ONT Progress

Just figured I'd chronicle my progress on the ONT. My plan is to sit the exam on January 10th, 25 days from now.

I just finished one pass of the first chapter of the ONT official Cert Guide, Cisco VoIP Implementations. It's seems to be a lot of overlap with BCMSN, although it goes just a tiny bit more in depth.

Not feeling 100%, so I will be taking another pass between today and tomorrow. I wasnt feeling confident on the Bandwidth Calculation section.

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Decided I'm only gonna re-read the portions i'm fuzzy on, as this is not going to be a topic on the CCIE R&S and I am not in a VoIP role any longer. It would be counter-productive to re-read the entire chapter. I should be good to go with practice exams as far as learning the bandwidth calculation as long as I re-read and understand that section. Then it's on to the QOS portions.

Reading through the first chapter sections again I realize I understand the Packetization size for VoIP packets calculation. What I am not getting still is the packet rate (pps). For packetization size, each codec has a different overhead rate. for example, G.711 is 64k. So for 10ms of voice, a G.711 packet size should be 80Kb (64000 * 10/1000 = 640 bits. Divide that by 8 and you get 80 Kilobits). What I dont get is how you get packets per second from that equation. Never had to do any of this manually when doing VoIP. We had an application that would analyze the network and come up with reports for all of this stuff lol. It was expensive as hell, but now I know you get what you pay for. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Follow this link
"http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccnp/48768-voip-packet-size.html"

Thanks Geezer, appreciate the link.

Finishing reading bandwidth calculation section, hopefully I will retain it this time a little better. Looking at starting my first labs this weekend and continuing to run my first chapter practice exams over and over. Also looking at starting and finishing chapter 2, moving into QoS. Busy weekend

Pretty comfortable with calculating bandwidth requirements for VoIP by hand, need to keep up the practice so that I know it cold, but moving on to Chapter 2, IP Quality of Service. I've been listening to the CCIE QoS IPExpert audo bootcamp sections for the last few days, so i've got some background and theory going. Havent started any labs just yet, but plan on it tomorrow most likely. Next week will be an extra short week, so i'll have lots of time to get some labs in. Still on track so far for Jan 10, but it's hard to say this early in.

alright man, you motivated me and I started studying this weekend. Read through the same chapter 1 as you in the official exam cert guide, and watched the corresponding first video for the cbt nuggets. I do need to do a reread on that chapter however as well. I just cant let my wife catch me....i *promised* no studying till after the holidays!

lol, deceiving the wife to study. Did you ever think when you were trying to get OUT of studying in high school/college that you'd be trying to secretly study lol. I knew I would get you, dont get in trouble on account of me though. Even though my couch is pretty comfortable, I rather enjoy my bed

I started on chapter 2 yesterday, finished the first section. Planning on finishing up at least another section today, maybe two. Didnt get a chance to look at any labs yet. Busy weekend, putting up the tree (I know, super late) and playing with my family all weekend.

I didnt get nearly as much done as I had hoped, but such is life. Got a migration planned at work next week (I am Active Directory technical lead for a migration project from novell to MS) so i'll be prepping the new site mostly. I've already done most of the work, so I am pretty clear. I may do a little traveling, as I have some software placement to do at some of the outlying sites (OS, some of the servers need VT configuration for BIOS, etc) but for the most part this will be an easy week. Short and very slow.

Finished Chapter 2 today. Intro to QoS. Not much to say, very basic, really just setting up the groundwork for the next 7 or so chapters that are dedicated to QoS, discussing the three models, Best Effort, Int Ser and Diff Serv. Will be finishing chapter 3 tomorrow hopefully.

Good luck! I sit the ONT January 5th..pretty close to your date. I'm feeling pretty confident, although I need to do skim over the exam cert book before it. I'm ready to call the CCNP done, that's for sure!! Let us know how your test goes..

ONT was a good test. That was the last one to complete my CCNP so I took a lot of pride in really killing it. It shares a ton of info with the CCIP QoS exam so you may want to look into that since they're so similar.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the info. I am really starting to look at the labs and man, I dont know how i'm going to get these labs going. What did you guys use for lab material?

I set up QoS on my home network and used the priority queue for my xbox 360 traffic so that I could have low latency online gaming while fully saturating my internet connection with bit torrent and other traffic. You can get pretty creative with QoS.

SysAdmin4066 wrote: »

lol, deceiving the wife to study. Did you ever think when you were trying to get OUT of studying in high school/college that you'd be trying to secretly study lol. I knew I would get you, dont get in trouble on account of me though. Even though my couch is pretty comfortable, I rather enjoy my bed .

I saw this comment and I thought of how I am doing with my lovely wife in the same matter. Frankly, she is so supportive and she even waking me up to study when i am over sleeping. She even listening to me when i am talking to her about the progress that I am making, even though she does not really understand in details.

But she damn serious when it comes to bed time. After all, I guess we all controlled some how. lol

Starting Chapter 3 today. Did really well on chapter 2's Q&A and I feel really confident in the material. I really need to get my labs on though, I am not looking forward to them at all. This is about the worst subject, I am so not interested besides the VoIP. The only thing that keeps me motivated is knowing this is a subject on the CCIE. Expect to complete Chapter 3 today and finish up with chapters 4, 5, and 6 over the weekend. Chapter 3 is Clasification, Marking and NBAR. I am familiar via my VoIP days, but some refreshing is in order for sure.

SysAdmin4066 wrote: »

Starting Chapter 3 today. Did really well on chapter 2's Q&A and I feel really confident in the material. I really need to get my labs on though, I am not looking forward to them at all. This is about the worst subject, I am so not interested besides the VoIP. The only thing that keeps me motivated is knowing this is a subject on the CCIE. Expect to complete Chapter 3 today and finish up with chapters 4, 5, and 6 over the weekend. Chapter 3 is Clasification, Marking and NBAR. I am familiar via my VoIP days, but some refreshing is in order for sure.

Check out the QoS exam cert guide by Wendell Odom..I highly recommend it. I've read through the ONT book, but prefer the QoS book by Odom. It's a lot deeper then what will probably be on the ONT, but if you plan on going for the CCIE, then that's fine. I can honestly say it's a much easier read than most Cisco books..

And for what it's worth, I'm in the same boat as you. Reading the ONT book was miserable for me..but reading the QOS exam cert has made me actually interested in the subject somewhat.

Thanks Mrock, I'll have to check it out. I've been dragging ass through the holidays, so I'm way behind. I finished classificiation, marking and NBAR today and started the first section of Chapter 4. I got pretty good marks on the quiz too, so I'm retaining the info. I haven't started any practical application yet, and I've still got videos to watch after I start labbing. So it's looking like I'm gonna scrap my Jan 10th plans and shoot for early Feb. What are you doing or labs MRock?

I'll second the Odom QoS guide recommendation, as I'm reading through it now for the CCIP exam. The ONT Exam Certification Guide covers the topics well enough to pass the exam, but questions will occur, and there are parts of QoS that are just glossed over, so yeah, sure, while they may talk about shaping and policing, they don't actual cover how to do it - the Odom book will address any questions that occur to you.

The important thing to keep in mind about ONT is that it's not just QoS. If you don't give due attention to the other topics (VoIP and Wireless in particular) it can bury you.

But yeah, when you pass ONT, if you have any intention of doing the CCIP, I'd recommend taking the QoS exam soon after while the information is still fresh in your mind, there's a very large amount of overlap

SysAdmin4066 wrote: »

Thanks Mrock, I'll have to check it out. I've been dragging ass through the holidays, so I'm way behind. I finished classificiation, marking and NBAR today and started the first section of Chapter 4. I got pretty good marks on the quiz too, so I'm retaining the info. I haven't started any practical application yet, and I've still got videos to watch after I start labbing. So it's looking like I'm gonna scrap my Jan 10th plans and shoot for early Feb. What are you doing or labs MRock?

I did some QoS/VoIP at my last job, so I am drawing from some experience there, but as of late, I've just mostly worked on configuring QoS/playing with it, verifying it's implemented, and messing around on my LAN with it (giving certain services for my VM's preference/etc). A large majority of my studies as of late have been more geared towards reading, however. I feel confident I can pass the ONT based on my experience and heavy reading as of late, but I don't know how I'd do on the QoS exam without more hands-on.

Mrock4 wrote: »

I did some QoS/VoIP at my last job, so I am drawing from some experience there, but as of late, I've just mostly worked on configuring QoS/playing with it, verifying it's implemented, and messing around on my LAN with it (giving certain services for my VM's preference/etc). A large majority of my studies as of late have been more geared towards reading, however. I feel confident I can pass the ONT based on my experience and heavy reading as of late, but I don't know how I'd do on the QoS exam without more hands-on.

The QoS exam is cake.

Good, glad to hear it. Thanks for all of the advice guys. Finishing up chapter 4 today most likely. Work is going to be very slow, no one is here and i'm taking a half day. Long week of on-call behind me, emergency pages at 1 am can really mess with your sleep time. Probably wont get any studying in this weekend, i'll be in big bear at our resort with the family lounging a little for the new year. Happy New Year everyone!

So your bumpin the date a bit aye? I am kinda glad I took the holidays off, took a bit of pressure off my back, but now i am "jones'in" again. Probably hit it hard starting tomm., the only thing standing in my way now is one of my x-mas presents...call of duty mw2....damn. Havent played a video game in so long it got me hooked real quick...oh well better to break the habit now i guess

cheers dude, and good luck.

Man, thats my drug of choice as well. With the new baby, studying, and work my gaming took a backseat. I got MW2 when it first came out, beat the campaign mode and have been slowly leveling up online, but its not nearly at the pace I played the original. Yeah, I bumped the date because I lost so much time during the holidays that it would not have been a good idea. I am doing well on practice questions, and end of chapter questions which means I'm retaining the material, but I havent watched a single video and I havent done a single lab. So what are you doing for the labs, what are you using, equipment and lab materials-wise?

I got MW2 too

Online play is a lot of fun despite the lack of some features ( such as dedicated servers ). For peer 2 peer technology, it works pretty well if everybody has a good broadband link. California really needs to get on the FTTH bandwagon, or Silicon Valley / Bay Area at least. I want a fiber link to PAIX!

I've got FiOS, so its screaming for me. FTTH is awesome

I'm in SoCal. I hate being placed in games that are already going, especially if the game is pretty much over, like the leader has 500 or more points. That kind of deficit is impossible to come back from. I've been put into games that the leader has 800, 900, points. WTF???

Havent been reading or studying as much as I should have over the last week. Been moving gyms, now training with Team Quest in Temecula so I'm aclimating to the guys there. Big, strong guys and excellent Brazilian Jiu Jiutsu instructors (world champions, as well as famous) so I think I will do well there.

Finished Chapter 5 today on congestion avoidance methods, moving on through SDM labs, and starting some MQC labs today. Will be getting some more lab time later tonight, no training tonight.

I have the lab book for the ISCW and it states that we should be able to download a trial version of ACS that is good for 90 days...

Is it possible to down load this trial version without a support contract?

I am not looking for pirated software.

Thanks.

liven wrote: »

I have the lab book for the ISCW and it states that we should be able to download a trial version of ACS that is good for 90 days...

Is it possible to down load this trial version without a support contract?

I am not looking for pirated software.

Thanks.

Ya, neither myself of SysAdmin could find it either. Luckily I have ACS at work...but I think....correct me if I am wrong, he had Steel-belted radius. It kind of sucks that they dont offer it, as it would probably be helpful to alot of ccnp candidates.

liven wrote: »

Is it possible to down load this trial version without a support contract?

I downloaded the 4.x version when I did my CCSP. It looks like the 5.1 version is currently available for download -- but I don't remember if there were any additional steps or instructions.

Follow the Download Software link on the Cisco Secure Access Server Product Page. You may have to page down and look at the double columns on the right side of the page under the Support Section (not to be confused with the Support web page menu option). The link takes you directly to the ACS Software download options in the download software option tree.

I tried and tried and tried to find that software. Couldnt find it anywhere. On the Cisco website it asks for a valid contract. And yes, we use Steel Belted Radius at work.

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