CCNA exam books

[scap]

I am tring to prepare for my CCNA. i am in the Cisco program and will be finishing shortly. I am wondering what books people have used to prepare and which were most useful. Also i have seen a elab program has anyone tried this and what are your thoughts on it.

[Josh]

Originally posted by scap
I am tring to prepare for my CCNA. i am in the Cisco program and will be finishing shortly. I am wondering what books people have used to prepare and which were most useful. Also i have seen a elab program has anyone tried this and what are your thoughts on it.

I was in the cisco ccna program last year and am currently working on my ccnp. i would personally recommend ccip prep disk, it has very good questions in it. i also used wendel odum's book to prepare. **warning this book is very dry reading and he uses the word nuances about three hundred and forty-seven times, but ALL the information you need and some CCNP stuff is included as well**

good luck in your prepartion,

Josh

[rugby]

I used the Wendel Odom book by Cisco Press and the Todd Lammle book by SYbex. They compliment each other well.

Josh, I just finished my CCNP-switching exam a while ago and am currently studying for my routing exam (gotta brush up bigtime). DO you have a good lab to work with?

[Josh]

Originally posted by rugby
I used the Wendel Odom book by Cisco Press and the Todd Lammle book by SYbex. They compliment each other well.

Josh, I just finished my CCNP-switching exam a while ago and am currently studying for my routing exam (gotta brush up bigtime). DO you have a good lab to work with?

Hi rugby,

thankfully I take my CCNP classes at a community college which is a member of the cisco academy. the equipment that i have access to consists of two CCNA labs of 10 2500 series routers and some 2900 series switches. the CCNP lab consists of 10 2600 series routers and some 4000 series switches.

since we are the first CCNP class there are only thirteen people in the class. i pretty much have my own rack of three 2600 series routers and two 2900 series switches to work on. i pretty much consider my tuition as a fee to be able to use equipment, since that is how you really learn this stuff.

good luck with the routing exam. i'm currently working on ospf in a single area and going to do multiple areas next week. i'm hopeing to take the test in dec/jan, but i really need to put my studying into high gear though. how was the switching test? i'm pretty weak when it comes to switches, but i'm looking forward to learning about multicasting and layer3 switching.

Josh

[rugby]

Josh, It sounds like you've got some good rack time. I personally own 2-2501's, 1-2503,1-2524, 1-2924M-EX-EN (switch), 1-2509 (on it's way) and an AGS+ router (also on it's way). In class I work on mostly 2500's with some 2600's, a few cat 5k's (definitely need for switching exam), and an ISDN simulator (really cool)

For switching you need to know 2 sets of commands cold. The Cisco IOS and the Set IOS. The 4000's run the Set IOS don't they? I haven't used one, only cat 5's. I had some of the squirreliest questions regarding the Set IOS I couldn't believe it. I did pass, although I was convinced I hadn't.

Do you recommend any good books? I recommend Routing TCP/IP by Doyle and Bridging, routing, switching for CCIE's by Caslow. Combine those two books and you have a great reference set.

Multicasting? HA! I've listened to many people talk about multicasting and they all begin with, "I'm no expert on multicasting, however..." It's the kind of stuff that blows minds apart and leaves them for dead. Very interesting stuff indeed, but VERY difficult to imagine with out current thinking processes. Again, pick up the two books above and you'll have a great knowledge base.

Cheers!