All About Cisco Certifications

By Anthony David Hopkins

There are three levels of Cisco certification, Associate, Professional, and Expert. Cisco developers set these three levels in order to meet every requirement of the companies. If a company is small and dealing with small networking then the associate certified professional can do better for them. The company can choose the professionals by keeping in mind their needs.

CCNA

Cisco Certified Network Associate certification gives the basic knowledge of networking. CCNA certified professionals are capable of dealing every problem related to install, configuring and operating the WAN, LAN, and dial access services. They are restricted to handle the problems in no more than 100 modes range. They are familiar with the terms Frame Relay, IP, RIP, IGRP, VLANs, Ethernet and Serial.

CCNP

Cisco Certified Network Professional certification is for the advanced level as the professionals can deal with bigger problems. They usually work for the enterprise organizations, in which they do installing, configuring and troubleshooting the wide rage of the network. They can handle all the problems in the nodes range of 100 to 500. In this certification extra topics then the CCNA are security, converging networks, QoS and VPN.

CCIP

Cisco Certified Internetwork Professional certification enables a person to fine every solution related to the infrastructure IP networking. Service provider companies require these professional to deal with their service provider networking.

CCSP

Cisco Certified Security Professionals deal with all the problems related to the network protection. Their aim is to protect productivity, as this can be helpful in flourishing process of the company. In this certification you can learn how to do perimeter security, intrusion protection and virtual private networks. This enables a person to develop a single and unyielding integrated network security solution.

CCIE (Routing and Switching)

CCIE Routing and Switching experts have to deal with the problems related to the LAN and WAN interfaces. They have the advanced knowledge of routers and switches and their uses. With these equip knowledge they can increase bandwidth and solve the complex connectivity problem that is making hurdle in response time and depressing the performance of the whole network. Their work does not merely to solve the problem but also maintain the equipment for their proper work.

CCIE requirements

In detail and intricacy knowledge can only make a CCIE professional, as it doesn't require the ordinary pathway to get success, the knowledge in depth can save a person from drowning. To pass this certification level you need to make extra effort as these requires some field knowledge. It is recommended to have two or three years of working experience before attempting the CCIE exam.

CCIE (Security)

This is expert level in network security; these experts are in demand as every organization needs to secure their data. Securities experts are getting higher pay then others. For getting the enrollment in this certification you need to have a solid knowledge of IP and IP routing.

CCIE (Storage)

In this certification, experts have to store the data relying on the FCIP, FICON and Fibre Channel techniques.

For more information about Cisco Certification please visit us here: SolarWinds Certification

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ETHERNET HUBS AND THERE TYPES

ETHERNET HUB:

                                                  Following are the features and purpose of ethernet hub in this networking world.

• A network device.
• Connect multiple ethernet devices together.
• A hub works at the physical layer (layer1) of the OSI model.
• The device is a form of multiport repeater.

TYPES OF HUB1:

1. Active Hub.
2. Passive Hub.
3. Intelligent Hub.

1) ACTIVE HUB:

                              A cental connecting device in a network that regenerate signal on the output side to keep the signal strong.

2) PASSIVE HUB:

                              A Passive hub serves simply as conduct for the data, enabling it to go from one device to another.

3) INTELLIGENT HUB:

• Enables administrator to monitor the traffic passing through the hub.
• Enables an admintrator to configure each port in hub.
• Manageable Hub.

Role of IANA and ICANN in Internet Protocol Addressing:

IANA:

• Internet Assigned number Authority.
• IANA oversees global IP address allocation .
• Autonomous system number allocation.
• Root zone managment in the Domain name system (DNS).
• Other internet protocol related symbols and numbers.
• IANA is a department operated by ICANN.

ICANN :

• The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
• Non Profit organization.
• Headquater in California,United States.
• Created on September 18,1998 and incorporated on September 30,1998.
• To oversee a number of internet related tasks on behalf of the US government.
• IANA is operated by ICANN.

ESSENTIAL NETWORK DEVICES

Following are essential network devices which are use in different types of communications.

• HUB/Repeater
• Switch/Bridge
• Router//MLS

HUB:
                Following are the features of HUB device.

• Layer 1 device
• Physical layer device.
• Non intelligent device.
• Hardware based.
• Use in LAN connectivity.
• HUB is a Broadcast device.
• Disadvantage of HUB are

1. Security break.
2. Extra processing.

Repeater:
                           Repeater is a physical layer device which extent your local area.It extent the digital signal to 75 meters.It is hardware base and layer 1 device.It is use to extent the LAN.

LUXURIES DEVICES

Luxuries devices are not so much important for network but it makes our network more secure.These devices are important when our network require security.Following are luxuries devices of the network such as PIX Firewall, ASA. IPS/IDS, caching engine ,VPN ,Call manager etc.
PIX Firewall: 
                     It is private internet exchange firewall which prevent from hacking.
ASA: 
              Adoptive security appliance (ASA) which is a type of a firewall but more stronger than firewall.
IPS: 
            IPS is a intrusion prevention system which monitor the network .IPS is use to detect or prevent the intrusion attack.
Caching Engine:
                              Those web which are used frequently cache engine host it in local area.It can open it quickly.
VPN:
         VPN is Virtual private network .It provides a secure path to transfer data more securely in a shared network.
Call Manager:
                        Call manager is private branch exchange which transfer data,voice,video etc more securely.For example Voice messenger, chat,video conference.

Devices Use in a Network

Networks Components: 
A Network is a combination of three essential components.

• Media.
• Device.
• Protocol.

Device: 
                      Machine which can pass data or transfer data.There are two types of devices.

• End devices.
• Network devices.

End Devices:
                                 Device which generate data or receive data is called End device.For example Server,Printer,Fax machine,Scanner,LAN card.Without LAN card we cannot transfer data or enter data.LAN card  is a hardware.When program writes on a hardware it is called Firmware.
Network Devices: 
                                             Intermediate device through which we transfer data.There are two types of network devices.

• Luxuries.
• Essential.

Network devices are better Explain  in next Article.

REDUANCY IN NETWORK

Reduancy In Network:
Cisco offers technologies that provide next hop Gateway reduancy.

• HSRP_____Hot standby router protocol.
• VRRP____Virtual router reduancy protocol.
• GLBP____Global load balancing protocol.

HSRP:

• Created by cisco for cisco in 1994.
• uses default Hello timer of 3 seconds.
• uses default Hold time of 10 seconds.

VRRP:

• Created by IETF in 1999.Five years later after HSRP industry standard came.
• Work between multiple vendors.
• Faster than HSRP.
• Default hello timer 1 seconds.
• Default hold timer (Dead timer) 3 seconds.

GLBP:

• Created by cisco for cisco in 2005.
• Identical features to HSRP.
• Load balancing__________Allows Active connection.

ROOT BRIDGE AND ROOT ID

In this article ,I will explain the  concept of root id and how we can choose the root bridge.


Choose the Root Bridge:


1) Each Switch has a bridge ID (BID) of priority value fallowed by MAC address.
             Bridge ID= combination of priority + MAC address
2) Switches exchange bridge protocol data units (BPDU) to compare bridge ids.
3)  The switch with the lowest bridge id become the root bridge.
4) Administrator can set the priority to fix the selection.


Bridge ID:

• The bridge id consist of bridge priority,extended system id, and MAC address.
• By default the priority is 32768.
• Lowest priority wins.
• Value 1------65536,multiples of 40960.
• Extended system id identifies VLAN.
• MAC address used,if priority is same.Better not to rely on MAC address.

SPANNING TREE PROTOCOL

In this article ,I want to explain the concept of spanning tree protocol ( STP )
What is Spanning tree?

• A tree ( Extended star) topology
• A tree has no loops
• Spanning all devices.
• All devices are connected..

Spanning tree Algorithm:

Switches uses this algorithm to decide which ports should be shutdown.

• Choose one switch to be " root bridge".
• Choose a "root port" on each other switch.
• Choose a "designated port"  on each segment.
• Choose down all ports.

 Working of STP:

• Election of root bridge.
• Root ports.
• Designated ports.
• Forwarding ports.
• Blocking ports.

PORT SECURITY

In this article ,I want to explain the concept of port security.In Cisco environment ,port security is an essential  feature of  Cisco device .In these days, security is a big challenge for network administrator.So with the help of port security, network administrator  can decide which computer of  an organization can access the internal network of the organization and which computer can not access the internal network.
Port Security:
 1) Remember the Ethernet MAC address connected to the switch port.
2) Allows only that MAC address to communication on that port.
3) If any other MAC address tries to communicate through the port, port security will disable the port.
Port Security Violation:
Violation - tells the switch what to do when number of MAC address on the port has exceeded the maximum.
1) Shutdown
2) Restrict
3) Protect
1) Shutdown:  The default is to shut down the port.
2) Restrict: alert the network administrator.
3) Protect: only allow traffic from the secure port and drop packets from other MAC address.