How many times can I restart.... <blog>

I started my path towards CCIE R&S 2 years ago, passed the written, then quit. A year ago I decided "Now is the time!!!" I put in maybe 20 hours over 3 weeks, then let life get in my way again... Shame on me.

I am getting a little older. I don't want to party like I did even a year ago. Other dramas in life are calming down (or I just don't care anymore, either way) I now have a supportive woman in my life.

So, Here we go. 3rd time is the charm. I have already put in the time to pass the written again, and have started my lab work 2 weeks ago. This time I have an actual plan. My employer purchased all the INE R&S Vol 4 books, I found a great study plan utilizing all 4 volumes with a weekly subject plan.
With a goal and a map to get there; I am already farther in this attempt than I got in the last 2.
My plan is to now update this thread 2-3 times a week with whatever I learn.

I hereby open this thread to mockery of my lack of commitment for a period not to exceed 7 days from today. If you have been better committed to you studies, or if you have been a slacker like me; feel free to mock, heckle, jeer, or condemn as you see fit. I welcome all comments.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

qrilock

<blog from Aug 12>
Passed 350-001 today. Feels good to take a test again.

qrilock

<Blog from Aug 19>
I have determined I know even less about frame relay than I thought I did. I am now convinced that a drunken chimp has about the same odds of getting a circuit to come up stable. Hopefully by this time next week I will at least be able to quickly get the interfaces up with the correct dlci and send traffic across the link, else I am going to be in big trouble.

gorebrush

Hey, I'm on my 3rd run too. Sometimes life and stuff just happens. Don't feel bad about it, just think about how you will make it different this time around.

qrilock

<Blog Sept 1>
I finished the deep dive study module on Frame Relay yesterday. As long as I can remember to disable keepalives on a back to back frame link I think I will be ok there. Did some added study on PPP authentication, so I am going to re-visit my layer 2 deep dive today, and start the basic layer 3 deep dive later today or tomorrow. This in depth lab study is hard, but it sure is fun.

In the event that I am dumb enough to forget to turn off keepalives on a back to back frame relay, what show or debug commands can I use to tell me why the link is going down? Once I figured out why my like was going back down I tried to figure out a debug that would tell me what the issue was, but I failed. Anyone have a suggestion?

qrilock

Thanks Gorebrush. I know I am not alone in getting sidetracked. I am really hoping to make a better run at it this time.

qrilock

<More Blog Sept 1>
When trying to configure etherchannel over a dot1q tunnel; if you mis-configure the access vlan on one side of the cloud it will cause an l2ptguard error on the other side of the cloud.

sw1---sw2---sw3---sw4
The wrong vlan on one of the links configured on sw3 going to 4 was causing 2 of the links between sw1 and 2 to shut down. Finding this was a really infuriating 45 minutes. I was looking at the wrong side.

??:

TechGuy215

The CCIE is no joke!! You literally have to dedicate a good part of your life to CISCO. I'm starting up on my CCNP sometime in the next year, and know that eventually I'll give the CCIE: R&S a go. From all the forums and blogs I've read up on CCIE on TE.net, it seems as though many people run into the issue of life getting in the way. It seems that the timing has to be just right, and that the support from family/friends needs to be strong as well. I wish you good luck on your journey and hope that you knock it out of the park! Keeps us updated, and we'll give you a kick on the butt if you need it!

qrilock

Thanks TechGuy, Like so many things that are worthwhile it is hard, and it is easy to give up. A few years ago my cert list looked a lot like yours. I have a very wide scope of certs. Microsoft, Linux, Cisco, Avaya, CompTIA, the list goes on. It has been hard for me to focus so intently on a single technology. I suffer from Attention Deficit Hey Look A Cert...
Good luck on your journey to CEH and onward towards CCNP.

carterw65

I am on my second go. Welcome back.

Mrock4

It took me three "serious" attempts at prep and study until I was serious enough to take the lab. You'll get it.

Just remember, passing the CCIE won't mean any less if your number is 41000 or 45000..you'll still be a CCIE. It is NOT a sprint, it's a marathon.

nel

Good luck dude!

qrilock

Thanks for all the encouragement!
Didn't get any study or lab time in this week, I found myself pretty sick, and couldn't take the time off work. By the time I was done at the office I just didn't have the oomph to study. But I did spend the last 4 hours labbing it up. Worked on INE Vol 1 lab 3, basic ip.

It may not have been fast but I figured out all of the route-map and policy based routing. I think I need to spend some time this week readying up on my route-maps and ip sla.

qrilock

Spent some good time labbing and reading last week. Started to get into pfr/oer and found I had no idea how that worked. Started reading the config guide. Also spent some good time refreshing and learning more of the options for route-maps and IP SLA. I did find that I apparently need a lot more practice with prefix lists. One of my tasks involved filtering route updates, something that should be a piece of cake. I had no problem doing it with an access-list, but had a lot more trouble when I tried to do it with a prefix list instead. Prefix lists will be one of the things I cover again on Saturday when I go back and cover all the tasks up to this point I had trouble with. Today will start RIP after work,continue probably tomorrow and some on Wed. Then I will begin EIGRP on Thursday. This is going to be a good week for study.

qrilock

I just loaded a new app on my tablet called GoalSeek. This will help me keep track of my reading and labbing hours. This should help with motivation to keep moving as I am not guessing as much on my progress.

bermovick

qrilock wrote: »

<Blog from Aug 19>
I have determined I know even less about frame relay than I thought I did. I am now convinced that a drunken chimp has about the same odds of getting a circuit to come up stable. Hopefully by this time next week I will at least be able to quickly get the interfaces up with the correct dlci and send traffic across the link, else I am going to be in big trouble.

I SWEAR every single time I encounter frame-relay, I have to basically re-learn the entire thing, so you're not at all alone there.

qrilock

bermovick wrote: »

I SWEAR every single time I encounter frame-relay, I have to basically re-learn the entire thing, so you're not at all alone there.

Oh good, i hate being the only one. I have only encountered it maybe 3 times outside of a lab environment, so I can never remember anything about it.

gorebrush

Never touched Frame Relay in the real world once, not even now - and I work for a Service Provider..

qrilock

I haven't updated here lately, but I have been labbing. I have been working on RIP and EIGRP. It has been slower than intended, my girlfriend's birthday was last weekend, and we over did it a bit (a lot) and then she came down sick for most of the week. I think I only managed to add about 10 hours since my last post, but at least that is 10 hours I didn't have before. I am going to try and add about 12 hours this weekend. I plan on going back over all the labs I have done that I didn't know immediately or had to look up.

I have found so far that my conceptual understanding of the technologies and their capabilities is usually pretty good, it's the syntax and specifics on how to do it. I have only had a few items where I read the tasks and said "how in the hell will I do that?" I never thought of using a route map to check if an interface is up by verifying a route int he route table, then using that to inject a default route. I found that to be a very interesting way to think about doing things. I can't think of a situation where that would be useful, but I like the thought process behind it.

Somnipotent

I think the purpose of the CCIE lab exam is to give you make you see the possibilities in a different light. Surely there are easier ways to get about certain scenarios but the CCIE is not about the easy way, but rather the Cisco way. I've been cranking through the INE workbooks myself, but I haven't even taken the written yet myself. I've set a December/January time frame to take the exam with a goal of December 2014 for a road trip to RTP. Keep it up, if you need a study buddy, I can be of assistance. My wife is from Layton and I'm headed to SLC in Feb for some boarding. I've always been told that a study partner is good to have for the CCIE, at least to keep you motivated and on track.

qrilock

Thanks Somnipotent.
It is very true that with many CCIE scenarios there are easier ways to accomplish the same thing; but the change in thinking that occurs to get around the strange limits that get put on a these tasks are what really make the difference between someone who is good and someone who is really an expert. At least that is what I keep telling myself...

A study buddy would probably be a good thing, I have always worked on things like this alone and eventually lose motivation when life buggers me up. The written is a great challange, one I have been fortunate enough to get past.

I didn't manage to get the 10-12 hours I wanted to last weekend. I did get 6 on Saturday, with the plan to do the same Sunday. Got up Sunday, decided to go for a motorcycle ride with my G/F before the weather gets too cold to go up the canyons. We got breakfast and hit the canyon about 11AM. At the mouth of the canyon I thought I got hit by a rock, 8 miles later we pulled over because my face was really hurting, and found I had a bee stuck to my face. Crap. Most of my family is allergic to bees and my face is starting to swell. Down the canyon, get some Benedryl as soon as possible, then pass out on the couch for a few hours (damn benedryl) so no study Sunday. Got 2 hrs in Monday and 3 on Tuesday, managed to finish up my review of earlier sections that gave me trouble. Wed is my scheduled rest night, standing plans. Thursday got the call my Dad has prostate cancer. Heavy news so no study thursday or Friday, i just didn't have it in me. But I am 3 hours into it today, finished EIGRP section and amd about to spend the next 2-3 hours on OSPF.

I must say, the difference between the knowlage for the written and the knowlage for the lab never ceases to surprise me. I can read a config and figure out what it is doing, but trying to do the config is a LOT harder than I thought it would be, but also a great deal more fun.

qrilock

Since last post I have re-covered RIP EGRP and completed OSPF.
INE had a Route Redistribution live video class Friday, I convinced my boss to let me attend that and log my time to training for the day. I found it very informative. I discovered that I have a good theoretical handle on route redistribution, but my testing and verification methods left some to be desired. I have primarily used 'show ip route' to do most of my verification. Brian Dennis really drilled on using the protocol databases instead as they have a lot more information and will show important things that are not in the route table. This is leading my to take longer verifying when I am doing my practice labbing, but over the time I spent this weekend I think it did help me be able to better predict what I should see.

I have seen a lot of talk about Cisco announcing V5 in November, giving 6 months to complete V4. So, I have moved up my timeline, and have booked a date for May 5th. I know this is a very ambitious goal, and my G/F is beginning to understand what I really meant when I said this would take up a lot of time, and now I am going to have to spend more time. She is not thrilled with it, but says she understands the reasons, and will continue to be supportive....

down77

No matter how many restarts it takes, the important part is you are still moving forward! Good luck and I'll be following your progress.

RouteMyPacket

To be honest with you, do you have anyone you work with or in your area who is working on their IE or already has one? I don't think keeping to a forum post would be ideal. Having a mentor parse would be more like it or someone who is also working towards the same goal.

qrilock

Sadly, I am pretty much on my own with this. My employer has provided me with a full lab rack, and the INE workbooks. Otherwise it is me, books, cisco documentation, and coffee locked in a room for hours on end. I lab, I read, I assimilate knowledge, move on, then go back a few weeks later and re-try the stuff I didn't know the first time.

carterw65

qrilock wrote: »

Sadly, I am pretty much on my own with this. My employer has provided me with a full lab rack, and the INE workbooks. Otherwise it is me, books, cisco documentation, and coffee locked in a room for hours on end. I lab, I read, I assimilate knowledge, move on, then go back a few weeks later and re-try the stuff I didn't know the first time.

Yup, that's about what my experience is!

Mishra

gorebrush wrote: »

Never touched Frame Relay in the real world once, not even now - and I work for a Service Provider..

I have and I'm not a network guy.

It was 2004 or so though.