Network Fundamentals: CCNA Exploration Companion Guide (Companion Guide Series) / Edition 2

by Mark A. Dye, Antoon W. Rufi, Rick McDonald

Overview

Network Fundamentals, CCNA Exploration Companion Guide is the official supplemental textbook for the Network Fundamentals course in the Cisco® Networking Academy® CCNA® Exploration curriculum version 4. The course, the first of four in the new curriculum, is based on a top-down approach to networking. The Companion Guide, written and edited by Networking Academy instructors, is designed as a portable desk reference to use anytime, anywhere. The book’s features reinforce the material in the course to help you focus on important concepts and organize your study time for exams.

New and improved features help you study and succeed in this course:

• Chapter objectives—Review core concepts by answering the focus questions listed at the beginning of each chapter.
• Key terms—Refer to the updated lists of networking vocabulary introduced and highlighted in context in each chapter.
• Glossary—Consult the comprehensive glossary with more than 250 terms.
• Check Your Understanding questions and answer key—Evaluate your readiness with the updated end-of-chapter questions that match the style of questions you see on the online course quizzes. The answer key explains each answer.
• Challenge questions and activities—Strive to ace more challenging review questions and activities designed to prepare you for the complex styles of questions you might see on the CCNA exam. The answer key explains each answer.

How To—Look for this icon to study the steps you need to learn to perform certain tasks.

Packet Tracer Activities— Explore networking concepts in activities interspersed throughout some chapters using

Packet Tracer v4.1 developed by Cisco. The files for these activities are on the accompanying CD-ROM.

Also available for the Network Fundamentals Course

Network Fundamentals, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide

ISBN-10: 1-58713-203-6

ISBN-13: 978-1-58713-203-2

Companion CD-ROM

The CD-ROM provides many useful tools and information to support your education:

• Packet Tracer Activity exercise files v4.1
• VLSM Subnetting Chart
• Structured Cabling Exploration Supplement
• Taking Notes: a .txt file of the chapter objectives
• A Guide to Using a Networker’s Journal booklet
• IT Career Information
• Tips on Lifelong Learning in Networking

This book is part of the Cisco Networking Academy Series from Cisco Press®. The products in this series support and complement the Cisco Networking Academy online curriculum.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781587132087
Publisher:	Cisco Press
Publication date:	11/12/2007
Series:	Companion Guide Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	528
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 9.52(h) x 1.26(d)

About the Author

Mark A. Dyewas the technology manager and training manager for the Bevill Center at Gadsden State Community College, where he also managed and taught in the Cisco Academy program. He now works full time as an assessment and curriculum developer with Cisco. Mark also has maintained a private information technology consulting business since 1985. Mark’s 30+-year career has included roles as biomedical instrumentation technician, field service engineer, customer service supervisor, network engineer, and instructor.

Rick McDonald teaches computer and networking courses at the University of Alaska Southeast in Ketchikan, Alaska. He is developing methods for delivering hands-on training via distance in Alaska using web-conferencing and NETLAB tools. Rick worked in the airline industry for several years before returning to full-time teaching. He taught CCNA and CCNP courses in the Cisco Networking Academy in North Carolina and was a CCNA instructor trainer.

Antoon “Tony”W. Rufi currently is the associate dean of computer and information science for all the ECPI College of Technology campuses. He also teaches the Cisco Networking Academy CCNA, CCNP, Network Security, Fundamentals of Wireless LAN, and IP Telephony curricula. Before becoming an instructor for ECPI, he spent almost 30 years in the United States Air Force, working on numerous electronic projects and computer programs.

Read an Excerpt

Network Fundamentals CCNA Exploration Companion GuideNetwork Fundamentals CCNA Exploration Companion GuideIntroduction

Cisco Networking Academy is a comprehensive e-learning program that delivers information technology skills to students around the world. The Cisco CCNA Exploration curriculum consists of four courses that provide a comprehensive overview of networking, from fundamentals to advanced applications and services. The curriculum emphasizes theoretical concepts and practical application, while providing opportunities for you to gain the skills and hands-on experience needed to design, install, operate, and maintain networks in small- to medium-size businesses, as well as enterprise and service provider environments. The Network Fundamentals course is the first course in the curriculum and is based on a top-down approach to networking.

Network Fundamentals, CCNA Exploration Companion Guide is the official supplemental textbook for the first course in v4.x of the CCNA Exploration online curriculum of the Networking Academy. As a textbook, this book provides a ready reference to explain the same networking concepts, technologies, protocols, and devices as the online curriculum.

This book emphasizes key topics, terms, and activities and provides many alternate explanations and examples as compared with the course. You can use the online curriculum as directed by your instructor and then use this Companion Guide's study tools to help solidify your understanding of all the topics.

Goal of This Book

First and foremost, by providing a fresh, complementary perspective of the online content, this book helps you learn all the required materials of the first course in the Networking Academy CCNA Exploration curriculum. As a secondary goal, individuals who do not always have Internet access can use this text as a mobile replacement for the online curriculum. In those cases, you can read the appropriate sections of this book, as directed by your instructor, and learn the topics that appear in the online curriculum. Another secondary goal of this book is to serve as your offline study material to help prepare you for the CCNA exam.

Audience for This Book

This book's main audience is anyone taking the first CCNA Exploration course of the Networking Academy curriculum. Many Networking Academies use this textbook as a required tool in the course, while other Networking Academies recommend the Companion Guides as an additional source of study and practice materials.

Book Features

The educational features of this book focus on supporting topic coverage, readability, and practice of the course material to facilitate your full understanding of the course material.

Topic Coverage

The following features give you a thorough overview of the topics covered in each chapter so that you can make constructive use of your study time:

• Objectives: Listed at the beginning of each chapter, the objectives reference the core concepts covered in the chapter. The objectives match the objectives stated in the corresponding chapters of the online curriculum; however, the question format in the Companion Guide encourages you to think about finding the answers as you read the chapter.

• "How-to" feature: When this book covers a set of steps that you need to perform for certain tasks, the text lists the steps as a how-to list. When you are studying, the icon helps you easily refer to this feature as you skim through the book.

• Notes, tips, cautions, and warnings: These are short sidebars that point out interesting facts, timesaving methods, and important safety issues.

• Chapter summaries: At the end of each chapter is a summary of the chapter's key concepts. It provides a synopsis of the chapter and serves as a study aid.

Readability

The authors have compiled, edited, and in some cases rewritten the material so that it has a more conversational tone that follows a consistent and accessible reading level. In addition, the following features have been updated to assist your understanding of the networking vocabulary:

• Key terms: Each chapter begins with a list of key terms, along with a page-number reference from inside the chapter. The terms are listed in the order in which they are explained in the chapter. This handy reference allows you to find a term, flip to the page where the term appears, and see the term used in context. The Glossary defines all the key terms.

• Glossary: This book contains an all-new Glossary with more than 250 terms.

Practice

Practice makes perfect. This new Companion Guide offers you ample opportunities to put what you learn to practice. You will find the following features valuable and effective in reinforcing the instruction that you receive:

• Check Your Understanding questions and answer key: Updated review questions are presented at the end of each chapter as a self-assessment tool. These questions match the style of questions that you see in the online course. Appendix A, "Check Your Understanding and Challenge Questions Answer Key," provides an answer key to all the questions and includes an explanation of each answer.

• (NEW) Challenge questions and activities: Additional—and more challenging—review questions and activities are presented at the end of chapters. These questions are purposefully designed to be similar to the more complex styles of questions you might see on the CCNA exam. This section might also include activities to help prepare you for the exams. Appendix A provides the answers.

• Packet Tracer activities: Interspersed throughout the chapters you'll find many activities to work with the Cisco Packet Tracer tool. Packet Tracer allows you to create networks, visualize how packets flow in the network, and use basic testing tools to determine whether the network would work. When you see this icon, you can use Packet Tracer with the listed file to perform a task suggested in this book. The activity files are available on this book's CD-ROM; Packet Tracer software, however, is available through the Academy Connection website. Ask your instructor for access to Packet Tracer.

Labs and Study Guide

The supplementary book Network Fundamentals, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide, by Cisco Press (ISBN: 1-58713-2036), contains all the labs from the curriculum plus additional challenge labs and study guide material. At the end of each chapter of this Companion Guide, icons indicate what hands-on activities, labs, and Packet Tracer activities are available in the Labs and Study Guide.

• Lab and Activity references: This icon notes the hands-on labs and other activities created for this chapter in the online curriculum. Within Network Fundamentals, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide, you will also find additional labs and study guide material created by the authors of that book.

• (NEW) Packet Tracer Companion activities: Many of the hands-on labs include Packet Tracer Companion activities, where you can use Packet Tracer to complete a simulation of the lab. Look for this icon in Network Fundamentals, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide for hands-on labs that have a Packet Tracer Companion.

• (NEW) Packet Tracer Skills Integration Challenge activities: These activities require you to pull together several skills learned from the chapter to successfully complete one comprehensive exercise. Look for this icon in Network Fundamentals, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide for instructions on how to perform the Packet Tracer Skills Integration Challenge for this chapter.

A Word About Packet Tracer Software and Activities

Packet Tracer is a self-paced, visual, interactive teaching and learning tool developed by Cisco. Lab activities are an important part of networking education. However, lab equipment can be a scarce resource. Packet Tracer provides a visual simulation of equipment and network processes to offset the challenge of limited equipment. Students can spend as much time as they like completing standard lab exercises through Packet Tracer, and have the option to work from home. Although Packet Tracer is not a substitute for real equipment, it allows students to practice using a command-line interface. This "e-doing" capability is a fundamental component of learning how to configure routers and switches from the command line.

Packet Tracer v4.x is available only to Cisco Networking Academies through the Academy Connection website. Ask your instructor for access to Packet Tracer.

The course includes essentially three different types of Packet Tracer activities. This book uses an icon system to indicate which type of Packet Tracer activity is available to you. The icons are intended to give you a sense of the purpose of the activity and the amount of time you need to allot to complete it. The three types of Packet Tracer activities follow:

• Packet Tracer Activity: This icon identifies straightforward exercises interspersed throughout the chapters where you can practice or visualize a specific topic. The activity files for these exercises are available on the book's CD-ROM. These activities take less time to complete than the Packet Tracer Companion and Challenge activities.

• Packet Tracer Companion: This icon

  identifies exercises that correspond to the hands-on labs of the course. You can use Packet Tracer to complete a simulation of the hands- on lab or complete a similar "lab." The Companion Guide points these out at the end of each chapter, but look for this icon and the associated exercise file in Network Fundamentals, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide for hands-on labs that have a Packet Tracer Companion.

• Packet Tracer Skills Integration Challenge: This icon identifies activities that require you to pull together several skills learned from the chapter to successfully complete one comprehensive exercise. The Companion Guide points these out at the end of each chapter, but look for this icon in Network Fundamentals, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide for instructions on how to perform the Packet Tracer Skills Integration Challenge for this chapter.

How This Book Is Organized

This book covers the major topics in the same sequence as the online curriculum for the CCNA Exploration Network Fundamentals course. The online curriculum has 11 chapters for Network Fundamentals, so this book has 11 chapters with the same names and numbers as the online course chapters.

To make it easier to use this book as a companion to the course, the major topic headings in each chapter match, with just a few exceptions, the major sections of the online course chapters. However, the Companion Guide presents many topics in slightly different order inside each major heading. Additionally, the book occasionally uses different examples than the course. As a result, students get more detailed explanations, a second set of examples, and different sequences of individual topics, all to aid the learning process. This new design, based on research into the needs of the Networking Academies, helps typical students lock in their understanding of all the course topics.

Chapters and Topics

The book has 11 chapters, as follows:

• Chapter 1, "Living in a Network-Centric World," presents the basics of communication and describes how networks support the way we live. This chapter introduces the concepts of data networks, scalability, quality of service (QoS), security issues, network collaboration tools, and Packet Tracer.

• Chapter 2, "Communicating over the Network," introduces the devices, media, and protocols that enable network communication. This chapter introduces the OSI and TCP/IP models, the importance of addressing and naming schemes, and the process of data encapsulation. You also learn about the tools designed to analyze and simulate network functionality, such as Wireshark.

• Chapter 3, "Application Layer Functionality and Protocols," introduces you to the top network model layer, the application layer. In this context, you will explore the interaction of protocols, services, and applications, with a focus on HTTP, DNS, DHCP, SMTP/POP, Telnet, and FTP.

• Chapter 4, "OSI Transport Layer," focuses on the role of the transport layer as it provides the end-to-end transfer of data between applications. You learn how TCP and UDP apply to common applications.

• Chapter 5, "OSI Network Layer," introduces the concepts of routing packets from a device on one network to a device on a different network. You learn important concepts related to addressing, path determination, data packets, and IP.

• Chapter 6, "Addressing the Network: IPv4," focuses on network addressing in detail and describes how to use the address mask, or prefix length, to determine the number of subnetworks and hosts in a network. This chapter also introduces Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) tools, such as ping and trace.

• Chapter 7, "OSI Data Link Layer," discusses how the OSI data link layer prepares network layer packets for transmission and controls access to the physical media. This chapter includes a description of the encapsulation processes that occur as data travels across the LAN and the WAN.

• Chapter 8, "OSI Physical Layer," explores the functions, standards, and protocols associated with the physical layer (Layer 1). You discover how data sends signals and is encoded for travel across the network. You learn about bandwidth and also about the types of media and their associated connectors.

• Chapter 9, "Ethernet," examines the technologies and operation of Ethernet. Topics include the evolution of Ethernet technologies, MAC, and Address Resolution Protocol (ARP).

• Chapter 10, "Planning and Cabling Networks," focuses on designing and cabling a network. You will apply the knowledge and skills developed in the previous chapters to determine which cables to use, how to connect devices, and how to develop an addressing and testing scheme.

• Chapter 11, "Configuring and Testing Your Network," describes how to connect and configure a small network using basic Cisco IOS commands for routers and switches.

This book also includes the following:

• Appendix, "Check Your Understanding and Challenge Questions Answer Key," provides the answers to the Check Your Understanding questions that you find at the end of each chapter. It also includes answers for the challenge questions and activities that conclude most chapters.

• The Glossary provides a compiled list of all the key terms that appear throughout this book.

About the CD-ROM

The CD-ROM included with this book provides many useful tools and information to support your education:

• Packet Tracer Activity files: These are files to work through the Packet Tracer activities referenced throughout the book, as indicated by the Packet Tracer Activity icon.

• Other files: A couple files referenced in this book are on the accompanying CD-ROM:

  VLSM_Subnetting_Chart.pdf

  Exploration_Supplement_Structured_Cabling.pdf

• Taking Notes: This section includes a .txt file of the chapter objectives to serve as a general outline of the key topics of which you need to take note. The practice of taking clear, consistent notes is an important skill not only for learning and studying the material but for on-the-job success as well. Also included in this section is "A Guide to Using a Networker's Journal" PDF booklet providing important insight into the value of the practice of using and organizing a professional journal and some best practices on what, and what not, to take note of in your journal.

• IT Career Information: This section includes a Student Guide to applying the toolkit approach to your career development. Learn more about entering the world of Information Technology as a career by reading two informational chapters excerpted from The IT Career Builder's Toolkit: "Information Technology: A Great Career" and "Breaking into IT."

• Lifelong Learning in Networking: As you embark on a technology career, you will notice that it is ever changing and evolving. This career path provides exciting opportunities to learn new technologies and their applications. Cisco Press is one of the key resources to plug into on your quest for knowledge. This section of the CD-ROM provides an orientation to the information available to you and tips on how to tap into these resources for lifelong learning.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 Living in a Network-Centric World

Objectives

Key Terms

Communicating in a Network-Centric World

Networks Supporting the Way We Live

Examples of Today’s Popular Communication Tools

Networks Supporting the Way We Learn

Networks Supporting the Way We Work

Networks Supporting the Way We Play

Communication: An Essential Part of Our Lives

What Is Communication?

Quality of Communication

The Network as a Platform

Communicating over Networks

Elements of a Network

Converged Networks

The Architecture of the Internet

The Network Architecture

Fault-Tolerant Network Architecture

Scalable Network Architecture

Providing Quality of Service

Providing Network Security

Trends in Networking

Where Is It All Going?

Networking Career Opportunities

Summary

Activities and Labs

Check Your Understanding

Challenge Questions and Activities

To Learn More

Chapter 2 Communicating over the Network

Objectives

Key Terms

The Platform for Communications

The Elements of Communication

Communicating the Messages

Components of the Network

End Devices and Their Role on the Network

Intermediary Devices and Their Role on the Network

Network Media

LANs, WANs, and Internetworks

Local-Area Networks

Wide-Area Networks

The Internet: A Network of Networks

Network Representations

Protocols

Rules That Govern Communications

Network Protocols

Protocol Suites and Industry Standards

Interaction of Protocols

Technology-Independent Protocols

Using Layered Models

The Benefits of a Layered Model

Protocol and Reference Models

TCP/IP Model

Communication Process

Protocol Data Units and Encapsulation

Sending and Receiving Process

OSI Model

Comparing the OSI Model to the TCP/IP Model

Network Addressing

Addressing in the Network

Getting Data to the End Device

Getting Data Through the Internetwork

Getting Data to the Right Application

Summary

Activities and Labs

Check Your Understanding

Challenge Questions and Activities

To Learn More

Chapter 3 Application Layer Functionality and Protocols

Objectives

Key Terms

Applications: The Interface Between the Networks

OSI and TCP/IP Model

Application Layer Software

User Applications, Services, and Application Layer Protocols

Application Layer Protocol Functions

Making Provisions for Applications and Services

Client/Server Model

Servers

Application Layer Services and Protocols

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Networking and Applications

Application Layer Protocols and Services Examples

DNS Services and Protocol

WWW Service and HTTP

E-Mail Services and SMTP/POP Protocols

E-Mail Server Processes: MTA and MDA

FTP

DHCP

File-Sharing Services and SMB Protocol

P2P Services and Gnutella Protocol

Telnet Services and Protocol

Summary

Activities and Labs

Check Your Understanding

Challenge Questions and Activities

To Learn More

Chapter 4 OSI Transport Layer

Objectives

Key Terms

Roles of the Transport Layer

Purpose of the Transport Layer

Supporting Reliable Communication

TCP and UDP

Port Addressing

Segmentation and Reassembly: Divide and Conquer

TCP: Communicating with Reliability

Making Conversations Reliable

TCP Server Processes

TCP Connection Establishment and Termination

TCP Three-Way Handshake

TCP Session Termination

TCP Acknowledgment with Windowing

TCP Retransmission

TCP Congestion Control: Minimizing Segment Loss

UDP: Communicating with Low Overhead

UDP: Low Overhead Versus Reliability

UDP Datagram Reassembly

UDP Server Processes and Requests

UDP Client Processes

Summary

Labs

Check Your Understanding

Challenge Questions and Activities

To Learn More

Chapter 5 OSI Network Layer

Objectives

Key Terms

IPv4

Network Layer: Communication from Host to Host

IPv4: Example Network Layer Protocol

IPv4 Packet: Packaging the Transport Layer PDU

IPv4 Packet Header

Networks: Dividing Hosts into Groups

Creating Common Groups

Why Separate Hosts into Networks?

Dividing Networks from Networks

Routing: How Data Packets Are Handled

Device Parameters: Supporting Communication Outside the Network

IP Packets: Carrying Data End to End

Gateway: The Way Out of the Network

Route: A Path to a Network

Destination Network

Next Hop: Where the Packet Goes Next

Packet Forwarding: Moving the Packet Toward Its Destination

Routing Processes: How Routes Are Learned

Static Routing

Dynamic Routing

Routing Protocols

Summary

Labs

Check Your Understanding

Challenge Questions and Activities

To Learn More

Chapter 6 Addressing the Network: IPv4

Objectives

Key Terms

IPv4 Addresses

Anatomy of an IPv4 Address

Binary-to-Decimal Conversion

Decimal-to-Binary Conversions

Addressing Types of Communication: Unicast, Broadcast, Multicast

IPv4 Addresses for Different Purposes

Types of Addresses in an IPv4 Network Range

Subnet Mask: Defining the Network and Host Portions of the Address

Public and Private Addresses

Special Unicast IPv4 Addresses

Legacy IPv4 Addressing

Assigning Addresses

Planning to Address the Network

Static or Dynamic Addressing for End-User Devices

Selecting Device Addresses

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)

ISPs

Calculating Addresses

Is the Host on My Network?

Calculating Network, Hosts, and Broadcast Addresses

Basic Subnetting

Subnetting: Dividing Networks into Right Sizes

Subnetting a Subnet

Testing the Network Layer

Ping 127.0.0.1: Testing the Local Stack

Ping Gateway: Testing Connectivity to the Local LAN

Ping Remote Host: Testing Connectivity to Remote LAN

Traceroute (tracert): Testing the Path

ICMPv4: The Protocol Supporting Testing and Messaging

Overview of IPv6

Summary

Labs

Check Your Understanding

Challenge Questions and Activities

To Learn More

Chapter 7 OSI Data Link Layer

Objectives

Key Terms

Data Link Layer: Accessing the Media

Supporting and Connecting to Upper-Layer Services

Controlling Transfer Across Local Media

Creating a Frame

Connecting Upper-Layer Services to the Media

Standards

MAC Techniques: Placing Data on the Media

MAC for Shared Media

MAC for Nonshared Media

Logical Topology Versus Physical Topology

MAC: Addressing and Framing Data

Data Link Layer Protocols: The Frame

Framing: Role of the Header

Addressing: Where the Frame Goes

Framing: Role of the Trailer

Sample Data Link Layer Frames

Putting It All Together: Following Data Through an Internetwork

Summary

Labs

Check Your Understanding

Challenge Questions and Activities

To Learn More

Chapter 8 OSI Physical Layer

Objectives

Key Terms

Physical Layer: Communication Signals

Purpose of the Physical Layer

Physical Layer Operation

Physical Layer Standards

Physical Layer Fundamental Principles

Physical Signaling and Encoding: Representing Bits

Signaling Bits for the Media

Encoding: Grouping Bits

Data-Carrying Capacity

Physical Media: Connecting Communication

Types of Physical Media

Copper Media

Media Connectors

Summary

Labs

Check Your Understanding

Challenge Questions and Activities

To Learn More

Chapter 9 Ethernet

Objectives

Key Terms

Overview of Ethernet

Ethernet: Standards and Implementation

Ethernet: Layer 1 and Layer 2

Logical Link Control: Connecting to the Upper Layers

MAC: Getting Data to the Media

Physical Implementations of Ethernet

Ethernet: Communication Through the LAN

Historic Ethernet

Legacy Ethernet

Current Ethernet

Moving to 1 Gbps and Beyond

Ethernet Frame

Frame: Encapsulating the Packet

Ethernet MAC Address

Hexadecimal Numbering and Addressing

Another Layer of Addressing

Ethernet Unicast, Multicast, and Broadcast

Ethernet MAC

MAC in Ethernet

CSMA/CD: The Process

Ethernet Timing

Interframe Spacing and Backoff

Ethernet Physical Layer

10- and 100-Mbps Ethernet

1000-Mbps Ethernet

Ethernet: Future Options

Hubs and Switches

Legacy Ethernet: Using Hubs

Ethernet: Using Switches

Switches: Selective Forwarding

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)

Resolving IPv4 Addresses to MAC Addresses

Maintaining a Cache of Mappings

ARP Broadcast Issues

Summary

Labs

Check Your Understanding

Challenge Questions and Activities

To Learn More

Chapter 10 Planning and Cabling Networks

Objectives

Key Terms

LANs: Making the Physical Connection

Choosing the Appropriate LAN Device

Device Selection Factors

Device Interconnections

LAN and WAN: Getting Connected

Making LAN Connections

Making WAN Connections

Developing an Addressing Scheme

How Many Hosts in the Network?

How Many Networks?

Designing the Address Standard for Your Internetwork

Calculating the Subnets

Calculating Addresses: Case 1

Calculating Addresses: Case 2

Device Interconnections

Device Interfaces

Making the Device Management Connection

Summary

Labs

Check Your Understanding

Challenge Questions and Activities

To Learn More

Chapter 11 Configuring and Testing Your Network

Objectives

Key Terms

Configuring Cisco Devices: IOS Basics

Cisco IOS

Access Methods

Configuration Files

Introducing Cisco IOS Modes

Basic IOS Command Structure

Using CLI Help

IOS Examination Commands

IOS Configuration Modes

Applying a Basic Configuration Using Cisco IOS

Naming Devices

Limiting Device Access: Configuring Passwords and Banners

Managing Configuration Files

Configuring Interfaces

Verifying Connectivity

Test the Stack

Testing the Interface

Testing the Local Network

Testing Gateway and Remote Connectivity

Tracing and Interpreting Trace Results

Monitoring and Documenting Networks

Basic Network Baselines

Capturing and Interpreting Trace Information

Learning About the Nodes on the Network

Summary

Labs

Check Your Understanding

Challenge Questions and Activities

To Learn More

Appendix Check Your Understanding and Challenge Questions Answer Key

Glossary

1587132087 TOC 10/10/2007

Preface

Network Fundamentals CCNA Exploration Companion Guide

Introduction

Cisco Networking Academy is a comprehensive e-learning program that delivers information technology skills to students around the world. The Cisco CCNA Exploration curriculum consists of four courses that provide a comprehensive overview of networking, from fundamentals to advanced applications and services. The curriculum emphasizes theoretical concepts and practical application, while providing opportunities for you to gain the skills and hands-on experience needed to design, install, operate, and maintain networks in small- to medium-size businesses, as well as enterprise and service provider environments. The Network Fundamentals course is the first course in the curriculum and is based on a top-down approach to networking.

Network Fundamentals, CCNA Exploration Companion Guide is the official supplemental textbook for the first course in v4.x of the CCNA Exploration online curriculum of the Networking Academy. As a textbook, this book provides a ready reference to explain the same networking concepts, technologies, protocols, and devices as the online curriculum.

This book emphasizes key topics, terms, and activities and provides many alternate explanations and examples as compared with the course. You can use the online curriculum as directed by your instructor and then use this Companion Guide's study tools to help solidify your understanding of all the topics.

Goal of This Book

First and foremost, by providing a fresh, complementary perspective of the online content, this book helps you learn all the required materials of the first course in the Networking Academy CCNA Exploration curriculum. As a secondary goal, individuals who do not always have Internet access can use this text as a mobile replacement for the online curriculum. In those cases, you can read the appropriate sections of this book, as directed by your instructor, and learn the topics that appear in the online curriculum. Another secondary goal of this book is to serve as your offline study material to help prepare you for the CCNA exam.

Audience for This Book

This book's main audience is anyone taking the first CCNA Exploration course of the Networking Academy curriculum. Many Networking Academies use this textbook as a required tool in the course, while other Networking Academies recommend the Companion Guides as an additional source of study and practice materials.

Book Features

The educational features of this book focus on supporting topic coverage, readability, and practice of the course material to facilitate your full understanding of the course material.

Topic Coverage

The following features give you a thorough overview of the topics covered in each chapter so that you can make constructive use of your study time:

• Objectives: Listed at the beginning of each chapter, the objectives reference the core concepts covered in the chapter. The objectives match the objectives stated in the corresponding chapters of the online curriculum; however, the question format in the Companion Guide encourages you to think about finding the answers as you read the chapter.

• "How-to" feature: When this book covers a set of steps that you need to perform for certain tasks, the text lists the steps as a how-to list. When you are studying, the icon helps you easily refer to this feature as you skim through the book.

• Notes, tips, cautions, and warnings: These are short sidebars that point out interesting facts, timesaving methods, and important safety issues.

• Chapter summaries: At the end of each chapter is a summary of the chapter's key concepts. It provides a synopsis of the chapter and serves as a study aid.

Readability

The authors have compiled, edited, and in some cases rewritten the material so that it has a more conversational tone that follows a consistent and accessible reading level. In addition, the following features have been updated to assist your understanding of the networking vocabulary:

• Key terms: Each chapter begins with a list of key terms, along with a page-number reference from inside the chapter. The terms are listed in the order in which they are explained in the chapter. This handy reference allows you to find a term, flip to the page where the term appears, and see the term used in context. The Glossary defines all the key terms.

• Glossary: This book contains an all-new Glossary with more than 250 terms.

Practice

Practice makes perfect. This new Companion Guide offers you ample opportunities to put what you learn to practice. You will find the following features valuable and effective in reinforcing the instruction that you receive:

• Check Your Understanding questions and answer key: Updated review questions are presented at the end of each chapter as a self-assessment tool. These questions match the style of questions that you see in the online course. Appendix A, "Check Your Understanding and Challenge Questions Answer Key," provides an answer key to all the questions and includes an explanation of each answer.

• (NEW) Challenge questions and activities: Additional—and more challenging—review questions and activities are presented at the end of chapters. These questions are purposefully designed to be similar to the more complex styles of questions you might see on the CCNA exam. This section might also include activities to help prepare you for the exams. Appendix A provides the answers.

• Packet Tracer activities: Interspersed throughout the chapters you'll find many activities to work with the Cisco Packet Tracer tool. Packet Tracer allows you to create networks, visualize how packets flow in the network, and use basic testing tools to determine whether the network would work. When you see this icon, you can use Packet Tracer with the listed file to perform a task suggested in this book. The activity files are available on this book's CD-ROM; Packet Tracer software, however, is available through the Academy Connection website. Ask your instructor for access to Packet Tracer.

Labs and Study Guide

The supplementary book Network Fundamentals, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide, by Cisco Press (ISBN: 1-58713-2036), contains all the labs from the curriculum plus additional challenge labs and study guide material. At the end of each chapter of this Companion Guide, icons indicate what hands-on activities, labs, and Packet Tracer activities are available in the Labs and Study Guide.

• Lab and Activity references: This icon notes the hands-on labs and other activities created for this chapter in the online curriculum. Within Network Fundamentals, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide, you will also find additional labs and study guide material created by the authors of that book.

• (NEW) Packet Tracer Companion activities: Many of the hands-on labs include Packet Tracer Companion activities, where you can use Packet Tracer to complete a simulation of the lab. Look for this icon in Network Fundamentals, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide for hands-on labs that have a Packet Tracer Companion.

• (NEW) Packet Tracer Skills Integration Challenge activities: These activities require you to pull together several skills learned from the chapter to successfully complete one comprehensive exercise. Look for this icon in Network Fundamentals, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide for instructions on how to perform the Packet Tracer Skills Integration Challenge for this chapter.

A Word About Packet Tracer Software and Activities

Packet Tracer is a self-paced, visual, interactive teaching and learning tool developed by Cisco. Lab activities are an important part of networking education. However, lab equipment can be a scarce resource. Packet Tracer provides a visual simulation of equipment and network processes to offset the challenge of limited equipment. Students can spend as much time as they like completing standard lab exercises through Packet Tracer, and have the option to work from home. Although Packet Tracer is not a substitute for real equipment, it allows students to practice using a command-line interface. This "e-doing" capability is a fundamental component of learning how to configure routers and switches from the command line.

Packet Tracer v4.x is available only to Cisco Networking Academies through the Academy Connection website. Ask your instructor for access to Packet Tracer.

The course includes essentially three different types of Packet Tracer activities. This book uses an icon system to indicate which type of Packet Tracer activity is available to you. The icons are intended to give you a sense of the purpose of the activity and the amount of time you need to allot to complete it. The three types of Packet Tracer activities follow:

• Packet Tracer Activity: This icon identifies straightforward exercises interspersed throughout the chapters where you can practice or visualize a specific topic. The activity files for these exercises are available on the book's CD-ROM. These activities take less time to complete than the Packet Tracer Companion and Challenge activities.

• Packet Tracer Companion: This icon identifies exercises that correspond to the hands-on labs of the course. You can use Packet Tracer to complete a simulation of the hands- on lab or complete a similar "lab." The Companion Guide points these out at the end of each chapter, but look for this icon and the associated exercise file in Network Fundamentals, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide for hands-on labs that have a Packet Tracer Companion.

• Packet Tracer Skills Integration Challenge: This icon identifies activities that require you to pull together several skills learned from the chapter to successfully complete one comprehensive exercise. The Companion Guide points these out at the end of each chapter, but look for this icon in Network Fundamentals, CCNA Exploration Labs and Study Guide for instructions on how to perform the Packet Tracer Skills Integration Challenge for this chapter.

How This Book Is Organized

This book covers the major topics in the same sequence as the online curriculum for the CCNA Exploration Network Fundamentals course. The online curriculum has 11 chapters for Network Fundamentals, so this book has 11 chapters with the same names and numbers as the online course chapters.

To make it easier to use this book as a companion to the course, the major topic headings in each chapter match, with just a few exceptions, the major sections of the online course chapters. However, the Companion Guide presents many topics in slightly different order inside each major heading. Additionally, the book occasionally uses different examples than the course. As a result, students get more detailed explanations, a second set of examples, and different sequences of individual topics, all to aid the learning process. This new design, based on research into the needs of the Networking Academies, helps typical students lock in their understanding of all the course topics.

Chapters and Topics

The book has 11 chapters, as follows:

• Chapter 1, "Living in a Network-Centric World," presents the basics of communication and describes how networks support the way we live. This chapter introduces the concepts of data networks, scalability, quality of service (QoS), security issues, network collaboration tools, and Packet Tracer.

• Chapter 2, "Communicating over the Network," introduces the devices, media, and protocols that enable network communication. This chapter introduces the OSI and TCP/IP models, the importance of addressing and naming schemes, and the process of data encapsulation. You also learn about the tools designed to analyze and simulate network functionality, such as Wireshark.

• Chapter 3, "Application Layer Functionality and Protocols," introduces you to the top network model layer, the application layer. In this context, you will explore the interaction of protocols, services, and applications, with a focus on HTTP, DNS, DHCP, SMTP/POP, Telnet, and FTP.

• Chapter 4, "OSI Transport Layer," focuses on the role of the transport layer as it provides the end-to-end transfer of data between applications. You learn how TCP and UDP apply to common applications.

• Chapter 5, "OSI Network Layer," introduces the concepts of routing packets from a device on one network to a device on a different network. You learn important concepts related to addressing, path determination, data packets, and IP.

• Chapter 6, "Addressing the Network: IPv4," focuses on network addressing in detail and describes how to use the address mask, or prefix length, to determine the number of subnetworks and hosts in a network. This chapter also introduces Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) tools, such as ping and trace.

• Chapter 7, "OSI Data Link Layer," discusses how the OSI data link layer prepares network layer packets for transmission and controls access to the physical media. This chapter includes a description of the encapsulation processes that occur as data travels across the LAN and the WAN.

• Chapter 8, "OSI Physical Layer," explores the functions, standards, and protocols associated with the physical layer (Layer 1). You discover how data sends signals and is encoded for travel across the network. You learn about bandwidth and also about the types of media and their associated connectors.

• Chapter 9, "Ethernet," examines the technologies and operation of Ethernet. Topics include the evolution of Ethernet technologies, MAC, and Address Resolution Protocol (ARP).

• Chapter 10, "Planning and Cabling Networks," focuses on designing and cabling a network. You will apply the knowledge and skills developed in the previous chapters to determine which cables to use, how to connect devices, and how to develop an addressing and testing scheme.

• Chapter 11, "Configuring and Testing Your Network," describes how to connect and configure a small network using basic Cisco IOS commands for routers and switches.

This book also includes the following:

• Appendix, "Check Your Understanding and Challenge Questions Answer Key," provides the answers to the Check Your Understanding questions that you find at the end of each chapter. It also includes answers for the challenge questions and activities that conclude most chapters.

• The Glossary provides a compiled list of all the key terms that appear throughout this book.

About the CD-ROM

The CD-ROM included with this book provides many useful tools and information to support your education:

• Packet Tracer Activity files: These are files to work through the Packet Tracer activities referenced throughout the book, as indicated by the Packet Tracer Activity icon.

• Other files: A couple files referenced in this book are on the accompanying CD-ROM:

VLSM_Subnetting_Chart.pdf

Exploration_Supplement_Structured_Cabling.pdf

• Taking Notes: This section includes a .txt file of the chapter objectives to serve as a general outline of the key topics of which you need to take note. The practice of taking clear, consistent notes is an important skill not only for learning and studying the material but for on-the-job success as well. Also included in this section is "A Guide to Using a Networker's Journal" PDF booklet providing important insight into the value of the practice of using and organizing a professional journal and some best practices on what, and what not, to take note of in your journal.

• IT Career Information: This section includes a Student Guide to applying the toolkit approach to your career development. Learn more about entering the world of Information Technology as a career by reading two informational chapters excerpted from The IT Career Builder's Toolkit: "Information Technology: A Great Career" and "Breaking into IT."

• Lifelong Learning in Networking: As you embark on a technology career, you will notice that it is ever changing and evolving. This career path provides exciting opportunities to learn new technologies and their applications. Cisco Press is one of the key resources to plug into on your quest for knowledge. This section of the CD-ROM provides an orientation to the information available to you and tips on how to tap into these resources for lifelong learning.

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