Welcome to the Improved CCNA Blog
For the last seven years, I’ve kept two blogs about CCNA content: The CCENT blog and CCNA blog. Keeping two blogs has had pros and cons, but I’ve always wondered if one blog would be better. Now’s the time! We’ve revamped the blogs into a single blog:
All CCNA Content Together! We merged the content from both blogs into the new CCNA blog.
New URL: www.certskills.com
Separate Per-Book Book Menus! The new blog menu begins with a multilevel menu for each book (ICND1 and ICND2.)
QA and Hands-on Menus Merged The Hands-on and QA menus now show all types of blog posts from both original blogs.
Resubscription May be Required If you had subscribed before, and don’t see subscription notices, just re-subscribe from any page in the blog.
I hope this new organization works well for you!
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Latest Series: Cert Guide Packet Tracer Labs
One way to practice commands is to re-create the scenarios used in the Official Cert Guides, and Packet Tracer can work well to re-create the lab topology and configuration. This new series shows how as well as providing Packet Tracer files and tips on the more challenging examples from the books.
Recent Posts
Config Lab: BIG VLAN & STP Lab 1
This lab is different. Instead of a focused lab about one main topic, this one covers several: VLANs, VLAN trunks, Spanning Tree, and EtherChannel. And most CCNA folks will take more than the usual 10-15 minutes to complete the lab from start to finish. So, instead of it being a “Config Lab”, maybe it’s a […]
CML Free Edition: Migrating the Config Labs
Over the years, I’ve created a bundle of about 75 lab exercises here at the blog, called Config Labs. The idea is to read the web page for the lab, then do the lab, and then check your answers on that same web page. You can do the lab on paper, or with Cisco Packet […]
Choose Subnet Masks 1
This post presents questions that ask you to analyze design data about a network and then choose the one subnet mask to use for all subnets. If a company uses one subnet mask for all subnets of one classful network, before deploying the first subnet, you can predict the number of subnets and the number […]
How to Study CCNA V1.1 without the V1.1 Books
Cisco plans to release start testing based on the CCNA 200-301 Version 1.1 blueprint starting August 20, 2024, replacing the former V1.0 blueprint. Yes, we have new books out mid-year 2024 that cover all the new exam topics. But as I have done for over a decade now, when Cisco revises the CCNA exam, I […]
Be Aware – Changing Blog Categories to Match 2024 Editions
Hi all you regular blog users, I’m sure you know we released new CCNA Official Cert Guides in mid-year 2024. Those books impact this blog because the blog organizes its content to match the book. So… it’s time to change the blog! Over the next week or so, I’ll update references to the blog categories […]
Analyze Existing Subnet Masks 4
This post asks you to analyze the choice of subnet mask in a network. If a company uses one subnet mask for all subnets of one classful network, you can analyze the address structure as three parts: Network, Subnet, and Host. Then, you can calculate the number of subnets possible with these design choices. You […]