Does anyone here have a CCNA certification? How long did it take?

[ForeverSilky]

My comp. teacher asked me and my friend if we were interested in taking the online cisco course that will prepare us for the CCNA exam, so of course we accepted. I was wondering if anyone here has a CCNA? How long did it take you to go through the course and get your CCNA? Thx.

 

[Pastore]

Deicide will be here in about 2 minutes... hell give ya the lowdown

 

[konichiwa]

Is the CCNA the very advanced Cisco course, or is it something else? I can never remember, but it's the one that I always hear the stories about how they take you to some big room with a ton of computers on a LAN and just trash the hell out of it, viruses, backdoors, everything, and then make you fix it. Or so I'm told.

 

[Pastore]

ccna is the first cert, the upper level is ccie, i THINK

deicide knows, hell be here soon

 

[toph99]

mine will take 3 years because i'm taking it through my high school

 

[Deicide]

CCNA is the begging level of Cisco cert. Its a book test, and the cisco academy program is really good for preparing you for it, and for learning networking stuff in general. I don't know how your teacher would teach it, but we took it at a crazy pace, we went through a whole semester in like 3 weeks. It was way too much information for that amount of time, but some of it seemed to stick OK. Just make sure your class splurges for a nice lab, like 5 routers with some switches and hubs, and like 10-20 workstations. Actually working with the stuff is better than doing some dumb simulation.

Go for it though, its not like it can hurt you. After that, its CCNP, i think you take a series of tests for that. After that is CCIE, thats a two day exam, they say you should have a few years experience before you go for that one, though.

 

[ltk007]

Mine will be two years because of the way my high school teaches it. I hear its a really hard class, even though they give you a long time to learn. There must be a whole lot to go over.

 

[Pastore]

ltk.... our class did move insanely fast through a couple semesters like deicide said... i studied VERY little, and i am surprised how much i retained... i can work on the routers quite fluintly actually, and was told by my teacher that i shouldnt have any problem passing the CCNA... i doubt it, but we shall see...

if you are going through the curriculum that i did (the first 4 semesters, i believe there are 8 in total), in 2 years, then you will have no problem with it...

 

[konichiwa]

How much does it cost to get the CCNA cert?

 

[jmcoreymv]

4 days studying, my whole life preparing.

 

[Deicide]

koni: I think its $150, although if you take the CCNA academy, you get half off.

 

[AngelSentFromUpAbove]

it all depends on how fast you think you can learn the curriculum. some people whiz through 4 semesters in 3 months and some people take 2 years for 4 semesters *like me*

 

[gunf1ghter]

Deicide gives quality advice.

There's no need to have a lab with a router though, there are good progs out there that simulate the Cisco IOS well enough to pass the CCNA which is mostly theory anway. I crammed for it over about 4-6 weeks and passed, but it was harder than my MCSE tests.

 

[Russ]

Last time I checked, there were only a little over 5000 CCIE's in the entire world. This cert is one of the few that has real value.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Mean MrMustard]

Hey AngelSentFromUpAbove,

how can you have .02 cents?

 

[Valhalla1]

I have CCNA.

Also I am half done with my CCNP. (two tests to go!).

by the way, the CCNA was really damned easy compared to CCNP stuff. The market in the next few years is going to be SUPER flooded with CCNA's since Cicso has started this Cicso Acadmemy stuff in high schools nationwide.. it will become truly meaningless, believe me.


experience, experience, experience.

 

[snut]

iam currently taking csico in my high school, we move thought the stuff at a realy high speed, its basally...read a chatper one day,next day take test..and it repeats...its not taht hard..I think its actually pretty easy.

 

[Namuna]

Okay, I'm confused.
I've been looking at going through the CCNA Bootcamps out there (5 day courses) that say you'll pass GUARANTEED after the classes.

So what gives? It sounds to me more like you folks are taking anywhere from months to YEARS to pass this thing.

I'm irked.

 

[AngelSentFromUpAbove]

i couldn't find the cents sign on the keyboard... that's how i ended up with 0.02 cents

 

[Darein]

I also took the Networking Academy, just finished the last semester. I took the beta CCNA 2.0 so I got it for free =) before the class ended. I took the first semester by my self and I thought it was pretty easy. If you actually get a text book it helps learn alot, but the text book isn't the same as the webpage, ie the chapters don't line up, even the concepts are all off. They just revamped the webpage, something like 2.0, but Im not sure if its better. The online program helps teach the basics but once you get into advanced router commands and concepts I thought it was a bit lacking. I think it really comes down to the teacher though. Oh, and the CCNA test its self was hard, although I took the beta so it was twice as long =(. And now you have to get recertified, every 3 years I think it is, bummer.

 

[CrimsonKing]

Lo and behold, I just got downsized and I've decided to spend some of my severance period (and the time leading up to my last day) studying for this. My jobs have always been broad-based (some server, network, app. support, hardware), but the thing I like best is networking. So I want to concentrate on getting my CCNA. I don't have enough real-world experience to get a job without it, so I thought it might help me get my foot in somewhere. I'm still going to be looking for jobs on the NT or Notes admin side for the time, but my long-term goal is to get into network infrastructure.

I have friends who have passed the exam and offered me their study books and CDs. Assuming I pick up all the theoretical ideas (OSI model, etc.), what's the minimum hands-on experience one would need on average before they take the exam? Is it possible to pass without?

Thanks!

 

[skull]

I have been thinking about taking my MCSE and CCNA before I get out of high school. I'm a 9th grader now. My HS doesn't offer them as courses so I would have to do it on my own.

How hard would it be for me to study on my own?

The vocational school near by has classes for MCSE so I will probably take those at night.

If I have my MCSE and CCNA out of HS do you guys think I could find a good paying job? I don't know if I'm going to go to college.

 

[BigPoppa]

My HS offers the courses. Semester 1 and 2 in the first year, 3 and 4 in the nex year. The thing that gets me is that there are people who know jack about computers in general taking the course, don't read any of the material, and wonder why they do so bad in the class. We do about a chapter a week, because my teacher makes us take notes, vocab, and a reflecting paragraph on each chapter, total BS. We've already had 5 people drop out of the class, i was hoping for more. For people that have/are taking the courses fast, did you take the tests online? If so, how well did you do?

<edit> Forgot to mention taking the class helped land me a job at a banking resource center!!
</edit>

 

[nEoTeChMaN]

CCNA only takes about 2-3 months of study time. Just a little more than Network+.

CCNA will look good on your resume.

More info can be found here: CCNA

 

[tim0thy]

<< Last time I checked, there were only a little over 5000 CCIE's in the entire world. This cert is one of the few that has real value. >>



According to Cisco, there are a little under 5500 CCIE's in the entire world as of 12/31/2000. I saw this from their website.

CCNA is basically introduction to Networking. It's more advanced than MS' Networking Essentials and CompTIA's Network+. Doesn't mean it's much more difficult. I can't speak too much of it because I've never taken it, but understand the concepts and you can understand almost everything.

The next level is CCNP and it's 4 more exams on TOP of the CCNA.

CCIE a.k.a. Doctorate of Networking. This is a the test where you are given a written and a lab examination. The lab is two days. The passing rate of this exam is about 10%, and if you pass in 3 times, that's GOOD. I know someone that took it 5 times and failed the lab 5 times. Basically, first day, you implement a network with Cisco products. You leave. They screw up your network. You come in second day, you fix your network while they are still messing with you (you have to fix while answering a telephone and they are still messing with your network).

Good luck. I'll probably be taking my CCNA on top of all the other certs I have accumulated.