From: ccie2be (ccie2be@nyc.rr.com)
Date: Mon Nov 08 2004 - 18:36:43 GMT-3
I used both Workbooks.
IMHO, Internetwork Expert (IE) is far superior.
Here's why:
1) The Solution Guide(SG), included at no additional charge with the
workbook, explains in comprehensive detail why the solution is the solution.
You can download a sample lab and the Solution Guide for that lab from their
site to get a good idea of what you'd be getting.
2) Price: Although I haven't checked recently, it used to be that the
IPExpert workbook cost $300 more than the IE workbook and then IPExpert
charged an additional few hundred dollars (around $500) more if you wanted
the detailed explanations.
3) Quality: I think there are 2 aspects to this - the first is actual
content in terms of what topics are covered, how the tasks are written and
how closely the tasks are representative of what you can expect on the real
lab. The other aspect is typo's and logical consistency.
Regarding the 1st aspect, IMHO, the IE workbook is the Gold Standard of
practice lab workbooks on the market today. For example, let's say you're
concerned about how strong you are with ATM. In the IE workbook, you'll
cover each of the 8 primary ways ATM can be configured. Then, if you study
the sections in the SG covering those 8 different ways of configuring ATM,
you'll understand what's going on and should have no problem with the ATM
portion of the lab. You'll know how to approach ATM configuation tasks,
what info you need to be given for each method and how to verify and
troubleshoot problems. Now, with 20 labs, not every possible ATM command is
covered. For example, I don't recall any coverage of ATM QOS, but without a
doubt, the foundation is thoroughly covered and you'll definately be able to
set up connectivity between your router and the backbone router via ATM.
In addition what I've said about ATM I think is true for all the core
topics, 3550, f/r, isdn, all the IGP's, BGP, multicast, QoS, IP Services,
etc.
Regarding the 2nd aspect, typo's and logical inconsistencies, it's very
obvious that the 2 Brian's took the time to make sure the tasks and solution
were logically consistent. I've gone through the workbook a couple times at
this point and there are very few instances where the task is ambiguous or
logically inconsistent with the solution. Trust me, nothing is more
frustrating than struggling to learn a technology and then trying to
understand how to make sense of the solution. If you're not that expert
with a technology, how do you figure out if a problem is because you don't
understand something related to how the technology works or the problem is
the solution doesn't make sense because the authors of the task weren't
thinking clearly. That's a tough one which I lived through numerous times.
Regarding typo's, there are very few of them in the IE workbook and SG.
Although there are some, fortunately, none that I've found are such that you
can't figure out the meaning of what's been written. Usually, the typo's
have been of a grammatical nature. And, thus far, I haven't found a single
typo in an ip address which can be disastrous. How do you even know it's a
typo when you see 10.2.0.0/20 instead of 10.2.0.0/24?
As I said, I haven't worked with the IPExpert workbook in a while and much
may have changed especially now that Scott Morris is now with IPExpert.
Unfortuately, I've never had the opportunity to take a class with Scott, but
if the opportunity ever came up I would jump on it. But, I know from
following GS for sometime now that Scott Morris is fantastic. He's helped
me understand a huge number of things and he never lost patience with all my
questions.
HTH, Tim
----- Original Message -----
From: "one more adventurer" <an_adventurer@mail.ru>
To: <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
Sent: Monday, November 08, 2004 2:48 PM
Subject: R&S lab: Expert versus Expert
> Hi all,
> what do you think about IP Expert vs. Internetwork Expert for R&S lab?
> I am about to spend money on one of these workbooks, but can't make a
choice.
> Please, help, need a sage advice of experienced people:).
>
> Thanks a lot,
> Nell.
>
> _______________________________________________________________________
> Subscription information may be found at:
> http://www.groupstudy.com/list/CCIELab.html
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