CCENT/CCNA [H] study group

I got a 712 and needed 804 to pass. I know a lot of the questions I got wrong were based on some form of subnetting. Not the best attempt, but I know I can do better. Not sure what my score means as far as how many question I missed passing by. Lol

712 is not that low. I visit the techexams forums a lot and a lot of people that fail get a lot lower than 700. You are definitely almost there. A few more weeks of studying should do it.
 
712 is not that low. I visit the techexams forums a lot and a lot of people that fail get a lot lower than 700. You are definitely almost there. A few more weeks of studying should do it.

712 is a pretty good score, especially on the first try. Cisco exams can be pretty intimidating the first time because you don't know what to expect, but once you've gone through once, all the other Cisco exams are the same, just different questions.
 
Thanks guys. I am hitting the books and my lab hard this week. I hope to sit the 2nd attempt soon. ;)
 
Look what i got in the mail yesterday..:D

rfOd4.jpg
 
Congrats AMD_Gamer! I can't wait until I earn the CCIE plaque. One day...*hopefully next year*
 
nvm, after taking a step back while eating dinner i realized i didnt trunk fa 0/1 on the rack switch

sometimes thats all you need is to just take a break.

i was looking through this thread was about to say doesn't look like your fa0/1 was trunk! because trunk allows multiple vlans go across it! using the router on a stick will allow communication.
 
Look what i got in the mail yesterday..:D

rfOd4.jpg

Nice. We have the same expiration date! June 17th, 2014. :) Congrats, AMD_Gamer! :) How high are you going in the Cisco line? I'm going for CCNP, with a CCNA: Security thrown in there for now. Maybe after a good 5-7 years playing with these things, I'll be ready for a CCIE! :)
 
Nice. We have the same expiration date! June 17th, 2014. :) Congrats, AMD_Gamer! :) How high are you going in the Cisco line? I'm going for CCNP, with a CCNA: Security thrown in there for now. Maybe after a good 5-7 years playing with these things, I'll be ready for a CCIE! :)
CCNA Security is easy btw. but tbh I'd take it in like a year or two, so that you don't have to renew your certs that much closer. :p If you do another cert higher on the ladder, it renews all certs so they expire to the latest exam expire date.
 
Damn you AMD_Gamer, my lab is just sitting here untouched due to work! Oh well I will get to it soon, congrats!
 
Nice. We have the same expiration date! June 17th, 2014. :) Congrats, AMD_Gamer! :) How high are you going in the Cisco line? I'm going for CCNP, with a CCNA: Security thrown in there for now. Maybe after a good 5-7 years playing with these things, I'll be ready for a CCIE! :)

I plan to go all the way at some point.
 
Failed CCNP switch by 9 points

Simulations sucked. I failed a sim by my failure to read the last line of instructions.

Will try again in the next two weeks.
 
How hard is CCNP switch?

Let's just say I got a 960/1000 on my CCNA

I have already figured out 2 of my mistakes that would have granted me a passing score. :mad:

Must have been 5 or 6 sims/simlets on the ccnp switch I took. The largest/most complicated one was 3 questions into the test and threw me off big time.
 
Not a bad idea... need one of these for the CA BAR now...

Haha.

I know this is a joke, but it's actually really easy to gain requirements to sit in for the CA Bar - you just attend law school, accredited (hard to get into) or unaccredited (pretty easy). CA is the outlier among all the states - I believe they're the only one that allows unaccredited school graduates to sit in for the exam.
 
That's cool I guess, i guess that makes up for the CA bar being one of the hardest bar exams out there.
 
The cover of the Cisco Press ICND Cert books always cracks me up because it looks like the one guy is trying to explain something to the other guy and the other guy has this look it's like he's thinking 'yeah whatever I'll play angry birds'.
 
Passed my ICND1 today with an 850. Used CCNA For Dummies, CCNA Study Guide by Richard Deal, Packet Tracer and CBT Nuggets.
 
August 12th a little after noon, I'll be a CCNA. ICND2 exam. Studying my ass off, labbing like crazy (HOT!), and realizing I need a couple more WIC's to go for CCNP. :)
 
Passed my ICND1 today with an 850. Used CCNA For Dummies, CCNA Study Guide by Richard Deal, Packet Tracer and CBT Nuggets.

Congrats I hope I can pass my ICND 1 & 2 on the 11th. I'm frantically taking notes from the Lammle book and practicing with Packet Tracer.
 
On average, how long have you guys studied for CCNA? Both in total calendar time and actual time spent studying or working in your labs? (specifically for CCNA outside of your regular job exposure if applicable.)

Curious. Considering getting CCNA cert'd.
 
i spent a month each for both ICND1 and ICND2. I took a 2 week break between them. I studied 2-3 hours a day including labs and on weekends i try to get 3-5 hours.

now im studying for my CCNP. I passed the route exam couple weeks ago and i studied for 4 months. I dont have the time i use to have when i did my ccna...... now im taking a break before i hit the books for switch'n.
 
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I'm trying to do my ICND 1 & 2 in about 3 weeks, I'm doing about 8hrs of study and practice a day.
 
I'm going through the Network Academy CCNA Exploration route. I'm actually taking the CCNA2 final in less than two hours! CCNA1 consisted of roughly 50 labs, CCNA2 had 40 labs. The labs is a mixture of hands on labs with school equipment, packet tracer, and a "NETLAB" which is done remotely through VM. Normally we spend 1 week per chapter but because we're on the summer session, we're doing 2 chapters a week. Theres a ~20 question assessment after each chapter. Its probably the slowest path to getting a cert but its very thorough and you get college credit, and it was very cheap too, a class costs $150 + textbook which you don't even need to pass the course. I should be scheduling my ICND1 very soon!
 
Good luck, AeonF1, hope you kill it buddy.

Thank you gentlemen for your responses. Of course still interested in others' input as well. I'm going to try taking one of the CCNA Academy classes myself this fall. I have moderate experience with Cisco to date. I am a programmer by trade however, and have experience with TCP/IP protocols, at the level of for example TCP/IP illustrated Vol1.

Anyway, just curious if 4 semesters of time was worth it compared to finding a *really good* resource and doing self-study. I do have a full schedule with work and other obligations, so I wouldn't mind being.. spoon fed, but at the same time, if a lot of people have had good success with a self study and can recommend good materials, I'll save time and money and attack it directly. Perhaps 1 semester will be enough to tell? Thoughts?

And the other thing I was curious about is how you guys feel about Cisco certification in a world of pfSense, m0n0wall, DD-WRT and companies like Juniper. Is a CCNA still carrying enough weight to justify the time spent? Obviously I lean toward the side of erring to have the certification than not, but these are questions that come to mind.

Thanks guys,
-D
 
And the other thing I was curious about is how you guys feel about Cisco certification in a world of pfSense, m0n0wall, DD-WRT and companies like Juniper. Is a CCNA still carrying enough weight to justify the time spent? Obviously I lean toward the side of erring to have the certification than not, but these are questions that come to mind.

Thanks guys,
-D

We're not living in a world of pfSense/m0n0wall/dd-wrt though, in the world the CCNA enters you in to those projects aren't even noticed. Those projects may come up here quite a bit but that's because for the most part we are home users and good modern Cisco equipment is "reassuringly expensive". Juniper is the only true competition you mentioned and I doubt they have close to 10% of the marketshare. I like juniper stuff though, the specs are nice and the price is better so I hope they do better and start putting a bit of a scare in Cisco. I think with a CCNA you prove a base set of knowledge and ability and even if the company you're applying for is a juniper or HP shop I think if you come in with a CCNA you show that you know the concepts and it's just a matter of dialect.

Though I may just be wearing rose coloured glasses and trying to justify my efforts :).

Update: According to trefis.com Juniper has a ~5.5% market share in switching and ~16% market share in edge routers..
 
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We're not living in a world of pfSense/m0n0wall/dd-wrt though, in the world the CCNA enters you in to those projects aren't even noticed. Those projects may come up here quite a bit but that's because for the most part we are home users and good modern Cisco equipment is "reassuringly expensive".
..
I think if you come in with a CCNA you show that you know the concepts and it's just a matter of dialect.

I think those projects, particularly pfSense, will only continue to improve and gain steam, especially in the SMB sector. In some cases as an all in one solution, but also as a network service platofm, for example serving as a web proxy. The real great benefit there is you can throw a lot of memory and CPU behind a pfsense on a tight budget.

But you're right, larger businesses and more established ones will be running the good stuff, or able to pay up for it, and having the cert might help garner additional business or enhance employ-ability otherwise, if not also for just a symbol of having proved to possess a core competency with a known range of topics. I guess my main concern was wanting to make sure I'm not spending a lot of time on stuff that I'll never need or minutia that pertains solely to Cisco, but the more I think about it the more I realize I need not be concerned. Besides, I'd rather know too much than not enough.
 
CCNA teaches a lot of basic stuff that's not vendor specific, which is the real value here. If you know this stuff from working with another vendor, passing CCNA isn't hard either (if you learn a couple of cisco-specific configuration commands). And when you get the concepts, you won't have problems adjusting to any vendor.

Edit: What I meant to say was, CCNA says you have a basic grasp on networking. And you need this whatever networking-related you do.
 
CCNA teaches a lot of basic stuff that's not vendor specific, which is the real value here. If you know this stuff from working with another vendor, passing CCNA isn't hard either (if you learn a couple of cisco-specific configuration commands). And when you get the concepts, you won't have problems adjusting to any vendor.

Edit: What I meant to say was, CCNA says you have a basic grasp on networking. And you need this whatever networking-related you do.

I have seen positions that require a CCNA and they say they don't use Cisco equipment but that it proves basic competency.
 
I have seen positions that require a CCNA and they say they don't use Cisco equipment but that it proves basic competency.

When I worked at an internet provisioning company, the manager insisted on a CCNA because he knew that to get it required a good amount of knowledge of networking and the concepts, we had no Cisco stuff in the work at all. It was all HP, and Dell stuff.
 
I have seen positions that require a CCNA and they say they don't use Cisco equipment but that it proves basic competency.

When I worked at an internet provisioning company, the manager insisted on a CCNA because he knew that to get it required a good amount of knowledge of networking and the concepts, we had no Cisco stuff in the work at all. It was all HP, and Dell stuff.

That's excellent. Sounds like the versatile certification I was hoping it might be. Definitely sounds worth the effort. Thanks for the feedback. :)
 
Thanks for the congrats. I'm watching the ICND2 CBT nuggets and i'm catching on really fast with the advanced concepts
 
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