Reddit reviews CCNA Routing and Switching 200-125 Official Cert Guide Library

Absolutely! Anything to help out others!

I used lots of different sources. Below are what seemed to help me the most.

Kevin Wallace's Videos give the best explanations: https://www.kwtrain.com/

Laz Diaz's Udemy Course gives great packet tracer labs: https://www.udemy.com/cisco-ccna-200-125-the-complete-course/ (DO NOT pay full price for this course. There are discounts ALL THE TIME that are 90% or more off. I paid $10)

The best subnetting video available in my opinion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs39FWDhzDs

Practice subnetting on https://subnettingpractice.com. Using Laz's chart method above I was able to do most of the questions here in under 30 seconds with practice. Helped a ton.

The Official Cisco Press CCENT book by Odem: https://www.amazon.com/Routing-Switching-200-125-Official-Library/dp/1587205815/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=ccna+book&qid=1554763617&s=gateway&sr=8-3

Cisco press has a book: 31 Days Before CCNA which can help with study/review schedule and topic breakdown.

For more study material, Todd Lammle’s CCNA book Amazon is a good read, the Official Cert Guide by Wendell Odom is very detailed and can be a bit dry.

Best of luck in your studies!

Nice commitment! but take one step at a time friend!

Start with the OCG (official cert guide). It has the 2 books for the 2 part exams. This will be your bible! Everything is in there!

Also consider Udemy for a few video guides. Chris Bryant videos are often recomended.

Later, you can decide if you need a few exam simulations (Boson is highly recomended) and additional video training (CBTNuggets also often recommended)

Hope this helps!

The CCNA can be taken a few different ways. As 2 exams (ICND1 and ICND2) or 1 exam (CCNAX). The combined exam is mostly for re-certification and for people that have been in a Cisco networking role for a while. Beginners should take the 2 test route. It is only $5 more expensive and will be much easier than the 1 test path.



Taking an instructor-lead class is going to be a crap-shoot. How good it is and how well it prepares you for the exam are ENTIRELY dependant on the instructor. Plus in-person classes are usually expensive. Self-study, in my opinion, is the way to go for almost every certification.


You should always use multiple resources to prepare for any exam. I recommend the following for the CCNA:



Pick up the Wendel Odom OCG (Official Certifiaction Guide). You can get it on Amazon for around $40 for both the INCD1 and INCD2 books. You can also get the /u/lammle book for around $30 on Amazon. The Odom book is considered very dry and hard to read, but has more information and goes deeper into the subjects than the Lammle book does. I personally do not have a problem with the Odom book and have readt it all the way through.



You should also get a video course. There are tons out there (CBT Nuggets, ITPro.TV, INE, Kevin Wallace, etc.). I recommend Chris Bryant's course on Udemy. It usually costs around $12 and is extremely good for the price.



You also need a lab of some kind. The most recommended would be a Hardware lab (with real Cisco routers and switches), GNS3, or Packet Tracer. Obviously a hardware lab is going to be expensive (probably around $300 for a basic one). I use Packet Tracer and while it has it's flaws and limitations it seems to be good enough for the CCNA. On top of that it is FREE. GNS3 is also free but requires that you have your own IOS images to run in it (which are not free unless you go a less-than-legal route to aquire them). There is also INE's lab and Cisco's VIRL but they are very expensive and VIRL requires a pretty beefey machine to run.



Read a book, watch a video course, and lab EVERY concet you can. If you really get stuck and can't figure something out or don't understand something after researching it yourself, come post here and ask. We are always willing to help.

Absolutely. I did have a leg up in that sales really helped me to hone my social/communication skills, so I was confident once I got an interview somewhere.

But start building a home lab, tinkering, and learning now - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1587205815/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_CgmmDbD770ACA
There might be a better resource, but this is how I passed my first exam.

Initiative seems to be well regarded in this field.

I got this job, which is WAY more than I was led to believe was possible for essentially a first time IT job, with the most basic Cisco cert. I worked with a few recruiting agencies and found a good fit, then they helped me get this interview. Offered the job the next day. Which is to say it's more than doable, and honestly, avoid helpdesk if you can, especially if you're looking at networking. Look for NOC analyst or tech. Hope this helps at all. Good luck, and if you have questions down the road, feel free to ask and hopefully I can answer them!

You're looking for books that cover "Exam 100-105 & Exam 200-105" or "Exam 200-125 (combined exam)".

Odom
https://www.amazon.com/Routing-Switching-200-125-Official-Library/dp/1587205815/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482616909&sr=8-1&keywords=ccna+library

Lammie
https://www.amazon.com/Routing-Switching-Complete-Study-Guide/dp/1119288282/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1482616937&sr=8-2&keywords=200-125+ccna

I'm currently using Odom's book. It's a bit heavy in context but once I got used to it after a few chapters its been great.

Thank you for the very detailed reply. Where does VMware and other virtualization fit into that as well if you don't mind, a lot of the entry jobs around here will probably be dealing with that as I'm near a port city and heavy industry is huge here. Everything they do is on VMware usually to train their employees, etc. Is a CCNA/CCNP cert going to cover most of the bases on virtualization? They also just opened an Amazon warehouse here one reason why I thought the right thing to do was to pick the brains of some seasoned IT professionals and ask about AWS.

Here is what I was looking at picking up to learn.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1587205815/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1587205904/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SA7XKZC/

If you have a predominantly Cisco environment, Wendell Odom's 100-105 and 200-105 CCENT/CCNA Official Cert Guide is the definitive guide to learning networking. I reckon you could learn and pass the exam from his two books alone.

https://www.amazon.com/Routing-Switching-200-125-Official-Library/dp/1587205815/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1537360541&sr=8-2&keywords=odom+ccna

(200-125) is the name of the accelerated exam. 100-105 is CCENT which is one-half of a CCNA. You can take one exam (200-125) or two exams (100-105 & 200-105) to certify as CCNA.

Either get Lammle's Book or Odem's Book. Lammle is easier to read and understand in my experience, but Odem goes deeper into some topics. You can read a few pages of the books through Amazon, and see which one you like better.



You can get Chris Bryant's Video Series through Udemy for ~$10 since they're always on sale. There's also CBT Nuggets. The monthly subscription is a bit pricey, but there are ways to get them "cheaper".

head over to /r/ccna and look around. ccent is a good entry exam and not too hard. grab the official cert guide from amazon. study, then test.

another option is a safaribooksonline subscription. you can sign up for a free trial and see if its worth it for you. ($40/month) it gives you access to hundreds upon thousands of books (including the cisco cert guide mentioned above) as well as the INE videos from kevin wallace. these combined with some initiative will get you through the exams.

best of luck!

I swear by Odom's guide. You can find the 2 book package cheap on Amazon, and it comes with practice tests and simulation software, both of which should be decent representations of what you'll see on the exam.

Si, ci sono i libri e molto altro materiale da poter integrare:

Libri ufficiali: Link Amazon Guida Ufficiale a prima vista possono sembrare enormi (e lo sono, quasi 2000 pagine se non erro), ma imparando ad usarli sono la miglior fonte di studio possibile per prepararsi, dividendo l'esame in due (come i libri appunto).

Guida per i comandi: Link Amazon Comandi è appunto una lista di tutti i comandi per iOS (il sistema operativo di cisco) con una breve spiegazione per ognuno.

Ripasso finale: 31 Days before your exam libro ufficiale per il ripasso partendo 31 giorni prima dell'esame.

Molto utile per ricontrollare tutti gli argomenti.

Per fare esercitazioni e lab scaricati Packet Tracer dal sito di Cisco, in rete o su udemy troverai vari esercizi da poterci simulare.

Ti consiglio inoltre questo video corso su udemy, ti fornisce anche molto materiale di test (domande, fac-simili, esercizi) per soli 10€ Corso udemy prima parte

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Per quanto riguarda l'esame, è un mondo a se rispetto a tutti gli altri esami che probabilmente avrai già fatto: gli esami Cisco pretendono un punteggio molto alto per passare (generalmente sopra l'80/85%) e spesso le risposte non sono quelle più giuste ma quelle che Cisco ritiene che lo siano. Ti consiglio di prendere un simulatore di esame, ad esempio il Boson, e fare esercizi con quello...

Per il resto, in bocca al lupo! Spero di non averti messo ansia ma è un esame "particolare" :)

https://www.boson.com/netsim-cisco-network-simulator

The All-In-One: https://www.amazon.com/Routing-Switching-200-125-Official-Library/dp/1587205815

Or

Separate: https://www.amazon.com/CCENT-ICND1-100-105-Official-Guide/dp/1587205807

https://www.amazon.com/Routing-Switching-ICND2-200-105-Official/dp/1587205793

31 Days Before (Refresher): https://www.amazon.com/Days-Before-Your-Routing-Switching/dp/1587205904

Udemy - Chris Bryant: https://www.udemy.com/ccna-on-demand-video-boot-camp/

I heard Stormwind Studios has a nice course. I haven’t looked up the price.

>CiscoPress Official Cert Guide

I am also looking to become a network engineer. Should I buy this and start studying it?


https://www.amazon.com/Routing-Switching-200-125-Official-Library/dp/1587205815/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=cisco+press+official+cert+guide&qid=1556740750&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach (7th Edition)
https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Networking-Top-Down-Approach-7th/dp/0133594149

CS144 Introduction to Computer Networking Stanford University
https://suclass.stanford.edu/courses/course-v1:Engineering+CS144+Fall2016/courseware/ac9d1eef5aaa4bb5bcfe4d42f51f0f5b/c5c384e648cf404c837d05497c6e36b0

High Performance Browser Networking
https://hpbn.co

Beej's Guide to Network Programming
http://beej.us/guide/bgnet

Unix Network Programming, Volume 1: The Sockets Networking API (3rd Edition)
https://www.amazon.com/Unix-Network-Programming-Sockets-Networking/dp/0131411551

CCNA Routing and Switching 200-125 Official Cert Guide Library
https://www.amazon.com/Routing-Switching-200-125-Official-Library/dp/1587205815

CBT Nuggets by Jeremey Cioara
https://www.cbtnuggets.com/it-training/cisco-ccna-icnd1-100-105
https://www.cbtnuggets.com/it-training/icnd2-200-105

Eli The Computer Guy
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF360ED1082F6F2A5

More at http://Learn.SharjeelSayed.com

I'm also studying for the ICND1... Some may suggest this or this . Some may suggest this .. Download Cisco Packettracer and GNS3. If you have the cash, there is CBTNuggets and Boson.. Also look into Neil Anderson's ICND1 Bootcamp on Udemy, or Bombal's Packet Tracer prep lab. .. I started Neil's bootcamp yesterday and I love it... But hey I'm a noob, others may have better suggestions, but that's what I'm doing to prepare for it

Get both of these, they aren't released yet but will be shortly:
Lammle's [v3 CCNA study guide][1] (set for release in September)
Odom's [v3 CCNA study guide][2] (set for release in July)

As for labs, check out [this thread][3] for starters; Packet Tracer isn't perfect but it'll get you started.

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Routing-Switching-Complete-Study-Guide/dp/1119288282/r "v3 CCNA study guide"
[2]: https://www.amazon.com/Routing-Switching-200-125-Official-Library/dp/1587205815 "v3 CCNA study guide"
[3]: https://www.reddit.com/r/ccna/comments/4phbns/psa_packet_tracer_70/ "this thread"

The website you'll want to look at is this one:
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/training-events/training-certifications/certifications/associate/ccna-routing-switching.html

It says at the top that the v2.0 tests are being revised to v3.0. Currently you can take either one, but only until August 20th (200-120 & 100-101) or September 24th (200-101).

Also, the CCNA can be taken as either one combined test (called CCNA) or two separate tests called ICND1 and ICND2.

100-105 is the ICND1 v3.0 test. It's the first half of the new version of the CCNA. 200-105 is ICND2 v3.0. It's the second half of the new version. You'll need both for the CCNA certification.

The book linked is the textbook for the 100-105 ICND1 v3.0 test. That'll help you for that test. You'll still need a separate book to study for the 200-105 ICND2 v3.0 test to get the CCNA certification. The books are also available as a set.

(edit): the test you mention, the 100-101, is the ICND1 v2.0 test. That's the old version, that's gone next month, of the first half test.
(edit edit): Corrected. August and September are actually different months than July, and occur at separate points in the future.

Technically, you can take the CCNA (200-125 Exam) without acquiring the CCENT first. Which I would only recommend if you pretty comfortable with networking.
You would then follow the steps 5 and beyond listed from CBRjack.
This is the guide I would recommend for the CCNA (which will cover your needs if you decide to go the CCENT route also) : https://amzn.com/1587205815.
Everything else CBRjack suggests for resources are spot on also.

I see. So it looks like the following link contains the retail version you mentioned for less than half the price. The publish date is still 8/2016 so I'm sure it's still a relevant copy.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1587205815

The only differences I could find mention that it doesn't come with an ebook, chapter summeries, and it may not be in color. With that said, is there anything that would be missed by not getting the academic version? I know there are plenty of free online resources for practicing (including packet tracer), so I doubt it will be a problem if the retail version lacks some of that.

For note, OCG = Official Certification Guide from Cisco. (Links below are just Amazon links, no affiliate or whatever)

The Odom and Lammle books are the best

Wendell Odom - Cisco CCENT/CCNA Official Cert Guide


Tod Lammle - ICND1/ICND2/CCNA Study Guides (Lighthouse on the cover)


Can;t go wrong with those. Also, Udemy routinely has some solid CCENT/CCNA courses on sale for $11 or so, plus plenty of free cybrary.it and youtube info, not to mention Cisco provided free info from their NetAcad and other Cisco learning services.

https://www.amazon.com/Routing-Switching-200-125-Official-Library/dp/1587205815/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=ccna+official+cert+guide&qid=1574276300&sprefix=ccna+official&sr=8-3

Are these good books to get?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Routing-Switching-200-125-Official-Library/dp/1587205815/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503495655&sr=8-1&keywords=200-125

CCNA Routing and Switching 200-125 Official Cert Guide Library https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1587205815/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ZoBPDbB1W9BDQ

Excellent book, take your time and read it carefully, run through all the questions and exercises. Install GNS3 for labs, provided that can you somehow find the IOS images for it. Get cracking.

Honestly, buy the updated books.

https://www.amazon.com/Routing-Switching-200-125-Official-Library/dp/1587205815/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492783851&sr=8-1&keywords=ccna+library

Dirt cheap right now.

But, please, consider to go to complete ccna with icnd2 or a full course like this one
CCNA Routing and Switching 200-125 Official Cert Guide Library https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1587205815/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_VNrzCb5GKZCAM

I took the four netacad Cisco Learning Academy classes over the course of four semesters at a community college and that helped give me a basis. I also read all of Wendell Odom's CCNA book and then I read Todd Lammle's CCNA book as well. Odom's book is dryer but he explains it in more depth. Lammle's book is easier to read, so I might read it first to get a good overview and then read Odom's book for a stronger foundation.

I also had homelab with 2 Cisco 2950 switches and 2 Cisco 1841 routers to get use to physically configuring the devices. I also used Packet Tracer extensively.

I would get these books and read them while doing lots of Packet Tracer labs. That should prepare you for the tests. I would also do the CCENT first and then the ICND2 to fully get your CCNA.
https://www.amazon.com/Routing-Switching-Complete-Study-Guide/dp/1119288282/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486146136&sr=8-1&keywords=ccna

https://www.amazon.com/Routing-Switching-200-125-Official-Library/dp/1587205815/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1486146136&sr=8-2&keywords=ccna

CBT Nuggets and/or INE are fantastic and a much better than taking a gamble that will certainly not be as good as INE or CBT. After that make sure to supplement a book (i've only read OCG there are others) and with Boson's Practice Tests.

When it comes to ICND1 and ICND2 the OCG is fantastic but quite overwhelming. I had read the ICND2 cover to cover a while back but diddn't take the test so I'm ready to read it again. There are so many resources out there for you. Honestly if you're willing to shell out that much money you might as well buy an INE or CBT nuggets subscription. They have thousands of videos and go beyond just the cisco test. I personally haven't used them but a class is definitely a waste imo.

www.ine.com

www.cbtnuggets.com

https://www.amazon.com/Routing-Switching-200-125-Official-Library/dp/1587205815/ref=asc_df_1587205815/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312045876164&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14826265279750645815&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9004464&hvtargid=pla-395617943259&psc=1

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https://www.boson.com/ (net sim)

Used or new?

Does Odom's new CCNA Routing and Switching 200-125 Official Cert Guide Library cover 100-105 topics? Or do you also have to get CCENT/CCNA ICND1 100-105 Official Cert Guide?

Last set of Odom's CCNA books I bought came with both ICND1/2. Is this still the case?

I take it you mean this book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Routing-Switching-200-125-Official-Library/dp/1587205815/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468872155&sr=8-1&keywords=cisco+200-125

says it will be released on August 28th :)

CCNA Routing and Switching 200-125 Official Cert Guide Library https://www.amazon.com/dp/1587205815/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_E0i6xbJ43V9N9