From: Darby Weaver (darbyweaver@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Mar 15 2007 - 05:12:37 ART
Patrick,
I think I can speak intelligently on the subject,
before I call it a night.
Seeing that you work for Dimension Data, a prominent
Cisco Gold Partner, you probably have some skills that
are quite noteworthy.
So...
You mentioned 2 Worksbooks, I'm going to ask you to
look a little further and at least consider 4
Workbooks, Mock Labs, and Instructor Lead Training.
Obviously I work for none of them. I am client or
have an account with all of them. I have been a client
for most since about 2001. I think I have a pretty
good vantage point. To top it off, I spend the day
giving advice, working my issues using their combined
materials, and solving problems at work using their
techniques and ideas I learned under their care.
In no particular order but since you started with
IPexpert and InternetworkExpert.
1. IPExpert - long time leader in the industry and
gained popular support after the title was changed to
IPExpert and even more so after they gained the
esteemed persona of Scott Morris, the effective voice
of IPExpert. Anyone remember Solutions Labs. Scott
also taught for Mentor Technologies as well as I seem
to recall. Scott also maintains humility as well - he
boasts an impressive home office and rack that awes
many and is the subject of many discussions across the
net. Martin G. also helps quite a bit on GS and has
shown his superior knowledge as well.
IPExpert's materials are very good. As you say
everyone has errors. They offer a wealth of materials
in the form of Audio, Videos, ILT, Workbooks, Proctor
Labs and Student guides. Easily worth the money.
They are not necessarily the cheapest but a survey
will show that many people have used IPExpert to meet
thier goals and have done so successfully. They have
a forum and very good cutomer service that is very
responsive from my own experience. I will admit
although, I do have access to most if not all of
IPExpert's offerings I have not used them as
frequently in my own studies - I will admit I used
them initially with a study buddy to master Frame
Relay. And a local study cluster I peer with swear by
IPExpert. This means they took advantage of ILT,
workbooks, videos, and audio. One double CCIE came out
of IPExpert from this group.
2. InternetworkExpert - the sheer number of passing
CCIE's is impressive and lately the highest as well it
would seem from visitng their web-site and others as
well. All of their products are very nice. Their
newest and long awaited technology labs help tie
things together. They have an impressive
Class-on-Demand that I admit I use frequently for both
topics and lab strategy. Their labs very closely
resemble the difficulty level as presented in the
actual lab per my own estimation. Their forum does
not always get a lot of attention and if you will
search the GS Archives you will likely find that many
people come to GS to get their questions answered.
Brian Dennis has taken strides lately to corral people
back to his site and back to IE customer service as
well. This is a good thing. Sometimes they do not
always meet thier product deadlines - I imagine they
are very busy with both product development and
teaching classes etc. They have recently offered
one-on-one training as well. I have had encounters
with their customer service and this past week has
been one as well. I will tell you that they will do
whatever it takes to make it right. My account(s) (a
dinosaur) had gotten a little mixed up over the past 6
or so years and needed to be "mended" both Brians came
to my rescue and their excellent staff worked with me
in a truly professional manner to get everything
straight to my complete satisfaction. That means
something. I have used their COD and Mock Labs, in
fact, just signed up for their latest Mock Labs (2
iterations of each), so I am speaking from experience.
I did once sign up for the Mock Labs and was not able
to do the week due to my work commitments. I emailed
and was given another week to do them at my
convenience. Since then they now offer a two year
protection plan. So I guess they do this for
everyone. They are great. Respnse time is not always
the 24 hours you might hope for unless the email you
get with your ticket number count. I expect this may
improve at some point, but currently is leaves
something to be desired. A cursory visit to
Groupstudy's archives will reveal that of all vendors
and maybe the only vendor - IE gets a lot of fan mail
for this one. But I would suppose they are busy doing
what they do to get more people over the line.
I am eagerly waiting to see the CCIE SP materials that
the Brians and Petr are working on. They got Petr and
he is going to be a very valuable asset - testaments
to his extreme level of detail is simply legendary on
GS. Another Brian in the process, they are going to
change his name I hear.
3. NLI or CCBootcamp - I have been a customer since
like 2001 or 2002 as well. I have bought their
workbooks for quite a while as well. They were among
the first to offer solutions and in the day they were
the clear leader - anyone remember "Lab 8". Brad
Ellis and Narbik Kochans are who I tend to associate
with NLI. Thier support forum is plainly the best
supported of all the vendors. It is active and it is
moderated. I have had conversations there and found
it provacative. I think their labs are very good, not
too hard and not too easy and lately if you have not
seen them you should. They offer them in 5 labs per
$99.00. Very bite-sized. They offer ILT. I'm looking
forward to attending this summer - I've heard some
very good things and I loved Narbiks video on OSPF. I
think I could benefit in my more complete mastery of
topics from such an instructor. They bought Trinet or
parts of it (which was formerly Hello Computers).
They have a few products which I value very very
highly: the workbooks with their clear explanations
and diagrams - I read each of the 30 labs
cover-to-cover before I go to the lab and before I go
to any other training - yes they cover everything and
things I have not seen in other materials - maybe I
missed it? Not likely. I love their Golden Labs or
Technology Labs and at about 1200 pages or so, is just
enormous. I also have seen the Soup-to-Nuts, which is
a PHENOMINAL Prep tool for very up to date lab topics
or at least topics that are current events at GS.
They acquired another up and coming asset in the form
of Victor C. and if you have been watching GS lately
you can see from his work, he's no slouch. I've seen
him work and he is impressive no doubt there. He
shows a great deal of promise and I expect customers
of NLI will be benefitting from this as well.
I am currently reviewing/labbing out the BGP section
of one of their upcoming updates and let me tell you
it is concise, well-documented and appears to be a
pretty much "ALL-YOU-NEED" to learn each aspect of the
subject. Now if Narbik can do this in just 138
pages... You see my point. I'm not finished with it
yet, but it is why I'm up till 3:30am this morning.
Overall I cannot wait to attend an ILT this summer
with NLI and I expect to be favorably impressed. I
also would like to try their graded mock labs, and
since they are now offering a one-on-one training
session, I may opt for this as well even if I pass the
CCIE RS by then. They are still on my list of I gotta
get trained by them. Besides if you noticed I do not
like to leave gaps in my knowledge you can see why.
Customer Service and Response - I'll tell you from
first-hand experience on each and every single
occasion no matter what these guys have responded
quickly and efficiently every single time without
fail. Without mentioning names, another vendor on
this list could benefit much from watching how NLI
approaches customer service.
4. NMC - Bruce Caslow - The Man! - The guys behind
the scenes are awesome from India who works to make
everything right. She even called me once from home
and way after hours to ensure everything was perfect.
Val is Mr. CheckIT and is purely a genius - if you
ever watched Rocky and saw the "Russian" and recall
people referring to him as a machine - this is Val.
He's calm, cool, unemotional, very thoughful in both
his words and in his approach towards students. And
did I mention thorough. I do not think he loses. He
is simply precise in thoughts and diction and he is
examining you the entire time you are in class, he
takes the time to chat with students one-on-one and
offer critique. Yep, he will size you up and let you
know what you do not know.
Then there is Mr. Bob Sinclair, seemingly laid back,
relaxed, and just easy going. Till he starts talking
the man presents information in a non-pressured kind
of way. He watches you, he examines you, he visits
you and walks the room to ensure you got it. He does
not miss telling you in a very conversational tone
what you need to know to get from A to Z. Simple as
that.
I've been to NMC-1 twice and NMC-1 once (CheckIT Labs)
and I'm telling you I could go two more times and I'd
still be learning enough to justify the trip.
Bruce breathes QoS. Their facilities are methodical
and efficient. They have staff assistants who handle
everthing. So they are teaching and at a 3 to 7 or
less ratio - you very nearly receive 1-1 or 1-2
instruction. Worth the price. As a returning student
I got a special deal to come back this year, so I will
be spending at least one week them again this year and
if I can somehow manage it 2.
The CheckIT Labs and the verification TCL scripts are
unique to everyone's offerings and are simply awesome.
The most (VERY MOST) extensive and thorough Video from
ANY vendor to date is produced by NMC. They are long
but they are simply the BEST. They only have 2 at the
moment - Frame and IPv6, but they are second to none.
Labs are included per technology and so are quuizzes.
Now for the downers: The Videos are pricey - I guess
for such quality they must be. But the cost is hard
to swallow and so may preclude many purchasers from
the purchase. I expect this will change once they are
out but as of this writing, this will challenge many
buyers.
The forum is moderated but it is was not as current
since the last time I visited. So it was not of
optimal value for my personal usage and a lot of the
answers given said go back and either read the section
again or something to the effect. It was not
maintained by Bruce, Val, or Bob and one can tell the
difference.
The tech library section - while it has THE POTENTIAL
to be the best resource this reader has seen of its
kind, is unncessarily burdened by spelling errors and
repeats, trust me I tried to read the who thing. IT
IS AWESOME, but needs a bit of editing to be PEFECT -
I believe this so much that I would contract out to do
it myself - it has that kind of potential. It can be
purchases a la carte as well by ssubscription. Worth
the price even in the state I last saw it in. It is
just so worthwhile, I hate to see such a resource not
be what it could be.
Overall, I have rated and still think that NMC offers
the most advanced training available. Not that good
for beginners or maybe it is, but they say "Drinking
from a Firehose" as India will tell you and they do
mean it. So when you go to class you need to be ready
for anything, since they are going to challenge you
with everything.
You will get a call back from NMC or an email. India
Teller is a dream for accounting and customer service
and I have the distinct notion she remembers
everyone's name, each and every one, and whatever you
may have shared with her about yourself.
The whole team is tier-1 even the "University of
Moscow" guys and lady M. at the front desk. They try
hard and it shows.
If you have more specific questions than I have
offered here, please let me know.
--- Patrick Galligan <Patrick.Galligan@didata.com.au>
wrote:
> A few years I used the IPExpert to study for CCIE
> Security. I didn't end
> up passing it and haven't attempted again for
> various reasons. My
> current job sees me doing less security and more R&S
> so I want to do
> CCIE R&S. Can anyone here objectively compare the
> workbooks from both
> companies? I found the IPExpert workbook to be very
> good, but many
> people have said the same about InternetworkExpert.
>
>
>
> I know there are people on this list from both
> companies. I welcome your
> comments, but obviously you will be less objective J
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Patrick
>
>
>
*****************************************************************************
> *
> - NOTICE FROM DIMENSION DATA AUSTRALIA
> This message is confidential, and may contain
> proprietary or legally
> privileged information. If you have received this
> email in error, please
> notify the sender and delete it immediately.
>
> Internet communications are not secure. You should
> scan this message and any
> attachments for viruses. Under no circumstances do
> we accept liability for
> any loss or damage which may result from your
> receipt of this message or any
> attachments.
>
*****************************************************************************
> *
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sun Apr 01 2007 - 06:35:51 ART