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Passed CCNA Intro exam

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comptek

Technical User
Nov 8, 2002
102
US
Man,
I just passed the CCNA intro exam. It took me 2 times to pass it. I took it last year and failed. Yesterday I conqured the 1st half yesterday. I used the Sybex book by Todd Lammle 4th edition, and I the study guide from the bryant advantage. To test what I learned I used Testking v89 just to see where I was at. No I did not rely on the Testking. (I do not want to be a paper ccna). This 2nd time around I focused more on the configuring rip and subnetting and focused less on the basics thinking that I new enough. Boy was I wrong. I mean the majority of the questions that I had had me look at the subnets so I cant say that my focus was way off.

I ran into problems with how addresses were handled when a pc communicates with the web. Think the ping example in the Sybex book. I did look at that a while back thinking "They wont ask that". I was dead wrong. Study it know it.
I did get a weird question regarding how a router would load the IOS. The situation said that the IOS file was corrupt on the router, there was no network connection, and backup was gone. How will the IOS get handled. I first thought go to tftp but there was no network connection, one of the options was go into setup mode, fo to flash and "not go further until the IOS is loaded." And that was what I chose. Has anyone seen this?
Another wierd one that I got was there was a pic of a router and 3 switches all connected together. There was also a pc below the router with a dotted line going to the router. The question that was asked was "How are these devices connected. it was a multiple choice question. The options were v.35 cable, rollover cable, straight through, x over cable. I chose rollover (thinking they were talking about the pc to the router), straight for the router to switch and x over for the switch to switch.

Some of the sims would not allow you to use sh run and they wanted me to find the broadcast address of a subnet. I finally found out what command to use. I was racking my brain for about 5 minutes until I figured it out.
Anyways I passed and I am happy. I am taking a short break then going to go straight to work for the ICND.
Does anyone have any tips for the ICND? Is there alot of overlap between the Intro and ICND?

Have a good one guys!! I am almost there.

Comptek
A+, Network+
 
comptek,

Good job !!

As for your questions - routers load IOS from FLASH (they actually peek at NVRAM 1st for "boot" commands) then look for - Network/TFTP then look for - ROM/ROMON

If it was the config file then "setup" would have been correct but from what you put - I do not like any of the answers but I think you took best of the bad!

As for the cable question - they must have been pointing to one of the cables - the dotted line from PC to the Router is the console cable but it is also called a roll over cable or I have seen some call it a "null modem cable"

I am surprised about the sims because in 3 Cisco exams with sims I have taken all 3 the sim worked exactly like a real router - some "help" stuff was greyed out but it all worked.

As for the next test - read and reread the Sybex book - for the 2nd test it is very hard to ask a question that does not require you to under a concept from the 1st test - so the overlap is mostly in underlying concepts!

One of our students did the 2 test thing - passed the 1st - 1st time but the 2nd he passed on the third attempt.

Go to Cisco and check the objectives of the 2nd test and then learn it - do not take too much time off - stuff is fresh in your head.

Hope this helps!



E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +
 
CiscoGuy33,

I agree with what you said about setup mode, but it would go into setup mode if the startup config was not there correct?
Now that I think about it the question specifically said that the router reloaded and that the IOS would not load. Along with no network connectivity, and flash. I never seen that scenerio in the books and I wanted to say that the router would look at TFTP which what the router should do but then how can that happen if there was no network connection? Oh well, I guess the whole this is that I passed.
The cable question - I too thought they were talking about just the pc to the router which would have made the rollover and xover cables correct but there was 4 options (x over, roll, v.35, and straight through) and the question wanted me to select 3.

Thanks for your responses, and I will definately be reviewing the Sybex book again.

Comptek
A+, Network+
 
comptek,
On the cable question - best 3 answers -

Router to switch - straight through
Switch to switch - cross over
Switch to PC - straight through
PC to Router (dotted line) - rollover

v.35 cable would be used for router to router serial connection.

On the 1st one since it said IOS - it would not be "setup" hmmmm - I like to see the question - could be one that Cisco was "testing" - they will sometimes add 1-2 question that do not count to see how people do on them for whatever reason.

Good luck on 2nd test and ask all the question you want!



E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +
 
comptek,

What was the passing score on your 640-821 Intro test? Good job. Also, anyone know the passing on the 640-811 ICND test?
 
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