With multiple hosts and servers on layer 2 switches, there are several issues arises that should be dealt by network administrators. One major problem is its broadcast can flood to all ports resulting to the consumption of unnecessary bandwidth. And, security vulnerability, since all devices attached to layer 2 devices can forward and receive frames to and from every other devices on that same switch.

One solution for this is through configuration of VLAN or Virtual Local Area Network. According to Cisco, “A VLAN is a logical broadcast domain that can span multiple physical LAN segments. It allows an administrator to group together stations by logical function, by project teams, or by applications, without regard to physical location of the users.”

There are 2 ways to configure a VLAN

1. Static VLAN which requires administrator to interactively assign each switch port to a specific VLAN

2. Dynamic VLAN which requires VLAN management policy server (VMPS) to scan for a match address from the database and temporarily assign the port used by the device  to the appropriate VLAN. Read More →

From the last exercise of this CCNA Tutorial, we had configured dynamic routing using RIP (Routing Information Protocol) version 1. It’s quite easy to configure cisco router devices but it can only be used for routing with classfull ip address networks.

The next version of RIP (Routing Information Protocol) is the version 2. The difference of using RIPv2 is its ability to route ip address with classless networks. Therefore, when routing using RIP in a subnetted networks, version 2 must be used.

Take note that with RIP, hop count method is used. Meaning, measurement can be determine based on how many routers a packet must travel from one point going to another. Read More →

From our previous example CCNA Tutorial on how to configure for static routing, we’ve learned that configuration is quite easy. However, in numerous amount of routers, this method is not practical and quite difficult to manage. Therefore, we will try to use and configure on how to do a dynamic routing.

The main purpose of routing is for path determination and packet switching. In other words, routing makes routers share its information about routes to other networks, which will be used for choosing the best path by which to transmit data from one point going to another.

In order to build a route for routing, its primary requirement is the routing protocol that will be configured on Cisco routers. One of the most common routing protocol used for dynamic routing is the RIP. The Routing Information Protocol commonly known as RIP use hop count as a method for advertising (publishing) networks. A hop count measures how many routers a packet must pass through to travel from Point A going to Point B. Read More →

I was thinking maybe static routing on cisco routers is very basic and most of us knows this very well, hence, I made this next post as part 2. This advance static routing requires rigid evaluation of the diagram. This complex network setup is composed of 5 routers with 11 networks. I divided the ccna video tutorial into three parts. The first involves pc host addressing and router interface addressing. On the second and third video tutorials, the static routing was presented. You can follow and apply what is on the video by downloading the packet tracer laboratory practice found at the bottom of the video section.

The basic format for adding a static route on a Cisco router are as follows

Configure a static route to a network, pointing to a next-hop router’s IP address

Router(config)# ip route <network id> <subnet mask> <next hop>

or

Define a static route with reference to the outgoing interface which is connected to the next hop towards the destination network.

Router(config)# ip route <network id> <subnet mask> <outgoing interface> Read More →

Static routing is a method of entering routes into the device’s routing table stored in a configuration file manually which is loaded when the Cisco router starts up. These routes can be configured manually by network administrators.

There are some things that need to be considered when using a static routing

• Static routing is commonly known as the simplest form of routing, however this can only be done manually
• Since routing is static, changes must be made manually
• Use static routing when having few routers to configure
• Use static routing when routes does not constantly change
• In the event of failure in the external networks, manual configuration must be made to repair any lost connectivity Read More →

From the last CCNA Tutorial, we have configured router’s interface ip address and subnet mask. Client hosts must have its own ip address to complete the network. With this, we manually assigned a static ip address to each and every hosts within the network. Thus, it would be time consuming if we are to maintain a medium to a large scale network.

It would simply be easy if DHCP service is enabled on the router. DHCP is a router service which handles all dynamic IP address assignments to every DHCP enabled  devices existing in the network. As a general rule, only shared devices, like printers, servers, routers, and switches needs a static ip address. All other devices should use DHCP-assigned IP addresses. Read More →

When a router is shipped from Cisco, the configuration is default.  These preconfigured settings may conflict your existing network configuration and setup. Though settings in Cisco router  devices can be made through SDM (Security Device Manager ), it always needs a CLI (Command Line Interface) to be enabled.

This Cisco CCNA Tutorial and Packet Tracer Practice Exam is basic and requires no computation to use.  This can be applied into real Cisco router device but if you are a beginner, I would recommend you download an application like Packet Tracer, GNS3 or the like for practice.

For students and beginners, I would recommend you read some of the basics in Cisco CCNA Tutorials and Practice Exams.

For this example, I use Packet Tracer Version 5.3.1.0044. You may download the application in Cisco Website. Read More →