The CCNA certification exam is surrounded by many myths and mysteries that are maybe the result of the information overload and excessive literature, books and opinions out there. In this post I will try to dispel some of these myths and answer some questions that many people have about the test.

1. Is there a specific order for the questions and simulations?
There is no set order. While the test questions are classified according to objective areas, the order of the questions in the exam itself is random. The questions are not grouped in any way. This same principle applies to the simulations. A simulation can be both the first and the last test question. No one knows in advance the order in which they occur.

2. Are actual test questions available somewhere?
Cisco does not publish the certification exam questions. Different companies and websites offer practice exam certification questions. When evaluating these products take into account that besides the degree of accuracy of the questions, the certification test database is periodically updated by Cisco.

3. Do the questions change according to the answers entered?
No. This is one of the myths I mentioned earlier. Cisco exams are not interactive. When starting your certification exam, the system has already assigned a set of questions from the pool that make up the specific test.

4. What influence does the marketing survey have in the test?
The survey does not affect anything in the test content. This is another myth. The survey before the test is purely for statistical purposes.

5. What are the important objectives/topics for the exam?
All topics and exam objectives are important. There are no major or minor topics. A single question can be the difference between passing or not, so you cannot set aside any topics as minor. However, there are some exam topics requiring more attention than others since the development of the test usually includes several questions about them. These topics are:
* Subneting.
* Switching.
* VLANs.
* Routing protocols, OSPF and EIGRP.
* Configuration Commands.
* WAN Technologies, particularly frame relay.

6. How many simulations are in each test?
In a typical test of 55 questions there are usually:
* 3 to 6 questions in drag & drop mode.
* 1 to 3 simulations. From all simulations, there are usually 1 or 2 requiring actual router or switch configuration.

The rest will be multiple choice questions.

The simulations focus on the evaluation of 2 basic skills:

* Device configuration skills
* Problem-solving skills

7. What exam objectives/topics include simulations?
The topics that include simulations are all listed in the certification exam objectives as “set”, “diagnose”, “resolve failed.”

Some exam types included in the exam are:

- Configuration Exercises:
They range from simple tasks such as setting passwords on a device, to more complex tasks such as configuring default routes or routing protocols, access lists and NAT.

- Exercises for fixing problems and faults:
Include diagnosis of problems of allocating IP addresses (address or subnet mask wrong), incomplete configurations, problems with static or dynamic routing, configuration errors in the serial link protocols and authentication protocols.

8. Does the IOS help command (question mark) work in the simulations?
Yes, the Cisco IOS context-sensitive help (the question mark ?) works fine in the simulations. It is possible that at some Testing Centers in the world the question mark does not operate or could be difficult to find due to the Windows keyboard settings.

9. Does a wrong answer counts as negative point from the total score?
No. A wrong answered question or simulation does not detract from the score obtained so far. Each question is assigned a specific score. If the question is answered correctly, the score for this question is added to the score obtained so far. If you answer wrong, it simply does not add any points. The final rating of the exam is the accumulation of the question scores for correctly answered questions.

10. Does the certification exam change?
Yes. There are 2 types of changes that affect the Cisco Career Certification exams.

A. Changes of the objectives that are evaluated in each certification exam. That is, the content that is necessary to study for the exam is under periodic modification. These are major changes and result in a version change in the exam. These changes occur every 3 or more years. Until the version of the exam is changed, content to be studied is the same.

B. Amendments relating to all questions that comprise the certification exam question database. This database is partially modified in relatively short periods of time, in the order of 6 months. This does not include a change in objectives, but simply a renewal of questions. The content necessary to study in order to pass the certification exam is not influenced.

11. Is there any way of knowing what questions were answered incorrectly?
At the end of the exam, the Testing Center delivers the exam score. This is the only detailed reference that has the results of the certification exam. The exam score is a breakdown of target areas that have had success in their responses. For example, configuring and troubleshooting VLANs in switches with 80%. There is no greater detail than this.

12. How do I need to prepare to get certified?
There are many ways to prepare for the CCNA certification exam. The minimum necessary in my opinion is:
* Having a good book guide to prepare for the certification exam. In my view the official Cisco Press CCNA Official Exam Certification Library is a good choice.
* Use a good simulator to work the practical aspects of the examination. At this point the official Cisco Packet Tracer is an excellent tool but you have to be a student of the Cisco Networking Academy to get this tool.
*Another all-in-one CCNA Training option is the Trainsignal CCNA Video Training package which includes all necessary preparation to pass the exam with confidence.

13. What should I do to recertify?
The CCNA Recertification options are numerous and when the time comes to recertify it is always recommended to review the official information on the Cisco website (http://www.cisco.com/go/ccna). However, the recertification is a good opportunity to advance your personal list of certifications. In this regard:

A. The simplest option is to take a CCNA Concentration exam. CCNA Concentrations are certifications in specialized areas of networking such as CCNA Security, CCNA Voice and CCNA Wireless. This allows growth in certifications and incorporates additional knowledge in specific areas such as security, unified communications or wireless. A single test can extend your CCNA certification for 3 more years.

B. A more complex option is to approach the professional level. CCNP Routing & Switching is an option. In the case of pursuing a CCNP certification (which consists of several exams) you should know that passing a single exam in the CCNP level will automatically recertify your CCNA exam, but you must complete all Professional level exams within the period of 3 years from passing the first exam.

We are slowly approaching the implementation of IPv6 in a mass scale and thus we must be ready to learn some significant differences over IPv4. Also, some IP addressing terms will start to appear with increasing frequency in our day to day work. So let’s see some notable concepts that you need to know about IPv6.

– IPv6 addresses are 128 bits long and are expressed in hexadecimal numbers.

– IPv4 addresses are 32 bits long and are represented as four octets separated by periods. Each octet of the address is represented in decimal, taking a possible value between 0 and 255.
Example: 192.168.1.1

–  IPv6 addresses are 128 bits long and are expressed in hexadecimal numbers. Every four hexadecimal characters are separated by a colon.
Example: 2001:75b: a12c: 6: c0: a8: 1:1

– IPv6 uses different IP address types. One of those types is the link local address that configures itself at every interface that has enabled the IPv6 protocol. The local link interface addresses always begin with FE80.

– Similarly, multicast addresses always start with FF0x (the x represents a hexadecimal digit letter between 1 and 8).

– Zeros at the beginning of each portion of the address may be deleted. IPv6 addresses are expressed as 32 hexadecimal digits separated into 8 groups of 4 digits separated by a colon. When one of these 8 groups of digits begins with zero, it can be eliminated.

For example:
FE80: CD00: 0000: 0CDE: 1234: 0000: 5678: 0009

If we delete the zeros at the beginning of each section the address becomes:
FE80: CD00: 0: CDE: 1234: 0: 5678: 9

–  When there are zeros in several positions, they may also be deleted.
We often find addresses that have multiple sections of zero. These sections can also be suppressed to a single zero.

For example:
FE80: CD00: 0000:0000:0000:0000:0010:0127

In this scenario we can eliminate consecutive groups of zeros and also suppress leading zeros in some groups. Thus, the address becomes:
FE80: CD00 :: 10:127

The double colon expression :: tells the operating system that everything between them are all zeros.

You must be careful because you can delete an entire section only when fully made up with zeros. Also remember that the double colon expression :: can be used only once in each IP address representation.

– There is only one loopback address. IPv4 has reserved the entire network 127.0.0.0 / 8 (it is customary to use address 127.0.0.1) as the loopback address to point to the local machine.

In IPv6 there is also a loopback address, but in this case is only one and represented with :: 1

Or to put it in the conventional way (full format):
0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001

– No subnet mask is needed.
In IPv4, each port is identified by an IP address and subnet mask.
In IPv6 you can also implement subnets but this is not necessary. Of the total of 128 bits that make up an address, the first 48 identify the network prefix, the next 16 are the subnet ID, and the last 64 are the interface identifier. Since 16 bits are reserved for the local portion of subnets, in an IPv6 network it is possible to generate 65536 subnets.

– DNS service is also available in IPv6.
In IPv4 DNS service uses the A records to map IP addresses to names. In IPv6 AAAA records are used (also called Quad A). The domain ip6.arpa is used for reverse name resolution.

– IPv6 addresses can connect over IPv4 networks.
The design of IPv6 allows multiple forms of transition, enabling the development of IPv6 networks even when the route must pass through IPv4 networks. These transitional forms use tunneling over IPv4 networks. The two most popular technologies for this are Teredo and 6to4.The basic idea is that IPv6 packets are encapsulated within IPv4 packets to traverse these networks.

– Many vendors are already able to use IPv6.
Microsoft operating systems from Windows Vista and Windows 7 have IPv6 installed by default together with IPv4 (also can be installed on Windows XP, but is not there by default).
Also, Unix and Linux operating systems support IPv6 for years.
Regarding network vendors, Cisco IOS supports IPv6 many years ago, but it is not enabled by default and needs to be explicitly enabled with the command “ipv6 unicast routing”.

– Windows support for IPv6 has some peculiarities.
When a client wants to address a specific port, for example, an IP Address and Port number in Internet Explorer is separated by a colon:

http://172.16.100.1:8543

In IPv6, as the colon is part of the description of the IP address, the IP and Port separation is done using square brackets:

http:// [FE80: CD00: 0: CDE: 1234:0:2567:9AB]: 8543

This format is not supported on Windows machines because when you use colons this is interpreted as referencing an internal drive in the computer.

To solve this problem, Microsoft has established a special domain for the IPv6 address representation in Windows machines. In this way, if you reference an IPv6 address using Universal Naming Convention, the digits must be separated by dashes instead of colons and at the end of the address you must add the domain name “ipv6-literal.net”.

An example, instead of:
http:// [FE80: CD00: 0: CDE: 1234:0:2567:9AB]

You should use:
http://FE80-CD00-0-CDE-1234-0-2567-9AB.ipv6-literal.net

For a CCNA certification exam you must be prepared to answer questions about three important networking concepts, Unicast, Broadcast and Multicast. Even if these terms can be pretty confusing at the beginning, they are actually not that complicated. Learn how to keep them straight, along with other vital CCNA exam information.

At the beginning of your CCNA preparation studies, you will encounter some networking terminology that sounds alike between them. You will hear all the time the terms unicast, broadcast and multicast so we will try to explain their differences here in both Layer 2 and Layer3 levels.

Unicast:

Unicast is a packet/frame (or flow of packets/frames) that has a single destination. This is the most common kind of traffic that we see in TCP/IP networks. When for example you access a web server, this is a unicast traffic.

Broadcast:

A broadcast is a packet/frame (or flows of packets/frames) that are destined for ALL devices on the network/segment. Every bit of the destination address in the packet will be binary “1”. A broadcast IP address (in Layer 3) is 255.255.255.255. A broadcast Layer2 address is ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff. Every host on a segment will receive such a broadcast. (Keep in mind that switches will forward a broadcast, but routers do not). Broadcast traffic is used to announce something to all hosts. For example, ARP (address resolution protocol) uses a broadcast address to propagate.

Multicast:

Multicast is the middle ground between unicast and broadcast. Multicast traffic is destined to a “group” of hosts, called “multicast group”. Hosts register into a multicast group in order to receive the traffic which is destined to that group. Multicast is used in Video over IP communication for example. For your CCNA studies you need only keep certain multicast groups in mind. Class D addresses are reserved for multicasting this range is 224.0.0.0 – 239.255.255.255. The addresses 224.0.0.0 – 224.255.255.255 are reserved for use by network protocols on a local network segment, and like broadcasts, routers will not forward these multicast packets. Some other examples of multicast traffic include OSPF hello packets (which are sent to multicast address 224.0.0.5), EIGRP updates sent to 224.0.0.10, and RIP version 2 uses 224.0.0.9 to send routing updates.