CCNA Thread

veritas_libertas

Subnetting is going very well. I don't make mistakes very often anymore unless I'm not paying attention to what the questions is that is being asked. My understanding of the OSI model has also become second nature.

Roguetadhg

veritas_libertas wrote: »

Subnetting is going very well. I don't make mistakes very often anymore unless I'm not paying attention to what the questions is that is being asked. My understanding of the OSI model has also become second nature.

Darn, if you blog this much for CCNA, I'd like to see what your CCIE will look like :P

MAC_Addy

veritas_libertas wrote: »

I have developed a deep dislike for counting by 16. It messes with my brain.

I too am the same. What I have done is write down each: 0, 16, 32, 48, 64.. etc, I look at the list everyday and try to subnet as much as I can with the 16 bit increment.

veritas_libertas

MAC_Addy wrote: »

I too am the same. What I have done is write down each: 0, 16, 32, 48, 64.. etc, I look at the list everyday and try to subnet as much as I can with the 16 bit increment.

I'm afraid i'm going to have to as well. I've already memorized subnets, and powers of two. Argh, another list

veritas_libertas

Roguetadhg wrote: »

Darn, if you blog this much for CCNA, I'd like to see what your CCIE will look like :P

I'm doing it for two reasons. One, it helps motivate me to give it my best, and two, I'm hoping to help others that are pursuing the CCNA.

I'm also enjoying the comradery of others pursuing the CCNA.

Turgon

I remember the 'Internetworking with TCP/IP' exam for MCSE in NT 4.0. It was an elective and a lot of MCSE's decided to avoid it. So they never, ever learned even basic subnetting.

The fools

ChickenNuggetz

veritas_libertas wrote: »

I'm doing it for two reasons. One, it helps motivate me to give it my best, and two, I'm hoping to help others that are pursuing the CCNA.

I'm also enjoying the comradery of others pursuing the CCNA.

Complete agree with this statement Getting some extra motivation and writing about topics/problems always helped me figure things out!

MAC_Addy

veritas_libertas wrote: »

And powers of two. Argh, another list

Actually... What you can do is just memorize 2 powers. 5 and 10. 2^5=32 and 2^10=1024. From there you'll be able to work out any powers.

I don't know why but 2^7 has always stuck with me. I know it's 128, so I just fill out 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 on a sheet and fill it out from there. I hope that helps a little.

bon_chan

veritas_libertas wrote: »

I'm doing it for two reasons. One, it helps motivate me to give it my best, and two, I'm hoping to help others that are pursuing the CCNA.

I'm also enjoying the comradery of others pursuing the CCNA.

Man, you are totally right!!
It helps me.... It's always good to see other people studying for the same purpose.
It actually helps me stay motivated (since I'm a guy having hard time to stay motivated at something related to long studies)

veritas_libertas

Thanks guys!

Well, I learned a something new today... You do actually have to pay attention to what the class of the IP address is you are subnetting. Somehow I missed that while studying. Duh...

MAC_Addy

Don't feel bad - now you know the material a little better! It shows that you're learning and you'll be able to put your skills to the test! Better than finding out now versus going into the testing center and not knowing something.

veritas_libertas

Studied Subnetting some more during downtime at work. I've come to the point where I can look at a problem and quickly figure it out. I still get stumped time to time but it's becoming rare. I'm honestly sick of looking at subnetting, so I'll leave it alone now until tomorrow. The rest of today will be used to look over my earlier notes and read another chapter.

veritas_libertas

Reading up on VLSM. Seems simple enough, but I've been fooled before

veritas_libertas

Finished some note cards for memorization of mask/CIDR, block size, and host size for /25 - /27. According to Todd Lammle these are important memorize for VLSM. If anyone thinks I should memorize a wider amount please let me know!

Starting to study up on NAT. Found a great PDF from Cisco on understanding Inside vs. Local:

http://www.cisco.com/image/gif/paws/4606/8.pdf

cmitchell_00

veritas_libertas wrote: »

I'm doing it for two reasons. One, it helps motivate me to give it my best, and two, I'm hoping to help others that are pursuing the CCNA.

I'm also enjoying the comradery of others pursuing the CCNA.

I agree with you too. I have to write down what I'm doing so; I can stay motivated or just focused since work/family life etc. can be much. When, I'm preparing for an cert I usually always stop for up to one week and then I'm better down the stretch versus becoming overwhelming.

veritas_libertas

I finished the Sybex book over the weekend and took the practice test for the book. I scored about 80% which feels right to me. Currently I'm skimming through the book and writing down any areas that I feel weak on. For me I believe that the most effective way to succeed from here on out is doing the following daily.

1. Labs
2. Subnetting practice
3. Re-read the book a chapter or two a day.

If anyone disagrees or has a suggestion please speak up.

Roguetadhg

Lab. a lot.
Re-reading helps to pickup odd things that you'll miss the first time. It's a sound strategy

ChickenNuggetz

veritas_libertas wrote: »

I finished the Sybex book over the weekend and took the practice test for the book. I scored about 80% which feels right to me. Currently I'm skimming through the book and writing down any areas that I feel weak on. For me I believe that the most effective way to succeed from here on out is doing the following daily.

1. Labs
2. Subnetting practice
3. Re-read the book a chapter or two a day.

If anyone disagrees or has a suggestion please speak up.

Your plan sounds solid! I would like to make one suggestion however, and this is what really helped me out: Boson Exam Sim. They are a little pricey, but VERY good at showing weak areas. The exams themselves are a bit harder than the real thing (which isnt a bad thing) but they really really showed me the areas that I needed to focus/review. I honestly feel that if I hadnt taken the practice exams (and I took them three times) I would not have passed the first time. Just some food for thought!

Everyone has their own method for review; my keys to success were:
Labbing everything, everyday for a solid 3 days straight (for review of commands)
Subnetting everyday
Flash Cards everyday
Boson Exam Sim (x3)

I only reread the areas that I deemed my "problem" areas based off of my performance on the practice exam.

veritas_libertas

Thanks guys! Good advice on the Boson Exam Sim. I own it and I should probably hit it at least 3x like you said to gauge where I stand.

veritas_libertas

Just an FYI, 2600 IOS's do weird things to GNS3. Mostly the problem seems to arise with WAN connections. Very annoying...

veritas_libertas

I've been playing around with Point-to-Point serial connections using PPP. Very interesting stuff, but one thing I confused about is whether or not PPP forwards MAC sub-layer information across the wire. For instance, in the diagram below:



Would A and B receive ARP requests from each other? I would assume that they would build there tables, but since PPP runs on top maybe it doesn't tunnel this information? I read some of the whitepapers but didn't see any mention about how the MAC sub-layer is treated.

ChickenNuggetz

veritas_libertas wrote: »

I've been playing around with Point-to-Point serial connections using PPP. Very interesting stuff, but one thing I confused about is whether or not PPP forwards MAC sub-layer information across the wire. For instance, in the diagram below:



Would A and B receive ARP requests from each other? I would assume that they would build there tables, but since PPP runs on top maybe it doesn't tunnel this information? I read some of the whitepapers but didn't see any mention about how the MAC sub-layer is treated.

Although PPP is layer 2 protocol, in point-to-point links MAC addresses are basically not needed and are ignored. The frame is encapsulated and pushed through the outgoing interface to the other router.

veritas_libertas

ChickenNuggetz wrote: »

Although PPP is layer 2 protocol, in point-to-point links MAC addresses are basically not needed and are ignored. The frame is encapsulated and pushed through the outgoing interface to the other router.

Ah, you confirmed my suspicions! Thanks.

fsanyee

MAC address is an ethernet thing. Other L2 protocol use something else for addressing. The PPP frames are contain an address filed, but its always set to 11111111 as a broadcast address, and it has no real meaning.

veritas_libertas

fsanyee wrote: »

MAC address is an ethernet thing. Other L2 protocol use something else for addressing. The PPP frames are contain an address filed, but its always set to 11111111 as a broadcast address, and it has no real meaning.

This is a good point. It's easy to get trapped into thinking that everything L2 is Ethernet and everything L3 is TCP/IP.

veritas_libertas

Mostly just reviewing my notes, using Subnettingquestions.com, and Boson test environment. My Skeletek rack and a rack mount power switcher finally arrived.

I realized today that I have focused heavily on router configuration because I use GNS3 at work, and subsequently my knowledge of how to configure switches was weak. Anyhow, I have my lab up and running all the routers and the switch have the register set to 0x2142.

Fun times.

veritas_libertas

I started asking myself the difference between the following commands:

1. default-gateway
2. default-netwrok
3. ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0

I found a nice write up on Cisco:

Configuring a Gateway of Last Resort Using IP Commands - Cisco Systems

Roguetadhg

I remember default gateway for making GNS3 hosts with routers. turning off routing, and putting a default gateway = cheap n'easy host.

Good article, by the way

How's the test preparation coming?

veritas_libertas

Roguetadhg wrote: »

I remember default gateway for making GNS3 hosts with routers. turning off routing, and putting a default gateway = cheap n'easy host.

Good article, by the way

How's the test preparation coming?

Just making a list of things I'm weak on, and getting ready to schedule the exam for next month. I feel fairly confident.

veritas_libertas

Scheduled for April the 26th at 11:30. The pressure is on...