CCNA vs. MSCA

[24giovanni]

Hi,

Can someone please tell me the difference between these 2 cert. programs? Do they teach you the same stuff? If one takes the CCNA course, does it teach you A+, NETWORK+ and LINUX+? If not, do you have to pass those courses before you take a CCNA course.

Please let me know.

TIA

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

I am not familiar with MSCA, but I hold a CCNA Certificate. To start a CCNA course, no prior knowledge or certificate's are REQUIRED, but it is a good idea to be familiar with networking, and binary before you dive in.

NO, if you take a CCNA course, you will learn NOTHING about Linux, Minimal about A+, and (not sure what you mean by Network+, but, ) CCNA is Cisco Certified NETWORK Associate...

The different courses you mentioned are all completly different.

 

[Law]

I took the CCNA certification about a year ago, the ciscopress book CCNA1-4 will teach the fundamental for passing the Network+ also. Network+ is easy if you know your cisco stuff. I think to be able to qualified for the CCNA you must atleast take few hours of class, that was what I heard from them.

A+ certification are in it's own preference and doesn't relate to CCNA or Network +. You can find A+ book at compUSA or whatever, there's no qualification, just read a A+ book and you can take both the Hardware and OS exam.

A good site to get knownledge about certifications is at http://www.techexams.net/index.shtml

Did you mean MCSA? http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcsa/windows2003/default.asp

 

[24giovanni]

Ethereal_Dragon, Do you learn anything about servers themselves? In other words, if something was wrong with it couldyou solve the issue if it was h/w related?

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

No, you will learn NOTHING about servers in a Cisco class... With a Cisco certification, you learn how to troubleshoot the Network. I don't know what one would persue to learn servers, but Cisco probably wouldn't be the 1st choice.... (Although, the knowledge gained through the CCNA can help to be able to isolate trouble on the network, wether it is the router / swtich / etc... )

There is NO pre-requisites to take the CCNA. All you have to do is schedule a test (~$125) and walk in and take it. You can either study the material yourself, or take classes.

 

[Law]

If you wanted to learn about servers, then it depends on what you want to work with. Do you want to work with Microsoft product or Novell or Linux/Unix system? If you are thinking about getting into the Information Technology field, there are a whole bunch of things to learn, every dang company have thier own dang proprietary stuff. It makes this field very vast and hard but challenging and rewarding in the end.

 

[24giovanni]

I want to get into networking. Do you guys suggest going the CCNA way then? I would probably want to take a hands on class that lasts a
couple of months. I live in Mass. and would like to find out if there are any courses in my area?

Do you guys know of any?

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

In my area, (Chicago Suburbs) there are MANY places that you can take a networking course. Just about EVERY community college would offer such courses, and there are 'tech' schools also that do them. I would suggest that you contact a local community college, and see if you can get some info from them, They should be able to tell you what types of classes they offer in the field, and might even have an alternate school to refer you to if they don't have many..

 

[evelmunkey]

I learned a great deal when I went became a CCNA. It is all cisco hardware but the fundamentals are the same no matter what. I think it was good material.

 

[24giovanni]

Any other advise from those with the certs?