CCSA

So today I took the Checkpoint 156-215.65 exam. Tough is all I can say. I studied the official student guide, reading it cover to cover twice and still only got a 70. Good enough to pass which is all that matters today.

Studying is hard work

So I’m trying to take my time and really absorb the CCIE material. It is tough slowing down my usual studying pace.

When I studied for the CCNA, I studied constantly, at least 3-4 hours a day. I would read my books in the morning before work, read for two or three hours at night between dinner and bed, read documentation at work, sat through labs from the PEC, watched CCNA tv videos, read forum postings and asked a ton of questions. I studied a solid two months before I took the exam and passed it on my first attempt. I know people who have studied a lot longer than that and not passed it after several attempts.

I pretty much used the same approach for studying for the CCSP exams. They were more difficult because except for the SNPA (which is now retired) all the exams had regular books that had to be read, no exam guides. At least not that I could find. I carried them with me everywhere and read more than I had to and practiced way too much. In the end though, it paid off and I earned my CCSP in about 6 months.

The CCNP took me down a different path. I was in an interesting situation at work where I was able to study almost all day long for about two months. I took full advantage of it. I still followed the usual course of action though, reading before work, reading after work, labs with dynamips, watching videos, reading documentation.

The one thing I always realize while studying for exams: the amount of stuff I don’t know. Which is the reason I am trying to slow down my CCIE studies. I know it is a long and time consuming path earning your CCIE. My wife and I had a discussion about it on Valentine’s day and she fully supports my efforts. Right now I get up even earlier everyday of the week than I once did to study before my wife and daughter wake up. I’ve read the stories of people saying you can’t study for the CCIE and have a life. So I get up early to maximize my study efforts. I’ve cut a bunch of stuff from my daily habits like reading rss feeds and just surfing the web. It also means that I don’t post here as often as I would like to. I will probably do more as I find things to write about, but for now, studying for the written exam isn’t very exciting and I don’t find much to share doing it.

Anyway, back to studying for me.

Learn how to use your tools

Last week, I participated in a contest, not a big deal. What is a big deal though is how much time I spent reading and searching for an answer that was right there in front of me. In less than 10 minutes I knew where I needed to focus my efforts to solve the problem, I just didn’t know how to get the answer.

Sadly I spent most of the day reading RFCs (never a bad thing) and trying to figure out how to decrypt a SNMPv3 packet when I already had the information I needed to decrypt it. A couple of people mentioned in the comments they found the answer searching Google. I didn’t ever see a link explaining how to use Wireshark to decrypt packets. After a while I finally decided to look through the options and preferences. I found what I needed and then got the answer I was looking for where I expected to find it.

Now in the future I will be sure to more thoroughly investigate all the features of my tools. I typically use Wireshark just to watch packets fly across the network so I can verify what is happening. All the other things it can do, like decrypting SNMPv3 packets, didn’t know that. Didn’t even care until last week, but now I know better.

IP routing information on Cisco website

I found this link this morning while searching for a specific document. Huge selection of documents on IP routing protocols, switching, IPv6, tunneling, multicast. Definitely worth bookmarking.

Thoughts about the CCIE lab

I’m thinking about the CCIE lab exam and doing research online. The thing that pops into my head time and time again is how does everyone prepare for the lab? Searching online it seems a large number of people use either IP Expert’s or Internetwork Expert’s training materials. Now, I would love to get my hands on something like that, but I just don’t have an extra $2000 to spend and that is on top of any equipment you purchase yourself, practice lab fees, books and other training materials people may purchase, plus the cost of the lab exam itself and traveling.

Are these people independently wealthy? Insane? Lucky and work for a company that will pay for it all?

Reviewing the websites for each company that provides CCIE training material, there are a good number of people who use their materials to pass the lab exams. However, I believe a lot more pass the exams without their materials or at least there are a lot of people who do not credit them for helping pass the exam. I really am curious how people prepare. I know Cisco Press has a line of CCIE prep books. I own the R&S written exam certification guide. Should I save my pennies and purchase the practical study books too or sell everything I own and get something like the blended learning solution from IP Expert?

I would really like to have the lab books from IP Expert and the video on demand. I learn really well from video and find it helps reinforce what I have read. If any one out there has any opinions on the subject, I wouldn’t mind hearing them. I really have to pick and choose my study materials.

And so it begins

I passed the ONT exam on Decemeber 31, 2008 to my CCNP. Now it is on to the CCIE.

I received the CCIE Routing and Switching exam certification guide yesterday and went to work reading it. I’m searching for a decent linux flashcard program that I can use to create my own flashcards and work on remembering commands and all the information I am going to need. My goal is take my written exam by the middle of February and then immediately begin studying for the lab.

Expect me to write more often as I work througall the books I have and plan on reading. There are still a couple on my list that I don’t have but plan on getting as soon as possible.

Passed the BCMSN

I retook the BCMSN exam this morning and passed. A bunch of the questions I recognized from my previous attempt, but there were still a handful that I hadn’t seen. Nothing wrong with that. I am glad I studied wireless and voice between my attempts. There were still questions on the exam that are not covered in the book.

This time my weak area was spanning-tree. I think I second guess myself when it comes to answering questions on an exam. I will just need to go back and review the sections on spanning-tree and write up notes from the chapters when I’m finished with the remaining two tests.

Notes on protecting STP topologies

My notes from Chapter 10 of the BCMSN book.

You can download them here.

Fedora won’t update

If your Fedora installation won’t update because Packagekit is busted, run the following command as root

yum update

My Packagekit was broken after the last auto update. This should fix it this morning.

This is a scary thought if you’re a business

I just read an article that for me had one of the most disturbing things ever written

And employees are becoming more and more willing to do just that, according to a study released earlier this week by Cyber-Ark Software. According to the study, 56 percent of workers surveyed admit to being worried about losing their jobs. “Alarmingly, in preparation, more than half have already downloaded competitive corporate data and plan to use the information as a negotiating tool to secure their next post,” the study says. In Holland, 71 percent of workers confessed to having already downloaded data; 58 percent of U.S. workers say they have done so.

I can’t imagine being that hard up that I would do something like that. just think about for a minute. Close to 3 in 5 people are actively stealing data from your company. Read the full article here.