Cisco Certification: The OSI Model Isn't Just For Exams Anymore! by Chris Bryant
There's nothing I enjoy more than teaching Cisco technologies, especially CCNA candidates. Whether it's in-person or online, everyone's excited to be there. There's a sense of anticipation in the air, and everyone is ready to work hard, get their hands on the racks of Cisco routers and switches... That's why I tell CCNA and CCNP candidates that they've got to get all the hands-on practice they can; while I understand the importance of theory, the only way to develop troubleshooting ability is to work on the real deal.

CCNA 640-801 Certification Primer by Seema Kannan
The Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Certification is meant for career enhancement as well as gaining knowledge of the LAN/WAN technologies currently available for implementation. Hence, CCNA Certification can be obtained by IT professionals who have been a part of the industry for a... CCNA Exams CCNA Exam Options Single Exam Option 640-801 CCNA: Introduction to Cisco Networking Technologies and Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices OR Multiple Exams option 641-821 INTRO Beta: Introduction to Cisco Networking Technologies (INTRO) 640-811 ICND: Interconnecting Cisco...

Cisco CCNA / CCNP / BCMSN Exam Review: Trunking And Trunking Protocols by Chris Bryant
To earn your CCNA or CCNP certification, you've got to understand the basics of trunking. This isn't just a CCNA topic - you must have an advanced understanding of trunking and etherchannels to pass the BCMSN exam and earn your CCNP as well. Before we address those advanced topics, though, you... Knowing the details is the difference between passing and failing your CCNA and CCNP exams. ... The 26-byte header that is added to the frame by ISL contains the VLAN ID; the 4-byte trailer contains a Cyclical Redundancy Check (CRC) value.

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Exam Tutorial: Five Debugs You Must Know by Chris Bryant
To pass the BSCI exam and move one step closer to CCNP certification success, you've got to know how and when to use debug commands to troubleshoot and verify network operations. While you should never practice debug commands on a production network, it's important to get some hands-on... If frame relay mappings are not forming according to your configuration, run "debug frame lmi". ... Let's not ignore Layer Two! ... This debug will allow you to quickly diagnose and correct any LMI mismatches. ... When it comes to PPP, it can be very frustrating to try to spot a problem with a password or...

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Certification Exam: Frame Relay BECNs and FECNs by Chris Bryant
BECNs and FECNs aren't just important to know for your Cisco CCNA and CCNP certification exams - they're an important part of detecting congestion on a Frame Relay network and allowing the network to dynamically adjust its transmission rate when congestion is encountered. ... Frame Relay BECN Adaptive Shaping allows a router to dynamically throttle back on its transmission rate if it receives frames from the remote host with the BECN bit set. ... When KC sees the BECN bit is set to 1, the KC router knows that the congestion occurred when frames were sent from KC to GB.

Cisco CCNA Certification: Error Detection vs Error Recovery by Chris Bryant
Passing the CCNA, Intro, and ICND exam is all about knowing and noticing the details. (Which makes perfect sense, since becoming a master networking administrator or engineer is also about noticing the details!) One such detail knows the difference between error detection and error recovery. ... It's also worth reading an exam question twice when you see either term! ... They are strictly error detection schemes. ... For an example of error recovery, we look to the Transport layer, where TCP runs.

Cisco CCNA Certification: How And Why Switches Trunk by Chris Bryant
Your CCNA studies are going to include quite a bit of information about switches, and for good reason. if you don't understand basic switching theory, you can't configure and troubleshoot Cisco switches, either on the CCNA exam or in the real world. That goes double for trunking! ... Switching theory is a big part of your CCNA studies, and it can seem overwhelming at first. ... There are two major trunking protocols that we need to know the details of for exam success and real-world success, but before we get to the protocols, let's discuss the cables we need.

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Certification Exam: Cabling Your Home Lab by Chris Bryant
More CCNA and CCNP candidates than ever before are putting together their own home labs, and there's no better way to learn about Cisco technologies than working with the real thing. Getting the routers and switches is just part of putting together a great CCNA / CCNP home lab, though. ... To practice directly connecting Cisco routers via Serial interfaces (an important CCNA skill), you'll need to connect them with a DTE/DCE cable. ... Choosing and connecting the right cables for your Cisco CCNA / CCNP home lab is a great learning experience, and it's also an important part of your Cisco...

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Home Lab Tutorial: Planning Ahead For IE Study by Chris Bryant
Candidates preparing to pass the CCNP exams are putting together Cisco home labs like never before. With CCNA and CCNP home lab equipment more affordable than ever, candidates have realized the importance of working on real Cisco routers and switches on the way to earning their certifications. ... Again, I know that it's vitally important for today's CCNA and CCNP candidates to get hands-on experience with home labs. ... What kind of routers and switches should I buy now in order to use the same equipment in my CCIE home lab?" This is going to sound strange coming from me, because I'm the...

CCNA Certification: Three Occasions To Reload Or Reopen A Cisco Router Interface by Chris Bryant
Passing the CCNA certification exam means that you know how to configure and troubleshoot a Cisco router instead of using what I call the "hope method" - you know, "Let's reload the router and hope that takes care of it." The majority of Cisco router configurations take effect without the need... Finally, our old friend the SPID often makes us shut and reopen the BRI interface. ... They'll come back up and be placed into the Etherchannel. ... If the BRI interface is open and you configure SPIDs on it, the SPID can be absolutely correct and you'll still see this in the output of show isdn...