An ISDN simulator is not one of those software programs pretending to be routers (“router simulators”) this is a piece of hardware that acts as the telephone company in your home lab. Older simulators come with preprogrammed phone numbers and SPIDs, where newer ones let you program the phone numbers you want to use. Either way, an ISDN simulator is great for your CCNA/CCNP home lab, because you can practice dial scenarios that actually work. And you get to troubleshoot the ones that don’t, which is also important to learn! )

You don’t need any special cables or connectors you just connect both of your routers’ BRI interfaces to the ISDN simulator with a straight-through cable and you’re ready to go.

In years past, this was a major problem for 640-801, 811, and 821 studies, because the simulators used to be so expensive. New ones can still be pricey ($600 and up), but with the sudden influx of used ISDN simulators on ebay and Cisco resellers, you can get a used one that will do the job for you.

Why are there suddenly so many ISDN simulators on the market? Cisco recently removed ISDN from the CCIE R&S exam, so a lot of CCIE rack resellers as well as private individuals are selling their simulators. There’s never been a better time to add ISDN to your home lab. If taken care of (kept out of extreme heat), they can last for quite a few years. The one I purchased for my IE home lab is still working well.

If you choose to purchase a new simulator, you can run a Google search to find vendors. I’ve made two purchases from www.vconsole.com over the last few years and both of those simulators have worked beautifully.

As I said earlier, there’s never been a better time to add ISDN to your home lab. Don’t just settle for trying to memorize theory – get your hands on the real deal, practice and fix your configurations, and you’ll be amazed at what you learn and how well you do on your CCNA and CCNP exams!

Consider the following three routes from a fictional Cisco router:

I 172.17.0.0 /24 via 172.1.1.1

O 172.17.0.0 /25 via 173.1.1.1

R 172.17.0.0 /26 via 174.1.1.1

This router has three possible next-hop IP addresses that it can send packets destined for the network 172.17.0.0. The masks are of different lengths, meaning that the route with the longest match (again, the route with the most bits set to “1″) will be used. In this example, the RIP route will be used, since it has the longest match with a mask of /26. The administrative distances do not matter.

AD does matter when the masks are the same length, as shown here:

I 172.17.0.0 /24 via 172.1.1.1

O 172.17.0.0 /24 via 173.1.1.1

R 172.17.0.0 /24 via 174.1.1.1

The longest match rule always precedes the use of AD, but here there is a three-way tie regarding the masks. They’re all /24 (or 255.255.255.0 in dotted decimal). AD will be used to break this tie.

As mentioned, AD is a measurement of a protocol’s believability. It is important to keep in mind that the lowest AD will be preferred. And while the routing table will show you the ADs of the respective protocols, it’s a very good idea to know these ADs before taking the CCNA or CCNP:

Connected route: 0

Static Route: 1

EIGRP Summary: 5

External BGP: 20

EIGRP (Internal): 90

IGRP: 100

OSPF: 110

ISIS : 115

RIP: 120

EIGRP (External) : 170

The three protocols we looked at in the comparison were RIP, IGRP, and OSPF. While your first instinct may be that the OSPF route would be the most believable, IGRP actually has a lower AD than the other two and would be the route installed in the routing table.

Since IGRP does not support variable-length subnet masking and OSPF does, you may never see this scenario outside of an exam question. But if you do see it in the exam room or in a production network, you’ll understand how an IGRP route could be preferred over an OSPF route.

Let’s test your skill in binary conversions, OSPF ABR and ASBRs, and other vital Cisco certification exam topics!

CCNA and CCENT certification:

There is a range of addresses reserved for multicasting. Take the absolute highest number in that range and convert it to a binary string.

Answer: The range is 224.0.0.0 – 239.255.255.255; the binary representation for that last address is 11101111 11111111 11111111 11111111.

CCNP / BSCI:

What command will show whether a router’s neighbors are or are not an ABR or ASBR?

Answer: show ip ospf border-routers.

CCNP / BCMSN:

What command places a physical switch port into a logical bundling of ports?

Answer: To place ports into an Etherchannel, use the port-channel command.

CCNP / ISCW Exam:

What is “signature tuning”?

Answer: Signature tuning is simply the process of editing a signature, most likely changing the action taken when there’s a signature match.

CCNP / ONT Exam:

You’re configuring Priority Queueing. How many queues exist by default, and how many packets can each queue hold?

Answer: There are four default queues – High (20), Medium (40), Normal (60), and Low (80). These are configurable. For example, the following command will double the Normal queue’s capacity while leaving the others unchanged. Even if you’re just changing one queue’s limit, you still have to name a value for each queue.

Below, I’ve used IOS Help to show the order in which the queue sizes are defined. The bolded command is the final command.

R3(config)#priority-list 1 queue-limit ?

High limit

R3(config)#priority-list 1 queue-limit 20 ?

Medium limit

R3(config)#priority-list 1 queue-limit 20 40 ?

Normal limit

R3(config)#priority-list 1 queue-limit 20 40 120 ?

Lower limit

R3(config)#priority-list 1 queue-limit 20 40 120 80 ?

R3(config)#priority-list 1 queue-limit 20 40 120 80

Look for more CCNA, CCENT, and CCNP practice exam questions on my website, and on this one as well!

You don’t need me to tell you that security is the #1 concern in today’s networks. With that in mind, your career path must include some security certifications, or you will be left behind.

Cisco’s Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP) certification demands a candidate be well-rounded and well-versed in Cisco security measures. Besides the difficultly we’ve all come to expect from a Cisco exam, this five-exam path covers every major aspect of network security (from Cisco’s viewpoint, anyway!)

You must hold a valid CCNA certification to earn your CCSP.
Typically, the first exam CCSP candidates take is Securing Networks With Cisco Routers An Switches (SNRS), followed by Securing Cisco Network Devices (SND). After you’ve nailed these two exams, which obviously focus on devices more familiar to CCNAs and CCNPs, you’ll be faced with three exams that are more specific to Cisco security devices.

Your PIX knowledge will be tested with the Securing Networks With PIX and ASA (SNPA) exam, followed by the Implementing Cisco Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) exam.

In October 2005, the final exam is scheduled to change from a VPN exam (CSVPN, Cisco Secure Virtual Private Networks) to Securing Hosts Using Cisco Security Agent (HIPS). If you’re just getting started on the CCSP track, you’ll be taking the HIPS exam. (Insert your own joke here.)

The CCSP is valid for three years; to recertify, you’ll need to pass the 642-541 CSI exam or any CCIE written exam. As always, this is subject to change, and you should bookmark Cisco’s Learning page (found off the main Cisco webpage) to make sure you’re aware of the latest changes to Cisco certification and recertification requirements.

Not only must you know how to secure your network, you also need to secure your current job and the possibilities for your future. By pursuing and obtaining the CCSP, you will do all three at once.

Cisco, one of the leading names of the IT industry, is known to have a very strong and well-established training and skill development centre, which provides excellent education to its students. Besides, it also offers various kinds of certifications and qualifications which the candidates can put on their CV, and make use of while aiming for competitive job profiles in the market. The CCVP certification also happens to be one such certification. CCVP actually stands for Cisco Certified Voice Professional.

The CCVP certification provides the requisite skills and knowledge to the candidates to integrate underlying network architectures. With this certification, a candidate will also be able to show expertise in implementing, operating, configuring and troubleshooting converged IP networks. There is exhaustive classroom training provided by Cisco for the CCVP certification, which includes theoretical lectures to strengthen the basic concepts and understanding of the candidates. Also, there is practical hands-on kind of training so that the candidates learn the practical application of concepts. This practical application is similar to the kind of roles and jobs the candidates would be expected to perform in the professional sphere, when they hold permanent jobs.

The CCVP certification prerequisites include CCNA voice or any CCIE certification. You can attain the CCVP certification via two paths – Cisco Unified Communications Manager, or Cisco Unified Call Manager. Both these different paths require a respective set of examinations that need to be passed. Apart from the regular classroom training, candidates can also go in for preparation material available online on the Cisco learning network, along with various other sites with which Cisco has partnered. There are books and mock papers too available in the market, or online on various educational websites. Information about exam dates, patterns, marking schemes, syllabus etc. is all regularly updated on the Cisco website.

Network traffic can be a drag especially when you absolutely must load that page already. To solve this problem, our sights now zeroes in on the functions of Cisco router.

Cisco Systems is an American company that specializes in networking devices along with other electronic devices. They are now currently sheltered in California where they are making billions of money annually through their inventive and advanced products.

Their routers have been coined the best countless times. Its reliability surely cannot be undermined which is why it is often used by many large businesses and corporation. But the question is, does this have the ability to limit network traffic? With these few simple steps, it can:

Step 1: You should enable Cisco Express Forwarding first. This is not unique to Cisco. Other routers also have CEF but most of them are on default settings still. Go to the global configurations mode and you will be prompted with command codes. Make sure you key “Router# config t” first and then press enter. On the next line, key in ” Router(config)# ip cef”. Press enter again and key in “Router(config)#”.

Step 2: Afterwards, you need to formulate an Access Control List. This will allow you to access the traffic you primarily want to limit. Go to the resources page and find Configuration commands for limiting traffic. You can use the command (Config-acl) when you use the global configurations.

Step 3: Modify committed access rate. Allocate bandwidth amount to the source of the traffic. Here is the proper syntax for that “rate-limit {input | output} [access-group [rate-limit] acl-index] bps burst-normal burst-max conform-action action exceed-action action”. Just key this in the interface.

Step 4: You also need to familiarize yourself with Cisco-language. Refer to the manual and find out the meaning of the words, “access group”, input and output and the rate limit. This will allow you to understand the syntax better.

Step 5: Refer to the global configurations page every time you want to monitor traffic. Do changes in the syntax and the parameters to those you want to limit network traffic. This should help you out a lot.

Monitoring traffic is the easiest way of preventing network overloading. Sometimes, unnecessary traffic gets in your system and prevents optimum router performance. You can filter traffic and only allow the important ones to gain access. Once you become more familiar with the commands and syntax, this will get easier.

The CompTIA test 220-602 is meant for entry-level computer technicians. In order to achieve CompTIA A+ certification, a candidate must register for and pass the CompTIA A+ Essentials and any of the elective exams. However, those who have already achieved A+ certification can upgrade by taking only the core exam or any of the elective exams. The CompTIA test 220-602 measures an individual’s ability to manage an operating system on a stand-alone computer as well as on a client computer in a network.

2009-12-12, all CompTIA 220-601 exam questions were changed, and Testinside, released the latest version of the braindumps on 2009-12-14. TestInside Practice Exams for CompTIA 220-602 are written to the highest standards of technical accuracy, using only certified subject matter experts and published authors for development. Testinside is fully equipped with 220-602 exam review, 220-602 practice exam,CompTIA 220-602 braindump, 220-602 study guide,CompTIA 220-602 torrent and many more preparation tools or exam resources making it easier for a candidate to pass your exam.

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