The Official CCNA Group Rules

Group Rules:
1.This is a network for the network associate. All legitimate things CCNA related, as well as most other I.T. topics may be discussed here.
2.Things that may not be discussed here include (but is not limited to): Brain-dumps, any other form of copyright infringement, any illegal activity, spam, politics, and personal attacks. It doesn’t matter if it’s legal where you live, Facebook is an American website. If you like a post, that is considered the same as if you posted it yourself.
3.If certguard.com says it’s a dump, then it’s a dump and this isn’t open to negotiation.
4.Do not post homework questions with the expectation that the answers will just be provided. We are willing to help if you don’t understand something, but this group isn’t here to just do it for you.
5.The admins, and only the admins, will decide and enforce the rules.
6.Not knowing is no excuse. You shouldn’t be posting anywhere on the Internet if you don’t know the rules. Violators of any rule are subject to immediate banning.
7. No new accounts. No offense to anyone, it's just that accounts newer than 30 days are where the majority of spam comes from. If you get turned away for this, feel free to try again later.
8. No one word answers. If you can't explain why the answer is d, then you don't need to be the 15th person saying d. Contribute something meaningful to the conversation.
9. Don't try to add people to the group. Nobody gets in without an admin's approval, and I do not approve anyone who did not join on their own.

Group FAQ:
http://www.firewallninja.info/2016/07/the-official-ccna-group-faq.html

The Official CCNA Group FAQ

I've been one of the admins of the group for a few years now, and there's a handful of questions that I see repeatedly posted.  I'm talking about the things that somebody asks at least once a week in the group.  So I've started compiling this FAQ for the group that can be posted as a response to any question that falls within this list.  As with many posts relating to the Facebook group, this will be a living document and material will be added, removed or modified as necessary.

If you haven't already read my post on how to ask better questions, maybe take a minute to look at that as well.

Do the Google

It still surprises me that in 2016, there are still people out there who cannot, or will not, use Google to find the answer to their question.  I'm the admin of a large group on Facebook that exists primarily for people pursuing the CCNA certification, though most technical discussion that stays on the right side of the law is permitted.  Since we get at least one question a day that involves something that could be solved in 10 seconds with Google such as "what is the CCNA?" or "what is Spanning Tree?" I've decided to put together a page explaining how to use Google to find what you're looking for.  And for the Microsoft slappies out there, you are more than welcome to try that other "search engine" as long as you're enjoying it's crap results.  I for one very rarely got good results when I tried it a couple times in the past.

In case you were wondering, the title of this post, "Do the Google" came from a poster on Reddit by the name of /u/sajaschi, in the Tales from Tech Support sub-reddit, that he heard from a family member who's computer he supported.   I liked the term and immediately told him that I'm stealing it. The thread is here for completeness.

Buyer Beware

While looking over the profiles of people sending me friend requests on Facebook (if I've never said two words to you before, don't bother) I came across this page Cisco Training Online which is selling CCIE bootcamps.  Just for the heck of it, I scrolled down the page.  Besides the ads for their bootcamps, one image jumped out at me. It was labeled TCP/UDP Port Numbers, and it had a very familiar theme to it.  Yes, it is one of PacketLife's cheat sheets, but with the copyright information conveniently chopped off.

So out of curiosity, I kept scrolling down the page. Everything that was text, I put into Google.  I found material copied directly from networklessons.com, material copied from a very old Cisco Press book, and material from other blogs.  They're charging money I'm sure, but have they created any original content at all?   Yes, I commented on the above post, and I commented on many others as well.  I doubt my posts will still be there by the time you see this.

If you don't stick with the well known training companies (I think it's safe to say Narbik Kocharians and Keith Barker aren't stealing content), then be sure to investigate what you're paying for.  Don't pay someone to give you material that is not theirs.  And more important, don't pay someone to give you material that is freely available on the Internet.  A web browser can do that for you free of charge.