Has anyone ever used an online provider of training for Cisco CCENT / CCNA etc? I want to try doing the CCENT just to see if it's something I can further my career with. I know the exam will be at a Thompson Prometric centre or similar but can't really dedicate an afternoon a week or whatever to going to a college.

There's far too many choices when Googling so I wondered if anyone has used a particular company?

I have , but my advice would be not to bother.

Buy a couple of decent books and a couple of cheap cisco routers and switches to set up your own lab at home.

The TV qualifications arent full CISCO, and as far as employers go, you may as well not have them is what I keep getting told by people who've done it.

The only people with a dream IT job and fat salaries are the firms peddling these courses.

Proper courses are several £1,000 EACH, and made up of several parts (Ciso is 4 IIRC, Microsoft about 5)

I don't want to be a network engineer as such, if I did start I would be aiming towards CCVP as it's telephone systems and VoIP systems I work with. At my company we have a very competent network engineer who completely baffles me when we are working with IP based systems!

The manufacturer of the systems we sell demand either CCNA or CTP ( CTP - The leading vendor-neutral certification for convergence professionals. ) I have the CTP but it's fairly basic really.

I'm not a complete numpty when it comes to networks but I would like a better understanding of the technologies I work with, plus it will look good on the CV

Thanks for the replies so far.

I have a relative that is the network manager for a large manufacturer of DAB radios. When i was looking to do networking my local college was doing CISCO courses and i asked for his advice. He basically said the same as Dr. Zoiberg. Buy some books and self study. But you have to be determined and you sound like you are. The good thing is you already have an understanding of Networks but i believe CISCO pushes the boundaries further and goes into greater detail.

Have a look at the Certforums web site.

Self studying seems to be the most practical way for you. Buy some books and get a good Cisco router simulator which would defintely help and also cheaper than buying hardware.

Definatly self study-able. As to whether it pays off, its worked well for me so far job wise. Also, it gives a very good insight into the area of networking for those who (like myself) dont yet work in it but wish to.

Good luck:thumbup:

I'm studying towards CCNA at the moment - I was just using the Cisco Academy books but I've recentlt bought a course from The Bryant Advantage which seems pretty good so far. The Cisco Press books make fairly dry reading in parts (particularly routing protocols) but the Bryant material is more interesting.

The course was £47 - it's an ebook download and exam simulator. The biggest problem I'm having is finding time to study...

You can pickup Cisco kit cheap on ebay and build your own lab - it's better than the simulators.

I don't want to be a network engineer as such, if I did start I would be aiming towards CCVP as it's telephone systems and VoIP systems I work with. At my company we have a very competent network engineer who completely baffles me when we are working with IP based systems!

The manufacturer of the systems we sell demand either CCNA or CTP ( CTP - The leading vendor-neutral certification for convergence professionals. ) I have the CTP but it's fairly basic really.

I'm not a complete numpty when it comes to networks but I would like a better understanding of the technologies I work with, plus it will look good on the CV

Thanks for the replies so far.

I'm a telecom system engineer like you, I looked into this just before christmas. (Got made redundant) I was quoted between £2,500 and £5000 to complete a basic cisco course. Didn't bother got a new job and the service manager is cisco trained and is teaching me now!!! so saved myself some dosh.My advice is don't bother. find somebody that can show you as experience is better than qualifications.

I'm a telecom system engineer like you, I looked into this just before christmas. (Got made redundant) I was quoted between £2,500 and £5000 to complete a basic cisco course. Didn't bother got a new job and the service manager is cisco trained and is teaching me now!!! so saved myself some dosh.My advice is don't bother. find somebody that can show you as experience is better than qualifications.

I'm getting experience all of the time (swapped a broken Nortel BCM50 out the other day and got the remote IP Phones up and runing without too much trouble) but as well as the experience the Cisco certifications certianly look good on the CV.

The fella who does our networking isn't the most patient of people and is unlikely to "just go over that again" so the knowledge I have at the minute is pretty much self taught.

Think 'i'll go down the self study route to be honest, what do people think of this lab setup:

CISCO CCNA Router Switch Lab (2610 2500 2600 2924 CCNP) on eBay, also Cisco, Wired Routers, Networking, Computing (end time 03-Mar-09 09:32:51 GMT)

Think 'i'll go down the self study route to be honest, what do people think of this lab setup:

CISCO CCNA Router Switch Lab (2610 2500 2600 2924 CCNP) on eBay, also Cisco, Wired Routers, Networking, Computing (end time 03-Mar-09 09:32:51 GMT)

I bought a couple of routers from that ebay vendor - delivery was lightening quick and the CDs he sends you have a fair amount of training materials on. Prices are fairly keen too.

The package he's offering there seems fairly comprehensive and you can always buy additional kit as you need it.