[fkisjjdhh]

Well... i've just had confirmation of my acceptance into the Cisco Networking Academy, and I start my first semester "Networking Fundamentals" on Tuesday.

It's quite overwhelming at the moment, as the course descriptions talk about the target audience being degree students in Math, Science or Engineering, but I never made it past my first year in college! I have almost 8 years experience as a network tech in a secondary school, including installing and configuring a fully functioning LAN Server / Client infrastructure and everything that goes with it...

It says once the course is complete ~1.5 years, I will be ready for the CCNA exam! [thumbup]

Not sure if im "clever" enough to do this, but gonna give it my best shot! Any of you guys in this field? Doing this right now? Any pointers?

Thanks!

[Vitoethiche]

All I can say is good luck. Cisco stuff confuses me which is the reason I'm moving over the the Microsoft side of things.

[Shipsyspeepay]

Do you have any experience with Cisco equipment? Do you have any Cisco equipment you can experiment with at home?

While in College my schedule was messed up pretty bad. In order to get me to graduate in a timely matter, they skipped me past CCNA 1 and put me right into CCNA 2. Luckily I had some Cisco routers available to me and a little experience under my belt. Cisco does have an IOS simulator available on their site after you get enrolled in the course, but having physical equipment in front of you is much better. I rarely used their simulator. At first it was a little tough, but I managed finishing CCNA 2 with an A. I never went beyond that though.

It was through a Cisco certified College in Canada, so it was the Cisco provided course material. It wasn't labeled as Networking Academy though.

If you understand networking and routing now, as well as subnetting, it will start out pretty easy for you. They do teach that kind of material in the course, but existing knowledge in those areas will help you out tremendously.

[fkisjjdhh]

I do work with cisco equipment currently, and know what I consider basic fundamentals of IOS, such as port status checking, running config updating, port enabling/disabling, VLAN configs... and other basics. I also recently resubnetted our existing systems to a class b network as we were on class c, 192.168.0.0 / 255.255.255.0 and running out of IP's, went to 172.16.80.0 / 255.255.248.0, customising the subnet to our requirements. So I would say i have basic knowledge, is this likely to help?

EDIT: I also have a spare 2950 switch and router at work, which I would most likely be able to bring home and work with...

[crestosssa]

The course is mostly online, the questions are multiple choice and it's pretty easy.
I can't imagine why you'd need Degree level maths unless they're making you calculate hexidecimal & binary which I don't remember being part of the course or being particuarly difficult when I did it during BTEC.

Cisco config is fairly easy to pick up and there are some nice virtual routers online to play with.

Don't be intimidated.

[Shipsyspeepay]

I do work with cisco equipment currently, and know what I consider basic fundamentals of IOS, such as port status checking, running config updating, port enabling/disabling, VLAN configs... and other basics. I also recently resubnetted our existing systems to a class b network as we were on class c, 192.168.0.0 / 255.255.255.0 and running out of IP's, went to 172.16.80.0 / 255.255.248.0, customising the subnet to our requirements. So I would say i have basic knowledge, is this likely to help?

EDIT: I also have a spare 2950 switch and router at work, which I would most likely be able to bring home and work with...

That will definitely give you a big jump and really help you along the way. Keep us posted how it goes for you. Good luck.

[Shipsyspeepay]

The course is mostly online, the questions are multiple choice and it's pretty easy.
I can't imagine why you'd need Degree level maths unless they're making you calculate hexidecimal & binary which I don't remember being part of the course or being particuarly difficult when I did it during BTEC.

Cisco config is fairly easy to pick up and there are some nice virtual routers online to play with.

Don't be intimidated.

I hated the multiple choice tests. I don't know if his course will be the same as mine, but we also had a ton of hands on tests. Those you weren't allowed any notes or calculator use. The PC was also locked out so you couldn't use the Internet or calc. We pretty much had a stack of routers, switches, and all the cabling with a sheet telling us what to do. I'm a pretty hands on learner, so I was better at actually setting everything up.

[crestosssa]

I hated the multiple choice tests. I don't know if his course will be the same as mine, but we also had a ton of hands on tests. Those you weren't allowed any notes or calculator use. The PC was also locked out so you couldn't use the Internet or calc. We pretty much had a stack of routers, switches, and all the cabling with a sheet telling us what to do. I'm a pretty hands on learner, so I was better at actually setting everything up.

I did the course when it was new to the UK and my lecturer was a bag of shite, we only got hands on a couple of times and the rest of the lessons I spent wondering why I was wasting my time with it.
I imagine or at least hope it must have changed since then.

I'm also a hands on learner, once I do soemthing it sticks forever, if I read it and don't do the practical it kinda fades into the distant recceses of my memory.

[fkisjjdhh]

Thanks for the heads up and reassuring comments guys, I am intimidated simply because i've never been a particularily "academic" learner, everything I know I taught myself, from a practical point of view, and I'm just concerned I might be just as bad as I was 10 years ago in college lol!

Well... hopefully things have changed!