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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June 17, 2008 by ted.

I love it when the practice labs say “verify end-to-end connectivity”. Yes, this means we must be able to ping everything. There is no way we have time to ping every IP in the lab manually. I’ve started using TCL scripts to do so. See below.

Just paste this in your router (edit the IP addresses) and you’re good to go::

tclsh
foreach address {
192.168.4.4
192.168.5.5
192.168.6.6
192.168.7.7
192.168.8.8
192.168.9.9
} { ping $address re 3 si 100

I set it to ping 3 times with a size of 100 bytes. Keep the size small so the serial links don’t slow you down. I think 3 pings is enough time for ARP to do its thing. Take 10 minutes to write down all the interface/loopback IP addresses and this will save you some time. Don’t forget to test on all routers. Also, I don’t think switches support TCL.

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June 17, 2008 by ted.

It seems IPExpert has some new study materials coming out in the next week or so. They have a new blended learning solution that comes to you on a external hard drive. Looks pretty sweet! Check out the R&S demo.

Just when I thought I was getting caught up! I can’t help but be curious.

If you already have the V9 stuff, you get to upgrade to Vol1 and Vol2. The Vol3 part of things comes with 10 mock labs with a video walk through. What better than a live walk through? It’s nice to have someone share their tips and tricks with how they approach each lab.

They are offering the 1st lab for Vol 3 free as a demo. Check it out yourself. It’s cool because proctor labs supports the grading which saved me from doing a stare and compare.

I thought the 1st lab in Volume 3 has really improved. Right away I noticed the topology map was new. A problem I have with the Version 9 stuff is I found myself memorizing the network diagram. Having a new diagram is really helpful because you need to get practice drawing things out in your own way that makes sense to you. Seeing a new diagram layout gave me a good impression to start with. The lab went well, check it out.

That reminds me, I need to work on my Virtual template configurations. It’s not that they are hard, but the authentication requirement kept breaking my connectivity!

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May 9, 2008 by ted.

Here’s a nice tip for those using SecureCRT. In doing my CCIE studies, I have 10 different sessions open, and after some time, I’ll find that my sessions are timed-out. I end up having to clear the lines of the Term server to get them back. I’m not sure if this will apply to all versions, but I’m using version 3.3…

Start by going to Options >> Session options

Next, edit session options. Basically you specify a time interval and what you want to send to session every 120 seconds in this example. I just hit the space bar to put a space in.

This will keep your sessions active by adding a space every so often so they don’t time-out. I used this tonight and it saved me some time. I hate having to clear lines, it really ruins my day…

Anyways, probably not new information, but hopefully some find it useful.

Ted

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April 30, 2008 by ted.

A lot of people have been asking for this, so here you go. It goes with the new Routing CCNP self-study book. Remember, you have to have some experience with Dynamips for this. I was running everything on one box, with two separate instances of the executable for stability reasons. If I remember right, I didn’t need to use both pods at the same time either (I only started what routers I needed). There are obvious adjustments you will have to make too. The BB router configs you can get from online if you bought the book. I believe I reference them in the config below.

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August 15, 2007 by ted.

I came across this article on Cisco’s site:

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/105/pmtud_ipfrag.html

It’s a great read, and covers a lot of information that will help you minimize fragmentation issues across your network.  It’s great for understanding when routers fragment packets and how to configure Path-MTU-Discovery.  It’s also helpful if you have GRE or IPsec tunnels in your network.

One thing that stands out is to remember that Path-MTU-Discovery relies heavily on certain ICMP messages.  Routers reply with “fragmentation needed and DF set” and you won’t hear about it if your firewall is blocking ICMP.

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May 17, 2007 by ted.

I figured I would share with everyone the BCMSN lab I have given to my Cisco students. I’m currently wrapping up the BCMSN course (642-812) and wanted to give them some real-world practice. My students have their CCNA certifications and are now trying to tackle the CCNP. They actually just completed the first part of the lab and are currently verifying functionality. From what I saw Wednesday, it looks like I need to come up with some harder labs! Take a look for yourself.

My guys said they would be happy to share their precious configs, so I will be making another post soon once they get all the bugs worked out. Maybe I can get them to provide some explanations too!

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