CCNA this year

I haven't taken the new test, I had mine like 6ish years ago. Back then, my advie would have been to buy a router or get a simulator (boson used to have a good one) and just run through simulations/scenarios like constantly. Subnetting is pretty easy once you get it down, and they give you a dry erase board when you sit down that you can brain dump a chart on to. Don't spend too much time on stuff like that, spend more time on the practical shit that will not only teach you the fundamentals but prepare you for the simulation on the exam. Which, at least back then, is where most people choked.

GNS3 on Linux is excellent if you cannot get access to the Cisco Packetshaper (or whatever it's called) one. It lets you build up virtual networks by configuring up routers etc then run simulations (pull a cable, break BGP etc.)

You'll need to get an IOS firmware pack from a torrent site.

A colleague managed to pick up a small lab from eBay when he did his. Think it was about $400 in total but came with a couple end of life cisco routers, switches and all the cables needed.
I think these days for $400 you could prolly pay someone to teach you everything though.

Testking is King. If you're able to find the pdfs, the exams become a joke. That's the way it was in 2003 anyway...

I would second GNS3.

I would also second brain dumps. I used to look down on brain dumps, but then I realized some of the questions are just silly / ambiguous and screw failing a test because of stupid random crap. Now, this was 6 years ago so the test material may be more relevant to modern times rather than caring about ISDN and such.

Here is a great wealth of information:
CCNA / CCENT Forums

One key thing to look out for is that Cisco changed their CCENT and CCNA exams less than a year ago. Make sure you are purchasing the latest and greatest test materials. The new exams are:

100-101 ICND1 (CCENT) + 200-101 ICND2 (CCNA R&S) = Two Exam Method
or
200-120 (CCNA R&S) = One Exam Method

Personally, I going the two exam route. It just breaks the material up a bit more. I purchased the following two books from Amazon by universal recommendation from the TechExams Forum:
Amazon.com: CCENT Study Guide: Exam 100-101 (ICND1) (9781118749685): Todd Lammle: Books
Amazon.com: CCENT ICND1 100-101 Official Cert Guide and Simulator Library (9781587204678): Wendell Odom, Sean Wilkins: Books

The second book link comes with Lab Sims, hence the price.

Friday_sl said:

Set a goal for myself to get my CCNA: Routing & Switching this year.

Been doing a few hours a day learning various stuff like subnet masking.

Anyone have any resources / advice / tips and previous experience to share?

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Get cisco packet tracer

try for pirate bay first before buying legit

HR Departments (in the UK at least) bundle all CV's they receive into one big pot, then filter out on specific keywords. One of those is usually like CCNA / CCNP.

In my experience from hiring system / networking engineers, I don't really care about CCNA because the qualification lost nearly all credibility around 2004-2006. I'm happy if someone says "Real world experience with Cisco IOS devices" and then names a couple of models they've worked with.

However the HR departments are typically told if they get alot of candidates for a role to use some arbitrary way of filtering out people, and the professional qualifications are one way they use.

TL;DR - CCNA rarely makes you a better networking guy, but if you don't have it and someone else does you're likely to not get a chance.

Just to add I haven't seen CCNA recently, it may have over gone overhauls in recent years or at the very least the many websites which literally had every question they use are no longer relevent.

If anyone has re-certified in the last two years I'd love to hear their experience.

Scaffa_sl said:

Just to add I haven't seen CCNA recently, it may have over gone overhauls in recent years or at the very least the many websites which literally had every question they use are no longer relevent.

If anyone has re-certified in the last two years I'd love to hear their experience.

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There is a hell of lot more Sim based questioning mixed with the old school multiple choice. The biggest factor is always time management. You can get caught up in the Sim work and run out of time to complete the exam.

Like others have said, CCNA is just another bullet to get you on the top of the stack of resumes.

Does you job have a Professional Development department? We have skillport and it has almost every industry cert in it - it is classes, lessions, test preps the whole 9 yards to get you ready just to take the cert test itself, and they are verified cources so if any cert tests have class time/work prereqs they are met (dont we miss the 90's early 2k where you just walk into a test center, take a A+ test etc a few times and get a cert...bah now you have to like take classes!)

Check out what your PD department (if you have one) has available- their cources is what our Corporate Training center locally uses to teach all of those certs, they just have a teacher present the materials to you.

These are some pretty good study tools

https://www.transcender.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/danscourses

Adebisi_sl said:

Serious question: how valuable is CCNA in the job market these days

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It's a definite "take a look at this guy" but not a "you're hired!" type of cert. Beyond that, I know when I took all my certs back in the day, CCNA was the one that really actually helped understand the fundamentals of what was going on and that knowledge extended into other areas. Knowing why a device can't be seen two subnets away is useful information.