Blog: Cisco Announces New CCIE Learning Program…Why didn’t they Partner?

Cisco has just announced a new Cisco 360 Learning Program for CCIE® Routing and Switching. CCIEPursuit has an excellent post on it, and a few of the guys on groupstudy were buzzing this morning discussing it. It got me thinking. Why didn’t Cisco partner with one of the existing CCIE training providers like IPexpert, InternetworkExpert or Micronics? They certainly deliver the bulk of successful CCIE candidates.

CCIE Salary Survey

I got an email this morning from Emmanuel Conde asking this to be posted. I think a salary survey is a great idea and Emmanuel does a fantastic job servicing the CCIE community so I encourage everyone reading this to take the time, fill it out and send him a response.

News: Narbik Kocharians joins forces with IPexpert and Free Stuff!

IPexpert release their newsletter today, with some big news for the CCIE training sphere. After last weeks shakeup where Scott Morris left for InternetworkExpert, it looks like IPexpert has joined forces with superstar Narbik Kocharians! (Does this seem like a superstar trade to anyone else?)

Blog: Cisco, the new CCIE Plaques suck!

I got my CCIE plaque in the mail yesterday.To be honest, I’m really disappointed. I wish they didn’t get rid of the old ones (Greg I’m soooo jealous!). After all that hard work, this thing looks like its made out of plastic. What am I saying, it IS made out of plastic! Plastic with a bit of glass stuck on the front. Bring back the old medallions. That is something you can show of with pride! Continue reading for a photo…

Blog: My IPexpert Voice Stuff Has Arrived!

My IPexpert CCIE Voice Blended Learning Solution (trying saying that three times fast!) has arrived! Woohoo! I’ve been waiting for this little puppy for about a week. It contained all the printed material for the Blended Learning solution: Workbook 1, 2, and 3 as well as a printout of the slides for the Video On Demand DVD….

Cisco Spamming Blog Comments For New Learning Portal….Nice!

They are obviously trying to get you to go to their new Cisco Learning Network Portal. This portal actually looks pretty cool. Its a web portal with a discussion forum etc. The CCIE section is pretty bare at the moment, but hopefully they put some cool tutorials or videos etc. Now I wonder how many of those comments on the forum are real….

Scott Morris Joins Internetwork Expert

Man this is huge news. Scott Morris joins the all-star team at Internetwork Expert! Scott Morris, Quad CCIE, Uber Geek, The man behind that lab, has officially joined Internetwork Expert. Scott was Vice President of Technical Training at IPexpert where he delivered and developed CCIE classroom training.

News: New CCNA Concentrations – CCNA Security, CCNA Voice and CCNA Wireless

Cisco has announced three new concentrations to the CCNA program – CCNA Security, CCNA Wireless, and CCNA Voice. Candidates at the associate level (CCNA) are often expected to operate and maintain voice, security, and wireless equipment and this program is designed for such candidates. You must have a valid CCNA to achieve these concentrations. The concentrations allow a current CCNA to specialize and serves as a stepping stone to the Professional level certifications.

Blog: The Whole Ethan Thing….

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.

Blog: CCIE:R&S…Done…Now What?

After doing what anybody passing their CCIE does (killing brain cells with beer), I had time to reflect on what has been an awesome year so far. I’ve had emails from all around the world, calls from family and friends congratulating me. But you wouldn’t believe how many emails, and conversations I’ve had that contained the question “What are your plans next? Now what?”…

Blog: My CCIE story….

I have been waiting to write this post. I am just so deliriously happy right now. Before I start, I want to thank my beautiful wife for her support. She was that voice I heard in my head that told me to just keep going, and never give up when I’d lost hope. I’m glad [...]

CCIE #20716

I passed. I’m so happy right now. :)
I’ll post a full write up later…time for a scotch or three!!! CCIE #20716…has a nice ring to it!

Blog: Coming up for air…2 days to go

Okay, in the last week I have redone Mocklabs 3,4,5,6, and 7, Workbook2 Lab 8, Workbook 3 labs 7, 8 and 9. I’m done with labs. :) I was mainly focusing on speed because there wasn’t anything on those labs that I hadn’t seen before. At this stage, I’m pretty exhausted and I think I [...]

Blog: 10 Days to go…Last Mock Lab Done!

“Knowing is not enough. We must apply.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

I just finished Mock Lab 7 which is the hardest of the Mock Labs. I should probably rephrase that…it is the Mock Lab with the highest difficulty rating. I actually thought this one was easier than Mock Lab 4 (which is the spawn of satan! lol). I answered everything. There were plenty of tricky questions but each question was fairly independent of the others so if you stuffed one up, it didn’t really effect any other question. Couple of things I had to figure out because I had never done before, but that is where the DocCD really helped.

Blog: Mock Lab 4 is the spawn of Satan!

Mock Lab 4 is the spawn of Satan! lol.

*sigh*. I know I stuffed that one up. I just finished it. Didn’t have much time to check anything. I got full connectivity, and answered most things. I think I got something fundamentally wrong in the IGP section. I got to the end, and i was utterly exhausted. I’m sure I made mistakes, but I will see how it goes.

Blog: 17 days to go….

I spent this morning going through Mock Lab 6 again. I booked a 6 hour lab session and gave myself a challenge of completing the whole thing in those 6 hours. I just managed to do it (with a few minutes to spare!). I had spent the greater part of Thursday and Friday going through it thoroughly, analyzing it, trying out different things and multiple solutions. I figured out a couple of things that I stuffed up the first time.

Repeating labs definitely helps. I tend to do a lab now repeatedly until I know it back to front. A lot of people have said “what is the point of doing a lab over and over again, you just end up memorizing it”. This is true in some respects, but what I tend to do is go through the lab again until I don’t need to look up the answers for that lab.

Blog: CCIE Assessor Lab B

I got 70%. Pretty disappointed about this one, as I missed some easy masks. Some I lost because of the grading again looks for very specific answers (although I think this grading script was better than the last one).

Blog: Doc CD Issues and fixes

It looks like even if you don’t have access, or you think you might require access to a DocCD resource that is missing, the proctor is able to give you access to those missing/broken links. This was from the proctor in the Sydney lab as well, so that is a bit of a relief. I am still going to make sure I know how to find the information on all the versions of the DocCD, but it is still nice to know.

Blog: CCIE Assessor Lab A

I just finished my CCIE Assesor Lab A. I got 72%. I have mixed feelings about this one. The script looks for very specific answers but it gave you a fantastic insight on what Cisco is looking for in terms on configuration and how they mark your exam….

Blog: 23 days to go….Mock Lab 6 Done!

I finished Mock Lab 6 yesterday. I think i did better than the last mock lab. Going through the solution guide this morning, i got a few things wrong. Most of these were really stupid errors that I’m gonna blame on my brain being mush at around the 6 hour mark. 8 hours is still a killer for me to sit down in one stretch. I was reading on Slashdot the other day how scientists are using brain performance enhancing drugs…my first thought was “Where do i get some?! That would really help studying for a CCIE!” lol.

Blog: 28 days to go….A day in the life of a CCIE candidate

4:45am: Crawl out of bed. I went to bed at around 11pm last night, and couldn’t really get to sleep. My brain just wouldn’t unwind, and I kept thinking about a redistribution problem i was trying to solve. My quality of sleep has definitely gone down lately. I’ve been doing a minimum of 12 hours a day on labs, and then about an hour watching COD videos before dozing off. I think i need to take a rest day sometime soon. Maybe just watch COD videos all day, otherwise I think I will burn out.

Blog: 40 days to go…

Well, I completed my first Mock Lab (IE Mocklab 5) last night. The Mock Lab was great and did just what I wanted it to do: push me just that little bit harder than I was used to. It definitely got me out of my comfort zone. It was rated an 8, which is supposed to be harder than the actual lab. This is a little comforting, because I didn’t do as well on it as I’d hoped.

Blog: 68 Days to Go….

After reading through the fantastic (and inspirational!) CCIE in 3 months blog I’ve decided I need to get more organised. His post on his dynamips environment contained something that literally caused me to sit up and say “now why the heck haven’t i been doing that!”. In the post is a picture of a pdf file, that he fills out after each and every lab that he completes to grade himself.

Blog: My Favourite Net Things

I’m feeling a bit more confident about the lab. I have been working steadily through the IE workbook and things are falling into place nicely. I still need to work on my speed and accuracy but i can do the Core (Switching, Routing, BGP) sections of most of the labs within 2-3 hours. This is a big improvement for me.

Blog: Network World features Ardenpackeer.com blog!

G’day Networkworld.com Readers!
You can imagine my suprise when I discovered that Network World has published a list of 20 useful sites for Cisco networking professionals that includes none other than ardenpackeer.com! Wow!
There are some awesome sites on that list and its definitely worth checking it out. Most of these have been on my list [...]