The Bryant Advantage Bulldog Blog

Here are today's Cisco CCNA and CCNP practice questions! CCNA: You want your router to resolve unknown console entries via a DNS server located at 100.1.1.1. What is the full global configuration command to do so? CCNP / BSCI: The "T" in NAT stands for translation. What might be getting translated? Choose all that apply. A. IP addresses B. MAC addresses C. Port numbers D. Layer One addresses CCNP / BCMSN: Which of the following are true of the collapsed core design? A. There is no dedicated core switch. B. There is no dedicated access-layer switch. C. There is no dedicated distribution-layer switch. D. The processes of all three layers are performed by a single switch. Have fun, and I'll see you later tonight with the answers to yesterday's questions! To your Cisco certification success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

You might know why you have to type in those letters and numbers when you're buying items online or signing up for a free email account - but do you know what they're called and why they work? There's a fascinating article on the free part of the Wall Street Journal online that explains it well. Good reading. http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114903737427467003-C_VyvrTBJuk8M1vG2w6fsYAPlwM_20070531.html Enjoy! Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

Packet magazine is Cisco's official networking publication, and whether you're climbing the Cisco certification ladder or just want to know more about Cisco products and technologies, you really should be a subscriber! It costs just a few bucks, and is well worth the price. Learn more about it here: http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac123/ac114/registernow.html To your Cisco certification success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. -- Harold R. McAlindon

Here are today's Cisco CCNA and CCNP practice questions. Answers to yesterday's questions will be posted later tonight! CCNA: What effect does the following configuration have? Select all that apply. R2(config-if)# bandwidth 512 A. IGRP and EIGRP's metric calculations will be affected. B. RIP v1's metric calculations will be affected. C. RIP v2's metric calculations will be affected. D. The physical bandwidth of the interface is changed to 512 kbps. E. The physical bandwidth of the interface is changed to 512 bps. CCNP / BSCI: Short answer: What is the default OSPF cost of a 56 kbps link? CCNP / BCMSN: Classification and marking of data for QoS purposes should be done at what layer of the Cisco networking model? A. Access B. Distribution C. Core D. Network E. Data Link Enjoy, and I'll see you later tonight! To your Cisco certification success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first. -- William Shakespeare

Here are Monday's CCNA and CCNP practice questions! CCNA: Short answer: What's the destination address for a RIPv2 routing update? CCNP / BSCI: Short answer: What's the default OSPF cost of an Ethernet interface? CCNP / BCMSN: You're configuring dot1x port-based authentication. 802.1x must be configured on which involved devices? A. The PC and the switch. B. It's only required on the PC. C. It's only required on the switch. D. It's not required on either - dot1x is an internal process. To your Cisco certification success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

To all men and women who have served or are serving in the United States Military, please accept this simple message on our Memorial Day: "Thank you." Chris Bryant CCIE #12933

Here are Saturday's CCNA and CCNP practice questions! CCNA: Identify the true statements. Choose all that apply. A. The startup configuration is kept in NVRAM and loads when the router is booted. B. The startup configuration is the active configuration at all times. C. The running configuration is kept in NVRAM and loads when the router is booted. D. The running configuration is the active configuration at all times. E. The startup configuration and running configuration can be the same config. F. The startup configuration and running configuration can never been the same config. CCNP / BSCI: There are four routers on an OSPF broadcast network. With the default settings, how many of them are listening for packets addressed to 224.0.0.6? CCNP / BCMSN: Cisco recommends that you configure Uplinkfast on all switches in what layer? A. Access B. Core C. Distribution D. All To your Cisco certification success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds. -- Francis Bacon

The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen. -- Frank Lloyd Wright

Here are the answers to yesterday's Cisco certification practice questions. CCNA: You have just hard-coded a router with the OSPF RID 20.20.20.20. What has to be done to make this change take effect? A. Nothing, since it's a global configuration command. B. Reload the router or clear the OSPF process. C. Delete the OSPF process and reconfigure it. D. Run the command clear ip ospf rid. Answer: B. To have this command take effect, you must either reload the router or clear the OSPF process by running the command clear ip ospf process . CCNP / BSCI: What is RIP's default behavior regarding which update versions to send and accept? A. Send version 1 and 2, accept version 1. B. Send version 1, accept version 1 and 2. C. Send version 1 and 2, accept version 1 and 2. D. None of the above. Answer: B. As you can see in the below output of show ip protocols , the RIP default is to send version 1 updates, but to accept both version 1 and 2 updates. R1#show ip protocols Routing Protoco

Here are today's CCNA and CCNP practice questions! CCNA: You need to configure a distance vector protocol in your network. Not all the routers are Cisco. What is your best choice? A. RIP B. RIP or IGRP C. IGRP D. RIP, IGRP, or EIGRP E. IGRP or EIGTP CCNP / BSCI: In the following redistribution command, what value is represented by "1544"? R2(config-router)# redistribute ospf 1 metric 1544 100 1 255 1500 A. Delay B. Bandwidth C. OSPF cost D. Link reliability E. Load F. MTU CCNP / BCMSN: The phrases guaranteed rate and reserved path describe what QoS model? A. DiffServ B. Integrated Services C. FIFO D. Best effort To your Cisco certification success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

Computer / IT Analyst Job Future Highly Rated By Money Magazine Money magazine listed the 50 best jobs in America this past week, and "Computer / IT Analyst" was rated #7 overall. Not bad! According to Money, "Seems like the entire world is at the mercy of information technology folks, thanks to the rapid spread of computers and swell of the Internet. And all of these jobs pay well, from desktop support to Webmaster to database work." Sounds good to me! They put a little more importance on a college degree than I would personally, but it all depends on the job and the company you're working with or for. Overall, just another great reason to get certified! Here's another one, this quote from Dan Rodriguez, CEO of IT staffing firm Veredus : "...And of course certifications like the MCSE [Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer] are always big. The supply of people who have these skills and credentials is not keeping up with demand." Source of this quote

To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first. -- Shakespeare

Here are Wednesday's CCNA and CCNP practice questions. The answers to yesterday's questions will be posted later tonight! CCNA: You have just hard-coded a router with the OSPF RID 20.20.20.20. What has to be done to make this change take effect? A. Nothing, since it's a global configuration command. B. Reload the router or clear the OSPF process. C. Delete the OSPF process and reconfigure it. D. Run the command clear ip ospf rid . CCNP / BSCI: What is RIP's default behavior regarding which update versions to send and accept? A. Send version 1 and 2, accept version 1. B. Send version 1, accept version 1 and 2. C. Send version 1 and 2, accept version 1 and 2. D. None of the above. CCNP / BCMSN: Can a switch be configured to open an err-disabled port on its own, with no manual intervention? A. Nice idea, but nope. B. Yes, with the errdisable recovery command. C. Yes, by configuring the switch to reboot during off hours. D. Yes, with the port autoopen command. To your Cisco

I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure -- which is: Try to please everybody. -- Herbert Bayard Swope

Here are Tuesday's Cisco CCNA and CCNP practice questions. Answers to yesterday's questions will be posted later this evening! CCNA: A trunk port is considered a member of what VLANs by default, if any? A. The native VLAN. B. None. C. All of them. D. All VLANs configured with the trunk port VLAN member command. CCNP / BSCI: You've decided to implement policy routing. At what point(s) on the router will policy routing be enforced? A. As data is sent out an interface. B. As data is received on an interface. C. As data is both sent and received on an interface. D. During the routing process. CCNP / BCMSN: What is the full command to disable a switch port's ability to transmit DTP frames? Short answer, no choices given. See you later today! Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

Winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is. -- Vince Lombardi

Here are the answers to yesterday's Cisco practice questions. I'll have some new questions up later tonight! CCNA: In OSPF, what is meant by the term "external route"? A. A route injected into the OSPF domain by an ABR. B. A route injected into the OSPF domain by an ASBR. C. A route to a destination in Area 0. D. A route that involves a virtual link. Answer: B. A route learned by the OSPF domain via redistribution is an external route, and the ASBR performs this redistribution. CCNP / BSCI: What field in an IP Version 6 address carries subnet information? A. SLA B. NSAP C. NSEL D. System ID E. Area ID Answer: A. The 16-bit Site Level Aggregator (SLA) carries IPv6 subnet information. CCNP / BCMSN: What version of Spanning Tree is defined by IEEE 802.1s? A. MST B. PVST C. CST D. IST Answer: A. IEEE 802.1s defines Multiple Spanning Tree (MST). To your Cisco success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

If I could sum up what it takes to succeed at Cisco certifications - or anything else - in one sentence, this would be it: Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. -- W.W. Ziege

Fortune favors the brave. -- Publius Terence

Here are Sunday's CCNA and CCNP practice questions! CCNA: In OSPF, what is meant by the term "external route"? A. A route injected into the OSPF domain by an ABR. B. A route injected into the OSPF domain by an ASBR. C. A route to a destination in Area 0. D. A route that involves a virtual link. CCNP / BSCI: What field in an IP Version 6 address carries subnet information? A. SLA B. NSAP C. NSEL D. System ID E. Area ID CCNP / BCMSN: What version of Spanning Tree is defined by IEEE 802.1s? A. MST B. PVST C. CST D. IST Back later today with the answers to yesterday's questions! To your Cisco certification success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

The blogging software was down for a while, so here are the answers to Thursday's questions. New questions coming up later today, and beginning today there will be a BCRAN question as well! CCNA: Which of the following commands is NOT used on a dialer profile? A. dialer map B. ip address C. encapsulation ppp D. dialer pool E. dialer remote-name Answer: A. A dialer profile is considered a point-to-point interface, and therefore does not use dialer maps. CCNP / BSCI: In how many EIGRP tables can a successor be seen? A. Zero B. One C. Two D. Three E. Four Answer: C. The EIGRP successor can be seen in both the route and topology tables. CCNP / BCMSN: From a LAN's point of view, what's "transparent" in Transparent LAN Services? A. The other LANs. B. The hosts on the local LAN. C. The WAN. D. None of the above. Answer: C. The entire WAN appears as one big LAN to each LAN segment, making the WAN transparent. To your Cisco success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantad

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. --- Albert Einstein

For you CCNA and CCNP candidates, here's a tutorial on EIGRP Stuck In Active, stub routers, and DUAL queries! EIGRP is a major subject of the CCNA exam, and Cisco goes into even more detail with EIGRP on your CCNP exams. Part of that detail is the purpose and configuration of EIGRP stub routers. A problem with EIGRP comes in when a successor is lost and there is no feasible successor. DUAL doesn't give up that easily, though. DUAL will mark the route as Active, indicating that the route is being calculated and cannot be used to route data, and will send out a Query message. A DUAL Query is basically one neighbor asking another, "Hey, do you know how to get to this network I just lost my route to?" If that neighbor has a route, the query will be answered with that route; if the neighbor doesn't have such a route, that neighbor will ask its neighbors. The process continues until a downstream router replies with the desired route, or the EIGRP downstream routers

Here's a CCNA tutorial on port-based authentication - and it would be a very good idea for you BCRAN candidates to read this as well! :) To pass your CCNA exam and earn this coveted certification, you must understand the details of port-based authentication. This knowledge has a great deal of value in production networks as well, since this authentication scheme is regularly implemented. Let's take a look at this particular CCNA skill. Consider a situation where you have a server that will be connected to your switch, and you want the port to shut down if a device with a different MAC address that that of the switch attempts to connect to that port. You could also have a situation where you have someone who has a connection to a switch port in his office, and he wants to make sure that only his laptop can use that port. Both of these examples are real-world situations, and there are two solutions for each. First, we could create a static MAC entry for that particular switch po

It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, "Always do what you are afraid to do." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Here are today's Cisco practice questions! The answers to yesterday's questions will be posted later today. CCNA: Which of the following commands is NOT used on a dialer profile? A. dialer map B. ip address C. encapsulation ppp D. dialer pool E. dialer remote-name CCNP / BSCI: In how many EIGRP tables can a successor be seen? A. Zero B. One C. Two D. Three E. Four CCNP / BCMSN: From a LAN's point of view, what's "transparent" in Transparent LAN Services? A. The other LANs. B. The hosts on the local LAN. C. The WAN. D. None of the above. See you later today! To your Cisco certification success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome. -- Samuel Johnson

Here are the answers to yesterday's Cisco certification practice questions! CCNA: Which of the following statements is true of Frame Relay LMI? Choose all that apply. A. The default LMI type is Cisco. B. The default LMI type is ansi. C. The default LMI type is dot1q. D. The LMI must be agreed upon by the DTE and a DCE. E. The LMI type must be agreed upon by the two DTEs located at the endpoints of the Frame connection. Answers: A, D. The default LMI type is Cisco, and the LMI must be agreed upon by the DTE and the closest DCE. Run debug frame lmi to see the LMI exchange. CCNP / BSCI: Short answer: What is the full command to configure OSPF Area 17 as stub? The command is simple, but make sure you put it under the OSPF process: router ospf 1 area 17 stub CCNP / BCMSN: Which of the following statements is / are FALSE regarding SPAN? Choose all that apply. A. A source port can be a source port for multiple sessions. B. A destination port can be a destination port for multiple session

To earn your Cisco CCNA certification and pass the BSCI CCNP exam, you have to know your protocol basics like the back of your hand! To help you review these important concepts, here's a quick look at the basics of RIPv1, RIPv2, IGRP, and EIGRP. RIPv1: Broadcasts updates every 30 seconds to the address 255.255.255.255. RIPv1 is a classful protocol, and it does not recognize VLSM, nor does it carry subnet masking information in its routing updates. Update contains entire RIP routing table. Uses Bellman-Ford algorithm. Allows equal-cost load-balancing by default. Max hop count is 15. Does not support clear-text or MD5 authentication of routing updates. Updates carry 25 routes maximum. RIPv2: Multicasts updates every 30 seconds to the address 224.0.0.9. RIPv2 is a classless protocol, allowing the use of subnet masks. Update contains entire RIP routing table. Uses Bellman-Ford algorithm. Allows equal-cost load-balancing by default. Max hop count is 15. Supports clear-text

Here are today's Cisco CCNA and CCNP practice questions! CCNA: Which of the following statements is true of Frame Relay LMI? Choose all that apply. A. The default LMI type is Cisco. B. The default LMI type is ansi. C. The default LMI type is dot1q. D. The LMI must be agreed upon by the DTE and a DCE. E. The LMI type must be agreed upon by the two DTEs located at the endpoints of the Frame connection. CCNP / BSCI: Short answer: What is the full command to configure OSPF Area 17 as stub? CCNP / BCMSN: Which of the following statements is / are FALSE regarding SPAN? Choose all that apply. A. A source port can be a source port for multiple sessions. B. A destination port can be a destination port for multiple sessions. C. A source port can be part of an Etherchannel. D. A destination port can be part of an Etherchannel. To your Cisco success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

All candidates for both the CCNA and BCRAN CCNP exam should read this tutorial! ISDN is a huge topic on both your Cisco CCNA and BCRAN CCNP exams. While many ISDN topics seem straightforward, it’s the details that make the difference in the exam room and working with ISDN in production networks. Configuring and troubleshooting multilink PPP is just one of the skills you’ll need to pass both of these demanding exams. With BRI, we've got two B-channels to carry data, and both of them have a 64-kbps capacity. You might think it would be a good idea to have both channels in operation before one reaches capacity, and it is a great idea Problem is, it's not a default behavior of ISDN. The second b-channel will not begin to carry traffic until the first one reaches capacity. With Multilink PPP (MLP), a bandwidth capacity can be set that will allow the second b-channel to bear data before the first channel reaches capacity. The configuration for MLP is simple, but often misconfig

Here are some CCNA and CCNP practice questions to get your brains started up on Monday! CCNA: The default priority of an OSPF-enabled interface is what? A. 0 B. 1 C. 255 D. None of the above. CCNP / BSCI: A stub router's OSPF routing table can contain which of the following route types? Choose all that apply. A. Inter-area routes B. A default route using the ABR as the next hop C. Intra-area routes D. E2 routes E. E1 routes F. E0 routes CCNP / BCMSN: If inter-VLAN traffic is matched against a VLAN ACL, and no match is found, what action is taken? A. The traffic is denied. B. The traffic is permitted. C. The traffic is filtered. D. The traffic is flooded. E. The traffic is sent to the CPU for processing. Have a great day, and I'll be back later today with more practice questions! To your Cisco success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking. -- William B. Sprague

Here are the answers to yesterday's Cisco practice questions! More questions later tonight! CCNA: You're on a tech call with Cisco, and they want to know what the filename is on your router. What command will give you this information? A. show version B. show flash C. show io system D. show controller serial E. show ios Answer: A. show version will display the IOS filename right at the top of the output. CCNP / BSCI: You have a transit AS containing 100 BGP speakers. There is an inherent problem with such a configuration. Which of the following solutions requires the least configuration? A. route reflectors B. full BGP mesh C. route aggregation D. route maps and prefix filtering The issue presented by such a large AS can be resolved with the use of route reflectors. You could build a full BGP mesh, but that would require a lot of configuration. CCNP / BCMSN: Which two of the following port types cannot be dynamically assigned a VLAN membership? A. port-security enabled ports B.

Here are some CCNA and CCNP practice questions for you on this fine Saturday! CCNA: You're on a tech call with Cisco, and they want to know what the filename is on your router. What command will give you this information? A. show version B. show flash C. show io system D. show controller serial E. show ios CCNP / BSCI: You have a transit AS containing 100 BGP speakers. There is an inherent problem with such a configuration. Which of the following solutions requires the least configuration? A. route reflectors B. full BGP mesh C. route aggregation D. route maps and prefix filtering CCNP / BCMSN: Which two of the following port types cannot be dynamically assigned a VLAN membership? A. port-security enabled ports B. trunking-enabled ports C. access ports D. Fast Ethernet ports Thanks for coming by! Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. -- Theodore Roosevelt

Here are some Cisco certification practice questions for you... CCNA: You're working on a Cisco router, and you want to see the IP address of the directly connected Cisco devices. Which of the following commands will give you this information? Choose all that apply. A. show cdp B. show cdp neighbors C. show cdp neighbors detail D. show cdp ip CCNP / BSCI: You want to see the contents of any and all route maps applied to interface ethernet0. Which of the following commands will give you this information? A. show ip policy B. show interface ethernet0 C. show route maps D. show route map policy ethernet0 CCNP / BCMSN: Which two of the following statements are true? A. RADIUS uses TCP. B. RADIUS uses UDP. C. TACACS+ uses TCP. D. TACACS+ uses UDP. Have a great weekend! I'll have more study questions and tutorials posted at various times over the weekend. To your Cisco success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

A big shot is a little shot that kept shooting.

Here are the answers to yesterday's practice questions. CCNA: What problem does the Cisco feature router on a stick resolve? A. Multiple devices having the same private IP address. B. Hosts in one VLAN cannot communicate with hosts in other VLANs. C. Routers do not forward broadcasts. D. Switches do not forward broadcasts. Answer: B. Router on a stick is a solution to the inability of VLANs to send traffic to each other. CCNP / BSCI: What combination of hex characters at the beginning of an IPv6 address indicates a broadcast? A. AA B. FF C. 00 (two zeroes) D. None Answer: D. IPv6 doesn't use broadcasts. IPv6 traffic is either an anycast, a unicast, or a multicast. CCNP / BCMSN: Under what circumstances would you configure Uplinkfast on a root switch? A. None. Actually, you can't. B. You want the remote port to open a new connection to the root quickly. C. You want the root switch's ports to skip the listening and learning states. D. You want to eliminate all delays on

Here are some more CCNA and CCNP practice questions for you. I'll have the answers to yesterday's questions up later this afternoon. CCNA: Fill in both blanks. You want to change the frame relay LMI on a Cisco router from the default of ________ to ansi. The full command to do so is ____________________. CCNP / BCSI: The cost of an OSPF E2 route indicates what? A. The full cost of the path to the destination network. B. The cost of the path from the ABR to the destination network. C. The cost of the path from the ASBR to the destination network. D. The cost of the path from the local router to the ASBR. CCNP / BCMSN: What command places a user connecting to a switch via Telnet directly into privileged exec mode? A. privilege level 15 B. enable C. login local D. privilege level 25 E. privilege level 0 F. login G. This is the default behavior of the switch. See you later today! Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

Earning your CCNP certification and passing the BSCI exam depends on knowing the details of many Cisco technologies, ISIS chief among them. To help you prepare for exam success, here's a list of ISIS terminology and basic concepts that will help you pass this tough exam. Enjoy! ISIS Terms: Domain: section of the network under common administrative control Area: logical segment of the network composed of contiguous routers and their data links Intermediate System: A router. End System: A host device. The four levels of ISIS routing: Level 0: ES-IS routing in the same subnet. Level 1: IS-IS routing in the same area. Level 2: IS-IS routing in the same domain. Level 3: Inter-domain routing performed by InterDomain Routing Protocol (IDRP). ISIS Adjacency Possibilities: L1: Can form adjacency with any L1 in the same area and any L1/L2 in the same area. L2: Can form adjacency with any L2 in any area, and with an L1/L2 in any area. L1/L2: Can form adjacency with any L1 in the same area, L1

Whether you're on the road to the CCNA, CCNP, MCSE, or you're on any other computer certification track, the odds are that sooner or later, you're going to fail an exam. It's happened to almost all of us, yours truly included. What you have to keep in mind in these times is that success is not a straight line. You've probably seen charts showing the growth of an industry or a business -- you know, the ones that go from left to right, and look kind of jagged. The line goes up for a while, then down a bit, then up some more, then down a little. The key? While every business has its setbacks, the net result is that the line goes up and progress is made. That's how you want your certification pursuit and your career to go as well - upward! I'm not asking you to be happy about failing an exam. You're allowed to get mad for a few minutes, vow to never take another exam again, and be disappointed. What you're not allowed to do is stay that way. If you put y

It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly;who errs and comes short again and again; who knows great enthusiasms, great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. - Theodore Roosevelt

Here are some Cisco CCNA and CCNP practice questions to get you started today! CCNA: What problem does the Cisco feature router on a stick resolve? A. Multiple devices having the same private IP address. B. Hosts in one VLAN cannot communicate with hosts in other VLANs. C. Routers do not forward broadcasts. D. Switches do not forward broadcasts. CCNP / BSCI: What combination of hex characters at the beginning of an IPv6 address indicates a broadcast? A. AA B. FF C. 00 (two zeroes) D. None CCNP / BCMSN: Under what circumstances would you configure Uplinkfast on a root switch? A. None. Actually, you can't. B. You want the remote port to open a new connection to the root quickly. C. You want the root switch's ports to skip the listening and learning states. D. You want to eliminate all delays on all the root's switch ports regarding STP. To your Cisco success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

Here are the answers to yesterday's practice questions. More questions to come later tonight! CCNA: You want to cut in half the number of paths RIP uses by default for equal-cost load-sharing. What command will do this? Short answer, no choices given! The default is 4 paths; the command needed here is maximum-paths 2. CCNP / BSCI: A BGP router has two possible paths to a remote destination. The weights are unchanged from the default. What is the next deciding factor? A. LOCAL_PREF, with the highest value preferred. B. LOCAL_PREF, with the lowest value preferred. C. AS_PATH, with the shortest value preferred. D. AS_PATH, with the longest value preferred. Answer: A. If the weights are the same, the next path selection attribute to be considered is LOCAL_PREF, with the highest being preferred. CCNP / BCMSN: Where does a VMPS server keep its MAC address database? A. On a TFTP server. B. In its ROM. C. In its RAM. D. In its NVRAM. Answer: A. The VMPS device keeps its MAC address databas

An Introduction To BGP Like TCP, BGP is connection-oriented. An underlying connection between two BGP speakers is established before any routing information is exchanged. This connection takes place on TCP port 179. As with EIGRP and OSPF, keepalive messages are sent out by the BGP speakers in order to keep this relationship alive. Once the connection is established, the BGP speakers exchange routes and synchronize their tables. After this initial exchange, a BGP speaker will only send further updates upon a change in the network topology. The IGP protocols that use Autonomous Systems, IGRP and EIGRP, require prospective neighbors to be in the same AS. This is not true with BGP. Routers can be in different Autonomous Systems and still exchange routes. The BGP neighbors do not have to be directly connected, and often are not, but do need to be able to reach the IP addresses they use in their neighbor statements. A BGP peer that is in the same AS is referred to as an Internal BGP (iBGP)

Imagine this. You have an appointment with a client to work on a server or router install. A few minutes before you're scheduled to be there, you decide there's something really good on TV you'd like to watch. Or you decide to go to the gym, or play a game, or do anything else except go see the client. Even if you weren't going to get fired for not showing up, it's certainly unfair to the client. You've got a professional obligation, and you should be there on time. Now, what's this got to do with you becoming a CCNA or CCNP? Plenty. Because when it comes to your study time, you're the client. You owe it to yourself to show up. You would never blow off an appointment to meet a client to get some important work done. First, though, you have to make that appointment with yourself! Schedule your CCNA / CCNP study time, and keep that appointment as you would with a client. Turn off the TV, your cell, your iPod, and everything else electronic t

It is a psychological law that whatever we wish to accomplish, we must impress on the subjective or subconscious mind. -- Orison Swett Marden And the best way to to that is to write both your personal and professional goals out on paper - daily. To live the life you want, you gotta have a map first! To your Cisco success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

CCNA Certification Exam Review: Distance Vector Protocol Commands Part of studying for CCNA exam success is keeping all these new commands straight in your head! And let's face it, there are a lot of commands you need to know in order to pass the CCNA exam and earn that certification. Here's a review of some very important distance vector and static routing commands you need to know, along with their proper usage and console output. Bandwidth IGRP makes a default assumption that any Serial interface running IGRP is connected to a T1 line, which runs at 1544 KBPS. With equal-cost load-balancing enabled by default, this may be an undesirable assumption. To alter IGRP’s assumption, use the bandwidth command on the serial interface in question. Note that this command does NOT actually affect the bandwidth available to the interface; it merely changes IGRP’s assumption of the bandwidth. R2#conf t R2(config)#int s0 R2(config-if)#bandwidth 512 Clear ip route * This command clears your

Here are some CCNA and CCNP practice questions to get you going! CCNA: You want to cut in half the number of paths RIP uses by default for equal-cost load-sharing. What command will do this? Short answer, no choices given! CCNP / BSCI: A BGP router has two possible paths to a remote destination. The weights are unchanged from the default. What is the next deciding factor? A. LOCAL_PREF, with the highest value preferred. B. LOCAL_PREF, with the lowest value preferred. C. AS_PATH, with the shortest value preferred. D. AS_PATH, with the longest value preferred. CCNP / BCMSN: Where does a VMPS server keep its MAC address database? A. On a TFTP server. B. In its ROM. C. In its RAM. D. In its NVRAM. Thanks for reading! Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

When you're studying for the BSCI exam on the way to earning your CCNP certification, it's safe to say that BGP is like nothing you’ve studied to this point. BGP is an external routing protocol used primarily by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Unless you work for an ISP today or in the future, you may have little or no prior exposure to BGP. Understanding BGP is a great addition to your skill set – and you have to know the basics well to pass the BSCI exam. Note that I said “the basics”. BGP is a very complex protocol, and when you pursue your CCIE, you’ll see what I’m talking about. As with all things Cisco, though, when broken down into smaller pieces, BGP becomes quite understandable. You will need to know the basics of BGP as presented in this chapter to pass your BSCI exam – so let’s get started. BGP Defined: “An Internet protocol that enables groups of routers (called autonomous systems) to share routing information so that efficient, loop-free routes can be establ

To pass the BCMSN exam and earn your CCNP, you've got to know HSRP inside and out! Part of that is knowing how the MAC address of the virtual router is derived, and another part is knowing how to change this address. We'll look at both features in this tutorial. We've got two routers on a segment running HSRP, so first we need to find out what the MAC address of the HSRP virtual router is. The show command for HSRP is show standby, and it's the first command you should run while configuring and troubleshooting HSRP. Let's run it on both routers and compare results. R2#show standbyEthernet0 - Group 5 Local state is Standby, priority 100 Hellotime 3 sec, holdtime 10 sec Next hello sent in 0.776 Virtual IP address is 172.12.23.10 configured Active router is 172.12.23.3, priority 100 expires in 9.568 Standby router is local 1 state changes, last state change 00:00:22 R3#show standbyEthernet0 - Group 5 Local state is Active, priority 100 Hellotime 3 sec,

Here are the answers to yesterday's practice questions. Look for new questions and some brand new articles and tutorials on Monday ! CCNA: Short answer: In seconds, what's the default value of the dialer idle-timeout command? The default is 120 seconds. CCNP / BSCI: What LSA type is generated by an ABR and describes inter-area links? A. Type 1 B. Type 2 C. Type 3 D. Type 4 E. Type 5 F. Type 6 G. Type 7 Answer: That's a Type 3 LSA. CCNP / BCMSN: What type of frames pass through the tunnel built by the "l2 protocol-tunnel" command? A. Network control traffic B. IP frames C. All data frames D. All data frames and network control traffic The L2 frame carries network control traffic, namely STP, CDP, and VTP. Those three protocols will not have their frames sent through a dot1q tunnel. To your Cisco success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

Good morning! Here are some practice questions to get your brain started on this fine Saturday! CCNA: Short answer: In seconds, what's the default value of the dialer idle-timeout command? CCNP / BSCI: What LSA type is generated by an ABR and describes inter-area links? A. Type 1 B. Type 2 C. Type 3 D. Type 4 E. Type 5 F. Type 6 G. Type 7 CCNP / BCMSN: What type of frames pass through the tunnel built by the "l2 protocol-tunnel" command? A. Network control traffic B. IP frames C. All data frames D. All data frames and network control traffic To your Cisco success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

For those of you who have been waiting patiently for my new BCMSN Study Package -- wait no longer! It's now available on the website! To your Cisco success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933

There is no road too long to the man who advances deliberately and without undue haste; there are no honors too distant to the man who prepares for them with patience. -- Jean De La Bruyere

For the many of you who have asked, my BCMSN Ultimate Study Package will be released later today! Keep watching the website! Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

Here are the answers to yesterday's Cisco practice questions! CCNA: Which of the following fields do TCP and UDP headers have in common? Choose all that apply. A. Source IP address B. Destination IP address C. Source MAC address D. Destination MAC address E. Source Port F. Destination Port G. Urgent Pointer H. Checksum Answer: E, F, H. CCNP / BSCI: Which of the following is true regarding the expression of IPv6 addresses? A. There is no limit on zero compression usage. B. There is no limit on leading zero compression usage. C. There is a limit on zero compression usage. D. There is a limit on leading zero compression usage. Answers: B, C. Zero compression can be used only once in an IPv6 address expression, but leading zero compression can be used as many times as needed. CCNP / BCMSN: What protocol does a switch use to inform an IP Phone of CoS information? A. UDP B. TCP C. CDP D. IP E. IPX F. OSPF Answer: C. The switch will use CDP for this communication, so CDP must be enabled o

BSCI Exam Review - Distance Vector Protocols And IP Routing To pass the BSCI exam and earn your CCNP, you've got to keep a lot of details in mind. It's easy to overlook the "simpler" protocols and services such as static routing and distance vector protocols. With this in mind, here's a quick review of some details you should know for success in the exam room and real-world networks! When packets need to be routed, the routing table is parsed for the longest prefix match if multiple paths exist with the same prefix length, the route with the lowest AD is preferred. If there are still multiple valid paths, equal-cost load-sharing goes into effect. The ip route command is used to create static routes the command ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 <> creates a default static route. A static route with a next-hop IP address has an AD of one, while a static route with a local exit interface has an AD of zero. A floating static route is a static route with an AD higher than

"I have always found that if I move with 75 percent or more of the facts, I usually never regret it. It's the guys who wait to have everything perfect that drive you crazy." - Lee Iacocca

CCNP BCMSN Exam Tutorial: HSRP And The Priority Command (My BCMSN Ultimate Study Package comes out tomorrow! End of plug! ;) ) To pass the BCMSN exam and earn your CCNP certification, you've got to know HSRP inside and out. While the operation and basic commands of HSRP are pretty simple, there are some important details that are easily overlooked but are vital in getting HSRP to work the way you want it to. Let's take a look at using the priority command correctly on both the exam and in production networks. A key value in the show standby command is the priority. The default is 100, and the router with the highest priority will be the primary HSRP router. We'll raise the default priority on R2 and see the results. R3 is currently the Active router and R2 the standby, so let's raise the priority on R2 and see what happens. R2(config)#interface ethernet0 R2(config-if)#standby 5 priority 150 R2#show standby Ethernet0 - Group 5 Local state is Standby, priority 150 Helloti

Not only is your CCNA exam going to have questions on VLAN trunking protocol, almost any network that has more than one VLAN is going to have VTP running. Whether you're planning on passing the CCNA exam or just brushing up on your networking skills, this VTP tutorial will help you learn the basics of this important protocol. VTP allows switches to advertise VLAN information between other members of the same VTP domain. VTP allows a consistent view of the switched network across all switches. When a VLAN is created on one switch in a VTP server, all other VTP devices in the domain are notified of that VLAN’s existence. VTP servers will know about every VLAN, even VLANs that have no members on that switch. Switches run VTP in one of three modes. In server mode, VLANs can be created, modified, and deleted on a VTP server. When these actions are taken, the changes are advertised to all switches in the VTP domain. VTP Servers keep VLAN configuration information upon reboot. In client m

Here are today's free CCNA and CCNP practice questions ! CCNA: Which of the following fields do TCP and UDP headers have in common? Choose all that apply. A. Source IP address B. Destination IP address C. Source MAC address D. Destination MAC address E. Source Port F. Destination Port G. Urgent Pointer H. Checksum CCNP / BSCI: Which of the following is true regarding the expression of IPv6 addresses? A. There is no limit on zero compression usage. B. There is no limit on leading zero compression usage. C. There is a limit on zero compression usage. D. There is a limit on leading zero compression usage. CCNP / BCMSN: What protocol does a switch use to inform an IP Phone of CoS information? A. UDP B. TCP C. CDP D. IP E. IPX F. OSPF See you tomorrow with the answers and some new articles! To your Cisco success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

Here are the answers to yesterday's Cisco CCNA / CCNP practice questions. New questions coming later tonight! CCNA: By default, how many paths does RIP use for unequal-cost load-sharing? A. zero B. 1 C. 2 D. 3 E. 4 Answer: A. RIP uses four paths for equal-cost load-sharing by default, but no paths for unequal-cost sharing. CCNP / BSCI:What routes are redistributed automatically by an OSPF Autonomous System Border Router? A. None. B. Any OSPF routes from local processes. C. Any static routes. D. Any default static route. E. The route to Null0. ANSWER: A. OSPF ASBRs are routers performing redistribution into the OSPF domain, but no routes are automatically redistributed by it. CCNP / BCMSN:Short Answer: What's the default port cost of a 10 MBPS port on a Cisco switch? Answer: 100. 10 MBPS Port: Originally 100, still 100 100 MBPS Port: Originally 10, now 19 1 GBPS Port: Originally 1, now 4 10 GBPS Port: Originally 1, now 2 To your Cisco success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebry

Here are the answer to yesterday's CCNA / CCNP practice questions. CCNA: How many valid host IP addresses exist on the 221.10.89.0 255.255.255.248 subnet? Answer: Six. This is a Class C network, with a network mask of 255.255.255.0 (/24). Comparing the network and subnet masks in binary shows that there are 5 subnet bits and 3 host bits. Using the formula [ (2 to the nth power) - 2 ] to determine the number of valid host addresses, there are six valid addresses on this subnet. CCNP / BSCI: There are four routers on an OSPF broadcast network segment. If all OSPF settings are at their default, how many DROTHERS will be on the segment? Answer: There will be one DR, one BDR, and two DROTHERS - routers that are neither the DR nor the BDR. CCNP / BCMSN: What's the name for the network design where the core switches are also the distribution switches? This is a collapsed core network design. To your Cisco success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

Here are today's Cisco CCNA / CCNP practice questions ! CCNA: By default, how many paths does RIP use for unequal-cost load-sharing? A. zero B. 1 C. 2 D. 3 E. 4 CCNP / BSCI: What routes are redistributed automatically by an OSPF Autonomous System Border Router? A. None. B. Any OSPF routes from local processes. C. Any static routes. D. Any default static route. E. The route to Null0. CCNP / BCMSN: Short Answer: What's the default port cost of a 10 MBPS port on a Cisco switch? Study hard! To your Cisco success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

".... Chance only favors the mind that is prepared." -- Louis Pasteur

Here are Monday's CCNA / CCNP practice questions. They're all short answer today, no multiple choice. Enjoy! CCNA: How many valid host IP addresses exist on the 221.10.89.0 255.255.255.248 subnet? CCNP / BSCI: There are four routers on an OSPF broadcast network segment. If all OSPF settings are at their default, how many DROTHERS will be on the segment? CCNP / BCMSN: What's the name for the network design where the core switches are also the distribution switches? To your Cisco success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

Here are Monday's CCNA / CCNP Practice Questions! CCNA: Given the network number 130.245.0.0, what subnet mask will result in at least 250 valid hosts per subnet, but between 50 and 60 valid subnets? (No choices for this question. You shouldn't need them! :) ) CCNP / BSCI: What are BGP's well-known mandatory attributes? A. AS_PATH B. origin C. LOCAL_PREF D. atomic aggregate E. next-hop F. aggregator G. community CCNP / BCMSN: What switching service will shut a port down if that port receives a BPDU? A. Portfast B. Uplinkfast C. Root Guard D. Port Guard E. BPDU Skew Detection F. Backbonefast Enjoy, and I'll post the answers on Tuesday. To your Cisco success, Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 www.thebryantadvantage.com

It looks like the blogger software didn't post the answer to last Wednesday's questions, so here they are! 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. Answer: A, B, D. The order is Flash, TFTP Server, ROM. 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 Answer: C. Configuring a spoke router as an EIGRP stub means the hub will not send it DUAL Query packets. I mention hub and spoke routers because that's where you would use EIGRP stub routing. 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 Answer: D. The FIB holds the routing table's information, in

For those of you working on your CCNA, don't forget to learn the switching modes and the differences between the two. Here's a tutorial to help you out. To pass the CCNA exam and earn this important certification, you’ve got to know switching inside and out. While you’re learning all the basic switching theory, make sure to spend some time with the one of three switching modes Cisco routers can use. Store-and-Forward is exactly what it sounds like. The entire frame will be stored before it is forwarded. This mode allows for the greatest amount of error checking, since a CRC (Cyclical Redundancy Check) is run against the frame before it is forwarded. If the frame contains an error, it is discarded. If there’s no problem with the frame, the frame is then forwarded to its proper destination. While store-and-forward does perform error checking, the delay in processing the frame while this error check is run results in higher latency than the other modes you’re about to read a

For those of you studying for the CCNA, BSCI, or BCMSN exams, here's a tutorial on HSRP MAC addresses and timers. Enjoy! While the operation of HSRP is quite simple (and covered in a previous tutorial), you also need to know how HSRP arrives at the MAC address for the virtual router - as well as how to configure a new MAC for this virtual router. This puts us in the unusual position of creating a physical address for a router that doesn't exist! The output of show standby for a two-router HSRP configuration is shown below. R2#show standby Ethernet0 - Group 5 Local state is Standby, priority 100 Hellotime 3 sec, holdtime 10 sec Next hello sent in 0.776 Virtual IP address is 172.12.23.10 configured Active router is 172.12.23.3, priority 100 expires in 9.568 Standby router is local 1 state changes, last state change 00:00:22 R3#show standby Ethernet0 - Group 5 Local state is Active, priority 100 Hellotime 3 sec, holdtime 10 sec Next hello sent in 2.592 Virtual IP address is 172.12