CCNA Exploration - Accessing the WAN

0 Course Introduction

0.0 Welcome

0.0.1 Introduction

Page 1:


0.0.1 - Introduction
Diagram 1: Multiple Images - Changing people, classroom, and network situations.
Text 1: Welcome to the CCNA Exploration Accessing the WAN course. The goal of this course is to introduce you to fundamental networking concepts and technologies. These online course materials assist you in developing the skills necessary to plan and implement small networks across a range of applications. The specific skills covered in each chapter are described at the beginning of each chapter.

Diagram 2: Multiple Images - Changing people, classroom, and network situations.
Text 2:

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.
Text 3:
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 at 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 have 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.
Text 4:
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 does not. 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.
Text 5:
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.
Text 6:
Five. Teach it. Teaching a friend or colleague is often a good way to reinforce your own learning. To teach well, you 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

Text 7:
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 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 that 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 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.
Text 8:
Course Overview

The primary focus of this course is on accessing wide area networks (WAN). The goal is to develop an understanding of various WAN technologies to connect small- to medium-sized business networks.

The course introduces WAN converged applications and quality of service (Q o S). It focuses on WAN technologies, including Point-to-Point Protocol (P P P), Frame Relay, and broadband links. WAN security concepts are discussed in detail, including types of threats, how to analyze network vulnerabilities, general methods for mitigating common security threats, and types of security appliances and applications. The course then explains the principles of traffic control and access control lists (ACL's) and describes how to implement IP addressing services for an enterprise network, including how to configure network address translation (NAT) and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). IPv6 addressing concepts are also discussed. During the course, you learn how to use Cisco Router and Security Device Manager (SDM) to secure a router and implement IP addressing services. Finally, you learn how to detect, troubleshoot, and correct common enterprise network implementation issues.

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

Chapter 1 Introduction to WAN's - In Chapter 1, you learn the fundamentals of enterprise WAN's, the technologies available to implement them, and the terminology used to discuss them. You learn how the Cisco enterprise architecture provides integrated services over an enterprise network and how to select the appropriate WAN technology to meet different enterprise business requirements.

Chapter 2 P P P - Chapter 2 focuses on serial point-to-point communications and P P P. Understanding how point-to-point communication links function to provide access to a WAN is important to an overall understanding of how WAN's function. Various aspects of P P P are discussed, including securing P P P using either Password Authentication Protocol (PAP) or the more effective Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP).

Chapter 3 Frame Relay - Chapter 3 focuses on the high-performance Frame Relay WAN protocol. You learn how to implement Frame Relay for use between LAN's over a WAN.

Chapter 4 Network Security - Chapter 4 introduces network security, which has moved to the forefront of network management and implementation. The overall security challenge is to find a balance between two important requirements: the need to open networks to support evolving business opportunities, and the need to protect private, personal, and strategic business information. You learn to identify security threats to enterprise networks and mitigation techniques. You also learn how to configure basic router security and disable unused resources and interfaces. Finally, you learn to manage configurations and Cisco I O S files.

Chapter 5 ACL's - Chapter 5 builds on the concepts introduced in Chapter 4 and focuses on the application of access control lists. One of the most important skills a network administrator needs is mastery of ACL's. You learn how to create firewalls using standard and extended ACL's. Finally, you learn about advanced ACL features, including dynamic, reflexive, and timed ACL's.

Diagram 9: Multiple Images - Changing people, classroom, and network situations.
Text 9:
Course Overview Continued

Chapter 6 Teleworker Services - Chapter 6 discusses broadband technologies from a telecommuter's perspective. Specifically, you learn about cable, DSL, and wireless broadband options. You also explore how virtual private networks (VPN's) are utilized to secure broadband connections.

Chapter 7 IP Addressing Services - Chapter 7 discusses how a branch site can provide IP addressing services to users. You identify teleworker requirements and recommend architectures for providing teleworking services. Specifically, you learn how to configure a router to be a DHCP server and how to integrate private addresses and NAT. You finish with an overview of IPv6 routes using RIP n g.

Chapter 8 Network Troubleshooting - Chapter 8 is the capstone chapter for this course. You learn how to establish a network baseline and develop network documentation to help in network troubleshooting. You also develop your network troubleshooting methodology. You learn to identify and troubleshoot common enterprise network implementation issues using a layered model approach.