Guys help me out

Hi everybody, I am confused and want t to take an opinion, i have 2 options i can either go for Solaris Admin or CCNA and go on to CCNP certification (i am intrest in both but have limited resources for the moment. Iventually I will do the other one later). Which one will be better??? :

The CCNA is a very good entry level certification and if you study for it properly you will have a very solid understanding of lower level networking which is essential to do any admin job.

The nice part about doing the Cisco certification is that the information from there can be applied to so many other certifications.. even though its a vendor specific cert, the skills you gain will serve you well in thousands of situations.

I second Sahirh on his suggestion.

Why don't you do the CCNA first then do the Solaris? You don't have to do the CCNA and CCNP back to back.

However, if there is a reason to do the Solaris for a specific reason, a job for instance, than I would do that first, as the CCNA is going to take a little time. I assume the Solaris won't take as long.

I actually didn't even know Solaris had a certification, did you tfs ?

As for the CCNA, I was chatting with this non techie stock broker in the train on the way back from work some time ago and he asked me what my qualifications were and when I said CCNA, he rattled off "Cisco Certified Network Associate !". Everyone's heard of it.. and unlike an MCSE, which you can just pass without knowing very much if you want to, if you do pass the CCNA you'll definetely know something about networking.

If you need study material or help with the CCNA, drop us a line, Chris, Tom and I are all certified and Chris and I both just finished recertification so we have good resources readily available for you.

I didn't know they had one, either. But everyone else does, so why not them. :lol:

Deathmatrix as per the PM you sent me, here are some ideas for getting started on a CCNA :

1. Read through all the material on the site and absorb it. If you don't understand something, post questions to the Basic Concepts forum.. read the forum topics first though as a lot of common questions (eg: on subnetting) are very well answered there.

2. Get some good books -- there is no real substitute to a well written book -- I'm a big fan of Todd Lammle's writing and have used his CCNA study guide books for both the exams. The book I used on my recertification was his CCNA Study Guide 3rd Edition.
Just as a quick hint.. you don't necessarily need to buy the book, it comes with a CD that has a softcopy in PDF format.. and if you look in the right places you can get that document.

3. Get some hands on experience with switches and routers -- if you cant get hold of one, then make sure you get some router simulation software, I recommend Bosons Router Simulator
www.boson.com
A lot of people like the outer simulator from
www.routersim.com (also by Todd Lammle I believe)

I really suggest trying to at least see the real hardware.. you gotta know what you're dealing with.

4. Do lots of practice tests, especially subnetting questions and lab simulations.. I really recommend this site :

www.celticrover.com/tig/ccna/ccnareviews.asp

The labs here are wonderful. Do all the tests and labs.

Anyway I'm a bit rushed right now, will post more later.

Cheers