640-801: The New CCNA Exam

Andy Barkl walks you through the latest incarnation of Cisco's Certified Network Associate exam.

by Andy Barkl

August 2003 — Once again, Cisco Systems has updated their popular entry-level certification exam, the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) exam. I recently took the updated exam and received 56 questions in 90 minutes with a passing score of 849. There were three router simulator questions, many multiple choice questions and a few drag-and-drop questions.

The exam engine itself is slow when it comes to switching between the simulator-based questions and the standard multiple-choice questions -- patience is a must! For most simulator-based questions, you are presented with a network scenario, required to configure or troubleshoot one or more routers, save and verify your work. The simulator behaves very much like the real thing and includes limited support for abbreviated, editing and help commands.

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Having taken the 407, 507 and 607 versions, I can say that while the exam objectives haven't changed significantly with this latest update, much of the content is new and improved (minus the extensive OSI topics). New networking topics include DDR and configuring register settings. You'll want to download the official exam objectives from Cisco's Web site here.

With 640-801, the objective categories have been simplified into four areas: Planning & Designing, Implementation & Operation, Troubleshooting and Technology. Following is an overview of each section plus advice on where to focus your studies.

Objective Area #1: Planning & Designing
Under this general heading you'll find these topics listed:

• Design a simple LAN using Cisco technology.
• Design an IP addressing scheme to meet design requirements.
• Select an appropriate routing protocol based on user requirements
• Design a simple internetwork using Cisco technology.
• Develop an access list to meet user specifications.
• Choose WAN services to meet customer requirements.

CCNA Overview Free CCNA practice tests Free router simulators

Getting your CCNA certification needn't cost a fortune. The links below will take you to free CCNA study guides and other self-study resources. Some of them you may have to register for first, but in all cases the registration only takes a couple of minutes and is completely free. Remember also to check out our sections on free CCNA practice tests and other CCNA general information.

And don't forget that you can also get a completely free subscription to many different computer magazines, including Network Magazine (and many other types of mags)

FDDI Tutorials and Resources

Good collection of links to FDDI documents, including papers, tutorials, and articles. This page is hosted by the InterOperability Lab at the University of New Hampshire.

Fiber Distributed Data Interface

This paper from Cisco provides background information about FDDI technology, explains how FDDI works, describes the differences between FDDI and CDDI and describes how CDDI works.

Sponsored listings

GlobalSpec.com: Fiber Optics - Database of suppliers for fiber optic cable, as well as attenuators, circulators, couplers, and modulators. Browse catalogs.

Sponsored listings

GlobalSpec.com: Fiber Optics - Database of suppliers for fiber optic cable, as well as attenuators, circulators, couplers, and modulators. Browse catalogs.

FDDI

Abbreviation of Fiber Distributed Data Interface, a set of ANSI protocols for sending digital data over fiber optic cable. FDDI networks are token-passing networks, and support data rates of up to 100 Mbps (100 million bits) per second. FDDI networks are typically used as backbones for wide-area networks.

An extension to FDDI, called FDDI-2, supports the transmission of voice and video information as well as data. Another variation of FDDI, called FDDI Full Duplex Technology (FFDT) uses the same network infrastructure but can potentially support data rates up to 200 Mbps.