CCNA 2020 - CCNA 200-301 exam - a complete guide - Cisco

Create a network definition as two or more devices linked together to exchange information. Recognize icons and devices like routers, switches, PCs, and the RJ 45 port for wired connections.

Explore network types: personal area, local area, and wide area networks—and see how switches and routers connect devices like Bluetooth headset, mobile phone, printers, servers, and computers to the internet.

Understand how routers and switches connect devices and route traffic in home networks and WANs. Compare hubs and switches, and learn how MAC addresses enable direct delivery and better security.

Deploy edge firewalls and, if needed, a UTM device to protect local networks. Use stand-alone or wireless LAN controller–managed access points, and leverage Cisco DNA automation for centralized provisioning.

Identify a network device through a visual challenge, recognizing routers, switches, and access points, and distinguishing firewalls such as Cisco asa 5505 from building switches.

Discover what an IP address is and how it identifies a network device. Verify IPs with ipconfig or ifconfig and ping, and explore default gateway, DHCP, and DNS concepts.

Explore unicast, multicast, and broadcast messaging in networks, illustrated with PC-to-PC communication, group messaging, and all-device reach, plus broadcast storms and monitoring.

Explore the three-layer network topology (access, distribution, core) and designs like star and spine leaf, assessing single points of failure and how spine leaf reduces hops for faster data flow.

Explore small office home office networks by inspecting home routers, default gateways, and cloud management, and learn security features like firewall, stateful packet inspection, and ddos protection.

Create a network diagram with Cisco icons in Visio, showing physical and logical layouts, two ISPs, and a redundant edge firewall and switch connections.

Connect to a Cisco device via a console cable and CLI, then use USB or Bluetooth adapters and a terminal emulator to configure Cisco IOS.

Navigate Cisco device modes from user to privileged and global configuration, set the hostname, configure interfaces with dhcp, enable no shutdown, and verify connectivity with show commands and ping.

Build a small office network in packet tracer using a router with gigabit ports, configure a dhcp server and pool, and set ip addresses.

Configure a router and DHCP server in packet tracer, explore simulation mode to verify connectivity with ping, and use pause and logs to debug.

Use the OSI model to describe how networks work, with seven layers that aid standardization and troubleshooting; although TCP/IP handles IP addressing, OSI remains a practical framework.

Master layers seven, six, and five—the application, presentation, and session layers—and their protocols like http, dns, and smtp; for the CCNA exam, focus remains on layers four to one.

Learn how wireshark captures packets across your network interface to diagnose issues, explore dhcp, dns, and http traffic, and interpret osi layers to troubleshoot in real time.

Describe the transport layer concepts of tcp and udp, including reliability, connection-oriented handshakes, flow control with windowing, and typical uses like DNS, SSH, Telnet, and streaming.

Compare tcp and udp headers, highlighting tcp’s sequence numbers, acknowledgments, and windowing against udp’s simpler header. Illustrate the three-way handshake and session termination, port usage, and wireshark captures showing retransmissions.

Layer 3, the network layer, decides routes using routing tables and IP addresses, while layer 4 delivers the data. Routers use dynamic or static routes and may balance loads.

Explore how IPv4 addresses use 32 bits and four octets, and how subnet masks determine if hosts share a network, with private ranges 10, 172, 192.

Explore the data link layer, switches, mac addresses, including 48-bit identifiers, and ARP in local area networks using frames and mac address tables.

Explore the physical layer basics, cabling types, and Ethernet standards, including straight-through and crossover cables, network speeds from fast Ethernet to 100 gigabit, and roll over cables for device management.

Explore how to cable a building with patch panels and a switch. Compare copper, fiber, and coax cables, including cat five/e and cat six, and shielded versus unshielded.

Explore PoE by delivering power through network cables with PoE switches or PoE injectors to devices like IP cameras and access points, and compare af and at standards.

Explore fiber optic cables, including single mode and multimode, their high bandwidth and long-distance advantages, plus connectors and transceivers needed to connect to switches.

Challenge the OSI model with a hands-on exercise, identifying layer 1 hubs, layer 3 routing decisions, and layer 7 protocols like DNS and http while mapping each concept.

Explore how IP addresses stay constant across networks while MAC addresses are learned locally via ARP, and routers swap MACs when routing frames through a default gateway between networks.

Understand collision and broadcast domains, how switches create separate collision domains while routers segment broadcast domains, and compare collision avoidance and collision detection with full- and half-duplex networks.

Compare OSI and TCP/IP models, mapping layers, and explain encapsulation by wrapping data in successive headers from application to physical layers.

Configure a router with hostname, domain name, and IP addresses, enable password, and set up remote access via Telnet or SSH, then save the running configuration to startup config.

Configure a basic router with secure passwords, including enable secret and service password encryption. Enable telnet and ssh, create usernames with privileges, and generate rsa keys for secure remote login.

Recreate a ccna lab in packet tracer with a 2901 router and a PC, using a crossover cable, a static IP, and enabling ssh with rsa keys.

Learn to troubleshoot Cisco devices using basic show commands to verify IP addresses and interface status. Use show IP interface brief, show interfaces, and show CDP neighbors.

Explore advanced show commands for Cisco devices, identify hardware with product IDs, save show tech support output to a file, and verify interfaces, routing, and address resolution protocol.

Explore how routers use routing tables to choose paths, comparing static routes with dynamic protocols like RIP, OSPF, and BGP, and understanding metrics and administrative distance.

Learn the trade-offs of static routes, including manual control vs dynamic protocols, and configure a static route on a Cisco router using ip route with next-hop or exit interface.

Learn static routing in a two-router lab that uses loopback interfaces to simulate networks behind R1 and R2, configure addresses, verify with show ip interface brief and show ip route.

Explore the fundamentals of subnetting, including converting to binary, understanding subnet masks like /24 and 255.255.255.0, calculating increments and five subnets, and identifying network and broadcast addresses.

Learn subnetting by converting hosts to binary and adjusting the mask. Compute network ranges and increments, placing zeros from the right for hosts and ones from the left for networks.

Explore the open standard OSPF, backbone area zero, area border routers, and neighbor formation with hello messages. Learn SPF path calculation, VLSM, authentication, and triggered updates, plus redistribution with RIP.

Master OSPF concepts, including hello messages, neighbor discovery, and matching timers for rapid failure detection. Learn about the OSPF database, designated router elections, passive interfaces, and router ID via loopback.

Explore advanced OSPF features, including cost as a function of reference bandwidth and interface bandwidth, wildcard masks, and enabling OSPF on interfaces with the network command for precise subnetting.

Configure a two-router OSPF lab on R1 and R2 in packet tracer, enable OSPF with a process ID and area zero, and verify via show commands.

Configure 15 routers for ospf using a template to set hostnames, ip addresses, and loopbacks, then verify neighbors and routes with show commands.