Welcome to the exciting world of Cisco certification! If you’ve picked up this book because you want to improve yourself and your life with a better, more satisfying, and secure job, you’ve done the right thing. Whether you’re striving to enter the thriving, dynamic IT sector or seeking to enhance your skill set and advance your position within it, being Cisco certified can seriously stack the odds in your favor to help you attain your goals!

Cisco certifications are powerful instruments of success that also markedly improve your grasp of all things internetworking. If you’re considering studying for the ICND1 Exam 100-105, this book complements the CCENT ICND1 Study Guide: Exam 100-105, Third Edition. For more information, visit http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1119288789.html.

Although it’s now common knowledge that Cisco rules routing and switching, the fact that it also rocks the voice, data center, and service provider worlds is also well-recognized. And Cisco certifications reach way beyond the popular but less extensive certifications like those offered by CompTIA and Microsoft to equip you with indispensable insight into today’s vastly complex networking realm. Essentially, by deciding to become Cisco certified, you’re proudly announcing that you want to become an unrivaled networking expert—a goal that this book will get you well on your way to achieving. Congratulations in advance on the beginning of your brilliant future!

What Does This Book Cover?

You will learn the following concepts in this book:

Chapter 1: Introduction to TCP/IP This chapter provides you with the background necessary for success on the exam as well as in the real world with a thorough presentation of TCP/IP. This in-depth chapter covers the very beginnings of the Internet Protocol stack and goes all the way to IP addressing and understanding the difference between a network address and a broadcast address before finally ending with network troubleshooting.

Chapter 2: Easy Subnetting You’ll actually be able to subnet a network in your head after reading this chapter if you really want to! And you’ll find plenty of help in this chapter as long as you don’t skip the written labs and review questions at the end.

Chapter 3: VLSMs, Summarization, and Troubleshooting TCP/IP Here, you’ll find out all about variable length subnet masks (VLSMs) and how to design a network using VLSMs. This chapter will finish with summarization techniques and configurations. As with Chapter 2, plenty of help is there for you if you don’t skip the written lab and review questions.

After reading the book, I can’t stress this point enough, however: It’s critical that you have some hands-on experience with Cisco routers.

If you can get a hold of some basic routers and switches, you’re set. However, if you can’t, I highly recommend you read CCENT ICND1 Study Guide: Exam 100-105, Third Edition (visit http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1119288789.html for more information) or, for more in-depth coverage, read CCNA Routing and Switching Complete Study Guide: Exam 100-105, Exam 200-105, and Exam 200-125, Second Edition. Visit http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1119288282.html for more information.

I’ve worked hard to provide hundreds of configuration examples in both books to help network administrators, or people who want to become network administrators, learn the skills they need to pass the CCENT and CCNA R/S exams.