Well I was having this thought,

I have been training for my CCNA and have my final soon. What I am thinking is - well basically if I had a job in this field; simply enough what would I be doing?

Now I may be wrong but it doesn't seem like I have learnt that much which would be job-useful apart from standards etc.

Besides plugging in some routers and configuring them- what else do you do?

I am doing a Networking course (Cisco) at college at the moment ... Hard!

As with any certification, it is pretty much useless as far as the training goes. It's just a piece of paper, that makes you look like you know more than you really do :)

That being said, there is no general job that you do with a CCNA. A lot of it is just the basic networking knowledge. Things like subnetting, and understanding the application layers. It's really just a stepping stone. In some companies, a CCNA will get you as far as being a NOC tech, others, a CCNA could run the entire network.

-Dan

I do a lot of networking work using Cisco -- among others. It has been my experience that the CCNA is a good starting point to demonstrate you understand fundamentals behind routing. Actually knowing how to configure something is not as important as understanding what you are trying to accompolish.

I probably visit the Cisco website, or browse through my Cisco books 2-3 times a week looking for an exact command, and no one would accuse me of not understanding Cisco equipment.

One of the data center managers I works with has a simple test he gives to people who are applying for a network engineering job, he asks them two questions:

1. What are the steps involved in setting up a secure BGP connection to another provider.

2. Someone reports a problem routing traffic through one of the routers in the data center, you telnet in and see that the CLI is very slow, what do you do?

He is not looking for a specifc answer, as much as he is looking for a general understanding about how the person thinks, and whether they fully grasp the concepts involved.

1. What are the steps involved in setting up a secure BGP connection to another provider.

I don't know, Erm

2. Someone reports a problem routing traffic through one of the routers in the data center, you telnet in and see that the CLI is very slow, what do you do?


Router# Erase Start
Router# Reload

:D

I've started my course.

Can't wait to start getting more into depth with it. Just at the first chapters now :(

Originally posted by The Laughing Cow

I don't know, Erm


He's gotten that answer on more than one occassion :D.



Router# Erase Start
Router# Reload


And, he's gotten that answer as well -- he's also had someone tell him that the second question was like the Kobayashi Maru :D.

To be honest even though I have passed all the tests and finished all 4 semesters I don't think I in any way would be able to do a job in CISCO related networking.

I consider myself lucky I have good experience in General network related operating system stuff thats not in CISCO (i.e Windows NT/2k no linux tho)

People on my course couldn't do anything on a PC let alone a Router!

The other thing that strikes me is that tho I am now working my way through the Labs their doesn't seem to be that much you can really do with a router apart from setup the ports and what protocols etc they use and fiddle with other settings

Tho I think I am very wrong
:confused:

Originally posted by The Laughing Cow

The other thing that strikes me is that tho I am now working my way through the Labs their doesn't seem to be that much you can really do with a router apart from setup the ports and what protocols etc they use and fiddle with other settings


What exactly were you expecting it to do, dance a jig and play the piano :D?

Networking equipment is boring, it is designed to be boring, in theory routers should be the most boring part of your network.

If you setup a router properly, and use the right routing protocols, it will sit there and route. That's it, everything is automated. Once every 3-6 months you go in and upgrade the code, maybe add more memory as your bandwidth and routing tables increase in size...and once in a while dust it off (unless you are in a data center that filters out the dust).

Fiddling with stuff makes it break :). That's why servers break a lot, people are always changing settings, and running weird programs on them, etc.

Yeah true I just thought it would be a little more dificult to become a network engineer with rooty thingymagijs

I'm done my first semester of the CCNA course now, and I'm still feeling sort of clueless about the whole networking scene. The only practical stuff we did in class involved taking apart some PCs, and designing a new LAN for our school (mostly just planning where the drops are and where to put the wiring closets).

My question is, do we do more practical stuff in the later semesters, or is the course gonna be mostly theory? :confused: If all this theory stuff continues, I'm *still* not gonna have a clue what to do with a router by the time I finish this course...

I'm not sure about your specific school, but there is usually more hand-off stuff as networking courses progress. But handson always takes a backseat to theory, because the handson stuff is relatively simple, compared to the theory.

It is really easy to throw together a fully meshed redundant switched network, fire it up, and DoS yourself out of existence because you forgot to enable spanning tree, or worse did it wrong. If you understand the theor behind building a redundant network then it is less likely you will DoS yourself (though it is always a possibility :D).

Well,

Due to time limitations we rushed through the theory and now are catching up on the practical.

Semester 2 I think you get onto the routers and should learn most of the stuff:

e.g User mode, priv mode, global conf mode,

how to conf interfaces, connecting to the router, consoling and configuring.

Later on its more Access control lists etc. tbh I cant remember much from Sem3 I think it might be LAN stuff. Sem4 is all about WANS, configuring ISDN, Frame Relay etc etc

Im currently taking a 2-year program at my high school for CISCO which, if I pass the final thats given, will be CCNA certified. After talking with our teacher about where we can go with a CCNA... she explained to the class you can go as high a CCNE(?) basically a cisco network engineer, and there were only about 50 in the world currently, none of them making less then $125K. Not sure if thats true about there being only 50 in the world... but man, it must be nice to be making those kind of figures.

Originally posted by Silent-Chaos
Im currently taking a 2-year program at my high school for CISCO which, if I pass the final thats given, will be CCNA certified. After talking with our teacher about where we can go with a CCNA... she explained to the class you can go as high a CCNE(?) basically a cisco network engineer, and there were only about 50 in the world currently, none of them making less then $125K. Not sure if thats true about there being only 50 in the world... but man, it must be nice to be making those kind of figures.

Wow, your teacher was quite a bit off :D.

The highest level of Cisco certification you can reach is the CCIE. The CCIE involves both the stnadard test, plus a 3-day lab. It is extremely difficult (I know people at Cisco who have not been able to pass). There are currently 7,223 CCIEs around the world:

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/625/ccie/ccie_program/ccie_present.html

And around here, a CCIE working as a consultant, especially a government consultant, can easily make in excess of $200k.

No wonder teachers arent paid alot =\ No flames at teachers here ;) Just seems a CERTAIN CISCO TEACHER BY THE NAME OF MRS. MILLER HANDS OUT BOGUS INFO! *ahem*

Originally posted by Silent-Chaos
No wonder teachers arent paid alot =\ No flames at teachers here ;) Just seems a CERTAIN CISCO TEACHER BY THE NAME OF MRS. MILLER HANDS OUT BOGUS INFO! *ahem*

You know, I heard all teachers were chickens, or is it that all Chickens are teachers :D

Originally posted by The Laughing Cow
Well,

Due to time limitations we rushed through the theory and now are catching up on the practical.

Semester 2 I think you get onto the routers and should learn most of the stuff:

e.g User mode, priv mode, global conf mode,

how to conf interfaces, connecting to the router, consoling and configuring.

Later on its more Access control lists etc. tbh I cant remember much from Sem3 I think it might be LAN stuff. Sem4 is all about WANS, configuring ISDN, Frame Relay etc etc


Yup pretty much right....

I'm finishing up Sem2 right now for class, but I'm taking my CCNA exam in a few months.... We have several second years in the class, and I'd rather get the test done and over with :D

ACL is a huge thing, so is threaded case study.... Don't forget the spanning tree poem :D

I think our teacher is going to take his CCNA when we go....



And wish me luck on competitions, I finished first in regional, now onto state....

I was just thinking today is it right that the CCNA needs to be retaken every 3 years?

I'm off to uni next september and i'm there for three years. From this I am gathering that all my hard work will have gone to waste and I will have a CCNA no more :(

:) 3 years at uni and if youve been doing things right you should have forgotten just about everything ;)

anyone any experience with doing this in the uk? how much is a fair amount to pay. im currently playing with oracle and when i finish up my degree in a few months ill give accreditation a shot. would like to grab a mcse and cisco to complete the set.

It seems to be booming in the UK. If you check here (http://www.it.jobserve.com/jobserve/searchresults.asp?jobType=*&d=5&order=Rank&page=1&q=CCNA) which is one job site the pay varies between 15-30k + benifits

Obviously it will be lower for a Junior but with a few years experience the money is definatly about.

It concerns me whether it will have been a waste learning all this at college when I could have taken another A level or somthing.

lol you really shouldnt wish that. i did 5 and an as, and worked. ended up failing one and getting average grades and being very stressed. 4 is about the max anyone human can cope with.
enjoy yourself at uni and feel free to pm me if ya have any questions about it. i get to consider myself a seasoned veteran after lasting 3 years. everyone in my house in first year never made it to 2nd yr. the attition rate is quite high, usually hidden by the intake of hnd into 2nd year. 3rd year is like a ghost town :)
best wishes

edit: dont worry about it being a waste of time, if you want to head in that direction then its something to set you apart and its probably very well accepted. like any qualification in a proper subject it proves you can learn, more then what you actually learnt.

Thx Richy,

Just curious- what uni were you at? I am going to Brighton if not Teeside.

uclan. load of toss. not sure about brighton but my mum was at teesside and its close to where i live now and again. its not great but it aint the worst. (thats sheffield hallam). if you do go i should be out that way when you do so gimmie a shout and ill buy ya a pint. oh and make sure u visit the bongo club lol

lol cheers Richy,

This seems to be our personal chat room atm oops ;)

Teeside was unusually ranked for Computer Science it was like top 15 for computing subjects, two years in a row in the Times tables.

yeah they spent a motherload of cash on it, that and nursing, they aint that bad at it. the area aint the greatest but its far from the worse. they have managed to get a few decent teachers in as well. charles marshall is someone youll want to make friends with :) he runs their puters.
if you ever want to annoy teesside just remind it it was a poly a few years back and didnt really change much. new library is good, and well stocked in the puting dept. plus theres a nice boozer over the road to rest your books in.

Originally posted by The Laughing Cow
lol cheers Richy,

This seems to be our personal chat room atm oops ;)

Teeside was unusually ranked for Computer Science it was like top 15 for computing subjects, two years in a row in the Times tables.

:look:

but its knowledgeable, carry on, i am reading. ;)

:) dton say that or ill start on the laws of being a student :) i actually have to go into uni in 5 minutes tho. have to port over an oracle db done at home for a presentation then take advantage of the download rate to grab a few iso's. hard life aint it. not

/me senses Richy is a 1st year ;)

hehe not sure if id want that. plenty of fun but id have two more years ahead of me instead of under two months :)

lol was just under the impression that the first year was a doss and the 2nd & 3rd were a knightmare

/me notices doss may be interpreted the wrong way!

nah your right. 1st year is a doss arround and 2nd and 3rd year are way harder. BUT those of us with sense realised that we get the lecture notes in advance for download. the tutors only read em and theyre pathetic anyway. so you grab the appropriate software, do the work at home in a better environment and at a pace and time that suits working etc. all you get when you turn up is a list of stuff to learn. so i figure i get the list and learn at home.works great so far. just the workload is a little on the high side at times. just enjoy first year and esp f**k a fresher week which is getting towards being a religous event :)