Cisco CCNA Exam Tutorial - Five Frame Relay Details You Need to Know1 When you're studying for your CCNA exam on the way to earning this coveted Cisco certification, the details can seem overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be.

By Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933

When you're studying for your CCNA exam on the way to earning this coveted Cisco certification, the details can seem overwhelming! In this article, I'll point out five Frame Relay details that you must keep in mind when you're on your way to the CCNA exam!

Inverse ARP starts working as soon as you open the serial interface. This protocol performs dynamic Frame Relay mapping, but you don't have to enable it - it's already enabled as soon as you enter the command "encapsulation frame-relay".

When you're configuring Frame Relay map statements manually, remember that you're mapping the local DLCI to the remote IP address.

When you run "show frame map", the word "dynamic" indicates mappings created by Inverse ARP, and "static" indicates it was manually created.

To spot possible LMI type mismatches, run "show frame lmi". A large number of Status Timeouts indicates that there may be an LMI problem between your router and the frame relay switch.

This last one is for the many of you building CCNA home labs. A frame relay switch is a great addition to your lab! While you're busy putting the configuration together, don't forget the global command "frame-relay switching" - it's this command that allows a Cisco router to act as a frame relay switch!

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Chris Bryant is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of over 100 free certification exam tutorials, including Cisco CCNA certification test prep articles. His exclusive Cisco CCNA study guide and Cisco CCNA training is also available!