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CCENT and CCNA

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Young Grasshopper

Golden Member
hi guys,


im currently a junior sys admin for a company here and i would like to familiarize myself more with the networking side of things(cisco switches, routers and firewalls). every other area i am already familiar with(desktop support, building servers and raids, building racks, etc...) except for networking. is this something i can teach myself assuming i have the hardware, or would you all recommend me to take some classes? the problem with the classes if they're really expensive(3 grand for a week) and i really dont like the idea of cramming things in my head so quickly. people have told me i should probably just buy used equipment off ebay and download an e-book along with a training video(like trainsignal) and it should be good enough. this is what i plan on doing unless someone here says otherwise.


can someone recommend me a good kit to buy off ebay that will fit my needs? i get confused on which hardware to buy because alot of the sellers state that thier equipment supports the new IOS version that is required for the ccent and ccna exams that were recently reworked. for the firewalls, i can just use some at work since we have pix's and asa's just lying around.


thanks


im thinking of something like this


http://cgi.ebay.com/Cisco-3640...VWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 
well im not just going after the certs, im going to be using these this type of equipment for my company when i learn it. besides i know i cant sell it off to a friend of mine when im done with it anyway.
 
Originally posted by: tranceport
Simulators have came a long way. Why not get your self a copy of router sim?
Click to expand...

indeed. i'm actually learning for the CCENT and CCNA certs through CISCO so i have cisco's PacketTracer 4.1. it is a very good simulator that's supports almost everything.
 
I've used Boson network simulator and it's fine for working with routers and switches. The problem comes when you want to add clients to the mix and see how they interact and test ACL's for various protocols. It's much easier if you have the physical hardware to work with... plug your PC(s) into... log events from the routers... simulate a failure of a device or link... etc. etc.
 
thanks for the replies, but im not really interested in simulators. i prefer the real hardware, but ill also use the simulators in addition to the hardware that i plan on purchasing. at this point im looking for some help on a kit i can purchase.
 
I haven't seen any worthwhile "hardware kits" for CCNA or CCENT prep other than what you can find on eBay for under $100 for a router with IOS on it. In my experience (I had a class that worked from the CCNA-ICND exam prep book) for a perfect study environment you'd want three of those routers actually... for testing routing protocols with routers that are not directly connected. Then you'd also want two switches that support VLANs. That's why so many people use simulators for this.

*EDIT* The kit you linked to seems highly overpriced.
 
ouch 3000 really? ccna1 was free for me(high school) and ccna2 is about $500 for the whole thing at my local community collage.

what i thought was funny was the end of ccna1 where you had to spec a network and one of the things they asked was to do it cheap, i believe it was part of your score. so if you used any cisco equipment at all the cheap idea went right out the window. i still don't get the point behind using anything other than there routers, i guess its all in there name unfortunately; so most large company's use them regardless of the fact that there honorably over priced.


as a side note i still try to use the ifconfig command in ios almost every time i use it lol, im way to use to my linux routers.
 
Originally posted by: jswjimmy
i guess its all in there name unfortunately; so most large company's use them regardless of the fact that there honorably over priced.
Click to expand...
sure, versus netgear cisco may seem expensive...but compare them to any other market leader (extreme, juniper, foundry) and they wont seem so "over priced".
 
Originally posted by: jlazzaro
Originally posted by: jswjimmy
i guess its all in there name unfortunately; so most large company's use them regardless of the fact that there honorably over priced.
Click to expand...
sure, versus netgear cisco may seem expensive...but compare them to any other market leader (extreme, juniper, foundry) and they wont seem so "over priced".
Click to expand...

extreme and foundry both got there name known from there cutting edge networking equipment. i havnt used products from ether company yet but im willing to bet there standard switches are no better than a good(and i stress that) cheap brand. juniper i don't mind ya they cost more than other brands, but there software updates, and speed are worth it in a way, you can say the same about other brands, but most of the ones with good support and speed are very expensive as well.

to me a 100mbit switch is a 100mbit switch (as long as it does not have a crippled cache, or other problem caused by parts that the company shouldn't have used. like you see in some of the off name brands). hell i still used a cabletron els-100, and a dlink 24port in my network until they forced catalysts on me, at least they still havnt complained about my linux router yet.

btw, im talking about small business here, i mean of course if you run a huge network with very high demands your going to need some of these places high end stuff, but thats true of even there own company's low end stuff. if you get the cheapest equipment from the best brand dont expect miracles.
 
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