Product Description

LAN Switching and Wireless

CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide

 

Allan Johnson

 

LAN Switching and Wireless, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide is designed to help you learn about and apply your knowledge of the LAN switching and wireless topics from Version 4 of the Cisco® Networking Academy® CCNA® Exploration curriculum. Each chapter contains a Study Guide section and a Labs and Activities section.

 

Study Guide

The dozens of exercises in this book help you learn the concepts and configurations crucial to your success as a CCNA exam candidate. Each chapter is slightly different and includes matching, multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and open-ended questions designed to help you

• Review vocabulary
• Strengthen troubleshooting skills
• Boost configuration skills
• Reinforce concepts
• Research topics

 

Packet Tracer Activities—This icon identifies exercises interspersed throughout the Study Guide section where you can practice or visualize a specific task using Packet Tracer, a powerful network simulation program developed by Cisco.

 

Labs and Activities

The Labs and Activities sections begin with a Command Reference table and include all the online curriculum labs to ensure that you have mastered the practical skills needed to succeed in this course.

 

Hands-On Labs—This icon identifies the hands-on labs created for each chapter. Work through all the Basic, Challenge, and Troubleshooting labs as provided to gain a deep understanding of CCNA knowledge and skills to ultimately succeed on the CCNA Certification Exam.

 

Packet Tracer Companion—This icon identifies the companion activities that correspond to each hands-on lab. You use Packet Tracer to complete a simulation of the hands-on lab.

 

Packet Tracer Skills Integration Challenge—Each chapter concludes with a culminating activity called the Packet Tracer Skills Integration Challenge. These challenging activities require you to pull together several skills learned from the chapter—as well as previous chapters and courses—to successfully complete one comprehensive exercise.

 

Allan Johnson works full time developing curriculum for Cisco Networking Academy. Allan also is a part-time instructor at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas.

 

Use this book with:

LAN Switching and Wireless,

CCNA Exploration Companion Guide

ISBN-10: 1-58713-207-9

ISBN-13: 978-158713-207-0

 

Companion CD-ROM

The CD-ROM provides all the Packet Tracer Activity, Packet Tracer Companion, and Packet Tracer Challenge files that are referenced throughout the book as indicated by the icons. These files work with Packet Tracer v4.1 software, which is available through the Academy Connection website. Ask your instructor for access to the Packet Tracer software.

 

This book is part of the Cisco Networking Academy Series from Cisco Press®. Books in this series support and complement the Cisco Networking Academy curriculum.

 

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33004 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

About the Author

Allan Johnsonentered the academic world in 1999 after 10 years as a business owner/operator to dedicate his efforts to his passion for teaching. He holds both an MBA and an M.Ed. in occupational training and development. He is an information technology instructor at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. In 2003, Allan began to commit much of his time and energy to the CCNA Instructional Support Team providing services to Networking Academy instructors worldwide and creating training materials. He now works full time for the Academy in Learning Systems Development.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

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:

• Vocabulary matching and completion

• Skill-building activities and scenarios

• Configuration scenarios

• Concept questions

• Internet research

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...

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Customer Reviews

CCNA
Down and dirty information and I mean nuts and bolts, one should consider buying the workbook and Packet Tracer 5.0 (or later) to fully benefit from the text. A great prep tool for a portion of the CCNA exam.

CCNA Switching Lab Workbook
Brand new book - used in conjucntion with a community college class with the same title. Much better value than buying at the college bookstore. Very happy and satisfied with this purchase - thank you.