Basically, get copies of the Cisco Exam Certification Guides for the CCNA and CCNP. Check out the Cisco Learning Center, especially for Also, obtain a good Video course, like CBTNuggets or TrainSignal, to introduce the topics and get a broad level perspective.
To build your lab, you can find real equipment on ebay. But I would suggest purchasing a powerful PC and porting GNS3/Dynamips, a cisco router emulation environment (do a google search). This provides emulated testbed of routers for the Cisco 17xx, 26xx, 36xx and 72xx etc, with real IOS capabilities. There is also enough coverage for VLANs, Layer 3 switching and trunking with the NSM module on some of the routers. I was able to emulate up to 9 routers on Windows XP running over OS-X 10.5.x bootcamp on a 2.8 GHz Quad Core MacPro.
Here are some of the areas that I enjoyed studying and a have very strong knowledge.
Most of these of these topics are covered with hands-on labs.
• Routing: OSPF/EIGRP/BGP/IS-IS, MPLS, IP Multicast, PIM, IGMP, Frame Relay, NAT
• Layer 2/3 Switching: VLANs, 802.1Q, RSTP, HSRP, PPPoE, PPPoA
• Security and Services: IPSec, GRE, Radius/AAA, VPNs, SSH, 802.1X, VoIP, Wireless
• QoS: Queuing, DSCP, Congestion Management/Avoidance, Traffic Shaping/Policing, NBAR
Wireless and VoIP require additional hardware, and you will also need to obtain a copy
a copy of the Cisco SDM for some labs.
Plan on 6-8 hours per day, 5 to 6 days per week.
I took the two test route for the CCNA. The CCNP consists of four exams, about 1 per month.
Add a week additional time in case you fail and exam and need to re-take (like I did on the BSCI). I needed to pace myself with the BSCI lab work because of the amount of fun I had doing the configurations and debug. The BSCI was the hardest and most people, I hear, opt to take
it last. I took it first and it provided a solid foundation for all the other exams. Here is a BGP lab layout from a configuration lab.
Go for it! You can do it!
