 Category :: Computer Certification Articles |
Author :: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933  |
| |
| Article Title :: Passing The CCNA and CCNP: Home Lab Shopping On Ebay |
| |
| Whether you're just getting ideas for your Cisco home lab or adding to your existing lab, ebay is a great place to get ideas for your lab as well as pick up some great bargains.
Of course, the internet being what it is, there are always going to be a few people looking to take your money while shipping you inferior merchandise, or worse, no merchandise at all. While these "dealers" are in the minority, you still need to be careful when purchasing Cisco equipment on ebay. In this article, I'll give you several tips on browsing ebay ads for home lab ideas, and a few things to look out for when purchasing equipment on ebay.
For those of you just starting your Cisco certificat (read full article) |
| |
 |  |
| |
| Category :: Computer Certification Articles |
Author :: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933 |
| |
| Article Title :: Passing The CCNA and CCNP: Three Myths About Cisco Exams |
| |
| One of the drawbacks to the Internet is that it allows myths and "friend of a friend" stories to spread quickly, and usually the story becomes more exaggerated as it's passed along. Cisco exams are no exception. Here are three often-repeated myths and exaggerations regarding the CCNA and CCNP exams.
1. The survey you fill out before the exam determines the questions you'll get. Before you actually start your exam, Cisco presents you with a survey asking how you prepared and how comfortable you feel with certain technologies. It's a little awkward to rate yourself on Frame Relay, ISDN, etc., especially since the exam you're about to take covers those subjects. It's human nature t (read full article) |
| |
| |
| |
| Category :: Computer Certification Articles |
Author :: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933 |
| |
| Article Title :: How To Earn CiscoÂ’s Firewall Specialist Certification |
| |
| Security is a hot topic in today's networks, and will continue to be for a long time to come. With that in mind, you must consider adding a Cisco security certification to your resume and firewall skills to your skill set.
It's quite a jump from the CCNA to the CCSP (Cisco Certified Security Professional), and Cisco has made that leap more manageable by adding Specialist certifications. These certifications can give quite a boost to both your resume and your skill set, and act as a great "stepping stone" to the CCSP.
At present, Cisco offers four VPN/Security certifications, those being Cisco Firewall Specialist, Cisco IPS Specialist, Cisco VPN Specialist, and Cisco (read full article) |
| |
| |
| |
| Category :: Computer Certification Articles |
Author :: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933 |
| |
| Article Title :: Passing The CCNA And CCNP: Cisco Home Lab FAQ |
| |
| There is a real revolution today among CCNA and CCNP candidates. More and more of you are turning your back on "router simulators" and putting your own CCNA and/or CCNP Home Lab together, which is the best way to totally prepare to pass these tough Cisco exams.
I get hundreds of emails every month from CCNA and CCNP candidate who are putting together their first lab or adding to their existing one. I'm always glad to help with suggestions, and I thought I'd list five common questions regarding home labs here.
Do I have to spend thousands of dollars?
No! There are vendors all over the web, as well as on ebay, who sell used Cisco routers and switches to C (read full article) |
| |
| |
| |
| Category :: Computer Certification Articles |
Author :: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933 |
| |
| Article Title :: Passing Your CCNA and CCNP: Configuring And Troubleshooting Router-On-A-Stick |
| |
| For CCNA and CCNP candidates, it's hard not to laugh the first time you hear the phrase "router on a stick". Let's face it, that's a pretty silly term. But as those who have passed the CCNA and CCNP exams know, this is a vital exam topic that you must know how to configure and troubleshoot.
Basic Cisco theory states that for hosts in different VLANs to communicate, a Layer 3 device must be involved to handle the routing between the VLANs. That device is a router, and there are special considerations that must be taken into account for both the physical router itself and the configuration you'll be writing.
The router will be connected to a switch via a FastEthernet (read full article) |
| |
| |
| |
| Category :: Computer Certification Articles |
Author :: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933 |
| |
| Article Title :: Cisco CCNA / CCNP Home Lab: Why You Need An ISDN Simulator |
| |
| 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 directly via their Basic Rate Interface (BRI) interfaces you've got to have another device between them called an ISDN simulator.
An ISDN simulator is not one of those software programs pretending to be routers ("router simulators") this is a piece of hardware that acts as the telephone company in your home lab. Older simulators come with preprogrammed phone numbers and SPIDs, where newer one (read full article) |
| |
| |
| |
| Category :: Computer Certification Articles |
Author :: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933 |
| |
| Article Title :: Passing The Cisco CCNA Exam: An Illustrated Guide To Router Modes |
| |
| When you're getting started on your CCNA studies, learning the different router modes is key to passing your Intro and ICND exams. But keeping those modes straight can be very difficult. (At least it was for me!) Let's take a look at the various router modes you'll need to know about to pass your CCNA, and use IOS Help to illustrate the different uses of each mode.
The first mode you'll see on a router (if the person before you logged off as they should have) is user exec mode. This is also the default mode a user is placed into when using Telnet to connect to a router. The prompt will look like this:
R1>
You can't write or add to a configuration in thi (read full article) |
| |
| |
| |
| Category :: Computer Certification Articles |
Author :: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933 |
| |
| Article Title :: Passing Cisco CCNA And CCNP Exams: Ping And Extended Ping |
| |
| I often tell CCNA and CCNP candidates that you do your best learning when you screw something up. I often get a funny look right after I say that, but the only way to develop your Cisco troubleshooting skills - the skills you'll need to pass your Intro, ICND, and CCNP exams - is by actually fixing configurations. Since your employer will take a dim view of you practicing these skills on his or her network, you better do so on your home lab!
Three essential tools for networking and CCNA/CCNP exam success are ping, extended ping, and traceroute. Today we're going to take a look at the ping that we're used to using for LAN issues, and the extended ping.
We're all familiar wit (read full article) |
| |
| |
| |
| Category :: Computer Certification Articles |
Author :: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933 |
| |
| Article Title :: Passing CiscoÂ’s CCNA and CCNP Exams: Traceroute |
| |
| In preparation for your CCNA and CCNP exam success, you've got to learn to troubleshoot Cisco routers. And while ping is a great basic IP connectivity tool, it doesn't give you all the information you need to diagnose network connectivity issues.
Let's say you have six routers between CityA and CityB. You send a ping from A to B, and get this return:
R1#ping 172.1.1.1
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 172.1.1.1, timeout is 2 seconds:
.....
Success rate is 0 percent (0/5)
The five periods indicate that there is no IP connectivity to CityB. Problem is, that's about all ping (read full article) |
| |
| |
| |
| Category :: Computer Certification Articles |
Author :: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933 |
| |
| Article Title :: CCNA / CCNP Home Lab Tutorial: The VLAN.DAT File |
| |
| CCNA and CCNP candidates who have their own Cisco home labs often email me about an odd situation that occurs when they erase a switch's configuration. Their startup configuration is gone, as they expect, but the VLAN and VTP information is still there!
Sounds strange, doesn't it? Let's look at an example. On SW1, we run show vlan brief and see in this abbreviated output that there are three additional vlans in use:
SW1#show vlan br
10 VLAN0010 active
20 VLAN0020 active
30 VLAN0030 active
We want to totally erase the router's startup configuration, so we use the write erase command, confirm it, and reload without s (read full article) |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| Prev 1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Next |
Article Categories
