Route

For those of you who have passed ROUTE, do you feel that routing TCP/IP vol1 would be enough to pass the test (along with some labbing of course).

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ehnde

I'd love to see an answer to this question from one of our more advanced Cisco certified forum members, but it's unlikely anyone passed route like this! Feedback, guys?

down77

If you have a strong base in the IGP then reading TCP/IP vol1 and selected chapters of vol2 may be enough to pass the exam. Unfortunately, vol1 does not cover BGP-4, or much IPv6 (though it covers OSPFv3) which are testable areas on the exam. Furthermore neither of them properly cover Branch connectivity which is an area I highly recommend reviewing before attempting ROUTE.

If it were me, I'd use the ROUTE FLG as it did provide full coverage of the testable material. I even plan to reference this book during my CCIE studies as I found it to be a GREAT reference. Diane Teare has a nack for producing great learning guides.

Hope this helps

Bl8ckr0uter

Here are my thoughts:

FLG Route
CBTs
Lab Manual
Routing TCP/IP vol 1
Kaplan Self Test (30 days before the exam)

I am going to give myself about about 2 1/2 months to kill it (starting at the end of this month). I am probably going to go through Routing TCP/IP vol 1 as a refresher until I get the routing book (at the end of the month). Actually I could probably start studying now but I'd have to load balance my studies against CWNA studies and Linux

Chris_

I bought tcp/ip vol1 towards the end of my ROUTE studies. I didn't know how good it would be for the route exam, but figured it was a good addition to the library anyway. As it turned out, it was fantastic for looking up concepts that I was struggling with. It's not that it has more information than the ROUTE books but the weitin style is fantastic. Obviously doesn't cover BGP but I couldn't find a cheap copy of vol2 at the time!

ConstantlyLearning

Not unless you know all the route topics that it doesn't cover.

Bl8ckr0uter

Chris_ wrote: »

I bought tcp/ip vol1 towards the end of my ROUTE studies. I didn't know how good it would be for the route exam, but figured it was a good addition to the library anyway. As it turned out, it was fantastic for looking up concepts that I was struggling with. It's not that it has more information than the ROUTE books but the weitin style is fantastic. Obviously doesn't cover BGP but I couldn't find a cheap copy of vol2 at the time!

I cannot find a cheap one either. I think I will pick up one after I am done with ROUTE.

Forsaken_GA

ehnde wrote: »

I'd love to see an answer to this question from one of our more advanced Cisco certified forum members, but it's unlikely anyone passed route like this! Feedback, guys?

I can't speak to it, as I've never seen the current exam. Both volumes were great help to me when the exam was BSCI, and I'd recommend saying screw the cost, and just bite the bullet and pickup both volumes. They'll be on your shelf for awhile.

Bl8ckr0uter

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

I can't speak to it, as I've never seen the current exam. Both volumes were great help to me when the exam was BSCI, and I'd recommend saying screw the cost, and just bite the bullet and pickup both volumes. They'll be on your shelf for awhile.

I'll have to seriously consider picking this up in the couple weeks.

MrBrian

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

Here are my thoughts:

FLG Route
CBTs
Lab Manual
Routing TCP/IP vol 1
Kaplan Self Test (30 days before the exam)

I am going to give myself about about 2 1/2 months to kill it (starting at the end of this month).

Yea I was eyeing "Routing tcp/ip vol.1" as well. I'm just finishing up "Network Warrior" and I have the CCNP Route book here waitng for me. It sounds like you've got a very nice plan of attack though. What are you doing for labs, gns3, or home lab? I'll be in the same boat for all of August. Good luck with your studies, and may we both knock it out of the park!!

Bl8ckr0uter

MrBrian wrote: »

Yea I was eyeing "Routing tcp/ip vol.1" as well. I'm just finishing up "Network Warrior" and I have the CCNP Route book here waitng for me. It sounds like you've got a very nice plan of attack though. What are you doing for labs, gns3, or home lab? I'll be in the same boat for all of August. Good luck with your studies, and may we both knock it out of the park!!

I have 3 2610xm and 1 2610 and a 1721. I think that will be enough for route. I plan to use the Lab manual to reinforce my labbing.

shodown

Route can be passed using Only GNS3. You could prob use the 2610 as a frame switch and add on the other routers, but your best bet would be to build a GNS3 or dyamips lab and get as many as many routers as you can going.

Bl8ckr0uter

shodown wrote: »

Route can be passed using Only GNS3. You could prob use the 2610 as a frame switch and add on the other routers, but your best bet would be to build a GNS3 or dyamips lab and get as many as many routers as you can going.

Do you think it is "better" to learn using gns3?

Netwurk

It's cheaper to learn it with GNS3, not necessarily better.

You sometimes wind up troubleshooting GNS3 instead of learning to troubleshoot the routers.

I use it to try out configs and sometimes to connect to my real lab with the GNS3 cloud feature.

My record for GNS3 uptime is 5 days, the norm is 1-2 days - someone good at it would probably know how to tweak it for better reliability.

It's far better than simulations but if you rely on it for all your learning you will get skewed results - a Cisco router will very rarely crash, with GNS3 a crash is the norm.

ehnde

Netwurk wrote: »

It's cheaper to learn it with GNS3, not necessarily better.

You sometimes wind up troubleshooting GNS3 instead of learning to troubleshoot the routers.

I use it to try out configs and sometimes to connect to my real lab with the GNS3 cloud feature.

My record for GNS3 uptime is 5 days, the norm is 1-2 days - someone good at it would probably know how to tweak it for better reliability.

It's far better than simulations but if you rely on it for all your learning you will get skewed results - a Cisco router will very rarely crash, with GNS3 a crash is the norm.

Could you list some examples of when you've seen these routers crash? Is it a certain configuration with a certain protocol?

I'm wondering if there is some way to tweak your configuration to be more stable so that labbing for you is a more enjoyable experience....but outside of trying to stick with linux for dynamips and setting idlePC and idle max values I'm not sure what could be done.

Netwurk

ehnde wrote: »

Could you list some examples of when you've seen these routers crash? Is it a certain configuration with a certain protocol?

I'm wondering if there is some way to tweak your configuration to be more stable so that labbing for you is a more enjoyable experience....but outside of trying to stick with linux for dynamips and setting idlePC and idle max values I'm not sure what could be done.

I run it on Windows, it would probably be more stable with Linux

I do like Linux, I run my security labs with it as it is useful for "hacking"

My point is that you can spend a lot of time troubleshooting tools (like Linux or GNS3). If you had real routers, you would spend ALL your time troubleshooting routers.

Either way you learn, it's your choice what ROUTE to take.

MrBrian

Netwurk wrote: »

Either way you learn, it's your choice what ROUTE to take.

Touche.. And if gns3 gives you too many problems you can always make the SWITCH to building a home lab.

As for me I'm currently building a home lab for CCNP. The cost is starting to rise, but hey, gotta do what you gotta do. I'm just one of those people that has to have hands on. I figure I can always sell it back when I'm through. Because I'm pretty sure I wont invest in some of the equipment needed for the CCIE labs lol.. for that I'll just rent rack time, but that's still a ways down the road..

Forsaken_GA

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

Do you think it is "better" to learn using gns3?

It depends. I use gns3 for when I want to test simple concepts that don't involve any switches. Mostly for when I get asked a question I'm not sure about, or if something occurs to me while I'm at work, and I didn't leave the home lab fired up before I went in.

With that being said... the vast majority of routing subjects can be done with 3 routers. You won't be able to get into too many complex scenarios, but it's plenty good enough to practice the individual concepts on their own. 3 routers and 2 switches is plenty enough for CCNP. Spend your time learning the fundamentals in uncomplicated scenarios, and then later on, extend that to more complex setups. That gives you the ability to simplify your learning, and it also gives you the benefit of seeing how things *should* work, which gives you an idea of where to look when something is wrong in a more complex setup.

Forsaken_GA

MrBrian wrote: »

Touche.. And if gns3 gives you too many problems you can always make the SWITCH to building a home lab.

As for me I'm currently building a home lab for CCNP. The cost is starting to rise, but hey, gotta do what you gotta do. I'm just one of those people that has to have hands on. I figure I can always sell it back when I'm through. Because I'm pretty sure I wont invest in some of the equipment needed for the CCIE labs lol.. for that I'll just rent rack time, but that's still a ways down the road..

Honestly, I'd compare what rack rental costs vs. what it takes to build a lab for the CCIE, and see where you come out ahead. General wisdom is that it takes about 1000 hours of lab time for the CCIE, and to get that much rack time will generally cost a good bit of scratch.

Right now, I'm relatively certain I could build a rack to work with the INE topology for around $1000, using 3550's instead of 3560's.

Here's a hint if you're looking into investing in routers for lab purposes - 3640's are wonderful. They're big, they're noisy, and they generate some heat, but they're dirt cheap, and if you max out the RAM and Flash, they can run a 12.4 image that supports every routing technology you need, all the way through CCIE R&S. My lab consists of 3640's, 2610xm's, 3550's, and a few 2500's to perform as backbone route injectors. Wait for the right deal on ebay, and these platforms can be had for a song.

Getting 3 2610xm's and a pair of 3550's should be enough for any candidate to pass the CCIE, and that'll cost somewhere between $500 to $600, and provides a solid foundation to expand for a CCIE lab.*

* this advice is only valid for the current blueprints. When they change again, all bets are off

lrb

I did this exam using only the Official Cert Guide and a crapload of labtime in gns3. The only thing I used my real kit for was for doing the remote branch office stuff (VTI, IPsec, DSL) but I'm sure most of this could be done in gns3 also. Good luck!

Oh, and don't get distracted after you finish the ROUTE/SWITCH exams and decide that BGP and MPLS sound more appealing and then become too lazy to sit the TSHOOT