Question:
Hi,
I saw your site and I’m hoping you can help. I took the CCNA exam for the first time late last month and again last week. I feel that I understand everything well enough to have passed the previous exam, but I’m a little lost with the new emphasis on security, etc. I would like to get certified ASAP, but don’t know if there is anyone with updated material yet. Do you know of a good source of information on security that would be relevant for what Cisco is testing on?
Thanks
Matt
Answer:
Hi Matt,
Take a look at some of these new books releasing at the end of August:
http://www.ciscopress.com/title/1587201828
http://www.ciscopress.com/title/158720181X
If you are looking at the all-in-one test, you can find the exam objectives here:
http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/current_exams/640-802.html
Remember that the new exams are not available until August 15. If you currently have the CCNA books for the soon to expire test, you can certainly still use that material for 90% of it.
If you look at the objectives, you will notice mentions of “SDM”. This is a graphical GUI used to configure routers without using the CLI. The new CCNA exam seems to have included that in the objectives. This is not surprising since it’s now tested in the new CCNP track. Unfortunately, the older CCNA books make no mention of the SDM (security device manager).
Here is what you can use until the newer books come out:
-Installing SDM: http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/software/sdm/sdmi21.htm
-Everything SDM: http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/software/sdm/index.htm
-Security (Free Cisco training online): http://www.cisco.com/E-Learning/bulk/public/celc/SECR/start.html
I hope that helps,
Ted