CCNA and CCNP candidates hear it all the time: "you have to get some hands-on experience to pass the exams". Candidates tend to think that’s just so they can solve the simulator problems, but that’s only the more obvious reason. First, I want to make it clear that I’m not bashing learning from books you [...]
The major reason I recommend getting your hands on real Cisco equipment rather than a simulator is that real Cisco routers give you the chance to practice and learn show and debug commands. The knowledge you acquire from debugs is invaluable. Frankly, it??s this knowledge that puts you above the ??average?? CCNA who doesn??t have [...]
There are plenty of articles out there about how to prepare for the CCNA 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 certification [...]
When you’re studying for your CCNA exams, you’re going to study the theory of technologies we basically take for granted in networking. CSMA/CD is one of those technologies. It works beautifully and you don’t even have to configure it. But to be an effective network troubleshooter (and to pass the 640-811, 640-801, and 640-821 exams), [...]
Configuring PPP PAP Authentication Now we know how the ISDN link comes up (interesting traffic), and some scenarios that might cause the link to stay up, we need to look at ISDN authentication schemes. The two methods Cisco certification candidates must be familiar with are PAP and CHAP. Password Authentication Protocol (PAP) sends the username [...]
