Paul W Browning - Cisco CCNA Simplified: Your Complete Guide to Passing the Cisco CCNA Routing and Switching Exam

Table of Contents

This study guide and material is not sponsored by, endorsed by, or affiliated with Cisco Systems, Inc., Cisco, Cisco Systems, CCDA, CCNA, CCDP, CCNP, CCIE, or CCSI. The Cisco Systems logo and the CCIE logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners.

Copyright Notice

Copyright 20042017 Paul Browning, all rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced mechanically, electronically, or by any other means, including photocopying, without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1544805924

ISBN-10: 1544805926

5th Edition

Published by: Reality Press Ltd.

Midsummer Court

314 Midsummer Blvd.

Milton Keynes

MK9 2UB

Legal Notice

The advice in this book is designed to help you achieve the standard of Cisco Certified Network Associate, which is Ciscos foundation internetworking examination. A CCNA can carry out basic router and switch installations and troubleshooting. Before you carry out more complex operations, it is advisable to seek the advice of experts or Cisco Systems, Inc.

The practical scenarios in this book are meant to illustrate a technical point only and should be used on your privately-owned equipment, never on a live network. The output on our routers and switches may differ from yours due to IOS and platform model.

FOREWORD

If you are reading this book, you are embarking on the road toward becoming a Cisco-certified networking engineer. Or at the least, you are contemplating the journey and are curious to know what lies ahead.

It was not too many years ago that the only technical certification Cisco Systems offeredindeed, the only serious internetworking certification anyone offeredwas the Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) certification. Acquiring the CCIE meant months of intensive study to tackle a hands-on lab, the details of which were mysterious to most. Those who passed the lab (few passed on their first or even second attempt) had lengthy hands-on experience in internetworking before even beginning their course of preparation. Only a very few intrepid individuals passed the CCIE lab without extensive prior experience.

Cisco Systems has, since that time, added to their program a number of intermediate certifications that can be used as stepping stones toward the coveted CCIE. You must still, in the end, prove your expertise in the dreaded hands-on lab, but these intermediate certifications are wonderful for getting you acclimatized to the rigors of testing your skills and knowledge without having to step into the most difficult of them cold.

The first milestone on the certification path is the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), the subject of Paul Brownings outstanding preparation guide. Within these pages, Paul imparts to you the knowledge you need to pass the CCNA exam, step by step, using abundant illustrations, examples, and exercises. But beyond the coursework, in this book you will find the practical advice necessary for gaining hands-on experience and preparing for the certification exam that will benefit you not only for the CCNA but also through subsequent Cisco certifications to whatever objective you set for yourself.

Follow the advice and exercises Paul has provided for you here and you will have made an excellent start.

Jeff Doyle

CCIE #1919

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Paul Bokor for helping with the technical edit.

INTRODUCTION TO THE 5TH EDITION

I wrote the first edition of Cisco CCNA Simplified while working at Cisco TAC. My manager had just informed us that our entire department was being made redundant. All of our jobs were being outsourced to Manila in the Philippines. We were thanked for our hard work and asked to keep it up until our last day which, for some, would be in the next month.

In a panic, I contacted a company Id attended for some PC assembly training a few years earlier. I offered to run a Cisco course for the owner if he could fill it from his list of former students, and we could split the profits. Within the hour, he called back and accepted the offer. By the next week, I had a date to teach eight students the Cisco CCNA syllabus.

I spent the next few weeks writing some study notes for the students to accompany the course. At that time in 2002, there was only the Cisco study guide and one from Sybex. Neither had any labs included, which shocked me. Even though the CCNA exam was theory only, surely students would want to get at least some hands-on time with routers and switches.

I had a few advantages over the other publishers. I had started from the bottom, I was still working on live networks, and I was regularly teaching the material to students. I had feedback every day from people telling me what was working, what needed further explanation, and where more (or less) labs were required. I also invented my own easy subnetting method to help students answer any subnetting question within around 30 seconds (its in this book also).

I eventually published the book and, to my amazement, it became an Amazon best seller. All of a sudden I was receiving messages from people all over the world from all walks of life who were using my book to pass the exam, which led to networking jobs in large corporations and even the government.

For this reason, Ive updated this study guide every time Cisco updated their exam, which is every three years, resulting in this latest version.

The current CCNA Routing and Switching exam represents some of the biggest changes in many years. Cisco has reintroduced many of the networking basics they removed, such as topology types, but also added many topics that were previously at the CCNP level, such as BGP, GRE, QoS, DHCP snooping, and more. They have also added Software Defined Networking, cloud computing, and virtualization.

The network engineers job is rapidly changing and this is reflected in the Cisco CCNA syllabus. Its important that you review the syllabus from Ciscos website before you take the actual exam because they reserve the right to make changes. Bear in mind that the syllabus is a guideline so they also reserve the right to ask you questions about topics not included in the syllabus. I state this because I get the occasional angry e-mail from students stating that this happened to them and blaming me.

Weve scrapped around 15% of the material from the previous version of Cisco CCNA Simplified and added around 30%, so your workload has increased as has the level of difficulty. The mini-labs were really popular so you will find a lot more in this version. If you need anything else or want more topics or labs, then visit the support page at https://www.howtonetwork.com/ccnasimplified and hit me up. Please bear in mind that it has to be relevant to the exam though.

The URL above has a ton of exam support material, so please use it BEFORE you attempt the exam or you will surely fail.