I need your advise re CCNA

[trabunco]

i'm a telecoms guy so networking is not really my forte... familiarization is more on nortel dms switch and at&t pabx's...
getting the ccna certification is my plan before the year ends... what do i need if i'll just self study? i'm planning to buy the cisco press 640-607 by odom and also by lammle from amazon.com... is this enough? we have a 2500 switch here in the office for future simulation... i'm afraid i need to have some router simulators softwares 'cause i won't have that much hands on... where can i get these? routersim.com's price is so steep for a beginner...
thanks for your help guys...

 

[rburke]

In terms of books, those are the only two I used in my studies and I passed with flying colors. But, I went ahead and purchased some routers for my own lab, so I'm not sure what sims out there are good, and which aren't. Ususally, you get what you pay for, though....

Burke

 

[wybnormal]

Two ideas... rent some time from an online rack. Some of the racks will offer real time *chat* for one on one mentoring. I use HumanClick(used to be LiveHelp) on my site. Other sites may use something along the same lines. You can buy quite a bit of time given how much a good sim will cost.

Two.. find the local usergroup in your area for Cisco. Alot of times there are study groups to work with and many groups bring mobile labs to the weekly meet&greet

MikeS
Find me at

http://www.packetattack.com

"Take advantage of the enemy's unreadiness, make your way by unexpected routes, and attack unguarded spots."
Sun Tzu

 

[trabunco]

Got it! Thanks!

 

[nakona]

The cisco book and the sybex book do a nice job.

buy the sybex kit that has the e-lab OR buy the RouterSim simulator.

If you buy the RouterSim then just get the CCNP simulator.
You'll need it eventually anyway and of course, it'll work for the simpler CCNA test.

 

[trabunco]

hmmm... i still don't have that much money to buy the routersim. that's why i'm scouting the net for free router simulators

 

[nakona]

Dude...
check e-bay as well as amazon for used stuff.

 

[drewcareyoh]

try r1r2.com. I bought the new RouterSim 3.1 but it was pretty expensive ($349.00). I bought it as a Deluxe CCNA study kit. I saw a post somewhere that

http://www.r1r2.com

offers free router access.