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This chapter compares
connection-oriented and connectionless protocols; commonly used
protocols are categorized accordingly. This chapter also provides an
overview of some basic protocol characteristics. It is important
that you have a basic understanding of these common protocol
characteristics in order to be able to effectively troubleshoot
networks.
Knowing how to interpret protocol
analyzer output to decipher frames on your network is crucial.
Valuable information can be derived from capturing frames on your
network segments. Catalyst switches have 'span' capabilities that
allow you to view the frames from multiple LAN segments at once.
With protocol analysis you are looking at the content of the actual
frames on a network to search for rogue frames or traffic
distribution patterns - this can be compared to a neurologist using
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to diagnose a patient. 
This chapter completes the setting of
the foundation for the remainder of the curriculum. From here you
can independently launch into most of the subsequent chapters (with
minor exceptions which may require you to bounce around a bit).
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