Cisco Certified Network Associate certification has become must for anybody who wants to have a career in networking. This certification validates that you have the ability to install, configure and troubleshoot a network. You need a lot of practice for achieving success in this exam. Apart from the labs where you are getting trained for CCNA, what if you had a chance to practice at home. Or what if you want to self learn for CCNA? Well for both of the questions above, Cisco Packet Tracer is the perfect answer. To quote from Cisco’s official website, Packet tracer is: “a powerful network simulation program that allows students to experiment with network behaviour and ask “what if” questions.”
It further says: “The simulation-based learning environment helps students develop 21st century skills such as decision making, creative and critical thinking, and problem solving. Packet Tracer complements the Networking Academy curricula, allowing instructors to easily teach and demonstrate complex technical concepts and networking systems design.”
Nothing could have defined that better. The biggest problem in learning networking is the need for multiple devices that from a network. Cisco Packet Tracer removes that hurdle altogether and that too simply. Although there are other network simulation programs (say GNS3), they need device images. Packet tracer has them inbuilt.
This software is available for free from Cisco’s website provided you are a registered Networking Academy student, alumni, instructor, or administrator.
According to Wikipedia, “In computer networking, a single layer-2 network may be partitioned to create multiple distinct broadcast domains, which are mutually isolated so that packets can only pass between them via one or more routers; such a domain is referred to as a Virtual Local Area Network, …
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Configuring etherchannel on a Cisco switch. Etherchannel is the port link aggregation technology invented by a company named Kalpana. This company was acquired by Cisco systems in 1994. Etherchannel allows us to group several (practically eight) physical Ethernet links on a Cisco switch into one logical link. Advantages …
Enabling SSH on Cisco routers and switches Imagine you are a network administrator in a large organization with number of switches and routers. To configure a switch or router on a far off location, there are two choices. One is to go near the switch or router to …
Configuring passwords on Cisco routers and switches In this chapter, we will see how to configure passwords on Cisco routers and switches. Cisco devices have four types of passwords. Console password : Used to set password for the console access. Auxiliary password : It is used to set …
Basic Configuration of a Cisco router or Switch Basic configuration of a Cisco switch can be done in three ways, using Cisco Device manager web tool, Using Cisco Networking Assistant (CNA) and Cisco IOS setup mode. The first two are GUI tools and the latter is a CLI …
Command Line Modes on Cisco routers and switches. In the previous chapter, we saw how to subnet a network. In this chapter, we will see about various command line modes of Cisco devices. Cisco IOS is the internetwork operating system of both the Cisco switches and routers. It …
SUBNETTING A NETWORK A sub network or subnet is a logical subdivision of an IP network. The practice of dividing a network into two or more networks is called sub netting. Sub netting offers many advantages. Some of them are. 1. It provides security to the network. 2. …
In our last chapter, we saw how to install Packet Tracer in both Windows and Linux. Now we will see how to use it. I have made this guide keeping absolute beginners in mind and when I say absolute beginners, I mean really absolute beginners. As part of …
Once you have finished downloading the software, it’s time to install it. Let us see how to install Cisco Packet Tracer in Windows Any installation in Windows is just clicks and mouse and the same applies to Packet tracer. Click on the exe file downloaded. The below screen …
