CCNA Home Lab Equipment ?

[adeelmpk]

I am going to stat the CCNA preparation at home using CCNA companion guides and CBT Nuggets, I have read in one of the CF forums that if you can buy the following equipment you can do all the work at home, is this really worthy idea to do CCNA at home this way rather than registering with a CCNA academy (Who are charging a huge amount + they are taking at least 1 year to complete the CCNA, and I personally want it quicker + the course dates/times don't really match with mine) ?

Also is that roughly all you need to complete CCNA 1, 2, 3 & 4 ?

I am going to paste the text from posted forum as following

"
Buy 3 2500s or 2600s and a 2950 switch. Buy Subnet Tutor software. Buy a cable crimper, RJ45 jacks, Cat5 cable. Buy 3 WIC1T cards if you bought the 2600s. Buy 3 back to back serial cables. Buy transcenders CCNA exam test simulator.

And you will be good to go for the CCNA with lots of study.

I wouldn't buy the simulators. I did, but I ended up buying the hardware anyways.
"

[Headache]

The gear sounds about right. Except I'd probably throw in an extra router and a switch. The extra switch will help you understand vlans that much better.

This CCNA part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 business is just too much hassle if you ask me. My advice is to get the one book for the entire syllabus, read it, practice it and then go do the exam in one lump sum.

Anyways. Goodluck, whatever you decide.

[adeelmpk]

Thanks for helping me out, there are a lot of books in the market do you know what book is provides the best support for self studying/Home Lab ? I will prefer to study CISCO syllabus.

[NetEyeBall]

I have the CCNA Acadamy 1, 2, 3, and 4 plus the two exam prep Cisco Press Books. It is hard to beat the Acadamy Books. Nicely laid out and the pages are really nicely printed. Plus it gives you some good background.

To each his own however.

[Headache]

Sybex also comes highly recommended:

http://www.sybex.com/WileyCDA/SybexT...782143148.html

[osiris]

Originally Posted by adeelmpk

I am going to stat the CCNA preparation at home using CCNA companion guides and CBT Nuggets, I have read in one of the CF forums that if you can buy the following equipment you can do all the work at home, is this really worthy idea to do CCNA at home this way rather than registering with a CCNA academy (Who are charging a huge amount + they are taking at least 1 year to complete the CCNA, and I personally want it quicker + the course dates/times don't really match with mine) ?

Also is that roughly all you need to complete CCNA 1, 2, 3 & 4 ?

I am going to paste the text from posted forum as following

"
Buy 3 2500s or 2600s and a 2950 switch. Buy Subnet Tutor software. Buy a cable crimper, RJ45 jacks, Cat5 cable. Buy 3 WIC1T cards if you bought the 2600s. Buy 3 back to back serial cables. Buy transcenders CCNA exam test simulator.

And you will be good to go for the CCNA with lots of study.

I wouldn't buy the simulators. I did, but I ended up buying the hardware anyways.
"

Cisco recommend the two exam way for self study Intro (640-821) and ICND (640-811) thats how I got my CCNA. I would advise you to have more than one point of reference as well, none of them are perfect and I prefered the Sybex Intro book to the Cisco Press. But for some reason Sybex do not do a ICND book (maybe they do now)I found the Boson simulator to be excellent. The worst simulator I experienced was in the Cisco Exams I found the one in the ICND exam unusable the problem may be with Thompson Prometric but I still managed to pass with 93% (pass mark for CCNA exams about 85%)