From: Brad Ellis (ironbrad@xxxxxxxxxxxx)
Date: Sat Aug 12 2000 - 13:30:03 GMT-3
Arne,
Hi! Virtual labs are a great way to save some money and get good exposure
to a variety of technologies. We have had many CCIE's use
www.ccbootcamp.com to gain the necessary skills required to pass the lab
exam.
I used CCBOOTCAMP's labs to prepare for the exam mainly using my own
equipment (with the exception of ATM, which I did on a virtual rack). If I
could re-do my studying all over again (I dont think I ever would!!), I
would have just used a virtual rack instead of trying to track down all the
hardware I needed for my home lab (cables, Maus, switches, routers,
transceivers, etc..what a pain!)
For many people that are serious about their CCIE certification, the cost of
using a virtual rack is minimal ($200/day ave). Getting a home lab of 6 or
7 routers, a switch, and maybe an ISDN simulator (or ISDN lines depending on
location), and then using the Virtual Rack for ATM/VoIP/ISL trunking/etc. is
a great approach.
As far as VoIP is concerned, I know that Marc Russell has the voice gear on
his rack and has helped out his clients in the past by actually assisting
them with making the VoIP calls to verify configurations.
ttyl,
-Brad Ellis
CCIE#5796
www.optsys.net
----- Original Message -----
From: "Arne Kuhlmann" <ccie-lab@arne.de>
To: <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 12, 2000 8:12 AM
Subject: Re: Budget for Lab
> What do you guys think of renting time on a virtual lab? For those who
done it,
> has it been worthwhile?
>
> I have never used a virtual lab and am somewhat reluctant to do so:
> - You have to book a certain timeslot, so you have to use it at that time.
With
> a home lab, you can practice whenever you want. If you only used it for 3
hrs
> that day, you don't have to pay for 8.
> - I like to have physical access to the routers so I can wire them however
I
> want for different scenarios. At a home lab you are not stuck with the
> predefined setup like on the virtual lab.
> - The home lab does cost more, but when you are done you can sell it, if
you are
> lucky for about the same price you bought it for. The money spent on a
virtual
> lab is gone...
> - There are some things that are very expensive to set up at home, like
ATM and
> voice. Luckily we have some ATM stuff at the place where I work, so that's
not a
> problem. Can you really practice voice on a virtual lab? It's one thing to
> configure the voice ports on a router, but then I'd like to pick up the
phone
> and make a call with it...
>
>
> To get back to the original topic: I am paying for the whole CCIE journey
> myself. Spent hundreds of $$$ on books, thousands on Routers (about 5k).
And
> I'll be taking a CCIE lab class with MTS in London late October (another
$10k
> with flight/hotel). After that I'm off to San Jose on Nov 18.
> Not only are travel cost a major factor (I'm from Germany) but also the
lost
> income as a contractor for the weeks spent on training and the lab.
>
> Regards,
>
> Arne Kuhlmann
>
>
> Brad Ellis wrote:
> >
> > I paid $25,000 for my lab...it took a while to pay off my credit
cards!!!
> > (hence I started selling hardware). I would have never passed if I
didnt
> > buy my own lab. Now that I look back, I wasted WAAAAY too much time
putting
> > the lab together (hunting down hardware). I would have been much better
off
> > purchasing virtual rack time from CCBOOTCAMP.COM or another virtual rack
> > place that had ATM and VoIP. I probably could have done that and had my
> > company pay for it as training...oh well. Good luck in your journey.
If
> > you need any cisco hardware, just let me know how I can help.
> >
> > ttyl,
> > -Brad
>
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