ONT Progress

Just figured I'd chronicle my progress on the ONT. My plan is to sit the exam on January 10th, 25 days from now.

I just finished one pass of the first chapter of the ONT official Cert Guide, Cisco VoIP Implementations. It's seems to be a lot of overlap with BCMSN, although it goes just a tiny bit more in depth.

Not feeling 100%, so I will be taking another pass between today and tomorrow. I wasnt feeling confident on the Bandwidth Calculation section.

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SysAdmin4066

Alright, so I passed!!! and with that it's done, finally. After almost a year of prep and study, I am officially a CCNP, on my way to CCIE. Thanks to all of you for the company along the way, and the invaluable insight and assistance. I appreciate it greatly.

Ok, so the critique. I walked out of this one really wishing I had taken it 2 or 3 weeks ago, it was really pretty easy. Study the SDM screens well, make sure you know the steps for MQC config pretty well, basically stick with the exam blueprint and you'll be fine. A lot of the questions were pretty common sense questions, I didnt really get anything that made me say huh? For the most part, even the stuff I wasnt sure on, I knew I had read it or seen it before so I was able to eliminate some of the obvious answers and guess from there. Didnt have to do that too many times though, I was pretty well prepared and not really knowing it. The Transcender was freaking much harder than the actual exam, so it was making me believe that I wasnt at all ready. But I was doing well on the practice exam questions by the end and obviously the prep was enough. Thanks again guys, I'll be lurking around this section to continue to provide what info I can for those of you that are on your own journeys.

As for martial arts, I train at a Mixed Martial Arts gym, Team Quest Fight Club. For anyone into MMA (UFC, Pride, Strikeforce, etc), the gym owner is Dan Henderson, Greco Roman olympic wrestler and MMA legend. We were watching UFC 110 at the gym last night and hanging with the multitude of pro and amateur fighters at the gym. I have been focusing on for the last 2 months Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and that's what i'll be competing in. I do some light sparring (MMA) every once in a while, but I roll heavy and frequently BJJ with the comp team as well as other UFC, Strikeforce, and other promotion pro fighters looking to work on their ground. I love it, i had trained MMA in the Corps, and I had boxed golden gloves for a while, but ground fighting is like nothing i've ever done before. Anyway, if anyone is in the socal area, hit me up and i'll give you specifics on when the tourney is and how to come check us out. That's really cool MRock, I love the fact that i'm able to kind of take anything I want. I've done some of the Muay Thai, and if you were into Judo then you should know who Thierry Sokodjou is. I've rolled with him a few times BJJ now and while the guy is a white belt BJJ, he's a black belt in Judo. His sweeps are impeccable. That's really cool man, state champ. What's your Judo rank?

Bl8ckr0uter

SysAdmin4066 wrote: »

Alright, so I passed!!! and with that it's done, finally. After almost a year of prep and study, I am officially a CCNP, on my way to CCIE. Thanks to all of you for the company along the way, and the invaluable insight and assistance. I appreciate it greatly.

Congrats.

chmorin

SysAdmin4066 wrote: »

Alright, so I passed!!! and with that it's done, finally.

Congrats! Good luck on your CCIE!

SysAdmin4066

Thanks guys

DevilWAH

Well done! Good to hear you made it

mikej412

SysAdmin4066 wrote: »

I passed!!!

Congratulations!!

pureblue

Congrats!
I'll be the joining the CCNP gang on Thursday.

jason_lunde

Congrats man. Well done!

Mrock4

SysAdmin4066 wrote: »

That's really cool MRock, I love the fact that i'm able to kind of take anything I want. I've done some of the Muay Thai, and if you were into Judo then you should know who Thierry Sokodjou is. I've rolled with him a few times BJJ now and while the guy is a white belt BJJ, he's a black belt in Judo. His sweeps are impeccable. That's really cool man, state champ. What's your Judo rank?

Yeah, I've heard of Sokodjou. Seen a couple of fights on T.V., but I haven't really followed him a whole lot. I was a huge fan of Karo Parisyan, because of his Judo background. If you've watched The Ultimate Fighter, "monsta lobstah", and Matt Arroyo (season 7, I think?), both went to Gracie Tampa, where I went for a while. Never fought with monstah, but rolled with Matt Arroyo before, and that guy is sick. His fight with Matt Brown was great.

Anyway, I was a green belt when I was state champ, pretty much got out of Judo at that point (when I joined the Army). Since in the Army I've gone the BJJ and Muay Thai. Highlight thusfar has been beating the instructors at our combatives school via a triangle choke, in front of a crowd of 200 or so..and the guy was a state wrestling champ with a healthy 30-40 lbs on me. Very awesome, although I broke my hand during that fight, naturally it became a battle scar..so I wasn't sorry

These days I'm not very active with it all, it's been a year or two since I've been out of the game. The wife keeps pushing me to go back, because I absolutely loved competing, but it's hard with a family, then work, and now the CCIE stuff. I will eventually though. Sounds like you got a good crew there to learn from though, having seasoned pro's is a huge benefit that most don't have.

Congrats on the CCNP by the way..hah. What's your timeline for the IE looking like?

SysAdmin4066

Thats awesome man, I find it keeps me calm, being back in a warrior state of mind you know? I'm not good unless I'm getting punched, kicked, or assaulted in some way lol. Anyway, my timeline is I want to clear the written in 3 months, so round about June 1st ish. During that time, I will be also working the lab portion simultaneously, although very lightly. I'd like to clear the lab or at least take my first stab in 1 year from then, give or take. So I'm looking at a year to a year and a half for cleared CCIE. I'm gonna hit it hard starting in March, already got my first few videos in, got my lab cabled, starting the configs on the BB routers. Just slowly feeling my way around, started reading through the 4th edition literature today, probably gonna grab the transcender tonight or tomorrow. How about you, what's your strategy and timeline looking like?

Mrock4

SysAdmin4066 wrote: »

Thats awesome man, I find it keeps me calm, being back in a warrior state of mind you know? I'm not good unless I'm getting punched, kicked, or assaulted in some way lol. Anyway, my timeline is I want to clear the written in 3 months, so round about June 1st ish. During that time, I will be also working the lab portion simultaneously, although very lightly. I'd like to clear the lab or at least take my first stab in 1 year from then, give or take. So I'm looking at a year to a year and a half for cleared CCIE. I'm gonna hit it hard starting in March, already got my first few videos in, got my lab cabled, starting the configs on the BB routers. Just slowly feeling my way around, started reading through the 4th edition literature today, probably gonna grab the transcender tonight or tomorrow. How about you, what's your strategy and timeline looking like?

Wow, sounds like a mirror of myself! I'm trying to take the written just a little bit later..probably late June early July, and give my first lab attempt at about June/July 2011. In the next few months I'll be doing mostly reading with INE Vol I labs, also somewhat lightly.

Just finished my cabling yesterday, and just finished configuring my BB and FRSW (a couple of hours ago). Today was IOS upgrade day, making sure all of the features I need are on each router. I also just had UPS deliver the CCIE exam cert guide (4th edition). I had the 3rd, but it was really beaten up, missing pages, etc. I'm making myself finish TCP/IP Vol I first though..probably got another 2 weeks left on that book.

Anyway, good luck, if you want to boune ideas off of each other or something shoot me a PM.

jason_lunde

Have you guys considered the CCIP track at all along the way? I am going to try and knock it out as I build up my rack over the next couple of months for the INE topology. Are you guys just going to be labbing your way through INE Vol 1 first along with some reading? Oh, and SysAdmin....it is hooah

Ex-Army Sapper here

Mrock4

jason_lunde wrote: »

Have you guys considered the CCIP track at all along the way? I am going to try and knock it out as I build up my rack over the next couple of months for the INE topology. Are you guys just going to be labbing your way through INE Vol 1 first along with some reading? Oh, and SysAdmin....it is hooah Ex-Army Sapper here

Knew I liked you

..Army here too. I forgave SysAdmin a while ago with that whole hoorah thing he goes on about...

Personally, I was strongly considering the CCIP before the CCIE. I'm weak on BGP, and thought that'd be a great way to do it, but from a person perspective, I feel more like setting a target, and learning along the way hopefully enough to pass the lab..while the CCIP would be helpful, I have to learn that stuff anyway..well, not even all of it. The second factor in my case, is that I've got a timeline I'd LIKE to meet..not sure if it'll happen..but if I detoured to the CCIP it would be highly unlikely I'd meet it.

I'm labbing through INE Vol I and reading between the exam cert guide/misc blogs/cisco docs/TCP-IP Vol I.

SysAdmin4066

yeah yeah yeah, two on one, just like the army likes it. Remember, the FEW the proud. We dont need all those regiments to get the job done

Yeah bro, I thought about it, but like M, I just want to focus on the Expert material. I feel like if I need the extra BGP focus, I'll just focus on it. I dont really want to have the IP, it seems like an unneccessary expense, and this is expensive enough.

I'm labbing through INE Vol I and reading the exam guide/TCP-IP Vol I and maybe Vol II if I get through Vol I. I'll be very lightly going through the INE Vol I topics as I go through the topics in the book, to make sure I have the proper reference. After the written is cleared, I'll focus really heavy on the Vol I labs, and then progress through the all 4 logically. I havent bought the Vol III which i'm not sure if I should at all. Vol IV is the troubleshooting portion, so that was a must, and Vol II is the full practice labs. Do you guys have Vol III or plan on getting it if not?

Mrock4

SysAdmin4066 wrote: »

Do you guys have Vol III or plan on getting it if not?

I probably will get it. Right now I have Vol I and II, but I haven't even looked at Vol II other than a tiny glance (not enough to tell you what the labs entail). I'm not going to touch any full labs until the written is cleared and I master all of the Vol I stuff. I really want a strong foundation to base all of my knowledge off of, so that's kind of my personal view on it.

Before the written I plan to finish the IE Advanced technologies class CoD also. I started it, but have a longggggg way to go..but so far I'm pretty happy with them.

SysAdmin4066

Are you going to get Vol IV?

Mrock4

SysAdmin4066 wrote: »

Are you going to get Vol IV?

Yeah, I am. Part of me says, I would be OK with the troubleshooting (and OEQ for that matter) section by the time I'm "ready" for the lab anyway, but it can't hurt to work on it. If all goes well, I hope to be doing the Vol III labs in the couple of months leading up to the lab attempt, then go to INE's 10 day bootcamp here in Tampa a couple of weeks before the attempt. I'll be at the end of my service on leave at that time, so it seems like the perfect time to really buckle down and give it my all. I think if it goes as planned I should have no problems. That all being said, I'm trying to concentrate on the next few months. I'd like to do very well on the written, and I feel like I have a long way to go till I'm even close to where I want to be. It will be a long road indeed.

SysAdmin4066

I almost forgot, I also plan on taking Narbiks bootcamp when I pass the written and right before I take the lab exam. Its in Pasadena, I wouldnt even have to get a hotel

Mrock4

SysAdmin4066 wrote: »

I almost forgot, I also plan on taking Narbiks bootcamp when I pass the written and right before I take the lab exam. Its in Pasadena, I wouldnt even have to get a hotel

Same here for INE's..it's right here in Tampa, so I'd only drive maybe 30 minutes one-way..not too shabby. The pricetag is quite heavy though! I should clarify, I mis-spoke, I thought it was a 10 day bootcamp, but rather it's 12 day. I'm kind of thinking you might have the right idea with taking it after the written and again before the lab. We'll see. I think I'd be way behind if I took the next bootcamp here, which would either be next month, or November. November might not be bad.