How To Develop Your Cisco Troubleshooting Skills
By Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933
Developing Cisco troubleshooting skills is difficult, whether you're doing so for job or CCNA / CCNP exam success. You really can't develop troubleshooting skills from a book - you've got to work with the Cisco technologies in order to develop this important skill. Let's face it, we spend more time troubleshooting than anything else. So how do you learn to do so?
The only real way to learn how to troubleshoot is to develop that ability while working on live equipment.
Of course, your company or client is going to take a very dim view of you developing this skill on their live network. So what can you do?
Assemble a Cisco home lab. When you start working with real Cisco equipment, you're doing yourself a lot of favors. First, you're going to be amazed at how well you retain information that will become second nature to you before exam day. But more importantly, both for the exam room and your career, you're developing invaluable troubleshooting skills.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying knowing the theory of how routers and switches work is unimportant. Quite the opposite - if you don't know networking theory, you're not going to become a CCNA or CCNP. But the ability to apply that knowledge is vital - and the only way you can get that is to work on real Cisco routers and switches. As for these "router simulators" on the market today, ask yourself this simple question: "When I walk into a server room, how many router simulators do I see?"
I often tell students that they'll do their best learning when they screw something up. I've had many a student tell me later that I was right - when they misconfigured frame relay, ISDN, or another CCNA / CCNP technology and then had to fix it themselves, it not only gave them the opportunity to apply their knowledge, but it gave them the confidence to know they could do it.
And you can't put a price on confidence - in the exam room or in the network center!
To your success,
Chris Bryant
CCIE #12933
chris@thebryantadvantage.com
Whether You Prefer The Ebooks In My CCNA Study Package Or My CCNA Video Boot Camp, I'm Ready To Help You Earn Your CCNA - Just As I've Done For CCNAs Around The World!
Just Click The Banners Below For More Details!
|
