Independently prepare for CCNA: practical advice

Disputes do not subside among network specialists: is it possible (and is it worth it) to prepare for the CCNA exam on your own or do you need to go to paid courses ? In this article, we would like to give some useful tips to those who have chosen the path of self-preparation for the Cisco CCNA exam.

So is it possible or not?

The short answer is yes, you can prepare, and not somehow, but qualitatively. Successfully pass the industrial certification and make a career in the field of network technologies, while spending a minimum of money. All that is needed for this is a great desire to achieve success, a high degree of organization, the ability to plan your time and strictly follow these plans. In short, this is possible if you have a head, not only to wear a hat!
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The preparation process can be divided into two stages - theory and practice.

Theory

Theoretical materials in the Internet-wagon and a small truck. The problem is not to find them, but how to swallow and digest such information rather than choke.

1. Cisco Education Network

A great reference point for self-study is the Cisco Education Network site . Access to the site materials is limited, full access for registered users only, but registration is free.

Here you can find a list of topics that you need to know in order to pass industrial certification - Syllabus , get acquainted with the details of the requirements for examiners and such details of the exam as the time of its implementation and cost.

In the study preparation section, Study / Learn, you can view videos and other materials on selected topics, most of which are available for free. In the "practice" section - Practice , there are test options for individual topics, and in the "Exam" section - Take your exam, you can practice performing the certification exam itself in "close to combat" conditions, though not for free.

Thus, Cisco's educational network is the largest and most authoritative resource, containing always proven, up-to-date information for self-study. The only drawback is all the materials in English. Although is it a drawback? For a modern computer networking specialist, English should be native!

An overview of training programs and training methods in Russian can be found on the corresponding branch of the Cisco site .

2. Best Books

It is also recommended to purchase guidelines for self-preparation publishing Cisco Press. These books are called so - the official guide for preparing for the CCNA exam, for many years these books have been written by Wendell Odom, CCIE 1624 , latest edition - 2011 - CCNA 640-802 Official Cert Library , Updated, 3rd Edition.

Alternative sources of information too. For example, Todd Lemmla’s books , their publication correlates with the publication of official manuals, and often precedes them. The last CCNA preparation guide from Lemmla was also published in 2011 - the CCNA Cisco Certified Network Associate Study Guide , 7th Edition. If you compare the prices of books - official manuals are more expensive, the typical cost is $ 50-100. As for quality, the ratio here is not always in favor of official manuals. Todd Lemml writes the language more lively than Odom, and the information interpreted by him is easier to understand, although this is only my subjective opinion.

3. CBT Nuggets

Another tutorial is video tutorials from CBT Nuggets , cbtnuggets.com . True, dozens of Jeremy Cioara video tutorials , as well as Todd Lemml’s books and courses, are not distributed by the authors for free, and all this is also in English, but you can find them on the Internet not only from official distributors.

4. Russian-language materials

If you have problems with English, but you really want to learn, then there are intermediate options:

Resource ciscolab.ru , where you can find Russian-language articles and books, although the English-language still prevail. But the most remarkable thing is that here you can practice in passing the CCNA exam. Of course, this is not a real exam, but if you honestly perform it, then it will be no more difficult at the present.

The forum and the site sadikhov.com and sadikhov.com/forum for many years has been and remains a place for "tusovki" IT-professionals in various fields and here you can find a lot of useful information.

The thematic blog ccnastepbystep.blogspot.ru appeared relatively recently, but “specializes” specifically on CCNA, so applicants for this certification may be useful.

The Cisco Networks section on Habré in general and, in particular, multiple posts related to training, for example, here .

On all the listed resources you can find interesting, detailed and understandable explanations of individual issues and topics covered in the certification exam and not only in English, but also in Russian. But do not rely on a ready and complete course of study! Systematization of the material and verification of the mastering of knowledge will have to be done independently, and this is labor and considerable. You can say - this is a fee for free!

Practice

The second part of the training task is practice.
To get practical skills you need equipment: Cisco switches and routers. For how long do you need such access? The question is complex and the answer to it in each specific case is individual; from experience, it is undesirable to have less than 20 hours of total access time during the entire preparation period. Options for obtaining the equipment itself or access to it.

1. Own "iron"

Purchase used equipment. The entire lab (3 routers, 3 switches) costs $ 300 - $ 400. The advantage of buying equipment is obvious - unlimited access and any time to work on it. And if you are lucky, you can find the necessary equipment in your work absolutely free of charge.

2. Equipment rental

Rent a rack with equipment and connect to it remotely for laboratory work. There are many offers of this kind on the Internet. The cost and the method of payment of rent can vary greatly. From an hourly fee of $ 4-8 per hour to buying a rental for weeks and months, for example, 3 months for 200 euros .

There are also free offers, the most famous are www.myrouterlab.com and packetlife.net/lab , the latter is temporarily unavailable due to relocation. As always, the free service has a number of limitations - the inability to connect with an SDM or CCP client, outdated equipment. You will have to reserve time in a week or a month and wait for the queue, and when you get access to follow certain rules, for example, if you reserved 2 hours of work on PacketLife , worked 10 minutes and got tired of you, it is possible that next time you cannot use the service get a "ban" for "bad behavior." If, having reserved 4 hours, you are late with connecting for half an hour, you may find that you don’t connect at all, your time is released and someone else has taken it. On paid services for your money you will get everything in the best possible way, nobody will take your paid time and no one will teach you the right behavior.

3. Dynamips

Using the Dynamips virtual machine. Recently, the work with this virtual machine and the graphical frontend GNS3 , rather than the console Dynagen, is most often described. Although the Dynagen window is preserved and present in GNS3, it is practically not used during operation. On Habré there were several publications on the basic configuration of a virtual router here and here or creating a laboratory on the Voice track . This topic with a big beard and a few articles is too small to reveal all the subtleties of working with this wonderful product. He helped, and will still help many generations of Tsiskarey to master the wisdom of network technologies when they do not have sufficient funds to purchase or rent a laboratory bundle. The disadvantages of Dynamips are support only for legacy platforms, except maybe 7200 and the impossibility of full-fledged Cisco switch virtualization. When preparing for CCNA certification, these drawbacks are almost imperceptible, since The basic elements of the technology that have not changed in modern implementations are studied, and the operation on the 3640 router with the 16-port switching module is “almost” similar to the operation of the switch.

4. Emulators

The last available option for obtaining practical skills is working with software emulators. Probably the best of them is a product of Cisco itself, Cisco Packet Tracer , the latest version of product 5.3.3 allows building large and complex network topologies and even supports multi-user work, i.e. parts of the topology can be distributed on different computers, as remote as you like.

Another well-known product is NetSim from Boson, current version 8.0 . It is not so universal and focused on a specific task - mastering the skills of configuring devices on the command line, so it always comes with a set of pre-installed labs. Both programs are protected by licenses. The cost of NetSim depends on the set of laboratory work included in the program for the minimum level of certification CCENT (ICND1) price $ 99. Packet Tracer is distributed only in Cisco network academies, where students receive it for free. Officially this program is not for sale. One of the most interesting practical skills is the implementation of virtual laboratories included in free training courses , positioned by Cisco as additional materials for the preparation of IT professionals. They are grouped by product line and product, and here you also need to pre-register for free on cisco.com itself.

Conclusion

Which preparation option to choose? You decide. There is one more method of preparing for certification, which I did not mention - the use of so-called “dumps” - ready-made answers to exam questions. I will quote Andrey Biryukov here (System Administrator magazine, No. 11, 2008): “Traveling through various online resources devoted to certification, you will sooner or later find mention of braindump, testking, pass4sure and other“ training materials ”. ... Brayndamps are actually exam questions stolen by irresponsible employees of testing centers. These questions are presented with answers, and here the most interesting begins, as these answers ... contain errors. Moreover, even if the answer is correct, there is no explanation for it, which also does not contribute to the understanding of the material. ... ... It is useless to memorize the answers from the dump ... But dumps will be useful if you don’t look back, but try to answer each of the questions yourself and in case of ambiguity check with the appropriate forum, but do not take the answer from the dump. ... the material must be understood, not memorized. "

There is nothing to add to this. I wish you all success in certification and professional career.