CCNA and Beyond

Monday’s do not seem to work well as a study day. However, I managed to sqeeze sometime in this morning. I took a practice exam just on the chapters I have covered and I found a weak area. I did not know the Ethernet Frame/Trailer feilds etc. That caught me off guard.

I made up some little mnemonic device for remembering the Ethernet Frame sequence.
Please Sally Don’t Slap Larry Two Days Frantically

Explanation
Please Sally Don’t Slap Larry Two Days (D and P for the two Days) Frantically. (“F” ranti “C” S – I figured if I can remember the FC then the S should be alright)

I am now confident and completely on Chapter 4. I have read it twice and so far, it doesn’t seem to hard. I actually went outside my house to find the Demarcation point. Why do little things like this make me happy?

Day 7 and I am wrapping up Chapter 3. I am now on Ethernet frames and such. For the heck of it, I took a Boson practice exam limiting my questions to the chapters that I learned so far, and I got close to 100%. I think I got a 90%. I can’t remember because when I took it, it was real early this morning.

Remember at the end of the day it is worth it. I contemplated on going to a bootcamp, but $3,000 – $5,000 is not in my pay grade. Plus, I didnt want to woos out when I know I can do this. I guess I was just getting lazy. There will be days when you just dont feel like studying. Let me tell you how I mentally prepare every morning.

I get up and sludge through studying something. Then when I am headed to work, I listened to Packet Pushers Podcast. The one that I have probably memorized word for word is Show 53. A couple of CCIE’s get on the line and discuss how they studied and what it feels like to be a CCIE. I put the mp3 on my samsung phone and plugged it into my car stereo and I am focused all day.

Now, when I go to work, I focus only on work. But studying for the CCNA has helped me focus at work. Now at work, I try to memorize screens, concepts, lists, theories, etc. It is fun. I keep my mind absorbing something all day. Then on my way home I listen to some motivational audio mp3′s like Brian Tracy’s Discipline, Tony Robbins, Seth Godin (Poke the Box and Dip) and others.

I will finish up chapter 3. But to be honest, I am not moving on until I know it. I dont care if it takes me another 3 days.

Ok, I decided to slow it down a bit with a fulltime job and a newborn floating in my sphere. But I have managed to find time to keep studying everyday. So here I am early in the morning at it again. I went back to Chapter 2 and took the questions as a check of where I am and I got a 100%. That is purely off of a sleepy head! So that means that my story stuff works, well at least for my brain.

Chapter 3 – I found some easy tips to remember some charts.
Ok the Data Link layer has 2 sublayers the MAC and LLC.
I remember the standard by:
802.3 MAC (the 3 means 3 different characters M – A – C)
802.2 LLC (The 2 means twins L – L, or two of the same characters)

Always remember – Switches do not need to be configured for them to forward traffic between the computers.

(1980′s)
Single Bus Networks – Think of Bus network as a school bus stopping at each bus stop. The signal for traffic is received by all stations on LAN. If two or more signals were sent at the same time, you will have a collision.
To prevent a collision the 10Base2 (185m) and 10Base5 (500m) Networks use a CSMA/CD algorithm. One talks when sending traffic, everyone else listens.

CSMA/CD – carrier sense multiple access with collision detection. (on a 10Base2 and 10Base5 network, CMSA/CD must be used)
-a device that wants to send a frame waits until the LAN is silent (no frames on the highway being sent) before attempting to send an electrical signal.
-if a collision occurs, the devices that caused the collision will wait a random amount of time and then try again.

The 10Base2 and 10Base5 were limited in sending traffic past a certain length before the signal sending traffic became real weak. The weakening of the signal is called Attenuation. Repeaters are Layer 1 devices that extend the length of the network cable by generating a brand new, clean electrical signal. They connect multiple segments. They do not interpret what the bits mean (electrical signals are in bits, but rather it examines and generates esignals (electrical signals).

(1990′s and forwards) – 10BaseT Networks and Hubs, 100BaseTX, and so on.
10BaseT was major because it allowed the use of UTP telephone cabling that was already installed! No more expensive coaxial cable needed.
Also with 10BaseT was the concept of having a centralized place to connect multiple devices with a HUB (Layer 1 device).
Modern Ethernet’s today uses switches with Ethernet UTP cabling, but some small offices still use hubs to share a connection in two adjacent offices without having someone put in a network drop.

Hubs are nothing but repeaters with multiple ports! They have collisions and CSMA/CD need to be used. They only regenerate a fresh new esignal, and like a bus topology, the signal gets sent to every stop (port). But now, one cable will not take down the whole LAN if it breaks as in a Bus topology. If one cable breaks when connected to a hub, then replace that one cable. All other computers still operate while one computer is down.

We are making progress here! Cables are cheaper. One computer doesnt have to stop the network. What’s next in line?

Let’s talk about Ethernet Cabling now.
We started out with coaxial (Bus), ended up with now UTP Ethernet (Hubs). Good time to get ready for work and pick up later.

Ok Day 3 was a little rough. What was so difficult was trying to remember all of these tables, charts, cables, pinouts, etc. I am working on a story for that too! HAHA!
It is late and I am beat! But I did enough of chapter 3 to get 80% of the answers right in the quiz. Now on to chapter 4. I will read some tonight then wake up early before everyone is awake and finish it up. I will edit more on this blog tomorrow morning. Time out – 8/30/2011 10:28 PM.

I went back to Day 3 today to refine my learning. I said to myself, why am I in such a hurry. I think after today, I would be past Chapter 3.