PREFACE

The primary objective of this book is to help you achieve the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) certification so that you can enhance your career. I believe that the only way you can increase your knowledge is through theoretical and practical learning. In other words, this book provides the book learning as well as basic hands-on experience that you’ll need to pass the exam. However, once you pass the CCNA exam, your journey is just beginning: you’ll need to enhance your newly acquired skills with additional reading and a lot of hands-on experience.

You can achieve CCNA certification in two ways:

       Pass the CCNA (200-120) exam.

       Pass both the ICND1 (100-101) and ICND2 (200-101) exams.

The CCNA 200-120 exam includes the same topics covered by the ICND1 100-101 and ICND2 200-101 exams. Cisco developed the second approach particularly for individuals who are just beginning their journey into networking, especially for people taking the CCNA curriculum at a Cisco Network Academy. The two-test approach is better suited for this environment since it takes a year to two to go through Cisco’s CCNA curriculum at the Network Academies. With this approach, you take the ICND1 100-101 exam halfway through the curriculum and the ICND2 200-101 exam at the end of the curriculum.

Another advantage of taking and passing the ICND1 exam is that you have achieved Cisco’s newest entry-level certification: CCENT (Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician). In August 2007, Cisco introduced this certification based on customer and employer demand for a lower-level certification demonstrating basic networking and hands-on skills with IOS devices such as routers and switches.

If you already have networking experience, especially if that experience includes configuring Cisco devices, you are better off taking the single CCNA 200-120 exam. The main advantage of this approach is that you have to pay for only one exam. Costs vary depending upon where you live in the world. Currently, the US exam cost of the ICND1 and ICND2 exams is $150 US each, while the CCNA 200-120 exam is $295 US (at the time of the printing of this book), but Cisco has changed its pricing scheme in the past and can do so in the future.

This book was primarily written for those individuals wishing to pass the ICND 200-101 exam. If you’re thinking of taking the combination CCNA 200-120 exam, you should purchase my book CCNA^® Cisco^® Certified Network Associate Routing and Switching Study Guide (Exam 200-120, ICND1 & ICND2) with Boson^® NetSim^® Limited Edition from McGraw-Hill Education, which covers the topic thoroughly.

In This Book

This book covers all the exam objectives posted on Cisco’s web site concerning the ICND2 200-101 exam. Each chapter covers one or more of the main objectives in this list, especially as it relates to how things work and how to configure them on Cisco’s routers and switches. Appendix A has a breakdown of Cisco’s objectives for the ICND2 200-101 and indicates which chapter in this book covers each of those objectives.

In Every Chapter

I’ve created a set of chapter components that call your attention to important items, reinforce important points, and provide helpful exam-taking hints. Take a look at what you’ll find in almost every chapter:

       Every chapter begins with the Certification Objectives—what you need to know to pass the section on the exam dealing with the chapter topic. The objective headings identify the objectives within the chapter, so you’ll always know an objective when you see it!

       Practice Exercises are interspersed throughout the chapters. These are step-by-step exercises that allow you to get the hands-on experience you need to pass the exams. They help you master skills that are likely to be an area of focus on the exams. Don’t just read through the exercises; they are hands-on practice that you should be comfortable completing. Learning by doing is an effective way to increase your competency with a product. These exercises are directly tied to the McGraw-Hill Education NetSim Learning Edition simulator, produced by Boson Software and included in the digital resources that accompany this book. These exercises will always work with the simulator product. Please note that Cisco’s real exams contain simulation questions, so it is very important that you practice your skills with either this simulator or with real routers and switches.

       On the Job notes describe the issues that come up most often in real-world settings. They provide a valuable perspective on certification- and product-related topics. They point out common mistakes and address questions that have arisen from on-the-job discussions and experience.

       Exam Watch notes point out important information you should learn when preparing for your exam.

       Multimedia demonstrations, in the form of videos, are included with the digital resources that accompany this book. If you want to see actual configurations of Cisco routers and switches in action, you can view these multimedia demonstrations. Throughout each chapter involving configurations are multiple multimedia demonstrations with a pointer to which video you can view. You will need to read the instructions included with the digital resources to run the multimedia demonstrations.

       The Inside the Exam element appears at the end of each chapter and focuses on important topics mentioned in the chapter, covering procedures you should take to ready yourself for the exam with the information discussed in the chapter. Many tips and tricks are pointed out here to help you pass your exam with confidence.

       The Two-Minute Drill at the end of every chapter offers a checklist of the main points of the chapter. It can be used for last-minute review.

Q&A

       The Self Test section at the end of each chapter offers questions similar to those found on the certification exams. The answers to these questions, as well as explanations of the answers, can be found in the final section of each chapter. By taking the practice exams after completing each chapter, you’ll reinforce what you’ve learned from that chapter while becoming familiar with the structure of the exam questions.

       The Exam Readiness Checklist in Appendix A is a list of the official ICND2 200-101 exam objectives, presented exactly as the vendor specifies them, cross-listed with the exam objectives as they are presented in the book and chapter references. You should work with this list as you study, noting your familiarity with the objectives by checking off the appropriate box before you review each chapter.

Some Pointers

Once you’ve finished reading this book, set aside some time to do a thorough review. You might want to return to the book several times and make use of all the methods it offers for reviewing the material:

     1. Re-read all the Two-Minute Drills, or have someone quiz you. You also can use the drills as a way to do a quick cram before the exam.

     2. Re-read all the Exam Watch notes. These are important items you should know for the exam. In other words, don’t be surprised to see these topics appear on the real exam.

     3. Re-take the Self Test sections at the back of each chapter. Taking the tests right after you’ve read the chapter is a good idea, because the questions help reinforce what you’ve just learned. However, it’s an even better idea to return later and go through all the questions in the book in one sitting. Pretend that you’re taking the live exam. (When you go through the questions the first time, you should mark your answers on a separate piece of paper. That way, you can run through the questions as many times as you need to until you feel comfortable with the material.)

     4. Use the exam test engine included in the digital resources that accompany this book. Did you use the test engine to test your knowledge? The 100 questions in the test engine cover all the topics in the book. You can also purchase additional tests from Boson Software at its web site (www.boson.com).

     5. Do all the practice exercises in each of the chapters. Some simulation questions appear on the actual CCNA exams. In the simulation questions, you’ll be required to perform basic configuration and troubleshooting tasks on a Cisco router and/or switch. Therefore, it is important that you have good configuration skills. Use the practice exercises to hone your configuration skills. I have developed two types of simulation questions in this book. All of them have to do with configuring Cisco routers and Catalyst switches; however, some of them also have you troubleshoot networking problems, where two or three configuration errors are introduced into the network and it is your job to track down these configuration errors, using the tools you learned about throughout this book, and fix them.

Practice Exams and the Simulator

As I mentioned earlier, it is important that you have hands-on experience not only for the exam, but also to prepare for working with Cisco equipment in a real network. A lot of time and effort have been devoted in the creation of the practice exercises in this book. I have developed Figures 1 and 2 that display the network topology used with the simulator.

FIGURE 1 Basic network topology for the practice exercises

FIGURE 2 Addressing for the network topology used for the practice exercises

These figures show four PCs, two routers (both 2600s), and three Catalyst 2950 switches. Chapters that have practice exercises will refer you to these figures for the layout of the network topology and the addressing assigned to the devices in the topology. Refer to these figures when performing the exercises.