CCNP Journey

Well I'd like to start a thread about my CCNP Journey. Due to some issues (good issues) at work, I feel that being will be required as soon as possible (partner stuff). So I will put CWNA on hold for the next few months and go guns blaring for CCNP. I am starting with ROUTE. My current lab is as follows:

4 2610XMs
1 1721
2 2950s

I also have GNS3 which I can and will use. My plan is also to pick up 2 3550s by the time I get to switch. I'll get to that later.

Study material for ROUTE:
ROUTE FLG
ROUTE CBTs
TCP/IP Illustrated
Routing TCP/IP Vol 1+II
IPV6 Essentials

I probably will finish the FLG and TCP/IP Illustrated and just refer to the others as time permits. I also plan to pick up the lab manual on Friday. My goal date is 10/10/2011 to kill this test because I won't have time to take it once school starts. I plan to spend 2-3 hours during the day and as many as I can during the weekends (more than likely 6-8 plus) studying for ROUTE AND studying TCP/IP (since I don't want to be a paper tiger

). I think I have enough time to cover the material and do the labs. I know its a short period of time but work pressures (again good pressures) have made me want to go this way. Wish me luck!

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Comments

lrb

Best of luck dude.. I actually found the OCG to be a much better read than the FLG but either will do the job. The nuggets for this were awesome and would serve as a good starting point to the ROUTE exam studies.

PsychoFin

Awesome! Good luck! I recommend that you take a look at the CBT Nuggets ROUTE series. I found it excellent and Jeremy is awesome as always

ROUTE was a really fun one to study for!

Cheers,

Fin

Bl8ckr0uter

Thanks guys. I have the nuggets and I also have the cert guide so I should have more than enough resources.

down77

You should be fine with the FLG, CBTs and Lab guide. This is one where the extra time spent in labs pays off and you may want to go a little above and beyond what the lab calls for just for good measure.

You should have no problem with this exam. Good luck!

Zartanasaurus

I really really really liked the ROUTE course from CBT Nuggets. Good luck.

Chris_

Good luck in your ROUTE studies. As Down77 said, lots of lab time is the key to passing this one.

Bl8ckr0uter

Thanks all.

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

I really really really liked the ROUTE course from CBT Nuggets. Good luck.

About how long did it take you to get through ROUTE and the CCNP in total?

pham0329

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

So I will put CWNA on hold for the next few months and go guns blaring for CCNP. I am starting with ROUTE. My

I'll race you! I started my CCNP journey a couple weeks ago so I have a bit of a headstart though

lordy

Race to CCNP sound like a cool and motivating idea.

Maybe we should start a thread for this and think about a price for the winner

MrBrian

pham0329 wrote: »

I'll race you! I started my CCNP journey a couple weeks ago so I have a bit of a headstart though

Lol I'm right there with you! Just started my ROUTE studying a week ago.. Although I don't know if racing to learn the material is the best way to learn it in depth, I do fine it very motivating!! And I think you have to learn it in depth more or less to pass anyways, so it's more about how many hours you put into reading or labbing.

MrBrian

lordy wrote: »

Race to CCNP sound like a cool and motivating idea.

Maybe we should start a thread for this and think about a price for the winner

A price huh? Well, for pride at least lol.. Maybe we pitch in and pay for the winner's TSHOOT exam (assuming they take it last). That would be pretty amusing.

In all seriousness it sounds like we all have motivation as it is, but hey, I don't see anything wrong with trying to add a little fuel to that fire. Every now and then we can say something like "I just labbed BGP up for 4 hours, what have you been doing...?" LOL

What I'm trying to say is... You're on! Oh and by the way I'm a college student who's not taking summer classes... So consider the month of August all mine... mwah hah ha

Bl8ckr0uter

pham0329 wrote: »

I'll race you! I started my CCNP journey a couple weeks ago so I have a bit of a headstart though

Oh boy...

lordy wrote: »

Race to CCNP sound like a cool and motivating idea.

I'll race you to LPIC-1, oh wait.

MrBrian wrote: »

What I'm trying to say is... You're on! Oh and by the way I'm a college student who's not taking summer classes... So consider the month of August all mine... mwah hah ha

Ok guys let's go. I honestly would like to be a CCNP before I turn 24 (on November 22). I think a race would be cool.

pham0329

I'm hoping to get my CCNP before I'm 24 too...except my bday isnt until March of next year

Realistically, I'm hoping to get it by October-ish...which gives me about 1 month per test. Unlike you guys those, I'm starting off with SWITCH.

What I'm trying to say is... You're on! Oh and by the way I'm a college student who's not taking summer classes... So consider the month of August all mine... mwah hah ha

hmm..August, huh? I raise you August, September, October, and November as I'm not taking any classes for Fall.

Bl8ckr0uter

pham0329 wrote: »

I'm hoping to get my CCNP before I'm 24 too...except my bday isnt until March of next year

Realistically, I'm hoping to get it by October-ish...which gives me about 1 month per test. Unlike you guys those, I'm starting off with SWITCH.

hmm..August, huh? I raise you August, September, October, and November as I'm not taking any classes for Fall.

1 Month per test? Hardcore!

lordy

I hope to be done by February or March of next year as I have to knock down RHCE in the meantime.

I am starting off with SWITCH which I hope to beat in late August or September. Very optimistic, i know

Zartanasaurus

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

About how long did it take you to get through ROUTE and the CCNP in total?

A couple months for ROUTE. I'd read the FLG topics, then go watch the relevant CBT Nuggets videos. Doing the labs in the videos were a piece of cake after reading the FLG.

About a month for SWITCH. Didn't study for TSHOOT at all. Figured I either knew how to troubleshoot or I didn't. As it turns out, I did.

The FLGs have a lot of material to absorb, but I did nothing but read and lab so my 2 months could be someone else's 4 or 5.

MrBrian

pham0329 wrote: »

hmm..August, huh? I raise you August, September, October, and November as I'm not taking any classes for Fall.

I'm not saying I'll have completed ROUTE by end of August, but I know I'll be putting in crazy work during August!! I figure route will take me longer than switch and tshoot.. Maybe a month and a half for route, month for switch, and a few weeks for tshoot. Granted, those are pretty rough timelines seeing as I don't know how long route will take me.

Good luck guys, we'll keep each other posted.. and let's get this thing done!!

Bl8ckr0uter

Good to know Z.

Has anyone picked up the lab manuals? I am trying to justify buying them...

Bl8ckr0uter

I am still slowly making my way through the ROUTE Guide. Here is my plan for my "reading portion" of my CCNP studies

Read chapter on technology( say EIGRP).
Read Routing TCP/IP Vol I chapter on technology
Look at video on technology (CBTs)
Move on to next technolgy.

I started to plot my plan, realistically it will take me longer to do the CCNP than I hoped. I'd really like to get the CWNA knocked out as well. I am trying to decide on doing that at the end of this month or in December. More than likely, I will aim for December. Steven's TCP/IP book is literally changing my concept of networking in a good way so I am balancing Cisco and Packet studies nicely. I'll probably pick up the lab manual sometime this month. My new goal is to get the CCNP (and CWNA) before the end of January (which I think should be doable with my up and coming class load.

BrizoH

I'm finding my progress a bit slow as well - I have the lab manual have only flicked through the pages, I haven't actually worked on any labs yet.

My study plan is similar, minus Routing TCP/IP:

Read FLG chapter, take notes
Watch CBT Nuggets
Create Mind Map for topic
Labs
Review notes then onto next topic

I like the FLG so far, but man the chapters are long - especially when you're taking notes. Took me about 2 weeks to get through EIGRP, although I am only covering 10-20 pages a day.

I'm starting labs tomorrow so I'll post back with an update then

xenodamus

Good luck to you. That's next on my list after I knock out my required CISSP. I'm attempting it for the first time next Monday, so if I pass I'll be on the trek with you.

mattau

BrizoH wrote: »

I like the FLG so far, but man the chapters are long - especially when you're taking notes. Took me about 2 weeks to get through EIGRP, although I am only covering 10-20 pages a day.

no joke. man these chapters are long. this weekend just gone I spent about 15 hours just on 2 pages! on eigrp.

not quite sure how you guys think you can pass after a month study of this beast. at best i think it will take nearly a year to tackle the route exam with working fulltime in an unrelated job.

what does everyone do for labs? do you just make up stuff and play with all the different commands and try make complex designs?

pham0329

mattau wrote: »

no joke. man these chapters are long. this weekend just gone I spent about 15 hours just on 2 pages! on eigrp.

I'm hoping that was a typo and you meant 2 chapters? If not, you must have some very very detailed notes.

mattau

no it wasnt a typo. i guess i maybe get involved a little too much in the detail.

MrBrian

I've been going at the ROUTE for these past couple weeks now. I have the OCG.. would rather have the FLG, but already had the OCG. I'm also using the cisco lab manual and cbt nuggets.

I'll give an update on my progress: so far I'm in Chapter 6 of the ocg, which is the 2nd of 4 OSPF chapters lol.. I'm currently in the world of all the LSA types. What I do is make flashcards as I read through the book. I do a card for all the "key topics," but also for many other things. For eigrp, I think I have 40-50 cards. And the ospf cards are steadily mounting lol. I've gone through all the cbt vids up to the redistribution ones.

So far I've only done the first 4 labs from the lab manual. They're actually pretty basic, but they have you do a couple of cool things like doing an extended ping, shutting down an int, and then showing how long it takes eigrp to find the alternate route (granted, that you had one).. Right now I'm 80%/20% reading/labbing, but I will flip those numbers once I've gone through the material fully at least once.

It's funny, now that I'm learning all this extra stuff, I find myself wondering what on earth I thought I knew with just CCNA lol

Bl8ckr0uter

Ok I am going to change up my plan here since I am going to decompress my plans a bit. I now plan to start the Routing TCP/IP Vol 1 first before going through the CCNP ROUTE FLG and CBT nuggets. Why? Too many questions and I feel that going in this route will help me master the protocols. I feel like if I try to from the ROUTE guide to Routing TCP/IP vol, it'll probably take me a little longer and I might not get to the Routing TCP/IP for a while. So:

Phase I: Routing TCP/IP Vol I
Network Warrior
Steven's TCP/IP Guide
Labbing

Phase II: Route FLG
CBTs
Labbing

Phase III: Probably 30 days before I take ROUTE:
Transcender
Labbing
Review any notes I have from the the first 2 phases.

I also am going to put a counter to track my time in my sig, starting from today.

Bl8ckr0uter

Well this has to be put on hold. My boss told me to do CCNP:Sec so this will have to come at some point in the future. I really wanted to do CCNP:Sec anyway so I'm happy. Now someone want to buy me some ASA 5505s?

Panzer919

Gotta love ASA's in GNS3

Bl8ckr0uter

Panzer919 wrote: »

Gotta love ASA's in GNS3

The problem is that all of our ASA do run 8.3-8.4 so I will probably pick up at least 1 asa 5505 (since gns3 doesn't support higher than 8.0)

Panzer919

I think the only real difference is something to do with the NAT. Other than that I am pretty sure they the same.