Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
MF_James
May 8, 2008
I CANNOT HANDLE BEING CALLED OUT ON MY DUMBASS OPINIONS ABOUT ANTI-VIRUS AND SECURITY. I REALLY LIKE TO THINK THAT I KNOW THINGS HERE

INSTEAD I AM GOING TO WHINE ABOUT IT IN OTHER THREADS SO MY OPINION CAN FEEL VALIDATED IN AN ECHO CHAMBER I LIKE

I'd say CCNA is better since networking in general is more generic, so even if a company doesn't run cisco gear you know the concepts and can basically jump into devices and configure them correctly, whereas windows is windows.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Actuarial Fables
Jul 29, 2014

Taco Defender
Took the CCNA exam.
Needed 810, got 800.

Anyone have a recommendation for a study guide or practice exam? I've been using Odom's books and the tests that came with them, but I feel the questions provided are too nice and straight-forward.

ChubbyThePhat
Dec 22, 2006

Who nico nico needs anyone else
Did you feel the questions you didn't know or had trouble with were all from the same sort of category, or was it more just tripping up on specifics? I only used the Cisco Press CCNA study guide when I did mine (but I got it for free), so my experience with other material is basically non existent. It's probably easier to focus in on one area to cover the 10 points than to try and do a deep dive on everything you already know.

Grassy Knowles
Apr 4, 2003

"The original Terminator was a gritty fucking AMAZING piece of sci-fi. Gritty fucking rock-hard MURDER!"

Actuarial Fables posted:

Took the CCNA exam.
Needed 810, got 800.

Anyone have a recommendation for a study guide or practice exam? I've been using Odom's books and the tests that came with them, but I feel the questions provided are too nice and straight-forward.

31 days.

Actuarial Fables
Jul 29, 2014

Taco Defender

ChubbyThePhat posted:

Did you feel the questions you didn't know or had trouble with were all from the same sort of category, or was it more just tripping up on specifics? I only used the Cisco Press CCNA study guide when I did mine (but I got it for free), so my experience with other material is basically non existent. It's probably easier to focus in on one area to cover the 10 points than to try and do a deep dive on everything you already know.

The post-exam performance report shows a spread of 60-85% in the categories tested on; a few are clearly in need of attention, but there's room for improvement everywhere. I agree that it would be a lot less of a hassle to just focus on one or two areas, but I'm worried that the different questions asked will land on any gaps of knowledge I may have in the areas I did well on previously. It's also getting harder to not glaze over material in the same book I've gone over multiple times now.


I'll check it out, thanks!

Hot Damn!
Oct 28, 2004

Actuarial Fables posted:

The post-exam performance report shows a spread of 60-85% in the categories tested on; a few are clearly in need of attention, but there's room for improvement everywhere. I agree that it would be a lot less of a hassle to just focus on one or two areas, but I'm worried that the different questions asked will land on any gaps of knowledge I may have in the areas I did well on previously. It's also getting harder to not glaze over material in the same book I've gone over multiple times now.


I'll check it out, thanks!

I thought the Boson exams were the most similar to the real CCNA exams (I took the split exam, failed the ICND2). They also do a good job providing explanations and linking to documentation. Whether they are worth the money to prep for a retake is up to you.

If you can remember any of the questions that stumped you, I highly recommend looking at official Cisco docs for those topics. Some of the murkier topics seem to draw directly from that material, and you can expect to see repeat questions on the retake.

pram
Jun 10, 2001
got these at re:invent :smuggo:

ErIog
Jul 11, 2001

:nsacloud:

Actuarial Fables posted:

Took the CCNA exam.
Needed 810, got 800.

Anyone have a recommendation for a study guide or practice exam? I've been using Odom's books and the tests that came with them, but I feel the questions provided are too nice and straight-forward.

When I took the test a year ago I thought Odom's book had a gaping hole in some of the very new Cisco-specific topics. Check to see if there's any bonus chapters about that kind of stuff that you haven't studied yet. I thought Lammle's book covered those things really well.

You should double check your fundamentals for sure (lab the poo poo out of everything), but with failing by 10 points I would say that you're probably mostly fine on that stuff. The low-hanging fruit for you is probably going to be the more esoteric Cisco-specific stuff.

I used the Boson practice exams, and they were good. The cover edge cases well, but in doing so a lot of the questions end up being harder than most stuff you deal with on the actual exam. They're good for practice, but don't sweat it if you find them difficult. They're not representative of the actual test, but they're good for preparing you for the test because you'll learn things from the practice questions you fail on.

Also, Boson seems to always have sales and discount codes and stuff so search around before pulling the trigger. At full price I think they're a bit expensive, but if you can get some kind of deal then they're very worth it.

ErIog fucked around with this message at 13:34 on Dec 2, 2017

snackcakes
May 7, 2005

A joint venture of Matsumura Fishworks and Tamaribuchi Heavy Manufacturing Concern

Does anyone have experience with the VCP on demand courses? I'm looking to get certified but taking a week off work to take a class, while probably doable, is not ideal.

I'm looking at this one in particular: VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage [V6.5] - On Demand

Mostly looking for confirmation that it doesn't suck.

edit: holy poo poo that's expensive

snackcakes fucked around with this message at 16:15 on Dec 2, 2017

YOLOsubmarine
Oct 19, 2004

When asked which Pokemon he evolved into, Kamara pauses.

"Motherfucking, what's that big dragon shit? That orange motherfucker. Charizard."

snackcakes posted:

Does anyone have experience with the VCP on demand courses? I'm looking to get certified but taking a week off work to take a class, while probably doable, is not ideal.

I'm looking at this one in particular: VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage [V6.5] - On Demand

Mostly looking for confirmation that it doesn't suck.

edit: holy poo poo that's expensive

The course doesn’t matter, it won’t actually prepare you for the exam. The only purpose it serves is to allow you to take the exam, so take whichever on does that the quickest/cheapest for you and then do self study for the test.

MrBigglesworth
Mar 26, 2005

Lover of Fuzzy Meatloaf
Welp, finally landed a new job after 4 months off.

Weird thing is, they called me! Job description says needs 10 years and a CCNP and I only have 3.5, but I guess they are gonna let me acclimate as I had 2 phone interviews and an in person interview. Gonna get exposed to so much new poo poo that it will take a while for things to calm down before I can pick up my CCNP studies again. 18% raise to bring me in line with that the average is here in this location of which I was severely under for the last few years.

Feelsgoodman.jpg

Yeast Confection
Oct 7, 2005
Way to go dude :hfive:

snackcakes
May 7, 2005

A joint venture of Matsumura Fishworks and Tamaribuchi Heavy Manufacturing Concern

YOLOsubmarine posted:

The course doesn’t matter, it won’t actually prepare you for the exam. The only purpose it serves is to allow you to take the exam, so take whichever on does that the quickest/cheapest for you and then do self study for the test.

Well that's upsetting. Any recommendations for real study then?

Dr. Arbitrary
Mar 15, 2006

Bleak Gremlin

snackcakes posted:

Well that's upsetting. Any recommendations for real study then?

Find a dump from an older version to get an idea of how the test is going to look, the kinds of questions they ask.

read mastering vsphere.

lab like a maniac

Actuarial Fables
Jul 29, 2014

Taco Defender


Thank you both for the advice and recommendations for the Boson exams. I'll take a look and see if I can find a discount on them.

George H.W. Cunt
Oct 6, 2010





Is that one guys udemy course still good for the newer CCNA?

Diva Cupcake
Aug 15, 2005

Humble Bundle for IT certification books

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/network-security-certification-books

cage-free egghead
Mar 8, 2004

Worth the $15 for all of the material? I see they're mostly study guides. What's that versus the full thing?

Kashuno
Oct 9, 2012

Where the hell is my SWORD?
Grimey Drawer

cage-free egghead posted:

Worth the $15 for all of the material? I see they're mostly study guides. What's that versus the full thing?

The MSCA certs are older and the CompTIA ones are expiring in mid-late 2018. Worth if you are gonna bust them out I think I though

MC Fruit Stripe
Nov 26, 2002

around and around we go
Funny enough, the only bundle I'd want is the $1 bundle. The other books aren't even worth the admittedly low price.

MrBigglesworth
Mar 26, 2005

Lover of Fuzzy Meatloaf
So how hard is Juniper stuff to learn and integrate if you already have the CCNA and was already working on the CCNP?

ChubbyThePhat
Dec 22, 2006

Who nico nico needs anyone else

MrBigglesworth posted:

So how hard is Juniper stuff to learn and integrate if you already have the CCNA and was already working on the CCNP?

Fairly easy. As always, the concepts in networking are what matter. The syntax for any particular OS is simple to learn as long as you understand what you're setting up. You'll come across a couple differences that will make you scratch your head for a bit, but you'll get used to them (looking at you HP trunks).

YOLOsubmarine
Oct 19, 2004

When asked which Pokemon he evolved into, Kamara pauses.

"Motherfucking, what's that big dragon shit? That orange motherfucker. Charizard."

Juniper command syntax and management is pretty different than Cisco but it’s easy to pick up. I prefer it. I found the JNCIA-Junos to be a bit harder than the CCNA.

Adiabatic
Nov 18, 2007

What have you assholes done now?
What's up SH/SC! I'm just getting into the world of ICS through a controls engineer position with an electrical utility, and I'm looking for ways to learn up. Are there any ICS-specific certs that are worth taking? More-so for my own learning than for any specific job. I figure a CCNA is a good first step, but if there's any controls systems-specific stuff out there I'm all ears.

MJP
Jun 17, 2007

Are you looking at me Senpai?

Grimey Drawer

Thirteenth Step posted:

Looking to getting into a decent infrastructure role sometime in the near future - my experience probably merits it but I’d like to start building up my certs again as they’ve all expired and it looks bad.

Which would be more beneficial - regaining my CCNA or starting from the MS angle with Server 2016? Or doesn’t it really matter?

Start with Server 2012. From taking the 2016 MCSA, there's no real immediate benefit to starting the MS track there. It's great for companies that want hyperconvergence as part of being a giant datacenter or cloud services provider, or companies heavy into Azure or running an app, but for basic Windows infrastructure, go the 2012 route and upgrade to 2016 down the line.

SamDabbers
May 26, 2003



Anybody here pursuing Red Hat certs? I have a coupon code for 15% off training or exams to share. PM me if you want it.

Colostomy Bag
Jan 11, 2016

:lesnick: C-Bangin' it :lesnick:

Sorry to :toot: my own horn, but just got done passing my PMP (first try, but a helluva lot longer than I expected just because it really is the most uninteresting poo poo on the planet.)

Holy hell, what a drat relief. Haven't been this mentally exhausted or felt so much joy in years.

SamDabbers
May 26, 2003



Congrats Colostomy Bag! Getting a challenging cert definitely :feelsgood:

Colostomy Bag
Jan 11, 2016

:lesnick: C-Bangin' it :lesnick:

SamDabbers posted:

Congrats Colostomy Bag! Getting a challenging cert definitely :feelsgood:

Thanks my goon. Adding to the stress was I had 1 month left to get it.

It's been a while since I've taken cert exams, but holy hell is this the same everywhere now...it is easier to get on an international flight versus the security I had to go through.

Always a weird feeling though when you get to the point where you have some "marked" answers but you are so burned out you basically say "gently caress this, let's roll the dice" and hit the end exam button and then wait those few seconds. That feeling never leaves you.

Veni Vidi Ameche!
Nov 2, 2017

by Fluffdaddy

pram posted:

got these at re:invent :smuggo:



I didn't get to go, because I did Defcon this year, but my team lead and coworkers brought back mad swag. I have a weird relationship with stickers: I really like them, but I hate putting stickers on my property. I end up with piles of cool stickers I will never put on anything.

What are some good certifications for resume padding? I am collecting AWS certifications, at the moment. They have a pretty good effort:return ratio. At the associate level, I can pretty much watch a Udemy course, do a few practice exams, then sit the real test. I'm looking for more like that: certifications that will teach me at least a little something practical, and look good on LinkedIn.

BigDave
Jul 14, 2009

Taste the High Country

Colostomy Bag posted:

Sorry to :toot: my own horn, but just got done passing my PMP (first try, but a helluva lot longer than I expected just because it really is the most uninteresting poo poo on the planet.)

Holy hell, what a drat relief. Haven't been this mentally exhausted or felt so much joy in years.

How does one go about getting a PMP cert? I looked into it, and it seemed really complicated. 30,000 hours of project management experience?

Colostomy Bag
Jan 11, 2016

:lesnick: C-Bangin' it :lesnick:

BigDave posted:

How does one go about getting a PMP cert? I looked into it, and it seemed really complicated. 30,000 hours of project management experience?

It's 4,500 hours if you have a 4 year degree, 7,500 without one. They only accept experience in the past 7 years. Also need 35 hours of classes but there are online ones that are cheap and accepted.

So once you submit all that on your app (don't lie, because they can audit you) and they approve it you have one year to pass the exam which is 200 questions within 4 hours. You get three attempts per year. Then after that you need 60 credits every three years.

It's not cheap either.

Mouse Cadet
Mar 19, 2009

All aboard the McEltrain
Next Stop: Atlanta

Colostomy Bag posted:

Sorry to :toot: my own horn, but just got done passing my PMP (first try, but a helluva lot longer than I expected just because it really is the most uninteresting poo poo on the planet.)

Holy hell, what a drat relief. Haven't been this mentally exhausted or felt so much joy in years.

Nice job! That exam is not easy.

FCKGW
May 21, 2006

Passed Project+ today. What a dumb exam.

SamDabbers
May 26, 2003



Got my RHCE today. :feelsgood:

Colostomy Bag
Jan 11, 2016

:lesnick: C-Bangin' it :lesnick:

SamDabbers posted:

Got my RHCE today. :feelsgood:

Congrats

FCKGW posted:

Passed Project+ today. What a dumb exam.

Congrats

Mouse Cadet posted:

Nice job! That exam is not easy.

It wasn't bad, but I've been studying off and on for quite awhile and hitting sample questions like a mofo. The test is more like a marathon. I think I actually pulled out the calculator only once or twice to answer questions which surprised me. 90% of them were quite lengthy in nature in regards to reading them. The rest were simple one liners that you could answer in a couple seconds.

I think next I'll start on Cisco for CCNA. Any advice?

Grassy Knowles
Apr 4, 2003

"The original Terminator was a gritty fucking AMAZING piece of sci-fi. Gritty fucking rock-hard MURDER!"

Colostomy Bag posted:


I think next I'll start on Cisco for CCNA. Any advice?


Find a way to access the equipment necessary to implement solutions, Packet Tracer is not very good and has weird-rear end limitations that aren't worth bothering with specifically for learning the CCNA. To temper this, I've seen people do it with just GNS3, but if you can afford a kit or a community college course with a lab it's worth it just for the access to the lab--a good instructor isn't entirely necessary, but obviously helps. If the CC does everything remotely or in simulation, don't bother. Ebay and Amazon have CCNA kits with questionably decommissioned hardware that are good enough, though it's a lot more comfortable if you can play with at least three switches and routers at once. And being able to "break poo poo" then wipe away the config is great.

Write scripts for every lab challenge you get/give yourself. Don't ever copy/paste them to complete a subsequent lab, the point is learning; not efficiency in deployment--the CCNA has lots of questions that expect that level of CLI familiarity.

It's certainly not an insurmountable challenge like some make it out to be, as you seem to be aware of with PMP, but it requires a bit of dedication. Spend a lot of time on IPv6, the new exam is heavy on it and that has definitely screwed up some people who were relying on the last version's materials.

ChubbyThePhat
Dec 22, 2006

Who nico nico needs anyone else
For my CCNA and CCNP labs, I always typed out every command. I had mental scripts of "set this up, then this, now this" etc. This way I was absolutely certain I knew what I had to do to setup each piece (especially any required dependencies). I found this to be an immense help with the exams because they can be real assholes with syntax questions. It also made the practical exams easy as hell.

Also when troubleshooting I tried to solve problems using ? before consulting command references just to pack away some extra information for the exam. In any real world scenario, I have always gone straight to a commend reference if required.

Grassy Knowles
Apr 4, 2003

"The original Terminator was a gritty fucking AMAZING piece of sci-fi. Gritty fucking rock-hard MURDER!"

ChubbyThePhat posted:

For my CCNA and CCNP labs, I always typed out every command. I had mental scripts of "set this up, then this, now this" etc. This way I was absolutely certain I knew what I had to do to setup each piece (especially any required dependencies). I found this to be an immense help with the exams because they can be real assholes with syntax questions. It also made the practical exams easy as hell.

Also when troubleshooting I tried to solve problems using ? before consulting command references just to pack away some extra information for the exam. In any real world scenario, I have always gone straight to a commend reference if required.

The number of people who I have seen think that every command needs to be in a specific order because that's the way that the Cisco labs present them is mind-boggling. "How are you configuring physical interfaces without setting up a management interface?" is a question I've been asked too many times to count.

Very few options in iOS have prerequisites, and when they do you'll typically get an error telling you as such (though the error might not make it plain).

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

ChubbyThePhat
Dec 22, 2006

Who nico nico needs anyone else

Grassy Knowles posted:

Very few options in iOS have prerequisites, and when they do you'll typically get an error telling you as such (though the error might not make it plain).

This is basically the reason why I did it. Some of my labs took a hot minute due to less than fantastic errors.

However, the first part of that post also holds merit. Don't confuse your mental script with "it must be done this way".

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply