Passed SECURE
gregorio323
Member Posts: 201 ■■■□□□□□□□
This is just an update I recently passed my CCNP SECURE exam on 11/30/13. Just thought I'd share some of the useful materials I found.
- Majority of my study was based on skillsoft (MUST READ TOPIC NOTES!). I do highly recommend if available use skillsoft. Took plenty of notes and re-read god knows how many times! it also has built in labs (annoying part is you must type EXACTLY what they expect if not you get an error).
- Read CCNP SECURE OCG - It was okay there was lots of errors as mention by the reviews in the amazon post.
- Read CCNP SECURE Quick Reference (did not finish) - More of a high level overview on stuff I wanted to do a quick review.
- Read Network Security Technologies - I actually enjoyed this book there was some good stuff in here that helped me pass the SECURE section.
- Watched INE SECURE videos and CBT Nuggets SECURE videos - Kinda hard to choose I loved both of them
but INE did take a deeper dive. CBT Nuggets was mostly like a CLI tour of the material.
Overall I'd say if possible use skillsoft ( fortunately I have an account from my previous employer and I get tons of free up to date skillsoft training. account hasn't been disabled
). Next I'll be working on the FIREWALL exam on my spare time for fun I'll try to write a much better review and details. Other than that hope you guys all have a great day and Happy Holidays!
- Majority of my study was based on skillsoft (MUST READ TOPIC NOTES!). I do highly recommend if available use skillsoft. Took plenty of notes and re-read god knows how many times! it also has built in labs (annoying part is you must type EXACTLY what they expect if not you get an error).
- Read CCNP SECURE OCG - It was okay there was lots of errors as mention by the reviews in the amazon post.
- Read CCNP SECURE Quick Reference (did not finish) - More of a high level overview on stuff I wanted to do a quick review.
- Read Network Security Technologies - I actually enjoyed this book there was some good stuff in here that helped me pass the SECURE section.
- Watched INE SECURE videos and CBT Nuggets SECURE videos - Kinda hard to choose I loved both of them
but INE did take a deeper dive. CBT Nuggets was mostly like a CLI tour of the material.Overall I'd say if possible use skillsoft ( fortunately I have an account from my previous employer and I get tons of free up to date skillsoft training. account hasn't been disabled
). Next I'll be working on the FIREWALL exam on my spare time for fun I'll try to write a much better review and details. Other than that hope you guys all have a great day and Happy Holidays! Comments
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Master Of Puppets
Member Posts: 1,210
Congrats on the pass and thanks for the tips. I'm doing IPS at the moment and SECURE after that.Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for. -
gregorio323
Member Posts: 201 ■■■□□□□□□□
Master Of Puppets wrote: »Congrats on the pass and thanks for the tips. I'm doing IPS at the moment and SECURE after that.
I've been seeing your posts Gratz on the VPN/FIREWALL pass. I'm aiming for FIREWALL myself but with work and upcoming projects that are geared towards the SP realm so I'm strapped into the SP materials. I'll definitely have my fair share of affairs with FIREWALL to spice things up in my life. -
Master Of Puppets
Member Posts: 1,210
If you have done what is on the FIREWALL exam in production, it is going to be a breeze. I found both exams to be pretty straightforward. Also, I'm really enjoying the IPS studies even though they are still at the early stages.Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.
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gregorio323
Member Posts: 201 ■■■□□□□□□□
Master Of Puppets wrote: »If you have done what is on the FIREWALL exam in production, it is going to be a breeze. I found both exams to be pretty straightforward. Also, I'm really enjoying the IPS studies even though they are still at the early stages.
I've had my fair share with ASA. Majority of my firewall deployments happened to be Palo Altos. -
gregorio323
Member Posts: 201 ■■■□□□□□□□
Thanks all! hope you all the best of luck in exam/studies/work!
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RouteMyPacket
Member Posts: 1,104
Nice, I thought SECURE was a tough exam..challenging at least. Looking back I think the following wqould be an ideal arrangement for the CCNP Security exams
SECURE, FIREWALL, VPN, IPS
Reason being and MoP has probably already noticed, there is some redundancy across the material.
If you have worked with DMVPN, IPSec/GRE solutions, and ISE/dot1x in production, SECURE will be fun. Oh, gotta love ZBF's too.Modularity and Design Simplicity:
Think of the 2:00 a.m. test—if you were awakened in the
middle of the night because of a network problem and had to figure out the
traffic flows in your network while you were half asleep, could you do it? -
gregorio323
Member Posts: 201 ■■■□□□□□□□
That's the exact path I'm going
SECURE, FIREWALL, VPN, IPS
I do agree it was challenging learning the SECURE topics.RouteMyPacket wrote: »Nice, I thought SECURE was a tough exam..challenging at least. Looking back I think the following wqould be an ideal arrangement for the CCNP Security exams
SECURE, FIREWALL, VPN, IPS
Reason being and MoP has probably already noticed, there is some redundancy across the material.
If you have worked with DMVPN, IPSec/GRE solutions, and ISE/dot1x in production, SECURE will be fun. Oh, gotta love ZBF's too. -
RouteMyPacket
Member Posts: 1,104
gregorio323 wrote: »That's the exact path I'm going
SECURE, FIREWALL, VPN, IPS
I do agree it was challenging learning the SECURE topics.
Nice, FIREWALL is tough from what I can remember, VPN was downright fun, loved the material and labbing.Modularity and Design Simplicity:
Think of the 2:00 a.m. test—if you were awakened in the
middle of the night because of a network problem and had to figure out the
traffic flows in your network while you were half asleep, could you do it? -
gregorio323
Member Posts: 201 ■■■□□□□□□□
RouteMyPacket wrote: »Nice, FIREWALL is tough from what I can remember, VPN was downright fun, loved the material and labbing.
Any tips? on what you think would help me be more prepared for the exam. I do have a good amount of experience with firewalls as mentioned before but its not in the ASA platform. -
RouteMyPacket
Member Posts: 1,104
gregorio323 wrote: »Any tips? on what you think would help me be more prepared for the exam. I do have a good amount of experience with firewalls as mentioned before but its not in the ASA platform.
I honestly don't remember, just for some reason remember it being kinda tough. Sorry...been too long. I chose the order of FIREWALL, VPN, SECURE, and IPS.Modularity and Design Simplicity:
Think of the 2:00 a.m. test—if you were awakened in the
middle of the night because of a network problem and had to figure out the
traffic flows in your network while you were half asleep, could you do it? -
Dakinggamer87
Member Posts: 4,016 ■■■■■■■■□□
Congrats!!
*Associate's of Applied Sciences degree in Information Technology-Network Systems Administration
*Bachelor's of Science: Information Technology - Security, Master's of Science: Information Technology - Management
Matthew 6:33 - "Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need."
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