So I'm sitting at the CCIE R/S lab Beta, and beginning the part I was sooooo looking forward to - the new 2-hour troubleshooting section. 2 minutes into that section, I was completely bummed. It seemed too much to even attempt. 40-ish routers and switches... 10-12 trouble tickets... 2 hours... plus a new user interface. But by the end of the process, I had completely reversed my opinion - I thought it was completely reasonable. Today, I'll describe the process and draw a few conclusions about the t'shooting section. Read more
The recently announced changes to the CCIE R/S written and lab exams took effect this week. I recently had the chance to take the R/S lab again, as part of the Beta testing - so I decided to save up some observations and post them around the time the new exam has come out. Today I'll look at a variety of things about the lab exam, and make another post next week concentrating on the biggest change: The 2-hour troubleshooting section. Read more
If you're buying gear on a budget, then CCNA Security may be for you. As difficult as I think the IINS exam's theory might be - at least relative to my original expectations - the lab requirements may make up for it. You can practice all the router features effectively with only 2 routers; most can be practiced with a single router. Only a few of the features require a switch, and a single switch at that. Add your existing PC to the mix run SDM and to run a TACACs+/RADIUS server, and you have enough gear with which to practice. Read more
Today's post lists opinions, results, impressions, and so on of my review of the content of the CCNA Security exam - or, more literally, the IINS exam. The set the stage, I'm using the Cisco Press CCNA Security Exam Cert Guide to predict the content of the IINS exam. Read more
I had this grand vision of a nice morning at the book store. Three books stacked on the table next to the easy chair, cup of coffee in hand. The books: The CCNA Security ECG (Exam Cert Guide), The Cisco Press CCNA Voice ECG, and the CCNA Wireless ECG. The goal: figure out what was on each exam, and then blog about it over the coming weeks. Read more
I started out today intending to write about CCNA Security - and ended up giving career advice. Which I usually avoid like the plague. And which I think is dangerous to even bring up. But the process got me thinking about a wide range of topics, and I thought it might be helpful to some of you. I also think that a lot of folks that read this blog regularly can help those at the just-passing-CCNA stage as well. To sum it up, today's post boils down to this: Where next after CCNA? And how to choose? Read more
Many people come to the CCNA game never having had an IT job. That's perfectly reasonable - many people work towards CCNA as a way to help get that first IT job, or even their first networking-focused IT job. Unfortunately, that lack of prior experience makes the Sim and Simlet questions that much harder for CCNA candidates. The trick is to know how to overcome the lack of experience, and the depth/breadth learned with that experience, to be confident with Simlets on the exam. Read more
You know they're coming, but then it happens - you click for the next question, and it's one of the dreaded Sims. Do you break into a cold sweat? Freeze? Rush? Or do you approach these questions with confidence, ready to find the problem, fix it, and claim all the points, and be rewarded for how well you prepared? This week, I'll ramble a bit about how to prepare and approach questions Read more
Down by two touchdowns, with 8 minutes left. Do you go for it on 4th down? Down 2 goals with 15 left - do you put in 3 more strikers, and pray for a break or two? When do you start playing hack-a-shaq at the end of a game versus the... Cavaliers? (Even as a Cavs fan, it's still a little weird to think about having Shaq at center.) Today, we'll look at the same decision relative to the CCNA exam - and more importantly, how to hopefully avoid having to answer questions faster than you can even read them. Read more
The verdict is in from the last few week's blogs (Part I and Part II) and the associated surveys: the underlying reasons for the challenge of passing CCNA are many. The survey about the exam preparation shows that the time required to study, and the uncertainty of when you're really ready, were the biggest issues. The survey about exam-day issues lists a wide variety of challenges. Read more
Last week, we got the discussion started about why the CCNA exam is considered to be so difficult. We focused on prep tasks last week. This week, I'll try to break down the exam itself into the components that make CCNA difficult. I'll use the same ground rules as last post, so check that post if you want more background.
First, I'd like to make a few comments about last week's survey, which asked which area of CCNA preparation caused the most problems for the test. The poll essentially gave four options: Read more
As Tom Hanks said back in the movie Forrest Gump, "It happens". Almost every time I chat with someone new around the "so whatta ya do for work" question, my side of the conversation commonly comes around to the CCNA exam. And when the other person is an IT person who knows anything about CCNA, 4 times out of 5 - without any prompting from me - they comment about how it's a tough exam to pass, especially for an entry level cert. Read more
When most people think networking products, Cisco's on the list, often at the top. But when most people think network management products, Cisco may be on the list, but other vendors may play a more important role. This same thought translates to the Cisco cert space. None of the Cisco career certs focus much attention on network management. So I'm going to go out on a limb and start today with a conclusion: the new Solarwinds Certified Professional (SCP) cert has a good chance to become the defacto net management cert in the Cisco cert space. Read more
Once upon a time, if you wanted to work in networking, and you wanted to remain a technologist, and you wanted certs to demonstrate your skills, CCIE was clearly the one end goal of your certification future. Anyone could read the website, ask around, and realize quickly that CCIE was the top Cisco cert, that it was well respected in the cert world, and that anyone with a CCIE cert got some added level of respect (whether deserved or not). But the world keeps changing, so today, I want us to consider whether CCIE is clearly on a downward path. Read more
The Cisco Certified Architect certification may well be the single biggest addition/change to the Cisco certification space since the introduction of CCNA and CCNP in 1998. In the space of two years, Cisco has taken the pinnacle of the Cisco cert space - the CCIE - and added another cert billed as equivalent for Design issues (CCDE), and then made a new pinnacle to the cert pyramid - the new Cisco Certified Architect cert - sitting on top of the CCDE.. Network World bills it as a Ph.D. in Cisco. Read more
Like the previous post, I'm just rambling about the things that stuck out at Networkers. Short list: Attendance vs. party hats, party hats, the not-CCA, millennial to overcome baby boomers by 2011, the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer I spent in San Francisco... I'll start and end with my two favorites of the day.
The Networkers hat this year looks like a Devo hat. Red, concentric cylinders. And I promise to get a phone with a camera by next year, so I can post what the hats look like... next year. ;-) Read more
Today's the first full day of the Networker's conference. It's a busy day, in part due to the 7:30AM start, and in part due to being the day before the customer appreciation event. Seems that every year, the best day to schedule any kind of smaller party, meeting, or event is that one evening on the day before the Networkers party - so three different places to be for me tonight. Anyway, I wanted to take a few minutes and mention some highlights so far. I'm not approaching this like I'm covering the event - I'm just mentioning things that stuck out to me. Read more
Cisco frequently announces changes to their certifications at the Cisco Live conference (formerly known as Networkers). I'll be at this year's US Cisco Live event next week in San Fran, and I plan to blog several times about relevant announcements. But in the mean time, I wanted to review Cisco's biggest cert announcement at Networkers 2008, which was the introduction of the CCNA Voice, CCNA Wireless, and CCNA Security certifications. And the overriding question is this: have these certs become accepted and perceived as valuable? Read more
Last post I generated some discussion about the issue of whether the experienced folk should recommend to newbies that they should use Dynamips et al for CCNA prep, or not at all, or some, and why. Today I'll offer some interpretations of what we came up with, as well as some of my own opinions that I withheld last time for the sake of not influencing the input received from the Cisco Cert Zone community. My goal here is to collect what I see are the biggest decision points - but not all decision points - to help CCNA newbies decide what to do. Read more
While potentially useful as an end to itself, my previous post - essentially an overview of the use of Dynamips for Cisco cert prep - was really a set-up to discuss today's topic. Today's topic is meant for two groups: those new to CCNA, and those that have gone beyond CCNA and have also used Dynamips. For newbies, the question is, should I use Dynamips as my primary hands-on learning tool for CCNA prep? And for oldies, the question is, what advice would you give the CCNA newbie regarding whether to use Dynamips or not, and under what circumstances? Read more
Odom, CCIE No, 1624, splits time between writing books for Cisco Press and teaching classes for Skyline ATS. In his 25-ish years in the networking industry, he has worked as as a pre-sale and post-sale SE for a few networking vendors, as well as a network engineer implementing network technology. Wendell has spent the majority of the last 15 years teaching, consulting, and writing about networking technologies, most of which in some way relate to Cisco products. His books include titles on QoS, CCIE R/S, as well as several titles related to CCNA certification, including the September 2007 book CCNA Official Exam Certification Library (CCNA Exam 640-802) (Read a sneak peek of chapter 7). Click for the list of current titles by Wendell.
The Leader in Network Knowledge
