Sep
8
Free GNS3 labs over @ GNS3Vault.com
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The author of the site is writing free labs you can simply load up into your GNS3 and work on. You have to really respect the good guys of the community we have. Head on over to their site if you want to check out what they have going on! From the labs I have looked at there was even video solutions.
GNS3Vault is offering you labs and scenarios that you can download and use with the GNS3 software.
There are different types of labs that will find here, and you can run them all on your own computer, no real hardware needed! Studying networking has never been easier…
What are we offering you?
Cool Scenarios to get the maximum out of your networking experience
Downloadable topologies that you can use right away with the GNS3 software.
Different levels of difficulty, there’s something for everyone…novice, intermediate and expert!
The forum where you can discuss about all the labs.
It’s possible to review labs.
You can share your labs with others.And the best thing….it’s all for FREE!
Aug
31
Status Update 08.31.2010
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Well it has been over three weeks since my last update and not much has changed. The little guy has been keeping us extremely busy. I try to lab on a few hours of sleep, but it does no good. My memory retention is very bad with little sleep. The good news for me though is the baby started sleeping through the night last week. So with my wife returning to work in the classroom and everyone getting back on a schedule things should be somewhat back to normal. I still can pound out four or five full labs before my bootcamp. Once I get that full week of labs under me I will have a good idea where I stand as far as the lab goes. Right now my biggest roadblock is the break in between working labs. That doesn’t do much for any memory retention either. I am thinking of maybe breaking down the labs into smaller portions during the week and getting more done during one sitting on the weekends. Either way I should have the IPexpert lab two done by this weekend so I can start lab three. The sad part to all of this is that three years ago I passed the written for the first time and here I still am 
Aug
11
Status Update 08.11.2010
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I pretty much forgot what it is like to walk around with three to four hours of sleep a night. Changing diapers with your eyes closed can get messy at times. It is the longest six weeks I think any parent has to go through 
It is well worth it though in the end.
The good news is I did get a lot of prep time in for my written exam which I passed again two weeks ago. After prepping for the lab for nearly two years and the short lived OEQs for a year the written was non-climactic. I knew I was not going to make another lab attempt by October and I needed to retake it. This time around I used CCBootcamp’s written guide along with the Cisco Press book. There was one question in particular that had a different setup than the rest that I wish Cisco would use more of. The standard multiple choice tests should have evolved years ago…
Moving on I started IPexperts volume three labs yesterday moving through the troubleshooting section fairly well. I only seemed to get caught up on two trouble tickets which is encouraging. Troubleshooting seems to speak to me more than just doing plain vanilla configurations. It must just be the way my brain works. Nothing in my opinion teaches you more than troubleshooting a problem. Hopefully I can get through the configuration portion by the end of the week and move on to lab two by this weekend. I have my bootcamp with IPexpert and Marko in a couple of months and would like to be done with volume three before I get out there.
Aug
11
If you are looking for any Nexus documentation or material FryGuy has some material up you will want to check out here There is more thoughout the site as well so make sure to check it all out.
Jul
24
Getting the most out of CCIE R&S Workbooks VOL1 and VOL2 over @ INE
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This is one of the best articles I have read about how to plan out your preparation no matter which vendor you are using. The statement below could not be said any better for my little world
Working mainly through VOL1 in linear fashion, people tend to forget the information they learned earlier during the study process. Based on the logical grouping of VOL1 topics, these are typically L2/L3 and IGP/BGP technologies.
That has always been my biggest challenge and enabler of frustration. The whole article is very good read, and I will be starting back up using the “kick start” example in the next few weeks Once ofcourse the new little guy stops being nocturnal at times…
Jul
9
Status Update 07.08.2010
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New little guy has finally arrived, this is the best status update I can post here tonight
Little “cheeky” Matthew weighing in at 9.5 pounds
Jun
29
Well since I didn’t get to head out to Cisco Live this year I will have to rely on other bloggers for some information. Wendell Odom has a pretty good post up on LISP and it’s potential impact on the edge. Scary that Facebook is already live on it
Cisco announced a business-oriented pad somewhat similar to IPad. While intriguing, it’s not the most intriguing new thing I learned today at networkers, so let me write briefly about LISP. I will be brief today. Tuesday at the show is always busy. The big party for all attendees is Wednesday night, and monday night is free beer and food on the show floor, so all the folks doing smaller get togethers try to schedule Tuesday night.
Also I found this read on Cisco’s site on it. I am sure there is more over there, but I didn’t find too much.
The Internet Architecture Board’s (IAB)’s October 2006 Routing and Addressing Workshop [8] renewed interest in the design of a scalable routing and addressing architecture for the Internet. Many concerns prompted this renewed interest, including the scalability of the routing system and the impending exhaustion of the IPv4 address space. Since the IAB workshop, several proposals have emerged that attempt to address the concerns expressed both at the workshop and in other forums [7,9,12,13,14]. All of these proposals are based on a common concept: the separation of locator and identifier in the numbering of Internet devices, often termed the “Loc/ID split.” This article focuses on one proposal for implementing this concept: the Locator/Identifier Separation Protoco (LISP) [3].
Jun
22
“Questions for the Cisco Certification Folks at Cisco Live”
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Wendell Odom is wondering what we would ask the Cisco Certification folks if we had the chance next week at Cisco Live.
Cisco Live 2010, aka Networkers, starts the week of June 28th in Vegas. As usual, whenever I go to this or any other trade show event, there’s usually a short list of questions that I’ve been pondering. So, when walking around the show floor, I seek out those who might have an answer to a question. Long story short, knowing that a lot of ya’ll may not be going to the show, I thought I’d turn the question about questions to you folks: if you could go to Networkers next week, and ask the Cisco certifications folks a question, what would you want to know?
Jun
21
Just some light reading for a Monday morning
Sometimes CCIE candidates have problems understanding complexities of route redistribution. One of the things that seems to have some levels of confusion associated with it is redistribution of connected routes and problems it may cause when combined with redistribution of other routing protocols. Let’s clear out that confusion.
Jun
7
Status Update 06.07.2010
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I started this week with a plan to get MPLS down as much as possible. I have to say I understand it a lot more clearly today than I did last week. Needless to say it isn’t really all that hard of a topic. You just need to divide and conquer. Once you lab it up and see it in action it becomes even clearer. I used my IPexpert BLS material mainly, which helped a great deal. Even the VOD slides helped a bunch. There is still a ways to go, but I am inching forward. Hopefully this week I can get back in touch with security and then QOS. Maybe the new baby will be here soon and I can start his track down the QOS path that I tried and failed with Jake
I am feeling better about everything today in dealing with this exam. I am moving forward with what got me close last year and that is the plan I am sticking with for this attempt. The only difference this time is I am going to stick with the divide and conquer approach that helped me through MPLS. I think my problem with QOS and Security was trying to take it all in at once instead of one piece at a time. That just lead to being frustrated over and over again. I think that is the key, limit the levels of frustration. Walk away for a little while if you need to. Take a break and refresh.
