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
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:
- Resolve an IP Address – Find the Network, Broadcast, First and Last Host, and Next Network Addresses
- Understand Switching and Routing Decisions
- Know the Characteristics of the Transport, Network, and Data-Link Layers of the OSI Model
-Jim Stranz (revised 6/27/2014)
Thanks Jim nice review! More about MAC addresses and how they are processed end to end maybe helpful for some of us.....
ReplyDeleteMaybe how IP and MAC addresses change or do not through the path?