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Cisco CCNA – Advanced Switching, by Chris Bryant covers important details of Cisco switches that every network professional needs to be familiar with. Switching is a huge topic on the CCNA exam and a very important part of your Cisco training.
Learn about STP, STP timers and port states, root bridges, root ports, designated ports and portfast. Other topics covered include VTP, VLANs, trunking as well as access and trunk port comparison. And let’s not forget about the classic “Router on a Stick” and important topics such as RSTP, PVST and Etherchannels.
In this introductory video, Chris talks about everything he covers in this video series and what you need to know for your CCNA exam.
Part 1 also covers the Spanning Tree Protocol, how it works and how STP prevents switching loops from occurring.
Chris discusses how data gets from point A to point B, how paths are calculated and the possible points of failure.
The root bridge is also explained along with the root bridge’s BID.
Runtime: 18 min
In part 2 Chris walks you through two different examples of STP to show you how this protocol works in action.
The first example shows two switches connected with two separate crossover cables. How STP decides the optimum path between the switches, how the other path is prevented, port priorities and other related topics are discussed.
The second example involves three switches that are fully meshed. Chris takes a closer look at each switches’ individual behavior and explains how this situation gets resolved.
Runtime: 19 min
This video continues with the STP examples presented in Part 2 but with a little twist — what would happen if the link speeds were different?
Chris then goes over some common port speeds and their associated STP port costs. He also explains why the physically shortest path is not always the logically shortest one and why keeping port costs is so important.
Next Chris discusses STP timers as well as when and how to adjust them. He also explains the STP interface states and ends with a short discussion of what happens if you turn STP off.
Runtime: 16 min
Part 4 starts off with a review of delays that occur and how to avoid them with portfast. Chris goes over the possible issues that come with portfast and how to avoid switching loops when using portfast.
Chris then delves into VLANs and discusses them in much detail covering switch resources, broadcast propagation and broadcast storms.
Illustrating VLANs with diagrams and examples, Chris shows how to troubleshoot possible issues and gives an introduction to Cisco Discovery Protocol.
Runtime: 16 min
This video starts off where Part 4 left off; the topic is VLANs and Chris continues with more examples.
After briefly introducing “router on a stick” Chris talks about layer 3 switches which, although not covered on the CCNA exam, are becoming very popular. Learn about the common uses of VLANs and how to logically segment switches in VLANs.
The next big topic is trunking, which is an important part of the CCNA exam. Chris defines the term and gets right into the details of how this process works with VLAN traffic. He also talks about trunking protocols and trunk port settings.
Runtime: 22 min
Part 6 begins with information on VLAN Trunking (VTP) which is an important part of your CCNA exam.
Chris talks about the three different VTP modes, showing you how to set them up and explaining in detail how each of them works. He then goes into troubleshooting VTP and the important VTP basics.
Other topics that are covered include VTP configuration revision, VTP password command and VTP secure mode. Lastly, Chris illustrated how VTP Pruning works, when to use it and how to verify it.
Runtime: 18 min
A discussion of “router on a stick” starts off this video, as Chris explains and illustrates this very detailed configuration.
Chris shows you how to verify VLAN memberships, how the encapsulation command works and what you should pay attention to before starting on this command. Next you learn how to verify and make sure that all is in order.
By explaining the theory first and showing you the actual commands on his router Chris goes over everything you need to know about “router on a stick” for your CCNA exam and beyond.
Runtime: 18 min
Chris starts this video by testing configurations that were put into place in the previous parts.
Get a quick review of what has to happen on the router, the switch and hosts for “router on a stick” to work correctly.
Chris also shows you some examples of common misconfigurations and shows you a structured approach to troubleshooting “router on a stick.”
Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol is the next topic that Chris touches on showing you the similarities and differences between STP and RSTP.
Runtime: 22 min
This video continues with a discussion of RSTP, Edge and PTP ports and RSTP topology changes.
Chris goes into some major differences between STP and RSTP, comparing the two side by side.
Before moving on to etherchannels, Chris briefly mentions PVST and what you need to know about it for your CCNA exam.
The series ends with a bonus section where Chris shows you how to work with the interface range command and root command, which are both extremely common in the real world.
Runtime: 21 min
