CCST Networking Certification Prep Course

Explore the tcp/ip model as the de facto standard for network communications, with five layers—hardware bottom and software top—and key protocols from ip to http and dns.

Explore the physical layer of the tcp/ip model, focusing on cabling, wifi, and signaling between devices, and learn how ethernet converts data into a serial binary bit stream for transmission.

Explore physical layer media types such as 1000 base T copper, 1000 base SE fiber, and 2.11 AC wireless, and examine DSL copper and Ethernet Wan handoffs in provider networks.

Explore the data link layer as the network interface, covering Ethernet and wireless access, MAC addressing, encapsulation, and network contention in LAN and WAN contexts.

Trace how HTTP data is built from application data through TCP, IP, and Ethernet. See how the physical layer serializes frames and how each layer strips its PDU on arrival.

discover how the data link layer stacks protocols across ethernet, wireless (802.11ac mimo), multimode fiber 1000base-sx, and wan links (dsl, ppp, serial framing) for router-to-router and cloud connectivity.

Explore the network layer's role in IP addressing and routing using routers and multilayer switches, with routing protocols, ICMP messaging, and next-hop routing decisions.

Explore how network layer logical addressing uses subnets, VLANs, and routing to reach devices across multilayer switches and routers, with private RFC 1918 addresses and NAT to public space.

Explore the transport layer host connection, including stateful TCP with flow control, congestion control, and loss recovery, and stateless UDP, both using sockets for end-to-end client-server communication.

Explore transport layer choices: tcp's connection oriented, stateful design with flow and congestion control, ordered data and retransmission, versus udp's connectionless, best-effort datagram approach.

Explore how the TCP/IP network stack addresses and encapsulates data across the network. Trace how MAC addresses, IP addresses, and TCP/UDP sockets define the payload path.

Explore the application layer as the top of the stack, enabling interprocess communication and host-to-host data exchanges through http, dns, tls, cookies, session IDs, and api-to-api interactions.

Explore the tcp/ip stack from application to physical, with https tls on port 443, http on 80, and ssh on 22, plus dns queries over udp 53.

Explore the TCP/IP protocol map across physical, data link, network, transport, and application layers, detailing devices, addressing, and protocols from Ethernet to Quic.

See a wireshark trace of a browser request to webapp.com across a simple topology, capturing the physical, ethernet, ipv4, tcp, and http layers from the get request to port 80.

Investigate web application performance by breaking down network latency into propagation, transmission, device processing, queuing, and protocol delays. Learn how last-mile media and testing methods reveal bottlenecks beyond bandwidth.

Explore the difference between bandwidth and throughput, and how latency, packet size, and half duplex shape practical data transfer and network performance.

Configure an ftp server by creating a ccna admin user with read, write, delete, rename, and list permissions, then connect, list files, and transfer files using get and put.

Learn to set up a TFTP server to back up the EOS image and startup configuration, and to copy files for upgrades using show flash and copy commands.

Sftp provides in-transit encryption for secure file transfer using ssh. It uses a single tcp port 22, supports password or public/private key authentication, and enables remote file management.

Explain classful addressing and default subnet masks, showing how class a, b, and c ranges define networks and hosts with examples like 192.168.1.0/24. Demonstrate how routers route between subnets.

Explore how to use an IPv4 subnet calculator to verify subnet plans, determine /23 and /27 masks, hosts, subnets, and broadcast addresses for class b networks.

Enable IPv6 unicast routing on both routers and configure Fa0/1 with a link-local address generated by the interface's mac address (EUI-64); verify the subnet adjacency with show ipv6 interface brief.

Configure global unicast IPv6 addresses on all routers, enable unicast routing, and assign static global addresses. Demonstrate link-local generation via EUI-64 and verify connectivity with pings.

Enable IPv6 auto configuration on a router interface to advertise the subnet to hosts via router advertisements. Hosts obtain a link-local address and a global unicast address with routing enabled.

Configure DHCP and DNS services in Packet Tracer, create a CNA pool with gateway and start IP, enable DHCP relay on R4, and verify name resolution with A records.

Learn to use nslookup to query DNS records, verify that the DNS resolver is operational, and inspect A records, MX records, and NS records, including cache and TTL behavior.

Perform DNS troubleshooting in a two-subnet lab by configuring tcp/ip, pinging the DNS server to verify connectivity, and using nslookup to confirm resolution of web server.com before loading the page.

Learn the difference between layer two switches and routers: VLAN-based segmentation with per-VLAN MAC tables and broadcasts, versus layer three routing between subnets and layer three switches as aggregation.

Understand Cisco physical device ports and link lights, diagnose duplex or speed mismatches on layer two links, and identify copper and fiber data ports with console, USB, and WAN management.

Wire a data rack from hosts to the data center rack, using copper cabling to patch panels and layer two and layer three switches, with fiber to the router.

Configure power over Ethernet on Cisco switches, assign data vlan nine and voice vlan ten for IP phones, enable PoE on the port range, and verify with show power inline.

Understand how frame switching uses MAC addresses and VLANs to forward Ethernet frames within a data center. Distinguish access switches (layer 2) from multilayer switches handling routing between VLANs.

Create data, server, and wireless VLANs on a Cisco switch to form broadcast domains and boost performance. Verify configurations with show commands and save the running config.

Compare consolidating servers in a single vlan versus separating them into multiple vlans, and explain how multilayer switches route between vlans and subnets while trunks carry vlan traffic.

Learn how a multilayer data center switch builds its mac address table by running show mac address table and triggering arp exchanges via pings to three servers.

Trace a switch port by finding server's Mac address and prompting the switch to populate its Mac address table with a ping. Identify the dynamic port FastEthernet0/1 in VLAN 100.

Explain how a default gateway connects a local subnet to remote networks, with VLANs and layer three switches providing separate gateways for each subnet and enabling intersubnet routing.

Explore how routing occurs across multilayer switches and routers, with layer two and layer three concepts, per-hop lookups, and MAC address rewrites guiding IP packets to the next hop.

Configure an autonomous wireless access point with an SSID and WPA2-PSK (AES) security on a 2.4 GHz network. Verify connectivity via ping.

Learn how network addressing uses attributes: source ip address, destination ip address, source mac address, and destination mac address to deliver data from a host to an http server.

Configure a password on the console port to secure physical switch access. The lecture covers line con 0, the login password, local login, and show run.

Explore the Cisco command line interface, moving from user exec to privileged exec mode, configuring interfaces, and using question marks and tab autocomplete to access commands and security levels 0–15.

Configure vty lines for telnet and ssh, set passwords and login, and apply a five-minute exec timeout; test connectivity by telnetting from a host to each router.

Configure ssh securely on a router by enabling password encryption, setting a local user, configuring a domain name, generating an rsa key, and restricting vty access to ssh only.

Explore host tables on Windows and Linux, including ARP, routing, and DNS cache. Learn how the default gateway and default route enable connectivity to local and remote subnets.

Explore ipconfig for Windows and ifconfig for Linux to view TCP/IP parameters, including IP address, subnet mask, gateway, and DNS settings. Learn DHCP troubleshooting and DNS records.

Master netstat to inspect current sockets, local and foreign addresses, and process IDs on Windows and Linux, revealing TCP connections, ephemeral ports, and how to test ports with telnet.

Display the local DNS cache and see how hostnames resolve to IP addresses. Flush the cache, display DNS entries, and ping to verify A records for IPv6 and IPv4.

Troubleshoot a network connectivity problem using ping and ipconfig, verify gateway and switch interfaces, test end-to-end reachability, and re-enable a down web server interface to restore connectivity.

Trace the host-to-server path with traceroute (tracert on windows), view per-hop addresses and the default gateway, and note how UDP-based Cisco traceroute compares to ICMP tracert and OSPF cost.

Use show ip interface brief to verify interface operational status across a basic topology, including hosts, a layer two switch, a wan core, and loopback management for troubleshooting.

Explore how arp resolves next-hop mac addresses, auto populates arp tables, and updates mac and ip addresses across routers and layer three switches during traffic.

Read a routing table to identify next-hop addresses and exit interfaces. See how OSPF and connected routes choose the most direct path across subnets and VLANs.

Explore how a layer 2 switch builds a dynamic mac address table by observing traffic, mapping host and server mac addresses to vlans and ports, and updating on return traffic.

Learn how to use show cdp neighbors, a Cisco proprietary protocol enabled by default on most devices except firewalls, to discover directly connected neighbors and troubleshoot layer 2 connectivity.

Explore how the show version command reveals iOS X versioning, licensing, uptime, and hardware details on the ESR 4300, including universal K9 licensing and system image data.

Inspect a router interface with show interface to view physical and data link status, address details, and speed settings, then monitor five-minute input and output rates for troubleshooting.

Learn how the show interface status command analyzes switch ports, VLAN membership, duplex, speed, and auto negotiation on layer 2 and layer 3 switches, with hands-on troubleshooting.

Verify Cisco privilege levels from 0 to 15, including unconfigured devices at 15 and user exec at 1; learn to set enable levels with enable and config t.

Configure and enable secret password on Cisco devices using MD5 encryption, demonstrating why enable secret replaces enable password in production networks and why no service password encryption is used.

Configure local authentication on a Cisco router by creating an admin account (privilege 15) with password CCNa labs, enabling login local on vty and console, and enabling service password encryption.

Review data center physical security and its link to logical security, detailing access methods from building entry to rack and console authentication using cards, biometrics, and pins.

Explore security zones from inside private networks to public interfaces and dmzs, using acLs, firewalls, and network address translation, with authentication and authorization securing server access.

Learn how a firewall in the forwarding path can affect ping and traceroute, and how enabling ICMP through a Cisco firewall lets you verify connectivity up to the application layer.

Configure a Tacacs server to centralize device credentials, enabling authentication and authorization for router access, with a backup local admin account and aaa on vty and console lines.