Information Technology for The World

Cisco Networking, How Do I get into this field?

The only experience I have with computers is using office software like Excel, Word etc... I know nothing about Cisco Networking or routers. I want to become Cisco Certified and start a career. Where do I start?

Public Comments

1. Start by getting to know cisco. They have pretty good network stuff. Also get to know computer ALOT more.
2. take a computer program c ++ learn it and live it.. it a cool program. i suggest to take that program in a community college not in a high school cuz i know they teach that but its not that advance as others.
3. Cisco networking is not an easy task you should first get a training of network plus or A+ after this enter in CCNA training which is the first and basic class of Cisco networking called Cisco Certified Network Associates and after one year experience in CCNA job complete your CCNP which is a professional course called Cisco Certified Network Professional and if you want to do a PHD in networking then complete CCIE Cisco Certified Inter network Expert all of these exams are online and after the exam you will get an award with certificate of Cisco from America with the sign of the owner John Chamber who is like Bill gates of Microsoft after this i would prefere to do MCSE in order to be a full Expert in GUI mode and Command line mode because microsoft networking is spreaded all over the world and all the network professionals are implementing Microsoft network in user end and Cisco switches and routers in background of Microsoft Network MCSE is called Microsoft Cetified System Engineer
4. I will sugust you to study hardware type some course, to get knowlege who computer works and if a hardware occors a problem then you will be able to replace the hardware like NIC card, RAM, etc Because if you are going to do a network job no company will let you practice in a live envoirment. Being a network expert I will sugust you to study MCSE first because this is the base of all networks and the things will be teached you quite deeply and all the LAN work as windows LAN is the first step. WAN is 2nd step like cisco's CCNA, CCNP CCIE are the studies available. In LAN you will learn who to take care of a network of 500 PC's but in WAN it will be teached that how to handle the trafic going towards internet and how rapidly it should work. without basic you cannot go up. In LAN or MCSE will teach you some Remote desktop, how to logon others PC even you are sitting in London and you are using a PC which is in Newyork. and very Important OSI refrence model In which it is teached about the 7 layers of computer and on which layer what task is performed. In detailed In WAN Layers is every thing how the layers work and which layer performs which task. If your basic concepts are not strong you will have difficulty to uderstand the WAN technology.
5. Start by Getting your Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) certificate. it'll give you the basics of the Internet Protocol (IP). Self study books are so good from Cisco press. But there is a very good book by Todd Lammle take a look at it. also get a simulation software like Boson it's really helpful. After the CCNA you can choose your career path wither it is in networking (CCNP) or security (CCSP) or voice (CCVP) Then you can go to your CCIE. Visit the cisco site (www.cisco.com) for more information and good luck