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Robin Lee :: Mar.06.2010 :: Others :: No Comments »

The CCNA Network Simulator helps you develop and enhance hands-on configuration and troubleshooting skills without the investment in expensive lab hardware. This state of the art simulation software allows you to practice your networking skills with more than 250 structured labs designed to reinforce CCNA and CCENT exam topics, including router and switch navigation and administration, LAN switching, IP addressing, routing, WANs, VLANs and trunking, IP routing protocols, scaling IP, and troubleshooting. You will experience realistic network device response as you work through each of the labs developed by best selling author and expert instructor Wendell Odom. The software comes complete with 250 structured labs, including more than 180 skill builder labs, 50 complex configuration scenarios, and 20 complex troubleshooting scenarios. All the labs are developed with the objective of gaining the hands-on skills necessary to successfully answer the simulation and scenario-based questions on the actual CCNA exam. Each lab includes detailed instructions, topology diagrams, full answers, and complete explanations. References to the author’s best selling CCENT/CCNA ICND1 Official Exam Certification Guide, and CCNA ICND2 Official Exam Certification Guide are included throughout the labs to help if you need to review foundation concepts.

About the Author

Pearson Certification is a publishing imprint born of a tradition of proven learning tools and educational training materials that have helped generations of certification exam candidates succeed. Tapping into the exciting new opportunities provided by the technology advances of online learning and web-based services Pearson has created a suite of products and solutions that address the learning, preparation, and practice needs of a new generation of certification candidates. Pearson Certification delivers learning formats ranging from books to online learning and practice services, to network simulators, to video training.

Get more infomation of this book from amazon.com.

Robin Lee :: Jan.27.2010 :: CCNA Books :: No Comments »

INDIANAPOLIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Cisco Press, the official publisher to the CCNP exams, brings an unmatched and unique portfolio of learning and preparation products to the new 2009 CCNP® certification exams launched today by Cisco. Available to certification candidates are a variety of products including video, flash cards, books, and e-books.

The new suite includes three Certification Guides and introduces a new product line for mid- to late-stage exam preparation, the Cert Kits, available for all three exams. Each Cert Kit provides a value-priced package combining video, print and electronic quick reference sheets, and online flash card preparation tools. Portable Command Guides and Foundational Learning Guides will also be available in spring 2010.

A complete listing of new CCNP products is available at www.ciscopress.com/ccnp.

News Facts:

• The previous version of the CCNP required four exams: BSCI, BCMSN, ONT and ISCW. The revised certification now requires three 120-minute exams:
• — ROUTE #642-902 Implementing Cisco IP Routing
• — SWITCH #642-813—Implementing Cisco IP Switched Networks
• — TSHOOT #642-832——Troubleshooting and Maintaining Cisco IP
• The new CCNP courses and e-learning materials are available now. The exams will be available in March/April 2010.
• CCNP is the second most popular Cisco Certification, after CCNA®.
• No other imprint publishes to the CCNP certification
• Cisco Press CCNP products can be purchased at your favorite local bookstore, computer/electronic store, online bookseller, or ciscopress.com.

>> Click here to read more

Robin Lee :: Jan.25.2010 :: Cisco CCNA News, Others :: No Comments »

# 01 rOckY

Hi, i have started studying for CCNA R&S and want even a virtual partner to take part in it. My roadmap leads me to CCIE Security and CCIE R&S. Anyone volunteering? We can hook up on gtalk/msn and keep discussing it through emails as well. I am already having other technical certifications and have a masters in info security so i assume myself not to slow you down…

# 02 Harold Carter

I have a great CCNA roadmap that includes labs and videos based on the 31 days before your CCNA book.  For the labs though you need to have Cisco’s Packet Tracer, to get this you must me an academy alumni.  How much Cisco experience do you have?

# 03 rOckY

I am not a pro.. what do you suggest i go through this roadmap?

# 04 real_magiz

I am practising with PT for my CCNA exam soon. can you help me anything?

# 05 Harold Carter

Here is a lab i use in my CCNA study groups. It is taken out of the 31 Days Before your CCNA study guide with some additional tweaks.  See if you can get it to work. I have the answer keys I have created, either as a completed project or each individual task.  Let me know what you think. In the zip file is the PT setup and the project tasks.  The cloud and ISP are already configured. 

Attachments: Study Group Lab.zip (36.2 K)

# 06 biola

I’m interested in taking up your offer of a study partner, but I don’t like have a definite road map yet, unlike you. But my exam is booked for the 5th, there’s so little time, but I’m sorta ready to do waht it takes. But I really don’t even know the set-up of the exam, like how many questions, is there like a lab session part and all, please fill me in.

# 07 Wayne

Hi Biola, Go to Cisco learning site. They have an outline and some sample question and what is covered on the test you take. First you goto www.cisco.com and sign up with their site they have some useful material. When done there you ned to go to www.cisco.learnig.com then sign up here they have all materials Cisco offers plus games to help teachyou to understand them better. Let me know how it works for you.

Robin Lee :: Jan.21.2010 :: CCNA Q&As :: No Comments »

Westwood College offers students an opportunity to earn their Bachelor’s Degree in Cisco Network systems.  The program provides the educational background and hands-on experience necessary to successfully begin a career in advanced network systems.  Students gather the needed Cisco Training from faculty who have been, or currently are, professionals in the field of network systems.  This not only leads to a great education, but also provides students with Cisco industry connections from staff and alumni. 

Westwood offers their Cisco program at their college in Denver where students can attend a traditional campus which will accommodate even the busiest of schedules.  Furthermore, Westwood allows alumni to audit classes for free, to ensure that their graduates are kept up to speed in a quickly changing career.

Robin Lee :: Sep.21.2009 :: Preparation Of CCNA :: 1 Comment »

It seems like the question every new Cisco CCNA student has is what is the best way to prepare for the CCNA exam?  So I would like to take some time in this article to discuss my thoughts on what will help you achieve your goal in obtaining your Cisco CCNA certification.

The CCNA exam was created to illustrate that you understand and can perform the topics relating to routing.  Not that you can memorize questions and answers from brain dumps!  So where do we start?

Study Guide – Well you will need a full blown CCNA study guide.  These are about 800 pages in length so don’t expect to blow through them in a week.  It is not light reading.  Some good choices out there for study guides are the Sybex CCNA study guide for a low cost solution written in layman terms, the Bryant Advantage Study Package for a well written total package and the CiscoPress CCNA guide for a solution that is written very techie.

Real Routers and Switches – How can you really be confident and work on Cisco equipment if you never opened a Cisco router or Cisco switch? If you do get a job working with Cisco routers, will you be intimidated by the router the first time seeing it knowing you never actually worked on one? That said, there is so much to learn about these units by having the actual hardware. You can’t duplicate what happens when you have a serial cable come loose or are using the wrong type of cable(straight-thru versus cross-over) daisy chaining switches with a simulator. I don’t know about you, but I learn so much more effectively using real equipment. I also find that most CCNA students say the same. The only way to actually see routing and such work and know that you made it work is to have real Cisco routers and switches for your Cisco certification training lab. What I find is that when I mess up a lab about 10 times in a row due to a typo or trying to enter a command at the wrong level of the IOS, when I actually figure out what I was doing wrong….well, I am never going to forget that again! This is actual real hands-on experience! That translates into you actually understanding what went on and helps you obtain the troubleshooting skills so you can methodically work through issues. Again, there is no way to recreate this by just reading a book and understanding theory. So to help you pass your Cisco certification exam, I suggest you invest in some Cisco routers and switches for your lab. You will find it to be some of the best money ever spent on your education!  At www.CiscoKits.com you will find CCNA kits to fit every budget.  So head on over to CiscoKits to see their many kits and tons of free certification articles and videos.  For more information on which routers to pick for your lab, you can checkout this article CCNA Lab Suggestions.

Lab Workbook – Something I never understood on eBay is people will buy solutions which are advertised as CCNA lab kits that have no corresponding lab workbooks that match the equipment that is being offered.  What good is it to have a collection of equipment if you can’t perform labs on them?  So you need to make sure the kit comes with a lab workbook.  All the kits at CiscoKits have lab workbooks with them.    You can see a sample of the topics covered on in the lab workbook at 640-802 CCNA LAb Workbook.

Test Engine – Now there is a BIG difference between a test engine that will help you understand the CCNA concepts and what you are missing and brain dumps!  The test engines that are just the exact questions from the test are garbage!  All that proves is that you can memorize questions and answers.  If this is the route you choose to achieve your certification, you will ultimately choke on the job as you won’t really know the material to perform your job.  You need to understand why an answer is right and why one is wrong.

CRAM Sheet – This is a great addition to your CCNA exam prep material. A CRAM sheet should consolidates all the major concepts from the 800 pages of a full blown study guide to a easy to carry sheet or two for you to review all hours of the day and night!  Here is a link to a great CRAM sheet product, the CCNA 640-802 CRAM Sheet.   Here you can see all the product details and concepts covered.  This is very handy to carry around with you when you have a few free minutes to study here and there so you are not lugging around a big bulky book. You can also easily bring the CRAM sheet with you to cram to your exam. In fact, we suggest you do use it to brush up on the main concepts just before you pass your CCNA 640-802 exam!

CCNA CBT – If you can’t afford $3,000 to sit an actual class, the next best thing is a Video CBT of the CCNA course.  Historically these CBTs run about $250 each.  But a great tip is CiscoKits includes a CBT that normally is $250 with many of their lab kits for about $50!  So you can save $200 on the cost of the CBT training!  Here is a link to the CBT description CCNA CBT DVD Now just look for one of their kits that has it included as it only costs about $50 when you get it with a kit.

Ok, now that we covered the major tools you will use in your ICND1, ICND2, and CCNA self study journey, we are going to provide you some guidance on how to use them effectively. Here is a suggested study plan….

1. Read the first few chapters of the full blown CCNA study guide you purchased. These first three or four chapters are usually mostly your base theory and then around the third or forth chapter you get into basic router configuration and how to login to the router.

2. At that point you will want to configure your Cisco CCNA hardware lab. You will pick out some of the corresponding labs in the workbook to follow along with the study guide you purchased. That is why we wrote the lab workbook in a generic sense as there is no way we can know what study guide you will be using or what actual hardware you will have. But now you should be able to perform some of the basic CCNA labs in the lab workbook. Continue through your study guide performing the corresponding labs that are in the lab workbook.

3. One you complete the study guide, now you should go through one of the CCNA Test Engine exams such as CCNA exam A*(Important note, only do one exam!). After you complete the exam, you want to print out the entire exam so you can review the sections and concepts you got wrong. Also note what your score was for that exam.

4. Now go back to the study guide and brush up on the concepts you scored poorly on in exam number one.

5. You should now have a baseline of where you were at with the test score. We want to make sure you are scoring about an 80% before you even think about attempting the real Cisco CCNA exam at $125 a pop.

6. Here is where you will want to start to work in additional items such as the CRAM sheet and videos. These tools will present the information to you from a different perspective as everyone learns using different techniques and via different communication mechanisms. Some will benefit from the full blown study guides, some from the hands-on of the labs and workbook, some from the videos, others from the full color CRAM sheet and finally some from the test engine. You want to use all the tools at your disposal for all they are worth.

7. Once you reviewed all the material once, now go back and take CCNA exam B. Hopefully you are scoring close to 80% by now. You will then want to repeat the above process of printing out the exam, reviewing the sections or concepts you scored poorly on and again leveraging the tools at hand.

8. You should see how you can continue to repeat this methodology while learning and not memorizing the questions. If you memorize the questions, you defeat the purpose of trying to learn the actual concepts. I am quite sure if you follow this road map, you will be scoring close to 80% by the time you get to exam C. Just continue refreshing the material and in no time you will be holding your passing exam score for your CCNA certification!

Robin Lee :: Sep.08.2009 :: Articles And Tutorials :: 2 Comments »

#01 dselmeyer

When did Cisco change the CCNA renewal to include the CCDA?
Takeing the CCDA to renew is an easy way to go in my opinion.
This is from the Cisco site:

Recertification

CCNA certifications are valid for three years. To recertify, pass the ICND2 exam, or pass the current CCNA exam, or pass a CCNA Concentration exam (wireless, security, voice), or pass the current CCDA exam, or  pass any 642 – XXX professional level or Cisco Specialist exam (excluding Sales Specialist exams), or pass a current CCIE or CCDE written exam.

#02 GSauls

Hi Dselmeyer,
i guess it would depend on what you believe is easy. If you are a designer then the CCDA is easy and if you a config person then the CCNA would be easy and if you both even better.
I do think it’s fair… i don’t say this because i’m CCDA amongst other things but i think it is a lateral move because it’s at the same level. you should be a CCNA to go into design as how would you design without knowing the setup/config environment.
Can i ask why you think CCNA is tougher than CCDA?
Cheers
Grant

#03 dselmeyer

Grant,
By no means am I saying it’s easy easy, but I guess to me it seemed a lot easier than CCNA.  When you look what you need to do for a CCNP, you need your CCNA, not CCDA.  You only need the CCDA for the CCDP(plus your CCDA).
It just seems as if it’s odd that the CCDA will recertify the CCNA, thats all.
Is that the way I am reading it though?   By me passing the CCDA, that renews my CCNA for another 3 years?
Thanks
Dale

#04 GSauls

Hi Dale,
firstly i was just asking… nothing wrong with what you said. alway interesting to know another person viewpoint (kinda like why CLN is here)
i hear what you saying but when you look deeper into the CCDA you need it for Data Center Specialization(storage,application services, network infrastruction), Advanced WLAN design, Unified Comm design, security design specialization…
Just as you need CCNA for voice, wirless, security, CCNP, CCIP and CCSP.
If your a config man than yes it does seem odd that a design track would recertify a R&S track. I’m currently completing my CCIP and CCDP and CCDE.
Hopefully will be done by end of next year.
what are you busy with at the moment?
Grant

#05 dselmeyer

I have been so busy at work that trying to work towards certification was put on a back burner for 2 years.  I realized my CCNA was about to expire on Nov. 15 and started going down the path of CCDA b/c that seemed to be the simplest thing for me.
My goal is now that I have it renewed to start down the CCNP path and get that out of the way.  It’s a long road, but I know it will pay off in the end, in more ways than one.

#06 GSauls

hi Dale,
sounds good.  Have you thought about just doing CCNA Voice or Wireless.
regards,
Grant

Robin Lee :: Sep.07.2009 :: CCNA Q&As :: No Comments »

# 01 Edith CCNA Voice
HI All,
If anyone interested I have attached a brochure from the training course I attended for CCNA Voice, CVOICE 6.0. Thought to share with all, It is designed by Harith (Quadrupel CCIE).
Cheers!
ccna_voice_enterprise.pdf (6.1 MB)
# 02 GSauls
Hi Edith,
Thank you for the information. i write my CCNA Voice next week. i’m trying to push it for this week but i just finished my second MCITP today so i need a few days off to regroup and get out of a MS mind frame.
regards,
Grant
# 03 Abu Hadee
Hello Edith,
This is Abu, group leader of this group.
Thank you for sharing the document. It’s really nice for you to share your experience and knowledge.
I’ll be happy to answer your any question that you may have.
Thanks
- abu

Robin Lee :: Aug.12.2009 :: CCNA Q&As :: No Comments »

# 01  Harris

I passed CCNA yesterday. First of all, I want to thank everyone on the forum for answering my sometimes-curious-and-strange questions. The syllabus was relatively easy for me to understand, as I hold a postgraduate university degree in computer networks. However, I have to say I am impressed with the topics covered by CCNA, as there were many concepts we didn’t even touch in university!  Of course the knowledge required for a cisco certification is more technical-oriented than the knowledge acquired in university, but now I can see that having both the academic and the practical/technical knowledge is a great advantage.

I also need your opinion about what will be the best thing to learn after CCNA. I’m now working as a Network engineer (since three weeks ago ). I’m thinking to start studying for CCNA wireless or CCNA security. Do you think that such a certification will be useful, or is it better to go straight to CCNP ? Also, what non-cisco certification will be most useful combined with Cisco knowledge ? for example, is it worth to go for a Microsoft or Linux Certification ?

# 02 Rickey

My personal opinion is to go for the CCNP then head for a concentration.  i really don’t think it would be a mistake if you went straight for the CCNA wireless or security.  I think both of those certifications are nice certifications.  I have got some microsoft certifications to accompany my cisco knowledge.  I prefer to be a well rounded engineer that way I can better lead a team.  That’s my opinion.

# 03 NtwrkAnkS

Congrats harris i would also recommend whats suggested above as i am also preparing for ccnp and now i realise that the topics covered in ccna are just the tip of the iceberg they only introduce the topics but ccnp is what actually explains you evrything in detail….

# 04 GSauls

Rickey’s advice is good. CCNP is always a good place to go to next.
As for the Microsoft stuff i would recommend doing the either MCSE or MCSA or do a good MCITP…

Your current position what type of business is it. Enterprise/SP/Data Centre?

Let us know and we can improve on our recommendations.

# 05 Jared H.

Congrats on the pass!  As for what to do next, if it were me, that would depend on my current job.  I would do what ever would apply to my job the most and help me improve in my job the most.  For my situation, after getting CCNA, I went for the CCNP because it covers routing switching, wireless, security & qos.  I do 4 out of those 5 things so CCNP seemed to be a good fit.  I have now gone back and am working on CCNA Wireless and will be pursuing CCNA Security & CCDA.

Good Luck in whatever you do.

# 06  Harris

Thanks for the info!

The company I’m working for, provides Network Infrastructure and security solutions to other companies. I’m mostly involved with cisco products in work.

What certification can help you to acquire more knowledge in specific topics like security or wireless ? CCNP or CCNA security/wireless ?

Robin Lee :: Aug.09.2009 :: CCNA Q&As :: No Comments »

I’m planning to write a CCNA exam. Would you please suggest me which one is better shall I give two exams ICND1 and ICND2 or single CCNA exam. Also could you please let me what is main difference between those single and two exams.  ———— 22karthikreddy

There is no “difference” really.  It just depends on how much you want to study and how much you want to be tested on at one point in time versus another.  if you take the single exam route you will be responsible for everything.  if you take the 2 exam route you can break down what you need to study per exam.  I personally liked the two exam route because I could concentrate on certain technologies at a time to make the testing easier.  It really depends on what your personal preference is.  if you don’t mind studying more go for the single exam.  it also depends on your current knowledge and experience.  if you have been in networking a while it might just be easier to go the single exam.  it’s all up to you!  —————-  Rickey

Robin Lee :: Jul.28.2009 :: CCNA Q&As :: 1 Comment »