The Compete Ccna 200-301 Study Guide: Network Engineering Edition

By Joe Spoto

The CCNA Study Guide – Network Engineering Edition for the CCNA 200-301 syllabus is a result of over 10 years of constant development based on feedback from our students and improving on what is currently available in the market. This manual covers the first 6 of 40 chapters of the manual to give you a taste of the detail which this manual goes into to get you through the CCNA 200-301 exam.
Our students state that our manuals blow the official Cisco manuals out of the water. No confusing explanations with confusing diagrams. So, although we may not be Cisco approved, we listen to our students to make their journey to that coveted CCNA certification easier.

There is nothing like our manual in the world. We start with the basics and build up gradually giving you a chance to follow the examples in your own time with a collection of detailed labs, tutorials and exam-like questions.
The Full Version of the CCNA Study Guide - Network Engineering Edition has:
• Over 130 hands-on-labs for you to practice using either Packet Tracer and GNS3
• Over 600 questions with explanations.
• Step by step explanations covering the Cisco 200-301 syllabus.
Each chapter starts with a series of knowledge check questions which you can use to decide how much time you need to spend on each chapter, although we always recommend that each chapter is completed in full.
Manual includes complete glossary and index

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joe Spoto
• Release date: Oct 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005680879

Book preview

Warning and Disclaimer

© Copyright 2007-2021 Commsupport Networks Ltd. All rights reserved.

The following publication, CCNA 200-301 Network Engineering Edition series, was developed by Commsupport Networks Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without prior written permission from Commsupport Networks Ltd

Cisco, Cisco Systems, the Cisco logo, and CCIE are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other products and company names mentioned in this workbook are the trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of their respective owners.

The following publication: CCNA 200-301 Network Engineering Edition series is designed to assist students in their preparation for the Cisco Systems CCNA 200-301 Exam.

The enclosed material is presented to you on an as is basis. Every effort has been taken to ensure that all material contained in this workbook is complete and accurate. The authors and Commsupport Networks assume no liability or responsibility to any person or entity with respect to loss or damages incurred by using the information contained in this workbook.

This workbook was developed by Commsupport Networks Ltd and is an original work of the authors.

Any similarities between material presented in this guide and actual CCNA 200-301 Exam or other material is entirely coincidental.

Commsupport Networks has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of the ™ symbol.

Errata

Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or the code—we would be grateful if you would report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by emailing [e-mail]. Once your errata are verified, the errata will be uploaded or added to any list of existing errata.

Piracy

Piracy of copyright material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Commsupport Networks, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses very seriously. If you come across any illegal copies of our works, in any form, on the Internet, please provide us with the website name so that we can pursue a remedy.

Please contact us at [e-mail] with a link to the suspected pirated material.

We appreciate your help in protecting our authors and our ability to bring you valuable content.

How to use this book

This book is in the EPUB format, which is an open, industry-standard format for ebooks. EPUBs may be read on multiple devices each which has their particular formatting style. You can use the tools available on your devices to change the presentation to suit your needs. You may be able to change the font style and size and click on images to enlarge them.

The best settings for this ebook is single column portrait mode. To view images in greater detail, click on the image and select view image, from here, you can adjust the size of the image.

To view the table of contents, click any place on the manual and select table of contents.

To navigate between pages, click on the forward or back button as well as scrolling up and down.

Exam Topic Cross-Reference

Cisco list the CCNA 200-301 exam topics on their website here. Although rare, keep an eye open for any changes which Cisco may make to the contents of the exam.

The CCNA 200-301 is organised into domains. Within each domain, significant subjects have been grouped according to their relation to each other.

IMPORTANT: Before you Start

Step 1: Before beginning go to https://www.netacad.com/courses/packet-tracer

Create an account, download, and install the latest version of Packet Tracer for your operating system on your local machine.

Step 2: Go to the following link https://commsupportnetworks.co.uk/ hover over Contact Us and select the download link, you will need to download the following compressed files:

1. CCNA 200-301 PACKET TRACER TEMPLATES

2. CCNA 200-301 CONFIGURATION TEMPLATES

NOTE: To download 7zip visit this site: https://www.7-zip.org/download.html

Step 3: Before beginning this section go to https://www.gns3.com/

Create an account, download and install the latest version of GNS3 for your operating system on your local machine.

Step 4: To learn how to install GNS3, please watch the following two videos found at the following link https://commsupportnetworks.co.uk/ hover over Contact Us and select the download link, you will need to watch the following videos:

1. Installing GNS3

2. Improving GNS3 performance

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Netwoking Basics

Chapter 2: LAN Network Basics

Chapter 3: Wide Area Networks & Routing Basics

Chapter 4: Cisco Switch & Router Command Line

Chapter 5: LAN Switch Functions and Operations

Chapter 6: VLANs and Trunking

Appendix A Answers to Knowledge Check Questions

Chapter 1 Q&A

Chapter 2 Q&A

Chapter 3 Q&A

Chapter 4 Q&A

Chapter 4 Q&A-End of Chapter

Chapter 5 Q&A

Chapter 6 Q&A

Chapter 6 Q&A- End of Chapter

Appendix B Exam Topic Cross Reference

Glossary

Index

Chapter 1: Networking Basics

Cisco CCNA exam topics covered in this chapter:

1.0 Network Fundamentals

1.3 Compare physical interface and cabling types

1.3.a Single-mode fiber, multimode fiber, copper

1.3.b Connections (Ethernet shared media and point-to-point)

Knowledge Check Questions

It is advisable to go through all the questions before continuing with this chapter and the practical labs. Your score is going to help you determine how much time you spend studying the topics covered in this chapter. The answers to these questions can be found on the next page with explanations in Appendix A..

1. How many layers are there in the OSI model

a. 6

b. 7

c. 8

d. 4

2. Which layer are packets created in the TCP/IP model?

a. 1

b. 2

c. 3

d. 4

3. Which layer do switches perform their primary functions?

a. 1

b. 2

c. 3

d, 4

c. 5

d. All of the layers

4. How many layers are in the TCP/IP protocol model?

a. 3

b. 4

c. 5

d. 6

5. At which layer do protocols such as HTTP, SMTP and FTP operate?

a. Transport layer

b. Session layer

c. Network layer

d. Presentation layer

e. Application layer

6. Which protocol at layer 4 provides error recovery?

a. UDP

b. IP

c. TCP

d. HTML

e. SMTP

7. Which protocol at layer 4 supports flow control?

a. TCP

b. SMTP

c. UDP

d. IP

e. FTP Active

8. Which protocol at layer 4 is used for real-time Voice Over IP traffic?

a. Telnet

b. SSH

c. TCP

d. UDP

e. FTP passive

9. What are the two functions of Layer 3 of the OSI model

a. Logical addressing.

b. Routing of packets 

c. Switching frames

d. Learning MAC addresses

10. What is the data structure created at the data-link layer?

a. Packet

b. Frame

c. Segment

d. Parcel

e. Encapsulation

f. Tunnel

11. Which two protocols are found at the data-link layer?

a. TCP

b. UDP

c. IP

d. Ethernet

e. PPP

12. On which protocol does HTTP depend for error-free, reliable data transmissions?

a. UDP

b. IP

c. Ethernet

d. TCP

e. Segments

13. What are the four features and functions of layer 1?

a. Mechanical, Compression, Functional, Procedural

b. Mechanical, Electrical, Encryption, Procedural

c. Mechanical, Electrical, Functional, Procedural

d. Mechanical, Electrical, Functional, Error correction

14.What is the name of the data structure created at layer 4 of the TCP/IP model

a. Packet

b. Frame

c. Segment

d. Parcel

e. Encapsulation

f. Tunnel

15.What is the primary function of a router?

a. To switch frames

b. To route packets

c. To police packets

d. To switch segments

e. To compress packets

16.Which terms describes a packet when considering the OSI model?

a. Layer 1 PDU

b. Layer 2 PDU

c. Layer 3 PDU

d. Layer 4 PDU

Knowledge Check Answers

1. How many layers are there in the OSI model

b. 7

2. Which layer are packets created in the TCP/IP model?

c. 3

3. Which layer do switches perform their primary functions?

b. 2

4. How many layers are in the TCP/IP protocol model?

c. 5

5. At which layer do protocols such as HTTP, SMTP and FTP operate?

e. Application layer

6. Which protocol at layer 4 provides error recovery?

c. TCP

7. Which protocol at layer 4 supports flow control?

a. TCP

8. Which protocol at layer 4 is used for real-time Voice Over IP traffic?

d. UDP

9. What are the two functions of Layer 3 of the OSI model

a. Logical addressing.

b. Routing of packets 

10. What is the data structure created at the data-link layer?

b. Frame

11. Which two protocols are found at the data-link layer?

d. Ethernet

e. PPP

12. On which protocol does HTTP depend for error-free, reliable data transmissions?

d. TCP

13. What are the four features and functions of layer 1?

c. Mechanical, Electrical, Functional, Procedural

14. What is the name of the data structure created at layer 4 of the TCP/IP model

c. Segment

15. What is the primary function of a router?

b. To route packets

16. Which terms describes a packet when considering the OSI model?

c. Layer 3 PDU

Introduction to networking

Welcome to the first chapter, presumably, you are reading this because of the idea of getting involved with networking appeals to you. You may be new to the world of I.T and want to get into the networking industry, or maybe you are a seasoned I.T veteran but are looking to add to your current skill set. Either way, this CCNA manual is going to help you gain the knowledge you need not only to take and pass the CCNA 200-301 exam but to also equip you with the knowledge and skills required to work as a network engineer with confidence. If you are ready, let us commence.

From the top

Ask any network engineer to explain the purpose of a network, and they are probably going to say something like: To connect computers, or to move information from one computer to another and those answers would pretty much sum up all networks, everywhere. Other than computer networks, can you think of any different types of networks? You probably thought about the following types:

Postal network

Road network

Rail networks

Airline routes

Waterways

The central nervous system in your body

Telephone network

Fundamentally all the networks listed above do the same thing. They all carry stuff, whether they are carrying letters, people in cars, people in trains, passengers in aeroplanes, boats on the water, electrical signals to your brain or voice signals between telephones.

Just like all the networks mentioned the function of a digital computer network like the one you have at the home, office, and up to the internet is to carry information/data from Point A to Point B.

Your role as a network engineer is to design, configure, deploy and fault-find the devices between

Point A and Point B.

Protocols

If you want to become a competent network engineer, you must understand how devices such as routers, switches, wireless access points, firewalls and other networking devices can make decisions on how to move data from point A to point B.

If we return to the idea of a postal network, letters and parcels are delivered from source to destination based on the destination address which the sender has written on the letter or package.

The postal service then moves the item to its ultimate destination, either by, road, sea, or air or sometimes all three. The postal service performs the same function as the internet albeit much more slowly. Still, regardless of the speed, the postal service like computer networks depend on all the moving parts of the postal system to work together based on a standard set of rules within a standard postal service.

For instance, the postal service in the United Kingdom has its policies on how to deliver items within the borders of the country. These policies and methods are going to be different from the procedures used by the postal services within the United States, France, or Italy.

The same idea applies for computer networks which from here on in we refer to as just networks. Devices within a network need to be able to forward data to each other and to do this as seamlessly as possible they have to adhere to and operate with the same set of rules, these rules are called protocols.

There are many protocols, each one defining a different set of rules and procedures. For example, when you connect your laptop to a wireless network, it must communicate with the access-point to be able to authenticate. This authentication process is covered by a protocol that outlines explicitly how that authentication process works. When a firewall receives data, protocols within the firewall determine how the data is handled whether the data is permitted to enter or leave the network.

In the early days of networking, various vendors developed their property protocols to operate on their own devices. In the early days of networking, there was no standardisation between vendors. The lack of cross-vendor standardisation meant the possibility that two computers from separate vendors would not be able to exchange information with one another as they spoke in different protocols. Figure: 1.1 shows two computers from two different vendors. Computer 1 speaks Italian, and computer 2 speaks English

Figure 1-1  Language Mismatch

Computer 2 does not understand the data which computer 1 is transmitting.

The solution to this problem in the early days was to use an intermediary which translated from one language to another see Figure 1:2. The language translator was called a protocol converter. Having to employ protocol converters in a network just meant more devices, more expense and more complications. It was common for the translators not to translate every message from one protocol to another since some protocols had rules which another protocol did not understand.

Figure 1-2 Translating languages

Protocol Stacks

In late 1970;s an organisation called the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) took it upon themselves to create an open, standardized, vendor-neutral set of rules that they hoped vendors would adopt for their computers and other networked devices.

The set of protocols which the ISO created would work together just like a factory production line where one protocol would perform one task then pass the data to the next protocol which would achieve its designated task. The protocols which the ISO created were linked together into a protocol stack (Stack of Protocols) and called this protocol stack the Open Systems Interconnection Model or just OSI model.

Figure 1:3 shows the OSI model made up of seven layers. Each layer supports specific protocols in the same way that say a car production line has specific workstations which are responsible for fitting the wheels, the gearbox, engine and any other cars parts.

Figure 1-3 OSI Protocol model

The purpose of having a layered protocol stack like the OSI model is that if a protocol within say layer 3 needs to be modified then only the protocol within layer 3 is modified without needing to change how any of the protocols within any of the other layers perform their functions.

To labour the car assembly line analogy a little further, say the worker at the workstation responsible for fitting the wheels has always fitted the rear wheels before the front wheels to the car is told by the manager of the assembly line to reverse the process. So, now the worker fits the front wheels before the rear wheels. Changing the order of how the wheels are fitted has no impact on the neighboring workstation, which is responsible for adding say the seats or doors. The adjacent workstations do not care how the wheels were fitted provided the wheels are present on the car when it rolls to their workstation.

Having a layered protocol model makes it easier to change the protocols within each layer and fault find a networking issue becomes easier too since different devices perform functions based on separate layers. Switches generally perform their tasks at layer 2; routers work at layer 3 and firewalls from layer 2 up to layer 7. Each layer communicates with the layer above and below, and the rules within each layer determine how the data is exchanged between the layers. How the data is exchanged or passed between the layers is referred to as adjacent layer interaction.

Whilst the people at the ISO were busy putting together the OSI protocol model another protocol model was being developed under the umbrella of the U.S Department of Defense (DOD) with the assistance of various universities and other organisations. The model which they developed is called the TCP/IP protocol model and is the protocol model used to this day in all networked devices.

In the early days, some vendors supported both the OSI and TCP/IP protocol models on their devices, whereas some supported only the TCP/IP protocol model. Over time the TCP/IP protocol model won out over the OSI model for various reasons. Still, the interesting part about the battle of the protocol models is that we are still expected to know about the OSI model and the functions of each of the layers even though the OSI model is not used in networks today

TCP/IP protocol model

The TCP/IP model is now the de-facto protocol model used in most if not all networking devices. You must have a solid understanding of what occurs within each of the layers of the TCP/IP model as you go through all the tutorials and hands-on lab work in this manual. For now, we are going to cover the basics of the essential layers.

The TCP/IP protocol model, as shown in Figure 1:4, has layers like the OSI model but fewer of them. In the past, a network engineers role was focused on layers 1 to 4. However, the application layer has become more relevant to network engineers as security devices such as firewalls and intrusion prevention systems (IPS) become more sophisticated.

Figure 1-4 TCP/IP Protocol model

TCP/IP Application Layer

The application layer is the software bridge between a program like a web browser, email client or any other networked program on your computer. The application layer allows a user application to send and receive data with other networked devices such as web servers, email servers to name a but a few networked resources.

.

Figure 1-5  User applications and their corresponding protocols

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is used by web browsers to communicate with web servers; when you open a web browser and enter a website name in the search bar, the HTTP protocol requests a copy of the webpage from the webserver. In the initial communication from the web browser to the server, the web browser sends a well-known HTTP message called GET as in GET for me this information.

Figure 1-6 Web browser and web server

The HTTP server would reply with the data requested with an HTTP OK message. HTTP supports various types of messages some of them you may have even seen such as the HTTP 404 not found code or the 400 Bad Request code. In short protocols like HTTP, SMTP, FTP are protocols which speak the specific language that programs like web browsers, email clients and file transfer programs use.

Figure 1-7 HTTP client and server transaction

TCP/IP – Transport Layer

The transport layer provides services to the application layer. Although there are dozens and dozens of application layer protocols, there are only two main protocols which reside at layer 4 that are of interest to us now. These two protocols are:

1. Transmission Control Protocol – TCP

2. User Datagram Protocol – UDP

Although TCP and UDP are both covered in Chapter 24: Network Protocols and Services, we are going to cover the most relevant details about TCP and UDP.

TCP - Transmission Control Protocol

Error Recovery in TCP

Each layer of the TCP/IP protocol stack provides services to the layer above, one of the services which are provided by TCP to the application layer is error recovery.

Figure 1-8  TCP error recovery

Figure 1:8 shows the webserver sending data to the web client, where each piece of data we shall refer to as a segment. Each segment has a sequence number. The sequence numbers in this example start at 1001 and increment by one for each segment of data sent. In Figure 1:8, the segment with the sequence number of 1002 is lost somewhere in the network. Maybe the data was corrupted, or more likely a router dropped the data in the network due to congestion. In the example, the TCP protocol on the web client the notices that it has received segment 1001, 1003 but not 1002. At this point TCP on the web client sends a message to the webserver asking it to resend the missing segment of data. TCP supports error recovery by asking the transmitting server to resend any missing segments.

Flow Control in TCP

If a TCP segment is lost the TCP protocol can ask the sender to slow down the rate at which it is sending the segments.

Figure 1-9 TCP flow control

Modern networks are generally quite reliable and losing data due to corruption is not as common as losing data due to congestion on the network.

Figure 1-10  Tail dropping packets when queue fill

Every router interface has a small amount of memory allocated to store data before it is sent out of the interface. The interface memory is used when the network is busy, and the router is receiving more data than it can transmit. Once the transmission rate of the outbound interface becomes busy, the router starts placing the data into the interface memory. This concept is called "Queuing" and is covered in Chapter 33: Quality of Service

The interface memory can only queue a small amount of data. Once the memory is full, any subsequent data is dropped. Dropping data leads to gaps in the data stream. Therefore, when the receiving client notices gaps in the data stream it sends a message to the sender asking it to slow down its sending rate, With the sender slowing down, the network can start to recover from the congestion. All the features of TCP are carried out without any user intervention.

TCP supports the ability to change the rate that it receives data to prevent lost data.

Reliability in TCP

A feature which makes TCP stand out from UDP (UDP is another Layer 4 protocol) is that it can acknowledge the receipt of data. As you study networking protocols, you will hear the term reliable being used. The term reliable means that a protocol can say thank you when receiving data. The ability to acknowledge makes TCP especially useful when sending and receiving essential data such as banking details, file transfers, web browsing, sending of emails. Everyone wants their data to be sent and received without errors and reliably. TCP is used for most non-real-time data communications today.

Figure 1-11  TCP support reliability with acknowledgements

UDP - User Datagram Protocol

If TCP supports such great features like error-detection, data recovery, flow control and reliability where does UDP fit into the picture and what does it offer that TCP does not? Figure 1:12 shows a stream of data going from one IP Phone to another. Each segment is carrying a small amount of voice data, and all the segments combined make up a voice call. The example below shows the segment that is carrying the words Bob, how is dropped due to congestion.

Figure 1-12  Voice packets which are dropped are not recovered

In this scenario, would it be a good idea for the dropped segment to be resent? The answer is no. During a real-time voice call, the traffic has to the delivered in a strict order, and dropped segments are therefore never recovered. Suppose the network is congested in which lots of segments are dropped, and the speech becomes unintelligible. In that case, it is down to the human receiver on the call to ask the human transmitter on the other end to retransmit, slow down or acknowledge receipt of the information. All the functions which are present in TCP are now the responsibility of the humans.

TCP/IP – Network Layer

Internet Protocol - IP

This layer provides two critical services which are:

1. Logical addressing.

2. Routing of packets

As mentioned above, the application layer supports dozens of protocols each one supporting one user application, with the transport layer supporting fewer protocols, the two most widely used being TCP and UDP. The network layer supports a few protocols, but the main one is called Internet Protocol (IP). The name TCP/IP was chosen for this protocol stack based on the two most popular protocols of their respective layers (UDP is quite common, and more so recently with the growing use of IP Telephony)

If you were to compare IP to a real-world network, then the postal system would be the most exact comparison

Imagine when writing a series of letters, each letter was a continuation of the previous letter. Each letter would contain all the data from the user at the application layer, and TCP would apply its information, including sequence numbers. The letter would then be placed in an envelope. The envelope would have the destination address applied, so the postal service has the information they need to move the envelope across their network to the intended recipient.

Figure 1-13 IP provides addressing to forward traffic

IP provides the same services as the address on the envelope in our example. IP at the network layer takes the data from either TCP or UDP places it inside an envelope called a packet.

The packet contains the logical addresses that are assigned to devices such as PCs, printers, routers on a network. These logical addresses are called IPv4 or IPv6 addresses.

An IP address is logical rather than physical because the logical address changes as devices are moved from one network to another. For example, when you take your smartphone or laptop to a public wireless network, it is assigned an IP address so that it may function on that network. When you return home, your device is assigned a new IP address by your home ISP (Internet Service Provider) router. The logical IP address of a device changes when it is moved from one network to another network.

IP Routing

Like the postal system, networks like the internet are comprised of routers that need to know how to deliver packets from their source to their destination.

Figure 1:14 shows two clients; each client is connected to the internet that is represented by the cloud.

Figure 1-14 Typical routed network topology

Note: Networks which fall outside of our influence like the internet are generally shown as clouds in network diagrams.

Figure 1:14 shows two clients connected to a network. When a client wants to send data to a web server, it is the responsibility of the routers in the cloud to forward the data across the network.

The job of the routers is to exchange knowledge about which networks they can reach.

For the routers which make up the public internet to be able to carry traffic from one part of a network to another, they must learn where about these networks reside. To this end, routers support routing protocols which help exchange information between the routers.

The purpose of the routing protocol on a router is to tell neighboring routers that they know how to deliver packets to specific networks, and the purpose of the router is to move IP packets. Figure 1:15. shows the process:

1. R4 (Router4) advertising knowledge of 30.30.30.30 to both R1 and R3 (Router1 and Router3)

2. R1 advertising that it knows how to reach 30.30.30.30 to R2

3. R2 advertising that it knows how to reach 30.30.30.30 to R5 and R3

4. R3 advertising that it knows how to reach 30.30.30.30 to R6

Figure 1-15  Routers exchange network information.

Once all the routers have exchanged information, they are ready to route any packet they receive that has the destination address of 30.30.30.30.

Each router keeps a local copy of the information that they have learnt in memory in a table called the routing table. When a router must decide on how to route a packet, it consults its local routing table. If there is an entry, the packet is routed accordingly. If there is no entry, the router discards the packet.

The routing protocols help the router to build their routing tables by continually providing information about new network addresses or any changes to existing network address entries.

The routing protocols provide information