CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) Course

 CISCO offers a number of certification courses, and the CCNA course is one of the most popular ones. This is a job-oriented course, and many students take up this course every year. CCNA full form is Cisco Certified Network Associate Course. If you are able to complete this certification course, then you will be able to move up in your career. You can work as a network engineer or network administrator. This course is about switched and routed systems. You will learn about their designing, installing, operating and troubleshooting. This is a basic course about networking. 

Quick Review -  Cisco Certified Network Associate

The duration of this course is three months to twelve months. You will be conducted an exam of 100 multiple choice questions, and you will have to clear this exam to become a CCNA professional. You will be able to earn a pretty good salary or get a good hike in your current package if you complete this course. This course is offered only by CISCO and no one else. The course fee is going to be between Rs 8,000 to Rs 15,000 only. 

CCNA Course Eligibility Criteria:

• You should have completed your 10+2 course from a recognized college. 
• You can also complete any equivalent course for getting admission in the course. 
• You don’t need any previous experience of networking to get enrolled in the course. 
• Anyone above the age of 13 years can take up this course, but with parental guidance only. If you are 18 years or above, then you can do it on your own. 

This course is very beneficial for the students to gain theoretical and practical knowledge for the ones pursuing IT sector jobs and wants to achieve new heights in the networking field. The ones interested in this course can seek the training institutions which provide quality learning in this field. The validity of this Cisco Certified Network Associate certification is 3 years. The candidates need to keep renewing it every three years to keep it updated.

The candidates passing the CCNA course would be efficient in using WAN (wide area network) to have an access to remote sites, comprehend various security threats and terminology.

CCNA course offers a wide range of employment opportunities like network engineer, network designer, network optimizer, field and system engineer, etc.

Admission procedure

A candidate need not have prior knowledge of networking to pursue this course. Anyone above the age of 13 years can pursue this course. For admission, the candidate needs to visit the official website of Pearson Vue

Subjects in CCNA Certification Course

CCNA dates its existence since 1998 and has been raining tons of candidates in network technologies. Here is a list of some important topics provided by this course to its candidates

• WLAN
• VLAN
• IP address and routing
• Network security
• Network management
• EIGRP
• OSPF
• RIP
• OSI models
• Network Device Security
• Troubleshooting

Let’s have a look at the detailed syllabus of subjects offered by the CCNA course to the candidates

IP Data Network

• Routers purpose, functions, hubs, bridges and switches
• Components required for network specification.
• Common applications
• Operation of protocols in the OSI and TCP/IP models
• Appropriate media to connect Cisco network devices to other network devices

 LAN Switching

• Technology Ethernet networks
• Basic switching concepts
• Collision and Broadcast Domains
• CAM table
• Switching types
• Cisco IOS commands
• Network status
• Enhanced switching technologies
• RVSTP
• Ethernet channels
• VLANs

 IP addressing

• Operation and need of usage of public and private IP addresses
• Identification of IPv6 addressing
• Identification of IP addressing in LAN/WAN environment
• Technological requirement
• IPv6 addresses
• Global unicast
• Link and unique local
• Autoconfiguration
• Multicast
• EUI 64

Routing Technologies for IP addresses

• Concepts for routing
• Boot process description for Cisco IOS routers with POST and Router bootup process
• Configuration of basic Router, Cisco IOS commands, device interface of both interface and serial
• Verification of network connectivity and configuration of the router according to the specified routing requirements
• Management of Cisco IOS Files including boot preferences show and change licensing, and Cisco IOS image
• Differentiation in the methods of protocols of routing and routing: link state vs distance vector; static vs dynamic
• Administrative distance
• Split horizon
• Passive interfaces
• Routing table
• Configuration and verification of a single area including neighbour adjacencies, benefits, types of LFA, router ID, multi-area description, etc
• Configuration and verification of EIGRP of a single
• Feasible Distance or Administrative distance
• Condition feasibility
• Auto summary
• Equal and unequal load balancing
• Path selection
• Configuration and verification of inter vlan routing, encapsulation, upstream and downstream routing, subinterface
• Configuration of svi interfaces

IP Services

• Configuration and verification of DHCP, the configuration of router interfaces, using DHCP options, excluded addresses, and lease time
• Types, features, and applications of ACLs
• Standard and extended editing, log option
• Configuration and verification of ACLs in a network environment
• Identification and purpose of the basic operations of NAT
• Configuration and verification of NAT according to the given network requirements
• Configuration and verification NTP as a client
• Configuration and verification of Syslog
• Description of SNMP v2 & v3

Network Device Security

• Configuration and verification of network device security features such as device password security disable telnet, physical security, service password, authentication cables
• Configuration and verification of Switch Port Security features such as sticky MAC address limitation of MAC, static and dynamic features, different violation modes such as err disable and shutdown, recovery of err-disabled, Assigning and setting unused ports to an unused VLANs
• Configuration and verification of ACLs to filter network traffic
• Configuration and verification of ACLs to limit telnet and SSH access to the router

Troubleshooting

• Correct common network problems
• Utilization of Netflow data
• Troubleshoot with IP address and host configurations.
• Resolving VLAN problems along with the configuration of IP addresses
• Troubleshoot Cisco switches with the configuration of correct encapsulation
• Resolving and Spanning Tree operation issues
• Troubleshoot and resolve routing issues
• Resolve and troubleshoot OSPF problems
• Resolving and troubleshooting EIGRP problems
• Resolve and troubleshooting interVLAN routing problems and issues of WAN implementation
• Troubleshoot and Resolve Layer 1 problems like framing, CRC, giants, runts, late collision, and input/output errors
• Troubleshooting of ethernet channel problems

WAN Technologies

• Identification of different WAN Technologies like cellular 3G/4Gand 5G, DSL, frame relay, VPN, cable, MPLS, metro ethernet, etc
• Verification and configuration of WAN serial connection
• Configuration and verification of a PPP connection between Cisco routers

Leading Institutions offering CCNA certification course

Many institutions in India are offering CCNA certification courses both in online and offline mode. This includes:

Salary

The CCNA candidates are offered a salary from 4.5 lacs -8 lacs per annum by the employers. Employers seek candidates who have exponential knowledge in network marketing. The candidates will also have a high chance of a good hike and promotion after passing this course.

Leading recruiters

Some of the leading companies who are seeking to hire candidates passed CCNA courses are-

• TATA Consultancy Services
• Wipro
• Bharti Airtel
• Vodafone
• Jio communications
• Accenture
• Reliance Communications
• HCL Technologies
• Tech Mahindra
• Cisco Systems