Summary

This chapter offers you an opportunity to give yourself a comprehensive, hands-on review of many of the LAN and WAN topics discussed throughout this book. This is a good pre-test and post-test exercise for supporting internetworks at the CCNA/CCNP level. It is not and was not intended to be at the CCIE level, but perhaps CCIEs will enjoy reliving some issues they have already spotted. On the other hand, it wasn't intended to give you page-by-page step-by-step instructions either. People learn by doing, and troubleshooting takes practice. It is not just something you can read and memorize. You must divide and conquer. Finding the problem you are trying to solve is a real battle. If you know you can't ping or trace from or to a particular device or host, for instance, start your troubleshooting there. Define the problem, then isolate, and then correct.

In this book I have identified many tools and resources along with some helpful troubleshooting checklists and sample command outputs. Put them to practical use and continue to identify new troubleshooting tools that help you with your real-world problems. Think methodology. Leverage off of your experiences and the experiences of others to prosper in troubleshooting Cisco routers and switches.

Now for the final question…do you shoot trouble or does trouble shoot you?