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Here are the answers to yesterday's Cisco practice questions. New questions later tonight! CCNA: By default, what traffic is considered "interesting" by a Cisco router? A. All IP traffic B. All ICMP traffic C. All traffic D. No traffic E. Traffic defined with the dialer-group command F. Traffic defined with the dialer-list command Answer: D. By default, no traffic is considered interesting. CCNP / BSCI: Which of the following protocols will not advertise a redistributed route unless a seed metric is expressly assigned during redistribution? Choose all that apply. A. RIPv1 B. RIPv2 C. OSPF D. EIGRP E. ISIS F. IGRP Answer: A, B, E, F. Both versions of RIP require this seed metric to be set, along with IGRP and EIGRP. CCNP / BCMSN: What command enables VRRP interface tracking? A. (config-if)# vrrp tracking B. (config)# vrrp tracking C. (config-if)# standby 5 track serial0 D. (config) # standby 5 track serial0 E. VRRP doesn't have interface tracking capabilities. Answer:

Passing the BSCI exam and earning your CCNP is all about knowing the details, and when it comes to EIGRP SIA routes, there are plenty of details to know. A quick check in a search engine for "troubleshoot SIA" will bring up quite a few matches. Troubleshooting SIA routes is very challenging in that there's no one reason they occur. View the EIGRP topology table with the show ip eigrp topology command, and you'll see a code next to every successor and feasible successor. A popular misconception is that we want these routes to have an "A" next to them - so they're active. That's what we want, right? Active routes sound good, right? Well, they sound good, but they're not. If a route shows as Active in the EIGRP topology table, that means that DUAL is currently calculating that route, and it's currently unusable. When a route is Passive ("P), that means it's not being recalculated and it's a usable route. Generally, a route shown as

Getting Started With Hot Standby Routing Protocol (HSRP) A CCNP / BCMSN Exam Tutorial Defined in RFC 2281, HSRP is a Cisco-proprietary protocol in which routers are put into an HSRP router group. Along with dynamic routing protocols and STP, HSRP is considered a high-availability network service, since all three have an almost immediate cutover to a secondary path when the primary path is unavailable. One of the routers will be selected as the primary ("Active", in HSRP terminology), and that primary will handle the routing while the other routers are in standby, ready to handle the load if the primary router becomes unavailable. In this fashion, HSRP ensures a high network uptime, since it routes IP traffic without relying on a single router. The hosts using HSRP as a gateway don't know the actual IP or MAC addresses of the routers in the group. They're communicating with a pseudorouter, a "virtual router" created by the HSRP configuration. This virtual rou

To pass the CCNA exam, you have to be able to write and troubleshoot access lists. As you climb the ladder toward the CCNP and CCIE, you'll see more and more uses for ACLs. Therefore, you had better know the basics! The use of "host" and "any" confuses some newcomers to ACLs, so let's take a look at that first. It is acceptable to configure a wildcard mask of all ones or all zeroes. A wildcard mask of 0.0.0.0 means the address specified in the ACL line must be matched exactly a wildcard mask of 255.255.255.255 means that all addresses will match the line. Wildcard masks have the option of using the word host to represent a wildcard mask of 0.0.0.0. Consider a configuration where only packets from IP source 10.1.1.1 should be allowed and all other packets denied. The following ACLs both do that. R3#conf t R3(config)#access-list 6 permit 10.1.1.1 0.0.0.0 R3(config)#conf t R3(config)#access-list 7 permit host 10.1.1.1 The keyword any can be used to represent a

Here are some CCNA and CCNP practice questions to get your Saturday started off right. Look for new articles and tutorials later today! CCNA: By default, what traffic is considered "interesting" by a Cisco router? A. All IP traffic B. All ICMP traffic C. All traffic D. No traffic E. Traffic defined with the dialer-group command F. Traffic defined with the dialer-list command CCNP / BSCI: Which of the following protocols will not advertise a redistributed route unless a seed metric is expressly assigned during redistribution? Choose all that apply. A. RIPv1 B. RIPv2 C. OSPF D. EIGRP E. ISIS F. IGRP CCNP / BCMSN: What command enabled VRRP interface tracking? A. (config-if)# vrrp tracking B. (config)# vrrp tracking C. (config-if)# standby 5 track serial0 D. (config) # standby 5 track serial0 E. VRRP doesn't have interface tracking capabilities. See you later today! Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

Here are the answers to Thursday's CCNA / CCNP practice questions. I'll have some more questions for you later tonight! Thursday's CCNA And CCNP Practice Questions CCNA: Which of the following devices divides a single broadcast domain into smaller broadcast domains with no additional configuration? Choose all that apply. A. Hubs B. Repeaters C. Switches D. Routers Answer: D. Only routers do this by default. Switches can divide a broadcast domain, but only with additional configuration (VLANs). Hubs and repeaters work at Layer 1 and are incapable of dividing broadcast domains. CCNP / BSCI: In ISIS terminology, what is an intermediate system? A. An end host B. A switch C. A logical group of routers D. A single router E. A logical group of hosts Answer: D. An intermediate system is a single router in ISIS. CCNP / BCMSN: The command show standby is used to verify the configuration of what protocol? A. IRDP B. HSRP C. VRRP D. GLBP Answer: B. show standby is the "show ip p

Thursday's CCNA And CCNP Practice Questions CCNA: Which of the following devices divides a single broadcast domain into smaller broadcast domains with no additional configuration? Choose all that apply. A. Hubs B. Repeaters C. Switches D. Routers CCNP / BSCI: In ISIS terminology, what is an intermediate system? A. An end host B. A switch C. A logical group of routers D. A single router E. A logical group of hosts CCNP / BCMSN: The command show standby is used to verify the configuration of what protocol? A. IRDP B. HSRP C. VRRP D. GLBP Answers tomorrow - see you then! Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

Answers To Tuesday's Practice Questions CCNA: Which of the following is true of ISDN BRI? Choose all that apply. A. There are three channels - one b-channel and two d-channels. B. There are three channels - one d-channel and two b-channels. C. The d-channel(s) set up the call. D. The b-channel(s) set up the call. E. The d-channel(s) carry the data, which can be voice or video. F. The b-channel(s) carry the data, which can be voice or video. G. The bandwidth is the same for all three channels. H. The bandwidth differs between the three channels. Answer: B, C, F, H. ISDN BRI has one D-channel and two B-channels, the D-channel sets up the call, the B-channels carry the voice and/or video data, and the bandwidth does differ between the three channels. CCNP / BSCI: You want an EIGRP-enabled interface, ethernet 0, to receive routing updates but not send them. What is the full command you would enter under the EIGRP process to do so? Answer: passive-interface ethernet0 CCNP / BCMSN: Which

CCNA / CCNP Practice Questions For Wednesday Answers To Tuesday's Questions Will Be Posted Later Tonight! CCNA: Identify the three locations where a router can locate an IOS image during the boot process. A. Flash B. TFTP Server C. FTP Server D. ROM E. RAM F. NVRAM G. A laptop configured as an IOS Server. CCNP / BSCI: One effect of configuring a router as an EIGRP Stub is to prevent it from receiving what kind of traffic? A. LSAs B. Hellos C. DUAL Queries D. Acks E. Joins CCNP / BCMSN In a multilayer switch, what holds the routing information? A. The route cache B. The Attribute Table C. The MAC Mapping Table D. The Forwarding Information Base E. The Adjacency Table Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

My Personal Motivational Library Anyone who's read my articles knows that I'm very big on planning your success. If you want to drive across the country, you map out a plan to do so; if you want to get a CCNA, CCIE, or accomplish anything else in life, you've got to create a success plan for doing so. If you've never done so, this can be a little tough at first. I'd like to recommend five of my personal favorite planning and/or motivation books that have helped me create plans for a successful career and life. Brian Tracy's Goals! is a fantastic book for learning how to create a plan for professional and personal success. I highly recommend it, and you can learn more about this great book and Brian's other products at www.briantracy.com . His books are at amazon.com as well. Mark Burnett, the creator of Survivor and The Apprentice -- well, you just have to read his story to believe it. You can read about his amazing career in Jump In!. Donny Deutsch's b

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 answer detailed questions. To pass these demanding exams, you've got to truly understand how Cisco routers and switches operate - and the key to doing so is right in front of you. The debug command. Of course, there is no single "debug" command. Using IOS Help, you can quickly see that there are hundreds of these debugs, and I want to mention immediately that you should never practice these commands on a production router. This is one major reason you need to get some hands-on experience with Cisco products in a home lab or rack rental. No software program or "simulator" is going to give you the debug practice you need. Now,

CCNP / BSCI Exam Tutorial: Using The IP Default Next-Hop Command Part of the challenge of passing the BSCI exam and earning your CCNP certification is learning that while there are some commands that look almost the same, and seem to do the same thing, they don't! The ip default next-hop command is one such command. There is also an "ip next-hop" command, but the default next-hop command operates differently. If you set an "ip default next-hop" with a route map, that next-hop will be used ONLY if an explicit path to the destination network is not present in the routing table. An extended ACL must be used here, since a source and destination must be defined. R2(config)#access-list 150 permit ip host 172.1.1.1 210.1.1.0 0.0.0.255 R2(config)#route-map DEFAULT_NEXT_HOP permit R2(config-route-map)#match ip address 150 R2(config-route-map)#set ip default next-hop 100.1.1.3 R2(config)#interface e0 R2(config-if)#ip policy route-map DEFAULT_NEXT_HOP When a packet comes i

Cisco CCNP Exam / BCMSN Exam Tutorial: DiffServ And Integrated Services To pass the CCNP exams, you’ve got to master Quality of Service, and the first step in doing so is knowing the differences between the different QoS types. Now this being Cisco, we can't just have one kind of QoS! We've got best-effort delivery, Integrated Services, and Differentiated Services. Let's take a quick look at all three. Best-effort is just what it sounds like - routers and switches making their "best effort" to deliver data. This is considered QoS, but it's kind of a "default QoS". Best effort is strictly "first in, first out" (FIFO). An entire path from Point A to Point B will be defined in advance when Integrated Services are in effect. Integrated Services is much like the High-Occupancy Vehicle lanes found in many larger cities. If your car has three or more people in it, you're considered a "priority vehicle" and you can drive in a special

Cisco CCNA Exam Tutorial: Configuring Dialer Profiles The most common method of configuring ISDN is with dialer maps, but dial information can also be configured on a logical interface. To pass the CCNA exam, you must know how to configure and troubleshoot both dialer maps and dialer profiles. Dialer Profiles allow different dialing information to be configured onto logical interfaces. The logical interfaces may have different dialing destinations, different remote router names, etc., but they’ll be using the same physical interface. Dialer strings are used on dialer profiles. Note that each logical interface has a different IP address, a different remote router to dial, and a different dialer string, but they will be using the same physical interface to dial out. The commands dialer pool and dialer pool-member are used to link the logical and physical interfaces. The number following each command must match for the logical interface to correctly bind to the physical interface. R

Tuesday's CCNA And CCNP Practice Questions The blog's back up, so look for new questions every day! CCNA: Which of the following is true of ISDN BRI? Choose all that apply. A. There are three channels - one b-channel and two d-channels. B. There are three channels - one d-channel and two b-channels. C. The d-channel(s) set up the call. D. The b-channel(s) set up the call. E. The d-channel(s) carry the data, which can be voice or video. F. The b-channel(s) carry the data, which can be voice or video. G. The bandwidth is the same for all three channels. H. The bandwidth differs between the three channels. CCNP / BSCI: You want an EIGRP-enabled interface, ethernet 0, to receive routing updates but not send them. What is the full command you would enter under the EIGRP process to do so? CCNP / BCMSN: Which of the following must be agreed upon between switches running MST to be considered in the same region? Choose three. A. Revision number B. MST Autonomous System Number C. MST M

Cisco CCNP / BCMSN Exam Tutorial: Getting Started With QoS Policies QoS - Quality of Service - is a huge topic on both the BCMSN exam and real-world networks. QoS is so big today that Cisco's created separate specialist certifications that cover nothing but QoS! It can be an overwhelming topic at first, but master the fundamentals and you're on your way to exam and job success. If you work with QoS at any level - and sooner or later, you will - you've got to know how to write and apply QoS policies. Creating and applying such a policy is a three-step process. Create a QoS class to identify the traffic that will be affected by the policy. Create a QoS policy containing the actions to be taken by traffic identified by the class. Apply the policy to the appropriate interfaces. If the phrase "identify the traffic" sounds like it's time to write an access-list, you're right! Writing an ACL is one of two ways to classify traffic, and is the more common of the tw

Cisco CCNP / BSCI Tutorial: Comparing IRDP and HSRP To pass the BSCI exam, you need to know the difference between IRDP and HSRP. While they have the same basic function, the operation and configuration of each are totally different. The aim of both is to allow hosts to quickly discover a standby router when the primary router fails. IRDP is commonly used by Windows DHCP clients and several Unix variations, but you do see it in Cisco routers as well. IRDP is defined in RFC 1256. IRDP (ICMP Router Discovery Protocol) routers will multicast Hello messages that host devices hear. If a host hears from more than one IRDP router, it will choose one as its primary and will start using the other router if the primary it's chosen goes down. HSRP (Hot Standby Routing Protocol) is a Cisco-proprietary protocol that is designed for quick cutover to a secondary router if the primary fails, but the host devices don't "see" either the primary or secondary router. The hosts use a vir

Cisco CCNA Certification Tutorial: Frame Relay DLCIs - How To Map 'Em And Use 'Em Passing the CCNA is tough, and one of the toughest parts is keeping all the acronyms straight! Frame Relay has plenty of those, and today we're going to examine what DLCIs do and how they're mapped on a Cisco router. Frame Relay VCs use Data-Link Connection Identifiers (DLCI - pronounced "del-see") as their addresses. Unlike other Cisco technologies, VCs have only a single DLCI in their header. They do not have a source and destination. DLCIs have local significance only. DLCI numbers are not advertised to other routers, and other routers can use the same DLCI numbers without causing connectivity issues. Cisco uses the term global addressing to describe a technique by which a router in a frame relay network is reached via the same DLCI number from each router in the network. For example, in a 25-router network, the same DLCI number would be used to reach “Router A” by each r

Cisco CCNA Tutorial: Frame Relay DLCIs And Mapping Passing the CCNA is tough, and one of the toughest parts is keeping all the acronyms straight! Frame Relay has plenty of those, and today we're going to examine what DLCIs do and how they're mapped on a Cisco router. Frame Relay VCs use Data-Link Connection Identifiers (DLCI - pronounced "del-see") as their addresses. Unlike other Cisco technologies, VCs have only a single DLCI in their header. They do not have a source and destination. DLCIs have local significance only. DLCI numbers are not advertised to other routers, and other routers can use the same DLCI numbers without causing connectivity issues. Cisco uses the term global addressing to describe a technique by which a router in a frame relay network is reached via the same DLCI number from each router in the network. For example, in a 25-router network, the same DLCI number would be used to reach “Router A” by each router. Global Addressing is an organiza

CCNA Certification Exam Tutorial: Frame Relay DLCIs And Mapping Passing the CCNA is tough, and one of the toughest parts is keeping all the acronyms straight! Frame Relay has plenty of those, and today we're going to examine what DLCIs do and how they're mapped on a Cisco router. Frame Relay VCs use Data-Link Connection Identifiers (DLCI - pronounced "del-see") as their addresses. Unlike other Cisco technologies, VCs have only a single DLCI in their header. They do not have a source and destination. DLCIs have local significance only. DLCI numbers are not advertised to other routers, and other routers can use the same DLCI numbers without causing connectivity issues. Cisco uses the term global addressing to describe a technique by which a router in a frame relay network is reached via the same DLCI number from each router in the network. For example, in a 25-router network, the same DLCI number would be used to reach “Router A” by each router. Global Addressing i

Learning The Basics Of Frame Relay DLCIs Passing the CCNA is tough, and one of the toughest parts is keeping all the acronyms straight! Frame Relay has plenty of those, and today we're going to examine what DLCIs do and how they're mapped on a Cisco router. Frame Relay VCs use Data-Link Connection Identifiers (DLCI - pronounced "del-see") as their addresses. Unlike other Cisco technologies, VCs have only a single DLCI in their header. They do not have a source and destination. DLCIs have local significance only. DLCI numbers are not advertised to other routers, and other routers can use the same DLCI numbers without causing connectivity issues. Cisco uses the term global addressing to describe a technique by which a router in a frame relay network is reached via the same DLCI number from each router in the network. For example, in a 25-router network, the same DLCI number would be used to reach “Router A” by each router. Global Addressing is an organizational tool

Answers To Saturday's CCNA / CCNP Practice Questions CCNA: Which of the following is true of both IGRP and EIGRP? Choose all that apply. A. They both understand VLSM. B. They both allow the use of wildcard masks. C. They both assume a serial interface is connected to a T1 line. D. They both have topology tables. E. They both choose successors and feasible successors. F. They both use broadcasts to send routing updates. Answer: B, E. Of the two, only EIGRP understands VLSM, allows the use of wildcard masks, and has a topology table. Only IGRP uses broadcasts to send routing updates. CCNP / BSCI: What does an IPv6 address beginning with 2002 and carrying a /48 prefix indicate? A. The address is found on 6to4 tunnel access routers. B. The address is found on 6to4 tunnel edge routers. C. The address is a universal loopback address for IPv6. D. The address is a multicast address for IPv6. E. The address is a broadcast address for IPv6. Answer: B. You'll find this address on a 6to4 t

Answers To Saturday's CCNA / CCNP Practice Questions CCNA: Which of the following is true of both IGRP and EIGRP? Choose all that apply. A. They both understand VLSM. B. They both allow the use of wildcard masks. C. They both assume a serial interface is connected to a T1 line. D. They both have topology tables. E. They both choose successors and feasible successors. F. They both use broadcasts to send routing updates. Answer: C, E. Of the two, only EIGRP understands VLSM, allows the use of wildcard masks, and has a topology table. Only IGRP uses broadcasts to send routing updates. CCNP / BSCI: What does an IPv6 address beginning with 2002 and carrying a /48 prefix indicate? A. The address is found on 6to4 tunnel access routers. B. The address is found on 6to4 tunnel edge routers. C. The address is a universal loopback address for IPv6. D. The address is a multicast address for IPv6. E. The address is a broadcast address for IPv6. ANSWER: This is an address you'll find on a 6to

Saturday's CCNA / CCNP Practice Questions I apologize for the lack of questions yesterday! CCNA: Which of the following is true of both IGRP and EIGRP? Choose all that apply. A. They both understand VLSM. B. They both allow the use of wildcard masks. C. They both assume a serial interface is connected to a T1 line. D. They both have topology tables. E. They both choose successors and feasible successors. F. They both use broadcasts to send routing updates. CCNP / BSCI: What does an IPv6 address beginning with 2002 and carrying a /48 prefix indicate? A. The address is found on 6to4 tunnel access routers. B. The address is found on 6to4 tunnel edge routers. C. The address is a universal loopback address for IPv6. D. The address is a multicast address for IPv6. E. The address is a broadcast address for IPv6. CCNP / BCMSN: Which of the following commands applies a QoS policy to an interface? A. qos-policy B. service-policy C. qos enable D. access-group E. access-class Chris Bryant CCIE

Here are the answers to the bonus questions I posted Wednesday. CCNA: What protocol uses the term cost to describe its metric? A. OSPF B. IGRP C. EIGRP D. RIPv1 E. RIPv2 Answer: B. OSPF refers to its metric as "cost". CCNP / BSCI: Which of the following phrases applies to the distribution layer of Cisco's three-layer networking model? A. traffic filtering generally occurs here B. end users interact with the network here C. Internet access is granted here D. traffic filtering should be avoided at this layer Answer: A, C. Traffic filtering and internet access generally occur at the distribution layer of Cisco's three-layer model. Traffic filtering should be avoided at the core layer to spare core devices any unnecessary latency. CCNP / BCMSN: At what layer of the Cisco hierarchical networking model should traffic be classified and marked when appropriate? A. Access B. Distribution C. Classification D. Core E. Policing Answer: A. The classification and marking of traffi

Thursday's CCNA and CCNP Practice Questions Answers to Wednesday's questions will be posted tonight! CCNA: A frame enters a switchport. The destination MAC address is known to the switch. The destination MAC address is found off a different port than the one that received the frame. What word best describes the action the switch will take on the frame? A. Broadcast B. Multicast C. Unicast D. Dropped E. Filtered CCNP / BSCI: Which of the following EIGRP packet types are considered "unreliable"? Choose all that apply. A. Hello B. Ack C. Update D. Query E. Reply CCNP / BCMSN The acronym "FIFO" relates to which one of the following QoS methodologies? A. Best effort B. Integrated Services C. Differentiated Services D. Coded Services Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

CCNP / BSCI Exam Tutorial: Broadcasts And The IP Helper-Address Command As you know from your CCNA studies, while routers accept and generate broadcasts, they do not forward them. This can be quite a problem when a broadcast needs to get to a device such as a DHCP or TFTP server that's on one side of a router with other subnets on the other side. If a PC attempts to locate a DNS server with a broadcast, the broadcast will be stopped by the router and will never get to the DNS server. By configuring the ip helper-address command on the router, UDP broadcasts such as this will be translated into a unicast by the router, making the communication possible. The command should be configured on the interface that will be receiving the broadcasts. R1(config)#int e0 R1(config-if)#ip helper-address ? A.B.C.D IP destination address R1(config-if)#ip helper-address 100.1.1.2 Now, you may be wondering if this command covers all UDP services. Sorry, you're not getting off that easy!

Cisco Home Lab Tutorial - 2501s In Your CCNA / CCNP Home Lab 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 is assembling your own Cisco home lab. You don't have to spend a lot of money to do so; used Cisco equipment is cheaper than ever. It's robust as well - I've bought literally hundreds of used routers and switches over the years and have had very few problems. I owe much of my skill to practicing configurations and troubleshooting in my own home lab. 2501 routers are fantastic for CCNA and CCNP home labs. They come with two serial interfaces, allowing you to connect one interface directly to another router (you'll need a DTE/DCE cable for that, too) while connecting another to a frame relay switch if you like. If you don

Wednesday's CCNA And CCNP Practice Questions - The Second Set Today! :) CCNA: What protocol uses the term cost to describe its metric? A. ISIS B. OSPF C. IGRP D. EIGRP E. RIPv1 F. RIPv2 CCNP / BSCI: Which of the following phrases applies to the distribution layer of Cisco's three-layer networking model? A. traffic filtering generally occurs here B. end users interact with the network here C. Internet access is granted here D. traffic filtering should be avoided at this layer CCNP / BCMSN: At what layer of the Cisco hierarchical networking model should traffic be classified and marked when appropriate? A. Access B. Distribution C. Classification D. Core E. Policing Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

Wednesday Morning's CCNA / CCNP Practice Questions Two sets of questions today - the second one will be posted this afternoon! CCNA: What are the frame relay LMI types? Choose all that apply. A. cisco B. ansi C. dlci D. isl E. q933a F. dot1q G. hdlc H. ppp CCNP / BSCI: There are 10 routers in a BGP AS. The number of separate BGP peer connections that would be needed for a full mesh is: A. 90 B. 60 C. 100 D. 99 E. 45 F. 98 CCNP / BCMSN: A packet enters a multilayer switch with a CoS of 2. Which of the following is true? A. By default, the CoS value will be trusted. B. By default, the CoS value will not be trusted. C. If trusted, the CoS value will map to an internal DSCP value of 2. D. If trusted, the CoS value will map to an internal DSCP value of 16. E. If trusted, the CoS value will map to an internal DSCP value of 4.

Here are the answers to yesterday's CCNA / CCNP practice questions. More free questions later tonight! CCNA: A RIP router recieves two routing updates for the same network at the exact same time. The metric for one of the routes is higher than the other. What will happen to the update with the higher metric? A. It will be discarded. B. It will be put into the routing table. C. It will be placed into the topology table. D. It will act as the feasible successor. Answer: A. The update with the higher metric will be discarded. RIP doesn't use a topology table or a feasible successor. CCNP / BSCI: What combination of letters and symbols indicate a RIP route learned via redistribution? A. R B. R* C. R IA D. R EX E. R IA* Answer: A. RIP only has one code for its routes, regardless of how it was learned, and that's an "R". CCNP / BCMSN:What command will hardcode a 3550 port into switching mode? Short answer, no choices given. Answer: The interface-level command "swit

CCNA Home Lab Setup: The 2503 Router 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 because they can fill multiple roles. When you buy CCNA or CCNP "lab kits" - bundles of routers and switches - you can get a little confused about whether you're getting a good deal. One router I get asked about quite a bit is the 2503. 2503 routers are fantastic for CCNA and CCNP home labs. They come with two serial interfaces, allowing you to connect one interface directly to another router (you'll need a DTE/DCE cable for that, too) while connecting another to a frame relay switch if you like. If you don't have a frame relay switch, you can connect a 2503 directly to two other routers via the serial interfaces. You also have an AUI

CCNP / BCMSN Exam Tutorial: An Introduction To CGMP If a Layer Two switch doesn't have the capabilities to run IGMP Snooping, it will be able to run CGMP - Cisco Group Membership Protocol. CGMP allows the multicast router to work with the Layer Two switch to eliminate unnecessary multicast forwarding. CGMP will be enabled on both the multicast router and the switch, but the router's going to do all the work. The router will be sending Join and Leave messages to the switch as needed. PIM must be running on the router interface facing the switch before enabling CGMP, as you can see: R1(config)#int e0 R1(config-if)#ip cgmp WARNING: CGMP requires PIM enabled on interface R1(config-if)#ip pim sparse R1(config-if)#ip cgmp When CGMP is first enabled on both the multicast router and switch, the router will send a CGMP Join message, informing the switch that a multicast router is now connected to it. This particular CGMP Join will contain a Group Destination Address (GDA) of 0000.0000.0

Monday's CCNA And CCNP Practice Questions CCNA: A RIP router recieves two routing updates for the same network at the exact same time. The metric for one of the routes is higher than the other. What will happen to the update with the higher metric? A. It will be discarded. B. It will be put into the routing table. C. It will be placed into the topology table. D. It will act as the feasible successor. CCNP / BSCI: What combination of letters and symbols indicate a RIP route learned via redistribution? A. R B. R* C. R IA D. R EX E. R IA* CCNP / BCMSN: What command will hardcode a 3550 port into switching mode? Short answer, no choices given. Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

Here are the answers to Saturday's CCNA / CCNP Practice Questions. More free questions coming later tonight! CCNA: Identify the true statements regarding an ISDN connection. Choose all that apply. A. CHAP requires the passwords to be the same on each router. B. CHAP allows the passwords to be different on each router. C. CHAP can only run when HDLC is enabled. D. CHAP can only run when PPP is enabled. E. CHAP can run on PPP or HDLC. F. CHAP requires the use of the ppp chap sent-username command. G. CHAP does not use the ppp chap sent-username command. Answer: A, D, G. CHAP does require that the password be the same on both involved routers. CHAP cannot run on HDLC and requires PPP. CHAP does not have a sent-username command, only PAP does. CCNP / BSCI: Examine the following configuration and identify the true statements. router bgp 100 neighbor 10.1.1.2 remote-as 200 A. The local router is in AS 100. B. The local router is in AS 200. C. The remote router is an iBGP neighbor. D. The

Cisco CCNA Exam Tutorial: IGRP Unequal-Cost Load Balancing And The Variance Command To pass the CCNA exam, you've got to know how to work with IGRP and EIGRP unequal-cost load balancing. You may not see much IGRP in production networks anymore, but you'll see a lot of EIGRP, and part of fine-tuning your EIGRP network is making sure that all paths are in use while allowing for varying bandwidth rates. Using the variance command is the easy part - it's getting the metric that's the hard part with IGRP. With EIGRP, you just look in the topology table and that's it. With IGRP, you've got to run a debug to get the right metric. The variance command is a multiplier when the value supplied with the variance command is multiplied by the lowest-cost metric, it must exceed the higher-cost metric in order for the higher-cost route to be added. If that sounds complicated, it's not. It's one of those things that sounds difficult, but isn't. Trust me! In this exam

Saturday's CCNA And CCNP Practice Questions CCNA: Identify the true statements regarding an ISDN connection. Choose all that apply. A. CHAP requires the passwords to be the same on each router. B. CHAP allows the passwords to be different on each router. C. CHAP can only run when HDLC is enabled. D. CHAP can only run when PPP is enabled. E. CHAP can run on PPP or HDLC. F. CHAP requires the use of the ppp chap sent-username command. G. CHAP does not use the ppp chap sent-username command. CCNP / BSCI: Examine the following configuration and identify the true statements. router bgp 100 neighbor 10.1.1.2 remote-as 200 A. The local router is in AS 100. B. The local router is in AS 200. C. The remote router is an iBGP neighbor. D. The remote router is an eBGP neighbor. CCNP / BCMSN: Which of the following best describes the RPF Check? A. The RPF check assures that the packet is on the way to the correct destination. B. The RPF Check assures that the packet is flowing away from the sou

Thursday's CCNA And CCNP Practice Questions My apologies for these not being online yesterday, but blogger.com was having a little trouble yesterday! CCNA: What value serves as a keepalive for frame relay circuits? A. ANSI B. Cisco C. LMI D. DLCI E. BECN F. FECN CCNP / BSCI: Short Answer: What is the administrative distance of ISIS? CCNP / BCMSN: What must be configured on a Cisco router interface before enabling CGMP? A. PIM B. CDP C. OSPF D. A distance vector protocol, preferably RIP E. IGMP Spoofing F. Any multicasting protocol Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

Answers To Yesterday's CCNA And CCNP Practice Questions Today's Questions Coming Up Later Today! CCNA: Convert the dotted decimal address 240.53.51.254 to a binary string. (No choices given.) Answer: 11110000 00110101 00110011 11111110 CCNP / BSCI: An L1/L2 ISIS router can have an adjacency with what type or types of routers in its own area? A. L1, L1/L2, L2 B. L1 only C. L2 only D. L1/L2 only E. L1, L2 Answer: A. An L1/L2 router can form an adjacency with any of the three ISIS router types in its own area. CCNP / BCMSN Which of the following does NOT describe a network that would be a good candidate for PIM Dense Mode? A. Multiple recipients located on almost every subnet in the network B. Only a few recipients overall C. Bandwidth to spare to allow periodic flooding D. These statements all describe networks that should run PIM Dense Mode. Answer: B. If there are only a few recipients, PIM Sparse Mode would be a better choice. Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.co

CCNP / BCMSN Exam Tutorial: Introduction To Multicasting Ever since you picked up your first CCNA book, you've heard about multicasting, gotten a fair idea of what it is, and you've memorized a couple of reserved multicasting addresses. Now as you prepare to pass the BCMSN exam and become a CCNP, you've got to take that knowledge to the next level and gain a true understanding of multicasting. Those of you with an eye on the CCIE will truly have to become multicasting experts! Having said that, we're going to briefly review the basics of multicasting first, and then future tutorials will look at the different ways in which multicasting can be configured on Cisco routers and switches. What Is Multicasting? A unicast is data that is sent from one host to another, while a broadcast is data sent from a host that is destined for "all" host addresses. By "all", we can mean all hosts on a subnet, or truly all hosts on a network. There's a quite a bit of

RIP isn't exactly the most complex routing protocol on the CCNA exam, but that makes it easy to overlook some of the important details you must keep in mind in order to pass the exam! To help you review for the exam, here are just a few of those details! RIP’s default behavior is to send version 1 updates, but to accept both version 1 and 2 routing updates. R2(config)#router rip R2(config-router)#net 172.16.0.0 R2(config-router)#^Z R2#show ip protocols Routing Protocol is "rip" Sending updates every 30 seconds, next due in 6 seconds Invalid after 180 seconds, hold down 180, flushed after 240 Outgoing update filter list for all interfaces is Incoming update filter list for all interfaces is Redistributing: rip Default version control: send version 1, receive any version Interface Send Recv Key-chain Serial0 1 1 2 By default, RIP v2 autosummarizes routing updates sent across classful network boundaries. To disable this behavior, run no auto-summary under the RIP process. R

Answers To Monday's CCNA And CCNP Practice Questions CCNA: The "NV" in "NVRAM" stands for non-volatile. What does this term mean? Choose all that apply. A. The contents of NVRAM cannot be changed. B. The contents of NVRAM are not lost on reboot. C. The contents of NVRAM cannot be copied. D. The contents of NVRAM cannot be erased. ANSWER: B. Non-volatile RAM is so named because the contents are not lost on a reload. The contents of NVRAM can be changed, can be copied, and can be erased. CCNP / BSCI: Which of the following statements does NOT describe EIGRP? Choose all that apply. A. Uses PDMs to support IP, IPX, and AppleTalk B. Supports VLSM C. Allows route summarization at the interface level D. Fast convergence E. Static neighbor discovery ANSWER: E. EIGRP does use PDMs to support those three protocols, it does support VLSM, it does allow route summarization at the interface level, and it does converge quickly. There is no static neighbor discovery mechanism i

Tuesday's CCNA And CCNP Practice Questions And Answers CCNA: The "NV" in "NVRAM" stands for non-volatile . What does this term mean? Choose all that apply. A. The contents of NVRAM cannot be changed. B. The contents of NVRAM are not lost on reboot. C. The contents of NVRAM cannot be copied. D. The contents of NVRAM cannot be erased. ANSWER: B. "non-volatile" means that the contents are not lost on a reload. CCNP / BSCI: Which of the following statements does NOT describe EIGRP? Choose all that apply. A. Uses PDMs to support IP, IPX, and AppleTalk B. Supports VLSM C. Allows route summarization at the interface level D. Fast convergence E. Static neighbor discovery ANSWER: E. EIGRP does use PDMs, it does support VLSM, it does allow route summarization at the interface level, and it converges quickly. It does not have static neighbor discovery. CCNP / BCMSN At what layer of the Cisco three-layer hierarchical model should the root bridge be found? A. Physi

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Wednesday's CCNA / CCNP Practice Questions Answers to Tuesday's questions will be posted tonight. CCNA: Convert the dotted decimal address 240.53.51.254 to a binary string. (No choices given.) CCNP / BSCI: An L1/L2 ISIS router can have an adjacency with what type or types of routers in its own area? A. L1, L1/L2, L2 B. L1 only C. L2 only D. L1/L2 only E. L1, L2 CCNP / BCMSN Which of the following does NOT describe a network that would be a good candidate for PIM Dense Mode? A. Multiple recipients located on almost every subnet in the network B. Only a few recipients overall C. Bandwidth to spare to allow periodic flooding D. These statements all describe networks that should run PIM Dense Mode.

CCNP / BCMSN Exam Tutorial: The Core Layer Of The Cisco Three-Layer Hierarchical Model In this section, you're going to be reintroduced to a networking model you first saw in your CCNA studies. No, it's not the OSI model or the TCP/IP model - it's the Cisco Three-Layer Hierarchical Model. Let's face it, just about all you had to do for the CCNA was memorize the three layers and the order they were found in that model, but the stakes are raised here in your CCNP studies. You need to know what each layer does, and what each layer should not be doing. This is vital information for your real-world network career as well, so let's get started with a review of the Cisco three-layer model, and then we'll take a look at each layer's tasks. Most of the considerations at each layer are common sense, but we'll go over them anyway! Today we’ll take a look at the core layer of the Cisco model. The term core switches refers to any switches found here. Switches at the

A Quick Review Of The TCP/IP Networking Model The OSI model is the model that most networking personnel are familiar with, but to earn your CCNA, you need to know the OSI model, the TCP/IP model, and how the two map to each other. The four layers of the TCP/IP architecture can be compared to certain levels of the OSI model. It’s important to know what each level of the TCP/IP protocol architecture does, and how these layers map to the OSI model. The Application Layer of the TCP/IP model performs much the same tasks as the Application, Presentation, and Session layers of the OSI model. The Transport layer in the TCP/IP architecture is similar to the Transport layer in the OSI model. This layer can use TCP or UDP as well. The Internetwork layer in the TCP/IP architecture uses IP addresses to determine how packets should be routed. Remember that the OSI model uses IP addresses, or “Layer 3 Addresses”, at the Network layer. The two layers do much the same thing. This layer is also referred

Monday's CCNA / CCNP Questions And Answers CCNA: What devices typically make up a Frame Relay cloud? A. Frame Relay routers (DCEs) B. Frame Relay routers (DTEs) C. Frame Relay switches (DCEs) D. Frame Relay switches (DTEs) ANSWER: C. Frame Relay clouds consist of Frame Relay switches, which are DCEs (which stands for Data Communications Equipment or Data Circuit-terminating Equipment, depending on which piece of documentation you're reading!). BSCI: What is the highest AS number available in the BGP private AS range? A. 64512 B. 64555 C. 65535 D. 65555 E. 32768 ANSWER: C. The range of private AS numbers is 64512 - 65535. BCMSN: Which of the following interface-level commands enables Loop Guard? A. spanning-tree loop guard B. spanning-tree guard loop C. loop guard run D. loop guard enable E. run loop guard F. enable loop guard ANSWER: B. Use the interface-level command spanning-tree guard loop to enable Loop Guard. SW2(config-if)#int fast 0/5 SW2(config-if)#spanning-tree guard

Tuesday's CCNA / CCNP Practice Questions Answers to Monday's questions will be posted later today! CCNA: The "NV" in "NVRAM" stands for non-volatile . What does this term mean? Choose all that apply. A. The contents of NVRAM cannot be changed. B. The contents of NVRAM are not lost on reboot. C. The contents of NVRAM cannot be copied. D. The contents of NVRAM cannot be erased. CCNP / BSCI: Which of the following statements does NOT describe EIGRP? Choose all that apply. A. Uses PDMs to support IP, IPX, and AppleTalk B. Supports VLSM C. Allows route summarization at the interface level D. Fast convergence E. Static neighbor discovery CCNP / BCMSN At what layer of the Cisco three-layer hierarchical model should the root bridge be found? A. Physical B. Core C. Distribution E. Data Link F. Access G. End User Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com