Ccent 4/29/15

So I've been busy the past few months since passing the VCP5-DCV exam. With getting a new job and taking ownership of my own VMware cluster with Equalogic SAN and Dell N2048/3048 switches (that have very similar CLi's to Cisco thanks for Force10) I've been pretty much using the CCENT labbing experience to it's full extent with work. Sometimes I'll admit it's been a bit off google or quick reference in my CCNA book but I've managed to figure it out and get it rolling.

Anyways I've finally scheduled my CCENT exam for April 29th, now I'm sure I could just take the composite but if I'm going to fail an exam I rather fail for $150 than 300. I'm still working on my subnetting, which is slowly but surely making more and more sense as I do it. I had a instructor from my local college, who is like my networking mentor (AT&T Senior Network Engineer in NYC), told me most people don't understand subnetting til they just keep practicing and then one day it just clicks and a light bulb turns on....so wit that I've just been subnetting a little bit each day and I'm getting better. I'm able to draw the graph from memory now, so it's just a matter of getting speed down I guess....

So My home lab has grown the past month, I recently acquire 2 more 3750G's and one 3550G switch and a Cisco 3825 router and I've done the following:

1. ACL's standard and extended countless times.

2. DHCP on the routers at-least twice.

3. I've setup vlans, move native vlan to an unused vlan with everything shutdown, got into a habit of naming vlans with useful names.

4. the vty line 0 -15, login local, vty line transport, etc.

5. setup as an example: ospf 7 - network 176.16.35.0 0.0.255.255 area 7 - and not the ghetto ospf that some of you remember I tried in the past.

6. I understand wildcards now fully.

7. routing protocols, mostly dynamic, but I do use static allot.

So far I've completely read the following books and/or videos:

1. Bryant's Odemy Videos's (done)
2. CBT Nuggets Keith Barker's CCENT Videos (done)
3. CCNA Routing and Switching 200-120 Official Cert Guide Library: 9781587143878: Computer Science Books @ Amazon.com (done)
4. http://www.amazon.com/CCNA-Routing-Switching-Study-Guide/dp/1118749618/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426595800&sr=8-1&keywords=CCNA (done)
5. http://www.amazon.com/Routing-Switching-Deluxe-Study-Guide/dp/1118789709/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1426595832&sr=8-5&keywords=CCNA (done)
6. http://www.amazon.com/CCENT-ICND1-100-101-Exam-Cram/dp/078975150X/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1426595887&sr=8-7&keywords=CCENT (reading now, I like the Exam Crams cause of the tear out sheet)
7. CCENT ICND1 100-101 Flash Cards and Exam Practice Pack (Flash Cards and Exam Practice Packs): 9781587203992: Computer Science Books @ Amazon.com (using these right now along with the Exam Cram)
8. CCNA Routing and Switching 200-120 Network Simulator | Pearson IT Certification (nearly finished with this simulator, got about 20 more labs to go, but been mainly using my own lab for cli exposure)

I'm sure I'm tackling the CCENT/CCNA with complete overkill like I normally do and I've invest close to $1000 between books and hardware but I really want to grasp and understand networking not just know enough to pass (don't want to go about learning with memory ****), kind of like what I did for the VCP5-DCV and even then that exam was hard....

If I'm done with the Exam Cram and flashcards by the middle of April I'll take the exam, if not I'll wait a bit longer. The past 2 1/2 months I've basically turned into a Cisco book and I just want to ace the exam. I'm sure I'll be the same way with the MCSE:SI pursuit next.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

NetworkNewb

geeeeeeeeeeeeeez that is alot of work you put into the CCENT. If you've read 3 books on it, watched 2 video series, and have your lab going good. I can't imagine you wouldn't pass the exam! Looks like you could probably write your own book off the top your head!

I'd say go take the test today and start working on the CCNA if it were me.

Then again if you've already read those books you probably know most of the material for the 2nd test already anyways... Definitely agree with not worrying getting the actual certification and really learning the material though. The certification means absolutely nothing if you can't back it up! Best of luck on 4/29!

10Linefigure

You have more then enough resources. Take a look at the blue print and if you have any questions brush up on those parts. Other than that, you look set dude. Good luck!

Jon_Cisco

Good Luck on the test. I like to go overboard just like you. For me it's not about the certification it's about just getting exposure to all of the new stuff. The certification just gives a convenient guide and lets you know when to move to another topic.

Subnetting is not hard it just takes getting use to doing it quickly. For a while I had not idea what I was looking at and would take forever to figure out what they were even asking. Then I spent one hour straight on Subnetting Practice Questions practice and it clicked. I just needed to work through some examples and forget the theory.

[Deleted User]

I think you should be good. Subnetting questions can be worded with odd terminology like subnet address (network address). Since you took it once before, I think you should be good. Know Cisco and their tricky wording.

fuz1on

Good luck! Two words - subnet table! CCENT should be no problem for you but watch out for time since you can't go back to questions.

Magmadragoon

Deathmage, I know you will do fine on the exam. I just kept things simple in subnettings by remember 2^x, 2^y-2, and 256-subnet mask.

Deathmage

Well I think I'm good on the console part. I blew away my entire lab on Saturday and spent about 5 hours re-dong the lab with the (2) 3750G and solo 3550G switch in the core instead of the previous 3550's in the core and added the 3825 router to the mix, so now the lab has a core, distribution and access layer.

All in all, about 12 routers/switches now and they all talk to each other with DHCP on the 3550's for the 2960's, ACL's, Port-security sticky on uplinks and violations on the access layers, moved native vlan, disabled ports vlans, rsa 1024 keys, exec-timeouts, vty/console configured, OSPF on 4 links now (still one area though), using EIGRP for routing with some static routing.

Part of the reasoning (other was comon it's fun and I get more practice) for re-doing the lab was cause I wanted to make a vlan (straight from one of the 3750G's with a multimode fiber - yes I have fiber at home now, lol) for the 3550G I recently got with the twin 3750G's for my VMware cluster which I wanted to see if I could (and I did) make a ACL for just one server in the cluster to get windows updates and block all the rest from getting internet access on my core network. So now the VMware cluster is provisioned for 1 GBit now on Cisco fabric. (can't wait for CCNA:DC!)

anyways I'll probably do more labbing this weekend; I'd do labbing during the week but then I'd never go to bed on time; I have no 'off' switch; subnetting and flash cards till Friday!

Deathmage

The past few days I've been reviewing Odom's book but as I review each chapter I'd following along in the Network Simulator from Cisco Press that coincide with the book so that the concepts I'm reviewing really sink in with the labbing work in the simulator and then in the real hard-ware in my lab. Going for the Triple Threat approach of learning.

I'm probably being completely overkill but I'm sure this framework study will help in the future.

DB Cooper

Hardcore ccent

Deathmage

So to my surprise I've been getting a number of private message from all you wonderful people asking about my CCNA study, so I figured I'd just do a forum post. I feel the love... *sniffle*

So with the project at work being found out the end of April I sidelined my CCENT Exam on April 29th, so the end of April was purely project planning and my Cisco self-study definitely helped with the network design/implementation. All of May I pretty much did the VMware cluster deployment with all the 45 P2V's with the network change from a flat 24 to a 7 vLAN network with a 2008 R2 forest split into 4 sub-domains under our primary forest on top of deploying the iSCSI fabric/SAN and deploying a two Sonicwall DMZ for our SaaS deployment in the Q2 16'.

Needless to say May was very busy but I got less than 5% downtime for users which meant I spent tons of evenings in May at work and no time on my Cisco study

- work keeps me busy, finding I'm more of a JOAT's now without the political bullshit my co-worker the "IT Manager" of sorts deals with. I'm purely technical here and I LOVE IT! -- I can just do my **** and work in peace!!!!!

Anyways, now that the cluster is stable and the performance tweaking is finished the past two weeks I've been reviewing Todd's book, which I completed reading this afternoon and I'm 60% through Laz's videos on Udemy. I'm probably going to re-read the Exam Cram book just because the topic are coming back to me rather quickly and also to my surprise subnetting I can do in my head now up to like /21 in Class B. Maybe I just need time to decompress subnetting for me to understand it. I kind of did a frack ton of real-world subnetting in the month on May for work except it was on all Dell switches (the CLi is very Cisco-like) but now I re-scheduled the exam for the 29th of this month and lately it's been review, review, lab, lab, lab.

I've found the Packet Tracer tool to be a tad bit more quicker (I can bring it with me to work and fiddle with it on my flash drive) than turning on my home-lab and connecting wires and stuff but the home-lab definitely came in handy with the mental logic behind the work deployment, so glad I did that...

Anyways here is a screenie of my largest packet tracer network, can anyone think of anything else I can try?

I'm going to hit up single area OSPF and some ACL's but any suggestions would be appreciated, I'm pretty much just going to lab my heart away the next few weeks....If I don't know it by now I never will and I'm done procrastinating the exam, it's been 6+ months!

Edit: Here is what the core router's config in the middle looks like, going to convert RIP v2 to OSPF next if Packet tracer will allow it.

104-n-108-Core-Router#show running-config Building configuration...
Current configuration : 2679 bytes
!
version 12.2
no service timestamps log datetime msec
no service timestamps debug datetime msec
service password-encryption
!
hostname 104-n-108-Core-Router
!
!
!
enable secret 5 $1$mERr$hx5rVt7rPNoS4wqbXKX7m0
!
!
!
!
!
!
no ip cef
no ipv6 cef
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
ip ssh version 1
ip ssh authentication-retries 5
ip ssh time-out 60
ip domain-name internalnetwork.com
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
interface FastEthernet0/0
no ip address
duplex auto
speed auto
shutdown
!
interface FastEthernet0/1
no ip address
duplex auto
speed auto
shutdown
!
interface Serial0/0
ip address 172.16.40.11 255.255.252.0
ip nat inside
clock rate 64000
!
interface Serial0/1
ip address 172.16.30.11 255.255.252.0
ip nat inside
clock rate 64000
!
interface Ethernet1/0
no ip address
duplex auto
speed auto
!
interface Ethernet1/1
no ip address
duplex auto
speed auto
!
interface Serial1/0
ip address 192.168.150.1 255.255.255.252
ip access-group Only-IP-Access out
ip nat outside
clock rate 2000000
!
interface Serial1/1
no ip address
clock rate 2000000
!
router rip
version 2
network 8.0.0.0
network 172.16.0.0
network 192.168.104.0
network 192.168.108.0
network 192.168.150.0
!
ip nat pool Google-NAT 192.168.150.1 192.168.150.1 netmask 255.255.255.252
ip nat inside source list 4 pool Google-NAT overload
ip nat inside source list 8 pool Google-NAT overload
ip classless
ip route 192.168.104.0 255.255.255.0 172.16.30.10
ip route 192.168.108.0 255.255.255.0 172.16.40.10
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.150.2
ip route 8.8.8.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.150.2
!
ip flow-export version 9
!
!
access-list 4 permit 192.168.104.0 0.0.0.255
access-list 8 permit 192.168.108.0 0.0.0.255
ip access-list extended Only-IP-Access
deny tcp 192.168.104.0 0.0.0.255 host 8.8.8.8 eq telnet
deny tcp 192.168.104.0 0.0.0.255 host 8.8.8.8 eq 22
deny tcp 192.168.104.0 0.0.0.255 host 8.8.8.8 eq ftp
deny udp 192.168.104.0 0.0.0.255 host 8.8.8.8 eq tftp
deny tcp 192.168.108.0 0.0.0.255 host 8.8.8.8 eq telnet
deny tcp 192.168.108.0 0.0.0.255 host 8.8.8.8 eq 22
deny tcp 192.168.108.0 0.0.0.255 host 8.8.8.8 eq ftp
deny udp 192.168.108.0 0.0.0.255 host 8.8.8.8 eq tftp
permit ip any host 8.8.8.8
!
banner login ^C RESTRICTED ACCESS: Only Authorized Users past this point, logging is enabled and violaters will be prosecuted. Have a nice day. ^^C
banner motd ^C This router connects the 104 and 108 network together and allows them to ping Google DNS. ^^C
!
!
!
!
line con 0
exec-timeout 0 0
password 7 0822455D0A16
login
!
line aux 0
!
line vty 0 4
password 7 0822455D0A16
login
transport input telnet
line vty 5 15
password 7 0822455D0A16
login
transport input telnet
!
!
!
end
104-n-108-Core-Router#
104-n-108-Core-Router#
104-n-108-Core-Router#

Here is the router on the left, the vlan specific router(s) on each side do DHCP:

router-104-left#show running-config

Building configuration...
Current configuration : 1676 bytes

!
version 12.4
no service timestamps log datetime msec
no service timestamps debug datetime msec
service password-encryption
!
hostname router-104-left
!
!
!
enable secret 5 $1$mERr$hx5rVt7rPNoS4wqbXKX7m0
!
!
ip dhcp excluded-address 192.168.104.1 192.168.104.31
!
ip dhcp pool 104-pool
network 192.168.104.0 255.255.255.0
default-router 192.168.104.1
dns-server 192.168.104.30
!
!
!
no ip cef
no ipv6 cef
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
ip ssh version 1
ip ssh authentication-retries 5
ip ssh time-out 60
ip domain-name internalnetwork.com
!
!
spanning-tree mode pvst
!
!
!
!
!
!
interface FastEthernet0/0
ip address 192.168.104.1 255.255.255.0
duplex auto
speed auto
!
interface FastEthernet0/1
no ip address
duplex auto
speed auto
shutdown
!
interface Serial0/0/0
ip address 172.16.25.20 255.255.252.0
clock rate 2000000
!
interface Serial0/1/0
ip address 172.16.30.10 255.255.252.0
!
interface Vlan1
no ip address
shutdown
!
router rip
network 172.16.0.0
network 192.168.104.0
network 192.168.108.0
!
ip classless
ip route 8.8.8.0 255.255.255.0 172.16.30.11
ip route 192.168.108.0 255.255.255.0 172.16.30.11
ip route 172.16.40.0 255.255.255.0 172.16.30.11
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 172.16.30.11
!
ip flow-export version 9
!
!
!
banner login ^C Restricted Access: If you enter you will get crabs and you wanker will fall off. ^^C
banner motd ^C RESTRICTED ACCESS: If you enter you wanker will definetly fall off. ^^C
!
!
!
!
line con 0
history size 50
exec-timeout 0 0
password 7 0822455D0A16
login
!
line aux 0
!
line vty 0 4
password 7 0822455D0A16
login
transport input telnet
line vty 5 15
password 7 0822455D0A16
login
transport input telnet
!
!
!

end
router-104-left#

It's funny I've been plugging away at this packet tracer and I got it fully working in less than 2 hours. Maybe I've prepared way too much for the CCENT/CCNA.

what more can I do..jpg

alias454

You have put in a lot of effort and when you actually take the test, you should do great. I have scheduled the 200-120 for June 25th and know there are a few things I have to get down pat before then. I wish I was more prepared but that isn't going to stop me. I scheduled the date to force myself to stop procrastinating with my studies and will make the judgement of whether I feel prepared a few days before hand.

Good luck

Deathmage

alias454 wrote: »

You have put in a lot of effort and when you actually take the test, you should do great. I have scheduled the 200-120 for June 25th and know there are a few things I have to get down pat before then. I wish I was more prepared but that isn't going to stop me. I scheduled the date to force myself to stop procrastinating with my studies and will make the judgement of whether I feel prepared a few days before hand.

Good luck

Good Luck to you as-well my friend.

Deathmage

Exactly two weeks from today.

My Pearson Vue transaction didn't go through the other day cause my credit card expired

... nothing wanted me to schedule the exam...

Well now it's scheduled!

Starting my Cisco Journey all over again....JPG

Dakinggamer87

Deathmage wrote: »

Exactly two weeks from today.

My Pearson Vue transaction didn't go through the other day cause my credit card expired ... nothing wanted me to schedule the exam...

Well now it's scheduled!

Awesome good luck buddy!!

Deathmage

I've been doing so many packet tracer labs the past week or two that now that I'm doing Laz's Udemy Videos I feel like my head is going to explode. it gotten to the point that last night I had a dream i was working on a lab and a Cisco router turned into a demon and started chasing me down a hallway and then I woke up... and I took a shower and start labbing again.

Deathmage

wondering what else I can do....

Anyone got some pointer labs I should work on?

So far I've done a few of the following:

NAT
ACL's - Standard/Extended/Named
DHCP
RIP
EIGRP
OSPF w/ VLSM wildcards - router-id.
Basic router/switch config with vty and console, hostname, terminal history size, no ip domain-lookup, ip name-server
enable/secret passwords.
vlans
VTP
show commands the basics like gee: ip route, show mac-address-table, show vtp status, show interfaces trunk, show ip int br, show ip ospf nei, show ip ospf database, show controller, show ver, show running-config, show vlan, show history, show access-list, show cdp neighbors, etc.
static routing
default gateway's
CDP Run
last resort routing
service password-encryption
service dhcp
switchport security, maximum, violations, sticky.
SSH - crypto key generate rsa, ip domain-name [name], ip ssh authenticate-retries, ip ssh time-out
ip host
banner - login, motd

I feel like I've grafted cisco to my skull the past few weeks after doing nothing but labbing, labbing, labbing.

like here in my current packet tracer lab, not sure what else I can do at this point. I think I'm going to do subnetting tonight and tomorrow.

thoughts? - too much study?

what else I can for the lab.jpg

Deathmage

I feel like I've been subnetting my heart away the past few days with the Subnetting Workbook. I'm able to do Class B's pretty darn well now, Class A's are a tad calculator intensive I'll be honest.

just going to keep subnetting till Thursday. Tomorrow I think I'm doing a breeze read of the Exam Cram again and the CCENT flashcards book as my last prep before exam.

Deathmage

This stuff is becoming second nature now.

OSPF Area 0 lab.jpg

Deathmage

I swear if I don't pass the exam I'm going to be pisssed off.

I just got done reading the CCENT flashcards from Cisco 3 times front-to-back over the past 4 days. Guess I'll give the Exam Cram another go, it's only 355 pages, problem is I already filled in the chapter questions, lol!

http://www.amazon.com/CCENT-ICND1-100-101-Flash-Practice/dp/1587203995/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435448820&sr=8-1&keywords=CCENT+flashcards