Archive for the Certification Category

IPExpert Bootcamp Experience

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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CCIE #21785

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

Ted

CCIE Progress

I’m about 75% complete with the IPExpert workbook for R&S and I figured I would post my impressions thus far. Keep in mind, I have little to compare to, and these are purely based on my own personal experience.

To start out, I do not have access to equipment with the static configuration necessary to complete all the labs in this book. For this reason, I have gone with Proctor Labs. If you buy the IPExpert workbook and you’re looking to rent rack space, Proctor labs is the logical solution. To do the labs you need to make sure your physical topology matches the workbook. See this link for the topology I’m talking about:: Topology

You can certainly buy your own equipment, but I don’t have that luxury. I wasn’t interested in Dynamips either because I didn’t feel like improvising diagrams based on interface number differences (not to mention the lack of switching features).

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Best CCNP Lab? Part II

The corner-stone –in my opinion that is– of the CCNP track is the BSCI course. It’s probably the most important and difficult material you will experience in the CCNP track. This is probably a lot of the reason for why it really hasn’t changed much at all over the years. So regarding the new CCNP changes, it’s pretty much the same as it has always been.

Take a look at the exam objectives here

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CCIE Written=Done

Well, the easy part of my pursuit for the CCIE is complete. I passed the new 350-001 R&S written test today ($300 big-ones for this baby!). I’m really looking forward to using my IPexpert workbooks for practicing for the lab exam-or the hard part as they say. I’m hoping to take my first shot at the lab exam this year, but not sure if that’s going to happen…

The materials I used are the CCIE exam guide by Wendell Odom and Routing TCP/IP volumes I and II by Jeff Doyle. I started off reading the TCP/IP volumes, which really give you a good foundation for more then you need to know for the test. The exam guide is great at providing a good last-minute cram before the test. If you’re wondering about the IPv6 and MPLS additions to the test, the resources I used cover those topics just fine.