Networks Articles

Computers » Networks | By Chris Bryant @ Tuesday, 7th February 2006 @ 9:50 PM

Once you earn your CCNA certification, you've got quite a few exciting choices ahead of you! The majority of CCNAs go on to pursue another Cisco certification, and this is a wise decision. The more you know, the more valuable you are in today's IT market. A question I'm often asked by new CCNAs is "Which certification should I go after next?" Often, these new CCNAs have their eye on the Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP) certification. While adding a s... more...

Computers » Networks | By Chris Bryant @ Saturday, 4th February 2006 @ 3:18 PM

As you study for your CCNA and CCNP exams, particularly if you're getting hands-on practice in your home lab or rack rental service, you're going to be sending a lot of pings. As a CCNA or CCNP candidate, you know that five exclamation points (!!!!!) as a ping return indicates that you have IP connectivity to the remote destination. Five periods (.....) indicates that you do not have that connectivity. It's not enough to know that you don't have IP connectivity to t... more...

Computers » Networks | By Chris Bryant @ Thursday, 2nd February 2006 @ 2:39 AM

To earn your CCNP, you've got to pass some very rigorous Cisco exams, and you also need to know the rules regarding this important certification. In this article, I'll answer some of the most commonly asked questions regarding the CCNP. Q: What exams do I need to pass to get my CCNP? A: You have two options, a three-exam path and a four-exam path. Currently, the four-exam path consists of rigorous exams on advanced routing techniques (BSCI), advanced switching (BCMSN)... more...

Computers » Networks | By Chris Bryant @ Sunday, 29th January 2006 @ 1:24 AM

Congratulations on your decision to earn your CCNP certification! As a CCIE, I can tell you that Cisco certifications are both financially and personally rewarding. To earn your CCNP, you first have to earn your CCNA certification. Then you're faced with a decision - take the three-exam CCNP path, or the four-exam path? They're both quite demanding, so let's take a look at each path. The four-exam CCNP path includes the Building Scalable Cisco Internetworks exa... more...

Computers » Networks | By Chris Bryant @ Saturday, 28th January 2006 @ 6:53 AM

While studying to pass the BSCI exam and preparing to earn your CCNP certification, you'll quickly notice that while OSPF and ISIS are both link-state protocols, there are a lot of differences between the two. One major difference is the way the two protocols handle hello packets. Hello packets are imperative to keeping OSPF and ISIS adjacencies alive. Since they are both link-state protocols, neither of them will send updates at any specified time. Hello packets are the only meth... more...

Computers » Networks | By Chris Bryant @ Friday, 27th January 2006 @ 11:55 PM

When you're putting your CCNA and/or CCNP home lab together, you're not just buying routers and switches you're creating a blueprint for success. There is no better way to learn about how real Cisco routers and switches work than to work with the real thing! Of course, it's not enough to just get the routers and switches you've got to have the right cables and other devices to allow them to communicate. Let's take a look at the different cables and connectors... more...

Computers » Networks | By Chris Bryant @ Friday, 27th January 2006 @ 11:10 AM

CCNA and CCNP candidates are well-versed in Spanning-Tree Protocol, and one of the great things about STP is that it works well with little or no additional configuration. There is one situation where STP works against us just a bit while it prevents switching loops, and that is the situation where two switches have multiple physical connections. You would think that if you have two separate physical connections between two switches, twice as much data could be sent from one switch to the... more...

Computers » Networks | By Chris Bryant @ Thursday, 26th January 2006 @ 8:55 PM

We all get stuck in ruts from time to time, and that happens on the job as well. You've thought about doing something different with your information technology career, but just haven't quite gotten around to it yet. Sound familiar? You can make 2006 the best year yet for your IT career. There are several simple steps you can take to accelerate your career - but you have to take the step, not just think about it! Learn something new. One of the biggest reasons you get... more...

Computers » Networks | By Chris Bryant @ Thursday, 26th January 2006 @ 8:44 PM

CCNAs and CCNA candidates hear it all the time: “Get some hands-on experience”. From my personal experience climbing the Cisco certification ladder, I can tell you firsthand that there is no learning like hands-on learning. No simulator in the world is going to give you the experience you will get cabling and configuring your own routers. Whenever I mention this to one of my students, they always say it costs too much. The truth is, it is cheaper now to build your own CCNA and CCN... more...

Computers » Networks | By Chris Bryant @ Wednesday, 25th January 2006 @ 8:37 AM

To pass the CCNA exam and earn that coveted certification, you've got to know Cisco switches inside and out. Among the many important details you've got to know are the three methods that Cisco switches use to forward frames, and the differences between the three. The first switching method is Store-and-Forward. The name is the recipe, because that's just what the switch does - it stores the entire frame before beginning to forward it. This method allows for the greatest... more...

Computers » Networks | By Chris Bryant @ Wednesday, 25th January 2006 @ 8:13 AM

CCNA and CCNP candidates need to know all about Setup Mode, why a router goes into that mode, and as you'll see, how to get out of that mode. Practicing Setup Mode at work is a good way to get fired, though, so you need to practice this on your CCNA / CCNP home lab or rack rental. In this article, we'll take a look at a Cisco 2500 router going into setup mode and a few tips that will help you pass the exams and excel at your job. First, why does a router go into Setup Mode in... more...

Computers » Networks | By James Hunt @ Tuesday, 24th January 2006 @ 10:00 AM

Big companies often have a large network that they need to manage and maintain. This type of system management requires staff that has a computer technical education as well as network training. Without this type of extensive system management large companies would be unable to function as a working whole. Network training gives someone the skills and training that they need to manage and control a large network, as well as make decisions regarding the network that can affect the entire compa... more...

Computers » Networks | By Chris Bryant @ Tuesday, 24th January 2006 @ 6:51 AM

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 ... more...

Computers » Networks | By Chris Bryant @

When you're preparing to pass the BSCI exam and earn your CCNP certification, one of the biggest challenges is learning BGP. BGP is totally different from any protocol you learned to earn your CCNA certification, and one of the differences is that BGP uses path attributes to favor one path over another when multiple paths to or from a destination exist. Notice I said "to or from". In earlier free BGP tutorials, I discussed the BGP attributes "weight" and "local ... more...

Computers » Networks | By Chris Bryant @

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... more...

Computers » Networks | By Chris Bryant @

Whether you're thinking of starting a career with computers and information technology, or thinking about earning a professional certification such as the CCNA or MCSE to accelerate your career, there is no better time to start than today. Silicon Valley is hiring again, and while we all can't work for Google, IT hiring is at its highest level in years and the opportunities for driven, motivated individuals are unlimited. I also know that for many of us, the holiday season is a ... more...

Computers » Networks | 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! Trunking is simply enabling two or more switches to communicate and send frames to each other for transmission to remote hosts. There are two major trunking protocols that we need to know the details of... more...

Computers » Networks | By Chris Bryant @

When you're studying for the BSCI exam on the way to earning your CCNP certification, you've got to master the use of BGP attributes. These attributes allow you to manipulate the path or paths that BGP will use to reach a given destination when multiple paths to that destination exist. In this free BGP tutorial, we're going to take a look at the NEXT_HOP attribute. You may be thinking "hey, how complicated can this attribute be?" It's not very complicated at al... more...

Computers » Networks | 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. However, it’s important for CCNAs, CCNPs, and candidates for these certifications to learn their way around th... more...

Computers » Networks | By Chris Bryant @

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 ... more...