Kievgid

Taking the CCNA Exam

CCNA Certification is necessary to validate to employers that the holder has demonstrated an understanding of the foundation of networking using Cisco devices; basic routing and switching, TCP/IP, the Open Systems Interconnect model, WANs, and more. In preparing for the CCNA exam, its important that candidates are adequately prepared for the environment they will be testing in and make the most of their study time and subsequent attempts at the exam.

Since the programs inception in April of 1998, Cisco has managed to maintain the difficulty of its exams by changing the requirements every so often. This, combined with Ciscos strong policy on disclosing exam content (those found in violation of this policy can a face lifetime ban from even attempting the exam and obtaining certification), proves passing the exam to be a formidable task for even the most prepared candidate. Not all applicants will pass the exam on the first try. Often the test has required multiple attempts by professionals before achieving success. At $125 for each portion of the two-part CCNA exam (640-822 ICND1 and 640-816 ICND2) or $250 for the full program in one test (640-802 CCNA), not passing on the first attempt can prove to be very costly and frustrating. Cisco also requires a minimum of 5 calendar days before a second or subsequent attempt at passing the exam. For these reasons, those seeking this certification should go to any length to familiarize themselves with the material and how it will be presented to them before spending valuable time and money on certification.

This article will not focus on the specific material found on the test, rather the nature of questioning, some guidelines of what to expect, and some information on how to properly prepare oneself for the actual day of the examination. As stated earlier, the nature and expense of this test makes it very important to be prepared so as not to require multiple attempts before successfully completing the exam. Also, once the exam is successfully passed, the certificate holder is required every three years to either re-take the exam or upgrade their certification to one of Ciscos other levels, such as CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional) or CCIE (Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert).

As a candidate for CCNA certification, one is expected to have abilities in the following areas of network service using Cisco products:

Planning and design Implementation and operation Troubleshooting and technology Configuration and administration

It is expected that some months of studying and training will precede the actual exam. It is often recommended that applicants take a two-pronged approach to preparing for test day. This includes two forms of self-study: primary and secondary. Primary study is the core learning portion of the preparation process, where a foundation is built around a solid understanding of the topics to be found on the exam. This is the candidates initial learning of all topics to be mastered. It will be achieved through extensive reading, research, and whenever possible, actual lab work. Once this has been accomplished, it will be necessary to stimulate solidify these concepts in the memory. This is the secondary part of the process, and it usually necessitates some kind of randomized, birds eye view of the material learned in primary study. Most programs recommend that this type of learning be put into use some 30-60 days prior to the day of examination.

Once the candidate has adequately prepared themselves mentally, they must make arrangements with Pearson VUE or another approved testing center for a testing appointment. Once an appointment has been made, finally comes the ugly task of actually going into the testing center and taking the 90-minute (75 minutes for the ICND2) exam.

Pearson VUE, Ciscos primary test delivery partner, expects that applicants arrive at the testing center a full 30 minutes prior to the time of the test. This, as with any test, is very important. It is not only key in assuring that traffic, detours, or unclear directions do not make the applicant late to the test, but it also allows some time to relax and prepare the mind for the examination about to take place. After the time, effort, and money put into preparing for this test, it would be a waste to rush and stress the morning of the exam.

The test will be administered by a proctor, and will be timed. For this reason, it is imperative that time is managed responsibly. This in mind, however, all answers on the exam are final. The test engine will prompt the user to proceed following each question. Take time to answer each question as accurately as recollection will allow, however its important not to allow one particularly challenging question to dominate too much time. There are 50-60 questions on each exam, 90 minutes to answer them, and later questions may demand more time. Be sure to answer all questions, even when uncertain as to the correct answer. No points are removed for incorrect answers or blank answers, so its best to at least attempt to answer the question when unsure.

Keeping all these things in mind, lets look at the 7 different types of questions that will be found on the test:

Single answer multiple choice -These are multiple choice questions where there is only one correct answer. A question will be posed, and a radio button will allow the user to select the proper answer to the question.

Multiple answer multiple choice -These are multiple choice questions where there are multiple correct answers. A question will be posed, and checkboxes will allow the user to select the proper answer to the question.

Drag and Drop (DND) -A green list of options will be provided on the left side of the screen, prompting the user to drag each of these to the correct yellow category box on the right side. The items can be removed from the chosen category and rearranged before submitting a final answer using the Submit button.

Fill in the Blank -The user will fill in the correct answer to a question or complete an existing sentence, making an accurate statement.

Router Simulation -Individual real-world scenarios are given, and the user is prompted to negotiate the proper network arrangement or perform the functions necessary using a simulated hyperterminal screen.

Testlet -The user is provided with a real-world scenario, and 3 or more questions are posed with regard to the scenario given.

Simlet -This is similar to a testlet question, however each sub-question is offered in the form of a router simulation.

All that said, by the day of the test the candidate should have a pretty good idea of what to expect on the test. The important thing is that he or she has worked hard and prepared themselves sufficiently so as not to panic the day of the exam. This is not a test that requires memorization; its a test that requires the test taker to understand concepts and how to properly use the functions of the equipment. Cramming, or excessive studying immediately or the night prior to the test, will be more of a hindrance than a help in preparing for this exam. It is absolutely vital that the applicant comes to the testing center the morning of the exam with a good, clear head on their shoulders. Remembering these things will help to ensure first-attempt success, and will also prevent an awful lot of test-day anxiety that will undoubtedly bolster the final score of the test taker a great deal.

Go to CiscoKits for your free Cisco Certification training. Cisco CCNA, CCNP, and CCIE training along with many options for Cisco home lab kits!

You must know the difference between a “routed” protocol and a “routing” protocol. A routed protocol can be routed by a router, which means that it can be forwarded from one router to another. Examples of a routed protocols are IP, IPX and AppleTalk.

A routed protocol contains the data structure for a packet to be sent outside of its local network segment. This structure is called an addressing scheme. Based on the addressing scheme, you will be able to identify the network to which a host belongs, in addition to identifying that host on that network. All hosts on an internetwork (routers, servers, and workstations) can communicate with each other by using a routable protocol such as IP, IPX or AppleTalk. A routingprotocol is used to communicate routing information between routers. Its purpose is to help routers building and maintain routing tables. Examples of routing protocols are RIP, IGRP, EIGRP and OSPF(there are many others). When a router has built a complete routing table from the various routing protocols it supports, it will be able to most efficiently forward traffic via the best route.

Routed Protocols

As mentioned above, IP, IPX and AppleTalk are three common routed protocols. The exam focuses on IP since that is the predominant protocol used today. So what do you need to know about IP other than that is how all your node to node communication will occur? Make sure you know how to subnet! If you do not know how to create subnet masks to most efficiently meet a desired goal of number of subnets and hosts, you will most definitely fail the exam. Understanding how to subnet will not guarantee that you will pass this exam, but not understanding subnetting will guarantee that you fail! If you have an IP address and its subnet mask, you need to be able to identify the subnet ID of that host, the first and last useable host on that subnet, the subnet broadcast address, in addition to the number of possible subnets and hosts per subnet. If those items do not come easily to you, then you will need to brush up on these concepts. Remember you have roughly a minute per question on the exam. If it takes you more than a minute to figure the above items out, you will not finish the test in the allotted time. In addition, you will need to know how to recognize a subnet mask in its dotted decimal form (255.255.255.248) and by using a bit count (/29). You should also know which bits must be off and on in the first octet for the various classes of IP addresses (Class B would have “10″ in the first two bits).

Routing Protocols

The CCNA objectives only require that you know how to configure RIP and IGRP. However, you do need to know about the three classes of routing protocols (distance vector, link state, and hybrid), and which protocol belongs to which class. RIP and IGRP are distance vector protocols. OSPF is the only link state protocol with which you need to concern yourself at this level, and EIGRP is the only hybrid protocol. Know which protocol has a lower administrative distance (RIP is 120 vs. IGRP is 100), and that static routes have a lower administrative distance if you use the defaults a static router is 1 and a directly connected router is 0. When configuring RIP or IGRP, make sure that you also know how to turn on the attached networks so that they will start sending and receiving routing updates(network xxx.xxx.0.0).

Also remember that IGRP requires the addition of an autonomous system number(AS xx). Be familiar with the metrics RIP and IGRP use in determining the best path through which to route. RIP for IP only uses hops and IGRP uses only Bandwidth and Delay be default but can also be configured to use Bandwidth, Delay, Reliability, Load, and MTU. Remember that “show ip route” displays the contents of all routing protocols in your routing table.

Go to CiscoKits for your free Cisco Certification training. Cisco CCNA, CCNP, and CCIE training along with many options for Cisco home lab kits!

Ok, one of the most common question we get is how do I upgrade the IOS on my Cisco 2501 router? I can refer you to the documentation on Cisco’s site on how to do this, but it seems as though for the new CCNA student that this just does not give you all the information you need to successfully upgrade your IOS. I completely understand this as their instructions are written for someone who is already familiar with Cisco routers and switches and who is probably already a Cisco CCNA. Now I might also suggest to you that it is not imperative that you upgrade the IOS on your Cisco router as soon as you get it. You see, the commands that reside in version 11.x are 95% the same as in 12.x.

The Cisco CCNA exam really focuses on the core commands that have been there for years. So again, there is no need for an immediate upgrade day one when you get your Cisco router from 11.x to 12.x IOS. Take your time and become comfortable with the router and the commands. Otherwise you may mess up the upgrade and sit there cursing at the router as you try to figure out how to get IOS back on the router that you deleted by mistake. But don’t worry; you will be able to recover if you deleted the IOS by mistake too. It is just a little different of a process. Now when you feel you are pretty comfortable with the IOS commands, then perform the Cisco router IOS upgrade. After all, you will need to be able to complete such as exercise to pass the Cisco CCNA exam.

Now in this article, I am going to make an assumption that you have our study CD which has some of these files on it. If you don’t have our CD, you can purchase it or search the web for stuff like the SolarWinds TFTP server. Ok, here we go!

Here are the steps to start….

1) On the CD, follow the link to install the trial version of the SolarWinds TFTP server. You can access this by inserting the CD in your computer, auto-running the CD and you should see the CiscoKits splash screen. On the splash screen you should see a link for “Handy Programs”. Click that link and then follow the link for the install of the SolarWinds TFTP Server.

2) After you install the TFTP server, you will copy the 2500 IOS file that you want to upgrade the router with to the c:tftproot folder if you followed the default install directories for the TFTP server. This file is a .bin(binary) file so you will not be able to open. Many people will tell us that there is a problem with the file as they can’t open it. You are not supposed to be able to open and launch it as it is not an .exe file.

3) Launch the TFTP server.

4) Once in the TFTP server application, go under File, click Configure and click the Start services button. Click Ok. You should see in the bottom of the TFTP server application box that it says service status is “Started” and you should see the IP address(ex. 192.168.1.100) of the TFTP server to the left of that along with the c:tftproot folder as the default folder to the left of that(again, that is where the TFTP server will look for the .bin IOS file). If you do not see all that, you have missed a step somewhere so please go back and verify your steps.

5) This step could go a few different ways. 5a will be the steps if you already have a good version of IOS on the router. 5b will be if you accidentally deleted the IOS from the router. Now in my example here I am going to assume you have some sort of switch or hub that you have the Cisco router and your PC connected into. I will also assume you are using an internal IP address scheme of 192.168.1.x. The address for the router will be 192.168.1.80 and the IP address of the TFTP server will be 192.168.1.100. If you are not using that IP schema, then you will need to modify these instructions accordingly to fit your IP schema.

5a) Boot the unit normally. You should be brought to a normal user mode. In step 7, we will get you into privileged mode.

5b) Boot the unit and if you have no IOS on the flash, it will boot using the boot image from ROM. You will know this as your prompt will look like this: Router(boot)

6) Put a transceiver on the AUI port. Hook an Ethernet patch cable to the transceiver and the other end to the hub or switch your computer is connected to.

7) The next set of commands we are doing to setup an IP address on the Cisco router. We have to have an IP address assigned to the Ethernet interface or we will not be able to communicate via IP with the TFTP server. Do the following commands: En Config t Int E0 Ip address 192.168.1.80 255.255.255.0 No shut Exit Exit Copy tftp flash
It will ask you the name of the remote host. Address or name of remote host []? 192.168.1.100 Put the IP address of your TFTP server.

9) Next it will as you the Source file name. Source filename []? c2500-is-l.123.24.bin It is the name of the IOS file you copied over to the c:tftproot folder.

10) Next it will as you the Destination file name. Destination filename [c2500-is-l.123.24.bin]?y Hit y for yes to use the current file name. It may ask you to confirm. Enter y for yes.

11) It will then ask you if you want to erase the current flash file system. Enter y for yes. It may ask you to confirm a second time, if it does, enter y for yes again. Erase flash: before copying? [confirm]y

12) Next is should start the flash erase as seen below and you will see the file copy process as noted by the exclamation points. Erasing device… eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeee …erased Erase of flash: complete Loading c2500-is-l.123.24.bin from 192.168.1.100 (via Ethernet0): !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

13) If you start to see a bunch of periods, then that means you have some sort of connectivity issue. Here are the things I suggest you look at: A) Is the link light on the hub or switch for both the PC connection and the Cisco router connection? B) From a command prompt on the PC, can you ping the IP address of the PC? C) From a command prompt on the PC, can you ping the IP address of the Cisco router? D) From hyperterminal on the router, can you ping the IP address of the Cisco router? E) From hyperterminal on the router, can you ping the IP address of the PC? F) Is the service still started on the TFTP server and is the IP address still 192.168.1.100? These things should start to give you an idea of where the problem may be.

We get many CCNA students who ask us how to incorporate their Linksys/D-Link or similar Cable/DSL wireless router into their newly purchased Cisco CCNA lab. Although this can be done, it is not something we suggest.

I will touch on a few reasons we dont really recommend this setup, but I am sure if we really sat down and thought about it we could come up with more.

1)Depending on the model of the home Linksys/D-Link Cable/DSL router that you are talking about, many of them dont support the protocols you will be setting up in your Cisco CCNA home lab. Some of the newer ones will support RIP. But rarely will you see any of these home type routers support any of the advanced protocols such as OSPF, EIGRP and such. A few of them are now also supporting the ability to enter static routes, which is niceand they are improving with each generation but they still are not what you want to base your Cisco CCNA studies on.

2)Most of them come out of the box setup as DHCP servers. Unless you start playing around with those settings, this will conflict with some of the DHCP and other labs you should be doing in your CCNA lab. This generally leads to breaking your home network and then you have your spouse, parents, kits, etc complaining because you took down their Internet connection. The more they complain, the more you stress out and keep figure out the solution as everyone is yelling at you. Just dont do it!

3)Besides the ability to not support all the protocols a real Cisco router willthe Linksys/D-Link Cable/DSL routers will not be able to work seamlessly with many of the advanced security features you will find in a Cisco Router during your CCNA lab studies.

So what we suggest for the new Cisco CCNA student is to keep their home Linksys/D-Link Cable/DSL network separate from their Cisco CCNA lab network. Why besides the items listed above? Well another thing we tend to find is you are learning in the new CCNA lab network. You are going to break things and spend countless hours trying to figure out what you did wrong, how to fix it and what you broke. Many times you will never figure it out and just start over from scratch. Also one thing you will discover with Cisco routing is an issue with one Cisco router will propagate to other routers. For example, when an interface goes down on a router, the route is removed systematically from the route tables of all the routers. Thus routes are recalculated and you will be sent a different way to get to the destination. So long story short, we suggest in the beginning learning stages, keep your home network and CCNA lab network completely separate.

Integrating your home and CCNA networks sounds like a great idea until you totally mess it up, have no idea what you are doing or how to fix it while your spouse, kids, parents, whomever are yelling at you because they cant get to their myspace account.or worse yet, now you cant get your home network back working to the point where you can get to some of your favorite websites or email accounts. So just be patient and progress at a slow steady pace with your CCNA studies. Before you know it you will actually understand how to integrate the two networks from knowledge you gained through your studies and not because someone gave you an example to type in and follow. You will actually be able to sit down and figure it our for yourself. This is a true measure of your comprehension of the Cisco CCNA exam concepts and will provide you with a real life situation where you can test your Cisco CCNA expertise!

You must know the difference between a “routed” protocol and a “routing” protocol. A routed protocol can be routed by a router, which means that it can be forwarded from one router to another. Examples of a routed protocols are IP, IPX and AppleTalk.

A routed protocol contains the data structure for a packet to be sent outside of its local network segment. This structure is called an addressing scheme. Based on the addressing scheme, you will be able to identify the network to which a host belongs, in addition to identifying that host on that network. All hosts on an internetwork (routers, servers, and workstations) can communicate with each other by using a routable protocol such as IP, IPX or AppleTalk. A routingprotocol is used to communicate routing information between routers. Its purpose is to help routers building and maintain routing tables. Examples of routing protocols are RIP, IGRP, EIGRP and OSPF(there are many others). When a router has built a complete routing table from the various routing protocols it supports, it will be able to most efficiently forward traffic via the best route.

Routed Protocols

As mentioned above, IP, IPX and AppleTalk are three common routed protocols. The exam focuses on IP since that is the predominant protocol used today. So what do you need to know about IP other than that is how all your node to node communication will occur? Make sure you know how to subnet! If you do not know how to create subnet masks to most efficiently meet a desired goal of number of subnets and hosts, you will most definitely fail the exam. Understanding how to subnet will not guarantee that you will pass this exam, but not understanding subnetting will guarantee that you fail! If you have an IP address and its subnet mask, you need to be able to identify the subnet ID of that host, the first and last useable host on that subnet, the subnet broadcast address, in addition to the number of possible subnets and hosts per subnet. If those items do not come easily to you, then you will need to brush up on these concepts. Remember you have roughly a minute per question on the exam. If it takes you more than a minute to figure the above items out, you will not finish the test in the allotted time. In addition, you will need to know how to recognize a subnet mask in its dotted decimal form (255.255.255.248) and by using a bit count (/29). You should also know which bits must be off and on in the first octet for the various classes of IP addresses (Class B would have “10″ in the first two bits).

Routing Protocols

The CCNA objectives only require that you know how to configure RIP and IGRP. However, you do need to know about the three classes of routing protocols (distance vector, link state, and hybrid), and which protocol belongs to which class. RIP and IGRP are distance vector protocols. OSPF is the only link state protocol with which you need to concern yourself at this level, and EIGRP is the only hybrid protocol. Know which protocol has a lower administrative distance (RIP is 120 vs. IGRP is 100), and that static routes have a lower administrative distance if you use the defaults a static router is 1 and a directly connected router is 0. When configuring RIP or IGRP, make sure that you also know how to turn on the attached networks so that they will start sending and receiving routing updates(network xxx.xxx.0.0).

Also remember that IGRP requires the addition of an autonomous system number(AS xx). Be familiar with the metrics RIP and IGRP use in determining the best path through which to route. RIP for IP only uses hops and IGRP uses only Bandwidth and Delay be default but can also be configured to use Bandwidth, Delay, Reliability, Load, and MTU. Remember that “show ip route” displays the contents of all routing protocols in your routing table.

Preparing for the CCNA exam

CiscoKits CCNA Study Plan If you want to pass your ICND1, ICND2 or CCNA exam on the first try, it is essential you have a sound, effective study plan that is proven and other Cisco CCNA students have followed to successfully pass their 640-802, 640-822 or 640-816 tests. Here at CiscoKits, we have on-staff seasoned CCNA, CCNP, CCVP and CCIE instructors. These instructors have helped develop Cisco training curriculum, delivered boot camps and have authored various books you will find in Barnes & Nobel or Borders. So we know the material and how to help you prepare for the Cisco certification exams.

We believe that an effective self-study plan is going to consist of a variety of tools and techniques to help you pass your Cisco certification exam. We will outline each of these tools below and then provide our suggestions on how to use them in your CCNA self-study plan.

1) Real Routers and Switches - How can you really be confident and work on Cisco equipment if you never opened a Cisco router or Cisco switch? If you do get a job working with Cisco routers, will you be intimidated by the router the first time seeing it knowing you never actually worked on one? That said, there is so much to learn about these units by having the actual hardware. You cant duplicate what happens when you have a serial cable come loose or are using the wrong type of cable(straight-thru versus cross-over) daisy chaining switches with a simulator. I dont know about you, but I learn so much more effectively using real equipment. I also find that most of our CCNA students say the same. The only way to actually see routing and such work and know that you made it work is to have real Cisco routers and switches for your Cisco certification training lab. What I find is that when I mess up a lab about 10 times in a row due to a typo or trying to enter a command at the wrong level of the IOS, when I actually figure out what I was doing wrong.well, I am never going to forget that again! This is actual real hands-on experience! That translates into you actually understanding what went on and helps you obtain the troubleshooting skills so you can methodically work through issues. Again, there is no way to recreate this by just reading a book and understanding theory. So to help you pass your Cisco certification exam, I suggest you invest in some Cisco routers and switches for your lab. You will find it to be some of the best money ever spent on your education!

2) Study Guide ” When you purchase a lab kit form us you will get a lab workbook to help guide you through your labs. But the lab workbook does assume that you have some basic knowledge about Cisco routers and switches. We want to be very clear, just having routers, switches and a lab workbook is not enough to pass your Cisco exam. Most CCNA study guides are about 800 pages so there are lots of concepts and nuisances that are covered and we highly recommend you purchase a CCNA study guide to assist you in your self study efforts. Many people ask us what study guide we recommend. I will give you a few suggestions. For a low cost solution, you can go with the basic Sybex CCNA study guide. It is written in laymans terms for very green students and it the cheapest solution. However I have found that it does not go as in-depth to some topics as I might like. But it is a solid solution. The next suggestion is the Cisco Press CCNA study guide. This is a more expensive solution and is written in technical terms and probably does not explain some of the concepts as clearly as the Sybex Guide. So if you are already familiar with Cisco routers and TCP/IP, this may be a better solution for you. Finally, we recommend the Bryant Advantage Ultimate CCNA Study Package. You can find a link to his site at the Bryant Advantage. The Bryant Advantage probably has the most comprehensive study package that is well written using lots of analogies so it can be understood easily by new CCNA students as well as seasoned Cisco professionals. It is on par with the Cisco Press as far as price and another nice benefit is he also has a lab workbook too. We also sell the Bryant Advantage CCNA Lab Hardware Topology to compliment his lab workbook so you can follow through all the labs step by step.

3) Lab Workbook ” Something that always amazed me is people will spend hundreds of dollars and buy some Cisco routers and switches and have no lab workbook. Well what are you going to do with them if you have no labs to follow? If you are new to Cisco, you will need something to guide you along in your studies. That is where we suggest our Lab Workbook. It is written generically. You can see all the concepts that are covered by clicking on this link 640-802 CCNA LAb Workbook. But at a high level it covers everything from creating static routes, dynamic routes, NAT, SDM and IPv6. Probably not things a new CCNA student can do off the top of their head.

4) Test Engine ” A test engine is another invaluable piece of your CCNA study arsenal. A good test engine will help you identify what areas you need to brush up on before paying $125 for your CCNA exam. Our CCNA test engine will help prepare you for the types of questions you will see on the exam. The biggest thing I want to emphasize here is you do NOT want to memorize the questions! You need to be able to understand why the answer is correct or incorrect. Memorizing questions and answers is not learningit is just memorization! What would happen if you see a similar question on the test that is slightly reworded? You need to understand how to read the question and pick out the right solution. Using a test engine properly will help you develop this test taking skill. Click here view the details of our CCNA Test Engine.

5) CRAM Sheet ” This is a great addition to your CCNA exam prep material. The CRAM sheet we have developed consolidates all the major concepts from the 800 pages of a full blown study guide to a full color, laminate six page CRAM sheet. Please click on this link CCNA 640-802 CRAM Sheet to view the full details on this product. This is very handy to carry around with you when you have a few free minutes to study here and there so you are not lugging around a big bulky book. You can also easily bring the CRAM sheet with you to cram to your exam. In fact, we suggest you do use it to brush up on the main concepts just before you pass your CCNA 640-802 exam!

6) CiscoKits Premium Content ” This is a monthly subscription service we offer(to be launched March 2009). For the low price of just $10 a month, you can have access to our members only training section. In this section you will get more in-depth articles, training videos, tutorials and labs. This portion of the site is much more interactive and is a great value for only $10 a month. What do you have to loose at $10 a month versus gaining a ton of valuable information for your education and success in passing you CCNA 640-802 exam!

Ok, now that we covered the major tools you will use in your ICND1, ICND2, and CCNA self study journey, we are going to provide you some guidance on how to use them effectively. Here is our eight step plan.

1) Read the first few chapters of the full blown CCNA study guide you purchased. These first three or four chapters are usually mostly your base theory and then around the third or forth chapter you get into basic router configuration and how to login to the router.

2) At that point you will want to configure your Cisco CCNA hardware lab. You will pick out some of the corresponding labs in the workbook to follow along with the study guide you purchased. That is why we wrote the lab workbook in a generic sense as there is no way we can know what study guide you will be using or what actual hardware you will have. But now you should be able to perform some of the basic CCNA labs in the lab workbook. Continue through your study guide performing the corresponding labs that are in the lab workbook.

3) One you complete the study guide, now you should go through one of the CCNA Test Engine exams such as CCNA exam A*(Important note, only do one exam!). After you complete the exam, you want to print out the entire exam so you can review the sections and concepts you got wrong. Also note what your score was for that exam.

4) Now go back to the study guide and brush up on the concepts you scored poorly on in exam number one.

5) You should now have a baseline of where you were at with the test score. We want to make sure you are scoring about an 80% before you even think about attempting the real Cisco CCNA exam at $125 a pop.

6) Here is where you will want to start to work in additional items such as the CRAM sheet and the Members Only Premium Content training material. These tools will present the information to you from a different perspective as everyone learns using different techniques and via different communication mechanisms. Some will benefit from the full blown study guides, some from the hands-on of the labs and workbook, some from the videos of the Members Only Premium Content, others from the full color CRAM sheet and finally some from the test engine. You want to use all the tools at your disposal for all they are worth.

7) Once you reviewed all the material once, now go back and take CCNA exam B. Hopefully you are scoring close to 80% by now. You will then want to repeat the above process of printing out the exam, reviewing the sections or concepts you scored poorly on and again leveraging the tools at hand.
You should see how you can continue to repeat this methodology while learning and not memorizing the questions. If you memorize the questions, you defeat the purpose of trying to learn the actual concepts. I am quite sure if you follow this road map, you will be scoring close to 80% by the time you get to exam C. Just continue refreshing the material and in no time you will be holding your passing exam score for your CCNA certification!

(VTP) is a Cisco Layer 2 messaging protocol that manages the addition, deletion, and renaming of VLANs on a network-wide basis. Virtual Local AreaNetwork (VLAN) Trunk Protocol (VTP) reduces administration in a switched network. When you configure a new VLAN on one VTP server, the VLAN is distributed through all switches in the domain. This reduces the need to configure the same VLAN everywhere. VTP is a Cisco-proprietary protocol that is available on most of the Cisco Catalyst Family products. VTP ensures that all switches in the VTP domain are aware of all VLANs. There are occasions, however, when VTP can create unnecessary traffic. All unknown unicasts and broadcasts in a VLAN are flooded over the entire VLAN. All switches in the network receive all broadcasts, even in situations where few users are connected in that VLAN. VTP pruning is a feature used to eliminate (or prune) this unnecessary traffic. By default, all Cisco Catalyst switches are configured to be VTP servers. This is suitable for small-scale networks where the size of the VLAN information is small and easily stored in all switches (in NVRAM). In a large network, a judgment call must be made at some point when the NVRAM storage needed is wasted, because it is duplicated on every switch. At this point, the network administrator should choose a few well-equipped switches and keep them as VTP servers. Everything else participating in VTP can be turned into a client. The number of VTP servers should be chosen so as to provide the degree of redundancy desired in the network.

Modes of OperationServer

In VTP server mode, you can create, modify, and delete VLANs and specify other configuration parameters (such as VTP version and VTP pruning) for the entire VTP domain. VTP servers advertise their VLAN configuration to other switches in the same VTP domain and synchronize their VLAN configuration with other switches based on advertisements received over trunk links. VTP server is the default mode.

Transparent

VTP transparent switches do not participate in VTP. A VTP transparent switch does not advertise its VLAN configuration and does not synchronize its VLAN configuration based on received advertisements. However, in VTP version 2, transparent switches do forward VTP advertisements that they receive out their trunk ports.

Client

VTP clients behave the same way as VTP servers, but you cannot create, change, or delete VLANs on a VTP client.

Advertisements Summary Advertisements

When the switch receives a summary advertisement packet, it compares the VTP domainname to its own VTP domain name. If the name is different, the switch simply ignores the packet. If the name is the same, the switch then compares the configuration revision to its own revision. If its own configuration revision is higher or equal, the packet is ignored. If it is lower, an advertisement request is sent.

Subset Advertisements

When you add, delete, or change a VLAN in a switch, the server switch where the changes were made increments the configuration revision and issues a summary advertisement, followed by one or several subset advertisements. A subset advertisement contains a list of VLAN information. If there are several VLANS, more than one subset advertisement may be required in order to advertise them all.

Advertisement Requests

A switch needs a VTP advertisement request in the following situations:

The switch has been reset. The VTP domain name has been changed. The switch has received a VTP summary advertisement with a higher configuration revision than its own. Upon receipt of an advertisement request, a VTP device sends a summary advertisement, followed by one or more subset advertisements.

Configuration To configure an IOS based switch to be a VTP server, issue the following commands: SwitchA# vlan database

SwitchA(vlan)# vtp domain CiscoKits

SwitchA(vlan)# vtp server

SwitchA(vlan)# exit

These commands configure the switch to be a VTP server in the VTP domain CiscoKits. The changes are saved and the revision number is incremented when the exit command is issued. To configure a VTP client, run the following commands:

SwitchB# vlan database

SwitchB(vlan)# vtp domain CiscoKits

SwitchB(vlan)# vtp client

SwitchB(vlan)# exit

To disable VTP, set the vtp mode to transparent as such:

SwitchC# vlan database

SwitchC(vlan)# vtp transparent

SwitchC(vlan)# exit

To monitor the VTP operation and status, use either:

SwitchA# show vtp status

SwitchA# show vtp counters.