CCIE Thread: The right time.

carterw65

Thanks for the script Z, looks useful to me.

Diego - I know what you mean about work. Mine has been crazy too and cut into my studies.

Dieg0M

CCIE V5 announced. I want to be one of the first to pass the V5. I will start training with 360 in January and hopefully test in July-August. The real challenge begins soon.

Dieg0M

Taking CCIE Written in 3 days. Hoping I pass the first try. My MPLS is still iffy so I am studying that and the misc technologies a lot. *cross fingers I don't get a ton of MPLS*

Dyasis

Good Luck man! Hope all goes well for you.

gorebrush

Good luck! Will be good to get it done just before Xmas

Zartanasaurus

Dieg0M wrote: »

Taking CCIE Written in 3 days. Hoping I pass the first try. My MPLS is still iffy so I am studying that and the misc technologies a lot. *cross fingers I don't get a ton of MPLS*

Did you take the Boson practice tests? If you did, you'll pass. I didn't realize this at the time, but those practice exams are retired versions of the Written. That explains why they feel like the real thing.

Dieg0M

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

Did you take the Boson practice tests? If you did, you'll pass. I didn't realize this at the time, but those practice exams are retired versions of the Written. That explains why they feel like the real thing.

That's what I'm taking right now. Trying to study the topics I scored low on.

FloOz

Goodluck!!!

p.s. I really enjoy your blog. Great posts to get information on just about every topic on the CCIE. I look forward to more!

Dieg0M

Passed CCIE:R&S (Written)! I will be writing a blog of my work process tonight.

shyguyIT

Congrats!

FloOz

Congrats!!! How was it?

aragoen_celtdra

Congrats dude! Keep at it.

I think we're about in the same timeframe in terms of schedule. I had initially planned to take the written either late Dec or early Jan. But with the announcement of the new blueprint, I'm pushing the written up a few months before the expiration of the v4 exam.

silver145

congrats

Dieg0M

Thanks guys. I will be starting labbing with INE next week. I have neglected my physical training and my nutrition in the past months. I will try to make a strict schedule for the upcoming months. I am planning to take one of the first CCIEv5 spots, so I got about 6 months to get ready for the Lab. I have also made a blog on my impressions of the exam. Thanks again for all the support.

Dieg0M

Starting doing Lab training with IPexpert instead of INE. Going through the videos and using proctorlabs for training right now. I do have a home lab but it's not wired properly yet.

FloOz

Any reason for choosing IPexpert over INE?

Dieg0M

Well I'm gonna do both workbooks, IPexpert and INE for v4 to be more rounded off when v5 comes out. This said, one of my colleague who is a CCIE has an INE account that he is giving me access to. Another good point with IPexpert is that you can order a paper version of the workbooks.

JeanM

Congrats!

jamesp1983

Congrats. Good luck moving forward.

wintermute000

Phew. Just finished Layer 2 and RIP labs of INE WB1 over the last week. Spent around 8 hours per lab. Did the Layer 2 via Rack Rental and RIP in GNS3.

The PPP / PPPoE and FR stuff led to a lot of cramming that's for sure, haven't touched those topics since my CCNA days (unless you count doing prefabbed 8xx series config as PPPoE). Just understanding the FR behaviour in the RIP. Other than that it wasn't too bad, but I'll make a few observations
- I guess memorisation is back in vogue. I had a clear idea of what needed to be done in most of the time (e.g. 'an offset list is required') but often didn't have the exact command at my fingertips (e.g. 'is it under th einterface again or the process? is it offset list of ip offset list? etc.). Since many of these are esoteric features and you probably won't have the time to nicely question mark / trial and error your way through the syntax. It really highlights how much you rely on google/your notes IRL which of course you will not have in the real thing. Doesn't help my RIP is amazingly rusty ROFL

- some of these esoteric features I've never heard of nor seen used in 7 years of data networking, no matter, its on the blueprint so must be memorised... gah.... WTF is a flex link? rip source validation? (i thought that was firewall anti-spoofing / Unicast reverse path forwarding )

- the INE labs although on the whole excellent, some of the questions are not entirely clear what you need to accomplish. Lab layout is also very confusing (though it gets better as you get used to it, they really should have given you a better L3 diag....). It would really benefit to be able to ask a 'proctor'.

Overall though feeling much better about my STP and RIP

Out of curiosity, how long are people finding they take to do a chapter in INE WB1? I'm using around 8 hours, but that includes at least a couple of hours of reading up when I feel I don't properly understand something. And that's going in AFTER doing what I thought was sufficient reading (I'm going for the wholistic approach as opposed to separating the written and lab).

Dieg0M

Why are you hijacking my thread?

wintermute000

I'm sorry, I thought we were discussing things in general, I'll leave you to it

Dieg0M

Been doing labs with ProctorLabs and using IPexperts. I'm going through the books mostly memorizing commands and brushing up on the obscure and hidden features of IOS. Also learning several tricky ways of implementing technologies; for example when you get asked to do something and not use X and Y and Z types of configuration.
It's hard studying 30 hours per week when i'm also asked to come in week-ends for work; we have several big projects on the go. Things are not gonna calm down anytime soon but I hope I can manage.

Dieg0M

Finished the first 20 Lab's of the CCIE IPexpert workbooks; L2, L3 and misc + security features have been covered. Going to dive into the QoS, Multicast, MPLS and IPv6 configuration sections next. Should be done with the first workbook in the beginning of March.
I have not been updating my blog a lot recently but a couple of interesting posts are coming up. I will be covering in more details some security features and some production multicast problems I have encountered. Also, I will be going over MPLS, L3 and L2 VPN's in detail in the month of march. I hope IPexpert will deliver their v5 workbooks soon. Either way, I'm not done with their v4 version yet.

ande0255

I look forward to reading your blogs sir, you seem very relaxed with your approach to the CCIE, which is rare and pretty cool to see.

Dieg0M

Motivation comes in waves. A wave is coming. I have been busy at work but I am scheduled for another 40 hours of lab for the next 2 weeks. Hopefully I can finish Volume 1.

Dieg0M

Done with IPexpert Vol1, starting full 8 hour mock labs this weekend.

gorebrush

Dieg0M wrote: »

Motivation comes in waves. A wave is coming. I have been busy at work but I am scheduled for another 40 hours of lab for the next 2 weeks. Hopefully I can finish Volume 1.

Not just me who suffers this then? I will happily sit on the internet and waste 3 hours without thinking about it - but then other days you can't stop me. Yesterday was one of those days, despite only having a 6 hour session.

Dieg0M

I've been playing with L2IOU with the new GNS3 1.0 Alpha. It's been working great, I might make a blog on this and see how far I can push it. Really needing the new IPexpert workbooks, tired of configuring Frame Relay in each lab.

gorebrush

I'm considering ripping my lab apart and writing my own exercises.

Frame Relay pointless in mine now. They might as well just be a bunch of point to point links now.