security+ just to express your interest in the field.

Good Luck and welcome to the forum!

I appreciate the feedback, and JeanM's too. I, like you, find it easier to "watch" a lecture/lesson first, then read. I seem to absorb and understand the material a lot better that way.

I'm not really sure what certs I can obtain before job hunting - which I want to start a couple of months (April-May) before graduation (June). I really hope to have something lined up upon graduating. I like the idea of shooting for the Security+ immediately after the CCENT. I'll start researching what I need (material and time-wise) for that. CCENT + Security+ seems a lot more doable, for me personally, in ~4 months, than CCENT + CCNA Security.

Thank you, again, for your feedback.

omi2123

buy Two 2801 Router & Two 3560 Switch...