What Certification Should You Pursue After The CCNA ?

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

Once you've got your CCNA, you're ready to move on to the next level, the Professional certifications. For years, Cisco had one Professional certification, the Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) certification. Over time, Cisco has expanded this level of certifications to include the Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP) and Cisco Certified Voice Professional (CCVP).
With security [...]

Cisco CCNP / BSCI Tutorial: The BGP Attribute NEXT_HOP

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

When you're studying for the BSCI exam on the way to earning your CCNP certification, you've got to master the use of BGP attributes. These attributes allow you to manipulate the path or paths that BGP will use to reach a given destination when multiple paths to that destination exist.
In this free BGP tutorial, we're [...]

Cisco CCNP / BSCI Exam Tutorial: The BGP Attribute MED

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

Your BSCI exam and CCNP certification success depend on mastering BGP, and a big part of that is knowing how and when to use the many BGP attributes. And for those of you with an eye on the CCIE, believe me - you've got to know BGP attributes like the back of your hand. One [...]

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Certification: Introduction To BGP Attributes

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

BGP is one of the most complex topics you'll study when pursuing your CCNP, if not the most complex. I know from personal experience that when I was earning my CCNP, BGP is the topic that gave me the most trouble at first. One thing I keep reminding today's CCNP candidates about, though, is that [...]

Cisco CCNP / BSCI Exam Tutorial: Introduction To Policy Routing

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

Policy routing is a major topic on your BSCI exam, and you'll find quite a bit of policy routing going on in today's production networks. But what exactly is policy routing?
Policy-based routing, generally referred to as "policy routing", is the use of route maps to determine the path a packet will take to get [...]

Cisco CCNP / BSCI Exam Tutorial: Filtering BGP Updates With Prefix Lists

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

A major part of your BSCI and CCNP exam success is mastering BGP, and that includes filtering BGP routing updates. In this tutorial, we'll take a look at how to filter BGP updates with prefix lists.
R4 is advertising three networks via BGP. The downstream router R3 sees these routes and places them into its [...]

Cisco CCNP / BSCI Exam Tutorial: BGP Adjacency States

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

To pass the BSCI exam, earn your CCNP certification, and become an outstanding networker, you've got to master the many details of BGP - and trust me, there are a lot of details to master! Before you get into the more advanced features of BGP, you should have the fundamentals down cold, and one of [...]

Cisco CCNP / BSCI Certification: Troubleshooting Route Redistribution, Part I

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

If there's one CCNP / BSCI topic that looks so easy but can lead to a real headache, it's route redistribution. I'm not even talking about the routing loops and suboptimal routing that can result when route redistribution is done without proper planning - I'm talking about the basic commands themselves. Leaving [...]

Cisco CCNP / BSCI Certification: The Local Preference BGP Attribute

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

When studying for your BSCI exam for the CCNP, you get your first taste of BGP. One of the major differences between BGP and the other protocols you've studied to date is that BGP uses attributes to describe paths, and to influence the selection of one path over the other.
In this free tutorial, we're [...]

Cisco CCNP / BSCI Certification: The BGP Attribute “MED”

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

When you're preparing to pass the BSCI exam and earn your CCNP certification, one of the biggest challenges is learning BGP. BGP is totally different from any protocol you learned to earn your CCNA certification, and one of the differences is that BGP uses path attributes to favor one path over another when multiple [...]