Hands-on

Over at my YouTube channel, I’ve created some labs that exist solely as videos plus a Cisco Packet Tracer .pkt file. The video begins with instructions. Then pause the video, download the [...]

Over at my YouTube channel, I’ve created some labs that exist solely as videos plus a Cisco Packet Tracer .pkt file. The video begins with instructions. Then pause the video, download the [...]

Over at my YouTube channel, I’ve created some labs that exist solely as videos plus a Cisco Packet Tracer .pkt file. The video begins with instructions. Then pause the video, download the [...]

Over at my YouTube channel, I’ve created some labs that exist solely as videos plus a Cisco Packet Tracer .pkt file. The video begins with instructions. Then pause the video, download the [...]

Over at my YouTube channel, I’ve created some labs that exist solely as videos plus a Cisco Packet Tracer .pkt file. The video begins with instructions. Then pause the video, download the [...]

As with all the Config Labs with “BIG” in the title, this lab is different than most. This BIG lab collects many of the configuration topics in Volume 1, Part 5 of the CCNA Official [...]

This lab is different. Instead of a focused lab about one main topic, this one covers several: VLANs, VLAN trunks, Spanning Tree, and EtherChannel. And most CCNA folks will take more than the [...]

Over the years, I’ve created a bundle of about 75 lab exercises here at the blog, called Config Labs. The idea is to read the web page for the lab, then do the lab, and then check your [...]

Most Config Lab posts here at my blog follow a consistent formula: A problem statement (requirements, figures, and inital configuration), followed by you creating the configuration, and closing [...]

All of the Config Lab posts here at my blog follow a consistent formula: A problem statement (requirements, figures, and inital configuration), followed by you creating the configuration, and [...]

Some of you, particularly those that subscribe to the blog, will have noticed a lot of posts here at the blog in mid-October 2021. I thought I’d give you a quick update on what I’m [...]

Configuring PAT with a pool of inside global addresses combines almost everything you can possibly configure with NAT in a Cisco router. Look at the requirements in this latest lab and put [...]

PAT – Port Address Translation – plays a huge role in IPv4 networks. Today’s post looks at the simpler of the two configuration options for router NAT configuration: a single router interface IP [...]

Dynamic NAT – specifically, dynamic NAT without also doing PAT – creates a 1-to-1 mapping between an inside local address and an inside global address. Unlike static NAT, however, dynamic NAT [...]

Static NAT matches a single inside local address with a single inside global address. It does not conserve addresses, but it does let you make a server reachable to external devices with a [...]

When first starting out with Cisco routers and switches, log messages are those irritating messages that show up to interrupt us from the current task at hand. Over time, most of us find those [...]

Most of us skim through descriptions of Syslog messages and message levels. This lab helps you slow down just a bit with a configuration exercise that makes you remember message severity levels [...]

Routers and switches issue log messages to tell us about different events. Be ready to run through the various options! Today’s lab exercises a couple of those options related to message formats [...]

NTP makes me think of old spy novels and movies, where the team would set their analog watches to the same time, and say something like “On my mark, it will be 9:55… mark!”. NTP uses other [...]

#CDP has long been the default and favored protocol for a variety of device discovery functions, but LLDP offers an alternative as well. (LLDP is new to the exam topics per the May 2016 new CCENT [...]

IP uses Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) to discover the MAC address used by other hosts in the same subnet. Unfortunately, cybersecurity attacks often use legitimate protocols in unintended [...]

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), like many network protocols, can be used as part of a cybersecurity attack. DHCP Snooping, a LAN switch feature, monitors DHCP messages flowing through [...]

The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) protocol allows DHCP Clients to lease an IP address from a DHCP server. Simple enough. However, the protocol itself is open to various cybersecurity [...]

While most router interfaces use configured IP addresses, in some cases, a design calls for the router to dynamically learn an interface IP address. In those cases, routers can be configured to [...]

Most DHCP servers sit in a centralized location. To make that work, routers need to participate in the DHCP process to a small degree using a feature called the DHCP Relay Agent. For this lab, [...]