A CCENT certified IT professional is worth his weight in gold in the industry. if not in platinum. The CCENT certification is a valued course in the IT industry for network professionals, their managers and the companies where they work. The certification is conducted by CISCO, which is a multibillion dollar multinational corporation with a presence in various countries. It is in the business of selling and designing networking and communication technology and allied services.

Besides being CCENT certified you can earn five levels of IT certification by CISCO i.e Associate,. Entry, Expert, Professional, and Architect. You can. specialize in various fields which can be chosen to suit your ultimate role in industry. The various options are Service Provider, Network Security, Routing and switching etc.

To be CCENT certified your skills are compared to what is needed for a job in network support at an entry level A CCENT certified individual can operate and manage all sorts of problems in a small enterprise branch network including its security. To be CCENT certified is the first step in getting a CCNA certification which is needed for job access to bigger networks. . The CCENT certification exam is called the 640-822 ICND1 or the Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices Part-1 Exam. It has duration of 90 minutes and means answering a total of 40-50 questions. It is conducted in various languages like English, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Russian. Korean, French and Portuguese

CCENT requirements entails that you take the ICND1 v1.0 course. . The exam asks you questions on fundamentals of networking, getting connected to WAN, basic concepts of security and wireless, fundamentals of routing and switching. OSI and TCP\IP models, WAN technologies, IP addressing, configuring and operating IOS devices, configuring RIPv2, default and static routing and implementing DHCP and NAT.

To describe it in more detail to be CCENT certified you need to answer questions on description and operation of data networks, how to run a small switched network, implementing IP services and IP addressing schemes for requirements of a small branch office. and how to implement a small routed network. . There will also questions which will ask you to explain and select the appropriate administrative tasks required for a WLAN, identify security threats and decription of methods of controlling them and also questions on implementing and verifying WAN links.

The ICND1 v1.0 course is taught by CISCO learning partners who according to CCENT requirements impart CISCO IT training. At the classroom level the course is conducted by CISCO certified instructors.

There is a link on the CISCO website by which one can view locations of learning partners in every country.

The ICNDI v1.0 course consists of 5 days of virtual classroom and web based training, five days of classroom and 5 days of remote lab and simulations. When one finishes the course, one learns how networks function and can identify and know the functions of major network components and the open system interconnection reference model. You also learn to use host to host packet delivery process and becoming familiar with issues relating to increased traffic on Ethernet LAN and identifying switched LAN technology solutions to Ethernet. The trainee also learns the reasoning process behind connecting networks with routers and how routed networks transmit data through networks using TCP\IP . The student also learns major WAN devices, configuring PPP encapsulation, static and dynamic routing, PAT and RIP routing.. He also learns wireless access methods.

Books for this certification can be purchased from the CISCO market place bookstore and are printed by CISCO press. Prospective aspirants to the certification course are urged to go through these books before their exam..

After being CCENT certified the job aspirant is advised to visit the CISCO job portal and land himself a job in a branch offices of companies having small networks.

As stated earlier being CCENT certified produces around the trainee an aura of invincibility and superiority. Any small network support job in the industry is his for the asking.