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Blog: The Whole Ethan Thing….
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No doubt if your a follower of the other CCIE blogs, and a regular reader of groupstudy you would have seen this whole thing about Robert Williams from CertGuard slamming Ethan Banks for cheating on his exam. CCIEPursuit summed it up nicely, as did Matt Hill, Collin McNamara, Deon Botha and Greg Ferro.
I wasn’t going to comment, because frankly I thought it was crap as soon as I read it on Networkworld. “This is just some guy drumming up exposure for his company. Nothing to see here…move along”, I thought. If you followed Ethan’s blog, to me it was obvious Ethan didn’t cheat. I didn’t want to post about it because I didn’t think it deserved the attention it has subsequently attracted.
Heck, I find this screenshot I took a couple of minutes ago amusing:
Here is a site that claims ethanbanks.net is safe. It even states that “this is the kind of PTP you should be looking for”. However it appears they see nothing wrong with dragging the name of owner of that site through the mud. I care about the integrity of these exams as well but his comments on Networkworld is bordering on slander. Who in their right mind would want anything to do with this company?
I think this is a sad attack on someone that has tried to give back to our little community. We’ve all followed Ethan through his preparation attempts and shared his joy when he passed. If you looked through his blog you would have clearly seen the amount of hard work and dedication he put into achieving his CCIE. You can’t fake that. He knew his stuff. If he was cheating, he was going about it the wrong way :)
This whole things seems like CertGuard trying to drum up free exposure. To me, it seems like they are trying to get you to use their search tool to verify any material you purchase…so you don’t end up like Ethan. Kinda like a mafia extortion racket. There must be many people they could have “made an example of” so one must wonder, did they target Ethan Banks for vilification due to his high profile, and if so was it also more for publicity than justice.
Having a watchdog protecting the value of our certifications is a good idea in principle, but in this case the implementation is just as evil as the crime. Cisco is the final authority on the matter. They should be the watchdog, not some guy who’s credentials and methods are questionable. How does CertGuard know material is safe unless they’ve looked at the questions themselves?
I was going to say that I wouldn’t be using any sites that have the CertGuard logo on it, but then I couldn’t find any. :)
Come back Ethan. Our community needs leaders like you.
Update: Ethan’s back!….and Robert Williams from CertGuard has issued an apology.
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I couldn’t agree more Arden. I feel they have deliberately and publicly painted Ethan as an confessed cheater who deserves his certifications revoked.
That they brought the entire issue up publicly instead of following the correct channels (contacting Cisco) makes me doubt their motives more than a bit.
Shame on you CertGuard
Boy oh boy. I read about this in NWWs print edition last week and was floored by it. Then I head over to their site, check out their company profile and really get a laugh. What a bunch of qualified individuals huh? Well I think that you are spot on with your assessment. What a joke. I cant believe these guys.
Arden,
I enjoyed reading Ethan’s posts and your response is great. I cannot believe Network World would put that tripe in print. I think Network World owes Ethan an apology and that Mr. Williams should use other modes of advertising other than the slamming and slandering of a very talented CCIE. Ethan, don’t even think about backing down. The CCIE community is behind you and recognizes CertGuard for what they are. I speak to many CCIEs and I have had the pleasure of having Ethan in my network for a while now. Ethan is an honest person who is vulnerable because he shares his beliefs, feelings and hard work in a forum which helps many future CCIEs succeed. We need more Ethan’s and fewer inappropriate Network World articles authored by miscreants!
Arden, thanks for jumping in the pool on this one with a well written article that is straight to the point about the extortion side of this.
One question to ponder… would Robert Williams have written this article if Ethan had payed for a sponsorship…..
Colin McNamara
CCIE #18233 (proud peer of Ethan Banks)
Colin presents a very good question. =)
Ethan’s comment about having looked at TestKing materials was blown totally out of proportion. Even if the Cisco exam policy was technically violated (and this is debatable), its spirit remained intact. In my experience, people intent on cheating don’t maintain a blog detailing what they’ve come to learn in the course of study.
There’s a spooky correlation between the traffic to CertGuard:
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/certguard.com/?src=dt100
…and traffic to another well known braindump site:
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/pass4sure.com/?src=dt100
[...] Since late last week there has been some waves in the online networking community about a post by Robert Williams from CertGuard. Since that post many things have happened, I am however not going to talk about the specific situation, how it is probably afecting the mentioned CCIE etc. Some notable comment can be read from members of the networking community like Colin McNamara and Arden Packeer [...]