 Category :: Computer Certification Articles |
Author :: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933  |
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| Article Title :: Cisco Certification: Suggested Home Lab Setups |
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| When you make the decision to put your own home lab together for your CCNA and CCNP studies (a very wise decision, if I may say so!), the hardest part is figuring out how to spend your budget. Do you spend it all on the routers and go with a cheaper 1900 switch, knowing that the 640-801 (CCNA), 640-821 (Intro), and 640-811 (ICND) exams now place a premium on knowing the ins and outs of a 2950 switch? Do you buy a frame relay switch? Do you buy an access server?
One factor to keep in mind when you're starting to put your lab together is that you don't have to put it all together at one time. With some careful planning, you've got a lab that you can use for your Intro studies, pe (read full article) |
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| Category :: Computer Certification Articles |
Author :: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933 |
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| Article Title :: Cisco Certification: CCNA Certifcation FAQ |
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| When you start your CCNA studies, a lot of questions come to mind! Here are the five most common questions CCNA candidates have, answered by Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933.
Q. What exams do I have to take to get my CCNA?
A. The CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) certification offers two paths. You can take the one-exam path by taking the 640-801 CCNA Composite exam. If you want to break it up into two parts, you can take the Introduction To Cisco Networking Technologies (INTRO 640-821) and the Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devcies (ICND 640-811) exams.
Q. Chris, which path do you recommend?
A. I generally recommend the two-exam path, pa (read full article) |
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| Category :: Computer Certification Articles |
Author :: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933 |
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| Article Title :: Cisco Certification: The Most Important Study You'll Ever Do Is.... |
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| All of us are familiar with the pyramids of Egypt. These magnificent structures have stood for thousands of years, withstanding extreme heat and other factors that would bring down an ordinary structure.
When we look at these pyramids, we instinctively look toward the peak. We tend to do the same with the Cisco Learning Pyramid. If you're not familiar with this, Cisco uses a pyramid to illustrate how the CCIE is at the peak of the Cisco certification structure, with the CCNP in the middle and the CCNA at the bottom.
I'm often asked how to become a CCIE. My response is always "Become a master CCNA and a master CCNP first". That answer is often followed by a puzzled (read full article) |
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| Category :: Computer Certification Articles |
Author :: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933 |
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| Article Title :: MCSE? CCNA? Choosing The Right Computer Certification For Your Career |
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| When you’re choosing which computer certification to pursue next, you should also be formulating a plan for your career. Your time is precious, and you should never choose to pursue a certification because it’s “hot”. There are some hard questions you should ask yourself before deciding to pursue the CCNA, CCNP, CCVP, CCSP, CCIE, MSCE, or any of the many other vendor certifications that are out there.
Why do I want this certification?
This is the biggest and most important question you should answer before you spend a dime on books or classes.
If your primary goal in earning a certification is the money you feel companies will throw at y (read full article) |
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| Category :: Computer Certification Articles |
Author :: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933 |
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| Article Title :: Tips On Buying A Cisco CCNA / CCNP Home Lab Kit |
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| Buying a CCNA / CCNP home lab is the best way to be totally prepared for your Cisco exams. Most home labs are put together one router or switch at a time, but many CCNA / CCNP candidates prefer to buy kits where you get multiple routers and switches, along with all the cables and other connection devices you'll need.
While this is a good idea, keep a few things in mind when purchasing Cisco home lab kits.
Don't buy anything you don't need. The problem is that when you're first starting out with your Cisco home lab, you don't know everything that you need. (I sure didn't!) Keep in mind that you only need one transceiver per AUI port on a Cisco router, so if you're ge (read full article) |
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| Category :: Computer Certification Articles |
Author :: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933 |
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| Article Title :: Cisco CCNA / CCNP Tutorial: Home Lab Assembly Case Study |
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| Part of your CCNA / CCNP education is deciding what network topology to use when you're putting together your home lab. Some of you are starting with one or two routers or switches, while others are starting with more. A customer recently sent me a list of his Cisco routers and switches that he has available for a home lab and asked for my help in coming up with the best way to use them.
There is no "right" or "wrong" answer to this question; again, part of the learning process is configuring and reconfiguring the physical topology of your lab. Let's look at the routers and switches he has available, including the interfaces on each, and come up with one possible CCNA / CCNP hom (read full article) |
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| Category :: Computer Certification Articles |
Author :: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933 |
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| Article Title :: Cisco CCNA / CCNP Home Labs: Developing Troubleshooting Skills |
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| CCNA / CCNP candidates are going to be drilled by Cisco when it comes to troubleshooting questions. You're going to have to be able to analyze configurations to see what the problem is (and if there is a problem in the first place), determine the meaning of different debug outputs, and show the ability not just to configure a router or switch, but troubleshoot one.
That's just as it should be, because CCNAs and CCNPs will find themselves doing a lot of troubleshooting in their careers. Troubleshooting isn't something that can just be learned from a book; you've got to have some experience working with routers and switches. The only real way to learn how to troubleshoot is to dev (read full article) |
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| Category :: Computer Certification Articles |
Author :: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933 |
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| Article Title :: Computer Certification: Become A Utility Player |
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| In baseball, a "utility player" is one who plays more than one position. These players are usually backups, but they have a job in the major leagues because of their value to the team; since they can play more than one position, they have that much more value to their employer.
Too often in IT, workers become either LAN or WAN engineers, knowing little if anything about the other side. Many LAN administrators I worked with knew little about routing and switching, while many WAN engineers I knew not only didn't know much about the LAN side of their network, but they didn't want to know anything about the servers!
In today's IT world, it's a bad idea to specialize in (read full article) |
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| Category :: Computer Certification Articles |
Author :: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933 |
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| Article Title :: Cisco Certification: Recertifying Your CCNA and CCNP |
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| Once you get your CCNA and CCNP, you can't just rest on your accomplishment. You've got to continue to study and add to your skill set - and then prove to Cisco you've been doing just that by recertifying.
Recertification sounds like a pain, but it's actually one of the best things to ever happen to computer certification, and it helps your career as well. One trap many LAN and WAN personnel fall into is that they fail to keep up with changes in technology, and if they happen to be laid off or want to change jobs, they're unable to because they didn't keep their skill set up.
Cisco's recertification policies ensure that if you want to keep your CCNA, CCNP, or one of (read full article) |
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| Category :: Computer Certification Articles |
Author :: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933 |
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| Article Title :: Cisco CCNA Certification: Broadcasts, Unicasts, And Multicasts |
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| When you begin your CCNA studies, you get hit with a lot of different networking terms right away that you might not be familiar with. What makes it a little more confusing is that a lot of these terms sound a lot alike. Here, we're going to discuss the differences between broadcasts, multicasts, and unicasts at both the Data Link (Layer 2) and Network (Layer 3) layers of the OSI model.
A broadcast is simply a unit of information that every other device on the segment will receive. A broadcast is indicated by having every bit of the address set to its highest possible value. Since a hexadecimal bit's highest value is "f", a hexadecimal broadcast is ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff (or FF-FF-FF (read full article) |
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