1st CCIE lab attempt blog and help for candidates.

Turgon

christino wrote: »

This link has a lot more to say about whether anyone has passed the new R and S Lab or not. Has Anyone Passed CCIE 4.0 R/S - IEOC - Internetwork Expert's Online Community

I'm taking two mock labs in December to know if I should save my bucks and do the v4 written cos the casualty list seems to grow bigger by the day. I think we'll begin to see less 16 year old CCIEs now.

I wish Turgon could read for two

Writing boring Cisco Unity Connection exam this morning, then I can get back on the R and S track. I'm seriously thinking if I am to spend this much time on R and S, I can as well look at the Voice Track along with Virtualization (VMware) since they are more profitable. 2 cents, anyone?

If you haven't passed the written I would forget about mock exams and concentrate on that if I was you.

Turgon

This afternoon working PIX configuration examples from the networksim product.

Turgon

Big thumbs up to Broc for helping me today with PIX/ASA. Thanks buddy.

christino

Turgon, I passed the written almost 16 months ago but along came new Job description and masters and projects and proposals and presales and BDM but I'm focused now, I think. Everything else is secondary. I'm looking at the mobile lab but in my church mind, I can't be ready for it, at least not now. I can't even get a day off work!

Turgon

christino wrote: »

Turgon, I passed the written almost 16 months ago but along came new Job description and masters and projects and proposals and presales and BDM but I'm focused now, I think. Everything else is secondary. I'm looking at the mobile lab but in my church mind, I can't be ready for it, at least not now. I can't even get a day off work!

Well if you think you will be ready have a go before your written expires, otherwise push back. Just done with a technical interview, very difficult that one at times covering the area I need to work on harder anyway..MPLS!

filkenjitsu

Turgon wrote: »

Well if you think you will be ready have a go before your written expires, otherwise push back. Just done with a technical interview, very difficult that one at times covering the area I need to work on harder anyway..MPLS!

I hope you get the job!

Turgon

filkenjitsu wrote: »

I hope you get the job!

hehehehe well we will have to see about that! I really think an MPLS designer who can wax lyrical about the pros and cons of a ring vs star topology in the core and how *everything* works inside there might be best placed. Essentially this sort of thing..

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:kcCqzDQcXk8J:www.ospnetworks.com/images/documents/OSP-OptiCore_General_PPT.pdf+MPLS+core+star+or+ring&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESibeFe5rT7IiYFAPwtXP39RT_6zw7zQMl-lgf7PGbCai3d-7Th3BxAzNULt8X5F1klVoB2WFI60HNSOod687YTjekFPnfpgkSCFq4IOnk9o708up3_tQI661yHPBXMMssmYtfMR&sig=AHIEtbQoy1t7-LL-YvksirBCj5EKq4itVw

R&S is my bread and butter, the rest - Voice/MPLS/Storage/Wireless/Security I intend to just get a taste of. One cannot be a master of everything and stay sane

Turgon

Jobs. For some of them you need to have done the right job before, worked with the right people, learned from the right people and got the right training. Self study can take you a long way but only so far for some of them. Horses for courses. Still getting calls though.

EIGRP today if I get a chance. Meanwhile something for my long suffering wife.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8qY2qd0edE&feature=fvw

Turgon

No time for studies. Too busy with jobsearch. Headhunter called me about architect role for fabulous company in the Far East. Given the economy I imagine the competition will be too stiff but as there are multiple roles there is a chance I would be a good fit somewhere in that organisation if I miss out on the top job. She put me forward. Hundreds of great people available for jobs. Take your pick blindfold from the pile they are all good. Another called about a great opportunity in the UK. Meanwhile general synopsis is very poor as all other agents I tagged today said they had nothing new in. Im already in for any other roles previously advertised and they are dragging on. Sucky economy really. May look at EIGRP briefly tonight but overall feel knackered.

Turgon

Just spoke to Bruce Caslow on the phone. All very jolly. Nice chap. I'm feeling tired. Will look at EIGRP in the morrow.

Turgon

All quiet on the job front now. Given the procrastination on hiring anyone, even though many agents get back to me about my job applications and put me forward for jobs I think it may be April before any money hits my bank account for services rendered. It takes weeks to get a job and then weeks of paperwork before you can start a job, and then a month to get paid after starting the assignment. April payday *providing* I can get behind a desk beginning of March. That means someone has to be serious about hiring me for a proper job contract or perm in February. They will most likely want to wait a few weeks before giving me a start. Meanwhile there is a chance I can get some crappy NOC work to bring a bit in until a proper job comes around. Rates are terrible and a lot of costs incurred as I will be working away. Still... after hotel bills, meals, fuel and tax there will be enough left over on the daily rate to buy a newspaper and send the meagre rest back home to at least help pay the bills there.

Today is my birthday. Cool. EIGRP next.

laidbackfreak

Turgon wrote: »

All quiet on the job front now.

Today is my birthday. Cool. EIGRP next.

Sorry to hear your not getting any breaks on the job, I'm not getting any calls here either, but luckily already have a role to tide me over, I'm hoping next year will be a good one

Happy Birthday fella, if your in the area let me know I'll buy you a beer

Turgon

laidbackfreak wrote: »

Sorry to hear your not getting any breaks on the job, I'm not getting any calls here either, but luckily already have a role to tide me over, I'm hoping next year will be a good one

Happy Birthday fella, if your in the area let me know I'll buy you a beer

Hey thanks man. Will do!

Turgon

More calls from agents who put me forward for roles in Hong Kong, Luxemburg and London. Difficult to know what to think sometimes. Birthday cake with the family now

Ahriakin

Stop blogging. Enjoy the day with the family (and Happy Birthday sir)

dynamik

Ahriakin wrote: »

Stop blogging. Enjoy the day with the family (and Happy Birthday sir)

Don't listen to him; the rack is calling you. It's your birthday, so they should respect your decision to be left alone

Happy Birthday!

Turgon

hehehehe..thanks guys.

Turgon

Ok well some good news. I have an interview for a Network position with the Police Force next week. It's along the lines of the sorts of jobs I was writing about, low rates but a steady number until I get fixed up with something better. It's reasonably local too so would not be away from home which is good. Its a tough economy right now and Im getting interviews for about 1% of the jobs I apply for. There are many phantom jobs advertised and there are others where the client isn't serious about hiring just yet. So a lot of work required to harvest interviews. Lots of good people on the market right now. Most likely it will be deep into 2010 before I land the type of contract work or permanent work Im used to. Lately the job search and talking to all the agents who put me forward for all these jobs has been a huge sink of my time and energy, so my studies have temporarily slowed down. Back on with it today with Command Memorizer and EIGRP.

christino

Hey Turgon,

Happy belated b'day. Mine's on the way but I'm too sober to be celebrating. I feel i'm dragging, and really I'm not working as hard as I should cos office work is eating deep into personal time. I can't wait for the long break. R & S study guide version 4 is officially out though.

Regards to your family.

Turgon

christino wrote: »

Hey Turgon,

Happy belated b'day. Mine's on the way but I'm too sober to be celebrating. I feel i'm dragging, and really I'm not working as hard as I should cos office work is eating deep into personal time. I can't wait for the long break. R & S study guide version 4 is officially out though.

Regards to your family.

Thanks man. Yes I can relate and honestly unless you can get a few hours in almost every single day I think it's almost impossible to prepare properly for this exam. Get as much done as you can on works time even if it's only half an hour a day. It adds up over the course of a year.

Turgon

EIGRP on command memoriser done. It's quite a neat section that one. Some notes taken. On now to RIP and Frame Relay.

Turgon

9PM. Finished RIP and Frame Relay on command memorizer and made notes. Quite a lot of work today going through all that and at times it was really tough. All the frame relay compression things and traffic shaping came up, virtual interfaces, the works. No FReeK though. Glad today's Frame and IGP session is over which just leaves switching to do. I say *just* leaves switching because for my money it is one of the most understudied and underestimated part of a CCIE candidates journey with many of us off the pace in terms of required understanding of this essential subject. With OEQ and Troubleshooting added to the new lab, poor switching will be the ruin of many forthcoming lab attempts I think. Don't take my word for it, the Command Memorizer has 9 whole sections devoted to it and rightly so.

That is Sunday's work ahead of me. But for the moment, with the best hours of yet another Saturday divided between family and studies Im calling a halt.

Turgon

A busy day with the family today being Sunday but I have finally managed to get through the spanning-tree section in the command memoriser. A good bit of revision.

Turgon

Monday morning. More command memomoriser work. Section one is administering a bashing covering MVR which I haven't seen before and various igmp snooping configurations which Im weak on. Fun.

Turgon

Second section covers 802.1x authentication and AAA heavily. Took a pasting there as I need to work those subjects much harder.

Turgon

More work on switching. Took a kicking on CoS, voice vlans, dot1q tunneling, l2 tunneling, MST..

Turgon

More spanning-tree parameters, RMON, storm control, protected ports, port security, dhcp service. Time for a break now. Cooked

Turgon

Getting difficult to study today as there is lots to do indoors and my wife needs a hand so I will have to stop soon. More command memoriser switching practice, vlan maps, mac access lists, dscp mutation, and all kinds of inhuman ACL arrangements. Fun.

Turgon

Command Memorizer- Port security, private vlans, macros.

Finally got through all the switching exercises. Intense. I will need to go over that stuff again next session. My reflections on this tool is that it is useful taking the following into account.

1. It should be used towards the end of your studies by which point while you may still be struggling with syntax and correct construct of commands to accomplish a desired result you *do* actually understand what the commands do.

2. It has some errors. Get over it, what doesn't?

3. It is not a one stop shop. Get over it.

4. It is not complete. Get over it.

I think it's pretty good.

Turgon

Approaching 100,000 views. No more Cisco for me today. P1ssed off with studying it