My CCENT Certificate Has Arrived

I received an email yesterday with a link to my certificate (suitable for framing). Not bad, only a couple weeks after passing the exam. I thought that everyone would like to see what it looks like and hopefully you will be inspired to take the exam and get one of your own. I covered the all-important numbers to protect the innocent (me), although I'm not sure they could be used for anything nefarious.

By the way, I just want to point out that I've passed this exam many times over the years, as well as higher ranking exams.  None of what I'm doing here is for self promotion, it's for helping my students, both past and present, to get certified.  However, I am always looking for new students.  I feel we have a great program here at Erie Community College and I want everyone to know about it. 

That being said, here are a few links to the program websites that utilize the Cisco Networking Academy courses at ECC:

Network Support Technology Certificate Program (New 1-Year Program)

http://www.ecc.edu/academics/programs/networksupport

Networking and Telecommunications Technology (2-year Program)

http://www.ecc.edu/academics/programs/telecom/default.aspx

Information Technology with Networking Concentration (2-year Program)

http://www.ecc.edu/academics/programs/infotech/default.aspx

The Cisco Networking Academy Partenership Program (A Service Program)

http://www.ecc.edu/academics/partnerships/cisco

For More Information:

Email: stranz@ecc.edu
Phone: 716-851-1737

-Jim (revised 6/28/2014)

The Networking Basics You Need to Know in Order to Pass the CCENT Exam – Part 1

I'm falling a little behind in my posts. I am still working on Part 3 of the "How to use your cheet-sheat series", but I will get back to it soon, I promise. I will be away at a conference next week, but I will try to publish the article before I leave. Today I have the first installment of a two-part series on the fundamentals of networking that are necessary to know in order to pass the CCENT exam. By no means is it conclusive, but it's a foundation that you need to build upon.

My favorite part about being a teacher is helping students find jobs once they complete their degree.  When I can help a student find a job it makes me feel like I’ve made a difference in their lives.  One way I can help them, besides the normal classroom education that I’m paid to deliver, is to help them to get professionally certified so they gain that extra edge in the job market.

Since I teach computer networking, the Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician (CCENT) certification is the entry-level cert that I encourage students to obtain.  That being said, here are some of the basic skills and the general knowledge that a student needs to pass the CCENT exam:

1. Basic Device Configuration of Switches, Routers and hosts

A student should be able configure these devices so that they provide end-to-end connectivity in a small network. This includes being able to configure:

• Device hostnames in order to differentiate one device from another
• IP addressing on LAN and WAN interfaces (including descriptions)
• Basic security (passwords and encryption) on all interfaces and the console port
• A routing protocol and static routes
• VLANs and trunking

More than likely you will need to display these skills within a simulation question, as well as 8-10 regular questions.

2. Testing End-to-End Connectivity and Verifying a Hosts IP Address

Anyone who’s pursuing there CCENT certification should be able to use connectivity commands like ping and traceroute as well as ipconfig, which is used to check the IP address of the host, and so much more.

3. Effectively Use the Top 4-8 Show Commands for Verification and Troubleshooting

I find that troubleshooting is the hardest thing to teach. Of course, practice is the key to mastering the art of troubleshooting, and knowing which Cisco IOS show commands to use is a good start. Here are the ones I feel you must know:

show running-configuration – The output of this command yields a lot of information to verify and troubleshoot your basic configuration and more.  It will provide you with the most bang for your buck when it comes to investigating how a router and switch are configured.

show ip interface brief - The output of this command will display the state of your interfaces along with the interface address. Simply put, if your interfaces are down, end-to-end connectivity is not happening. Note: there are several other “show interface” commands that will provide more information, however this is the easiest one to interpret, and most times you will find the information that you need. 

show ip route –If the two previous commands fail to provide you with enough information to solve the problem, this command could do the trick, however, it is the hardest of the three to interpret. Basically the output will show you the networks you’re able to reach and how to reach them. However, there’s a lot more to it. By the way, the first two commands can be run both on routers and switches. You would run this command only on the router.

show mac-address-table – This command is similar to the previous command, accept it’s for switches. The output displays the mac address of each device connected to the switch, and the port where each device is connected. 

show vlan  – VLANs play a huge role in today’s networks. This command will allow you to keep track of the VLANs that are configured on a switch, but which ports belong to which VLAN. This comes in handy if connectivity on a switch is not working like you think it should.

These last two commands are for the switch only.

In Part 2, I will look at the following three basic skills:

1. Resolve an IP Address – Find the Network, Broadcast, First and Last Host, and Next Network Addresses
2. Understand Switching and Routing Decisions
3. Know the Characteristics of the Transport, Network, and Data-Link Layers of the OSI Model

Your comments are always welcome.

-Jim Stranz (revised 6/27/2014)

Why you’re better off taking the CCENT exam rather than waiting and taking the CCNA composite exam

I'm going to take a little break away from the How to Use Your Instant Cheat-Sheet Series in order to take a look at the differences between the CCENT and CCNA exams, and why I beleive that you should almost always start by taking the CCENT exam.

For years now I’ve been advising my students to take the CCENT (ICND1) exam first, before taking the ICND2 on their way to getting CCNA certified. Meanwhile most of my colleagues would tell the students to just take the CCNA composite exam (CCNAX) and bypass the CCENT exam altogether. Their reasoning behind their theory is that you only will need to drive to the testing center twice, plus you will only need to study for the exam once. I totally disagree with that reasoning!

Here are several good reasons for starting out by taking the CCENT exam first:

1.       The CCENT exam is flat out easier than the composite exam. If you’re taking you’re first certification exam you will definitely appreciate this, since the entire exam experience is stressful enough, and you don’t need the added stress of more difficult content.  Follow my advice and you will feel a lot more comfortable with the testing experience thereafter. Plus you don’t have to study all of the content at once, you can cut it in half.

2.       If you pass the CCENT exam you’ve completed the pre-requisite for the CCNA specialization exams like CCNA Security, CCNA Voice, CCNA Wireless or CCNA Data Center. You’re no longer required to become CCNA certified first, before taking these exams.

3.       If you’re a Cisco Networking Academy student you can see the fruits of your labor after just two courses, and one semester, if you’re taking the classes at ECC.  You can become employable in as little as four short months!

Finally, remember that one reason for taking the composite exam is that you’ll only need to study once?  That may be true, but it will take you twice as long to learn everything that’s going to be on the exam.  If you’re a Cisco Networking Academy student you will need to take four courses, and add at least another four or five months on to your quest for employment. Also, wouldn't be great to have that (CCENT) certification in your hands after passing just one (easier) exam.

Your comments are welcome.

-Jim (revised 6/24/2014)

How to use your instant cheat-sheet – Part 2

In today’s installment we will look at a typical question you might find on a CCENT or CCNA exam, and we will use Table 1 from my previous post (See: How to use your instant cheat-sheet – Part 1) to help answer the question.
In the following figure we see a typical troubleshooting question that I like to refer to as a “what’s wrong with this picture” question.  In this scenario, Host C cannot communicate with hosts A and B. What is most likely the problem?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first thing I would do is check to see if host C is properly configured and able to communicate with its default gateway.  If host C can’t talk to its default gateway, I can’t talk to hosts on another network.  Think of the default gateway like the only door in a room.  If you can’t open the door, you’re not getting out of the room.

Let’s use Table 1 below to see if Host C and the default gateway are on the same network.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Host C has a mask of /27.  Looking at our table we see that /27 lines up with the Jump Number 32.  That means that the fourth octet of Host C’s network address is an increment of 32, i.e. 0, 32, 64, 96, etc.. . Therefore, Host C resides on the 172.16.31.64 network, which has a valid host range of 172.16.31.65 through 172.16.31.94 (if you’re not sure how I arrived at that, ask). Note: 172.16.31.95 is the broadcast address and 172.16.31.96 is the network address of the next network. 

Now let’s look at the default gateway address, 172.16.31.93 /28.  Looking at our table we see that /28 (see below)lines up with the Jump Number 16.  That means that the fourth octet of the gateway network address is an increment of 16, i.e. 0, 16, 32, 48, 64, 80, 96 etc.. . Therefore, the default gateway resides on the 172.16.31.80 network, which has a valid host range of 172.16.31.81 through 172.16.31.94.

 

 

 

 

 

The key here is that Host C and the default gateway are on different networks; therefore they are unable to communicate with one another.  Any time Host C wants to communicate with a host on another network it needs the cooperation of the default gateway (think of the gateway as a type of doorman).  Of course realizing that the masks were different from the start would have been enough to answer this question; however my intent was to show you how to use the table.

By the way, they will generally show one mask in prefix notation and the other in dotted-decimal notation as depicted below.

 

In this case we could use the table to convert prefix notation to dotted-decimal notation, or vice versa, and then compare the two. For example:

/27 maps to a dotted-decimal mask of 255.255.255.224, and /28 maps to a dotted-decimal mask of 255.255.255.240.

In Part 3, I will introduce the other two tables that should be included on your cheat-sheet and I will work through another problem.

-Jim (revised 6/21/14)

How to use your instant cheat-sheet – Part 1

A few weeks back I shared my ideas for an instant cheat-sheet with all of you.  I then told you how I was able to successfully recreate it and use it on the CCENT exam (See the post “Observations from taking the CCENT exam - Part II”).  I can’t stress this enough; this practice is all perfectly legal and is very effective at raising your score on the exam.  However, you need to know what the information on the cheat-sheet stands for, you need to know how to apply the information from your cheat-sheet on the exam, and you need to know how to recreate the cheat sheet in the short period of time that you have before the exam begins.
In today’s post I want to explain Table 1 on the cheat-sheet. I will explain the other tables and show you how to use the tables in future posts.

Table 1: Conversions and Jump Numbers

 

 

 

 

You should be well aware of the top row, the decimal value of each bit in an octet.  The bit on the right is bit 0 and is worth “1” which is derived from base2 numbering, 2⁰  or 2 raised to the zero (0) power. As you can see, the value of the bits double as you move left and the power of 2 increases (2¹, 2², 2³, etc).  That’s the beauty of base2. The values also represent the Jump Number, or number of addresses that make up each network derived from the original classful network (more on this later).

Now that we’ve established the meaning of the top row, we can now examine rows 2-4. Rows 2-4 represent the bits in octets 2-4 and the possible subnet masks in prefix (slash) notation. This is extremely easy to recreate since all you’re doing is counting, starting at the 9^th bit position. Note: you should never see a subnet mask that is less than 8, unless it’s a special address or illegal.

What does all of this mean? Recall that every IP address has two parts; the network portion and the host portion. A mask of /20 means that the first 20 bits (from left to right) are network bits, and the 12 bits that remain are host bits.  In most IP addressing questions we are interested in resolving an address to the network portion of the address.  All of the host bits then become zeros (0). For instance, the address 172.16.123.88 /16 becomes 172.16.0.0 when you apply the subnet mask. The /16 implies that there are 16 network bits (from left to right) and the remaining 16 bits are host bits and they are filtered (zeroed) out.

The bottom row represents the other type of mask that you will see (dotted-decimal).  The number is calculated based on the sum of the network bits (from left to right) in a given octet. A mask of /20 means the first 16 bits in octets 1 and 2 are all part of the network, along with the first four bits of octet 3.  If you add the decimal values of the first four bits of octet 3, the sum is 240 (128+64+32+16). Therefore the mask /20 converts to 255.255.240.0. Remember, the remaining bits, bits 21-32 are all host bits and are changed to zeros (0) when determining the network address.

In Part 2 we will see how we can apply this to a problem.

-Jim (revised 6/19/14)

Observations from taking the CCENT exam - Part II

Once again before I begin Part II, I just want to remind everyone that I cannot be too specific about the contents of the exam. Recall that you have to sign a non-disclosure agreement that prohibits you from compromising the secure nature of the exam.

That being said, here are some of my stray thoughts and observations on the exam content, etc:

• First, I was very surprised at the number of questions involving IPv4 addressing (including subnetting) since the new academy curriculum seems to downplay it compared to the old curriculum.  Also, the new curriculum includes a lot of IPv6 which wasn't really reflected too much on the exam.  However, please be aware that IPv4 and IPv6 are lumped together under the IP addressing (IPv4 / IPv6) category on the exam objectives, so there's no guarantee that the next person who sits for the exam won't get more IPv6 questions.
• On the topic of IPv4, I tried out my new cheat-sheet and it was beneficial on every addressing and subnetting question that was on my exam.  As I stated in Part I, you should have plenty of time to recreate the suggested tables on the cheat-sheet, as long as you view the question tutorial before your exam.  However, be forewarned that you must be able to recreate the tables from memory, and you must be able to apply the tables to a given question.  I will post a tutorial on this within the next week.
• Another area that seemed to be covered heavier than others on the exam was switching, and how the switch forwards frames.  Layer 2 switching falls under several category objectives, so I am not surprised it received a lot of attention on the exam.
• Other than that, both NAT and ACLs were represented but nothing all that difficult.  Device security seemed to be important (no surprise there), and OSPF was also well represented.
• The most difficult part of the exam, of course, are the sims, simlets, and testlets (see my exam tutorial for more information). Not because the content is all that difficult, but because you have to move quickly while being careful about your answers.  Remember, these questions carry the most weight. I must admit, there was one simlet that slowed me down considerably and made me nervous.  I'm pretty sure I blew the question, only because I was tired and eager to move on.  You need to practice these types of questions, something that I didn't do too much of.  Most of it boils down to reading comprehension, speed, and general networking knowledge.
• All in all, I had four or five questions that fell under sims, simlets, and testlets.  I had three drag-n-drops, and the rest were all single answer, multiple-choice (25-30), and multiple answer, multiple-choice (10-15). I had 50 questions, total.  By the way, 804 out of 1000 is passing (I think I reported that 840 was passing).  My score was 920, but I know I could have done better had I studied more. Yes, even the teacher needs to study!

That's it for now!  I would be happy to answer any questions you may have, but remember my answers can only be general, not specific.  I will be addressing some critical areas of the exam in future posts, so stop back.  Finally, I hope this helps!

-Jim Stranz (rev 6/14/2014)

Observations from taking the CCENT exam - Part I

As promised I took the CCENT exam yesterday.  My main objectives were to get a handle on the newest version of the exam, since the last time I sat for the exam it was the old retired version.  I also wanted to check out the testing center, Campus Linc, and to test out some of the tips that I tried to impress  on everyone during the CCENT workshop.

Before I begin, I just want to remind everyone that I cannot be too specific about the contents of the exam.  Recall that you have to sign a non-disclosure agreement that prohibits you from compromising the secure nature of the exam.

That being said, here are some of my stray thoughts and observations:

• First, the testing center is very easy to get to, although there was a lot of road construction going on at the time, so I guess timing is everything.  I approached it by taking Niagara Falls Blvd to N. French road (maybe 2 miles north of the I290 exit).  I turned right on N. French and Campus Linc was less than a mile down the road on the corner of N. French and John Glen Drive.  There's an entrance to their back parking lot on N. French, just before you reach John Glen Dr.  Park in the back lot and walk up the sidewalk to the front entrance. You will see a sign that tells you just that. Note: if you park in the front of the building on John Glen, they will tow your car.
• I arrived 30 minutes early which gave me time to talk to the president of the company, Joe Smajdor.  I wanted to clear up a few things concerning the delivery of the exam (more on this later). Mr. Smajdor was extremely nice, answering all of my questions.  The receptionist was also very nice.  She will get you signed in, take your picture, and provide you with a key to lock any personal belongings in a locker.  Finally, she takes you in to the exam room and sets up the exam for you.
• The exam room was very spacious, with six tables and just one work station per table.  There was plenty of room to spread out and the temperature in the room was very comfortable. There were 3-4 others taking tests when I walked in, and several more that arrived during my exam.
• The tutorial on the different question types starts first and runs for 10-15 minutes before the exam begins.  Since I already viewed the tutorial online, I had plenty of time to write down as much as I wanted on the supplied whiteboards.  That's right, "white boards"!  They give you a wire bound booklet with about 5 or 6 inside.  You have more than enough space to create your instant cheat-sheet with IP addressing and subnetting tables (more on this in Part II) and anything else that you would like to write down.
• The only two complaints that I have about the testing environment and accommodations is that I wasn't allowed to chew gum in the exam room (recall that this is a little trick I use to stay alert).  Their reasoning is that it may be distracting to the others in the room (I can see that).  By the way, they supply you with ear plugs, in case there's too much noise for your liking.  There was a little noise coming from outside the room, but it wasn't all that distracting. Also, I had to keep fighting with the mouse because there was not enough wire.

That's it for now!  I will rip into the actual test experience in Part II.

-Jim Stranz (rev 6/14/2014)

A CCENT Challenge

Today's First Challenge: An OSPF Configuration Sim

I created a practice Sim question in Packet Tracer and posted it on my Dropbox drive.  Pay no attention  to the Completion Rate when configuring the router.  You will know that you did everything correctly when you test connectivity using ping.

Today's Second Challenge: The CCENT Practice Exam

Please take the CCENT practice exam inside of the CCNA 2 course on NetSpace.  If you have any problems accessing the exam please let me know and I will fix it.

Good Luck!
Jim

I'm taking the CCENT exam on Thursday

Sorry for not posting this past week but I was out of town at a conference.  I just made an appointment to take the CCENT exam Thursday morning at 9:30.  I can't tell you how many times I've taken this exam over the years, but it's been quite a few.  Although I won't be able to give you specifics of the content on the exam, I will share what I can.  Anyone else taking the exam over the next few weeks?  Let me know.

Look for more exam tips in my next post.