<div class="IPBDescription">Comon, whos in it?</div> I took it both semesters last year, passed...but due to some circumstances, ill be taking 3 and 4 next year.
I was originally going to do it but I opted for another course. Apparantly the college has good ties with Cisco or something like that but so far all I have seen Netgear equipment <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I should be finishing up the CCNP curriculum this semester. 2 years ago if you'd have told me that I would be aiming for a career in networking, I would have laughed. Now I now way more than I ever wanted to know...
I'm in the middle of the fourth semester of the CCNA at the moment. I don't honestly find the course very good. They cram a lot of information down your throat but generally neglect the practical side of things. So basically I can tell you the ins and outs of a switch or router and it's protocols, or spout of some useless acronyms, but if I was to sit down and try to configure a router, I'd have some trouble.
<!--QuoteBegin-:: Daedalus ::+Sep 9 2004, 03:13 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (:: Daedalus :: @ Sep 9 2004, 03:13 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> I'm in the middle of the fourth semester of the CCNA at the moment. I don't honestly find the course very good. They cram a lot of information down your throat but generally neglect the practical side of things. So basically I can tell you the ins and outs of a switch or router and it's protocols, or spout of some useless acronyms, but if I was to sit down and try to configure a router, I'd have some trouble. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> That's EXACTLY what I hated about Cisco, all reading/learning boring networking stuff, but in the end I only got a few times to actually configure a router...and that I found better than sleeping errrr LISTENING to my teacher and trying to learn my lessons...
<!--QuoteBegin-Zaggy+Sep 9 2004, 06:20 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Zaggy @ Sep 9 2004, 06:20 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin-:: Daedalus ::+Sep 9 2004, 03:13 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (:: Daedalus :: @ Sep 9 2004, 03:13 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> I'm in the middle of the fourth semester of the CCNA at the moment. I don't honestly find the course very good. They cram a lot of information down your throat but generally neglect the practical side of things. So basically I can tell you the ins and outs of a switch or router and it's protocols, or spout of some useless acronyms, but if I was to sit down and try to configure a router, I'd have some trouble. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> That's EXACTLY what I hated about Cisco, all reading/learning boring networking stuff, but in the end I only got a few times to actually configure a router...and that I found better than sleeping errrr LISTENING to my teacher and trying to learn my lessons... <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> I'm taking it at a Tech school so I don't have that problem. We configure routers ALL THE TIME. In fact one of our instructors makes a point of ignoring the results of the stupid (and extreemly flawed) online Cisco tests, and focuses all grading based on hands on tests. Its probably not even worth taking such corses if you don't get much handson experience with the equipment, how else are you to learn all the nuances (like the fact that cisco routers will NAT their NAT outside interface, even though it is clearly stated as being outside and there is no concievable purpose in NATing it (indeed, it breaks everything), unless you tell them not to. Or that caches do funny things and that strange behavior is often miraculously cured by simply reloading the router. Or that its very easy to accidentally put an X25 cable in upsidedown...I mean, your not really learning anything if you don't get to to touch this stuff...
They had the cisco networking course listed for my highschool, and they also had a nice big bolded <b>NOT OFFERED FOR 2004 - 2005 SCHOOL YEAR</b> beside it. Same thing with the microsoft certifacation courses, due to my school not being able to afford enough computers able to handle Windows XP or something.
Instead, we have one grade 11/12 computer science course, since neither grades had enough students for their own class, and we're learning java. We learn java on some pretty Windows 95 machines with 64mb of ram, so it takes roughly 70 seconds to compile 35 lines of code, in Jcreator.
Yay for schools who can't afford 10 or 15 decent computers, but can afford 6 new hitting bags for the football team! (which cost about $1,200 a piece)
That_Annoying_KidSire of TitlesJoin Date: 2003-03-01Member: 14175Members, Constellation
edited September 2004
I took four semesters of CCNA, but the class kinda fell apart due to the school districts meddling, and so I'm going to take semester four over again
[edit] I agree with zaggy, we had that same problem as well, not to mention cisco changed the damn curriculum after we got down with the second semester [/edit]
That_Annoying_KidSire of TitlesJoin Date: 2003-03-01Member: 14175Members, Constellation
I have the latest version of the offical cisco book, retails for about 60 bucks and it's pretty much the curiculum on paper, but it's actually was helpfull, try buying it used
Comments
That's EXACTLY what I hated about Cisco, all reading/learning boring networking stuff, but in the end I only got a few times to actually configure a router...and that I found better than sleeping errrr LISTENING to my teacher and trying to learn my lessons...
That's EXACTLY what I hated about Cisco, all reading/learning boring networking stuff, but in the end I only got a few times to actually configure a router...and that I found better than sleeping errrr LISTENING to my teacher and trying to learn my lessons... <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'm taking it at a Tech school so I don't have that problem. We configure routers ALL THE TIME. In fact one of our instructors makes a point of ignoring the results of the stupid (and extreemly flawed) online Cisco tests, and focuses all grading based on hands on tests. Its probably not even worth taking such corses if you don't get much handson experience with the equipment, how else are you to learn all the nuances (like the fact that cisco routers will NAT their NAT outside interface, even though it is clearly stated as being outside and there is no concievable purpose in NATing it (indeed, it breaks everything), unless you tell them not to. Or that caches do funny things and that strange behavior is often miraculously cured by simply reloading the router. Or that its very easy to accidentally put an X25 cable in upsidedown...I mean, your not really learning anything if you don't get to to touch this stuff...
Instead, we have one grade 11/12 computer science course, since neither grades had enough students for their own class, and we're learning java. We learn java on some pretty Windows 95 machines with 64mb of ram, so it takes roughly 70 seconds to compile 35 lines of code, in Jcreator.
Yay for schools who can't afford 10 or 15 decent computers, but can afford 6 new hitting bags for the football team! (which cost about $1,200 a piece)
[edit]
I agree with zaggy, we had that same problem as well, not to mention cisco changed the damn curriculum after we got down with the second semester
[/edit]