IT Guys: Cisco advice?

[CowboysFan02]

Ok, so I want to learn Cisco routers & firewalls, does anyone have any tips, good book recommendations or websites(aside from reading Cisco documentation)?

Thanks in advance.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Take the CCNA class.

I will say this, learning is damn difficult if you don't have the infrastructure to learn on. This is what makes the Cisco classes so great. You learn to configure the equipment for all kinds of stuff you don't have.

On a personal side, I've actually started replacing some of the older Cisco routers and firewalls with Juniper. Though our switches are still Cisco.

Thats not saying Juniper are way better than Cisco, but they are extremely nice to work with.

 

[Kangaroo]

Here you go find the simulator software for CISCO it lets you configure switches etc. The commands are all the same and it acts like a router, switch etc it is just software.

Here is a link to one of them has a free demo (just research them I am not the expert on them)
http://www.boson.com/AboutNetSim.html

By a used one router for $100-$200 dollars (switch is an entirely different ball game on price). so you can touch and configure a live one. The 2500 series is like the most used one.

If you want to keep track of Cisco cutting Edge you want to read up on the Nexus series switches.

That is the wave of the future depending on your modules you buy they support prior stuff, FCOE (Fiber Channel Over Ethernet). It supports 10gb channels and 40gb and 100gb is coming (40 may be here already)

The Nexus is also gear towards supporting VMware which is growing.

I am not a network guy I just have to deal with them all the time

 

[Kangaroo]

Take the CCNA class.

I will say this, learning is damn difficult if you don't have the infrastructure to learn on. This is what makes the Cisco classes so great. You learn to configure the equipment for all kinds of stuff you don't have.

On a personal side, I've actually started replacing some of the older Cisco routers and firewalls with Juniper. Though our switches are still Cisco.

Thats not saying Juniper are way better than Cisco, but they are extremely nice to work with.

Juniper is what AT&T and other large Telcos use for their big stuff.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Juniper is what AT&T and other large Telcos use for their big stuff.

Yep, they are big time in core infrastructure. They are so much easier to work with than Cisco too.

I love their small SSG5's for SOHOs too. Those things are so freaking easy to manage and are quite powerful. Their point-to-point VPN setup is a breeze compared to many other routers.

I use clustered pairs of SSG350 at each of our co-location facilities. The 550mb full firewalled through put is nice and it can punch 225mb over a VPN at about $3500 each. That is a freaking steal.