[TriLUG] Getting router experience, CCNA, and equipment

[Ryan Leathers]

I agree.  The CCNA exam is far more about the basic concepts of routing than
about specific commands.  I think it might be possible to pass that exam
without ever actually having seen the Cisco CLI. Still, some of the
questions ARE about CLI knowledge, so if you think you might be less than
perfect on the concepts then knowing IOS basics will be a must.  I think it
would kind of be silly to get the cert and not be comfortable on a router
console anyway, but that's not the same thing as passing an exam is it.

Training path advice: Since I work for Global Knowledge <marketing plug>
blah blah blah </marketing plug>

Hardware for training: I have a couple of crusty old 2500's that would be
fine to train on.  If you are an RTP local and ask nicely off list I'm happy
to hook you up.

Linux for CCNA: well, if you really want to understand whats going on I'd
stick with hardware routers doing the routing and just use Linux for things
like packet capture and terminal access.


-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Thompson [mailto:jimstigator at gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2004 1:11 PM
To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list
Subject: Re: [TriLUG] Getting router experience, CCNA, and equipment


> I am writing to:
> 1. Ask for advice on training path.
> 2. Look for short-term hardware to match training
> path.
> 3. Determine if there is anything on Linux I can do to
> help this.

For the CCNA, it's just my own opinion that you really don't need to
get crazy with hardware purchases. I used the CCNA book from Cisco
press as my primary study guide and the Todd Lammle Sybex guide as a
second reference.

Obviously, hands-on router experience is best (and it sounds like you
have some), but for study purposes for the test you can get by with
the relatively adequate router simulators out there, like the
"e-trainer".  From my own experience, the test was actually more about
network theoreticals/fundamentals than knowing every single "config t"
option.
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