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ONT... that was a surprise.

mikearamamikearama Member Posts: 749
in CCNP
I thought I'd tackle this baby this morning. I've been studying for exactly 6 weeks, using the Cert Guide, the Lab Portfolio and the Chris Bryant material. "Wow" is about all I can say.

The level of detail expected was a surprise. I thought I had a handle on the roles of Gateways and Gatekeepers, but found myself guessing a lot. I thought I understand the interaction between DSCP's, IP Precendence bits, and MPLS EXP bits... nope. I thought I would fly through and questions on FXO / FXS ports, and call setup / teardown... but I was confused. I thought I owned the formula for the packetization of VOIP traffic... whatever. I especially thought I had a handle on reading and understanding the cli/mqc portion of a voip config, and could pull out the important details and answer a damn question when the answer's right in front of me... wrong again.

So, to finish with a 777 is regrettable... but hey, I got to see the exam, and now I know where to focus.

I thought after getting my a$$ handed to me on the BSCI that I wouldn't get surprised again... and sure enough, had no issues with the BCMSN or ISCW. I don't know why I underestimated this puppy. Oh well, try again next week.
There are only 10 kinds of people... those who understand binary, and those that don't.

CCIE Studies: Written passed: Jan 21/12 Lab Prep: Hours reading: 385. Hours labbing: 110

Taking a time-out to add the CCVP. Capitalizing on a current IPT pilot project.
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    networker050184networker050184 Mod Posts: 11,962 Mod
    Sorry to hear about the fail. I felt the need to rush the last exam a bit too. Its the feeling of just wanting to get done already!!


    Good luck on the retake!
    An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made.
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    SlowhandSlowhand Mod Posts: 5,161 Mod
    That's how they getcha, there's always some curve-ball that gets you when you least expect it. Hopefully, your next time around will bring happier news, good luck.
    Twitter | LinkIn
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    mikearamamikearama Member Posts: 749
    Okay, here's one I'm confused about...

    IntServ uses the RSVP protocol, while DiffServ doesn't.

    And yet, CAC is enabled via RSVP, using the ip rsvp bandwidth command. So if I have a DiffServ deployment and I require CAC, is there some other way to deploy it? or have I just nullified the statement that DiffServ doesn't use RSVP?

    Much obliged,
    Mike
    There are only 10 kinds of people... those who understand binary, and those that don't.

    CCIE Studies: Written passed: Jan 21/12 Lab Prep: Hours reading: 385. Hours labbing: 110

    Taking a time-out to add the CCVP. Capitalizing on a current IPT pilot project.
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    redwarriorredwarrior Member Posts: 285
    ONT policed me the first time around. I think part of it was that it was my first professional level exam and, despite all the warnings from others, I think a part of me still expected it to require as much study as the CCNA. I think another part of it comes from the fact that the ONT exam guide is the smallest book in the stack, which makes it seem like it should be a breeze compared to the others, but that book summarizes a lot of material that you end up having to dig into much, much deeper. I thought ISCW was a lot easier than ONT.

    For the purposes of the exam, only IntServ uses RSVP to reserve bandwidth across the network, while DiffServ uses PHP (Per Hop Behavior) to handle prioritization of packets on a hop by hop basis. I'm not quite sure what this means for the real world as far as CAC in a DiffServ network is concerned (I don't have much real-world VoIP experience!), but I do know that for the purposes of the exam, it's important to keep those two separate. Perhaps one of our VoIP gurus can chime in here? What I'm thinking is perhaps the CAC is considered something separate that works as an overlay to whatever QoS scheme you are using, whereas using IntServ means that all QoS is performed using RSVP, but I could be wrong.
    CCNP Progress

    ONT, ISCW, BCMSN - DONE

    BSCI - In Progress

    http://www.redwarriornet.com/ <--My Cisco Blog
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    Met44Met44 Member Posts: 194
    Sorry to hear, mikearama. It does require a lot of detailed knowledge, which will make victory more sweet. Good luck on your next attempt.
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    bighornsheepbighornsheep Member Posts: 1,506
    Sorry to hear, but I can relate on how difficult this exam is.

    As for CAC, at least in the ONT context, I studied H.323 gatekeepers as per exam objectives.

    http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk1077/technologies_tech_note09186a00800c5e0d.shtml#funct
    Jack of all trades, master of none
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    TMM3TMM3 Member Posts: 39 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Thanks for the warning!
    And goodluck to you on your next shot.
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    PlazmaPlazma Member Posts: 503
    Yea.. the same thing happened to me too.. the BSCI made my brain jelly, the BCMSN annoyed the crap out of me, the ISCW was fun with a few twists and the ONT was "WTF?"
    CCIE - COMPLETED!
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    cdad2000cdad2000 Member Posts: 323
    You'll get it the next time. Nice doc bighornsheep
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    jezg76jezg76 Member Posts: 97 ■■□□□□□□□□
    I still have nightmares about that damn ONT test....46% on the wireless and a 2-point pass...w...t...f...
    policy-map type inspect TACO
    class type inspect BELL
    drop log
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    mikej412mikej412 Member Posts: 10,086 ■■■■■■■■■■
    Okay, you guys have convinced me -- I will not think of the current CCNP anymore as the BSCI exam, the BCMSN exam, and the 2 Easy exams. icon_lol.gif
    :mike: Cisco Certifications -- Collect the Entire Set!
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    mikearamamikearama Member Posts: 749
    Hmmm... can't update the thread title anymore?

    Anyway, hit this one again at noon today. OH YEAH, BABY! OWNED IT!

    Okay, 868 isn't exactly "owning" it, but hell, it's done. The last 5 days of review paid off.

    And just FYI regarding the timeline... I wasn't fast, until this last one.

    1) CCNA - July 16/07

    2) BCMSN - Oct 1/07

    3) BSCI - Aug 18/08

    4) ISCW - Nov 24/08

    5) ONT - Jan 7/09

    So, NP is done... on to SP.
    There are only 10 kinds of people... those who understand binary, and those that don't.

    CCIE Studies: Written passed: Jan 21/12 Lab Prep: Hours reading: 385. Hours labbing: 110

    Taking a time-out to add the CCVP. Capitalizing on a current IPT pilot project.
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    kpjunglekpjungle Member Posts: 426
    mikearama wrote: »
    Hmmm... can't update the thread title anymore?

    Anyway, hit this one again at noon today. OH YEAH, BABY! OWNED IT!

    Okay, 868 isn't exactly "owning" it, but hell, it's done. The last 5 days of review paid off.

    And just FYI regarding the timeline... I wasn't fast, until this last one.

    1) CCNA - July 16/07

    2) BCMSN - Oct 1/07

    3) BSCI - Aug 18/08

    4) ISCW - Nov 24/08

    5) ONT - Jan 7/09

    So, NP is done... on to SP.

    Congratulations dude! Well done and deserved!
    Studying for CCNP (All done)
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    kalebkspkalebksp Member Posts: 1,033 ■■■■■□□□□□
    Congrats!
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    dynamikdynamik Banned Posts: 12,312 ■■■■■■■■■□
    Congratulations! It's going to take a bit to get used to your new avatar ;)
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    mikej412mikej412 Member Posts: 10,086 ■■■■■■■■■■
    mikearama wrote: »
    OH YEAH, BABY!
    Congratulations! icon_thumright.gif
    mikearama wrote: »
    NP is done
    icon_cheers.gif

    Time for the BIG Celebration! drunken_smilie.gif
    :mike: Cisco Certifications -- Collect the Entire Set!
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    mikearamamikearama Member Posts: 749
    dynamik wrote: »
    Congratulations! It's going to take a bit to get used to your new avatar ;)

    hehehe... you prefered Mr Smith, my young padawan?
    There are only 10 kinds of people... those who understand binary, and those that don't.

    CCIE Studies: Written passed: Jan 21/12 Lab Prep: Hours reading: 385. Hours labbing: 110

    Taking a time-out to add the CCVP. Capitalizing on a current IPT pilot project.
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    networker050184networker050184 Mod Posts: 11,962 Mod
    Congrats!
    An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made.
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    miller811miller811 Member Posts: 897
    mikearama wrote: »
    hehehe... you prefered Mr Smith, my young padawan?

    Preferred is a strong word, comfortable with Mr Smith....

    congrats...
    I don't claim to be an expert, but I sure would like to become one someday.

    Quest for 11K pages read in 2011
    Page Count total to date - 1283
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    cdad2000cdad2000 Member Posts: 323
    Whoa!! Great job!
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    jamesp1983jamesp1983 Member Posts: 2,475 ■■■■□□□□□□
    congrats man!!
    "Check both the destination and return path when a route fails." "Switches create a network. Routers connect networks."
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    aragoen_celtdraaragoen_celtdra Member Posts: 246
    mikearama wrote: »
    Hmmm... can't update the thread title anymore?

    Anyway, hit this one again at noon today. OH YEAH, BABY! OWNED IT!

    Okay, 868 isn't exactly "owning" it, but hell, it's done. The last 5 days of review paid off.

    And just FYI regarding the timeline... I wasn't fast, until this last one.

    1) CCNA - July 16/07

    2) BCMSN - Oct 1/07

    3) BSCI - Aug 18/08

    4) ISCW - Nov 24/08

    5) ONT - Jan 7/09

    So, NP is done... on to SP.

    So it took 3 months for you to pass BCMSN from the time you passed the CCNA, but you took 10 months to get to BSCI. Why the discrepancy? Just wondering...

    Oh and congrats by the way ;)
    CCIE Wr: In Progress...
    Hours CCIE Wr Prep: 309:03:52
    Follow my study progress at Route My World!
    My CCIE Thread
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    mikearamamikearama Member Posts: 749
    aragoen_celtdra wrote: »
    So it took 3 months for you to pass BCMSN from the time you passed the CCNA, but you took 10 months to get to BSCI. Why the discrepancy? Just wondering...

    Oh and congrats by the way ;)

    Ah, good eye. While it took 10 months by the calender, it really didn't. Back in January I took a contract at a local university for a wireless project. They were a nortel shop, so I didn't bother to study one iota while I was there.

    So it was mid-April before I had a chance to start the BSCI trek. On top of that, I failed the BSCI the first attempt at the end of July. So let's call it four solid months of study... maybe four and a half.
    There are only 10 kinds of people... those who understand binary, and those that don't.

    CCIE Studies: Written passed: Jan 21/12 Lab Prep: Hours reading: 385. Hours labbing: 110

    Taking a time-out to add the CCVP. Capitalizing on a current IPT pilot project.
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