Take your first step to CCNA certification

From bestselling author Todd Lammle comes the most up-to-date book on CCNA exam 640-821, the first exam in Cisco’s popular two-exam Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) certification track. Understand networking for the small or home office market, prepare for the exam, and acquire the skills you need with this comprehensive guide. Inside you’ll find:

Complete coverage of all exam objectives in a systematic approach, so you can be confident you’re getting the instruction you need
Practical hands-on exercises to reinforce critical skills
Real-world scenarios that show you life beyond the classroom and put what you’ve learned in the context of actual job roles
Challenging review questions in each chapter to prepare you for exam day
Exam Essentials, a key feature at the end of each chapter that identifies critical areas you must become proficient in before taking exam 640-821

A handy tear card that maps every official exam objective to the corresponding chapter in the book, so you can track your exam prep objective by objective

Look inside for complete coverage of all exam objectives.

The Structured Wireless-Aware Networking (SWAN) solutions from Cisco Systems are excellent tools. With Cisco’s hardware and software — some of it specific to the wireless portions of your network, some of it part of the Internetwork Operating System (IOS) and the routers on which it runs — you can allow the kind of access you want to allow, and prevent unauthorized access. It’s a technical challenge, and Cisco’s products go a long way toward providing a solution. But A tool is only as good as the person who wields it, and the quality of your Cisco wireless implementation will be proportional to your level of knowledge about the relevant equipment and protocols. That’s where this book comes in. It covers the whole range of knowledge you need to design and deploy a good Cisco SWAN installation, from the basics of communicating data over radio waves to specific IOS commands to be used in implementing quality of service (QoS) for packet telephony and VLANs for compartmentalized access.

There’s an old saying that goes “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Designing for Cisco Internetwork Solutions helps you learn how to plan a LAN/WAN infrastructure using analysis and modeling techniques to design a network using Cisco components.This CCDA training is cutting edge and focuses on the newest Cisco PDIOO (Plan, Design, Implement, Operate, Optimize) analysis and methodology as well as teaching Cisco Enterprise Composite Network Modeling as the next generation beyond the Cisco 3-layer Design (Access/Distribution/Core). You’ll learn modular analysis and modeling along with the newest multilayer switching technology, routing essentials, IP telephony, IP addressing with NAT and IPv6, Management and more.

Instructor Michael Shannon has broken the topics down into easy to understand segments filled with information that you can readily put to use on the job. If you are already certified as a CCNA, this training will give you a lot of background and theory on network design to make you a more knowledgeable and effective IT professional.

Installing and operating a Wi-Fi hotspot allows you to attract customers and differentiate your business. Deploying even a small wireless network has proven to be a difficult task for the average consumer, however. With this book as your guide, you can painlessly figure out the requirements for your Wi-Fi hotspot, how to properly set it up, how to operate it, and how to optimize it for the needs and security of your customers.

Wi-Fi Hotspots helps you throughout the entire process of setting up a hotspot to offer free or fee-based Internet access to the general public:

In this course, students will learn how to create an efficient and expandable enterprise network by installing, configuring, monitoring, and troubleshooting network infrastructure equipment (especially Catalyst Multilayer Switches) according to the Campus Infrastructure module in the Enterprise Composite Network model.The campus switched network includes converged IP data, IPC (voice), and Airspace WLAN (Wireless) connectivity.

A comprehensive introduction to the theory and practical applications of content networking

• Get a strong introduction to the basic networking concepts necessary for content networking, including network address translation, IP multicast content delivery, quality of service, and streaming media
• Master the application-layer protocols, including HTTP, SSL, RSTP, RTP and FTP
• Design redundancy and high availability by using server load balancing, Domain Name System (DNS) directory services, Cisco DistributedDirector software, proximity-based load balancing, and global sticky databases
• Learn to switch and offload encrypted content by importing, creating, and configuring certificates and keys in Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) termination devices
• Examine how to configure routers with Web Cache Communication Protocol (WCCP) and to switch content requests to content engines for serving frequently requested objects
• Learn how to configure caching, live push- and pull-splitting, content acquisitioning, and pre-positioning using Cisco Application and Content Networking System (ACNS) software

Content networking is the most popular technology used to enhance network and application performance. The growth of content networking has been driven by end-user demands for richer content and lowered response times. These demands have caused the field of content networking to flourish with technological advances. Today many companies use content networking to add a layer of intelligence to their systems, scaling server availability and optimizing content delivery.

Content Networking Fundamentals introduces you to content networking solutions and the underlying networking technologies that content networking uses to accelerate your applications in new and unique ways. You’ll discover various algorithms behind content networking and learn how the Cisco Systems® product suite implements them.

In this comprehensive guide, you start with a review of the protocols required for content networking, building your knowledge of introductory concepts and applications. From there, you delve into the components specific to content networking, with a focus on the content-aware Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Layers 4 through 7. Numerous deployment examples help you understand the more advanced topics. You can use the configuration snapshots in this book as skeletal configurations for your production network.

The official preparation guide for the new CCIE Routing and Switching written exam

CCIE Routing and Switching Exam Certification Guide is a comprehensive study and assessment tool. Written and reviewed by CCIEs and developed with the assistance of the CCIE program manager, this book is appropriate preparation for the new CCIE Routing and Switching qualification exam released in August 2002 by Cisco Systems. You’ve logged in hours learning a broad range of advanced concepts, you have applied them to real-world networks, and now you’re ready to increase and reinforce your knowledge in preparation for Cisco Systems’ CCIE Routing and Switching written exam. Optimize your study time by assessing your knowledge of the material at the start and close of each chapter with customized quizzes for each topic. Assist your memory by reviewing summary information at the end of each chapter, which presents you with the most succinct review of crucial concepts. Test your comprehension at the end of each chapter with review questions and determine the assimilation of knowledge by stepping through a series of scenarios.

Review all CCIE Routing and Switching and CCIE Communications and Services General Knowledge topics:
# General routing concepts, such as the OSI model, internetworking devices, and routing protocol characteristics
# Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and wireless LANs
# Transparent bridging, VLANs, and VLAN trunking
# Frame Relay, ATM, and SONET/SDH
# RIP, IGRP, and EIGRP
# OSPF and IS-IS
# BGP, route reflectors, and confederations
# Queuing, MPLS, CAR, and traffic shaping
# IP multicast, IP precedence, and multiservice networks
# Firewalls, encryption, and other security topics

A comparative analysis of Ethernet, TCP/IP, and Fibre Channel in the context of SCSI

* Introduces network administrators to the requirements of storage protocols
* Explains the operation of network protocols to storage administrators
* Compares and contrasts the functionality of Ethernet, TCP/IP, and Fibre Channel
* Documents the details of the major protocol suites, explains how they operate, and identifies common misunderstandings
* References the original standards and specifications so you can get a complete understanding of each protocol
* Helps you understand the implications of network design choices
* Discusses advanced network functionality such as QoS, security, management, and protocol analysis

Corporations increasingly depend on computer and communication technologies to remain competitive in the global economy. Customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, and e-mail are a few of the many applications that generate new data every day. Effectively storing, managing, and accessing that data is a primary business challenge in the information age. Storage networking is a crucial component of the solution to meet that challenge.
Written for both storage administrators who need to learn more about networking and network administrators who need to learn more about storage, Storage Networking Protocol Fundamentals is a concise introduction to storage networking protocols. The book picks up where Storage Networking Fundamentals left off by focusing on the networking protocols that underlie modern open systems: block-oriented storage networks.
The first part of the book introduces you to the field of storage networking and the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model. The second part compares networked storage technologies, including iSCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface over IP) and Fibre Channel. It also examines in detail each of the major protocol suites layer-by-layer within the OSI reference model. The third part discusses advanced functionalities of these technologies, such as quality of service (QoS), load-balancing functions, security, management, and protocol analysis. You can read this book cover to cover or use it as a reference, directly accessing the particular topics of interest to you.

Implementing Cisco Quality of Service 2.0 provides students with in-depth knowledge of IP QoS requirements, conceptual models such as Best Effort (over provisioning), Integrated Services (IntServ) and Differentiated Services (DiffServ), and the implementation of IP QoS on Cisco IOS platforms. This course covers the theory of IP QoS, design issues, and configuration of various QoS mechanisms to facilitate the creation of effective administrative policies providing QoS. Case studies and lab exercises included in the course help students to apply the concepts mastered in individual modules to real-life scenarios. The course also gives students design and usage rules for various advanced IP QoS features and the integration of IP QoS with underlying Layer 2 QoS mechanisms, allowing them to design and implement efficient, optimized, and trouble-free multiservice networks.Course Overview

Upon completion of the Implementing Cisco QoS course the student will be able to:

Explain the need to implement Quality of Service (QoS) and explain methods for implementing and managing QoS
Identify and describe different models used for ensuring QoS in a network and explain key IP QoS mechanisms used to implement the models
Explain the use of MQC and AutoQoS to implement QoS on the network
Classify and mark network traffic to implement a policy defining QoS requirements
Use Cisco QoS queuing mechanisms to manage network congestion
Use Cisco QoS congestion avoidance mechanisms to reduce the effects of congestion on the network
Use Cisco QoS traffic policing and traffic shaping mechanisms to effectively limit the rate of network traffic
Use Cisco link efficiency mechanisms to improve the bandwidth efficiency of a low speed WAN link
Correctly select the most appropriate QoS mechanisms for providing QoS using Cisco “best practices” in service provider and enterprise networks

A straightforward, graphic-based reference book for network security for the home and small business

• A four-color, simplified approach to learning about home network security
• Learn network security fundamentals, how to design security strategies for the home, and how to optimize network security as needs change
• Another release from the best-selling "Simplified" series from Cisco Press

Home Network Security Simplified is a straightforward, graphic-based home network security reference book for the everyday user. Home Network Security Simplified takes novice users from no or limited understanding of network security to the point where they can use their network with the peace of mind that comes with knowing that your network and your information is secure. Home Network Security is organized by the guiding principle of Ten Easy Steps to a Safte Home Network. The book will provide an understanding of the various types of security threats (what they are, how they work), a series of tutorials on security strategy for each of these threats, and a step-by-step guide to implementing security across the network. Armed with an understanding of home networking security concepts, users can take advantage of a wide array of benefits including - Understanding the different types of security threats - Securing their networks against those threats - Recognizing if someone has attempted to breach their network - Staying abreast of emerging threats.