ONT vs QoS

Brain-Drain

So I'm taking the ONT to finish my CCNP Wednesday and have obviously been studying QoS for a while. I have the opportunity to involve myself w/the voice world at work and am looking into starting down the CCVP road once the NP is done. Has anyone gone down both tracks? How similar is the VP QoS test to the NP ONT exam? It seems to me that if there's enough overlap, it would be natural to go over this as my first VP effort. Any insight is appreciated.

TIA

-bd

mikej412

I'd recommend the QoS exam first for anyone with a CCNP because it "extends" the stuff you just learned in the CCNP exams. If you don't have a voice background, then you'll be learning lots of new voice stuff in the other 4 exams, so get the "easy exam" out of the way first.

And for the people going for the CCVP without the CCNP -- then take it almost anywhere. If you don't have a voice background then all 5 exams will be "new stuff." But after the CCNA, the QoS exam may be "intense" -- but compared to the other 4 voice exams it may seem "less strange."

tmlerdal

I took a couple of weeks off between taking the ONT exam and starting to study for QoS. I thought ONT was a nice introduction into the QoS exam and the two seem to compliment each other well.

I do agree that to follow up the CCNP with QoS is a great way to go. With what I've been dealing with lately, it is the next step once the data starts flowing across the network.

Brain-Drain

Thanks for the feedback. Now that I have whetted my geek appetite w/what I consider to be a decent introduction to the world of QoS I think I will follow your lead tm and take a couple of weeks off, then dive into the next level. I work for a partner and it seems all our customers run voice, and all of them have vastly different and custom QoS implemtations. I can see that having solid QoS is critical for modern converged networks.


On to the next lobotomy!!

tmlerdal

My only regret is that I ended up taking some breaks in the middle of studying for the QoS exam. I'm lucky though because I've been working with a lot of it for the last year or more at work. I've read through the QoS Exam Cert Guide...good book, lots of good info in it. I also got to sit in on the course online from Thompson Netg. Just don't quite feel ready to sit for the exam quite yet. I'm hoping to take it next week, but depends on the time I can devote to review and some labs.

DSP

I recently took the ONT and the QoS. IMO they were very similar. If you understand the ONT material, the QoS should be very easy for you.

Crunchyhippo

Brain-Drain wrote:

Thanks for the feedback. Now that I have whetted my geek appetite w/what I consider to be a decent introduction to the world of QoS I think I will follow your lead tm and take a couple of weeks off, then dive into the next level. I work for a partner and it seems all our customers run voice, and all of them have vastly different and custom QoS implemtations. I can see that having solid QoS is critical for modern converged networks.


On to the next lobotomy!!

Just curious - if you're already doing related work with your employer, are you just wanting to do voice work instead of what you do now? What's your goal?