I found an excellent video on Safari Books Online (Safari) that I have been using to study for the CCENT test. Safari has books and videos from a variety of publishers. The publisher of the video that I am going to review is from the Virtual Computer Training Company (VTC). VTC's has a website that is set up similar to Safari's if you decide to get their products directly from them. You can buy individual videos or subscribe to their online digital library of videos for a monthly fee. The Video I will be reviewing is by Bill Furguson called "Cisco CCNA 640-801." Even though this material was meant for the CCNA it also applies to the
CCENT. To get the CCNA certification you either have to pass the one
large CCNA test or you can choose to take the two test path where the
CCENT is the first of those two tests. Many of the best study guides are still made for the CCNA so you just need to adapt them to your CCENT studies. I found this video was easily adaptable and was a good supplement to my studies.
For people already familiar with the Cisco certification tests they can see that this is "old" material. The current CCNA test number is 640-802. This video was published in 2006 and it was designed for the older/out dated test material. Despite the age of the video I think this is still a very good study aid. In my mind the material you have to learn in order to pass the CCENT/CCNA test falls into three broad categories. I found this video covers the material from these three categories very well.
The first category this video covers would be what I would call "basic knowledge." This category covers all of the vocabulary and concepts that people need to understand in order to be able to talk about networking and to understand the reading that they will need to do. Much of this material is based on things that haven't changed in years so the fact that the video is older doesn't really matter. What does matter is that the video teaches the material in an easy to understand way. The fact that the material is older is actually a big help in my opinion. The basic things that networking students need to understand, like the OSI model and TCP/IP, are still pretty much the same today. There are newer things that have grown out of this basic knowledge but the basics still apply. This old material is a great introduction since much of the newer material has just added more layers on top of this basic knowledge. Sometimes for students it is easier to talk about how a Model T Ford works mechanically than to try to explain how one of today's Hybrids work. Both are still cars but those new Hybrids have just added more junk on top of that basic car concept that the Model T represents. The video sticks to the basic and fundamental knowledge which is perfect for simplifying the explanation for beginners and keeping it short for people just reviewing the material. I also think that when material is presented in a video format shorter is better anyway. More comprehensive coverage of a topic really requires a student to turn to a book for that and Safari has plenty of books that you can use to get much more in depth with. The video is only six hours and forty-five minutes long. These basic concepts are covered in about three to four hours of the video. For someone reviewing the material like me that amount of time was perfect. For someone learning it for the first time I think it would be a great introduction that would help with the reading they will still need to do.
In the second broad category is IP addressing and subnetting. This video only covers IPv4 addressing but not IPv6. People will have to supplement this video with IPv6 study materials but IPv4 is still the most important of not only these two topics but probably of all the material for either of the CCNA or CCENT tests. Bill Furguson presents the quick and easy way of figuring out IPv4 addresses using what I would call the "formula" method. There are different ways of figuring out IPv4 addresses but this is the quickest. That is important for a timed test! There are other methods that I think explain IPv4 addressing better. If you are new to IPv4 addressing and this method makes sense the first time then you are lucky and should stick with it. If you are like me then this is a great method to learn once you get the concepts down. IPv4 addressing literacy is vital for the test. Not only will there be questions about IPv4 addressing but many questions will have IPv4 addressing as part of the assumed knowledge you will need to complete a question. Many of the trouble shooting questions can't be passed without understanding IPv4 addresses or subnets. The video covers this material for about a half hour. This short and simple explanation of IPv4 addressing and subnetting alone makes watching this video worthwhile.
The last category of knowledge that this video covers is using the command line interface . During the test and on the job you will have to be able to configure routers and switches. There are GUI interfaces for configuring Cisco routers and switches but the command line is still the most important way to accomplish this. Memorizing the commands and being familiar with the command line interface is an important part of the test. If you never got comfortable with DOS or the Linux/Unix command line this can be a real hurdle for people to get past. Where this video really shines is when Bill Furguson goes to the command line interface and walks you through what he is doing. The experience of watching someone actually doing this from a video screen capture is ten times better than how any book presents this same material. The commands he demonstrates are not extensive so you will have to get a book to study to fill in the gaps. This is a great introduction and refresher though for the command line interface.
The video is almost seven hours long. This is both a good and a bad thing. The material is presented so well that you do want to see more. But then if it was a thirty hour video I maybe would have not completed it. Sometimes being too thorough is so overwhelming that you end up learning nothing, or at least feeling that way. After finishing the video I felt ready to go take the test! Then I remembered that I needed to fill in some gaps both because the material was older and that it didn't cover everything. VTC does have newer material for the CCENT. Unfortunately it is not available on Safari at the time of this post. You will have to go to their website and buy it or subscribe to their online library to access their newer videos. Safari was a great resource in that it helped me find VTC but it fell a little short in not providing the latest material for my studies. I do have the ability to go back and look for books on Safari to supplement my studies whereas VTC only has videos. For the time being I am going to stick with Safari since they have more of a variety of resources. I might in the future try VTC if I need more help with the CCENT test or if they have better coverage of another topic I am studying.
If I had to give a rating to my experience I would give the Bill Furguson video a B+ only because it is a little old, but I would also have to give Safari a B+ for not having the latest video material online in its library. I would still recommend this video for people studying for the CCNA or CCENT since it provides a great introduction or refresher that can start you on a more detailed study plan. I would also still recommend Safari Books Online as a resource but I would warn people that they need to check to see if they may need to search for more current information. Safari has the problems that all libraries with books and videos have. For a book or video to be published it may take over a year to finish. Nothing you find on a library shelf, even if it is a "digital shelf", will be the most current resource. People still need to search the Internet for the latest articles on a topic. Also once a book or video is finished publishers try to get the maximum return for their investment. Selling their products directly is the best way for them to get that maximum return. Publishers not only can get the full retail price for their material but they can also be assured distribution from their own site. Publishing something is a real risk. You need to be able to recoup your expenses and you can't be sure libraries or resellers will order your product. The fact that VTC is holding on to their "good stuff" is understandable. Maybe after a few sales it will end up on Safari. Libraries usually don't have the latest material for every topic. It would just be too expensive for them. Libraries are great resources for regular people like myself who really can't afford to have every latest book or video. I wouldn't advise making Safari or any other library your ultimate source for learning. Instead, if you supplement a library with a few well placed purchases of your own materials and do some Internet searching you will appreciate and get the best use out of a library like Safari Online Books. Both VTC's "Cisco CCNA 640-801" and Safari were a good use of my time and money and I would recommend both.
