IT Training on the Cheap

January 2010 — Unless you've been living under a rock for the last year, you know that the United States is in the midst of a deep recession. As such, companies are doing pretty much anything they can to cut costs. According to a lot of the people I've talked to, one of the first things to go is the IT training budget. But that doesn't mean you have to go without training: You just have to be a little bit creative.

This was something that I figured out a long time ago. In 2001 I quit my job as a CIO to become a full-time freelance writer. One of the things I quickly discovered was that the only way I could prosper was to keep my knowledge current and to learn as much as I possibly could about a wide variety of technologies. As much as I love training classes, there's no denying that they tend to be expensive and time-consuming. In my line of work, attending traditional training classes just doesn't make sense for me. Many of the classes that I'd be interested in cost about $2,000 per week. Not only would I have to pay the tuition out of my own pocket, but the time I spent in class would be better spent making money by writing articles. Fortunately, I've discovered a lot of different techniques over the years for keeping my education current without breaking the bank. Given the current state of the economy, it's an opportune time to share some of these techniques with you.

Current TCPmag.com user comments for "640-801: The New CCNA Exam"

3/17/04 - PprKuT from Jakarta says:	for partha: have you ever try to search what you looking for in kazaa or eMule???
3/17/04 - T-Mac from Columbus says:	Currently hold MCSE, MCP plus I, A plus, Network plus, Compaq APS -Servers, Desktops & portables. Numerous printer certs. Never failed a test. Studying for the 640-801 and finding it surprisingly difficult. It appears the failure rate is pretty high the first few times also. I have Todd Lammle's 640-507 study guide and have ben pulling stuff off the web to study. Should this do it? Or is the test really as hard as everyone says??
3/17/04 - alireza from iran says:	plz send to exam (640-801)
3/17/04 - Anonymous says:	I just took the test 640-801 today for the second time and failed with a score of 815. I had atleast 3 questions that werent in the Cisco Semester 1, 2, 3 and 4 study guide or Que Exam Cram 2 and Sybex CCNA Study Guide. I failed by 1 but no more than 2 questions or else I would have made it to the 849 mark... gooood... back to studies.
3/19/04 - Rajendra T from India says:	I have to give CCNA Exam. Any one guide me how to prepare for this Exam. Which study Materials is useful for passing this examination. and which topic i have to concentrate . is Techmedia books is useful Author Wendell Odom.
3/20/04 - Halekala from Troy, MI says:	I have taken Cisco 640-801 today for the second time and I failed both times. I ran out of time today. One simulation took nearly 10 minutes to finish. The simulator was so slow that I was pulling my hair. It was about adding networks in a RIP network. I should've read all the comments here before preparing 2nd time. Questions are definitely sneaky. Yes, you have to know subnetting pretty well. Frustrating part is that you simply don't have enough time!
3/21/04 - Michael from Georgia says:	Today, I took and passed the CCNA 640-801 with a score of 883. Wow, what a great feeling. On top of the world now that I have accomplished this. This was my second test and it is challenging. Definitely, you must have your act together. Study to prepare well. Subnetting, ACLS, Frame-Relay, and Switching concepts were emphasised. Prepare and you can accomplish this. Knowledge combined with test question familiarity is key to success. Good luck to all future CCNAs.
3/22/04 - vinodh from chennai says:	yet i have not taken exam i have a confidence so it will be easy to me my suggestion is u just take a online test daily
3/22/04 - Waqar AMIN from Singapore says:	I am preparing for CCNA, but after looking at comments got scared :(. Don't know how to work out. Any one suggestion for preparation books will be well come.
3/23/04 - MUSISI YUNUSU from UGANDA says:	plize send the new ccna exam for each semester thank u.

Have you taken this exam? Rate it below!

Andy Barkl, CCNP, CCDP, CISSP, MCT, MCSE:Security, MCSA:Security, A+, CTT+, i-Net+, Network+, Security+, Server+, CNA, has over 19 years of experience in the IT field. He's the owner of MCT & Associates LLC, a technical training and consulting firm in Phoenix, Arizona. He spends much of his time in the classroom but has also been responsible for many Microsoft Windows 2000, Exchange 2000, and Cisco networking deployments for many clients across Arizona. He's also the online editor for MCPMag.com, TCPMag.com, CertCities.com, and a contributing author and editor for Sybex and Cisco Press. He hosts a multitude of exam preparation chats monthly on MCPmag.com, TCPmag.com and CertCities.com. You can reach him at

Preparation Tips

When deciding which study guides will fully prepare you for the new CCNA 640-801 exam, keep in mind that while the objectives have been reorganized, the knowledge tested really hasn't changed much from the previous CCNA exam 640-607. Therefore, if you have already started your studying, continue on with your existing 607 study guides and materials. You should also pickup a router simulator or a real router to prepare for the router simulator questions. Cisco uses a router simulator in their exams developed by the Cisco Networking Academy program You can view and even demo a copy of the official Cisco exam simulator here. Many third-party offerings are very similar to this product.

That wraps it up for the version of the CCNA exam. Remember, if you still feel overwhelmed, you can now obtain this certification through a process of two exams by passing both the INTRO (640-821) and ICND (640-811) exams (both of which we'll review on this site shortly). Good luck!

Objective Area #4: Technology

Under this final heading you'll find these topics listed:

• Describe network communications using layered models.
• Describe the Spanning Tree process.
• Compare and contrast key characteristics of LAN environments.
• Evaluate the characteristics of routing protocols.
• Evaluate TCP/IP communication process and its associated protocols.
• Describe the components of network devices.
• Evaluate rules for packet control.
• Evaluate key characteristics of WANs.

Spanning tree protocol (STP) is enabled by default on all Cisco switches. Along with STA (Spanning Tree Algorithm), it avoids switched network loops. STP allows exchange of bridge protocol data units (BPDUs) by the switches to choose a Root bridge (switch, in this case) and determine where the network loops are present. Then the STA requires switches responsible for creating loops place their redundant port or ports in a blocked state preventing network loops. There are five port states possible: blocking, listening, learning, forwarding and disabled.

Tip: The listening state is where the port determines whether or not it should participate in the forwarding of frames. The learning state is when the port learns MAC addresses that are added to the forwarding database.

Remember, routers divide networks into different broadcast domains for controlling client and server network broadcast traffic. Switches and bridges create or divide collision domains.

HDLC is the default Cisco router serial interface encapsulation type and is only understood by other Cisco routers using Cisco's HDLC.

Tip: ISDN supports a faster call setup than traditional analog modems.

PPP is an authentication method; using chap is preferred since the password is never sent across the wire. The configuration command is username username password password, where username is the hostname of the peer router. Note: passwords must be identical at both ends and the hostname and password are case sensitive.

Objective Area #3: Troubleshooting

For this objective area, Cisco expects you to know how to:

• Utilize the OSI model as a guide for systematic network troubleshooting.
• Perform LAN and VLAN troubleshooting.
• Troubleshoot routing protocols.
• Troubleshoot IP addressing and host configuration.
• Troubleshoot a device as part of a working network.
• Troubleshoot an access list.
• Perform simple WAN troubleshooting.

The OSI model is a no-brainer: How could any network guru possible get through an average day without knowing the OSI model? If you're not familiar with it yet, the OSI 7-layer reference model from the top is Application, Presentation, Session, Transport, Network, Data Link and Physical layers. The numbering starts from the bottom (physical layer is number 1). Knowing the layer names and their order is crucial. Some people like to use an anagram to help. One of my favorites is (from the bottom up) Please Do Not Throw Sausage Pizza Away.

Knowing where the most common network devices operate in the OSI model is also a must. At the physical layer there is the cabling of the network, repeaters, and hubs. The data link layer includes bridges and switches, and routers operate at the network layer.

Tip: A switch is a multi-port bridge.

As a CCNA, you need to understand protocol operation and at which layer each function. This exam focuses only on TCP/IP. From the physical layer up, there are protocols, such as V.35 and RS-232, that define the physical connection and signaling on the wire. At the data link layer protocols such as Ethernet, token-ring and FDDI are responsible for defining the network topology and data communication standards .

At the network layer, there is IP, ICMP ARP. At the transport layer, there is TCP and UDP. UDP is fast and efficient but does not provide guaranteed delivery and retransmission like TCP. TCP is more commonly used at this layer by many upper-layer protocols and applications. TCP uses windowing, buffering and acknowledgments for flow control. Skipping over the session and presentation layers for brevity, the application layer contains Telnet, FTP, TFTP, SMTP, and many other application-type protocols.

Troubleshooting IP addresses, subnet masks, and gateways requires knowledge of subnetting. You may be presented with a simple network diagram consisting of subnets, routers and hosts, and be asked to identify the incorrect assignment of IP addresses. You might also find a question relating to configuration of access lists. Remember the rules from above as well as the following: If you created an access list with various deny statements and no permit, you would prohibit the routing of all traffic on the applied interface. Remember there is the explicit deny at the end of each access list.

Tip: Ping, traceroute and show ip route can be used to troubleshoot connectivity problems.

Understanding how to perform the password recovery procedure on a Cisco router is must-have knowledge for the CCNA. Remember that on the 2500 series routers, the command config-register 0x2102 returns the bits from 0x2142, which were changed in the rommon mode using the command o/r for password recovery.

Objective Area #2: Implementation & Operations

This area covers the following topics:

• Configure routing protocols given user requirements.
• Configure IP addresses, subnet masks, and gateway addresses on routers and hosts.
• Configure a router for additional administrative functionality.
• Configure a switch with VLANS and inter-switch communication.
• Implement a LAN.
• Customize a switch configuration to meet specified network requirements.
• Manage system image and device configuration files.
• Perform an initial configuration on a router.
• Perform an initial configuration on a switch.
• Implement access lists.
• Implement simple WAN protocols.

Routers can be configured for network routes and discovery via routing protocols. Manually configured, connected and static routes are usually preferred since they have some of the lowest administrative distances. For the exam, remember when viewing the routing table of a Cisco router, you will see two values in brackets -- such as [100/2] -- which indicates the administrative distance and hop count or other metric. Also indicated next to each route in the table is whether it is a connected route (C), static route (S), or was learned dynamically via a routing protocol (with designations such as R for RIP and I for IGRP).

RIP and IGRP are fairly simple to configure. For RIP the IOS command would be router rip followed by the network statement. For IGRP it is router igrp 10, which includes an autonomous system number, followed by a network statement.

Tip: When an interface is configured for passive routing, the interface will accept but not advertise network routes.

Once again, this section of the exam relies heavily on your knowledge of subnetting. You may be presented with a simple network diagram consisting of subnets, routers and hosts, and be asked to identify the proper assignment of IP addresses. Read each and every address carefully as the answer may not always be obvious!

Every CCNA should understand what happens within a Cisco switch and the bridging functions of a network. You'll want to be familiar with STP (Spanning Tree Protocol), VLANs, and the switching methods cut-through and store-and-forward. Cut-through switching is a preferred method when media collisions are low and latency at the switch cannot be tolerated. Store-and-forward, on the other hand, is needed when media collisions are high and a higher latency is acceptable.

VLANs have become a popular implementation method to connect network clients and their preferred servers logically, through the switched networks, without having to connect them to the same physical switch. The network administrator generally configures vLANs within the switches. They offer levels of security and control plus limit network broadcast traffic, much like routers.

Referring back to the Cisco white paper mentioned earlier (link above), using extended access lists you can deny telnet traffic to a router's interface; for example, ip access-list 101 deny tcp any any eq telnet (don't forget to also add a permit statement such as ip access-list 101 permit ip any any or all traffic will be denied). You would then apply the access list to the filtered interface: ip access-group 101 in.

There are many things to configure to prepare an interface for a frame relay connection, and you should be intimately familiar with all of them. Memorize the different frame relay, DLCI configurations and LMI types. Frame relay encapsulation types are cisco and ietf with cisco being the default. DLCIs are locally significant and only represent the connection identifier from the router to the frame switch. LMI types are ansi, cisco and q933a. When there is a mismatch between two routers, communication will not take place.

ISDN and DDR configuration is new to the CCNA list of topics--not ISDN as a protocol, but as a complete understanding of how to configure ISDN and dial-on-demand routing (DDR). To begin with, here is a great reference for study: http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/793/access_dial/ddr_dialer_profile.html.

Be sure you understand the components and commands of a dialer profile and the order of configuration: