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Passed 640-553 yesterday

mitchflossinmitchflossin Member Posts: 28 ■■■□□□□□□□
in CCNA Security
I did extremely well... only missed a few questions. I definitely recommend anyone considering it to take it before it's replaced by the 640-554. I used GNS3 with SDM for labbing (it was a nightmare... .my advice would be to install it on xp and use an old version of java). I also used the cisco press book from Catherine P. Very straight forward exam.

Good luck to everyone else.
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    hiddenknight821hiddenknight821 Member Posts: 1,209 ■■■■■■□□□□
    Congrats on the pass!

    And...thanks for the suggestion. I'm pretty much using the same resources you are using. One thing I hate about the SDM is that I can't get it to work with Cisco IOS IPS. I am having trouble obtaining the signature files, but I figure I can get by with watching a bunch of videos on IOS IPS on YouTube. I plan to book the exam the following week.
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    spd3432spd3432 Member Posts: 224
    hiddenknight821 wrote: »
    Congrats on the pass!

    And...thanks for the suggestion. I'm pretty much using the same resources you are using. One thing I hate about the SDM is that I can't get it to work with Cisco IOS IPS. I am having trouble obtaining the signature files, but I figure I can get by with watching a bunch of videos on IOS IPS on YouTube. I plan to book the exam the following week.

    I ran into the same problem with my 2620xm's (c2600-advsecurityk9-mz.124-15.T14.bin) . However, the ios I had for my 1721's (c1700-advsecurityk9-mz124-9T.bin) had a built-in IPS signature that I was able to use.
    ----CCNP goal----
    Route [ ] Studying
    Switch [ ] Next
    Tshoot [ ] Eventually
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    fadhilfadhil Member Posts: 200
    congrats
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    AintRiteAintRite Member Posts: 84 ■■□□□□□□□□
    congrats on the pass. I guess I'm going to be one of the people to take the newer test.
    WGU - BS: IT Security...in progress
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    petedudepetedude Member Posts: 1,510
    mitchflossin wrote: »
    I definitely recommend anyone considering it to take it before it's replaced by the 640-554. I used GNS3 with SDM for labbing (it was a nightmare... .my advice would be to install it on xp and use an old version of java).

    Yeah, I'm kinda stuck with 553 anyway, as I have a late July deadline to re-up my CCNA. Yuck. . .
    hiddenknight821 wrote: »
    One thing I hate about the SDM is that I can't get it to work with Cisco IOS IPS.

    I'm running actual live hardware (26xx series) routers. So far so good, except I wish I'd noticed that 2610xm units only have one FastEthernet port. Also from the "I wish I'd known" department, you're not going to get full use of 256K of RAM unless you have a newer boot ROM. . .
    Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
    --Will Rogers
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    molinaromolinaro Registered Users Posts: 1 ■□□□□□□□□□
    Hi,
    I am preparing for my 640-553 exam, i am using the cisco press book from Catherine P and GNS3 with SDM for my Labs.
    The problem is that my IOSs don't support all tasks, specialy SDM tasks (S2S VPN, IPS...etc).
    Can you send me an IOS please.
    Thank you
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