New Cisco CCNA R&S Certification: Forget 640-802, 640-816 and 640-822 Exams
Hello peeps!
We kick off this blog with something that (… surprise!) many of you already know. Yet, it never hurts to take a closer look, right? Or, in case you’ve been living in a cave with no Internet access studying for 640-802, 640-816 and 640-822 exams for your CCNA recently (has anyone ever done it in a cave?), this will come as a news. STOP. Now. You can’t take them anymore.
As the network technology and possibilities it brings grow, so does the demand for professional skills that employers are looking for these days. You know it. We know it. Cisco knows it. To keep up with this demand, the company has upgraded their popular CCNA program earlier this year. It is now called CCNA Routing and Switching and, according to Cisco, incorporates and reflects all latest networking trends.
CCNA R&S Certification proves your ability expertise in medium-size routed and switched networks. It covers candidates’ expanded skill set, including but not limited to the understanding of network infrastructure (mainly routing and switching), as well as wireless access, security and connectivity using WAN. It also puts a higher emphasis on the IP technology.
The new CCNA R&S Certification targets entry level network professionals with 1-3 years of experience and has no prerequisites.
As Cisco updated this certification program, required CCNA exams have been updated, too (which is not a surprise actually as Cisco tend to update their exam tracks every few years or so). On 30 September 2013, the following exams have expired: 640-802, 640-816, 640-822. You can no longer take them to achieve the CCNA certification.
Effective October, the new CCNA Routing and Switching Program requires candidates to earn a passing score on Cisco 200-120 CCNA exam (Cisco Certified Network Associate Exam) or combined passing scores on 100-101 ICND1 and 200-101 ICND2 exams (Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices, Parts 1 and 2). By the way, passing the ICND1 exam also grants the CCENT (Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician) certification.
Expired CCNA Track |
New/Current CCNA Track |
640-802 CCNA v1.1 |
200-120 CCNAX v2.0 |
– OR – |
– OR – |
640-822 ICND1 v1.1 |
100-101 ICND1 v2.0 |
+ |
+ |
640-816 ICND2 v1.1 |
200-101 ICND2 v2.0 |
Exam descriptions and candidates’ experience shows that exams tend to focus on the following topics, however, other related topics may also appear. So, this is for general guidance only, with more details available from Cisco and other sources:
Of course we aren’t done with Cisco news yet. Cisco certification tracks and programs have undergone lots of changes this year (those of you keeping an eye on the CCENT now will be saddened to find out that this certification has actually become a lot harder than it used to be back in the day). Yet, we’ll have a separate post about each and every stage of Cisco IT Certification stage soon.
Interesting posts
CompTIA CYSA+ CS0-002 – Enumeration Tools Part 1
1. Enumeration Tools (OBJ 1.4) Enumeration tools. In this lesson, we’re going to talk about some of the enumeration tools that we’re going to experience as we’re trying to enumerate our networks. Now, what exactly is enumeration? Well, enumeration is the process to identify and scan network ranges and hosts that belong to the target… Read More »
CompTIA CYSA+ CS0-002 – Vulnerability Scanning Part 3
6. Scheduling and Constraints (OBJ 1.3) Scheduling and constraints. In this lesson, we’re going to talk about scheduling and constraints. So the first question I have for you is, how often should you scan? Well, this is going to be determined based on your internal risk management decisions of your organization. If you have a… Read More »
CompTIA CYSA+ CS0-002 – Vulnerability Scanning Part 2
4. Scanner Types (OBJ 1.3) Scanner types. In this lesson, we’re going to talk about the different ways you can configure your scanner. Now, different scanners have different capabilities. Some are going to be passive, some are going to be active, and some are going to be active with particular configurations that we’re going to… Read More »
CompTIA CYSA+ CS0-002 – Vulnerability Scanning Part 1
1. Identifying Vulnerabilities (OBJ 1.3) Identifying vulnerabilities. In this lesson, we’re going to talk about the importance of identifying vulnerabilities. And the way we do this is through a vulnerability assessment. Now, it is really important to identify vulnerabilities so that you can then mitigate those vulnerabilities. Remember, every vulnerability in your system represents a… Read More »
CompTIA CYSA+ CS0-002 – Mitigating Vulnerabilities Part 2
4. Hardening and Patching (OBJ 1.3) Hardening and patching. In this lesson we’re going to talk about two key terms. And I know I’ve used these words before, but we’ve never really defined them. These are hardening and patching. Now, when I talk about system hardening, this is the process by which a host or… Read More »
CompTIA CYSA+ CS0-002 – Mitigating Vulnerabilities Part 1
1. Mitigating Vulnerabilities (Introduction) In this section of the course, we’re going to cover how to analyze output from vulnerability scanners. We’re going to stay in domain one in this section of the course, but we are going to cover multiple objectives this time, including objective 1213 and one four. Now, objective one two states… Read More »