David's CCIE: R+S Thread

gorebrush

Ah! Looking at the CCIE Lab scheduling page - if one is to hover over the little (?) button - it floats up a window confirming that "You will get access two weeks after passing the written" - So I can stop panicking now.

carterw65

It will take several days, but I don't remember it taking as long as they say it could. FWIW, I was just as impatient.

gorebrush

Glad it isn't just me.

I can't even book the slot I really want, but just want the feeling of having it "booked"

gorebrush

Ha! My persistence/impatience paid off....

April 14 2014, Brussels.

When possible I will try and move it to London in June/July.

gorebrush

Well it seems I have a very good support network. My Dad has said that he'd pick up the cost of my lab as long as I pass That's of course if I decide to pay for itself and not try and get my employer to pay for it. I will pick up my travel expenses, £40 train return, and £50 a night hotel - so probably will cost me £200 in travel - which is just fine. Damn sight cheaper than going to Belgium!!

gorebrush

After two very busy days at work, I am sitting here chilling out sipping red wine and waiting for Civilization 5 to download.

Tonight, I shall be relaxing.

Tomorrow, we begin the lab prep, proper. I've been looking forward to this.

gorebrush

Straight into the groove. Adding 9 hours to the counter tonight, all video based. Going to get through entire set of videos and maybe lab on the way through. Mainly L2 Ethernet stuff tonight, STP, VTP, DTP etc.

Find STP like wading through treacle at times Bring on the L3 Routing..........

Mrock4

Keep up the good work. I'd try hard to talk to your employer- my previous employer was *known* for not paying for CCIE stuff, but they even offered to pay once I talked to them about it a couple of times..so you may be surprised!

Enjoy the labbing, April 2014 will be here before you know it!

gorebrush

Well the Telecoms Manager is off at the moment but I have dropped him a mail. Next time I see him he will have known about it.

carterw65

I am taking the lab around the same time you are. I have scheduled Brussels on 18 Mar, but hope to move it to Apr. I wanted to attempt in May really, but life just changed on my a little so I need to have it done in Mar or Apr now.

I hope to attend the London Bootcamp in January. I am looking for a place to stay that isn't too expensive, maybe a hostel or something. We shall see how it all turns out!

gorebrush

Sounds good, where are you based?

I only booked April in Belgium as a preliminary. Really want the mobile spot in June/July!

carterw65

I am in Belgium, not far from Brussels so it is very convenient for me.

gorebrush

Nice.

Adding 5 hours to the counter tonight, and my first 2 hours labbing been experimenting...

gorebrush

So here we are - back for Day #1. I've been reading that book by the "2 Double CCIEs" that suggests I build a timeline, so I spent a few hours doing that yesterday. It's basically a big Excel spreadsheet that has a tab for an RFC list, a calendar with my scheduled days at work and breaks (I've got some annual leave coming up and things I'd promise the wife I'd do) and I figure, best case (and I doubt I'll hit it) There's like... 2000 hours worth of studying I can get done between now and June. That is very optimistic, but at the worst, I figure if I can hit 70% of that then there is enough time in there to get the right amount of work done.

Got a small job for this morning while I am reading up. Fed up of fighting with Linux so I've decided to move my Microserver back to Windows Server. Seeing as I'm an MCSE (although that's now retired) - this makes sense.

Putting another 5 hours on the reading counter for yesterday too.

gorebrush

Put only a couple of hours in yesterday. Though I did get a new laptop which was sweet. Lenovo Yoga thing, I quite like it. Not sure how useful it will be for labbing yet, but it is an i5 and I've ordered an 8GB Memory module for it, so it should suffice for most things that I could want to do with it.

EdTheLad

I'm hoping to get a lab attempt in over the next 6 months, just started back on the study again, this time with more conviction.I plan to follow through this time, since i let all my other certs expire.Anyway should be a few of us sitting it early next year . Good luck with your studies!

gorebrush

Hi Ed!

Good to see you back! I'm on the biggest roll this time - even though it is like my 3rd attempt at going through it all. The written has been the biggest catalyst to progress now, really want to get this nailed. Told everyone at work about it and got some very nice feedback from my manager and colleagues. It's a really good feeling

Mrock4

It seems we all went through the process of studying..not studying..studying..not studying. It's almost a rite of passage! The good news is, the previous time you spent studying is certainly not wasted.

You'll both get your digits in no time!

gorebrush

Well this is my last shift of this 4. I've had too much to do so no studying.

I've got 12 days off and I've promised those to my wife, so looks like I'm taking a short holiday

Will keep my eye on the ball but I need a reset and refresh.

gorebrush

Two day shifts with zero studying. Disappointing, but they were busy shifts, and I managed to solve some big troubles that 4 other engineers (2 of them 3rd line...) could not solve.

I count it all as good troubleshooting though.

gorebrush

I knew taking a two week break would screw it all up for me.

I'm at work for my 6th shift now (overtime) and I've done nothing for the previous 5 shifts. Very disappointed, but I need to get back into it.

Trouble is - I've taken a real hammering this 5 shifts, so even if I really wanted to get some stuff done, I would have been too busy to do so!

So lets see if I can get something done tonight, last shift, 9 hours to go.

Come on Dave, let's do this.

gorebrush

Managed to get "some", but not a lot. Another case of life getting in the way of the pursuit, but I will not let it stop me - just need to get my plan together and pray for some quite time at work. Won't study today or tomorrow, only days off before back at work. Need to keep the wife happy as well, and I've got that little game called GTA5 to play (could not resist)

Got Sunday at work, then Wednesday night, then back to normal, 4 days off and hopefully get a good chunk of stuff done there.

I did create a tracker spreadsheet, and worked out that I could probably get over 2000 hours of study in between now and July, if I were to study 100% of the time. I don't think I will manage 100% study all of the time (I mean like 10 hours a day on every day off, counting on 10 hours a day every shift I am at work (where it is quiet)). I don't think I will get 2000 hours in by then, however, I can at least effectively track what hours I've done, what videos I've watched, what labs/practice I've attempted.

Currently I am about to start some more videos and will then start labbing from there.

reaper81

1000 hours is a pretty good ballpark figure what it takes to prepare so if you can do 50% of that you should be able to pull off a good first attempt.

gorebrush

OK so I have had a 3 week break - got back to it on the weekend. Added 20 hours reading to the counter. Now need to start practicing the labbing...

Some very interesting prospects have appeared here at work - possibly a Architect role - I have been advised to keep an eye on it, as these may pop up next year and I would be a very strong candidate....

I now need to accelerate my IE plans, a lot. Biggest incentive, ever.

I have a lab spot for April in Belgium. Tempted to gun straight for it head first.

gorebrush

May 19th, 2014. - Brussels, Belgium.

Going for it.

gorebrush

This just in, Cisco IOU is rather buggy.

Broke within like, 20 minutes of labbing. Time to buy gear.

gorebrush

So, some scouring of eBay and talks with my wife later - found what looks to be a cracking lab. Waiting to see if my offer is accepted now.

gorebrush

I do wonder if I have set myself a rather ambitious target of sitting a lab in April. With no real equipment to speak of at the moment then I'm not going to start much soon.

In the meantime I think I will just continue looking through some of the video's of got and brushing up on all the theory so I'm not wasting time. For the limited amount of benefit I can get from the virtual forms of Cisco Routing, I might as well break out GNS3 and start labbing up things just to solidify the concepts.

gorebrush

Man, I spent like, 4 hours trying to order a kit of Cisco gear and ended up nearly ordering all the parts from 5 different sellers and I was always compromising on something.

In the end I've gone and ordered a kit that worked out slightly cheaper, comes from a single seller, and was guaranteed to have all the correct memory and slots, cables etc.

So I've got a grand total of 10 routers, 4 switches, a rack and all associated toys coming

phamid

What lab are you planning on building?

All the best for you preparations for you lab! I can totally understand work cramming you with little study time to spare, just keep your eye on May 2014!!