August 25, 2008 by ted.

Get 10% off the following ::

-Blended Learning Solution
-Boot Camp
-End to End purchase

Use this coupon code

TRomer

Pretty nice deal. Any little bit helps when you’re trying to scrape together cash for CCIE expenses (believe me, I have spent my fair share of cash!)

Deuces,

Ted

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August 24, 2008 by ted.

Per Cisco’s CCIE web site ::

CCIE labs changing from UniversCD to Cisco Documentation
On Sept 24 2008 CCIE labs will no longer support using the UniversCD documentation for the lab exam.

All labs are migrating to Cisco Documentation only. For those scheduled to take the CCIE lab prior to Sept 24 access will still be available for UniversCD.

The Cisco Documentation pages have the same information that currently resides on UniversCD, please refer to the links on the CCIE web pages to view these pages and become familiar with the new format.

After Sept 24 2008 only the Cisco Documentation web pages will be available for CCIE labs.

Oh well, not very surprising I guess.

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August 20, 2008 by ted.

I was at work today and mentioned I was going to be working on the Voice track rather quickly. One guy mentioned, “There is more to life than studying and taking tests”.

I guess I get bored too easy. Let’s see, watch TV all night, or get to do something that’s intellectually challenging? You have to take breaks or you get burned-out, it has happened to me. That’s what weekends are for. Shoot, I love playing computer games and going out to the movies, but Mon-Thurs is all business for me. Come on, that’s very reasonable.

I’ve been doing Voice all day long at work for the last year, so this is going to be very helpful for me. I’m hoping for a quicker turnaround for the Voice (6 months at the longest). I’ve got to take the Voice written soon, so I need to look over the Cisco website to make sure I’m solid. I’m probably going to bypass the professional level certs for this one… I would rather focus on lab time.

IPExpert will be getting my business once again.

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August 20, 2008 by ted.

I have to really give props to IPExpert, their training materials are great. I will come out and say I have never tried any other labs besides theirs. My opinion is bias, but why shop around when you know what works.

I studied the hands-on lab part for about 6-7 months. I started around February of this year. I bought their Lab workbook and proctor guide. I did every lab at least once and read over all labs as part of my preparation.

Breakdown ::
Volume 1 labs - 20 or so smaller technology based
Volume 2 labs - 15 8 hour labs
Volume 3 labs - 10 8 hour labs with walkthrough

I didn’t have time to go over the Video bootcamp before my lab, nor did I finish the Audio bootcamp. I think the audio bootcamp is great to listen to on the way to work. Use it to fill in your gaps of time, the more exposure, the better.

-Do the labs
-Understand the labs
-Get your butt kicked by the labs

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August 20, 2008 by ted.

Last week before my lab, I attended the IPExpert R&S bootcamp in San Jose. Jared Scrivener was our instructor for the week. Days started at 9am and ran until about 5pm, at which point they provide you with a lab to do. My days were basically from 9am till about midnight. You can choose to do the lab in class or back at your hotel (if you have internet access).

I prepared for the bootcamp in such a way that I was expecting to get my butt kicked. I spent the week prior studying about 16 hours a day.

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August 19, 2008 by ted.

Just got the email! I have to catch a plane, so I will have more to say later!

Ted

Posted in Certification | Print | 16 Comments »

August 8, 2008 by ted.

Ok so I’m doing Volume 3 Lab 7 today and I’m about 2 hours into it. I’m doing basic stuff like configuring Layer 3 links between switches. No big deal, everything pings and checks out fine, connectivity verified. I then make my way to configuring RIP across the switches, again, cake right? Yup, you would think so until I looked at one of the switches and noticed it wasn’t getting the RIP routes (I mean come on, RIP is too easy!). Now I knew connectivity and IP addressing was good because I verified I could ping between switch links earlier and I really haven’t done much of anything else (RIP was the first routing protocol to configure). So then I start going back to basics and verifying basic connectivity. Ok, so let’s ping our directly connected neighbor across the layer 3 link. Hmm… Some work, most don’t! So then I start staring down the IP addressing and making sure I got the right links configured, you know, the obvious. Now I start getting mad because I know things pinged just fine before and I haven’t configured anything weird on the layer 3 links to stop my directly connected neighbor from talking to me.

Here’s my scratch paper, not that it makes a lot of sense…

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August 8, 2008 by ted.

In case you didn’t know, IPexpert’s blended learning solution also comes with an audio bootcamp with about 1GB worth of MP3 files! Since I got their bootcamp coming up next week, why not make use of them on the plane?

I got my hands on a “Coby” MP3/video player (about 50 bucks) and loaded all 1 GB worth of MP3’s. While you can listen to them on the Computer, this comes in handy while driving or a long flight. In case you didn’t know, you can browse the IPexpert external hard drive they give you and pull the MP3’s right from there. Very quick and easy.

The quality of the sound is very good and there is tons of hours worth of lecture. I don’t think the content differs much at all from the video bootcamp (aside from the slides and practice lab walk-throughs), so you can listen to the audio when you’re mobile and watch the videos when at a computer. It’s all about maximizing your time with this stuff I guess.

Check it ::

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August 8, 2008 by ted.

It has been a long week to say the least. I’ve got the IPexpert bootcamp coming up next week so I’m trying to prepare myself as best I can. Thankfully, I had this week off.

As you can see, I have used quite a bit a scratch paper (I also went through about 4 pens and not because I ran out of ink!). I seem to average about 5 sheets per lab. I draw out my initial diagram with IP addressing and interface details. I then place a blank sheet over it and trace out the devices again (less specific) and use that for IGP routing. I then trace it again with just the devices themselves (no links), I use this for BGP. For the most part, I just mimic the diagrams provided the difference being I can write on them. In some cases, I’ll diagram the switches layer 2 info if the lab is heavy on layer 2 technologies. I usually burn the first 30-40 minutes with diagrams and reading over the lab.

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July 30, 2008 by ted.

Well, I’ve recently got back from a much needed two week vacation. Between my job at Cisco and studying for my CCIE exam (only a few weeks away), I’m staying pretty busy. A nice camping trip seemed to help take my mind off things.

Now that I’m back, it’s back to reality. I’m currently working on the IPExpert Volume 3 labs. If you haven’t checked out IPExpert’s blended learning solution demo, you should give it a try. Check it out

They send you everything you need on a portable hard drive. Now when I first saw this on the website, I was thinking, “I hope this isn’t as big as the external hard drives I currently have”. I must say, when they say it’s portable, they mean it!

As you can see here, Their blended solution comes in a very nice professional package. If you’re thinking they just wrap a drive in bubble paper and send it your way, that is certainly not the case here.

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