Cisco CCNP / BCMSN Exam Tutorial: BPDU Skew Detection

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

You may look at that feature’s name and think, “What is a BPDU Skew, and why do I want to detect it?” What we’re actually attempting to detect are BPDUs that aren’t being relayed as quickly as they should be.
After the root bridge election, the root bridge transmits BPDUs, and the non-root switches relay [...]

CCNP Certification / BCMSN Exam Tutorial: QoS Service Types

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

To pass the CCNP exams, you’ve got to master Quality of Service, and the first step in doing so is knowing the differences between the different QoS types.
Now this being Cisco, we can’t just have one kind of QoS! We’ve got best-effort delivery, Integrated Services, and Differentiated Services. Let’s take a quick look at all [...]

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Certification Exam: Attending A Video Boot Camp

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

When you’re studying for the CCNA and CCNP exams, you’ve got a lot of different choices when it comes to training. One popular choice is choosing one of the many “boot camps” and five-day in-person courses that are out there. I’ve taught quite a few of these, and while many of them [...]

Cisco Certification: Don’t Overreact To Exam Version Changes

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

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. [...]

Cisco CCNP Certification / BSCI Exam Tutorial: Route Summarization Basics

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

As you earn your CCNA and CCNP certification, you’re going to have to get comfortable with manually summarizing routes. This isn’t just another reason to learn binary math (although it’s a good one!), but summarizing routes is a true real-world skill that can help your network operate more efficiently. So the question [...]

Cisco CCNP / BSCI Tutorial: The BGP Attribute NEXT_HOP

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

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 [...]

Cisco CCNP / BSCI Exam Tutorial: Not All Static Routes Are Created Equal

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

As a CCNP candidate, as a CCNA, and in getting ready to pass the BSCI exam, you may be tempted to breeze through your static route studies, or even skip them! That’s because static routes are easy enough to configure, and as long as you remember the syntax of the ip route command, you’re in [...]

Passing Cisco CCNA And CCNP Exams: Ping And Extended Ping

Thursday, January 1st, 2009

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 [...]

Passing Cisco’s CCNA and CCNP Exams: Five Tips For Exam Day Success

Monday, September 8th, 2008

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 [...]

Cisco CCNA Certification: The Path To Take After Earning The CCNA

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

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 [...]