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
I've spent at least 25% of the space in this blog over the years to a discussion of what used lab gear you might want to get so that you can practice the commands you will see on various Cisco exams. I've also typically ignored the other options, specifically Emulators (aka Dynamips) and Simulators (several). And occasionally, someone always posts and says the equivalent of "you can do this for free with Dynamips". So now it's time to do a more substantive discussion, starting with today's post, which is a kind of Dynamips 101 with a cert prep twist.
What router(s) should you buy for CCNA or CCNP? What switches? For which exams?
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Our survey about the new CCIE R/S troubleshooting section revealed some interesting facts. First, more than 1/3 of us said that their chances of passing went down with the addition of the new troubleshooting section on the lab. Second, the overwhelming majority thinks that adding troubleshooting make the exam more realistic to what's required of a CCIE doing their normal job. So it got me thinking - how do you prep for the troubleshooting part of the exam?
For folks who are ready to begin their journey towards CCIE R&S, passing the written is frequently viewed as something to get out of the way before starting the real work of prepping for the lab. Frankly, that's reasonable when you compare the time, effort, and challenge for passing the written versus the lab. While it might take 500-1000 hours of study and work combined to pass both parts of the CCIE, I'd guess the typical candidate spends no more than 20% of that time studying for the written, and that usually happens in the first few months or so of study.
Yep, it's official. The CCIE R/S lab will now have a specific troubleshooting component at the cutover date. Oct 17th is the last day with the old blueprint and old format lab, and Oct 18th begins the new era with the return of troubleshooting.
So, it's taken a few months, and a break for a topic or two, but I've made it to the last post on my Springtime CCNA/CCNP lab series. I'll suggest an option or two with a $750 budget, give some pros and cons, and give some comments on some of your suggestions as well.
Today I'm going to summarize some thoughts on why I'd consider one router or switch over another with the goal of building a CCNP lab. Then, I'll open it up to you: with $750 to spend on gear, and a $50 cable budget - what would you buy? Post it here. Then, at the next post, I'll add a sample lab or two myself, and maybe list some pros/cons for both your labs and mine.
Next post, I'll suggest my picks, and wrap up the series.
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I'll wrap the CCNA part of my recent "what to buy for a Cisco CCNA/CCNP lab" series by bumping up the budget - this time $300 or $400. But first, a few comments about the posts of late.
So, we've looked at prices for routers and switches her of late. Now it's time to consider how to build a cheap CCNA lab with real gear - no Sims, no Dynamips.For today at least, cheap is king, the goal is CCNA prep. I'll suggest three variations to generate some discussion. Next post, I'll kick up the budget a bit, and pick a few more.
For prices, go back to this post for the switch prices. For routers, I wanted to revise them a bit, because I've already seen them consistently lower than the prices I'd posted a month or so back. Read more
It's time to get back to the CCNA/CCNP lab discussion and list some of the current prices for the models of switches we discussed back a few weeks ago. I'll spill the beans right up front: compared to this time last year, the prices are waaay down - 50% +. It makes the decisions a little tougher, though, because the price comparisons between different models are now closer. Read more
I would've thought I'd have heard about it before it got announced, but there's a new set of networking centric certs out there. And this one's not an incremental knock-off on vendor certs - it's a complete paradign shift. The details are sketchy, but I figured it's worth a quick post. I'll get back to the lab stuff next time, I promise.
First off, the primary goal is to prove real-world IT skills. Read more
I'm taking a break from the CCNA/CCNP lab series for today to take a look at a couple of career-oriented topics. And since I don't hire anyone, it's time for a survey as well... and you're the hiring manager.
So, here's the hullabaloo. (Man, blogging can be freeing comparing to cranking out a book - hullabaloo would never get past the editors at Cisco Press.) Anyway, Network World published some articles today about careers and the relevance of Computer Science (CS) degrees. Read more
Given the input and discussions around the used router gear and prices, it looks like it's time to move on to switches. Again, my focus will be on the models and prices, rather than re-hashing the details of my CCNP lab post series from 2008. But we do need some context, so I'll hit that today. Read more
My big theory, which we're testing in this blog space this spring, is whether the economy has created a buying opportunity for CCNA and CCNP lab gear. Looks like there are some opportunities, but maybe not across the board of different models. So, I'm going to list some prices, from 2009 vs what I found around the same time this year.
Also, while you're here, you can post about where you've seen different and better prices - I think that really does help others who are buying soon. It tempers against Wendell's structured but not scientific price surveys. Read more
Alas, there are so few mind readers in the world these days... ;-) So, let me add some context and some why's/wherefore's to this series on build a CCNA and CCNP lab using real gear. (Way back last year, when I did the original series on CCNA/CCNP prep labs, I took the time to give this same context, but it bears some repeating.)
First, the broad view: you can use Simulators, and/or Emulators, and/or real gear, in order to build hands-on skills for the exams. If you buy a Sim, the Sim should have documentation, so I don't bother blogging about it. Read more
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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.
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