How do I get Cisco Certified for CCNA? What is the difference between CCNA and CCENT?
Thursday, May 20th, 2010 at
6:36 am
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If you have zero networking experience it may be better for you to go to a technical school. Usually schools have access to actual Cisco hardware that you can do labs on. In order to be good at what you do, you will want to put in the extra time to do the labs, and repeat them as needed.
If you think you can handle the self study route, then make sure you buy a couple resources. You’ll want to buy the Cisco Press Self Study Kit for the CCNA, as well as other supplemental texts. CBT Nuggets has some really awesome video training for the CCNA. It is a bit pricey though. On top of all that you will want to either buy a Cisco lab (the physical hardware), Boson Netsim, or you can use the free GNS3 if you have access to Cisco IOS.
CCNA is the associate level exam from Cisco. CCENT is the very entry level certification. CCNA is obviously higher ranking than CCENT
As far as jobs go, with CCNA you will probably be working in a NOC or doing very light administration duties. Realistically you will not be turned loose to run an enterprise class network or anything like that. They are considered more of an entry level certification. Once you get past CCNA and move on to CCNP, CCDP, CCIE, CCSP thats where you will see your higher level admins and engineers.
Good luck on your Cisco studies. Feel free to email me if you have any more questions.