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Education

Open Source Cisco Certification Study Aids? 12

Posted by Cliff from the acing-that-certification-exam dept.
phee asks: "I'm trying to get my CCNA. I have some Cisco hardware (a PIX, switches, T1), but no routers to play with. Router knowledge is a big part of the CCNA exam, so I've been looking for router simulators. All the ones I can find are very commercial and very Only-For-Windows(tm). Anyone know of any open source simulators that work in Xwindows or text mode even? There's just no substitute for hands-on experience... " If such simulators don't exist, how about online study-guides or Web pages that talk about such information?
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Open Source Cisco Certification Study Aids? More

Open Source Cisco Certification Study Aids?

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  • Do you have access to the online course?
    I'm asking this because it includes a nice little java router sim for doing the lab parts...
    And by looking at the necessary config on their site netscape 4.61 is compatible, so Linux shouldn't be a problem...
    Quentin
  • In fact, for me it's actually free...
    It's included in my school's program.

    It's cool because I would pay the $$$ for it...

    BTW Good luck!

  • Well hey, if it works, I'll gladly use it... :) But I'm not in any course, there is no instructor; I'm a book learner. I have the Exam Cram(tm) and the official CCNA exam guide; that's it. And neither of those includes a sim for any platform... they just say "Get a router and play with it." Useless...


    "The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness."

  • Noooo, no online course for me. Have to go the cheap route. Cheap business, cheap routes. :/

    Unless it's a free online course? HAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA....... sorry...


    "The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness."
  • I read the exam cram book and took the test. Very indepth.
    I also bought 3 routers and a switch from ebay, which is the best way to get your hands into the stuff. It takes money to make money afterall..
  • Cisco provides a demo [cisco.com] of their CCNA course.
    It looks like a combination of the First and Second year of the Cisco Netacademy which I'm taking now. About $800 per semester (total of four) gets you an 8 hour class on Sunday for 10 weeks (same course provided to High Schools that participate but for free). I get a chance to work hands-on with routers so I think its worth the price so far, but waking up 7:00am on Sunday is a bitch.
  • InformIT has just partnered with Cisco to create a website of Cisco information. I haven't plumbed the depths of the site, but it does look promising, though it does have the InformIT curse (here's 3 chapters, now give us a bunch of dough for the rest).

    http://www.knowcisco.com/ [knowcisco.com]

    Maybe it's worth a look. The Cisco site also has a lot of the manuals for their hardware. Not as good as hands on by any means, but maybe worth a look.

  • Hiya,

    Im reposting this as it looks like the admins are busy (and I now have my password so this should be generally visible without altering your threshold)

    Check out the newsgroup alt.certification.cisco [alt.certification.cisco] - lots of stuff gets put on there.

    In the mean time theres a good free CCNA study guide on www.masontech.com [masontech.com].

    Keep an eye on http://www.routerfaq.net/ - thats where Ill be putting up the alt.certification.cisco faq - I had to take down www.cisco-help.net before getting into trouble (cisco is apparently cracking down on web sites using their name in the domain).

    If anyone wants to help put together some study guides for the faq site please get in contact - its going to be a community effort - email me at the address below. Please dont email me asking for wares or help with cert's - I get enough of those as it is - info will be on the website next Monday/Tuesday if all goes well.

    (oh and posting wares requests etc. to the group is a good way to get flamed too - if you are into that sort of thing go to alt.binaries.cbts or alt.binaries.warez.educational)

    TTFN
    Lauren
    lauren@laurenchild.net [mailto] (Go digital divas!)


    --
    Lauren Child, lauren@laurenchild.net [mailto]

  • So far my only luck has been in schmoozing the instructor for a copy of cisco's sim.
  • I am taking a modified version of the Cisco Academy right now as a part of some graduate work in internetworking. The course (by Cisco) with its Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) is phenomenal. Their updated version 2.1 has great sims that blow your mind when you actually work on the routers and realize that you are already familiar with them based on your previous experience with the sims.

    I also have CCNA Exam Notes by Todd Lammie (as I too will be taking the test later this summer) and I am quite impressed with it. I haven't checked out the CD-ROM yet, but it is so thorough, that I think I could pass the test (based on the ones I have been taking as a part of Cisco Acad) without even touching a router.

    Note: I would not try this with the CCNP or CCIE as they have hands-on portions included in the test (from my limited understanding). Hopefully, your CCNA will open up a door to a position in a company that will pay for further training/training aids.

    Good luck with your studies, everyone.
  • I have ran into the same situation..interested in seeing if anyone has anything.
  • Search dejanews.com for 'cisco lab' or similar, in news:comp.dcom.sys.cisco - this is a frequent question.

    You can rent time on Internet-accessible router labs - not cheap, but may be OK in the short term. Alternatively, maybe you could club together with some other people learning about Cisco and buy a basic lab for use over the Internet by club members?

    A few second hand 2500s between 10 people would not be too bad, as long as the hosting club member had always-on Internet access and a Linux box (from which to telnet into routers and run other tools). Comp.dcom.sys.cisco has quite a few of these for sale - just make sure they have enough RAM and flash to run interesting versions of IOS 12.0. You can cut the cost by buying low-RAM versions and buying commodity (or even Kingston) memory to upgrade them.

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