Product Description

LAN Switching and Wireless CCNA Exploration Companion Guide

 

Wayne Lewis, Ph.D.

 

LAN Switching and Wireless, CCNA Exploration Companion Guide is the official supplemental textbook for the LAN Switching and Wireless course in the Cisco Networking Academy CCNA® Exploration curriculum version 4. This course provides a comprehensive approach to learning the technologies and protocols needed to design and implement a converged switched network. The Companion Guide, written and edited by a Networking Academy instructor, is designed as a portable desk reference to use anytime, anywhere. The book’s features reinforce the material in the course to help you focus on important concepts and organize your study time for exams.

 

New and improved features help you study and succeed in this course:

• Chapter objectives: Review core concepts by answering the questions listed at the beginning of each chapter.
• Key terms: Refer to the updated lists of networking vocabulary introduced and turn to the highlighted terms in context in each chapter.
• Glossary: Consult the all-new comprehensive glossary with more than 190 terms.
• Check Your Understanding questions and answer key: Evaluate your readiness with the updated end-of-chapter questions that match the style of questions you see on the online course quizzes. The answer key explains each answer.
• Challenge questions and activities: Strive to ace more challenging review questions and activities designed to prepare you for the complex styles of questions you might see on the CCNA exam. The answer key explains each answer.

 

Wayne Lewis is the Cisco Academy Manager for the Pacific Center for Advanced Technology Training (PCATT), based at Honolulu Community College.

 

How To: Look for this icon to study the steps that you need to learn to perform certain tasks.

 

Packet Tracer Activities: Explore networking concepts in activities interspersed throughout some chapters using Packet Tracer v4.1 developed by Cisco. The files for these activities are on the accompanying CD-ROM.

 

Also available for the LAN Switching and Wireless course:

LAN Switching and Wireless, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide

ISBN-10: 1-58713-202-8

ISBN-13: 978-1-58713-202-5

 

Companion CD-ROM

The CD-ROM provides many useful tools and information to support your education:

• Packet Tracer Activity exercise files
• A Guide to Using a Networker’s Journal booklet
• Taking Notes: A .txt file of the chapter objectives
• More IT Career Information
• Tips on Lifelong Learning in Networking

 

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

 

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #111326 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 528 pages

About the Author

Wayne Lewis is the Cisco Academy Manager for the Pacific Center for Advanced Technology Training (PCATT), based at Honolulu Community College (HonCC), and the

Legal Main Contact for the CCNA/CCNP/Network Security Cisco Academy Training Center at PCATT/HonCC. Since 1998, Wayne has taught routing and switching, wide area

networking, network troubleshooting, network security, wireless networking, IP telephony, and quality of service to instructors from universities, colleges, and high schools in

Australia, Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America, United States, American Samoa, Guam, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, Korea, Japan, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Hungary, and Great Britain, both onsite and at PCATT/HonCC. Cisco has sent Wayne to several countries to conduct inaugural Networking

Academy teacher-training sessions to certify the initial cohorts of instructors and kick off the training centers for these countries. Before teaching networking, Wayne began teaching

at age 20 at Wichita State University, followed by the University of Hawaii and HonCC. In 1992, Wayne received a Ph.D. in math, specializing in finite rank torsion-free modules over

a Dedekind domain; he now works on algebraic number theory research in his spare time. Wayne works as a contractor for Cisco , performing project management for the

development of network security, CCNA, and CCNP curriculum. He and his wife, Leslie, also run a network consulting company. Wayne enjoys surfing the South Shore of Oahu in

the summer and surfing big waves on the North Shore in the winter.

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 Companion Guide is the official supplement textbook to be used with v4 of the CCNA Exploration LAN Switching and Wireless online curriculum of the Networking Academy.

This book goes beyond earlier editions of the Cisco Press Companion Guides by providing many alternative explanations and examples as compared with the course. You can use the online curriculum as normal and use this companion guide to help solidify your understanding of all the topics through the alternative examples.

The basis for this book, as well as the online curriculum, is to provide the reader with a thorough understanding of LAN switching and wireless technologies beyond that necessary for the CCNA certification exam. The commands and web-based GUI utilities for configuring LAN switching and wireless are not very difficult. The challenge is to understand the operation of these technologies and protocols and their role in the network.

The objective of this book is to explain LAN switching and wireless technologies. Every concept is methodically explained with no assumptions made of the reader's knowledge of LAN switching or wireless technologies. The only exceptions are if a concept is beyond the scope of this course or is covered in CCNP, and then it is noted within the text.

Readers are encouraged to peruse the resources managed by Wayne Lewis at cisco.honolulu.hawaii.edu. Please e-mail Wayne Lewis at waynel@hawaii.edu for more information about CCNP and network security instructor training and for access to more resources for this course and other CCNP, IP telephony, QoS, and network security courses.

Goal of This Book

First and foremost, by providing a fresh, complementary perspective on the content, this book is intended to help you learn all the required materials of the LAN Switching and Wireless course in the Networking Academy CCNA Exploration curriculum. As a secondary goal, the text is intended as a mobile replacement for the online curriculum for individuals who do not always have Internet access. In those cases, you can instead read the appropriate sections of the book, as directed by your instructor, and learn the same material that is covered in the online curriculum. Another secondary goal is to serve as your offline study material to prepare for the CCNA exam.

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 textbook as a required tool in the course, and other Academies recommend the Companion Guides as an additional source of study and practice materials.

Book Features

The educational features of this book focus on supporting topic coverage, readability, and practice of the course material to facilitate your full understanding of the course material.

Topic Coverage

The following features give you a thorough overview of the topics covered in each chapter so that you can make constructive use of your study time:

• Objectives: Listed at the beginning of each chapter, the objectives reference the core concepts covered in the chapter. The objectives match the objectives stated in the corresponding chapters of the online curriculum; however, the question format in the Companion Guide encourages you to think about finding the answers as you read the chapter.

• "How-to" feature: When this book covers a set of steps that you need to perform for certain tasks, this book lists the steps as a how-to list. When you are studying, the icon helps you easily refer to this feature as you skim through the book.

• Notes, tips, cautions, and warnings: These are short sidebars that point out interesting facts, time-saving methods, and important safety issues.

• Chapter summaries: At the end of each chapter is a summary of the chapter's key concepts. It provides a synopsis of the chapter and serves as a study aid.

Readability

The author has compiled, edited, and in most cases rewritten the material so that it has a more conversational tone that follows a consistent and accessible college-reading level. In addition, the following features have been updated to assist your understanding of the networking vocabulary:

• Key terms: Each chapter begins with a list of key terms, along with a page-number reference from inside the chapter. The terms are listed in the order in which they are explained inside the chapter. This handy reference allows you to find a term, flip to the page where the term appears, and see the term used in context. The Glossary defines all the key terms.

• Glossary: This book contains an all-new Glossary with more than 150 terms.

Practice

Practice makes perfect. This new Companion Guide offers you ample opportunities to put what you learn to practice. You will find the following features valuable and effective in reinforcing the instruction that you receive:

• Check Your Understanding questions and answer key: Updated review questions are presented at the end of each chapter as a self-assessment tool. These questions match the style of questions that you see in the online course. The Appendix, "Check Your Understanding and Challenge Questions Answer Key," provides an answer key to all the questions and includes an explanation of each answer.

• (NEW) Challenge questions and activities: Additional—and more challenging—review questions and activities are presented at the end of chapters. These questions are purposefully designed to be similar to the more complex styles of questions you might see on the CCNA exam. This section might also include activities to help prepare you for the exams. The Appendix provides the answers.

• Packet Tracer activities: Interspersed throughout the chapters, you'll find many activities to 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.

Labs and Study Guide

The supplementary book LAN Switching and Wireless, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide (ISBN: 1-58713-202-8) by Cisco Press contains all the labs from the curriculum plus additional challenge labs and study guide material. The end of each chapter of this Companion Guide indicates with icons what labs, activities, and Packet Tracer activities are available in the Labs and Study Guide.

• Lab references: This icon notes the hands-on labs created for this chapter in the online curriculum. Within the LAN Switching and Wireless, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide you will find additional study guide material created by the author of that book.

• (NEW) Packet Tracer Companion activities: Many of the Hands-on Labs include Packet Tracer Companion Activities where you can use Packet Tracer to complete a simulation of the lab. Look for this icon in the LAN Switching and Wireless, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide for Hands-on Labs that have a Packet Tracer Companion.

• (NEW) Packet Tracer Skills Integration Challenge activities: These activities require you to pull together several skills learned from the chapter to successfully complete one comprehensive exercise. Look for this icon in the LAN Switching and Wireless, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide for instructions on how to perform the Packet Tracer Skills Integration Challenge for this chapter.

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.

The course includes essentially three types of Packet Tracer activities. This book uses an icon system to indicate which type of Packet Tracer activity is available. The icons are intended to give you a sense of the purpose of the activity and the amount of time you need to allot to complete it. The three types of Packet Tracer activities follow:

• Packet Tracer Activity: This icon identifies straightforward exercises interspersed throughout the chapters where you can practice or visualize a specific topic. The activity files for these exercises are available on this book's CD-ROM. These activities take le...

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Customer Reviews

Awful... Just Awful.
This book is terrible... I simply have to say it.

Oh, it looks good... the layout looks professional and the writing is grammatically correct, but the writer simply confuses the hell out of you. He leaves out critical conceptual connections which you will need for the final CCNA test.

His chapters on VTP and STP, in particular, are just abysmal. He cryptically implies things that you can only figure out through exhaustive inference and, in too, too many cases, he contradicts himself with a horrendously poor choice of logical specifiers in his sentences.

For the chapters on VTP and STP, you'd be better off to consult the Cisco Net Academy lessons or, possibly, an independently-published book on CCNA switching and wireless.

Awful book. Some parts are okay, but they're the easy parts. When you really need a good CCNA 3 book the most -- to explain the most difficult topics such as VTP and STP -- it completely poisons your head.

Just awful.

A great CCNA guide!

This book mainly focuses on the Switching and Wireless concepts of the CCNA Exam. As a CCNA you will be expected to know how VLANs work, the different types of VLANs, configuring VLANs, inter-vlan routing, VTP, STP, and wireless concepts. This book does a nice job explaining all of these concepts and making them easy to understand! The diagrams/pictures in each chapter were really explained well and helped me understand the concepts. The summary at the end of each chapter helped me review all that I had read in the chapter. The quizzes at the end of each chapter also helped me go back and review the concepts that I didn't understand. There were also challenging questions and activities at the end of each chapter that really tested my understanding of the concepts that I learned. The key terms were listed on the front of each chapter, and I found it convenient because I could flip back to the glossary and look up whatever definition I was unfamiliar with. After studying the chapters through this book, I now have the knowledge of all the CCNA level switching concepts and the basic wireless concepts. The activities in each chapter helped me learn how to configure VLANs, VTP, STP, and inter-vlan routing. You must purchase the LAN Switching Wireless Labs to go with it! It gives you the hands on experience that you need.

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