My Fan Club

As I've mentioned a few times in the past, I act as an admin for one of the largest, if not the largest, Facebook groups dedicated to CCNA study.  You can find that group right here, or through the Facebook button in the top right corner of any page on this blog.  The group has a few other admins spread out through the world (so that our eyes would be on the page at different times of the day, ideally) and we run the group in accordance to our own moral compass, which for the most part aligns pretty well amongst ourselves and past admins.

Of course, the rules that we've set for the group don't sit well with some people.  If you're into something that doesn't jive with the rules, just simply don't discuss it in the group.  It's pretty simple, right?  Well for some it isn't that easy.  And since I encourage feedback from the community of users, I get it.  Here I've collected a few of my favorites.  There have been others, but many of them blocked me not long after and Facebook knocked it off of my messages before I could get a screenshot.  Warning, the language in these screenshots is a bit graphic.

This first satisfied customer of our services was removed for discussing braindumps and gets right to the point.

User number two was removed for the same reason.  Apparently cheating on exams means obtaining knowledge, and I'm just jealous somehow.   Interesting take.

User number three is my personal favorite.  I think he's asking me to create a group full of porn, and then show it to him?  I didn't realize that porn was so difficult to find.  I know that Netflix is taking over as the king of Internet traffic, but recent numbers show porn is still well over 30% of all traffic.

User number four was apparently upset that the free service we're providing him didn't get him an answer quickly enough for his satisfaction.  So he asked a few more times.  I believe this is the fourth time he asked, a couple times as a top level post, and a couple other times attempting to thread-jack another discussion.  Anyway, I did answer one of his other posts but he chose to ignore that and post again.  Needless to say, he won't have to worry about us getting back to him too slowly anymore.

Finally, this last one didn't come from the CCNA group, it came as a private message to the Free CCNA Workbook Facebook page, which I am also an admin for.  No commentary necessary, I think it speaks for itself.  Apparently when I took the screenshot of this one, I was feeling generous and omitted the name of this class act.  I wonder what he would have thought if I tracked down his instructor and showed them this?

And this is far from all of the nonsense I've gotten over the years, it's just the ones that amused me to the point of taking a screenshot.  That is not to say that it's all negative feedback, but that's primarily the thanks you get for a well maintained group.  The group has no spam, no flame wars, nothing violating the rules except for the very brief time it takes an admin to see and kill the post.  That is, except in my private inbox.  That's full of it.

CCNA Question of the Week 4

This week, we had an open ended question that covers a lot of areas.  This is a take on a question that was asked during the phone screening for my first I.T. job.  As with all questions in this series, do not make assumptions, and do not answer a question that was not asked. Just answer the question as completely as your knowledge allows.

Your computer was just started and you just logged in and then loaded your favorite web browser.  No other actions have been taken on this computer and no other programs have been launched.  You type www.yahoo.com into the URL bar of the browser and press Enter.  Between now and when the page finishes loading, describe everything that happens in order for that page to load.

CCNA Question of the Week 2

In the following image, you'll see a network topology.  In this topology, the routers are running the RIP routing protocol.  As is traditional with these questions, I'm going to strip out all the irrelevant information.  We're not going to see any router configuration, IP addressing, or anything else that would distract from the question at hand.  The key thing we're going to focus on here is that there are 20 routers.  First, we'll start with a couple assumptions:

• The RIP routing protocol is configured correctly on every router.  
• Nothing in the routers configurations differ except for IP addresses and networks in the routing protocol.
• The IP addressing scheme is correctly subnetted, and the routers are addressed correctly on every interface.

So this week's question is, can the RIP protocol function correctly in this topology?  And for a couple follow up questions:  Why or why not?  Does it make a difference if we're running RIPv1 or RIPv2?

The first thing that probably comes to mind is that the RIP protocol has a maximum hop count.  Most CCNA students go here first when something of this nature comes up.   Now let's consider the difference between hop count, and the number of routers in the topology.  The hop count refers to the number of hops between two routers.  It says nothing about the number of routers in the topology.  

So Let's look at the two routers that are furthest apart, R1 and R20.  In this particular topology, there is no path from R1 to R20 that is more than 7 hops.  And if there a path that exceeded the maximum hop count, it would be ignored by the routing protocol, not having any effect on a different route that didn't exceed 15 hops.  

So the answer to the question is yes, this is a valid RIP topology.  Now two routers exceed 15 hops apart, so there is no part of the topology that is unreachable by any other portion of the topology.  PC1 can reach PC2.

And for the final follow up question, it doesn't matter if we're running RIPv1 or RIPv2.  Neither version of RIP will balk at a hop count of 7.

CCNA Question of the Week 1

Group member Donovan Bone posted this question in a discussion, and I thought that it would be a great "Question of the Week" for the group.  So a new thread was started for just it, and a lot of members attempted to answer the question. I didn't expect the majority to get it right, but only one got it right in the three hours I watched the replies.  Not surprisingly, the one person who answered correctly is the only one who actually labbed it up.  So here is the question.

The Official CCNA Group FAQ

I've been one of the admins of the group for a few years now, and there's a handful of questions that I see repeatedly posted.  I'm talking about the things that somebody asks at least once a week in the group.  So I've started compiling this FAQ for the group that can be posted as a response to any question that falls within this list.  As with many posts relating to the Facebook group, this will be a living document and material will be added, removed or modified as necessary.

If you haven't already read my post on how to ask better questions, maybe take a minute to look at that as well.

I'm New, What Should I be Reading?

In the CCNA group, an often posted question is "what books should I be reading?" or the less inspired "What is the best networking book?"  Well, it's never quite that simple.  What are you looking to learn?  Do you want to become proficient in networking in general, or are you looking to become proficient in Cisco related networking?  Yes, there is a difference.  Do you want to really learn how things work, or do you want to just pass your next certification exam? Again, there is indeed a difference.

I wrote out a long post replying to this recently, and thought I'd save the response here and elaborate a little more.  A little because it's a good topic, and a lot because I'm lazy and will just link this rather than answer again in the future.  If you want to hear the simple answer, go with the dozens of knuckleheads screaming out that Todd Lammle is all you need.  Just ignore their misspelling of his name.  But if you want to actually learn networking, then continue reading.

FreeCCNAWorkbook.com in Packet Tracer - Section 4

In this previous post, I began to look into working through the Free CCNA Workbook in Packet Tracer.  I had worked through the first three sections, and found that while there were some unsupported commands here and there, there was not anything missing that I would consider to be a show stopper so far.  So moving along, I have worked through Section 4 tonight and here's what I found. For reference, I am using the latest version of Packet Tracer for Linux available from the NetAcad website at the time of this writing, which is version 6.2.  Your results may vary on the Windows version, but I doubt it.

FreeCCNAWorkbook.com in Packet Tracer Through Section 3

I had a discussion with somebody on line a while back on the feasibility of working through the labs at freeccnaworkbook.com using Cisco Packet Tracer. After a little back and forth and a lot of thought on the matter, I decided to give it a try rather than continue to speculate. Since I haven't used the program in years, I logged into my NetAcad account and downloaded the latest version (6.2.0.0052) and installed it on my desktop. And no, I will not provide you with a copy, so don't bother asking.

Free CCNA Resources 2.0

Do you want to become a CCNA with little or no cost out of pocket beyond taking the exam(s)? Between my own attempt at the CCNA and my association with forums and blogs where we eat, sleep and breathe Cisco networking, I have collected a number of free resources that I have collected together here in once place in hopes that it will be of help. I'll try to keep this list up to date as I find new material. Feel free to add a link in the comments or let me know if a link no longer works. Most importantly, PLEASE let me know if I was fooled and listed something here that is less than reputable. Happy Studying!

The exam hasn't changed real drastically from the 640-802 version, some tweaks but nothing drastic. So don't be scared away from anything written specifically to that exam.

Free CCNA Resources

After nearly 4 years, the Free CCNA Resources page has been updated to Version 2.0. Please follow the link and update your bookmarks to:

Free CCNA Resources Version 2.0

Happy Studying!