Soooo….

I have to study for the CCNA exam. OK, let me rephrase this. I need to finish studying for the CCNA exam and actually take the fucking thing. Problem is, A. The books are dry as a dark red wine, II. it is getting into the summer / Pennsic season and I am constantly distracted and finally 3. I have been studying for over a year on and off and I don’t feel like I am getting anywhere.

The problem is that I have some mental blocks that I have been having a hard time getting over. Mostly, trying to find a way that I can learn the stuff and actually retain it. Reading it over and over isn’t working and boring the shit out of me.

So, I took a break and re-grouped. I cleared my head and didn’t think about it for awhile. Then I started thinking of alternative ways to approach this. I started quite a few different methods and this is the “next” one. But I think it will be successful as I have always written in “stream-of-consciousness”. So for me to be able to write a blog about something, I need to research it. Then, when I think I got a handle on it. I just put my head down and go for it.

The second aspect of this, is that I knew I needed to start breaking this down into smaller chunks instead of addressing it as a whole. So I decided I would write blogs on each chapter and even break down chapters if I need to if I feel that the topics warranted it.

Also, I remembered when dicking around with my website that I have this blog space that I have not been using. This made for a good “ready-made” environment for this project.

Add to this that as much as we all hated writing papers when we were in school, it did force us to actually learn the topic enough to fill however many pages the teacher was asking for us to fulfill.

Finally, if I am lucky, I will actually make it a little more exciting to learn. I plan to post links onto Facebook so for the sick minded who want to take this trip with me, more power to ya.

(Honestly, I don’t think anyone would read it. But you never know)

I will say that I probably know the stuff better than I think I do. But I just am not feeling strong enough yet to get this done. So I am doing literally every fucking thing I can think of to get this shit in my brain and correct.

And if you are reading this (run away!! run away!!) you might learn something too! So here we go!

Chapter 1 Book 1 – Intro to computer networking AKA the boring shit that is probably not on the test and isn’t going to do shit for ya!

So the books are broken into 2 books representing to parts of the test (ICDN1 and ICDN2). They are big, they are heavy and they are so dry you cough when you open them.

Seriously, if you have insomnia, I will loan you one and within the first chapter you will be out cold.

Now it starts out with a brief history and then some stupid analogy of the “Flintstones Network”. i.e. Fred’s daughter Pebbles creates the first network.

This is to explain the basis for networking. I think one of the few actual terms that you get is SOHO (Small Office / Home Office) networking.

But they cover at least the concept of connecting computers together, the use of hubs, trunks and a bizarre example of a MAC address (Media Access Control).

Now there’s a term. Media Access Control. One of the things you learn immediately with networking is that every motherfucking thing in networking is abbreviated. Media Access Control Address is no exception. Part manufacturer identifier and part unique ID, this is probably one of the most foundational aspects of LAN (Local Area Network) configuration. AKA Layer 2. But more on that mind fuck later.

But it did cover hubs. A concept that doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out. A box you can plug a bunch of computers together with is the jist.

It also covered trunks. The idea of sending one physical line to a location and breaking it out instead of running a bunch of individual lines. Then finally using a number to identify each computer on the network and translating that number to a name (an early poke and DNS? I think so)

And that’s about it. Next time, an actual meat and potatoes chapter…”The TCP/IP and OSI Networking Models”