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Long is the road, and hard, that out of Hell leads to CCIE

DigitalWhispersDigitalWhispers Registered Users Posts: 3 ■■□□□□□□□□
A bit of paraphrasing on my part but I think the similarities are recognizable, especially by those who have set themselves down the same arduous path. I've taken and passed the CCENT, CCNA, and then CCNP ROUTE. I was told by many that the ROUTE exam is the hardest of the three for the CCNP certification so I figured I'd get it out of the way. I completely blew it out of the water and now I'm just going to go right for the gold. Some have advised against it but others have said it's worth it - as long as I prepare properly.

I'm doing a full review of everything. Basically I'm starting over. I'm currently taking David Bombal's CCENT and CCNA courses on Udemy. I've never seen such a thorough layout. Sixty hours and over 800 lectures, including GNS3 sims and whatnot. This has been the best in-depth explanation I've seen for CCNA, save for maybe INE's CCNA course. Maybe. I already have the paid CCNA course from INE so I can always use their workbook and exam questions for further solidifying the CCNA concepts. After that I'll decide which training to use to study the CCNP concepts. David Bombal doesn't have CCNP courses so I'll probably go with CBT Nuggets (I'm a big Jeremy fan), INE, and/or Chris Bryant. I used his ROUTE course for studying and it helped tremendously.

I already have purchased whatever I need to study for the CCIE so that material is waiting on my shelf to be explored. I will use INE for most of the haul but have at least a dozen books to read through. I'm a voracious reader by design so this is nothing that intimidates me. TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1, is first on the list. After that I'll just follow the Cisco exam topics one by one. Other books include Routing TCP/IP Vol. 1 & 2, CCIE Practical Studies Vol. 1 & 2, Cisco IP Routing, Cisco LAN Switching, Internet Routing Architectures, OSPF: Anatomy of an Internet Routing Protocol, EIGRP Network Design Solutions, and a few others. The only book I haven't purchased yet is Routing and Switching: Time of Convergence by Puzmanova. That book has come highly recommended for background concepts. Unfortunately it's ridiculously expensive on Amazon and I haven't seen it much cheaper anywhere else.

So, that's the beginning of my story. I hope others feel implored to contribute their experiences, advice, and intimations, and make this a fruitful thread.

- V

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