Cisco CCNA Certification Exam Tutorial: Configuring And Troubleshooting VTP by Chris Bryant
Not only is your CCNA exam going to have questions on VLAN trunking protocol, almost any network that has more than one VLAN is going to have VTP running. Whether you're planning on passing the CCNA exam or just brushing up on your networking skills, this VTP tutorial will help you learn the... Learning VTP isn't just a good idea for passing your CCNA exams, it's a skill you must have to be effective in configuring and troubleshooting VLANs. ... They do forward the VTP advertisements received from other switches.

Learning To Navigate Cisco's Online Documentation by Chris Bryant
When studying for your Cisco CCNA, CCNP, or CCIE exam, you've got a powerful online weapon at your disposal. It's Cisco Connection Documentation, found at www.cisco.com/univercd. This site contains product, code, and protocol documentation for all Cisco products. ... Many exam candidates really don't start using this powerful tool until they're studying for their more advanced exams. ... Beyond any exam value the online Cisco documentation gives you, it serves another valuable purpose. ... You can then back out and go through the same steps for the Command Reference.

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Home Lab: Why You Need An ISDN Simulator by Chris Bryant
ISDN is a vital topic for today's CCNA and CCNP candidates, especially for the ICND and Intro exams - you've got to know ISDN inside and out to pass those exams. Naturally you want to include it in your home lab. What many candidates don't realize is that you can't connect two Cisco routers... Either way, an ISDN simulator is great for your CCNA/CCNP home lab, because you can practice dial scenarios that actually work. ... Cisco recently removed ISDN from the CCIE R&S exam, so a lot of CCIE rack resellers as well as private individuals are selling their simulators.

Microsoft Certification: The New MCTS Tracks And Exams by Chris Bryant
Microsoft is revamping its certification tracks, and will eventually retire the familiar MCSE certificatons. The new certification setup is much like Cisco's, where there are specialist certifications to go along with the more general CCNA, then mid-level certifications such as the CCNP, and... There is also a one-exam SQL Server 2005 certification, as well as a BizTalk Server 2006 single-exam certification. ... I know it's easy to take verbal shots at Microsoft (it'll be an Olympic sport one day), but this new series of certs does have appeal for hiring managers, which can only help...

IT Certification Exams: 3 Most Popular Mistakes by Divya Chopra
Parallel to the growth of the IT Industry, the value and importance of IT certification exams has also gain significant momentum. More and more people are pursuing these exams and organizations are also encouraging their employees to take these certifications. ... An IT certification exam like MCSE or CCNA, may 'help you get a job' but it alone can't give you a job. ... They just add the cost of exam or the cost of training aids they plan to take. ... Working professionals also expects huge raises on taking the certification exam.

Cisco CCNA Certification: Four Tips To Use DURING The Exam by Chris Bryant
There are plenty of articles out there about how to prepare for the CCNA exam. However, there are also things you can do to increase your chances of success on exam day during the most important part of the entire process -- the time that you're actually taking the test. ... They allow you to block out all noise and annoyances, and do what you came to do -- pass the exam. ... Wearing headphones during the exam is a great way to increase your powers of concentration. ... Whatever the reason, it's the question that has you thinking, "WHAT??" I have talked with CCNA candidates who got to such...

Cisco CCNA Exam Tutorial: Loopback Interfaces by Chris Bryant
As a CCNA candidate, you most likely have some background in PC hardware and workstation support. If so, you're already familiar with loopback interfaces, particularly 127.0.0.1, the loopback address assigned to a PC. When you're learning all about the different physical interfaces for your CCNA... Note that this reserved address range does not apply to loopbacks on Cisco devices, however. ... If you attempt to assign an address from this range to a Cisco loopback interface, you get this result: R1#conf t Enter configuration commands, one per line.

Cisco Certification: The "Secret" Key To Getting Your CCNA And CCNP by Chris Bryant
Whether you're working on your CCNA or CCNP, Cisco certification exams are the most demanding computer certification exams in the IT field. Cisco exams are not a test of memorization, they're a test of your analytical skills. You'll need to look at configurations and console output and analyze... By using debugs as part of your CCNA and CCNP studies, you're going beyond just memorizing commands and thinking you understand everything that's happening when you enter a command or two. ... You move to a higher level of understanding how routers, switches, and protocols work -- and that is the...

Cisco CCNA Exam Tutorial: Using Trivial File Transfer Protocol (FTP) by Chris Bryant
One of the first things you do when you start studying for the CCNA exam is memorizing a list of port numbers and the protocols that run on those ports. If you're an experienced networker, you know most of the protocols that are mentioned - DNS, DHCP, FTP, SMTP, and so on. ... But there's one protocol that you might not have experience with, but is actually vital for CCNA exam success and success in working with Cisco routers and switches, and that's TFTP - Trivial File Transfer Protocol. ... And take it from me, when the day comes that you need those backups, you’ll be glad you did!

CCNA Exam Tutorial: MAC Addressing Formats And Broadcasts by Chris Bryant
Your CCNA exam success depends on your mastery of networking, routing, and switching fundamentals. Those fundamentals have to include knowledge of MAC addresses, so let’s take a close look at Media Access Control addressing. A typical MAC address looks something like this: af-14-b3-c2-14-45... In tomorrow’s CCNA exam tutorial, we’ll take a look at how switches build a table of MAC addresses and the actions a switch can take with incoming frames. ... Watch out for any MAC address that contains a letter that comes after "F" in the alphabet - that's an invalid address.