Cisco Certification: A Survival Guide To The Cisco Cable Jungle

One of the most confusing parts of beginning your Cisco studies is keeping all the cable types separate in your mind, and then remembering what they're used for. This often occurs when a CCNA or CCNP candidate starts putting together their own home practice lab, and they suddenly realize that they have the equipment to run labs, but not the cables.

With this in mind, here are some common Cisco cable types and their primary use.

First, there's the regular old "straight-through cable", so named because the eight wires inside the cable go straight through the wire. While the wires may be twisted inside to reduce electromagnetic interference (EMI), the wire that's connected to Pin 1 on one end is connected to Pin 1 on the other end, and so on. In a home lab, a straight-through cable is often used to connect a switch port to an Ethernet port on a router, with a transceiver attached to the Ethernet port. Straight-through cables are also good for connecting a BRI interface to an ISDN simulator.

The "crossover cable" is so named because the wires do cross over between pins. This allows the devices to both send and receive at the same time, and crossover cables are a must for directly connecting ports on Cisco switches to create a trunk.

The "rollover cable" allows you to connect directly to a Cisco console port with your laptop or PC. This is the blue cable that comes with new Cisco devices, and it's the one that engineers tend to hold on to with their lives. Without a rollover cable (also commonly called a "console cable"), you can't connect your laptop directly to a Cisco device.

Finally, there's the DTE/DCE cable. To create a frame relay cloud in your home lab (using one of your Cisco routers as a DCE), or to directly connect two Cisco routers via their serial interfaces, you will need a DTE/DCE cable. Remember that the DCE interface will need to supply clockrate to the DTE interface.

The different cable types can be confusing when you first read about them, but after tearing down or building your home lab a few times, you'll definitely have them straight come test day!

Best of luck in your lab and your exams,

Chris Bryant CCIE #12933

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage. The Bryant Advantage's website offers FREE ebooks and tutorials for the CCNA and CCNP exams, FREE subscriptions to "Cisco Certification Central", and sells the best CCNA and CCNP prep courses and books on the market today. Visit his site at http://www.thebryantadvantage.com today !

---

The Importance Of Email Backup

Viruses, software failures, power failures, human errors, hard drive failures... Read More

Learning To Navigate Ciscos Online Documentation

When studying for your Cisco CCNA, CCNP, or CCIE exam,... Read More

Are You Well Protected?

Winter?the official start of the cold and flu season. Though,... Read More

What Has A Portable MP3 Player Have To Do With Your Business

Plenty! When we made the decision to be our own... Read More

MCSE 70-290 Certification Primer

Microsoft Certifications are one of the most widely acclaimed, pursued,... Read More

Your Affiliate Business - Peripherals, Software, Computers

I have always been interested in computers, but in the... Read More

Do Higher Digital Camera Prices Mean Better Cameras?

Understanding digital camera prices makes finding the best camera value... Read More

Palm PC critique

I met an entrepreneur who hole heartedly disagree with an... Read More

Buying a Home Theater Receiver

Buying a receiver is one of the most important decisions... Read More

Cisco Certification: Building Your Home Lab, Part II

In the first part of this home lab tutorial, CCNA... Read More

Quick System Restore with ASR Backups

ASR (Automated System Recovery) is a feature available on the... Read More

A Beginners Guide to Avoiding Viruses

"Aaaaaahhhhhh! I've been invaded by a virus!" Getting a virus... Read More

Your Home is in Your Hands

I would like to tell you about a magic home.... Read More

Help, I Need a New HDTV! (Part 2 of 5)

Feeling overwhelmed in selecting a new TV? With all the... Read More

Buying A PC Flat Screen Monitor

For six years, my Samsung PC 13.8 inch SyncMaster conventional... Read More

Cache In Your Chips And Get A Bus!

Computer related terminology could sometimes be daunting to newcomers. These... Read More

Be Your Own IT Department

If you use a computer, you need to know more... Read More

What Exactly are Screensavers? - part II

Here are some tips on how to use screensavers:First of... Read More

Occupational Therapy and PDAs

Occupational Therapy Made EasierMedical downloads for the pda have improved... Read More

Bios Term

BIOS - Basic Input Output SystemThe central processing unit of... Read More

Protect Your PC from Viruses, Worms & Trojans

Each of the items in the checklist below is part... Read More

Image Formats: GIF, JPEG, BMP

When browsing the internet you are likely to come across... Read More

Home Video? Bring it On

So you got yourself a digital camcorder. If you want... Read More

Passwords and the Human Factor

Passwords have a strange dual nature. The stronger and safer... Read More

10 Time Saving Keyboard Shortcuts

Time is money. And when you constantly have to divide... Read More

How To Increase Computer Speed And Performance - Great Tips & Tricks

Many computer users are worried about their computer's performance. After... Read More

Virtual Memory - What is It?

I recently got an e-mail asking about virtual memory. The... Read More

Bluetooth Headphones For Your PDA

Nothing is worse than having to negotiate all kinds of... Read More

This Page Cannot Be Displayed ? What to Do When Your Internet Breaks

The DNS (Domain Name System) servers are what your computer... Read More

Why Build Your Own Gaming Computer?

The best way to get the gaming computer that you... Read More

Healthy Webmasters Choose Ergonomic Computer Products

Webmasters usually sit at their computers much longer in a... Read More

Simple Overview Of Computer

Computer is an electronic machine work on the instructions of... Read More

Back Up, Back Up, Back Up!

This is not your typical lost data story. I was... Read More