What is this whole certification thing about? I mean why would someone want to become Cisco Certified? What reasons could anyone have for wanting to get CCENT or CCNA training, let alone CCNP training, when they could just sit down with a good book and read it for themselves?

Well let me tell you something. It’s not as easy as it sounds to just pick something up and figure it out. How long did it take for man to figure out this thing called fire or how about the wheel? Trial and error is an incredible way to truly know what works and what doesn’t and how much time and effort is involved with trying every possible permeation…I have only found three ways of learning something, and figuring it out for myself takes the longest by far.

Reading a book, well to be more specific—several books, by separate authors all focused on Cisco Certification is the next largest time sink. Who has the ability or time to burn through the recommended 3600 pages of material? Realistically, you will have to read those books two, if not three times, to truly get a good handle on the topics.

Of course, that’s only the first batch by author #1. What about someone else’s spin on the material? Each author will have a separate take on it, putting a different spin on trying to explain it. In the end, you will have 1500 pages of reading to tackle for your CCNA, and 10K to square up to your CCNP. Don’t even get me started on my recommended reading list for the CCIE!

OR…

…You could ask someone who has been there. Someone who has beaten their heads on a desk for days on end. Someone who has read those pages. Someone who has made it work.

Sometimes it is really quite hard to draw a picture about a technical topic using the written word. But remember what ‘ma’ always said. “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Here is an example.

According to Cisco http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/556/8.html
Term Definitions
Cisco defines these terms as:
• Inside local address—The IP address assigned to a host on the inside network. This is the address configured as a parameter of the computer OS or received via dynamic address allocation protocols such as DHCP. The address is likely not a legitimate IP address assigned by the Network Information Center (NIC) or service provider.
• Inside global address—A legitimate IP address assigned by the NIC or service provider that represents one or more inside local IP addresses to the outside world.
• Outside local address—The IP address of an outside host as it appears to the inside network. Not necessarily a legitimate address, it is allocated from an address space routable on the inside.
• Outside global address—The IP address assigned to a host on the outside network by the host owner. The address is allocated from a globally routable address or network space.
…Yeah, why not just say, or better yet draw:

(click to enlarge)

An illustration like this can make all the difference in the world when you are trying to earn you CCENT, CCNA or CCNP or heck any Cisco certification. This is the reason you take a class. To SEE and understand not just READ.