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AMD Damo
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Networking education

Tue May 17, 2011 5:18 am

Hey guys, I'm looking at doing CCENT to get a foot into understanding networking a bit more, plus I want the piece of paper to hang on my wall.

A bit of back story, I'm currently an apprentice automotive electrician, doing a cert III in my field, I was good at IT in school and I passed year 12 VCE in 2009 with passes in IT Applications and IT Software Development, but decided to go into a trade, because I couldn't be bothered with school and I had a point to prove.

I'd still like to finish my apprenticeship, but in the mean time, while I'm blowing fuses, burning wires, setting fire to cars, getting pissed in the pub with other apprentices and fighting with the rivals over in mechanical at trade school I'd like to get some certificates and skill up.

So I'm looking at CCENT, I'm looking at the official books here in Amazon and so far I've come up with:

Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices, Part 1 (ICND1): CCNA Exam 640-802 and ICND1 Exam 640-822, 2nd Edition

Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices, Part 2 (ICND2): (CCNA Exam 640-802 and ICND exam 640-816), 3rd Edition

CCNA Official Exam Certification Library (CCNA Exam 640-802), 3rd Edition

CCNA Flash Cards and Exam Practice Pack (CCENT Exam 640-822 and CCNA Exams 640-816 and 640-802), 3rd Edition

I know it mentions "CCNA" but they where listed on the Cisco site for CCENT as well, so I thought I might as well as buy everything and make sure I'm 100% covered, plus I don't want to skimp out on any potential knowledge on the subject, particularily for the exam, want every base covered.

http://www.ciscopress.com/markets/detail.asp?st=44701

Will CCENT teach me the basics to networking, in an easy and understandable way? Or should I go and buy "Networking for Dummies"? I still have my year 12 IT books as well.

I'm also curious if the Cisco certifications cover telecommunications, like phone networks? As in my current part time job, they're looking for a young guy to step up and become second in command when the boss retires and hands down the business to his son in the next 5 years, knowledge of all that phone stuff will come in handy because their eyes are on me but I have to prove myself.

Thanks much.
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Aphasia
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Re: Networking education

Tue May 17, 2011 6:25 am

CCNA is comprised of ICND1 and ICND2... CCENT is an entry level basic certification that is comprised of only ICDN1, so its halfway to CCNA. I don't really know why they made it, but I guess people have asked for a entry level course/cert where they could send people not really involved with networking directly, but need the gist of it. From my view as a network admin I see CCENT as something that would be good for other parts of the organization to use, say server admins, or people involved with networking groups, but not the network itself.

Here you have the exam listing for instance.
http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/l ... _list.html

ICND1(CCENT + 1/2 CCNA)
http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/c ... 0-822.html

ICND2(2/2 CCNA)
http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/c ... 0-816.html
 
Hallucin8
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Re: Networking education

Tue May 17, 2011 7:11 am

Being in this CCNA situation myself. I'll throw in my 2 cents. CCENT doesn't deal much with voice. It's a broad variety of basic stuff including TCP/IP, networking terms and outdated (now) infrastructure. My suggestion is get the CCENT book to start with and decide if you want to continue in this direction after reading it. It's not very exciting I can promise you that. Maybe see if you can find some practice tests online and gauge where you are and where you want to be.
 
notfred
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Re: Networking education

Tue May 17, 2011 7:49 am

As for the phone side of things, it all depends on what the phone setup you currently have is. Cisco does VoIP telephony and the later qualifications will cover things about that plus interfacing with POTS and trunking. If your setup is an all POTS PBX, you are not going to get in to that with Cisco stuff.
 
AMD Damo
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Re: Networking education

Wed May 18, 2011 3:51 am

Thanks for the replies, guys, I'm going to start off with CCENT, just to refresh my mind a bit, we covered topologies, protocols etc in Year 12 IT applications, but I can't remember any of it, lol.

Plus I'm stuck in my current job for the next 4 years minumum, so I have plenty of time to learn everything.

At my other job, phone is POTS, but that doesn't mean in the next few years, with all the changes happening, we can't move to a VOIP system :)

I've ordered all those books and tutorials, so I can continue onto CCNA after I master CCENT.

In the mean time, should I study up on basic networking?
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AMD Damo
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Re: Networking education

Tue May 31, 2011 2:13 am

All my books arrived, thats a lot of reading/studying to do.

I'm wondering, would it be worth also picking up the books for the CCNA wireless/voice/security ones as well and going for them? I suppose it completes the package of CCNA?
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jmdogg
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Re: Networking education

Tue Jan 03, 2012 5:48 pm

good luck to everyone pursuing certifications!

since you got all the books i'd also suggestion some instruction. i used these guys - http://www.bosscbt.tv - and they're really good. you can also get live instruction but that costs a ton more. i'm working on ccie stuff now so i spend most of my time playing with concepts on my home lab.

if anyone has other good resources for learning... .please share :D
 
Flatland_Spider
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Re: Networking education

Tue Jan 03, 2012 6:29 pm

AMD Damo wrote:
All my books arrived, thats a lot of reading/studying to do.

I'm wondering, would it be worth also picking up the books for the CCNA wireless/voice/security ones as well and going for them? I suppose it completes the package of CCNA?


Good luck, and don't give up!

I remember going through the CCNA material. It's fascinating but very dry and a little esoteric. Some things didn't click until years later when I started seeing some really hardcore production networks. Now that I think about it, talking with someone who had implemented these things would have helped. >__>

I would hold off on those. They are specializations on top of the CCNA.

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