Cisco, not unlike Microsoft or Novell, has created the certification process to give administrators a set of skills and to equip prospective employers with a way to measure skills or match certain criteria. Becoming a CCNA can be the initial step of a successful journey toward a new, highly rewarding, and sustainable career. The CCNA program was created to provide a solid introduction not only to the Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS) and Cisco hardware, but also to internetworking in general, making it helpful to you in areas that are not exclusively Cisco’s. At this point in the certification process, it’s not unrealistic to imagine that future network managers—even those without Cisco equipment—could easily require Cisco certifications for their job applicants.
If you make it through the CCNA and are still interested in Cisco and internetworking, you’re headed down a path to certain success.
If you make it through the CCNA and are still interested in Cisco and internetworking, you’re headed down a path to certain success.
What Skills Do You Need to Become a CCNA?
To meet the CCNA certification skill level, you must be able to understand or do the following:
- Install, configure, and operate simple-routed LAN, routed WAN, and switched LAN and LANE networks.
- Understand and be able to configure IP, IGRP, IPX, serial, AppleTalk,Frame Relay, IP RIP, VLANs, IPX RIP, Ethernet, and access lists.
- Install and/or configure a network.
- Optimize WAN through Internet-access solutions that reduce bandwidth and WAN costs, using features such as filtering with access lists,bandwidth on demand (BOD), and dial-on-demand routing (DDR).
- Provide remote access by integrating dial-up connectivity with traditional, remote LAN-to-LAN access, as well as supporting the higher levels of performance required for new applications such as Internet commerce, multimedia, etc.
How Do You Become a CCNA?
The first step to becoming a CCNA is to pass one little test and—poof!—you’re a CCNA. (Don’t you wish it were that easy?) True, it’s just one test,but you still have to possess enough knowledge to understand (and read between the lines—trust me) what the test writers are saying.
I can’t stress this enough—it’s critical that you have some hands-on experience with Cisco routers. If you can get ahold of some 2500 routers, you’re set. But if you can’t, we’ve worked hard to provide hundreds of configuration examples throughout this book to help network administrators (or people who want to become network administrators) learn what they need to know to pass the CCNA exam.
One way to get the hands-on router experience you’ll need in the real world is to attend one of the seminars offered by Globalnet Training Solutions,Inc., which is owned and run by me. The seminars are six days long and will teach you everything you need to become a CCNA and even a CCNP. Each student gets hands-on experience by configuring at least two routers and a switch. See www.lammle.com for more information.
In addition, Cyberstate University provides hands-on Cisco router courses over the Internet using the Sybex Cisco Certification series books.Go to www.cyberstateu.com for more information. And Keystone Learning Systems (www.klscorp.com) offers the popular Cisco video certification series featuring me.
If you are new to networking, you should take a look at CCNA JumpStart by Patrick Ciccarelli and Christina Faulkner (Sybex, 1999). This book will give you the background necessary before jumping into more advanced networking with Cisco routers.
Check out this book’s CD for a demo of the Sybex CCNA Virtual Lab etrainer,which can give you hands-on experience working with both routers and switches. You can also check out www.routersim.com for another router simulator.
I can’t stress this enough—it’s critical that you have some hands-on experience with Cisco routers. If you can get ahold of some 2500 routers, you’re set. But if you can’t, we’ve worked hard to provide hundreds of configuration examples throughout this book to help network administrators (or people who want to become network administrators) learn what they need to know to pass the CCNA exam.
One way to get the hands-on router experience you’ll need in the real world is to attend one of the seminars offered by Globalnet Training Solutions,Inc., which is owned and run by me. The seminars are six days long and will teach you everything you need to become a CCNA and even a CCNP. Each student gets hands-on experience by configuring at least two routers and a switch. See www.lammle.com for more information.
In addition, Cyberstate University provides hands-on Cisco router courses over the Internet using the Sybex Cisco Certification series books.Go to www.cyberstateu.com for more information. And Keystone Learning Systems (www.klscorp.com) offers the popular Cisco video certification series featuring me.
If you are new to networking, you should take a look at CCNA JumpStart by Patrick Ciccarelli and Christina Faulkner (Sybex, 1999). This book will give you the background necessary before jumping into more advanced networking with Cisco routers.
Check out this book’s CD for a demo of the Sybex CCNA Virtual Lab etrainer,which can give you hands-on experience working with both routers and switches. You can also check out www.routersim.com for another router simulator.
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