News: Antonie Henning Passed!

Thanks for visiting! If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. This blog posts regular tutorials, news, and study tips about networking, especially about Cisco CCIE related topics. Go ahead, subscribe to the rss feed! You can also receive updates from this blog via email. Thanks for visiting!Antonie Henning, the [...]

Lots of Dynamips / Dynagen Sample Lab Topologies

I was browsing through my collection of resources and I found a great collection of sample Dynamips / Dynagen topologies to play around with. You can download most of the common lab topologies from the various training vendors as Dynagen .net files. This would be an awesome collection of resources for someone studying for Cisco [...]

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 [...]

NetKit - Full Network Emulation on Linux

Just found about NetKit thanks to a follower on twitter (I’m starting to love twitter!).
“Netkit has been conceived as an environment for setting up and performing networking experiments at low cost and with little effort. It allows to “create” several virtual network devices (full-fledged routers, switches, computers, etc.) that can be easily interconnected in [...]

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: CCIE Practice Lab Built

I’ve got my own practice labs! Well it’s not really mine, but work has graciously let me do my CCIE prep on the BSCI gear they have. What this means is that when a BSCI class is not running, I can use it for my CCIE lab prep. We run a BSCI class about once a month, so that means the rest of the time its mine! The BSCI kit consists of 14x 2600 routers, 1x 2522, and 1x 2950. I’ve cabled it up to mimic the Internetwork Expert Topology (minus the 4 switches!). All the 2600’s are cabled into the 2950, and the 2522 acts as an 8 port Frame-relay switch for 8 of the 2600’s.

Tutorial: OSPF Network Types and Frame Relay Part 2

In our last article we looked at the Broadcast and Non-Broadcast OSPF network types. We will be continuing our OSPF Network Type series of articles by looking at Point-to-Multipoint and Point-to-Multipoint Non-Broadcast network types.

Tutorial: OSPF Network Types and Frame Relay Part 1

Knowing the OSPF Network Types and how they work with different frame relay topologies is one of those things that you should know inside out if you are attempting the CCIE lab. In this next series of articles we will be looking at the 5 OSPF network as well as how and when to use [...]

Study Tip: CCIE Practice Lab Strategy

I was reading through the GroupStudy archives and stumbled on this fantastic thread on another CCIE study strategy. In the thread, Brian Dennis from Internetwork Expert notes that a highly successful approach that they recommend for some candidates is “taking only 5 or 6 full scale labs and do them 4 or 5 times each. Then during the last week or two before the real lab taking 2 or 3 additional full scale labs and them once or twice each”.

Blog: Update on New Study Strategy

Well I’ve done lab 6 twice now and both times I learnt something new. First time through i finished the lab in just over 10 hours. Second time i did it 6 hours. The QoS and Security sections slowed me down the most first time through. I couldn’t figure out how to turn on WRED Congestion avoidance for HTTP traffic without using a bandwidth statement…

Blog: My New Study Strategy

I’ve been thinking about the way that I have been preparing for the lab, and I think I am going to change tactics. So far I have been working through the Internetwork Expert labs. Whenever I come up with a problem with a particular topic, I lab as much as I can on that one topic. I usually complete some of the exercises related to that topic from Workbook 1, and then watch the excellent class on demand videos. This has helped really solidify my knowledge in some of my key weak areas (QoS, Multicast)….

Resources

Links & Resources

Amazon.com Widgets
Cisco Resources:

Cisco Doc CD
Dynagen
Dynamips
Hacki’s Dynamips & Dynagen Forum
GNS-3
CCIE R&S Lab Blueprint
CCIE R&S Written Blueprint
CCIE Secrets eBook
CCIE Agent - Specializing in Hiring CCIE’s
IP Multicast training slides from Cisco
CCIE>Blog_ - Create your own CCIE Blog!
networking-forum.com - Cisco Networking Forum

Cisco [...]

My Top 6 Cisco Blogs of 2007

I was working on putting up a resources section and a blogroll on ardenpackeer.com today. I have a pretty big list of Cisco blogs that I subscribe to and check regularly. I will eventually put up all these links into a seperate section on the site, but in the mean time these sites are definitely my favourite and well worth checking out…

Blog: CCIE Lab Booked

So I’ve booked my CCIE Lab. Having an actual lab date changes things. It focuses you because you have an end point. So far my life has been: get up, study for a couple of hours, go to work, study for a few more hours. I can’t remember what it was like not to study. I remember something vaguely about having a social life. Somthing about sunshine outside and laughing and joking with my friends. Carefree Arden. Don’t get me wrong I still go out and meet up with friends (My wife keeps me from going totally insane), but the CCIE is always in the back of my mind. Having a lab date means there is a possible end. The proverbial light at the end of the tunnel[...]

BGP allowas-in, BGP local-as tips and tricks…

BGP Local-AS
BGP allows you to manipulate your Autonomous System (AS) number in a number of different ways including confederations, local-as, and remote-as commands. This article focuses on manipulating your AS as seen by other remote AS’s using the local-as command. We will also look at some tips and tricks using this in conjunction with BGP [...]