Back to Cisco!

Havn't played around with Cisco gear much since the end of January.

Going to start preparing for the BSCI soon.

Plan is to start off with the self study giude and TCp/IP vol 1 first. Move onto the official guide and finish up with CBT and Chris Bryant video lectures.

Woohoo!

Microsoft is not fun..

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GT-Rob

very good. Microsoft is NOT fun! Stay away!

welcome back to the green side. er, turquoise side.

iproute

ConstantlyLearning wrote: »

Microsoft is not fun..

Welcome back

It depends on where your interests are I guess. My buddy loves the Microsoft stuff. I found it extremely boring. But I was always more interested in how computers talk to each other.

peanutnoggin

Welcome back!!! Now hit the books...

LOL!!!! Good luck with your studies...

V/r

~Peanut

gbadman

ConstantlyLearning wrote: »

Havn't played around with Cisco gear much since the end of January.

Going to start preparing for the BSCI soon.

Plan is to start off with the self study giude and TCp/IP vol 1 first. Move onto the official guide and finish up with CBT and Chris Bryant video lectures.

Woohoo!

Microsoft is not fun..

How I envy you. You're coming out. I've just entered the dark side. I need serious mental readjustment to get through this. I suppose the best way is to focus on getting it done as quickly as possible, so i can be out as early as possible.

billscott92787

Don't forget as well that the exam changes June 23rd, 2010. See here: http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccnp/47284-ccnp-2010-updates.html

I have to say CBT Nuggets videos and Train Signal with Chris Bryant are pretty good. I have reviewed both in a few areas preparing to take my BCMSN, which is this Thursday.

mwgood

I currently find Microsoft more interesting than Cisco, but at one time it was the other way around. I suppose it depends on what you're into at any given time.

One thing is for certain though - you tend to get better compensation for Cisco skills because they are more difficult and more rarely acquired.

At the same time - depending on your work environment - it can pay to be well-rounded.

ConstantlyLearning

Yeah, current plan is to complete bsci and bcmsn by the end of June. We'll see what cisco say about the whole thing.

stlsmoore

ConstantlyLearning wrote: »

Yeah, current plan is to complete bsci and bcmsn by the end of June. We'll see what cisco say about the whole thing.

Yea I'm hoping I can knock out BSCI then just take care of whatever new exams Cisco throws our way.

iproute

ConstantlyLearning wrote: »

Yeah, current plan is to complete bsci and bcmsn by the end of June. We'll see what cisco say about the whole thing.

Good plan. I'm going to focus on getting BCMSN out of the way and then re-assess (when more information is available) on whether to do the ISCW/ONT path or TSHOOT path.

ConstantlyLearning

Bit of a change.

Decided to study for the BCMSN first because my company uses some 3560's but no routers so it makes sense.

Started by going through all the ccna topics again, concentrating more on the switching topics.

Have gone through the cbt nuggets for vlan's and stp/rstp. Seemed light on detail. Pretty much the same level as CCNA.

I do remember another poster saying that the cbt nuggets are a good intro, but that's all.

EDIT: Just received my first layer 3 switch! A 3550.

What do people find are the main features the 3550 doesn't support that the 3560 does?
My company used PVLAN's so that is the most annoying thing for me. Got the 3550 because it's cheaper.

Mishra

iproute wrote: »

Welcome back It depends on where your interests are I guess. My buddy loves the Microsoft stuff. I found it extremely boring. But I was always more interested in how computers talk to each other.

Just because you may focus more on Microsoft doesn't mean you can't learn how computers talk to each other. I just the same satisfaction from the systems world by figuring out how things talk to each other and exactly what the computer is doing! It's all good in both worlds.

burbankmarc

Give me Cisco, and *nix any day. I hate working with MS.

Cyanic

ConstantlyLearning wrote: »

EDIT: Just received my first layer 3 switch! A 3550.

What do people find are the main features the 3550 doesn't support that the 3560 does?

GLBP also. I think that and Private Vlans were the only exam topics you could not practice on the 3550.

Forsaken_GA

burbankmarc wrote: »

Give me Cisco, and *nix any day. I hate working with MS.

Amen to that, my man. Especially since they go so well hand in hand. I wonder how many Windows admins know that their ability to communicate over the public internet was derived (to put it politely) from unixland.

GT-Rob

They also have some default behavior differences, but for CCNP theres really nothing you will miss except what Cyanic mentioned. Most people don't even get their hands on a 3550 so you are cookin'

ConstantlyLearning

GT-Rob wrote: »

They also have some default behavior differences, but for CCNP theres really nothing you will miss except what Cyanic mentioned. Most people don't even get their hands on a 3550 so you are cookin'

Have another one arriving next week.

Sucks about PVLAN's and GLBP. My company uses PVLAN's on a couple of their switches but it looks pretty damn misconfigured. I would love to have been able to do testing at home but it looks like I'll just have to study their configs and PVLAN's and do up new config's from theory.

GLBP seems the most interesting of the redundancy protocols with the active/active and all so would have liked to have been able to play with that as well.

I reckon a lot of people fail the BCMSN because of the CBT Nuggets! If the test were just the material in the CBT Nuggets, it'd be easy!

Feeling pretty confident about this exam over all. Studying for the CWNA will help me with some of the wireless topics which seems to be an area a lot of people fall down on.

ConstantlyLearning

Got the BCMSN Lab Portfolio today.

My original plan was to go through CBT Nuggets first, then the self-study guide and then the Lab Portfolio.

But, there are certain bits of advice that come up on TE that are just fact, such as "lab, lab, lab" and "repitition".

So with that in mind, what I'm planning to do now is:

1) Finish off the Nuggets
2) Go through the Lab Portfolio
3) Go through the Self-Study Guide, and go through the Lab Portfolio guide for the topics I've just completed in the Self-Study guide.
4) Weak topics from all material as needed.

I also have the official study guide and the ONT official study guide which has some wireless chapters.

JavonR

ConstantlyLearning wrote: »

Got the BCMSN Lab Portfolio today.

My original plan was to go through CBT Nuggets first, then the self-study guide and then the Lab Portfolio.

But, there are certain bits of advice that come up on TE that are just fact, such as "lab, lab, lab" and "repitition".

So with that in mind, what I'm planning to do now is:

1) Finish off the Nuggets
2) Go through the Lab Portfolio
3) Go through the Self-Study Guide, and go through the Lab Portfolio guide for the topics I've just completed in the Self-Study guide.
4) Weak topics from all material as needed.

I also have the official study guide and the ONT official study guide which has some wireless chapters.

Good luck man. I'm planning on revving up BCMSN study over the next little bit as well. I agree with you, the nuggets make it look easy! (first thing I went through). The lab / reading approach is by far the way to go. Nuggets for a refresh at the end.

ConstantlyLearning

Right, so at this stage I've gone through:

CBT Nuggets
Trainsignal videos
Authorised self-study guide

The areas I'm weak in are:

Voice (especially classing, queuing, DSCP, CoS etc.)
Wireless
STP (especially MST/IST)
Security (especially DHCP snooping, DAI etc.)

I'll be going through the CCIE CBT Nuggets switching videos, INE CCNP Bootcamp BCMSN videos and the lab portfolio.

Exam booked for May 14th.

ConstantlyLearning

Right,

Well I went through the CCIE CBT Nuggets switching videos, INE CCNP Bootcamp BCMSN videos, the lab portfolio guide and the trainsignal videos again.

Just did a Boson exam there which seems way off the level that the actual exam will be. Got 88% which I wasn't happy with.

Still not feeling very confident on some areas like QOS/Voice and some security topics.

sniper_here

Welcome back !!

Stay away from boring Microsoft

hahahahaaaaa

ConstantlyLearning

Reviewed configuration for the below:

Port security
AAA/802.1x
DHCP snooping
DAI
IP source guard
VACL's
pVLAN's

Will review RSTP and MSTP tomorrow.

itdaddy

Quote:
Originally Posted by burbankmarc
Give me Cisco, and *nix any day. I hate working with MS.

Amen to that, my man. Especially since they go so well hand in hand. I wonder how many Windows admins know that their ability to communicate over the public internet was derived (to put it politely) from unixland.

1000 % agree Yuk!

MS$$ sucks. I mean it is just box jockey stuff. I mean all net engineers really need to know is what protocol and what port it needs rest is software click boxes hear an there. Gui crap. I mean it is nice to understand what they are doing. But after a while the net engineer stuff is the real cake!

Welcome back. Cisco rocks!

mikej412

itdaddy wrote: »

I mean it is just box jockey stuff.

Without those crappy boxes, you'd have lots of networks to nowhere.

itdaddy

you know very true funny isnt how we need it all.

both are important..I agree. That is kind of funny isnt it.

they are the pay loads arent they.

Like a bunch of roads with no cars to drive on them!

I am just being a wine baby! but yeah I like server junk, just
so many toys so little time

ConstantlyLearning

BCMSN exam tomorrow morning.

Going to go through the "Scenarios for final preparation" chapter of the certification guide tonight.

Cyanic

Good luck

creamy_stew

Good luck man!

Treat that exam like the Black & Tans