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. [1] 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.

I was really impressed with this portable drive. It’s lightweight, durable, very quiet, very small so it will be easily portable, and it’s powered via the USB cable, so no worries about messing with power cables. Just plug into your laptop and start rockin! Here it is connected to my PC and another showing you the small size (It fits in the palm of my hand) ::

The setup is easy like I said, plug and play. Once you plug it in, there is nothing that needs to be installed, no installation/setup needed. I am running Vista 64 and was worried about compatibility. Once again, IpExpert has provided a seamless product that is very easy to use. Just double click on the drive, and up it comes to the following menu ::

Clicking “workbooks” will take you to Volume 3 labs. Now the sweet thing about the Blended Learning package is there is no digging around trying to find files or video files to run. It’s all very intuitive and simple to use. The interface they have come up with is really nice. Point and click, it’s really that easy. There is no loading or anything, everything seems to come up lag free. Now getting back to the workbook section. This thing rocks, while I’m doing the lab, I have this open and I can easily jump to a section to get help if I’m having some trouble. Notice below how it’s broken down into sections which correspond to the workbook lab sections ::

The audio and video quality of the content is great. You will see what I mean when you check out the video on demand section! Very nice when output to my 120″ 1080P projector –kick back and learn style.

I’m really enjoying the Video walk-through for the Volume 3 labs. If you think the proctor guide is good, you are going to love this. After I do my labs, I go through the video and compare to my understanding of the lab. It’s also great when you get stuck for a quick walk-through. Again, the sections match up perfectly so it’s simple to use.

Honestly, I can see why IPexpert is so excited about these products. The Blended solution on the drive is freaking sweet man. I can definitely see the video walk-through becoming the new and improved proctor guide.

The Good ::

-I would definitely rate the quality and construction of the drive excellent. They really did their homework.

-The packing was also top notch as everything is nicely packaged.

-The Quality of the Volume 3 labs are great. I really love the new feel to the labs. The topology map seems to change every lab, so you don’t memorize the diagram (which is good!)

The Bad ::

-I now have a whole bunch more labs I need to do!!!

More to come as I continue to check out the Video and Audio portions.

Check out the [2] demo if you haven’t already

Ted