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There were many people that helped me build these new CCNA books. First, Kenyon Brown helped me put together the direction for the books and managed the internal editing at Wiley, so thank you, Ken, for working diligently for many months keeping these books moving along. The editors that I personally used in this first book in the CCNA series were Troy McMillan, who read each chapter in the full series multiple times, making amazing discoveries both technically and editorially and Todd Montgomery who also read through every chapter and helped with the technical edits with a sharp detailed eye. Also, Monica Lammle read and re-read each chapter and really helped me keep the voicing in place throughout the editorial process, which isn't an easy thing to do! Thanks also to Christine O'Connor, my production editor at Wiley for well over a decade now, and Louise Watson, proofreader at Word One.
Todd Lammle is the authority on Cisco certification and internetworking and is Cisco certified in most Cisco certification categories. He is a world-renowned author, speaker, trainer, and consultant. Todd has three decades of experience working with LANs, WANs, and large enterprise licensed and unlicensed wireless networks, and lately he's been implementing large Cisco Security networks using Firepower/FTD and ISE.
His years of real-world experience are evident in his writing; he is not just an author but an experienced networking engineer with very practical experience from working on the largest networks in the world at such companies as Xerox, Hughes Aircraft, Texaco, AAA, Cisco, and Toshiba, among many others.
Todd has published over 90 books, including the very popular CCNA: Cisco Certified Network Associate Study Guide, CCNA Wireless Study Guide, CCNA Data Center Study Guide, SSFIPS (Firepower), and CCNP Security, all from Sybex. He runs an international consulting and training company based in Colorado, where he spends his free time in the mountains playing with his golden retrievers.
You can reach Todd through his website at www.lammle.com.
Welcome to the exciting world of internetworking and your path towards Cisco certification. If you’ve picked up this book because you want to improve yourself and your life with a better, more satisfying, and secure job, you’ve chosen well!
Whether you’re striving to enter the thriving, dynamic IT sector or seeking to enhance your skill set and advance your position within it, being Cisco certified can seriously stack the odds in your favor to help you attain your goals. This book is a great start.
Cisco certifications are powerful instruments of success that also markedly improve your grasp of all things internetworking. As you progress through this book, you’ll gain a strong, foundational understanding of networking that reaches far beyond Cisco devices. And when you finish this book, you’ll be ready to tackle the next step toward Cisco certification.
Essentially, by beginning your journey towards becoming Cisco certified, you’re proudly announcing that you want to become an unrivaled networking expert, a goal that this book will help get you underway to achieving. Congratulations in advance for taking the first step towards your brilliant future!
To find your included bonus material, as well as Todd Lammle videos, practice questions and hands-on labs, please see www.lammle.com/ccna.
It used to be that to secure the holy grail of Cisco certifications—the CCIE—you passed only one written test before being faced with a grueling, formidable hands-on lab. This intensely daunting, all-or-nothing approach made it nearly impossible to succeed and predictably didn’t work out too well for most people.
Cisco responded to this issue by creating a series of new certifications, which not only created a sensible, stepping-stone-path to the highly coveted CCIE prize, it gave employers a way to accurately rate and measure the skill levels of prospective and current employees. This exciting paradigm shift in Cisco’s certification path truly opened doors that few were allowed through before!
Way back in 1998, obtaining the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) certification was the first pitch in the Cisco certification climb. It was also the official prerequisite to each of the more advanced levels. But that changed in 2007, when Cisco announced the Cisco Certified Entry Network Technician (CCENT) certification. Then again, in May 2016, Cisco proclaimed new updates to the CCENT and CCNA Routing and Switching (R/S) tests. Today, things have changed dramatically again.
In July of 2019, Cisco switched up the certification process more than they have in the preceding 20 years! They’ve announced all new certifications that began in February 2020, and probably the reason you are reading this book!
For starters, the CCENT course and exam (or ICND1 and ICND2) are no more, plus there are no prerequisites for any of the certifications at all now, meaning for example, that you can go straight to CCNP without having to take the new CCNA exams.
The new Cisco certification process will look like Figure I.1.
First, the listed entry certification of CCT is just not worth your time. Instead, you’ll want to head directly to CCNA after this foundational book, and then straight to the CCNP of your choice.
This book is a powerful tool to get you started in your CCNA studies, and it’s vital to understand that material in it before you go on to conquer any other certifications!
This book covers everything you need to know to solidly prepare you for getting into your CCNA studies. Be advised that just because much of the material in this book won’t be official Cisco CCNA objectives in the future doesn’t mean you won’t be tested on it. Understanding the foundational, real-world networking information, and skills offered in this book is critical to your certifications and your career!
So as you move through this book, here’s a snapshot of what you’ll learn chapter by chapter:
Chapter 1: Internetworking In Chapter 1, you’ll learn the basics of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model the way Cisco wants you to learn it.
Chapter 2: Ethernet Networking and Data Encapsulation This chapter will provide you with the Ethernet foundation you need in order to understand the CCNA and CCNP material. Data encapsulation is discussed in detail in this chapter as well.
Chapter 3: Introduction to TCP/IP Chapter 3 provides you with the background necessary for success on the CCNA/NP exams, as well as in the real world, with a thorough presentation of TCP/IP. It’s an in-depth chapter that covers the very beginnings of the Internet Protocol stack and moves all the way to IP addressing. You’ll gain an understanding of the difference between a network address and a broadcast address before finally ending with valuable network troubleshooting tips.
Chapter 4: Easy Subnetting Believe it or not, you’ll actually be able to subnet a network in your head after reading this chapter! Success will take a little determination, but you’ll find plenty of help in this chapter as well as at: www.lammle.com/ccna.
Chapter 5: Troubleshooting IP Addressing Here, we’ll continue on from Chapters 3 & 4 and begin covering how to troubleshoot basic IP issues. You’ll also test your understanding of the previous two chapters.
Chapter 6: Cisco’s Internetworking Operating System (IOS) Chapter 6 introduces you to the Cisco Internetworking Operating System (IOS) and command-line interface (CLI). In it, you’ll learn how to turn on a router and configure the basics of the IOS, including setting passwords, banners, and more.
Chapter 7: Managing a Cisco Internetwork This chapter provides you with the management skills needed to run a Cisco IOS network. Backing up and restoring the IOS and key router configuration skills are covered, as are the troubleshooting tools necessary to keep a network up and running well.
Chapter 8: Managing Cisco Devices This chapter describes the boot process of Cisco routers, the configuration register, and how to manage Cisco IOS files. It wraps up with a section on Cisco’s new licensing strategy for IOS.
Chapter 9: IP Routing This is a super fun chapter because in it, we’ll begin building a Cisco network and actually adding IP addresses and route data between routers. You also learn about static, default, and dynamic routing. The fundamentals covered in this chapter are probably the most important in the book because understanding the IP Routing process is what Cisco is all about! It’s actually assumed that you solidly possess this knowledge when you get into the CCNA & CCNP studies.
Chapter 10: Wide Area Networks This is the last chapter in the book. It covers multiple protocols in depth, especially HDLC and PPP for serial connections. We’ll also discuss many other technologies such as cellular, MPLS T1/E1, and cable. I’ll guide you through strategic troubleshooting examples in the configuration sections—don’t even think of skipping them!