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Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933 Profile and Articles
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151). Cisco Certification: The "Secret" Key To Getting Your CCNA And CCNP
Whether you're working on your CCNA or CCNP, Cisco certification exams are the most demanding computer certification exams in the IT field. Cisco exams are not a test of memorization, they're a test of your analytical skills. You'll need to look at configurations and console output and analyze them to identify problems and answer detailed questions...
152). Cisco CCNP / BSCI Certification: Route Redistribution And The Seed Metric
In the first part of this free CCNP / BSCI tutorial, we looked at how leaving one simple word out of our route redistribution configuration - "subnets" - resulted in an incomplete routing table when redistributing routes from RIP to OSPF. (If you missed that part of the tutorial, visit my website's "Free Tutorials" section.) Today, we'll look at re...
153). Cisco Certification: The Most Important Cisco Study You'll E
All of us are familiar with the pyramids of Egypt. These magnificent structures have stood for thousands of years, withstanding extreme heat and o
154). Cisco CCNP / BCMSN Exam Tutorial: Configuring CGMP On Routers & Switches
If a Layer Two switch doesn't have the capabilities to run IGMP Snooping, it will be able to run CGMP - Cisco Group Membership Protocol. CGMP allows the multicast router to work with the Layer Two switch to eliminate unnecessary multicast forwarding.
CGMP will be enabled on both the multicast router and the switch, but the router's go...
155). Cisco CCNA Exam Tutorial: Mapping The OSI Model To The TCPIP Model
The OSI model is the model that most networking personnel are familiar with, but to earn your CCNA, you need to know the OSI model, the TCP/IP model, and how the two map to each other.
The four layers of the TCP/IP architecture can be compared to certain levels of the OSI model. It’s important to know what each level of the TCP/IP prot...
156). Cisco CCNP / BSCI Exam Tutorial: The Passive Interface Command And OSPF
To pass the BSCI exam and become a CCNP, you have to be aware of the proper use of passive interfaces. You learned about passive interfaces in your CCNA studies, but here we’ll review the basic concept and clear up one misconception regarding passive interfaces and OSPF.
Configuring an interface as passive will still allow the interfac...
157). Cisco CCNP / BSCI Exam Tutorial: Leading Zero Compression
The BSCI exam and CCNP certification requires that you be well versed in the basics of IP Version 6, or IPv6. If you're new to IPv6, you'll quickly learn that it's not exactly just two more octets slapped onto an IPv4 address! IPv6 addresses are quite long, but there are two ways to acceptably shorten IPv6 address expression. To pass the BSCI exam,...
158). Cisco Certification: Putting Together Your Own Home Practice Lab
CCNA and CCNP 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.
159). Cisco CCNA Exam Tutorial: How To Spend Your Study Time
To pass the CCNA exam, you've got to create a study plan. Part of that plan is scheduling your study time, and making that study time count.
You’ve scheduled your exam you’ve created a document to track your study time you’ve planned exactly when you’re going to study. Now the plan must be carried out, without exception.
W...
160). Cisco CCNP / BSCI Exam Tutorial: Using OSPF's "Summary-Address" Command
BSCI exam success, not to mention earning your CCNP, can come down to your OSPF route summarization skills. There are a few different commands and situations you need to be ready for, and one of these situations is the proper use of the "summary-address" command.
The summary-address command should be used on an ASBR in order to summari...
161). Cisco CCNA Certification: Static Routing Tutorial
In studying for your CCNA exam and preparing to earn this valuable certification, you may be tempted to spend little time studying static routing and head right for the more exciting dynamic routing protocols like RIP, EIGRP, and OSPF. This is an understandable mistake, but still a mistake. Static routing is not complicated, but it's an important t...
162). Cisco CCNP Certification / BSCI Exam Tutorial: Floating Static Routes
Passing the BSCI exam and earning your CCNP certification demands that you add greatly to the networking skills foundation you created when you studied for your CCNA certification. You learned quite a bit about static routing and default static routing when you passed the CCNA test, and it does seem like that should be all you need to know about st...
163). Cisco CCNA Exam Tutorial: Five ISDN Details To Remember
CCNA exam success depends on mastering many technologies that are new to you, and few exam topics have more details than ISDN. ISDN isn't just for your CCNA exam studies, though. While ISDN is dismissed by many, the fact is that there are many small and mid-size networks out there that use ISDN as their backup to frame relay. Some of these companie...
164). Cisco CCNA Exam Tutorial: Directly Connected Serial Interfaces
To pass the CCNA exam, you've got to master quite a few services and routing protocols that may be new to you. Between RIP, IGRP, EIGRP, OSPF, and switching, there are hundreds of details you've got to absorb! It's easy to spend all your time on those topics and not pay proper attention to "easier" technologies, and then all of a sudden on exam day...
165). Securing Your Network And Your Career With Cisco's CCSP Certification
You don't need me to tell you that security is the #1 concern in today's networks. With that in mind, your career path must include some security certifications, or you will be left behind.
Cisco's Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP) certification demands a candidate be well-rounded and well-versed in Cisco security measures. ...
166). Cisco CCNP / BSCI Tutorial: The Role Of The OSPF ASBR
To pass the BSCI exam and earn your CCNP certification, you've got to master the (many) details of OSPF. You might have thought there were quite a few OSPF details in your CCNA studies, but you'll now build on that foundation on the way to earning your CCNP.
One such detail is the role of the Autonomous System Border Router (ASBR) in O...
167). Cisco CCNP / BSCI Tutorial: Comparing OSPF and ISIS Hellos
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 a...
168). 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 u...
169). How To Start Your Career In Information Technology
Many newcomers to Information Technology get an overly-optimistic picture of the field from tech school ads that continually make note that "an average MCSE salary is $80.000 a year!".
And if someone's thinking of getting into IT and goes on the internet to do some research, they're met with the opposite end of the spectrum - complain...
170). Cisco CCNP / BSCI Tutorial: Route Summarization With RIP And EIGRP
To pass your BSCI exam and earn your CCNP certification, you've got to master route summarization. When you get to the BSCI level, actually breaking the routes down into binary strings and performing summarization is second nature to you. (If it isn't, get some more practice!) What makes CCNP / BSCI route summarization more difficult is just keepin...
171). Cisco Certification: A Survival Guide To The Cisco Cable Jungle
One of the most confusing parts of beginning your Cisco studies is keeping all the cable types separate in your mind, and then remembering what they’re used for. This often occurs when a CCNA or CCNP candidate starts putting together their own home practice lab, and they suddenly realize that they have the equipment to run labs, but not the cables....
172). Four Important Commands For Your CCNA / CCNP Home Lab
More CCNA and CCNP candidates than ever before are putting together their own home practice labs. It's more affordable than it ever has been, and I receive emails daily from new CCNAs and CCNPs who say it's the best thing they could have done to improve their studies.
There are some commands you can configure on your lab routers that w...
173). Cisco Routing: "ip default-network" vs. Default Static Routes
One point of confusion for some CCNA and CCNP candidates is the difference between configuring a static default route and using the Cisco routing command ip default-network.
At first glance, they appear to do the same thing. Both configure a destination to which packets should be routed if there is no more specific route in the routing...
174). What Certification Should You Pursue After The CCNA ?
Once you've got your CCNA, you're ready to move on to the next level, the Professional certifications. For years, Cisco had one Professional certification, the Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) certification. Over time, Cisco has expanded this level of certifications to include the Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP) and Cisco Ce...
175). 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 wors...
176). Computer Training School Tutorial: Know Your Instructor
Making the decision to attend a computer tech school can be one of the best decisions of your life. Another great decision is to tap a hidden wealth of knowledge that is right before every student at schools such as ECPI and ITT, but very few students take advantage of it.
When you're attending a computer training school, you must avoi...
177). Computer Certification: Become A Utility Player
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 engineer...
178). How To Succeed At A Computer Training School
One of the best decisions you can ever make is to attend a computer training school. As I've written in several other articles, you have to ask the right questions before writing a check or taking out a student loan, but when you find the right school you are indeed on your way to a successful career.
There's a big difference between a...
179). Cisco CCNP / BSCI Exam Tutorial: Using The OSPF Command “Area Range”
Your BSCI and CCNP exam success depends on knowing the details, and one such detail is knowing the proper way to summarize routes in OSPF. Route summarization is not just a test of your binary conversion abilities, but knowing where and when to summarize routes. It will not surprise any CCNA or CCNP certification candidate that OSPF gives us the mo...
180). Cisco CCNP / BSCI Tutorial: The BGP Attribute NEXT_HOP
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 l...
181). Cisco Routing For The CCNA And CCNP: Administrative Distance
The textbook definition of "administrative distance" is simple enough: "the measurement of a protocol's believability". It's not enough to know the definition, however you've got to know when AD comes into the picture and when it does not.
When a packet needs to be routed, the router looks in its routing table for the next-hop IP addre...
182). Passing Cisco's CCNA And CCNP Exams: Ping And Extended Ping
Passing Cisco's CCNA And CCNP Exams: Ping And Extended Ping
183). Cisco CCNP Exam Tutorial: Defining Collision Domains
CCNA exam success depends on mastering the fundamentals, and two important fundamentals are knowing exactly what the terms "collision domain" and "broadcast domain" mean. In this free Cisco tutorial, we'll take a look at the term "collision domain" and how a collision domain is defined.
A collision domain is an area in which a collisio...
184). Cisco CCNP Certification: Using The BGP Command “Update-Source”
When you start preparing for your CCNP exam, particularly the BSCI exam, you're introduced to Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) configurations. BGP is unlike any protocol you learned during your CCNA studies, and even the similarities are a little bit different!
BGP forms neighbor relationships, much like EIGRP and OSPF do. The interesting...
185). Cisco Certification: Making A Good Impression In Your Job Interview
Okay, you did it! You earned your Cisco Certified Network Associate certification.
Now what?
People who pass the CCNA exam fall into one of three categories. You may be just entering the IT field you may be working on the LAN side and want to move to the WAN side (that's where I was when I passed the CCNA), or you may alr...
186). Keeping Calm On CCNA / CCNP Exam Day
When you wake up on exam day, one of two things is going to happen. Well, yes, you're going to pass or fail. But what I'm thinking of comes before that, and has a lot to do with how you perform on exam day.
You're either going to have a tremendous feeling of anticipation or the dreaded feeling of being nervous about it.
An...
187). Cisco CCNP / BSCI Exam Tutorial: OSPF Router Types
When you're preparing to pass the BSCI exam on the way to the coveted Cisco CCNP certification, you can be quickly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of BGP and OSPF knowledge you must demonstrate a mastery of. One set of details that some BSCI and CCNP candidates underestimate are the differences between the OSPF router types.
An OSPF I...
188). Your Information Technology Career: Beware The Comfort Zone
I've seen it happen time and again to programmers, network engineers and administrators, and other IT personnel. They get a solid IT position, a good-paying job, and they get comfortable. They stop keeping up with the latest technologies, they stop studying, they no longer keep their CCNA, MCSE, and other industry certifications up-to-date.... and ...
189). More Questions To Ask A Computer Training School Before Paying
The decision to attend a computer training school is one of the most important you'll ever make, and even more important is which one to attend. Asking the right questions can give you an idea of whether a given IT school is a good investment. An earlier article I wrote on this subject was so popular that I thought I'd offer some more advice on the...
190). Passing Cisco's CCNA and CCNP Exams: Five Tips For Exam Day Success
As you get ready to pass the CCNA or CCNP exams, you can feel quite a bit of stress as you enter your last week of study. Let's take a look at a few ways to reduce that stress.
1. Do not stay up late cramming. The CCNA and CCNP are not exams you're going to pass by cramming. "Cramming" is a study technique best left behind in junior hi...
191). It’s 2006. Do You Know Where Your IT Career Is?
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 y...
192). Taking A Look At Cisco's CCVP Certification
I hardly have to tell you how important voice technologies are in today's networks; what we all need to keep in mind to maximize our career potential is how important knowing voice is going to be tomorrow.
We've always got to look forward in IT, both in our work and out studies. Cisco, always the pioneer in technical certifications, n...
193). Computer Certification: Four Tips For Maximum Performance During The Exam
There are plenty of articles out there about how to prepare for a computer certification exam. However, there are also things you can do to increase your chances of success on exam day during the most important part of the entire process -- the time that you're actually taking the test.
I've taken many a certification exam over the yea...
194). 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...
195). Cisco Certification: Don't Overreact To Exam Version Changes
Whenever a Cisco exam version changes, there's always a lot of chatter about it on the web. The CCNA exams are no exception.
One comment I see often goes like this: " I hear Cisco is going to change Intro / ICND / CCNA exam versions soon, so I'm not going to start studying yet. I'll wait until the new exam comes out."
Do n...
196). Microsoft Certification: The New MCTS Tracks And Exams
Microsoft is revamping its certification tracks, and will eventually retire the familiar MCSE certificatons. The new certification setup is much like Cisco's, where there are specialist certifications to go along with the more general CCNA, then mid-level certifications such as the CCNP, and then a more-advanced practical exam modeled somewhat afte...
197). MCSE? CCNA? Choosing The Right Computer Certification For Your Career
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 th...
198). 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 p...
199). How To Become A Cisco VPN Specialist
There's quite an emphasis on security in today's networks, and that's reflected in Cisco's certification tracks. Cisco offers a CCIE Security track and the Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP) intermediate-level certification, but there is no real equivalent to the CCNA on the security side. Instead, Cisco offers several different Security ...
200). Cisco Certification: Introduction To ISDN
From the CCNA to the CCIE, ISDN is one of the most important technolgies you'll work with. It's also very common in the field ISDN is frequently used as a backup connection in case an organization's Frame Relay connections go down. Therefore, it's important to know ISDN basics not only for your particular exam, but for job success.
ISD...
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