Network+ cert advice wanted

SvenBent

2[H]4U
Joined
Sep 13, 2008
Messages
3,323
next month im taking my network+ cert to keep my A+ cert valid as well.

anyone have any good advice on how to ace the examn ?
anything i need to do to make sure my A+ cert gets renewed as well ?

currently Im reading up on stuff on this site but it seems a bit old info
http://www.proprofs.com/mwiki/index.php?title=Comptia_Network+_Study_Guide
i am also going to read up on this site
https://www.professormesser.com/network-plus/n10-006/n10-006-course-index/

any feedback are welcome.


Side Question any good basic and cheap certs that a valid for life that i could put on my resume?
my problem is that I moved to the states a couple of years ago so much my education papers does not count in the states so I a m trying to get some certs her and there to at lest get some basic validating of my skills to get back into the IT field.

Thank you
 
What part of the country do you live in?

For me and most of the people that I know that are in the business certs don't matter that much unless you are a reseller etc.
 
Took my A+ back in 1999 didn't study and passed.

Took Network+ in 2008, studied hard (hadnt done much indepth Network stuff) and when I took the exam I had to ask the test centre if they had given the right exam. 50% of the questions had never come up or covered by the study materials. I think I failed the exam by about 5 points or whatever which was close as it had a quite high passmark. Disappointing but I thought it too expensive to bother resitting.

I took ITIL and PRINCE2 exams (IT Support Planning and Project Management) after that and passed those just fine.

Hasn't held me back any. I don't know if my A+ is still valid (the exam covered VL-Bus...yeah that long ago) but customers don't really care about it.

Maybe look into ITIL Foundation Cert? Took me 10 minutes to sit and pass that one but I did study hard for it.

They are all bullshit but employers/agencies love them for some reason.
 
Side Question any good basic and cheap certs that a valid for life that i could put on my resume?
my problem is that I moved to the states a couple of years ago so much my education papers does not count in the states so I a m trying to get some certs her and there to at lest get some basic validating of my skills to get back into the IT field.

Thank you

Been looking myself at some of the Comptia stuff. Really smells like scam/racket when I look into it. The certs are so broad and basic, they expire every few years, and they want you to spend hundreds for the study courses, then hundreds to take the tests. If you're looking to pad your resume', they may be fine, but I think specializing with vendor certs (CCNA, MCP, etc.,) is a better way to go.
 
Took the A+ and Security+ tests back when they were lifetime. The A+ got me out of taking a basic computer class that was required for a Cyber Security degree. Tuition money for basic class or get a cert. Easy choice. The Security+ cert was dead simple since everything on that test was covered in the course work for the degree.

To the OP, try to get some cyber security certs. Computer/Network security is the hot thing now. Better to have a cert and not need it for a job then lose out on a job because a cert is needed to get past the HR filters. A fair number of government jobs require certs to even be considered.

As part of my study process, made use of brain dump tests to simulate the tests. A fair number of the actual test questions were on the simulated tests. As daglesj pointed out, sometimes the recommended study materials don't seem to cover the actual tests.
 
Took my A+ back in 1999 didn't study and passed.

Took Network+ in 2008, studied hard (hadnt done much indepth Network stuff) and when I took the exam I had to ask the test centre if they had given the right exam. 50% of the questions had never come up or covered by the study materials. I think I failed the exam by about 5 points or whatever which was close as it had a quite high passmark. Disappointing but I thought it too expensive to bother resitting.

I took ITIL and PRINCE2 exams (IT Support Planning and Project Management) after that and passed those just fine.

Hasn't held me back any. I don't know if my A+ is still valid (the exam covered VL-Bus...yeah that long ago) but customers don't really care about it.

Maybe look into ITIL Foundation Cert? Took me 10 minutes to sit and pass that one but I did study hard for it.

They are all bullshit but employers/agencies love them for some reason.

Wow Vesa Local bus, burning of those CPU's.. :D
a lot of the help mateiral to study for A+ examn was horrible wrong i had to contact several free sites for giving out plainly wrong info on just simpl;e things. liek conufssing bits and byte. and missing up sectors and tracks. at one time they even siad a sector was 512kb instead of 512b.
Which is what kinda scares me a bit on the study material now for network +
I totally agree on the cert as a material for learning stuff i used to have certe technicina under me in my prior jobs. and they all did just not have that diagnostic ability because they just had preset answers but didnt understand the underalying system to test for something they hadn't read af solution for.

but sadly a lot of positions seems to require them. i honnestly think its 50% for marketings ( our tech er ALL a+ certifed blah blah)

I'll look at the itil foundation cert


What part of the country do you live in?

For me and most of the people that I know that are in the business certs don't matter that much unless you are a reseller etc.

Texas Dallas area.

Been looking myself at some of the Comptia stuff. Really smells like scam/racket when I look into it. The certs are so broad and basic, they expire every few years, and they want you to spend hundreds for the study courses, then hundreds to take the tests. If you're looking to pad your resume', they may be fine, but I think specializing with vendor certs (CCNA, MCP, etc.,) is a better way to go.
They are made to sell marketings BS rather then educate people for sure.




Took the A+ and Security+ tests back when they were lifetime. The A+ got me out of taking a basic computer class that was required for a Cyber Security degree. Tuition money for basic class or get a cert. Easy choice. The Security+ cert was dead simple since everything on that test was covered in the course work for the degree.

To the OP, try to get some cyber security certs. Computer/Network security is the hot thing now. Better to have a cert and not need it for a job then lose out on a job because a cert is needed to get past the HR filters. A fair number of government jobs require certs to even be considered.

As part of my study process, made use of brain dump tests to simulate the tests. A fair number of the actual test questions were on the simulated tests. As daglesj pointed out, sometimes the recommended study materials don't seem to cover the actual tests.

Thank you i might grab security+ after network + just to round it off and then look into cyber/security.

I;ve also considered looking at MS cert insted and just start en the cheap scale with some MTA so i can later on faster build on with some bigger certs
 
Been looking myself at some of the Comptia stuff. Really smells like scam/racket when I look into it. The certs are so broad and basic, they expire every few years, and they want you to spend hundreds for the study courses, then hundreds to take the tests. If you're looking to pad your resume', they may be fine, but I think specializing with vendor certs (CCNA, MCP, etc.,) is a better way to go.

They used to never expire, they changed that a few years back. My A+/Net+ are lifetime certs.

They were supposed to be entry level certs that people could get when starting out to prove basic proficiency.

When I took them I literally read a book on each and then sat and passed. I didn't do any practice exams and barely studied. Not sure if they've made them harder now.

For starting out, A+/Net+/Sec+ are good to have. After that, you can look into specializing depending what you want to do (MCSE, VSphere, Cisco). Heck, even Amazon has one for AWS now.

If you're planning anything security related, I've heard good things about Offensive Security .. but there's a reason there's a camp for that.
 
Last edited:
I've heard that the Net+ got a lot harder the past year or so.

Also, for the Offensive Security stuff - if you want to try a less expensive option than the OSCP, try the eJPT from eLearnSecurity (https://www.elearnsecurity.com/affil...m=redditPTSNSS for a "bare bones" version of their Junior Penetration Tester). They start with the basics and move up. Not too big in the HR circles, but it's great for the learning stuff and for a good foundation before heading to the OSCP.
 
You definitely want to try and find a study guide for the current test and study, study, study and then study one more time. Try and find someone who recently took the test to tell you where to focus your study efforts on, since Network+ can cover a very broad base of knowledge.

I never did Network+, as I went straight to the Security+ cert, but I know from others who are pursuing all of their certs that the test changes quite often.
 
Fearing an involuntary career change, I took the A+ and Network+ in 2010, the last year they were lifetime certs. Took a night class to review for A+, and just used Professor Messer on YouTube for Network+.

Ended up not changing careers. But still glad I got both certs, and regret not getting Security+
 
Fearing an involuntary career change, I took the A+ and Network+ in 2010, the last year they were lifetime certs. Took a night class to review for A+, and just used Professor Messer on YouTube for Network+.

Ended up not changing careers. But still glad I got both certs, and regret not getting Security+

If you're on [H], you could probably pass the A+. I did it in 1999 and it was the most basic, absolutely easiest exam I've ever taken. Quickest exam, too.

I've heard it's a little bit more difficult than in 99, but I've taken some of the practice tests... It's still very entry level and most likely easy for anyone on these forums.

Net+ used to be easier, I hear. Now, it's on par with CCNA but more vendor neutral.

Sec+ was a good one. Daril Gibson has an excellent book that goes through everything. That exam wasn't hard, but it wasn't easy, either. It was one of those that I found a lot of value in.
 
I got Network+ back in 2005 or so. I took a course a couple of years before and then put off doing the test. Before the test, I found all kinds of practice tests online. I got to the point that I was clicking on the correct answer as soon as I saw the first few words of the question. The questions seemed to repeat themselves across all practice tests. When I took the real test, I used the full time allotted. The real test was much more difficult, but I passed. I'm glad that one was for life when I got it. All that said, I think it helped get me the job, but I honestly think I would have gotten the job without it. Then again, that was 10 years ago.
 
Back
Top