Exam 640-506 Support
Every network has troubles. You, as a Certified Cisco Network Professional, will be called upon to resolve these issues. This test will make certain you can.
You immediately need to know the differences between connection-oriented and connectionless protocols. (Think, for starters, TCP and UDP— and when one is used over another).
The exam objectives immediately move into pure troubleshooting. You need to know how to troubleshoot common data link layer problems in a campus network. What type of tools will be in your toolkit—both hardware and software—to troubleshoot a routed or switched network? You need to know which tool to use and why.
One tool, the Cisco information resources, can help you fix some problems, and you'll be tested on how to use it. Many of these tips and articles are part of the Cisco Web site.
Because most networks are heterogeneous, you need a grasp of the way different network operating systems talk. For example, how does chatter from TCP/IP, Novell, and AppleTalk share the network?
As expected, TCP/IP is covered in depth throughout this exam. Specifically, you need to address TCP/IP connectivity issues, Windows NT/95 clients and the problems they may encounter, and the tools you use to analyze TCP/IP.
On the Netware side of the house, you need similar methodologies to troubleshoot Novell IPX and its flow through a routed and switched network. You don't need to know the inner workings of a Novell server, but you should be familiar with IPX/SPX, SAP, and communications between servers.
You also need experience configuring and troubleshooting the Catalyst 5000. Specifically, you need to know the Cisco IOS commands to troubleshoot the router.
Other objectives for this exam include diagnostic VLAN tools, AppleTalk troubles, ISDN, WAN malfunctions, and Frame Relay. The associated Cisco course is Cisco Internetworking Troubleshooting.