CCNA Certification Exam Training: Circuit Switching vs. Packet Switching by Chris Bryant
CCNA certification exam training is all about learning the details, and an important part of your CCNA test prep is knowing the differences between Cisco router and switch technologies that are somewhat similar. Packet switching and circuit switching are both methods of getting packets from... While most packet-switching technologies are cheaper to run than most circuit-switching technologies, that cost is offset by the slight delay inherent to packet switching. ... The deciding factor between circuit switching and packet switching comes down to the tolerance for delay.

Cisco CCNA Certification: The (Many) Different Kinds Of Switching by Chris Bryant
When you're studying for your CCNA exam, whether you're taking the Intro-ICND path or the single-exam path, you're quickly introduced to the fact that switching occurs at Layer 2 of the OSI model. No problem there, but then other terms involving switching are thrown in, and some of them can be... Most confusing of all, how can you have "packet switching"? ... Packet switching, for example, describes a protocol that divides a message into packets before they're sent. ... The circuit-switching technology most familiar to CCNA candidates is ISDN.

Router - Transmitting Packets by Michael Russell
In a previous article we discussed the basics of what a router did. We're now going to get into a more detailed, and yes technical, explanation of how packets are transmitted as well as a few other tech specs of how routers work. So put on your learning caps because you're in for a real mind... Internet data, whether it be in the form of a web page, a downloaded file or an email message, travels over what is called a packet switching network. ... Each packet contains quite a bit of information including the sender's address, the receiver's address and of course the information being sent...

Understanding the Components of a Home Network by Jeff Heaton
Home networks are becoming more common. People want to be able to share a single broadband Internet connection to several computers in the house. There are many different devices that you can use to make up your home network. If you have never heard network terminology device names like router,... I will refer to the term packet several times in this article. ... A switch will only send Ethernet packets to the computer that the packet was intended for. ... Any packet that is sent out by any computer on the network will immediately be transmitted to the other computers.

ADSL Routers by Ross Bainbridge
A circuit in an ADSL is defined by endpoints. A route is defined as the path that is taken between these endpoints. Switching is the process of making a path available for use by a circuit. A router shifts data from one route to another. It also allows for access to various fixed or temporary... In a scenario where User A and User B are located on the same LAN, the router does not do anything except examine the packet. ... Routers must essentially contain the address information that is associated with each individual packet.

Cisco CCNP / BCMSN Exam Tutorial: Switches, QoS, And Cisco's Networking Model by Chris Bryant
QoS is a big topic on your BCMSN and CCNP exams, and for good reason. As more and more traffic flows through today's networks, accurately applying QoS to both your routers and switches becomes more important. Note the phrase "accurately applying". You must have a plan in place before you start... The key with core switches is to use a simple queuing setup to keep the switching process fast. ... The QoS workload should be borne by the Access and Distribution layers, because the Core layer switches need to be left alone as much as possible to their primary purpose - switching!

Vlans by Kashif Raza
In order to implement VLANs in a network environment, you'll need a Layer 2 switch that supports them. Almost all switches sold today that are described as "managed" switches provide the ability to make ports members of different VLANs. However, switches that don't provide any configuration... A Layer 3 switch is generally a Layer 2 switching device that also includes the ability to act as a router, usually through the use of additional hardware and software features. ... In some cases, it's entirely possible that a packet will leave switch port 1, be forwarded to an external router, and...

Cisco CCNA Exam Tutorial: Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) by Chris Bryant
The Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) sure looks simple enough, but there are quite a few details to know for success on the CCNA exam. In your CCNP studies, you'll be introduced to additional uses for CDP, but for now it's enough to know that CDP is designed to give you information regarding... cdp timer defines how often CDP packets are transmitted, and cdp holdtime defines how long a device will hold a received packet. ... R2#conf t R2(config)#interface bri0 R2(config-if)#no cdp enable CDP is disabled on the BRI interface.

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Certification Exam: Same Command, Different Results by Chris Bryant
As a CCNA or CCNP, one thing you've got to get used to is that change is constant. Cisco regularly issues new IOS versions, not to mention the many different kinds of hardware they produce! While it's always nice to have "the latest and the greatest" when it comes to routers, switches,... Commands are going to be different, sometimes radically so, between models. ... SW1#show monitor session 1 Session 1 --------- Type : Local Session Source Ports : Both : Fa0/1 Destination Ports : Fa0/2 Encapsulation : Native Ingress: Disabled As a CCNA and CCNP, this is one of those things you...

Back To The Basics: Communication Devices by Deb Jensen
Since today's communication technology can be confusing for many people, Genesis Global, Inc. wants to go back to the basics and take a brief look at the various types of communication channels available. This article addresses eight basic factors which affect data transmission: "transmission... These start and end bit patterns synchronize internal clocks in the sending and receiving devices so that they are in time with each other." Packet Switching Messages are broken or divided into packets when sent and pieced back together to form the original message within a network.