From: Patrick Torney (ptorney@satx.rr.com)
Date: Fri May 21 2004 - 18:30:47 GMT-3
Thanks everybody for all the excellent feedback on this workbook thread.
A followup, which itself will probably create a fork here, but, this is the
first I've heard of the lab changing... is that official or just really good
rumor mongering? Please ellaborate... Thanks.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Last" <packtmon@yahoo.com>
To: "Jan K" <jan_k@verizon.net>; <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2004 4:01 PM
Subject: Re: which workbook?
> Personally, I can't say anything about ccbootcamp's workbook. Haven't
seen it. But, if you're interested, I would just go to their web site and
see if they have a sample lab and Solution Guide for the sample lab. If
they do, then do the same with IE and compare.
>
> Then try to find out about their support. Believe me, nothing is worse,
nothing is more frustrating and nothing wastes more time than having a
problem figuring out why something doesn't work and not being able to get
any help. That was the biggest problem with IPExpert. Their "support"
WASN'T. It was practically non-existent.
>
> And, because there were so many mistakes in their labs, having good
support was all the more important and necessary.
>
> IPexpert claims that they can't support their products because they have
so many products and there just aren't enough qualified people available to
provide support. But, as far as I'm concerned, there product isn't complete
if they support it. And, they charge so much for it as well. It's
terrible.
>
> Then, if you're satisfied the product is good and the support will be
good, then compare prices and decides which workbook will give you the most
bang for your buck.
>
> Then get to work. The lab is gonna change again on August 1st.
>
> HTH
>
> Jan K <jan_k@verizon.net> wrote:
> I'm seeing all this talk about NMC, IPExpert and IE, but how about Network
> Learning (ccbootcamp.com)? They were probably one of the first ones out
> there with a workbook a few years ago. Is the latest version (12.2) still
> any good? How does it compare to the other three?
>
> Thanks.
>
> --
> Jan
>
>
>
> From: "Tim Last"
>
>
>
> > Danny,
> >
> > I tend to agree with you as far as usually getting what you pay for.
> However, in this case, I think that common adage isn't true.
> >
> > I don't have first hand experience with the NMC workbook but about a
month
> ago, when I was considering which workbook to get, I spoke to a buddy of
> mine (who is now a ccie after about 5 attempts) and asked him about the
NMC
> workbook which he had purchased.
> >
> > (BTW, I had bought the IPExpert workbook and wasn't happy with that for
> several reasons. They were full of mistakes, they didn't include a
Solution
> Guide, and their support was almost non-existent)
> >
> > He told me he was disappointed with the NMC workbook for 2 primary
> reasons:
> >
> > a) They had far too many mistakes and compared to the real lab
> >
> > b) They seemed to have an unrealistic focus on weird and convoluted
> redistribution problems.
> >
> > So, I got the IE workbook and it's fantastic. Based on my own experience
> taking the real lab, IE's practice labs are very comparable in the level
of
> difficulty of the real lab and the type of problems one can expect to see,
> Their Solution Guide is a work of ART, and there are very few errors of
any
> sort. So far, I've only come across a few minor typo's but nothing that
> like the errors that were in the IPExpert workbook which had busloads of
> logic errors.
> >
> > In addition, IE's support site actually provides support. If you take a
> look at it, you'll see how often Brian McGahan (and sometimes Brian
Dennis)
> has responded to questions with answers that actually answer people's
> questions.
> >
> > Then, if you consider how much you'll learn compared to how much you
have
> to invest, $200, I think it's the best deal available today by far.
> >
> > Again, I can't say anything about NMC from personal experience, but
having
> suffered through the lack of support from IPExpert and the huge volumes of
> errors in their workbook, I can tell you, those 2 problems combined make
for
> a horrorable experience. Remember that when someone is trying to figure
> stuff out and trying to master this technology, when there's a logic
> problem, it's hard as hell to know, at first, if the problem is a result
of
> not understanding the technology or how the commands actually work or
> because there are inconsistancies between the task you're trying to do and
> the solution.
> >
> > Then, if you add the fact that IPExpert doesn't provide decent support,
> the result is that you end up wasting huge amounts of time and not
learning
> the material and understanding what the networking problems are and what
you
> need to do to solve them.
> >
> > Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth.
> >
> > Tim
>
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