Cisco Certification: Recertifying Your CCNA and CCNP

Friday, August 1st, 2008

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 [...]

Cisco CCNA Certification Exam Tutorial: Prefix Notation

Friday, August 1st, 2008

When you’re preparing to pass the CCNA exam and earn this coveted Cisco certification, you’ve got to be totally prepared for the many kinds of binary and subnetting questions Cisco may throw at you. You also have to be familiar with the different manners in which a subnet mask can be expressed, as in [...]

Cisco CCNP / BCMSN Exam Tutorial: Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) Timers

Friday, August 1st, 2008

In your BCMSN / CCNP exam study, it’s easy to overlook some of the details of Spanning Tree Protocol (STP). After all, you learned all of that in your CCNA studies, right? Not necessarily! While some of the BCMSN material will be a review for you, there are some details regarding familiar topics that you [...]

Cisco CCNP Certification: Using The BGP Command

Friday, August 1st, 2008

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 thing with BGP is [...]

Cisco CCNP Certification FAQ

Monday, July 7th, 2008

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 [...]

Cisco CCNP / BSCI Exam Tutorial: Using Distribute Lists

Monday, July 7th, 2008

To be successful on the BSCI exam and in earning your CCNP, you’ve got to master route redistribution. This isn’t as easy as it sounds, because configuring route redistribution is only half the battle. Whether it’s on an exam or in a real-world production network, you’ve got to identify possible points of trouble before you [...]

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Certification Exam Tutorial: Floating Static Routes

Friday, July 4th, 2008

To pass the Cisco CCNA and CCNP certification exams, as well as becoming a world-class networker, you’ve got to know how and when to use floating static routes. And if you’re wondering what makes them “float” — read on!
In this example, R1 and R2 are running OSPF over a Frame Relay network, 172.12.123.0 /24. They’re [...]

Cisco CCNP / BSCI Exam Tutorial: Using OSPF’s “Summary-Address” Command

Friday, July 4th, 2008

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 [...]

Computer Certification: Four Tips For Maximum Performance During The Exam

Friday, July 4th, 2008

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 [...]

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Tutorial: Home Lab Assembly Case Study

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

Part of your CCNA / CCNP education is deciding what network topology to use when you’re putting together your home lab. Some of you are starting with one or two routers or switches, while others are starting with more. A customer recently sent me a list of his Cisco routers and switches that [...]