Intro How to Use This Book · CCNA

The book is organised into seven parts. Parts I to VI map one-to-one to the six domains of the CCNA exam blueprint, and the opening page of each part tells you how much of the exam that domain is worth. Part VII contains a full-length practice exam, an eight-week study plan, exam-day strategy and three appendices you will return to in the final weeks. Every chapter follows the same pattern so you always know where to look:

Exam topics covered lists the blueprint items the chapter teaches.

Diagrams show topologies, packet formats and processes. Study them until you can redraw them from memory.

Terminal figures show what the commands look like on a real device. Highlighted fields are the ones the exam expects you to read.

Configuration blocks show the exact commands to type. Bold lines are typed by you; grey italic lines are comments.

Exam alerts, tips and warnings flag the details that most often decide a question. Labs give you a topology, step-by-step configuration and verification. Build every one in Cisco Packet Tracer or Cisco Modeling Labs.

Chapter review closes each chapter with key terms and exam-style questions, followed by explained answers.

The three habits that pass the ccna

Practise subnetting for ten minutes every day until any question takes under thirty seconds. Type every configuration yourself instead of reading it. Review every wrong practice answer until you can explain why each option is right or wrong.

Icons used in the diagrams
Router Switch
L3
L3 switch Firewall Access point

Wlc

WLC Controller

PC Laptop Server IP phone Hub WAN / Internet Blocked link

Figure 0-1 Diagram icons used throughout this book.

Contents

Part i · network fundamentals

1. Introduction to Networking and the CCNA Exam 7
2. The OSI and TCP/IP Models 22
3. Ethernet LANs, Cabling and Interfaces 35
4. Ethernet Switching and the Cisco IOS CLI 50
5. TCP, UDP and Application Protocols 65
6. IPv4 Addressing 80
7. IPv4 Subnetting 94
8. VLSM, Summarization and Subnet Design 115
9. IPv6 Addressing 128
10. Wireless LAN Fundamentals 147
11. Network Architectures, Cloud and Virtualization 161

Part ii · network access

12. VLANs and Trunking 177
13. Inter-VLAN Routing 195
14. CDP and LLDP 208
15. Spanning Tree Protocol 220
16. Rapid STP and Spanning Tree Features 240
17. EtherChannel 255
18. Wireless Architectures and WLC Configuration 268

Part iii · ip connectivity

19. Routing Fundamentals and the Routing Table 284
20. IPv4 and IPv6 Static Routing 300
21. OSPF Concepts 314
22. OSPF Configuration and Troubleshooting 330
23. First Hop Redundancy Protocols 349

Part iv · ip services

24. Network Address Translation 360
25. DHCP, DNS and NTP 373
26. SNMP, Syslog, SSH and File Transfer 388
27. Quality of Service 402

Part v · security fundamentals

28. Security Concepts, Threats, AAA and VPNs 417
29. Securing Network Devices 434
30. Access Control Lists 447
31. Layer 2 Security: Port Security, DHCP Snooping and DAI 463
32. Wireless Security 478

Part vi · automation and programmability

33. Network Automation, SDN and Controllers 491
34. REST APIs, JSON, Configuration Management and AI 507

Part vii · final preparation

35. Practice Exam, Study Plan and Exam-Day Strategy 525

Appendix A: IOS Command Reference 552
Appendix B: Subnetting Drills (100 Problems) 566
Appendix C: Glossary 577