Learn Cisco Network Administration in a Month of Lunches

Summary

Learn Cisco Network Administration in a Month of Lunches is a tutorial designed for beginners who want to learn how to administer Cisco switches and routers. Just set aside one hour a day (lunchtime would be perfect) for a month, and you'll start learning practical Cisco Network administration skills faster than you ever thought possible.

Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.

About the Technology

Cisco's ultrareliable routers and switches are the backbone of millions of networks, but "set and forget" is not an acceptable attitude. Fortunately, you don't have to be an old-time administrator to set up and maintain a Cisco-based network. With a handful of techniques, a little practice, and this book, you can keep your system in top shape.

About the Book

Learn Cisco Network Administration in a Month of Lunches is designed for occasional and full-time network administrators using Cisco hardware. In 22 bite-sized lessons, you'll learn practical techniques for setting up a Cisco network and making sure that it never fails. Real-world labs start with configuring your first switch and guide you through essential commands, protocols, dynamic routing tricks, and more.

What's Inside

Understand your Cisco network, including the difference between routers and switches

Configure VLANs and VLAN trunks

Secure your network

Connect and configure routers and switches

Establish good maintenance habits

About the Reader

This book is written for readers with no previous experience with Cisco networking.

About the Author

Ben Piper is an IT consultant who holds numerous Cisco, Citrix, and Microsoft certifications including the Cisco CCNA and CCNP. He has created many video courses on networking, Cisco CCNP certification, Puppet, and Windows Server Administration.

Table of Contents

Before you begin

What is a Cisco network?

A crash course on Cisco's Internetwork Operating System

Managing switch ports

Securing ports by using the Port Security feature

Managing virtual LANs (VLANs)

Breaking the VLAN barrier by using switched virtual interfaces

IP address assignment by using Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

Securing the network by using IP access control lists

Connecting switches using trunk links

Automatically configuring VLANs using the VLAN Trunking Protocol

Protecting against bridging loops by using the Spanning Tree Protocol

Optimizing network performance by using port channels

Making the network scalable by connecting routers and switches together

Manually directing traffic using the IP routing table

A dynamic routing protocols crash course

Tracking down devices

Securing Cisco devices

Facilitating troubleshooting using logging and debugging

Recovering from disaster

Performance and health checklist

Next steps