IntroductionIntroduction
The Cisco Networking Academy is a comprehensive e-learning program that provides students with Internet technology skills. A Networking Academy delivers web-based content, online assessment, student performance tracking, and hands-on labs to prepare students for industry-standard certifications. The CCNA curriculum includes four courses oriented around the topics on the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) certification.
LAN Switching and Wireless, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide is a supplement to your classroom and laboratory experience with the Cisco Networking Academy. In order to be successful on the exam and achieve your CCNA certification, you should do everything in your power to arm yourself with a variety of tools and training materials to support your learning efforts. This Labs and Study Guide is just such a collection of tools. Used to its fullest extent, it will help you gain the knowledge and practice the skills associated with the content area of the CCNA Exploration LAN Switching and Wireless course. Specifically, this book will help you work on these main areas:
LAN design principles and concepts
Ethernet operation with switches
Basic switch configuration and security
VLAN concepts and configuration
VTP concepts and configuration
STP, RSTP, and rapid PVST+ concepts and configuration
Inter-VLAN routing concepts and configuration
LAN wireless concepts and security issues
LAN wireless configuration using Linksys WRT300N routers
Troubleshooting LAN switching and wireless configurations
Labs and Study Guides similar to this one are also available for the other three courses: Network Fundamentals, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide, Routing Protocols and Concepts, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide, and Accessing the WAN, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide.
Audience for This Book
This book's main audience is anyone taking the CCNA Exploration LAN Switching and Wireless course of the Cisco Networking Academy curriculum. Many Academies use this book as a required tool in the course, while other Academies recommend the Labs and Study Guides as an additional source of study and practice materials.
The secondary audiences for this book include people taking CCNA-related classes from professional training organizations. This book can also be used for college- and university-level networking courses, as well as anyone wanting to gain a detailed understanding of basic switching and wireless technologies.
Goals and Methods
The most important goal of this book is to help you pass the CCNA exam (640-802). Passing this foundation exam means that you not only have the required knowledge of the technologies covered by the exam, but that you can plan, design, implement, operate, and troubleshoot these technologies. In other words, these exams are rigorously application based. You can view the exam topics any time at http://www.cisco.com/go/certifications. The topics are divided into eight categories:
Describe how a network works
Configure, verify, and troubleshoot a switch with VLANs and inter-switch communications
Implement an IP addressing scheme and IP services to meet network requirements in a medium-sized enterprise branch office network
Configure, verify, and troubleshoot basic router operation and routing on Cisco devices
Explain and select the appropriate administrative tasks required for a WLAN
Identify security threats to a network and describe general methods to mitigate those threats
Implement, verify, and troubleshoot NAT and ACLs in a medium-sized enterprise branch office network
Implement and verify WAN links
The LAN Switching and Wireless course focuses on the second, fifth, and sixth bullets.
The Study Guide portion of each chapter offers exercises that help you learn the LAN switching and wireless concepts as well as the configurations crucial to your success as a CCNA exam candidate. Each chapter is slightly different and includes some or all of the following types of exercises:
In the configuration chapters, you'll find many Packet Tracer Activities that work with the Cisco Packet Tracer tool. Packet Tracer allows you to create networks, visualize how packets flow in the network, and use basic testing tools to determine whether the network would work. When you see this icon, you can use Packet Tracer with the listed file to perform a task suggested in this book. The activity files are available in this book's CD-ROM; Packet Tracer software, however, is available through the Academy Connection website. Ask your instructor for access to Packet Tracer.
The Labs and Activities portion of each chapter includes a Command Reference table, all the online Curriculum Labs, and a Packet Tracer Skills Integration Challenge Activity. The Curriculum Labs are divided into three categories:
Basic: The Basic Labs are procedural in nature and assume you have no experience configuring the technologies that are the topic of the lab.
Challenge: The Challenge Labs are implementation in nature and assume you have a firm enough grasp on the technologies to "go it alone." These labs often only give you a general requirement that you must implement fully without the details of each small step. In other words, you must use the knowledge and skills you gained in the chapter text, activities, and Basic Lab to successfully complete the Challenge Labs. Avoid the temptation to work through the Challenge Lab by flipping back through the Basic Lab when you are not sure of a command. Do not try to short-circuit your CCNA training. You need a deep understanding CCNA knowledge and skills to ultimately be successful on the CCNA exam.
Troubleshooting: The Troubleshooting Labs will ask you to fix a broken network. These labs include corrupted scripts you purposefully load onto the routers. Then you use troubleshooting techniques to isolate problems and implement a solution. By the end of the lab, you should have a functional network with full end-to-end connectivity.
Most of the hands-on labs include Packet Tracer Companion Activities where you can use Packet Tracer to complete a simulation of the lab.
Each chapter also includes a culminating activity called the Packet Tracer Skills Integration Challenge. These activities require you to pull together several skills learned from the chapter— and from previous chapters and courses—to successfully complete one comprehensive exercise.
A Word About Packet Tracer
Packet Tracer is a self-paced, visual, interactive teaching and learning tool developed by Cisco. Lab activities are an important part of networking education. However, lab equipment can be a scarce resource. Packet Tracer provides a visual simulation of equipment and network processes to offset the challenge of limited equipment. Students can spend as much time as they like completing standard lab exercises through Packet Tracer, and have the option to work from home. Although Packet Tracer is not a substitute for real equipment, it allows students to practice using a command-line interface. This "e-doing" capability is a fundamental component of learning how to configure routers and switches from the command line.
Packet Tracer v4.x is available only to Cisco Networking Academies through the Academy Connection website.
How This Book Is Organized
Because the content of LAN Switching and Wireless, CCNA Exploration Companion Guide and the online curriculum is sequential, you should work through this Labs and Study Guide in order beginning with Chapter 1.
The book covers the major topic headings in the same sequence as the online curriculum for the CCNA Exploration LAN Switching and Wireless course. This book has seven chapters, with the same numbers and names as the online course chapters.
If necessary, a chapter uses a single topology for the exercises in the Study Guide portion. The single topology per chapter allows for better continuity and easier understanding of switching commands, operations, and outputs. However, the topology is different from the one used in the online curriculum and the Companion Guide. A different topology affords you the opportunity to practice your knowledge and skills without just simply recording the information you find in the text.
Chapter 1, "LAN Design": The exercises in the Study Guide portion focus on LAN design concepts, including vocabulary and the three-layer hierarchical model. The Labs and Activities portion includes a Basic Lab, a Challenge Lab, a Troubleshooting Lab, and a Packet Tracer Skills Integration Challenge activity.
Chapter 2, "Basic Switch Concepts and Configuration": The exercises in the Study Guide portion help you understand basic Ethernet and switching concepts, including building the MAC address table and collision and broadcast domains. Then, the Packet Tracer exercises cover, in detail, how to configure a switch, including basic switch management and configuring switch security. The Labs and Activities portion includes two Basic Labs, a Challenge Lab, and a Packet Tracer Skills Integration Challenge activity.
Chapter 3, "VLANs": The exercises in the Study Guide portion focus on the concepts of VLANs, including benefits of VLANs and type...
