From: naushad prasla (naushad.prasla@xxxxxxxxx)
Date: Sat Jan 22 2000 - 22:18:04 GMT-3
Several people have asked me regarding study materials and practice
labs. I know these types of question have been answered before by past
CCIE's. I will share my experience with you.
Study materials.
Caslows book. -- I used it for reference only.
Halabi's book. -- I read the book three times and chapter 10 atleast
five times.
OSPF Config Guide on Cisco's Web site. -- Read atleast three times and
referenced often. You must have this guide completely digested.
Advanced IP Routing by Terry Slatter -- Good for practice labs.
Somewhat useful. IP NAT is totally useless in my opinion. Cisco has
better documentation on this one.
That's really all for my book reading. I spent lots of time on Cisco CD
rather than CCO. That provided my greater confidence in locating
material on the CD. You won't have access to CCO in the Lab. Although
there have been some discussions about that.
Materials from Cisco CD/CCO -- I printed configuration guides for every
major and minor technologies and practiced examples from major ones
atleast three times and minor ones atleast once. Example, print and
practice Multicasting, then try adding RSVP over Multicasting. Cisco
white papers are also quite useful in understanding newer concepts.
Practice and test example scenerios given in configuration guides.
Specially in Halabi's book.
As to the practice Labs, I bought them from CCIEBOOTCAMP.COM for
$650.00. These labs are good, but I think bit out dated and cumbersome
if your equipment is not exactly as theirs.
I developed my own scenerios for the most part consisting of as many
commands for each topic as possible. Here is my practice methodology. It
may sound very tedious, but its very comprehensive and worked for me.
First I listed the commands in the Command Reference Guide from each
major protocol. Then I would schedule an evening only for a subset of
one major feature. For example, testing OSPF virtual links first, then
try adding authentication and see the results, then trying changing
authentication from MD5 to Basic authentication. I would than test the
effects of each command with three or four routers cabled using Frame,
Ethernet, Token Ring and HDLC.
Secondly, I tested almost every question that was asked on this forum
during my few weeks here. I tested those questions even when I thought I
knew the answer. To my surprise, often I thought I knew but I did'nt.
(Thanks for asking those questions...that really helped).
As to the question of sharing my practice exercises, I would have loved
to do that, however, those are nothing more than scribble notes that
only I could understand. Besides, those notes were taylored for my own
Lab setup here.
Hope this helps.
P.S. Time spent studying. 4 - 5 hours a night for 4 nights a day during
the week. 8 - 10 hours on each Saturday and Sunday. Did that for good
six months including everyday during Thanksgiving, Christmas and New
Years. Yes my wife is a very patient women.
Naushad Prasla
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