Cisca CCNA training and study guides for free? (cost, pay, learning)

[ttk]

I want to do the CCNA but it's $1500 at my college and there's no direct relationship between the class and Cisco so no true guarantee. Is there anyone that has done the ccna and passed and what are some good options for learning the material?

[GeorgiaTransplant]

Originally Posted by ttk

I want to do the CCNA but it's $1500 at my college and there's no direct relationship between the class and Cisco so no true guarantee. Is there anyone that has done the ccna and passed and what are some good options for learning the material?

I've got a CCNA (Routing) and a CCNP-Security (which was pretty silly because I ended up NOT working in Security, but at least it renewed my CCNA).


There's nothing like getting your hands on a rack of equipment with a *structured* lab (e.g., load the configs and have a goal-'put all routers and switches into service blocking X range from accessing the Internet'). Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to get that totally for free.

Live equipment is best, as in gear you physically have in front of you. Simulators (e.g. Boson) are okay for practice, especially once you have the fundamentals, but nothing quite brings it home until you've bashed your head against a problem for an hour and finally figure out iit's been a Layer 1 problem all along.

Second best- howtonetwork.net (or similar site). There are some free resources, and some you can pay for. The free resources are not going to be comprehensive enough for most who don't have a background/experience to pick it up at a true CCNA level. Don't bother with the 'live rack rental' unless you simply can't get to real equipment. To most people, it appears just like a simulator...

Third best-I've found Lammle's books in particular are okay and a good start point. Your local library probably has those. Same warning about 'not the same as equipment.'

[Novadhd5150]

I am going the same route as you ttk but I would recommend taking some sort of class along with the self study (IE Lammles lastest book). For 1500 that is not bad since that is usually the cost of ICND 1 alone.