There’s nothing I get pleasure from more than instructing Cisco applied sciences, particularly CCNA candidates. Whether or not it is in-person or online, everyone’s excited to be there. There is a sense of anticipation within the air, and everybody is able to work hard, get their hands on the racks of Cisco routers and switches I
have available…
… after which I break out the OSI mannequin chart. Chins slump. People sigh, or a minimum of wish they hadn’t ordered decaf that morning.
Okay, it is not that bad. However it does mood the joy a little. I at all times get a way of “why can’t we simply hurry up and get on the routers and switches? Why do we’ve to be taught this dry stuff?”
One motive is that Cisco demands you already know the OSI model in and out for each the Intro and ICND exams. You must admit that is a reasonably good cause, however still, students discover the OSI model info to be very dry.
I understand that, because I’ve been there. My first exposure to the OSI model was really in a Novell “Networking Technologies” class, and man, was that chart ever dry. They crammed every known protocol (and some unknown ones, I think) into the OSI model. It seemed like a large jigsaw puzzle, and the real problem is that I did not know what the heck most of that stuff was.
So I dutifully tried to memorize this massive chart. I managed to cross the examination, but I puzzled what all that effort had really been for. It isn’t like you sit round in a server room or wiring closet and discuss the OSI model.
As a CCNA candidate, you don’t have to fret about all of the protocols I memorized manner again when, but you do need to know what occurs at each layer. Which results in this query:
“If I work with routers and switches, why do I’ve to know about all the opposite layers? Do not routers and switches simply work at layer 2 and 3?”
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Yes, switches work at Layer 2 and routers at Layer 3. But to actually perceive networking, you’ve got to perceive what happens on the other layers. Why?
Most community directors and engineers are going to spend so much more time troubleshooting than installing. That’s just the way in which it is. And to troubleshoot successfully, you have to know what is going on on in any respect layers of the OSI model, not simply layers 2 and 3.
As somebody who’s achieved plenty of hiring and conducted an amazing many job interviews, I can let you know that the flexibility to troubleshoot is the number one quality I look for. That is why I tell CCNA and CCNP candidates that they have to get all of the fingers-on practice they can whereas I perceive the significance of theory, the one strategy to develop troubleshooting means is to work on the true deal. No simulator program
goes to teach you the right way to troubleshoot.
Additionally, the one approach to actually develop your troubleshooting skills is to know what’s going on over the complete network, not just the routers and switches. Troubleshooting all the time starts at Layer 1 in the event you don’t discover a problem on the Physical layer, and all the pieces’s advantageous along with your routers and switches, how are you going to continue troubleshooting if you do not know what the following steps are as knowledge moves closer to the end person?
So on the subject of the OSI mannequin, don’t just give it a fast once-over and move on to the enjoyable stuff in your CCNA studies. The tangible advantage of passing your exams is nice, but it surely’s the hidden good thing about developing your own troubleshooting methodology that makes mastering the OSI mannequin worthwhile.
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