ONT and ISCW Lab portfolios - worth buying?

mfieldhouse

What kind of hardware is required to lab up most of the stuff in these guides? I imagine for ONT you'd need wireless LAN controllers, access points and VoIP phones whereas ISCW, PIXs and ASAs.

I'm definitely going to be getting BCMSN lab portfolio - I've plenty of spare switches but none of what I just mentioned.

Thanks

networker050184

No PIX or ASA needed for ISCW, they are not covered. You can get by the ONT without wireless or voip gear, but if you have some laying around you might as well use it.

I'm not sure what the exact equipment requirements for the lab portfolios are, but you should be good with the same setup you would have used for BSCI for ONT and ISCW assuming the routers support SDM.

redwarrior

I didn't get the lab portfolios for ISCW or ONT. For ONT, it was so concentrated on theory versus configuration that I'm not sure how much it would have helped. For ISCW, I thought the biggest hurdle was becoming familiar with the SDM interface, which I was able to do with just playing with my 1710, setting up VPN's and firewall features and then removing them, etc.

I loved the lab portfolio while I was preparing for BCMSN and thought it was great to have and I've ordered it now for my BSCI studies. For me, these two have been much more about configuration than ISCW and ONT were. Your mileage may vary.

qp81

I'd like more input on this myself.. i have teb BSCI and BCMSN lab portfolios and love it.

kryolla

I would get ISCW but for ONT you need a traffic generator so I hardly used my lab portfolio, just read through it.

Panzer919

I got all the Lab books and they are well worth the money. Also I highly recommend theve command quick reference library. There is one for each section and if your into building your own labs its a good tool to have.

half.com usually has them cheaper than ciscopress.com

qp81

i've got teh command ref library already....and a traffic generator is easyto find ...I guess i'll put it on my shopping list for next month..though i should be saving up for my cie book list...

mfieldhouse

Thanks for the replies. My first attempt at BSCI I failed with 755 and poor performance on Multicast, IS-IS and OSPF. I then worked through all of BSCI lab portfolio excercises under these areas and passed a month later with 877.

I've decided I'm going to get the BCMSN and ISCW lab portfolios, I have have been reading through the ONT exam guide and like a few of you have said, a lot of it seems theory based.

qp81

congrats! i'm taking BSCI again (633) OSPF and ISIS got me suprisingly did well in Multicast and IPv6, a lot of ppl in my circle(CCNP prep) missed those topics. I"m blaming my laziness with the labs on that....round 2 in mid july. This time i'm nailing it! GL on BCMSN.