CCNA Exploration - LAN Switching and Wireless

0 Course Introduction

0.0 Welcome

0.0.1 Introduction

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0.0.1 - Introduction
Nine Diagrams

Diagram 1: Multiple Images - Changing people, classroom and network situations.
Text 1: Welcome to the CCNA Exploration LAN Switching and Wireless course. The goal is to develop an understanding of how switches are interconnected and configured to provide network access to LAN users. This course also teaches how to integrate wireless devices into a LAN. The specific skills covered in each chapter are described at the start of each chapter.

Diagram 2: Multiple Images - Changing people, classroom and network situations.
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More than just information.
This computer-based learning environment is an important part of the overall course experience for students and instructors in the Networking Academy. These online course materials are designed to be used along with several other instructional tools and activities. These include:

- Class presentation, discussion, and practice with your instructor.
- Hands-on labs that use networking equipment within the Networking Academy classroom.
- Online scored assessments and a matching grade book.
- Packet Tracer simulation tool.
- Additional software for classroom activities.

Diagram 3: Multiple Images - Changing people, classroom and network situations.
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A global community
When you participate in the Networking Academy, you are joining a global community linked by common goals and technologies. Schools, colleges, universities and other entities in over 160 countries participate in the program. A visualization of the global Networking Academy community can be viewed via http://www.academy netspace.com.

The material in this course encompasses a broad range of technologies that facilitate how people work, live, play, and learn by communicating with voice, video, and other data. Networking and the Internet affect people differently in different parts of the world. Although we have worked with instructors from around the world to create these materials, it is important that you work with your instructor and fellow students to make the material in this course applicable to your local situation.

Keep in Touch
These online instructional materials, as well as the rest of the course tools, are part of the larger Networking Academy. The student, instructor, and administrator portal for the program is located at http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/netacad/index.html. There you will obtain access to the other tools in the program such as the assessment server and student grade book, as well as informational updates and other relevant links.

Diagram 4: Multiple Images - Changing people, classroom and network situations.
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Mind Wide Open
An important goal in education is to enrich you, the student, by expanding what you know and can do. It is important to realize, however, that the instructional materials and the instructor can only facilitate the process. You must make the commitment yourself to learn new skills. Below are a few suggestions to help you learn and grow.

One. Take notes. Professionals in the networking field often keep Engineering Journals in which they write down the things they observe and learn. Taking notes is an important way to help your understanding grow over time.

Two. Think about it. The course provides information both to change what you know and what you can do. As you go through the course, ask yourself what makes sense and what doesn't. Stop and ask questions when you are confused. Try to find out more about topics that interest you. If you are not sure why something is being taught, consider asking your instructor or a friend. Think about how the different parts of the course fit together.

Diagram 5: Multiple Images - Changing people, classroom and network situations.
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Three. Practice. Learning new skills requires practice. We believe this is so important to e-learning that we have a special name for it. We call it e-Doing. It is very important that you complete the activities in the online instructional materials and that you also complete the hands-on labs and Packet Tracer activities.

Four. Practice again. Have you ever thought that you knew how to do something and then, when it was time to show it on a test or at work, you discovered that you really had not mastered it? Just like learning any new skill like a sport, game, or language, learning a professional skill requires patience and repeated practice before you can say you have truly learned it. The online instructional materials in this course provide opportunities for repeated practice for many skills. Take full advantage of them. You can also work with your instructor to extend Packet Tracer, and other tools, for additional practice as needed.

Diagram 6: Multiple Images - Changing people, classroom and network situations.
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Five. Teach it. Teaching a friend or colleague is often a good way to reinforce your own learning. To teach well, you will have to work through details that you may have overlooked on your first reading. Conversations about the course material with fellow students, colleagues, and the instructor can help solidify your understanding of networking concepts.

Six. Make changes as you go. The course is designed to provide feedback through interactive activities and quizzes, the online assessment system, and through structured interactions with your instructor. You can use this feedback to better understand where your strengths and weaknesses are. If there is an area that you are having trouble with, focus on studying or practicing more in that area. Seek additional feedback from your instructor and other students.

Diagram 7: Packet Tracer screen image

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Explore the world of networking
This version of the course includes a special tool called Packet Tracer. Packet Tracer is a networking learning tool that supports a wide range of physical and logical simulations. It also provides visualization tools to help you to understand the internal workings of a network.

The pre-made Packet Tracer activities consist of network simulations, games, activities, and challenges that provide a broad range of learning experiences.

Create your own worlds
You can also use Packet Tracer to create your own experiments and networking scenarios. We hope that, over time, you consider using Packet Tracer - not only for experiencing the pre-built activities, but also to become an author, explorer, and experimenter.

The online course materials have embedded Packet Tracer activities that will launch on computers running Windows operating systems, if Packet Tracer is installed. This integration may also work on other operating systems using Windows emulation.


Diagram 8: Multiple Images - Changing people, classroom and network situations.
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Course Overview

The primary focus of this course is on LAN switching and wireless LAN's. The goal is to develop an understanding of how a switch communicates with other switches and routers in a small- or medium-sized business network to implement V LAN segmentation.

This course focuses on Layer 2 switching protocols and concepts used to improve redundancy, propagate V LAN information, and secure the portion of the network where most users access network services.

Switching technologies are relatively straightforward to implement; however, as with routing, the underlying protocols and algorithms are often quite complicated. This course will go to great lengths to explain the underlying processes of the common Layer 2 switching technologies. The better the underlying concepts are understood, the easier it is to implement, verify, and troubleshoot the switching technologies.

Each switching concept will be introduced within the context of a single topology for each chapter. The individual chapter topologies will be used to explain protocol operations as well as providing a setting for the implementation of the various switching technologies.

The labs and Packet Tracer activities used in this course are designed to help you develop an understanding of how to configure switching operations while reinforcing the concepts learned in each chapter.

Chapter 1 LAN Design - In Chapter 1, you learn the fundamental aspects of designing local area networks. In particular, hierarchical network design utilizing the core-distribution-access layer model is introduced and referenced throughout the remainder of the course.

Chapter 2 Basic Switch Concepts and Configuration - Chapter 2 introduces switch forwarding methods, symmetric and asymmetric switching, memory buffering, and Layer 2 and Layer 3 switching. You are introduced to navigating the Cisco I O S C L I on a Catalyst 2960 and performing an initial switch configuration. An integral role of a switch administrator is to maintain a secure network; to this end, you learn to configure various passwords on the switch as well as SSH to mitigate common security attacks.

Chapter 3 V LAN's - Chapter 3 presents the types of V LAN's used in modern switched networks. It is important to understand the role of the default V LAN, user/data V LAN's, native V LAN's, the management V LAN, and voice V LAN's. V LAN trunks with IEEE 8 0 2 dot 1Q tagging facilitate inter-switch communication with multiple V LAN's. You learn to configure, verify, and troubleshoot V LAN's and trunks using the Cisco I O S C L I.

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Chapter 4 VTP - VTP is used to exchange V LAN information across trunk links, reducing V LAN administration and configuration errors. VTP allows you to create a V LAN once within a VTP domain and have that V LAN propagated to all other switches in the VTP domain. VTP pruning limits the unnecessary propagation of V LAN traffic across a LAN by determining which trunk ports forward which V LAN traffic. You learn to configure, verify, and troubleshoot VTP implementations.

Chapter 5 STP - STP makes it possible to implement redundant physical links in a switched LAN by creating a logical loop-free Layer 2 topology. By default Cisco switches implement STP in a per-VLAN fashion. The configuration of STP is fairly straightforward, but the underlying processes are quite complicated. IEEE 8 0 2 dot 1D defined the original implementation of spanning-tree protocol. IEEE 8 0 2 dot 1w defined an improved implementation of spanning tree called rapid spanning tree protocol. RSTP convergence time is approximately five times faster than convergence with 8 0 2 dot 1D. RSTP introduces several new concepts, such as link types, edge ports, alternate ports, backup ports, and the discarding state. You will learn to configure both the original IEEE 8 0 2 dot 1D implementation of STP as well as the newer IEEE 8 0 2 dot 1w implementation of spanning tree.

Chapter 6 Inter-V LAN Routing - Inter-V LAN routing is the process of routing traffic between different V LAN's. You learn the various methods of inter-V LAN routing. You learn to implement inter-V LAN routing in the router-on-a-stick topology, where a trunk link connects a Layer 2 switch to a router configured with logical subinterfaces paired in a one-to-one fashion with V LAN's.

Chapter 7 Basic Wireless Concepts and Configuration - Wireless LAN standards are evolving for voice and video traffic, with newer standards being supported with quality of service. An access point connects to the wired LAN provides a basic service set to client stations that associate to it. SSID's and MAC filtering are inherently insecure methods of securing a W LAN. Enterprise solutions such as W P A 2 and 8 0 2 dot 1x authentication enable very secure wireless LAN access. End users have to configure a wireless NIC on their client stations which communicates with and associates to a wireless access point. When configuring a wireless LAN, you should ensure that the devices have the latest firmware so that they can support the most stringent security options.

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