The Linsanity of Super Lintendo

Valentine Cupcakes by Nora, Bliss & Co. in Calgary

While most people were eating Valentine cupcakes, my very lucky sister in law was at the big Raptors and Knicks game at the Air Canada Center! I haven't seen Jeremy Lin play basketball, I don't know what he looks like, but he is all over my friends' facebook posts.

"So tonight, all the good little Asian boys and girls will put down their violins, close the piano covers, postpone Calculus club and put away their Chinese/Korean school homework. Bubble tea shops will be empty from east to west, and even Battle.net will be silent and barren. They will quiver with excitement over their bowls of rice as they turn on the TV.  And for what?  A basketball game. Yes, this is Linsanity." quote from buddy Thomas, about the you-know-who.

Linsanity Game on Valentines Day

There's already a Wikipedia article written about him, throngs of asian girls and boys are drawn to him because he is the guy who made it big on the NBA from out of nowhere (well Harvard actually), he's smart, friendly, fairly tall for an asian guy, and is a Christian. I use the term asian because he's actually an American born Taiwanese, meaning his ancestors are from Taiwan and not China (very much different).

Day in the Life: Jeremy Lin.  (Sneakers all in a row? Now that's hot).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLzrLXQIbwM

Anyways I really should go back to studying for the CCNA, practising piano, violin, playing Nintendo or whatever good asian kids are supposed to do.

Test Tips for CCNA, Simulators and a bullet-proof Guarantee!

1. Manage your time

The number one hint I have to give everyone: the CCNA Exam is a test of power and speed, you have to know your material solid and answer the questions quickly. The prof said that the number one reason for failure on the exam is not lack of preparation (I could argue with that) but rather, running out of time! You have remember to ask yourself, "Is this your final answer?" because once you click "yes" or "submit", there is no back button, you cannot go back!

2. Core Knowledge

Videos for ICND1 and ICND2 free on the Cisco Learning Network.

Here is a breakdown of the core areas the exam was testing, taken from my real score sheet in November 2011. I am not breaking any oaths or sharing any secrets about the exam.

• Describe how a network works
• Configure, verify, troubleshoot a switch with VLANs and interswitch communications
• Implement an IP addressing scheme and IP services to meet network requirements in a medium-size Enterprise branch office network
• Configure, verify, and troubleshoot basic router operation and routing on Cisco devices
• Explain and select the appropriate administrative tasks required for WLAN
• Identify security threats to a network and describe general methods to mitigate those threats
• Implement, verify and troubleshoot NAT and ACLs in a medium-size Enterprise branch office network
• Implement and verify WAN links

I copied this from my report card, but I'm not sure if it was an adaptive exam and only selected knowledge areas were tested on, or if I wrote the same test again it would be a similar bank of questions. You may not retake the exam within the same week. Passing score is 825 out of 1000.

A good collection of resources at www.cisco.com/go/ccna-study

3. Hands On Experience

Apparently the original purpose of CCNA was to certify someone already with the job experience as a Network Administrator, who has spent years on the job doing this. In fact Cisco never offered Bootcamp courses and it was the training delivery vendors that developed their own courses to cover relevant subjects, in preparation for the CCNA Exam.  Now it seems like everyone is taking the boot camp courses: the newbies, managers, purchasers.  The courses often come with extra lab time on the router simulation lab, but it is better to have your own equipment. Unfortunately not many people have access to a test lab or one with enough routers to generate any trouble to troubleshoot!

Packet Tracer is another program folks use for router simulation.  My buddy recommends http://www.gns3.net/ and it's free, if you have your own IOS images then you're set.

4. Read the Fine Print

Rather I should say, read between the lines. For multiple choice questions, there will always be an obvious oddball answer, and perhaps one or two that are very close but there is something that makes one answer more correct or superior.Unless of course the question was, choose two then you should make sure you choose two.

If you're really pressed for time, well you still have to give an answer for every question. Make a guess, pick C or ACDC whatever random pattern you have to resort to in a bind.

5. Get it Right the First time...

However, heaven forbid if you should fall short of 825/ 1000, read the fine print on the vendor's exam guarantee. I took my bootcamp course with the Global Knowledge and I'd have to say their certification guarantee is bullet proof. Upon course completion you get one CCNA exam voucher and 10 hours of lab time with KAPLAN. If you have fail the exam, fax in the fail results and ask for a voucher for the retake exam (within one year of the course date). If you fail the second round, perhaps you should reconsider your career choice. JK! Global Knowledge offers a free retake of the course (provide your own course materials from the first run). Then I suppose the brave could do the exam a third time. Just remember you will have to recertifiy again in three years anyway.

Cisco ICND1 Flashcard: OSI Layer Model and PDU's

Pick up any CCNA Exam Preparation Guide. There are plenty enough books or chapters and webpages dedicated to the topic of OSI Layer Model of Internetworking. I'm just providing a short summary of notes to remember. It's guaranteed that there will be questions of the 7 Layer OSI model, the Cisco three layer, model, and even the DoD's model and how all the layers interrelate.

Physical Topology - Defines how the computer and networking devices are connected (physical)
Logical Topology - Describes the path the signals travel from one path to another (routing, tunnels: layer 2 for ipsec, layer 4 for ssl)

ESSENTIAL FACTS
* Each layer of the OSI model is only interested in communicating with its peer later at the destination.
* Each layer provides services to the layer above it.
* Encapsulation: as application data parses down the protocol stack to transmit across network media, each layer adds a header or trailer (containing addressing information).
* OSI model uses structure, forms a good reference model, permits change at one layer without affecting the other layers

Cisco Hierarchical Three Layer Model
Access - provides work group access for end users, desktop layer
Distribution - routing protocols and security, includes LAN based routers and layer 3 switches, enables routing between VLANs
Core - high speed and redundancy, provides high speed data transfer between sites

TCP/IP Stack - 4 Layers
Application - Application, Presentation, Session
Transport - Transport
Internet - Network
Network Access - Data Link, Physical

CCNA Illustrated OSI Layer Graphics

OSI Model - 7 Layers
* Including some quick notes on the pdu, addressing used
Application - data
Presentation - data
Session - data
Transport - segment, port number
Network - packet, ip address
Data-Link - frame, mac address
Physical - bits

Application Issues: Application, Presentation, Session
Data Transport, Implementation details: Transport, Network, Data-Link, Physical
Therefore, the de-encapsulation first occurs at the Transport leve.
Application Layer
* Authentication
* Examples: email, file transfer, terminal emulation

Presentation Layer
* Data representation, such as the format or structure of data (say jpeg, wav etc)
* Negotiates data transfer, syntax
* Provides encryption
* http, ssh operates at this layer
* It's safe to say, it makes sure that information sent at the application layer of one system is readable by the application layer of the other.

Session Layer
* Client - server connection
* Inter host communication
* Establish, manage, terminate sessions between applications. Such as the Shopping Cart?
* Web server, data exchange
* Examples: NFS, SQL, Netbios

Transport Layer
* Establishes end to end connections between hosts
* TCP and UDP ports
* The source port in the UDP Header and TCP Header is a 16 bit calling port.
* Reliability and flow control (windowing)
* Establish, maintain, terminates virtual circuits

Network Layer
* Primarily deals with data delivery
* Routes data packets
* Selects the best path to deliver data
* Provides local addressing and path selection
* Manages connectivity
* IP addresses to route packets

The Ethernet source and destination address is a 6-byte hex
Data Link Layer
* MAC address
* Error detection
* Does Encapsulation Frame Relay or PPP ring a bell?
* The most diverse

Physical Layer
* Examples: Copper, wireless, satellite, fiber
* 1, 0 bits transmitted by electrical pulse, electrons, light
* Think Cabling

CCNA Illustrated OSI Layer Model Graphics Blog

Video Games in Military Training

I really should be studying for the CCNA Exam or building my test network to complete some router configurations. Perhaps I could find a good router simulation software, though nothing beats having to set up all the wiring and cabling by hand. Nonetheless, are there software packages for soldiers to do military training in a simulated environment, such as video games?

Source: Friend's Facebook post

I stumbled upon an article debating whether a gamers make good soldiers. I've seen world class flight simulator programs made by the Canadian firm CAE. Reading on, I also discovered the Army's Engagement Skills Trainer (EST) to simulate the sound and feel of the different firearms used on the job for target practise. Well what happened to the firing ranges? I guess this makes an environmentally sound alternative without spent casings to clean up. The EST also provides possible scenarios to help soldiers make life changing decisions on when to shoot and when not to shoot. There was another simulator software called the Virtual Convoy Operations Trainer (VCOT) and DARWARS Ambush seems to be a big hit. DARWARS allows users to add or modify scenarios with their own learned experience.

Here's the link because it was such a page turner: http://science.howstuffworks.com/gamer-soldier2.htm

Now goes the question, if I played my daily dose of Wii golf, would that train me to be a world class golfer. Well I'd really have to say no because you need to feel the true weight of an expensive golf club, you'd have to feel the action and reaction of hitting a real ball, and experience real wind and air flow to influence the true path of the ball. There's no way to get that from a game.

In the same way, just studying for this exam on paper won't do.  We don't want a CCNA "paper cert". Time to solve some real world router problems!