Ccnp

[Law]

Any CCNP in here? Beside Mike

This year or the beginning of next year I was thinking about going for my CCNP. I am looking to buy some used Cisco equipments, this ebay auction looks quite pleasing eBay: FULL CCNP & CCNA LAB Kit Cisco TRAINING LAB *SYSTEM* (item 130111027057 end time May-14-07 20:00:00 PDT)

Though I have very low experiences with Cisco equipments, I based most of my knowledge through college,reading and software simulators. My cousin wants to put in 50% of any kit I buy because he's going for his CCNA and what's to use it also. I found some great stuff on ciscokits.com also. Anyone have any thoughts about the 2500 series router and 1900 series switches?

[Ethereal_Dragon]

God luck with CCNP!! I have thought about it, but we don't handle "customer equpiment" at work anymore, so even most of my CCNA knowledge is useless to me now.... I am thinking about some other certs though, not sure what yet.

I am not sure about that auction... You should contact the seller to get model numbers for the 2500 series routers. I got two 2500's while studying CCNA, and made a mistake, and got 2 TOKEN RING routers. There is nothing wrong with 2500's, they are GREAT for study, because they are dirt cheap, since they don't really get used in production environments anymore.

[superdave1984]

Is CCNP the one where they put you in a room with a rack of equipment and say "fix it" or "do this", then leave you there? One of my teachers said he knew a guy that went for a Cisco exam and that was what they did. And said he left the room to go to the bathroom, the exam guys came in and changed some stuff without telling him. He failed. Dunno how true the story is.

[Law]

Originally Posted by superdave1984

Is CCNP the one where they put you in a room with a rack of equipment and say "fix it" or "do this", then leave you there? One of my teachers said he knew a guy that went for a Cisco exam and that was what they did. And said he left the room to go to the bathroom, the exam guys came in and changed some stuff without telling him. He failed. Dunno how true the story is.

I don't know about the CCNP, I think it's most like the CCNA but just with more simulators, more advanced topic and you dwell deeper into what you've learn from the CCNA. And you need to take 4 or the other 3 exam to become a CCNP. You also must be CCNA before you can take CCNP.

Your teacher might be referring to the CCIE lab exam which is an 8 hour long exam to test you beyond human , I can see why he left to use the bathroom. That would be unethical to mess with someone's else lab, but if you can't fix the problem, then you shouldn't be trying to take CCIE. You need to have a lot of experiences with troubleshooting Cisco equipments, even if someone messed with your lab, you have to be able to find the problem and fix it, that's what real CCIE candidate can do.

Cisco Career Certifications - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[mBernhardt]

Originally Posted by Law

Any CCNP in here? Beside Mike

This year or the beginning of next year I was thinking about going for my CCNP. I am looking to buy some used Cisco equipments, this ebay auction looks quite pleasing eBay: FULL CCNP & CCNA LAB Kit Cisco TRAINING LAB *SYSTEM* (item 130111027057 end time May-14-07 20:00:00 PDT)

Though I have very low experiences with Cisco equipments, I based most of my knowledge through college,reading and software simulators. My cousin wants to put in 50% of any kit I buy because he's going for his CCNA and what's to use it also. I found some great stuff on ciscokits.com also. Anyone have any thoughts about the 2500 series router and 1900 series switches?

Its getting more and more hazy the further removed I get from my router classes at school. But, I believe we worked on both the 2500 and 1900 series. As far as I know I got a good education from them. (Really hard to say since I haven't actually used that knowledge since school. Would absolutely love to but that's not in my job description.) They didn't have the most up to date IOS, but was still a great learning evironment. We had 5 routers we would hook up in a series and mess with different protocols.

[superdave1984]

Law, I bet that was it. He said it cost a small fortune too.

[Law]

Originally Posted by Ethereal_Dragon

God luck with CCNP!! I have thought about it, but we don't handle "customer equpiment" at work anymore, so even most of my CCNA knowledge is useless to me now.... I am thinking about some other certs though, not sure what yet.

I am not sure about that auction... You should contact the seller to get model numbers for the 2500 series routers. I got two 2500's while studying CCNA, and made a mistake, and got 2 TOKEN RING routers. There is nothing wrong with 2500's, they are GREAT for study, because they are dirt cheap, since they don't really get used in production environments anymore.

Maybe I might opt for something higher, perhaps 3640 routers and 2950 Cat switches.

[Ethereal_Dragon]

Those are going to be pretty expensive if they are only for training purposes. Best bet would be to go with 2500's, or maybe even 2600's.

[Law]

Yea you are right, the 3640 router and the 2950 Cat switch are quite expensive but these were the two that most CCNP recommended for me to buy if I am to do lab work at home, follow by additional switches like the 1900 series and some 2600 series router. That's a lot of money to chunk up. At work, I do not even touch the Cisco router, we only have 1 and it's perfectly configured already, no Cisco switches, just unmanaged HP switches. I desperately need experience with Cisco product if I'm going to take my CCNP. I was thinking at first I should spend my money on maybe two 2620 routers and a 2924 switch this month.

I've only work with 1700 series routers and the 2950 Cat switches at college but only for a few months. The 1700 series routers seem OK, but I think those are for CCNA level.

CiscoKits
Has some great deal, I might be able to find some cheaper on Ebay. I might get that Dual 1720 Router & 2924 Switch CCNA Kit for my cousin if he's putting half in.

[shortstop20]

Law, I hope you don't mind me butting in a little, but I have a few questions about CCNP as well.

For you guys that are already CCNP:

1. Would you say CCNP is alot harder than CCNA or just more involved and building upon things learned in CCNA? Are most CCNP topics advanced configuration of things learned in CCNA or completely new things never mentioned in CCNA?

2. I once heard if you take the CCNP and fail, that Cisco will take away your CCNA, yes your CCNA. Sounds rediculous to me and I wouldn't think it would be true, but just curious. Doesn't really make any sense.

3. Would you say you had to dedicate more time to prepare for your CCNP certification test than your CCNA certification test?

4. How much has your CCNP benefited you, such as promotions, raise in pay(how much if you don't mind saying), etc.

5. Can a person possibly prepare as well as needed for the CCNP certification test using only Network Simulator programs(virtual routers and switches)? Assume they have no hands-on experience with CCNP devices.

Thanks,

Joel
shortstop20