Help Needed

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Hi Every body and thanks for letting me join your forum. I know these are going to sound like silly questions but I am pritty green to networking and I am seeking some sensible answers to the following questions: (Like I said please forgive me if these sound like stupid questions, I am on week 2 of a CCNA and have very limited network exposure and I appear to have been thrown in at the deep end)

1. I have been asked to configure a couple of switchs: passswords, vlans, etc and have been asked to ping the vlans on both switches and report back on the results. My question is (and it pains me to ask this) can I just connect both switches via a patch cable and ping that way or does there need to be a router on each switch?

2. I have also been asked to provide a "network rationale" for a network achitecture I have been asked to create. Can anyone please tell me what would be the main points I would have to mention in this "rationale"

Many thanks in advance to anyone how is willing to help

 

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First, let me welcome you to the forums, and apologize in advance if what I am about to say upsets you any. I have nothing but the best of intentions and goodwill towards you.

That said, let me point out the elephant in the room: if you're having trouble with those questions, then I am sorry to have to confirm your suspicions... you have indeed bitten off way more than you can chew.

The CCNA is designed for people who have a little bit of real-world, hands-on experience with administering Cisco network devices. Not just people who are familiar with networking... but familiar with that particular technology. It's supposed to be "the deep end" (and in truth, it gets deeper).

Unfortunately, without that real-world experience, the CCNA certification won't do you much good, even if you manage to pass the certification exam at the end of the course. But... your training provider probably didn't tell you that, did they?

To answer your specific questions...
1. No, you don't need a router connected to each switch unless you are going to route between VLANs and you don't have a Layer 3 switch.
2. I don't know what your instructor means by "network rationale". Either you need a network, or you don't...?

 

I think by rationale he means design a network and explain what goes where and why and how it works. Something like that anyway.

 

many thanks for your frankness, I wish I had known what you have told me before I started but no going back now! So I'll just have to keep my head down and persevere

 

Hi and welcome to the forum.

 

We are here to help. Glad to be of assistance.