Fundamentals & Certifications

The documents shown on this page cover both specific Network Engineer certifications and fundamentals concepts. Please keep the following disclaimer in mind when reviewing these notes.

• CCNA Study Notes: These are my original CCNA Routing and Switching Study notes (from around 2009). They are  good bullet point summaries of some of the topics covered. Download CCNA Summary Notes
• CCNP Service Provider Study Requirements (legacy): I recently completed my CCNP SP. When I made this document, I had already done one of the four necessary exams (SPROUTE 642-883), but found it difficult to source the necessary study material. As such, I made a spreadsheet listing the syllabus from the Cisco site for each of the other 3 exams, combined with the material (including book title and page number/chapter) needed to fulfil those requirements. (Please note this curriculum covers the version of CCNP Service Provider prior to the changes that Cisco were introducing in February of 2020)
  • 642-885 ADVROUTE Requirements
  • 642-887 SPCORE Requirements
  • 642-889 SPEDGE Requirements
• TCP/IP vs OSI Comparison: A simple comparison of the TCP/IP and OSI Protocol Stacks.

• Packet Structure: This document gives a clear breakdown of layers 2 to 4 when looking at a packet.

• MTU between IOS and XR: Both IOS and XR handle MTU configurations differently and this can cause mix-ups. This document is designed to clarify that confusion and show how the different implementations compare.