Cisco CCNA / CCNP Home Lab Tutorial: The 2501 Router

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

To be truly prepared for your CCNA and CCNP exams, you need real hands-on experience with real Cisco routers and switches. However, a production network is a really bad place to practice your configurations, but an excellent way to get fired and/or sued. The key to becoming a true CCNA and CCNP [...]

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Home Lab Tutorial: Cabling Your Access Server

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

A Cisco home lab is an invaluable study tool when you’re preparing for CCNA and CCNP exam success. Once you’ve gotten a couple of routers and switches, you’ll quickly get tired of moving that blue console cable every time you want to configure a different device. The solution to this problem is purchasing [...]

Four Important Commands For Your CCNA / CCNP Home Lab

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

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 [...]

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Home Lab Tutorial: The 2503 Router

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

I know from experience that part of the excitement and anxiety of putting together your own CCNA / CCNP home lab is deciding what to buy! While you can make a workable home lab out of almost any combination of Cisco routers and switches, some routers are better suited for home lab work than others [...]

Cisco Certification: The “Secret” Key To Getting Your CCNA And CCNP

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

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 [...]

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Home Lab Tutorial: Configuring An Access Server

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

As your CCNA / CCNP home lab expands, an access server such as the Cisco 2509 or 2511 is one of the best investments you can make. In this article, we’ll look at the basic configuration for an access server and discuss how to connect to the other routers and switches in your pod [...]

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Certification Exam: Cabling Your Home Lab

Saturday, March 1st, 2008

More CCNA and CCNP candidates than ever before are putting together their own home labs, and there’s no better way to learn about Cisco technologies than working with the real thing. Getting the routers and switches is just part of putting together a great CCNA / CCNP home lab, though. You’ve got to get the [...]

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Home Lab: Why You Need An ISDN Simulator

Saturday, March 1st, 2008

ISDN is a vital topic for today’s CCNA and CCNP candidates, especially for the ICND and Intro exams - you’ve got to know ISDN inside and out to pass those exams. Naturally you want to include it in your home lab. What many candidates don’t realize is that you can’t connect two Cisco routers directly [...]

Cisco CCNA Certification Exam: Five Frame Relay Details You Must Know

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008

When you’re studying for your CCNA exam on the way to earning this coveted Cisco certification, the details can seem overwhelming! In this article, I’ll point out five Frame Relay details that you must keep in mind when you’re on your way to the CCNA exam!
Inverse ARP starts working as soon as you open the [...]

Computer Certification: Become A Utility Player

Tuesday, January 1st, 2008

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, [...]