khayes wrote: » Hello all, I'm beginning my CVOICE study the first of the year, and I'm excited but at the same time stressed out. I've begun to build my voice lab which consist of the following: Dell PowerEdge Server: ESXi VM: CUCM 7 Unity 7 (2003 server) Exchange 2007 32 bit (2003 server) Voice Gateway: 2621XM running 12.4 (T) Protocol H.323 So far i've learned to configure LDAP authentication, and intergration, i've setup my phones in Call manager by assigning the MAC addresses, I've learned how to create the partitions and assigning extentions to the phones. I looked on examples to get me as far as i've gone and I feel like i've cheated myself instead of figuring out without examples. I've worked on CME before and setup my dial-peers and patterns, but I did not do it the honest way, I copied other people's configs and I felt bad doing it. So I guess now I'm confused with the dial-peer configurations, and basically how to setup my lab to make calls out to the PSTN. I really want to master voice and be really good at it but I feel like all the stuff I've done has been dishonest. I'm also confused on if I shoud use only my CVOICE CBT nuggets and the CVOICE guide and go take the test or just shallow my pride and stuggle with the CVOICE guide from Cisco.
Turgon wrote: » Well done. The first step to getting better is to stop living in denial. Don't worry. Going by the job boards what few good infrastructure jobs are out there do require voice skills so it's clear there are a lot of people muddling through and not particularly adapt at it. Go right back to the basics and spend a full year studying voice. That's what Im going to do right through 2010. Meanwhile have a chat with Uncle Mike who may be able to give you some pointers on the details. Anyone with really good skills in voice has a future, but *really* good skills in voice are going to require a lot of study on your part. Write off the next two years of your life to learning Voice properly. Far too many CCVP's have no experience and get disemboweled in the field.
khayes wrote: » You are right. I don't want to be a paper CCVP I want to actually know what I'm talking about and be able to "walk the walk". Voice is something i've always wanted and i'm beginning to do it. At my job we deal with the UC500's and i don't do the inital configurations on them but the physical installs and phone placements in clients offices. My employer told me that I can't do voice installs untill I get my CCVP and I feel like if I studied just enough to pass I would be ready. I feel like I would **** myself and not learn anything. I don't like to read and I get bored easliy so I tend to foucs on on the CBT nuggets but I like the hands on better. That's how I learn better is hands on.
Turgon wrote: » Like so many things you learn best by doing. Book learning, theory, exams are fine as an introduction to things and without any of that going for you it's possible through experience to misunderstand how things *actually* work (important if you are going to design things one day). Exam study can also introduce you to the capabilities of technologies, useful as hands on in the field often locks you into what you have around you. So that is all good. But you really need to do the *work*. Particularly in voice. A lot of promises are made to companies on the back of a proposed voice solution and if you really can't deliver it on a technical level you will screw up an entire companies telephone life, and the perceived savings are lost when the costs get out of control. A lot of consultancy costs in Voice projects are actually solutions companies passing themselves off as specialists in this area to their clients and playing for time as they try and hire someone who *actually* knows how this stuff works. Hence the jobs on the boards You will be fine. Good luck.
khayes wrote: » I looked on examples to get me as far as i've gone and I feel like i've cheated myself instead of figuring out without examples. I've worked on CME before and setup my dial-peers and patterns, but I did not do it the honest way, I copied other people's configs and I felt bad doing it. So I guess now I'm confused with the dial-peer configurations, and basically how to setup my lab to make calls out to the PSTN. I really want to master voice and be really good at it but I feel like all the stuff I've done has been dishonest.
mikej412 wrote: » Considering the CCVPs out there that couldn't make a phone call even if you gave them a pay phone and a pocket full of change -- getting things to work using examples isn't necessarily a bad thing. And Cisco does make a lot of "Reference Designs" available to point people in the right direction. But yeah, at some point if you actually want to be be more than good at voice you have to move past being lucky finding working configurations to copy and spend the time learning how all these voice things work under the hood. But being lucky finding working configurations is a good start What is your current job? Any voice? Any possibility of voice in the future?
khayes wrote: » Yeah but I'm afraid to Job hop at the moment. I have freedom at my current job, and I love that, and have the best co-workers in the world but I feel like I'm going to be stuck doing what i'm doing and that's not what I want. I want to become a Voice Engineer!
khayes wrote: » What books do you recommend? Cisco press?
