What is the best way to teach yourself networking? What other

Reed the books, take (free) online tests to see if you have absorbed any of it, repeat until good enough.

>>60438729
So I should go for the cert?

>>60438857
No idea, I'm a NEET. Better wait for someone who knows what they're talking about.
[smiley with a carat nose]

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>>60438876

There is no future in IT.

Find a new career.

>>60438857
The only useful network certificate is CCNA. Anything else is pajeet tier

>CompTIA

Just take the fucking CCNA and make it at least look like you're not a total moron.

>>60438692
AA?
Anyway, how much networking do you know?
If you know absolutely nothing, I'd work through Jeremy Cioara's CCNA videos.
After watching all of them, I'd pick up Todd Lammle's CCNA book. Read the entire thing.
After you finish reading it, get TCP/IP vol 2 by Jeff Doyle. Yes, it's a CCIE book, no I don't expect you to read the entire thing. Read chapters 1 - 4 in section 1. The entire section is called "routing basics"
If you want to read the rest of the book, knock yourself out. It'll make the exam a lot easier
Also, before writing the CCNA exam, no matter what version you write (2 parts or 1), make sure you're really, really fucking good at subnetting. You have to be able to do it in your head to have any chance of passing.
Oh, and when you read the books and watch the videos, make sure you're actually taking notes. Just watching/reading the videos once isn't going to be enough. Take notes and review them

Okay, so that covers the book knowledge, but now what about labs?
You can pirate some cisco lab books. Go over each lab a few times. If you're feeling really autistic go do the labs on GNS3 vault.
Speaking of GNS3, use GNS3. It's not hard to find ios images.
Packet Tracer is complete shit. The only reason you should ever use packet tracer is if an instructor is forcing you to use it for an assignment.
If you don't have the space/money, you can get away with buying no physical equipment for your home lab. Switching is the only thing GNS3 is weak in, and GNS3's switching features are petty good these days.
Last time I checked the only missing features were private VLANs and layer 3 etherchannel
And lastly, install GNU/Linux. GNS3 on Windows is really poorly optimized.

Skip Net+ completely. It's useless


t. CCNP NEET

>>60439275
And if you want to go for your CCNP, I'd add in Pearson's tutorial videos to your list of materials to go through.
At the CCNP level, CBT nuggets isn't in depth enough, unless they're dedicating an entire series to one specific topic, like their BGP videos.

>>60439275
>And lastly, install GNU/Linux. GNS3 on Windows is really poorly optimized.
it's not that it's poorly optimized, it's just going to be absolute hell on your host's network settings, especially if you try to get gns3 routed out to internet

toss that bad boy in a (linux) vm to keep things clean

http://www.subnettingquestions.com/

>>60439349
that's some good info
what do you prefer CCNA over CompTIA?
What do you think about Security+ or CISSP?

>>60439448
Anything covered in the Net+ will be covered in the CCNA exam. Getting the Net+ and a cisco cert is just throwing money away
>Security+ or CISSP
They're not really comparable. The CISSP is a really high level cert, while the Security+ is a starter level cert. The Net+ and the first half of the CCNA (the CCENT) are at the same level. They're both meant for beginners.

>>60439519
Thanks
So it wouldn't make a difference if I had the CCNA for a company that does not use cisco because it would cover what net+ would have in the CCENT?

>>60439623
Yeah. The Cisco certs teach a lot of general things. The concepts and theory are the same regardless of vendor.
The syntax for commands will be different but you should be able to pick it up in no time.

>>60439623
Net+ is "vendor neutral", or in other words, they don't teach you how to actually do anything, because that would require going into detail about a specific product.

For you as a learner, this means you're not going to be able to practice anything. This also means when you get past HR and into the real interview room with someone that knows their shit, you're only going to be able to smile and nod, saying "o-oh yeah, I've heard you can do something like that", without any way of explaining the concept.


CCNA is more valuable because it's a higher proven education level, but also because the pass/fail requirement is much more stringent, you will definitely have to practice to get your CCNA, and not so much to get Net+. Everyone but HR knows that though.


Also Net+ actually does cover a couple things CCNA doesn't, like wi-fi, but again it doesn't go into any sort of depth at all.

>>60438692
Network+ is decent intro, CCENT and CCNA are decent intro. Look up the Comptia Certification Roadmap, pick a path, follow. CSSIP is not the top security there's stuff from SANs that is higher up if you take that path.

As far as networking for practical reasons, build a home lab. You will not understand things if you don't apply them in your lab. You can do this with single board computers, VMs, junk hardware you find. Just build one, run it, break it, fix it.

CCNA & use GNS3 to practice actual configurations

https://www.gns3.com/

Now how does one get a job after acquiring the knowledge?

>>60441416
Work free.

>>60441440
What organizations should I seek out?
I work for the library so at the very least I might be able to shadow the IT dep if their nice enough

>>60438692
Don't you mean your AS? Or did you get an AA in some random unrelated shit and now you want to break into IT?

>>60441491
I think he means applied associates in information technology.

>>60441460
expanding small companies with shitty recruitment skills. landed my network engineering job during my apprenticeship, got to work on the backbone after two weeks because they couldn't find anyone and i was around and able. (they couldn't find anyone because they didn't tell anyone they were looking.)

Is CCNA+general computing skills enough to get an IT job? Eg. MS Excel, Word etc, SAP (as a user) as well as put together own computers plus a bit of informal MS Server experience.

>>60441654
I would say yes, but I've got all that and never went looking for a job and still don't have a job so your mileage may vary

hopefully an IT job just falls into my lap someday soon

>>60441504
I mean, when I earned my AS it was an associates in science of computer information systems. Nothing is standard about our college system.

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So is there no point in getting a Net+ or Security+ cert from CompTIA?

>>60441882
none

only if you want to work for gov jobs that require it to check a box

>>60441882
might be worth it for learning the material

they're not bad, but like a lot of things it's just to checkmark boxes for your first job

>>60441882
My company pays for all my certs, so I got myself the NET +.

I saw it as a nice Introduction to Networking as prep for my CCNA I'll do later this year.

I don't regret it.

>>60438692
Graduate the 3rd grade.

>>60441948
This

>>60441882
Net+ is worthless

Sec+ is worth it if you don't have a degree since not only is it good on your resume, it waives a year off a requirement to become CISSP certified.

>>60439011
What did he mean by this?

>>60444221
probably something to do with most of the work being outsourced.

Only certs that matter:

Any Cisco Cert
CISSP
AWS certs
High level MS certs

That's it. Nothing else matters. You will not get a job with any CompTIA exam or most MS certs.

If you want cheap, Chris Bryant's CCNA series on Udemy goes on sale for $10 all the time, and danscorses on Youtube is a pretty good free resource.

>>60438857
If you're still around, take a proper CCNA course. If you do your shit and certify CCNA, Net+ will be a walk in the fucking park

>>60439157
CCNA is good, but CCIE is the ultimate cisco certification and makes you look like pure shining gold. Being CCIE certified makes you more than just instantly hireable, comes with many advantages and perks too, like company discounts for Cisco equipment.