Hi everyone, want to know more about Commsupport Network

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Hello friends,

This is my 1st posting. I am glad to see a lot of people put a lot of valuable info on this forum. Thanks to cerForums for this facility.

I want to take a course in Cisco CCNA and after that CCNP and looking to get a good training provider. I read Commsupport Network's website and it seems quite good and comperative cheap as well. But I would like to know if any of you guys have any experience with commsupport. Your thoughts will be very much appreciated.

thanks.

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Hi there and welcome to CF

How much IT experience do you have?

 

Hello and Welcome to CF.

I have not heard of Commsupport, but if you type the name under the search option on this forum you might find something. Alternative - you could go the self study route like a lot of the members here

 

Hi there,

I went on the CCNA course with commsupport in the summer and was very very disappointed.


Level of equipment was fine, but you had to supply our own laptop (which he told me a week before start).

Every 10 - 15 minutes he would answer his phone and we seemed to have a very lot of breaks, (Joe the owner/trainer was always going out for a cigarette or with his phone).

Room was flipping freezing, everyone complained.

Course promised a lot of break and fix, but it only happened once - at the end of the day.

And the last day was a waste as the IPSec lab would not even work - day wasted.

Mostly power point presentation.



My advise is to look up Chris Bryant at www.thebryantadvantage.com


You will not be disappointed, I promise you.

 

He looks weird, how much does this bloke charge I bet its a rip off, and this sounds like spam.

 

$67 if you buy it today GBL!! Quick! don't be late... you can learn how to be a CCNA for less than the cost of an MS exam.

 

ahhh sh*t can't find the credit card god damm it

 

It's not a scam, go to TechExams.Net Forum and ask them in there about the course, (it's my usual forum).

Or just do a little research!

How can this be spam if I am offering my opinions on 2 courses that I have spent my money on.

1 good 1 bad!!!

Wasn't this the point of forums, or and the title of this thread!!!!!

 

I agree... good techies always do research... and I did.

You haven't even introduced yourself in the New Members area... that's bad manners in my book...

You launched into a thread, telling us how that we "will not be disappointed, I promise you"... if anything sounded like a sales pitch, the that was it... and you told us the same thing in another thread...

So... if you were me, and you were looking at a couple of posts from someone just popping onto your forum who hadn't even introduced themselves, what would your initial reaction be?

Happy to start again... post your intro on the New Members Area and tell us a bit about yourself.

GiddyG

 

exactly

 

Yeah the bloke looks a little weird, although I'd sign up if the women on the right was a tutor!!

 

Heya and Welcome to CF!

Becki x

 

Hello Everyone

I have read the comments about commsupport.

As the owner and senior instructor at commsupport I was disappointed to read that a certain student was not happy, I always make it a point to ask on regular basis during the course if everything is OK, are we making sense?, do we need to cover material again?, objections should be raised then during the course, so that we can look into them, complaining 6 months after does not benefit either party.

We run break fixes on a regular basis, after almost every lab, but we can't continue break / fix if the student finishes the lab late and we have to move on, we are limited in time.

I will admit that my phone did ring during the course, that has been dealt with now, last year I was running the outfit single handed, and had to answer the phone once in a while but more often than not I ignored it, we now have admin staff that take the calls. Commsupport in the summer was only 6 months old and was going through growing pains and I was trying to get the formula right, sometimes it was not quite right but now the company has settle into a steady routine, we have 4 instructors and admin staff at Commsupport, so not more running around and answering phones.

During the summer it could not have been freezing, the room was if anything hot rather than "freezing", the IPSEC lab is optional, plus we did not start running practical IPSEC labs until October 2007. IPSEC practical is an additional subject not required as part of the CCNA, if the LAB did not work it is not due to the kit.

Laptops are required to be supplied by the student, this is made clear when students book onto the course, at the price we charge one has to be realistic at what we are going to provide in terms of computers for the student. We also had back in the summer 4 laptops that we kept for instances were the student did not have their own machine.

We do take regular breaks, every 45mins, we rather do this than teach 4 hours straight.

The student that had the issues had the chance to raise his objections during the time on the course and they would have been addressed. I can only apologise if his experience was not what he expected and would invite him back onto the course at for free if he contacts us, I can't say fairer than that.

During the one year that we have been established we have had over 300 students pass through our doors and have only had "one" official complaint regarding the course and that person came forward also after the course and we got him back on the course.

We offer potential students the oppertunity to attend the classes before they book for a trail lesson, they can stay all day, this the point were they decide if we are good enough.

We have recently added the offer of "free one day" courses at the moment so that potential students can make up their minds if we are the right outfit for them.

Once again I invite the student that had the issues to come forward to offer him a free place on the course.

Many thanks

Joe

 

Hi Welcome Joe

I'd like to know wether you tell prospective students studying for the CCNA that they should have working experience of Cisco in a job berfore attempting the exams as this can be a let down when someone has no experience and goes for a job expecting to given free reign over the network because they have the cert.

We have had so many people join CF saying I've got my CCNA or MCSE but no experience and no one will give me a job. There is a simple reason for this, if you do tell your students this then good on you but if you don't then you could be letting them believe something they shouldn't.

 

Good points, well made GBL...

Joe, you mention that you let possible pupils sit in for free so they know if you're good enough; however, do you test them or check them to make sure that their knowledge is sufficient to allow them to complete the course and get that 'all important' certification? If you don't, and you let them on a course, then that surely gives them false expectations.

Oh, and feel free to introduce yourself in the New Members Area...

 

Hello.

Right you lot, pull up a chair and make yourself comfortable, this a long one!!

The points that you chaps raised are very valid, in the sense that should you have real world on the job Cisco/Networking experience before you attempt the CCNA exam or not, it is a chicken and egg story. I would say yes of course real world on the job helps, but what if you don’t have any what do you do to get yourself up to a level that you can pass the exam?, well you have a few options open to you, none of which are totally exclusive of another:

TO PASS THE EXAM
A. You can either choose to do home study from manuals, and supplement it with CBT’s, I have done this myself and requires a lot of discipline and hard work and hats off to others that have managed it, but I am always aware that I will only hold a paper qual until I use the skills in anger on the job

B. You can buy a pile of kit from ebay and use that to help make sense of what manuals are teaching or get a sim.

C. Go on a course and use it to tie the manuals and CBT’s together to make sense of everything.

TO GET A J.O.B
If you want to get into I.T and have no experience how do I start or were do I start, well you have to start somewhere, so how do I get into I.T with little or no experience or the knowledge, will a prospective employer look at me if:

Q. If I have no experience and no quals
A. No way will anyone look at you, let alone let you touch their kit.

Q. No real world experience, but a paper qualification
A. They will at least call you in for an interview, then it is up to you to hold it together in the interview, if the interviewer is serious and is impressed with your knowledge they will put you through the “practical” test, which involves placing a pile of kit in front of you and asking you to demonstrate what you can do, i.e add vlans. Configure spanning tree, enable routing protocols, and if they are really cruel start introducing faults into the kit for you to figure out.
If the prospective employer does not do this “practical” test then they are either incompetent or negligent, and I can’t stress this enough we can't do anything about nerves, lord knows I've fluffed interviews due to nerves even though I could have done the job blindfolded

Q. Real world experience but not qualification.
A. From what I have seen and in my experience, unless you know people in the industry then you stand little chance as you have no qualifications.
Qualifications are a benchmark and only that, they will get you into the door for an interview, they will not keep you there, what will keep you in the job is if you can do it based on your knowledge of networks and ability to understand what’s going on, and that can only be gained if you are prepared to work hard and ask questions, no shame in asking questions on the job, rather do that and get it right than chance it and kill a network.

I have friends that have no quals and could bury CCIE's on a daily basis, they managed to get lucky and find people that took a chance with them many years ago and they have worked hard at climbing that ladder. I am aware that this option is not one to be relied on.

Testing each and every student before they sign up, that’s a good point, want sort of test would you chaps suggest? I will have a look into that, nice idea. (No royalties expected I hope).

I have turned people away from the course on the basis that they had absolutely no I.T experience, they had just stumbled across “ads” promising £36k for newly qualified CCNA’s, and think all they have to do is sit one exam and BAM!!!, they are rolling around town in a 911, smoking cigars, wearing fur coats, and walking side-ways

I have had people come on the course and do well despite having had no experience, despite me warning them that they will find it hard, hey even I am wrong sometimes

Ultimately we are all big boys and girls and can make that final choice to do or not to do a course with a company, mine or some other company, and we will not hold anyones hand and cuddle them if they are finding it hard because they had some rose tinted view of networking being an easy subject, it’s not easy, but I will explain the concepts again and again and again until they are sick of my voice. We are a hardcore training school and are building a reputation of driving our students hard and demand 100% from everyone.

We always recommend that if someone does not have any experience that they go start with the network+ book then get back to me, we cannot afford to have a class full of students that have I.T experience and one person that does not, it holds the class back and annoys the other students.

To be honest, if student books onto the week long course, despite our advice that the weeklong course should only be attempted by people that have I.T background then they must then prepare themselves, the student can ask for the manuals to be sent to them in advance for them to read, and we also supply a network sim for free for them to use, alternatively we suggest that they buy some cisco kit, (Will can advise which kit to get) we don’t expect people to know the manuals inside out but at least be familiar with the basic terms and basic command lines so that they are not completely confused by the time they come on the course.

The basic point is that if a student comes onto the Sunday to Friday course with no I.T knowledge they will suffer. Full stop, they will have been warned to this effect.

I always suggest new comers to networking that if they really want to do the CCNA that they sign up for the weekend courses that run across 6 straight Sundays, so that they will have the whole week to review and practice want they have learnt (They practice the CLI and networking on the sims that we supply on the course), across six weeks they are not as pressured as across 6 solid days.

I always tell the student that if they want to get into I.T they have to start somewhere, the harsh reality is that nobody will even look at them if they don’t hold that piece of paper saying “CCNA”, I also tell my students that when are going for a job and they are up against another newly qualified CCNA they will stand a better chance, why?, because we beast them during the break/fixes, the only way to learn is to fix things.

I also tell them that the first jobs that they can expect to get in network based on the CCNA will pay between £18k and £25k, that they will not be building international networks for multinational banks and they will not be let loose on anyone’s network with card blanche, I don’t fill my students with false hopes of job guarantees, or exam success, I give them the real picture, I give 100% they put in 100%, ultimately no one is going to give you a job if you have nothing to show that you are committed in the slightest way, and that means starting with demonstrating that you have committed yourself by the way of self study and or going on a course and passing the exam.

I always advise the students that they are firstly the only one that can judge if they are ready for the exam, I always stress to them the exam is just a piece of paper and that they ought to focus in understanding the protocols and operation of the equipment, once they do that then passing the exam will not be an issue.

I advise my students that they must be proactive in seeking employment, that they even offer themselves up for work experience for free for a couple of weeks or months if they afford it, even the suggestion to a potential employer that they are prepared to work for free will make then sit up see that they have someone that is serious, remember; if you put nothing in you will get nothing out, employers are looking at every penny at the moment and want people that are 100% committed.

We recognise that where does the student get the initial experience so we have started the “LABRAT” program, we are looking for CCNA qualified people to come and become classroom assistants, two per class, and there is a 3 hour break fix session before you will be allowed to become a LABRAT. A LABRAT will help the other students during labs and other general Cisco duties, (You will not be asked to do anything such as wash-up or hoover, I am the chief bottle washer and bin emptier I earned that position) This is work experience that the LABRAT can put on their C.V

We help the students as much as we can, but we can only lead a horse to water!

Many thanks

Joe

 

Whilst I agree with some of what you said, I dissagree about a prospective employee getting an interview because he has the CCNA cert. There are people (members) here who do recruit new IT tech/network admins etc and some when they see a cv with a cert like CCNA or MCSE but no actuall experience will bin the CV immediatley.

A cert of any kind does not mean you can do the job, it only shows you have the potential of being able to do the job and the basic theory behind that job.

 

I agree with you 100% GBL that just holding a paper qual does not mean you know what you are doing.

but the worst thing you can do is do nothing and you have to start somewhere, before we can run we have to learn to walk, either we all sit at home claiming the sky is falling or we do something, an employer faced with two C.V's one with a CCNA and one without a CCNA (and no experience), he might bin both, but he will bin the “No CCNA” first.

We train people the best of our abilities, because they want to get into I.T or further themselves if they are already in I.T.

I am not saying that all you need is a CCNA, I am merely saying that one of the things you need is the CCNA, and this is the service that I am providing. We are one piece of the puzzle, not the complete puzzle and we do not claim to be. We are above all honest with our students. Like I said, we are all big boys and girls and should research the potential job prospects.

The other things that the individual needs is up to them to get.

We understand the difficulty in getting experience for a new comer, that is why we have introduced the "LABRAT" program

Cheers

Joe

 

At least we are agreed that experience is the key

 

Yes, that's right, you got some of that then you are laughing, alternatively if you have contacts in the industry.

If you have neither you have to start somewhere, one way or another, you have to start that first step, which ever route that maybe