Stopping LIFE to pursue CCIE Lab

NOC-Ninja

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

She was okay with it from the beginning and I let her know exactly what we were getting into. She's been pretty supportive so far, but she asks for her time with me of course. She just took a job as a consultant, so she is going to be out of town half the time anyway. I don't feel too burned out. There are some days or weeks when I can tell I'm just not focused. I take a break then. Better to take a break rather then half-ass it and not really learn the material.

Good to hear!

NOC-Ninja

Labbing some more tonight till sat. Ill be at maryland on sunday. I have a whole week of ipv6 training at baltimore. Im hoping to check out washington dc while im there. Ill probably drive around as soon as i get out of the training. no labbing next week.

instant000

Kim:

Looking for an update here. How was Washington?

NOC-Ninja

instant000 wrote: »

Kim:

Looking for an update here. How was Washington?

Sorry for late reply. Ive been busy with labbing and banging my head to the wall.

Washington was okay. I hate the humid weather but the trip was free so i cant complain that much. I like the metro since it seems to be cost effective and the part that there were a lot of DOD or tech jobs. However, Im sure that living at washington dc is expensive. Anyhow, Maryland baltimore was dead at night. There was nothing to do and I didnt really want to go to a bar/party at washington DC then go back to maryland baltimore tipsy or drunk. I miss california after spending 2 days over there. I didnt know anybody so I awkward walking around, alone. lol I went to the monuments, museums, and white house after the seminar. I dont miss washington dc after going back to cali.

The bootcamp was great. The CCIE guy that was presenting IPV6 seminar was using IOU. He said it took him more than once to pass the IE lab. He was also smiling when I told him that I am taking the test on nov. He knew that I don't have a social life and what kind of hell I'm going through. He gave me pointers on how to study. I definitely learn a some things on that seminar. Its so different to have a CCIE that you can ask face to face.

I spoke to narbik's wife and they finally sent us the official confirmation letter/email for the bootcamp on sept. However, they dont have any rack rentals left so i dont know how am i going lab while Im at the class. She also said that the class is full and there's a waiting list. Good thing, Im not on the waiting list. I guess there's a lot of people that wants to be a CCIE.

Back to labbing.

Are you pursuing any certs right now?

NOC-Ninja

Im stuck trying to study troubleshooting. Does anybody here have any idea how to study troubleshooting?

I think Im satisfied with my configuring skills. There's so much to do that I end up eating while doing the dishes and cooking for lunch.

jamesp1983

Do you have the INE WBs? WBIV is pretty good. There are also some books on amazon that contain troubleshooting labs.

nerdydad

NOC-Ninja wrote: »

Im stuck trying to study troubleshooting. Does anybody here have any idea how to study troubleshooting?

I think Im satisfied with my configuring skills. There's so much to do that I end up eating while doing the dishes and cooking for lunch.

Once I get to that point, I plan on using some of the troubleshooting labs from like cisco360, in the mean time, I used Boson's TSHOOT sim for studying for my TSHOOT exam and continue doing them on occasion just to practice, but not enough to memorize them. Then of course I get to troubleshoot things at work every day.

Roguetadhg

You could have someone break the configuration files you send to them in a zip file. Load the broken config files, fix the problems.

How are the NP labs for Boson NetSim?

thadizzy

NOC-Ninja wrote: »

Im stuck trying to study troubleshooting. Does anybody here have any idea how to study troubleshooting?

I think Im satisfied with my configuring skills. There's so much to do that I end up eating while doing the dishes and cooking for lunch.

My best tip is when you do configurations for various technologies, spend time with verifying the solution even if you already know its working correct. The biggest gain doing this is you will get a quick feeling from the show commands how it looks like when everything is working correct.
Also you get a bigger knowledge of all available show commands to verify a solution which is a timesaver when you're on the clock. Trying to look for good show commands for a technology you know how to configure is not the best way to spend the two hours.

From my own experience I'd say if you have spent so much time in the lab that you have, add to that realworld experience - i would not be too worried about this section of the lab-exam. The troubleshooting section is mainly there to prevent cheaters who try to pass with a **** of the lab.

NOC-Ninja

jamesp1983 wrote: »

Do you have the INE WBs? WBIV is pretty good. There are also some books on amazon that contain troubleshooting labs.

Im using Narbiks WB.

NOC-Ninja

nerdydad wrote: »

Once I get to that point, I plan on using some of the troubleshooting labs from like cisco360, in the mean time, I used Boson's TSHOOT sim for studying for my TSHOOT exam and continue doing them on occasion just to practice, but not enough to memorize them. Then of course I get to troubleshoot things at work every day.

Thanks but I dont think those will help me...

NOC-Ninja

Roguetadhg wrote: »

You could have someone break the configuration files you send to them in a zip file. Load the broken config files, fix the problems.

How are the NP labs for Boson NetSim?

I havent seen the Boson netsim

NOC-Ninja

thadizzy wrote: »

My best tip is when you do configurations for various technologies, spend time with verifying the solution even if you already know its working correct. The biggest gain doing this is you will get a quick feeling from the show commands how it looks like when everything is working correct.
Also you get a bigger knowledge of all available show commands to verify a solution which is a timesaver when you're on the clock. Trying to look for good show commands for a technology you know how to configure is not the best way to spend the two hours.

From my own experience I'd say if you have spent so much time in the lab that you have, add to that realworld experience - i would not be too worried about this section of the lab-exam. The troubleshooting section is mainly there to prevent cheaters who try to pass with a **** of the lab.

Thanks.
Im trying to create a lab. Ive tried creating it on the IOU but its not working.

I have to create it the dynamips. Well, I need a lot of time to create it.

NOC-Ninja

I got less than 3 months. whoooo I can feel the pressure building up.
Im going to attempt to do a 5hrs tonight of Ip services labbing. Let the more headache begin.

NOC-Ninja

I packed some healthy snacks, 10 monster drinks for the war (narbik bootcamp normal hours are 9am till 9pm) and clothes. Ill be posting my experience after a week!

Roguetadhg

Have fun! Take pictures!

NOC-Ninja

Bootcamp schedule =

Day 1
1 = 8hr assessment lab
Layer 2 – secuirty
Frame relay

Day 2
Ospf 6-7hrs
EIGRP - 7pm
Out 8pm or 10pm

Day 3
Bgp
Mpls
L3 VPNs
Out 8pm


Day 4
QOS – entire day
Long day
Lecture stops at 630pm
7:00pm – 9:00pm – troubleshooting (30 routers on the POD)

Configuring Lab - 10pm -430-500am

Day 5 – Friday
Multicast
Finish before 12

NOC-Ninja

Monday we went from 9am till 930pm. I was so tired. I did my first 8hrs mock lab. It killed me! Definitely an eye opener. I got all confused with the Ip address scheme. Other than that I know which weaknesses I have. i will definitely study more on those. Narbik is funny. He was still telling jokes at the end of the night even though everyone was tired.

spiderjericho

Thursday looks to be tiring. Make sure to bring an IV of caffeine.

It sounds like the same experience my ex supervisor had.

Hope the experience helps to put the finishing touches on your lab prep.

Essendon

That Day 4 schedule is MENTAL!! That's like 20 hours of almost continuous study, but then again you have Narbik to keep you awake and that 5 digit number beckons, not to mention the coin you had to shell out.

NOC-Ninja

9am -950pm today. So tired and we have homework. We have to do troubleshooting tickets at our hotel

reaper81

I know everyone always says Narbik is great and he probably is but I'm not sure I agree with that teaching style where you have such long days. I don't think it is efficient for learning. At the INE bootcamp we had long days but we were there from 9 AM to 20 PM and then we had some config we could do if we wanted though. This would not take more than 1-2h though. So you could still sleep well enough and hang out for a while with other people if you wanted to.

I think that is a better format but it requires 10 days to cover the material. Just something to consider if you are choosing which bootcamp to go to.

Zartanasaurus

Essendon wrote: »

That Day 4 schedule is MENTAL!! That's like 20 hours of almost continuous study, but then again you have Narbik to keep you awake and that 5 digit number beckons, not to mention the coin you had to shell out.

Yeah that's just ridiculous. That's almost 24 hours of cramming or so? No way.

spiderjericho

I wish there were statistics if IPExpert, INE and Micronics student's lab pass rates to see which approach is the best.

Ahriakin

Cramming like that is often (at least periodically) a part of the IE journey. It definitely should not be the norm but for a limited run like this I think it's pretty acceptable.

As for vendor success stats they will always be skewed since pretty much everyone will use materials/rentals from multiple providers. Most of those providers crawl the usual sites to see if anyone on their customer list has passed, then will add them as a success story. I mostly credited INE with my pass since I thought their material was the best and I used it for probably 75% of my lab work, so I sent them an email when I passed. A few weeks later I saw I had also shown up on some other vendors lists even though I hadn't said a word to them.

NOC-Ninja

Ahriakin wrote: »

Cramming like that is often (at least periodically) a part of the IE journey. It definitely should not be the norm but for a limited run like this I think it's pretty acceptable.

As for vendor success stats they will always be skewed since pretty much everyone will use materials/rentals from multiple providers. Most of those providers crawl the usual sites to see if anyone on their customer list has passed, then will add them as a success story. I mostly credited INE with my pass since I thought their material was the best and I used it for probably 75% of my lab work, so I sent them an email when I passed. A few weeks later I saw I had also shown up on some other vendors lists even though I hadn't said a word to them.

which vendor was that?

NOC-Ninja

spiderjericho wrote: »

I wish there were statistics if IPExpert, INE and Micronics student's lab pass rates to see which approach is the best.

Look at Darby Weaver's review. Google it. LOL

NOC-Ninja

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

Yeah that's just ridiculous. That's almost 24 hours of cramming or so? No way.

Yesterday was 8hrs QoS and then Lab. The lab consisted of 2 hrs Troubleshooting and 6hrs Configuring.

NOC-Ninja

reaper81 wrote: »

I know everyone always says Narbik is great and he probably is but I'm not sure I agree with that teaching style where you have such long days. I don't think it is efficient for learning. At the INE bootcamp we had long days but we were there from 9 AM to 20 PM and then we had some config we could do if we wanted though. This would not take more than 1-2h though. So you could still sleep well enough and hang out for a while with other people if you wanted to.

I think that is a better format but it requires 10 days to cover the material. Just something to consider if you are choosing which bootcamp to go to.

I think its depends on the person. Initially, I chose him because he was closer. I didnt want to travel to IPexpert or INE. The next reason was due to Darby Weaver's review on Ipexpert, INE and Narbik. After experiencing everything today. I truly believe that his better than other vendors. Ive seen videos of other vendors and I would fall asleep. Dont get me wrong. They are good. They are technical but there's a difference between a technical person and a technical person with a gift to teach.

Ill be posting my complete review of the bootcamp this weekend.

reaper81

I have no doubt that Narbik is great. I think you can't go wrong with that or INE. Brian Dennis is a great teacher, he knows the IOS inside out just like Narbik. I would choose one of those two over IPX.

I don't have much respect for Darby Weaver so I won't really consider anything he is stating.