Posts tagged “Switches”
How to connect your iMac to your cisco router
I used to have a very old pentium II laptop that I saved because it was my only computer that had a serial port that I could use to connect to my Cisco router via a console cable. Well, a few months ago I got rid of my old laptop and now I only have [...]
What you need to know about VLAN Trunks for the CCNA Exam
Understanding how VLAN Trunks work is essential to you passing the CCNA Exam. In this post I’m going to talk about VLAN Encapsulation with 802.1Q, and all the details about the VLAN Trunking Protocol VTP.
Trunks are needed in switching networks with VLANs in order for hosts within different VLANs to still communicate with each other. When you create a VLAN you are supposed to maintain a 1 to 1 ratio with the number of subnets you have. Which means if you have 4 VLANs you should also have 4 subnets. Since each VLAN is in a different subnet they are in different networks and for devices in different networks to communicate with one another a Layer 3 device such as a router is needed. Interfaces on switches by default can only be assigned to one VLAN at a time. So, in order for you to send data about 4 different VLANs configured on a switch to a router you need to configure an interface to be a trunk link. Trunk links are able to send data for many different VLANs at one time. In order to keep them from getting mixed up they tag the switch frame.
What you need to know about VLANs for the CCNA Exam
VLANs are another important topic on the CCNA Exam that you will need to become very familiar with. VLAN stands for Virtual Local Area Network which means that you can now segment a LAN logically at the Layer 2 level rather than physically based on geographic location.
Benefits of VLANs
Having this capacity to logically break up network segments VLANs provide many benefits. They are able to break up broadcast domains, keep network failures from affecting the entire network, increase security, and reduce administrative overhead.
The Spanning Tree Protocol Explained
My last post talked about many details of the Spanning Tree Protocol. While I did my best to explain how it works using carefully selected words, sometimes videos are just better.
Introduction to the Spanning Tree Protocol
I’m currently studying for my CCNP SWITCH exam. Which is obviously all about switches, but mostly builds upon the foundation of the ICND2 and CCNA exam about switches and the Spanning Tree Protocol. So, if you are planning on getting your CCNP definitley make sure you pay attention to STP (Spanning Tree Protocol for short), you will need to know a lot about it.