From: Scott Morris (swm@emanon.com)
Date: Wed Jun 30 2004 - 12:02:39 GMT-3
Congratulations!!! Enjoy some time off now! :)
Scott Morris, CCIE4 (R&S/ISP-Dial/Security/Service Provider) #4713, CISSP,
JNCIP, et al.
IPExpert CCIE Program Manager
IPExpert Sr. Technical Instructor
swm@emanon.com/smorris@ipexpert.net
http://www.ipexpert.net
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of
David Buechner
Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2004 10:01 AM
To: ccielab@groupstudy.com
Subject: A new signature
At long last I get to send "the note." I got #13539 in RTP yesterday!
Like many who have passed I have the usual collection of books. I've used
the IPExpert WB (version 4 I think) and the Internetwork Expert work book.
The Internetwork Expert book has an excellent solution guide and very
challenging scenarios and was a good final prep stages book.
I also took a vclass from Internetwork Expert. Brian McGahan did a
wonderful job of explaining various things. It wasn't so much that I
learned a lot that was "new" but I sure did get a lot more detail on some
things. It helped me move from "knowing the options" to "knowing which
option was appropriate - quickly." Thanks guys!
While I'm thanking people - my wife Kathy has been super supportive. It's
been a long (and expensive) haul for me and she was with me every step of
the way. Too bad you guys don't know her.
And certainly my thanks to all on this list. There are so many talented
people on this list who are eager to share their knowledge - you can't
believe how much I have learned from you all. I've tried to post some of my
own knowledge and I'm going to stick around and try to pay some of that back
as best I can. But thank you all - you're great!
My path (briefly - so you know where I'm coming from in later comments):
I've been a network guy for around 8 years now, but with more LAN expertise
than WAN. Before that I was (among other things) an IBM mainframe systems
guy. I was one of the founding partners of a company that does Internet
access for trade shows - and I was the CTO (only techie :-) ) for several
years. So I've built some killer LANs in short time frames. The routing
side of things I'm a bit of a lab-rat. Much of what I know and can do I've
not done on too many production networks, at least not yet.
I took 5 tries to pass the lab. The first two I really wasn't ready, but
they were good exposure to the process. Attempt #3 I was close. Attempt
#4 was July, 2003 and I left the lab thinking I had it. I was sure. I was
crushed when I got the fail. And I was mad. I went through the thought
process that many do that Cisco was really being a bit unfair, that the
questions were vague and designed to be tricky, etc.
After some time I realized I was wrong. I started to think of things I
probably didn't do right, and the more I thought the more I realized that
the grading was right. I ended up taking several months off from this
endeavor - fall is a busy time for me business wise so it was easy to do.
The last six months I've been back at it with a vengeance, got the IE
workbook, did more scenarios. And two weeks ago I took the class.
Yesterday when I left I was pretty sure! But it sure was nice to see it in
print.
I stay out of the "debates" on this list most of the time, but I do want to
comment on three of them now. First, there is often the complaint raised
that Cisco doesn't give us enough feedback and it's hard to learn from your
failures. The first part of this complaint is hard to prove one way or the
other, but I believe the second point is dead wrong. A good friend of mine
(who has his number as well) gave me good advice after my last attempt when
he asked "did you draw your diagram?" What he meant was documenting what I
remembered of the exam after I left the Cisco facility. I had not, but I
kept doing that after each successive attempt. I leave the test, go back to
the hotel, and write down as many notes/diagrams as I can. I've gotten to
the point where I can list the sectional point totals, many of the
individual question ares (and sometimes their point totals). I can diagram
things like the network topology, the IGPs, the BGP peering, etc. And then
when I get my score report from Cisco I can figure out my raw score and
start making good guesses at what questions I missed. Doing all this really
helped guide my study.
The second debate is which workbook/class/etc is better. As I mentioned
earlier I had a really good experience with the Internetwork Expert
materials/classes and I'd highly recommend them (and no - I'm not associated
with Internetwork Expert). My experience with the IPExpert material
appeared to be less helpful at first glance - but I think much of the
problem wasn't the material, it was me. I wasn't as ready when I went
through the IPExpert book. That *HAS* to have colored my experience. Heck,
if you can afford it - get them all! I think you just have to look at the
quality of the postings of Brian Dennis, Brian McGahan, Scott Morris, etc.
to know that the materials that they are involved in from the various
companies have good quality know-how and experience behind them.
Last debate - what equipment to have. I've got a home lab with 2500s.
They're old, out-dated, won't run all the features, etc. BUT! They do run
the fundamentals. I have been able to experiment with routing protocols,
redistribution, multicasting - core features - on these routers. So get
what you can afford. And definitely rent the rest. Over the years I used
Bradshaw labs and the Internetwork Expert racks. All were very well
supported and very helpful.
Yesterday I stood looking at the RTP "wall of pain" and recognized some
names from this list. Brian McGahan, Scott Morris, and Bob Sinclair in
particular popped off the wall. All of you have been mentors to me whether
you know it or not through your postings. After I check out of the hotel
I'm headed back to the Lake building to sign the wall myself. :-)
Sorry this got so long. But hopefully some of it is helpful to some of you.
Keep up the hard work - this number we chase is hard to reach (and valuable
as a result), but it is very attainable. And don't be embarrassed by taking
so many attempts - you're not alone!
Peace!!
David Buechner
CCIE #13539
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Jul 03 2004 - 19:40:53 GMT-3