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If you’re looking at an alternative to Cisco certifications, or looking at expanding your horizons like all good networkers should. You should check out the Juniper fast track program, and take up some of the discounted offers on Juniper Certifications for the Enterprise tracks, especially if you have exposure to Juniper equipment.

http://www.juniper.net/training/fasttrack/

I’ll be looking at boosting my own Juniper knowledge once I get this CCIE lab out of the way. There’s also no shortage of reference material out there on the net. Again something to look into if you are wanting to get an edge career wise.

Cisco has launched their very own support wiki page found here. It’s full of how to’s and all things that should stop you from scratching your head when trying to remember how to configure a few things.

Clearly this will not be available during the CCIE Lab exams :p, so for us potentials we still need to get used to the DocCD setup… for now at least.

Ok hopefully this is true with what’s to be implemented with the Computer Based exams. I don’t think many people out there are impressed, when someone posts their perfect exam score and the fact it only took them 5 minutes to complete a 50 question based exam.

Let’s also hope that questions on the exams are also more to the point regarding the technology and knowledge required for the certification, rather than vague, full of double negatives like some certification questions.

Cisco and Pearson VUE Launch Global Test Delivery Exam Security Enhancements

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Looks like you’ll need to be going to Chicago if you’re looking at doing this one.

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Cisco has announced the training path for the CCNA Wireless certification:

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Some of us may have a few IPv6 references, however if they’ve been around for longer than say 2006, especially some books, then some of the specific ranges, and some ‘addressing layers’ have become obsolete, and you might not be aware. IPv6 is still in a state of flux with addresses formatting.

Specific IPv6 current address ranges of note that are still current:

Link Local Range

• ::/128 – An unspecified address for software use only.
• ::1/128 – localhost loopback address (IPv4 equivalent 127.0.0.1).
• fe80::/10 – link local addresses to be used between hosts on the same link, IPv6 services, and routing protocols will be making use of this, instead of 224.0.0.0/24 with a TTL of 1). Also will replace the IPv4 LinkLocal/ZeroConf range of 169.0.0.0

Site Local Range

• fc00::/7 – Unique Local addressing, not routable in the global address space. Used for private IPv6 and VPNs

Multicast Range

• ff00::/8 – Range for Multicast traffic.

IPv4 Usage/Tunneling Transport Range

• ::ffff:0:0/96 – used to map IPv4 addresses within the IPv6 routing table
• 2001:0000::/32 - used for Host to Host/Teredo Tunneling, encapsulating IPv6 packets within IPv4 UDP datagrams. Usefull for when traversing infrastructure where IPv6 support may not exist.
  
• 2002::/16 – Used for 6 to 4 tunneling methods, usually each IPv6 network will be attached with atleast one IPv4 network.

Documentation Range

• 2001:db8::/32 – This range is was reserved specifically for the use within documentation examples.

Deprecated/Abandoned Ranges

• ::/96 – zero prefix used for IPv4 compatibility
• fec0::/10 – Site local prefixed intended to replace private address ranges in IPv4, has been replaced with fc00::/7 Unique Local Address range

Implementing IPv6 Addressing and Basic Connectivity

While easy to work out via the ‘?’ in the Switch’s CLI. A quick table to remember the required modes to Establish Etherchannel between two switches.

For more information on configuration and configuration modes vist the configuration guide on the doccd for the 3560 here.

EtherChannel On Mode

EtherChannel on mode can be used to manually configure an EtherChannel. The on mode forces a port to join an EtherChannel without negotiations. The on mode can be useful if the remote device does not support PAgP or LACP. In the on mode, a usable EtherChannel exists only when the switches at both ends of the link are configured in the on mode.

Ports that are configured in the on mode in the same channel group must have compatible port characteristics, such as speed and duplex. Ports that are not compatible are suspended, even though they are configured in the on mode.

Port Aggregation Protocol

The Port Aggregation Protocol (PAgP) is a Cisco-proprietary protocol that can be run only on Cisco switches and on those switches licensed by vendors to support PAgP. PAgP facilitates the automatic creation of EtherChannels by exchanging PAgP packets between Ethernet ports.

By using PAgP, the switch learns the identity of partners capable of supporting PAgP and the capabilities of each port. It then dynamically groups similarly configured ports into a single logical link (channel or aggregate port). Similarly configured ports are grouped based on hardware, administrative, and port parameter constraints. For example, PAgP groups the ports with the same speed, duplex mode, native VLAN, VLAN range, and trunking status and type. After grouping the links into an EtherChannel, PAgP adds the group to the spanning tree as a single switch port.

Link Aggregation Control Protocol

The LACP is defined in IEEE 802.3ad and enables Cisco switches to manage Ethernet channels between switches that conform to the IEEE 802.3ad protocol. LACP facilitates the automatic creation of EtherChannels by exchanging LACP packets between Ethernet ports.

By using LACP, the switch learns the identity of partners capable of supporting LACP and the capabilities of each port. It then dynamically groups similarly configured ports into a single logical link (channel or aggregate port). Similarly configured ports are grouped based on hardware, administrative, and port parameter constraints. For example, LACP groups the ports with the same speed, duplex mode, native VLAN, VLAN range, and trunking status and type. After grouping the links into an EtherChannel, LACP adds the group to the spanning tree as a single switch port.

Some Multicast addresses of worth to try and remember, by no means a complete list!

Local Network Control Block:
224.0.0.1 All Systems on this Subnet [RFC1112][JBP]
224.0.0.2 All Routers on this Subnet [JBP]
224.0.0.4 DVMRP Routers [RFC1075][JBP]
224.0.0.5 OSPFIGP OSPFIGP All Routers [RFC2328][JXM1]
224.0.0.6 OSPFIGP OSPFIGP Designated Routers [RFC2328][JXM1]
224.0.0.9 RIP2 Routers [RFC1723][GSM11]
224.0.0.10 IGRP Routers [Farinacci] <<<<< EIGRP aswell.
224.0.0.11 Mobile-Agents [Bill Simpson]
224.0.0.12 DHCP Server / Relay Agent [RFC1884]
224.0.0.13 All PIM Routers [Farinacci]
224.0.0.14 RSVP-ENCAPSULATION [Braden]
224.0.0.15 all-cbt-routers [Ballardie] <<<<<<< Core Base Trees
224.0.0.18 VRRP [RFC3768]
224.0.0.19 IPAllL1ISs [Przygienda] <<<<<<< IS-IS Level 1
224.0.0.20 IPAllL2ISs [Przygienda] <<<<<<< IS-IS Level 2
224.0.0.21 IPAllIntermediate Systems [Przygienda] <<<<<<< IS-IS All
224.0.0.22 IGMP [Deering]
224.0.0.23 GLOBECAST-ID [Scannell]
224.0.0.24 OSPFIGP-TE [RFC4973]
224.0.0.25 router-to-switch [Wu] <<<<<<<<< RGMP
224.0.0.37-224.0.0.68 zeroconfaddr (renew 12/02) [Guttman]
224.0.0.101 cisco-nhap [Bakke]
224.0.0.102 HSRP [Wilson]

Internetwork Control Block:
224.0.1.1 NTP Network Time Protocol [RFC1119][DLM1]
224.0.1.21 DVMRP on MOSPF [John Moy]
224.0.1.39 cisco-rp-announce [Farinacci] <<<<<<< Auto RP
224.0.1.40 cisco-rp-discovery [Farinacci] <<<<<<< Auto RP

The complete list can be found here IANA Multicast Addresses

This has been doing the rounds on the internet for the last few days, however, incase you haven’t read about it.

Report: IT admin locks up San Francisco’s network

IT administrator pleads not guilty to network tampering

Personally I’m surprised that no diagramming/documentation was demanded during the beginning of the network’s development.

If you have a network relating site, either technology or certification based (CCxA, CCxP, CCIE, Junpier or anything) and would like to be added, just leave a comment.