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Question for the experts and experienced:

I live in a rural part of CO, working for a small service shop that does walk-ins and managed IT services. I’ve been studying for the CCNA now for around four months.

Thing is, a lot of the small local businesses we support in my neck of the woods don’t implement Cisco devices (from what I’ve seen they use a lot of Fortinet and Fortigate products).

TL;DR: considering the circumstances, would it be better for me to continue on the path to CCNA (I’m currently about half way through the CCENT book), or should I learn more generic networking and get the Network+ instead?

Thanks in advance!

@Cisco @CompTIA @Fortinet

24 Spice ups
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CCNA is a much more in depth cert than N+. Once you have your CCNA, you would normally not go back and get your N+ as it would assume that you already know the fundamentals of networking. Even though you are not seeing much cisco gear, the underlying technologies should be basically the same.

17 Spice ups
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I would say CCNA. I would go for CCENT first. CCENT covers the basics like Net + and can be used towards your CCNA

2 Spice ups
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That is coming from a guy with Net+ and no Cisco Certs. I really wish I had CCNA. Its much more valuable than Net+ to employers

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I did my CCNA first, then went and passed the Network+ test with no additional studying.

My experience was the CCNA gave me a good grounding in a lot of networking technology. For example, subnetting, that are not specifically Cisco specific.

Get both of them.

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Come to think of it. I have never had an employer or potential employer even mention Net + to me. That is how irrelevant its been for me. A+ has meant more to employers than Net +

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Get the net+ if you are planning to live/work in the same area. No need for a cisco cert when you are working on fortinet/gate. Plus, a ciso cert is brand specific… proprietary. Net+ is cross vendor, like the real world, and can teach you about networking, not just cisco products. Pretty useful on the job.

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I’m tossed. I have held both, I found CCNA had a lot more to do with the Cisco of and N+ had more fundamentals,

That said people you do the hiring (often non technical) recognize CCNA more the N+

5 Spice ups
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CCNA. Though it’s ‘vendor specific’ you will learn a lot about routing switching and such.

(Considering you are going for the CCNA Routing and Switching)

7 Spice ups
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ah, but if you have CCNA people know you can work on other brands without an issue

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Yes, Net+ has waned in popularity in recent years. I got it back in 2003 when it was more recognized and I dont have to renew it.

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While CCNA and CCENT are CISCO specific they cover just about all you want to know about networking, so it’s inclusive of Net+ topics and since most companies have tried to emulate CISCO in many ways it will still be immensely helpful.

4 Spice ups
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Can you really? I’ve met a couple of CCNA’s that could run circles around me as far as the time it took to make changes to or set up a CISCO product, but couldn’t find their way out of a paper bag (i.e. they could do anything if it wasn’t in IOS, and the terminology difference between some of the vendors and what CISCO calls something throws them for a loop.

I admit though it does show a basic fundamental understanding of networking.

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CCNA

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I am not a CCNA or networking guy, but most who have CCNA are very knowledgeable with networking. Cisco tends to be more complex than other brands.

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I have both Network+ and CCNA. I think there’s value in both. I would assume though if you had CCNA most employers aren’t going to care if you have Network+.

There is some overlap in the subject matter, but obviously CCNA is going to be very Cisco-centric and much of what’s on the exam is Cisco configurations in the command line. This is not like anything you’ll encounter on the Network+ exam.

If you’re looking to quickly get a cert, start studying for Network+. You can attain that in two months simply by studying and without any experience. CCNA is going to be much harder to get without any experience and if you do you’ll probably need at least six months of dedicated studying.

5 Spice ups
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I wouldn’t make that assumption. I have CCNA and can configure Cisco equipment in my sleep. But put me in front of something by Juniper or Brocade and I’d have to poke around quite a bit and probably waste a good amount of time figuring out a different syntax and language.

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Let’s compare the two:

CCENT

http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/exams/list/icnd1b.html#~Topics

Network +

As you can see the objectives are almost the same. The nice thing about CCENT is the fact that you can easily upgrade it to CCNA.

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Right, but CCNA means you have experience with enterprise networking equipment. Network + doesnt necessarily mean that. If you had a Juniper Cert that would be different.

My point is this Net + doesnt mean you can use Cisco, Juniper, or Brocade. It just means you have general networking knowledge. Cisco means you have general network knowledge and you can configure Cisco devices.

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It’s true that Cisco’s feature set sets the standard and many networking features and capabilities have started with Cisco. And I also agree if you have Cisco certs you probably know networking pretty well (assuming you didn’t get your cert via a brain dump).

But where I would be a bit hobbled working on non-Cisco equipment is that I have the Cisco IOS command syntax so stamped on my brain, and can do some of it almost automatically, I’d be slowed down by having to figure out the non-Cisco equivalent commands in non-Cisco equipment.