Azid's InfoSec Journey

Cisco has changed the CCNA certification completely. Now, they have removed a lot of certifications and made it into one. CCENT/ICND1 has been removed and the CCNA will be one exam. But this shouldn't be a problem to those who have already started studying for the ICND1. The deadline to get the CCNA is February 2020. This leaves us 8 months. This is motivation and a push for the people delaying studying. Now they have to.

I chose CBTNuggets to help me study for the CCENT and I am glad. The lot of users on Reddit and other internet sites really recommend the CBTNuggets video course. So this is what I used to study. It was totally worth it. Jeremy Cioara has a way of teaching that makes all topics interesting and you dont get bored easily while watching his videos. He gives a lot of real life examples and the videos have many exercises so that you can do it with him. He uses real equipment, so if you are using GNS3 and Packet Tracer you will have to have it setup and ready. You should also know how to use these virtual labs. I chose the video course because reading from a book is very dry for me and I might lose interest. He covers every topic which is given in the List of topics on the Cisco website. He also keeps the viewers engaged. You will have to take a lot of notes (I did this). Thats how you will retain a lot of information and you can see that he actually covers all topics. Yes,...

If you're using Packet Tracer for your CCNA preparations, then this guide will help you. I well tell you how to install Packet Tracer and some basic ways you can use Packet Tracer for the CCNA. Installation - Go to this link. Click on Sign up and fill all the required details. I recommend you to use your own email address as you have to keep signing in when using Packet Tracer. You will get a similar page after creating an account. Click on Launch Course. Now you will be directed to the Packet Tracer course page.     Now click on Student Resources. You will get the following page: Scroll down on the page and click on Download and install the latest version of Packet Tracer. You will be taken to this page:     Click on the version on Packet Tracer you want to download. I will download the latest version of Packet Tracer and I recommend you to do the same. I will download Cisco Packet Tracer 7.2.1 You will be taken to a page with...

Reddit is a very useful website for discussions about everything. For cybersecurity and hacking too, it has useful subreddits, in which, you will learn a lot of things you previously had no knowledge of. So, I have compiled a list of security related subreddits. 1. Active and Most helpful subreddits: /r/netsec /r/AskNetsec /r/netsecstudents These three are pretty much it. They have very active communities and are very helpful. I, personally use  /r/netsecstudents a lot because I'm still in the process of learning and that subreddit(if you look properly) will tell you how to make a career in every security field. 2. Security Certification Subreddits: r/CompTIA (for Security+) r/ccna (for CCNA and CCNA Security, also r/ccnp for CCNP) r/CEH (for CEH) r/cissp (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) r/oscp (Offensive Security Certified Professional) Really helpful if you're doing any of these Certs. 3. Other...

Once you break into a system, then what? If you don't know how to use it, you will be stuck. There are a large number of InfoSec tools that are built to run on Linux. It makes sense to understand the platform that these tools run from. Although cyber security may be managed from macOS, Windows, or Linux, most of the common tools are available only on Linux. With Kali Linux being at the lead of the pack. In my journey, I knew I had to learn Linux. What I did first was install Kali Linux on VirtualBox and try and learn. This is bad. Really bad. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know basic usage. This is when I read an amazing statement- You can't learn how to drive in a F1 racecar.  This is when I realized that I was wrong. I had to learn Linux in the easiest distro, not the most powerful one. I told myself I wouldn't use Kali until I was ready to use it. This is because, learning was a pr...

So, this is what I did to learn IT fundamentals.  I knew that Comptia A+ was a really good cert which has a lot of topics and covers the basics of IT, so I decided to study for COMPTIA A+. I used Professor Messer's video's on YouTube. They were really helpful. Also, I used Cybrary . I didn't really get certified, I studied just for the knowledge. Thanks for reading! AZID

This is show I plan on studying for the first part of the CCNA R&S exam. MATERIALS: 1. CBT Nuggets I am going to be using Jeremy Cioara's CCENT course on CBT Nuggets. These videos have been recommended by a lot of people and this is the first thing I'm going to do. 2. Books I have the Official Cert Guide by Odom and this is going to be the main book I'm going to use. I also have Todd Lammle's CCENT book as a PDF. I might use this as reference for some topics. 3. Labs I am using Packet Tracer and GNS3. I cannot afford a hardware lab, so I'm going to be using a Virtual Lab. STUDY PLAN: First Step: I'm going to go through the CBT Nuggets videos and make a lot of notes from them. Second Step: Packet Tracer and GNS3 Labs with the videos. Third Step: Use the books and study the whole portion to perfect it. Fourth Step: Practice questions using 1001 CCNA questions book and other sources.  Thanks for rea...