New guy going for CCIE

Hey everyone,

My name is Daniel, I'm a network engineer from Sweden. I'ven been lurking around for a while but decided to do some posting.
I work as a network engineer for a large company in Sweden, I am CCNP and CCDA certified and I'm also ENS no 4075. I decided
to start posting to get some help from other people studying for the CCIE and maybe some study partners. I run a blog located
at Daniels quest for CCIE, not updated too often but I try to update when I have some time. I have a fiancee and a son
so time is scarce as for many of you also studying.
I have done about 125 hours of studying so far, I'm studying for the written exam.

What would you say is a reasonable amount to study for the written exam?

How much time do you plan on spending or did you spend on labs before doing the lab?

I have bought the workbooks from INE but I'm not sure if to do Dynamips and real switches or to do rack rentals or maybe both.
Would you say Dynamips is sufficient for anything except switching, should I rent labs for everything?
The problem with rack rentals is the time difference to Sweden, usually a good time for me doesn't match up to the rack rental slots.
Also I find that 8 hours is way too long for the average session, 4 hours would be enough. Do you know a good rack rental that
supports INE except for INE themselves?

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Comments

mikej412

I spent a month reading the Cisco Press CCIE R&S Exam Certification Guide and a week going though the flash cards and practice questions on the Cisco Press CCIE R&S FlashCards and Exam Pack (don't think it's offered any more) and passed the exam without a problem.

But I also consider the time I spent studying for the CCDP ARCH exam and the CCIP QoS and BGP exams as CCIE R&S prep too.... so toss in a few more months there.

But after all my CCIE Lab Prep and Lab attempts, my 2nd R&S written exam was trivial.

Passing the written exam is just your ticket to the Lab -- and once you pass, the clock starts ticking (18 months to take your first Lab attempt).

The mixed approach (real switches, dynamips, and some rack rental) for lab work probably makes the most sense.

I've got the home hardware lab -- and I still use Dynamips a lot. And I have a bunch of tokens in my account at INE for mock labs.

Use Dynamips (with Dynagen/GNS3) for the non-switching technology labs. Your current Cisco experience should let you know when you hit one of the Dynamips glitches due to the simulated hardware.

If you don't mind spending the money, then the hybrid real switch and Dynamip'ed router option solves the rental rack scheduling issue -- and lets you work through the full labs at your convenience -- and sneak in some lab practice whenever you have some spare time available.

It's been a while since I've looked at the CCIE Rack Rental places. Each Vendor (INE, IPE, CCBootCamp -- and I think Narbik) has theirs. There are a few independents that support the major workbooks too -- GigaVelocity has 3 hour, 6 hour, and 12 hour slots available.

Welcome to the TE forums -- and Good Luck with your CCIE Journey

Slowhand

Välkommen till TechExams.net.

I can't give you too much advice on the path for the CCIE, (I'm a few years out from that path, myself,) but I'm sure you'll find plenty of good tips on this board. There are several members who are documenting their CCIE journey in the form of threads here on TechExams, so you could always start with checking those out.

Jag vet att det det är en djävulsk test, men här finns många som kan hjälpa dig göra pluggandet lite lättare. Lycka till!

(You'll have to excuse my rusty Swedish, it's been a while.)