IE removes Locklizard

I have just seen that Internetwork Expert have decided to remove the Locklizard PDF protection system from their products. This is due to their legitimate customers having problems accessing their products. I had a few problems accessing my products at first which was a bit frustrating but once they were sorted out then it has been smooth sailing. However from a Mac and Linux point of view then this is great news because Locklizard only works on Windows. I must say this is a brave move from IE and I hope the community rewards them by buying legitimate copies of their training material. I mean going for the CCIE in the first place is not cheap and I understand that if you speak to any of the training companies and can convince them that you really are hard up they might do you a deal. Also I have seen plenty of giveaways or scholarship programs from virtually all the major vendors. So lets hope this show of faith in their customers by IE does not hurt them to badly. Anyhow for the full post head here.

Tracking down a server

So now I have moved to a much larger network and only have access to the network and not to any servers I face a whole host of new hurdles that I have to overcome. One of those hurdles is trying to locate which switch a server sits on. So far I have developed the method below however there are some areas I need some advice especially on the CatOS stuff.

I needed to track down the server Nike. So first idea was to trace route to the server. So on to my trusty Windows laptop and enter the trace command doh this is not a Cisco box. Anyhow I remembered the Windows command as below:

C:\Program Files\Support Tools>tracert nike

Tracing route to nike.ciscoferret.local[10.109.36.85]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms vl101-ESP-MAD-009-SW102-WEST1 [10.106.31.1]
2 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms ge1/1-ESP-MAD-009-SW110-CORE [10.106.34.133]
3 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms fe2/0-ESP-MAD-009-RTR01 [10.106.34.146]
4 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms vl100-ESP-MAD-010-sw01-w1-msfc [10.107.50.142]

5 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms vl952-ESP-MAD-010-sw02-core [10.109.56.17]
6 7 ms 1 ms 1 ms vl963-ESP-MAD-010-sw04-core [10.109.56.77]
7 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms nike.ciscoferret.local[10.109.36.85]

Trace complete.

So now I had my trace file and more importantly I had the IP address of the last Layer 3 device before my server. So next thing is to telnet to the last Layer 3 device before my server.

C:\Program Files\Support Tools>telnet 10.109.56.77

Then I ran a show arp to include the IP address of the server as below:

ESP-MAD-010-SW04-CORE#show arp | in 10.109.36.85
Internet 10.109.36.85 5 0011.54dd.3382 ARPA Vlan510

Now I had the MAC address it was time to find out what interface it had been learnt on.

ESP-MAD-010-SW04-CORE#show mac-address-table add 0011.254a.2833
Legend: * - primary entry
age - seconds since last seen
n/a - not available

vlan mac address type learn age ports
------+----------------+--------+-----+----------+--------------------------
Supervisor:
* 510 0011.54dd.3382 dynamic Yes 0 Gi6/1
Supervisor:
* 510 0011.54dd.3382 dynamic Yes 0 Gi6/1

So I knew the interface the next thing was to figure out who was connected to that interface. So this is where trusty CDP comes in handy (that is if you are running it, not sure what I would do if it was not enabled, anyone got any bright ideas?)

ESP-MAD-010-SW04-CORE#show cdp neighbors gigabitEthernet 6/1 detail
-------------------------
Device ID: TBP06360198(ESP-MAD-010-SW02-NSR)
Entry address(es):
IP address: 10.109.56.44
Platform: WS-C6509, Capabilities: Trans-Bridge Switch IGMP
Interface: GigabitEthernet6/1, Port ID (outgoing port): 3/6
Holdtime : 169 sec

Version :
WS-C6509 Software, Version McpSW: 7.3(1) NmpSW: 7.3(1)
Copyright (c) 1995-2002 by Cisco Systems


advertisement version: 2
VTP Management Domain: 'ACB_Module_9'
Native VLAN: 954
Duplex: full

ESP-MAD-010-SW04-CORE#

Now I had my neighbor time to telnet to my neighbor and carry on the task of ferreting out which switch the server was located on.

ESP-MAD-010-SW04-CORE#telnet 10.109.56.44
Trying 10.109.56.44 ... Open

Whoops this switch was running CatOS and this is where things got difficult for me. My CatOS is not that good so the best method I could come up with is as follows. If anyone has a better way which I am sure they do please let me know.

I did a show on the VLAN which I had learnt above from the show mac-address-table add 0011.254a.2833 command.

ESP-MAD-010-SW01-NSR (enable) show cam dynamic 510
* = Static Entry. + = Permanent Entry. # = System Entry. R = Router Entry.
X = Port Security Entry $ = Dot1x Security Entry

VLAN Dest MAC/Route Des [CoS] Destination Ports or VCs / [Protocol Type]
---- ------------------ ----- -------------------------------------------
510 00-60-56-ae-49-3f 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-14-5e-7b-18-26 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-9e-44-82 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-11-25-9d-57-47 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-12-79-9e-38-2f 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-ae-75-46 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-ae-48-a6 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-29-6b-ca-9b-50 7/26 [ALL]
510 00-14-5e-7b-18-27 4/31 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-82-3c-25 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-0d-60-4e-6f-18 6/28 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-ae-22-a9 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-14-5e-bd-5f-d1 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-11-25-4a-17-c8 6/39-40 [ALL]
510 00-11-25-9d-50-bd 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-14-5e-36-6b-58 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-ae-6d-18 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-14-5e-bd-5f-d0 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-11-25-4a-17-c9 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-0d-60-9d-16-fd 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-14-5e-36-6b-59 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-29-6b-f5-79-c3 7/39-40 [ALL]
Do you wish to continue y/n [n]? y
510 00-60-56-ae-5b-5e 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-14-5e-ec-ed-3c 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-9e-00-1f 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-14-5e-7b-89-f6 5/19 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-ae-6c-1f 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-0d-60-9c-2d-7a 8/19 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-ae-21-07 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-11-25-9d-57-db 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-1b-54-bb-d3-b6 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-ae-7e-2d 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-11-25-9d-56-8d 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-9e-76-47 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-9e-3a-0b 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-ae-3d-9e 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-14-5e-bc-a7-67 3/5 [ALL]
510 40-00-40-10-10-12 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-11-25-9d-51-7b 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-11-25-9d-55-f7 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-0d-60-9c-2d-ba 8/19 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-ae-2f-af 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-ae-1d-37 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-0d-60-4e-66-d6 6/28 [ALL]
Do you wish to continue y/n [n]? y
510 00-0d-60-4e-6a-f8 6/28 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-82-7c-91 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-14-5e-bd-1c-de 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-11-54-dd-33-82 6/39-40 [ALL]
510 00-14-5e-36-6a-be 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-ae-73-5b 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-0d-60-9c-27-b2 8/19 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-ae-42-b7 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-14-5e-bd-1c-df 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-0d-60-4e-6f-ea 6/28 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-ae-59-54 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-11-25-9d-56-69 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-1a-64-63-8d-2c 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-0d-88-c6-87-14 6/29 [ALL]
510 00-0d-88-c6-8b-90 8/19 [ALL]
510 00-12-79-9e-64-82 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-0d-60-4e-6a-74 6/28 [ALL]
510 00-0d-60-4e-6e-f8 6/28 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-9e-52-47 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-10-18-06-05-04 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-ae-4f-62 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-29-6b-16-45-25 7/47-48 [ALL]
Do you wish to continue y/n [n]? y
510 00-12-79-9e-64-83 4/48 [ALL]
510 00-29-6b-f5-ea-5b 6/25 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-ae-09-43 3/5 [ALL]
510 00-60-56-ae-49-03 3/5 [ALL]

I took the output I received above and pasted it in to wordpad. Then I did a find on the MAC address but first I had to do a conversion from the dotted decimal MAC address notation of IOS to the dashes of CatOS. So I actually did a find on 00-11-54-dd-33-82. From this I found MAC address 00-11-54-dd-33-82 was being learnt on interface 6/39. So a show cdp neighbors 6/39 detail as below showed me what switch was connected to this interface.

ESP-MAD-010-SW01-NSR (enable) show cdp neighbors 6/39 detail
Port (Our Port): 6/39
Device-ID: BLC005MAD-BCSM1
Device Addresses:
IP Address: 10.199.130.29
Holdtime: 127 sec
Capabilities: SWITCH IGMP
Version:
Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software
IOS (tm) CIGESM Software (CIGESM-I6Q4L2-M), Version 12.1(14)AY4, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Copyright (c) 1986-2004 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Mon 20-Dec-04 10:20 by myl
Platform: cisco OS-CIGESM-18
Port-ID (Port on Neighbors's Device): GigabitEthernet0/17
VTP Management Domain: unknown
Native VLAN: 508
Duplex: full
System Name: unknown
System Object ID: unknown
Management Addresses: unknown
Physical Location: unknown
ESP-MAD-010-SW01-NSR (enable)

The switch connected to interface 6/39 was a blade centre so I telneted to the IP address I learnt from the show cdp neighbors 6/39 detail command above. Then I did a show mac-ad address 0011.254a.2832 and it showed me the blade port the server was connected to.

BLC005MAD-BCSM1#show mac-ad address 0011.254a.2832
Mac Address Table
-------------------------------------------

Vlan Mac Address Type Ports
---- ----------- -------- -----
510 0011.254a.2832 DYNAMIC Gi0/8
Total Mac Addresses for this criterion: 1
BLC005MAD-BCSM1#

Now as I said I am sure this is not the easiest or most efficient way to track down a server. So as this skill is really important to me in my current job if anyone has a better way then please let me know. Any help would be most appreciated.

Pesky VRF's

VRF's (Virtual Routing and Forwarding for the uninitiated) are mentioned quite briefly in the CCNP ISCW exam cert guide. So they are a virtual router yada yada seems quite simple. However I had never seen them in an actual CLI. So imagine my surprise when I said oh such and such route does not exist in the routing table and my colleague turns around and says yes it does. So I do show ip route 10.10.10.10 and no route shows up and then I do show ip route and it still does not show up. Well I cannot see it and then my colleague says did you check the VRF. Ohps the VRF so I do show ip route vrf abc 10.10.10.10 and there it is as clear as day the route I have been looking for. Doh mental note to self remember about VRF's however I still occasionally forget but I am getting better.

So I think I have the hang of these pesky VRF things and then I need to telnet to a particular switch. Hmm cannot get onto it hmm what's going on here I wonder. I pluck up the courage to ask colleague another stupid question "erm mate I cannot access core switch 1, is there an ACL on there that is blocking me?". Reply comes back that all should be fine, so what is going on here. Once again it turns out to be the pesky little VRF stuff that has got me stumped. I need to telnet 11.1.1.2 /vrf abc ah that works.

Then a few days later I want to do a show ip bgp hmm output not as expected. Right this time I twig it has to be one of those pesky VRF's getting in my way. So let's try doing show ip vrf abc wooh no bgp command. Okay lets try figure this out show ip ? and look through the options hmm nothing there so how about a show ip bgp ? hmm nothing there either. Argh so I am stumped how the heck do you do a show ip bgp when you have VRF's around? Time to prepare colleague for another stupid question by offering to make him a drink. Once drink has been made then I utilize my chance for another stupid question. "Umm so you know these VRF's how do you do a show ip bgp turns out the answer is to do a show ip bgp vpnv4 vrf abc. So I have enough trouble with VRF's and then they go add the vpnv4 command before the vrf command. Guess I will get to that bit when I sort out multi-protocol BGP. Anyhow you will be pleased to know that I am getting on a lot better with VRF's now. However as with anything on this blog if any of you have any tips, hints or advice please feel free to post it. I have plenty to learn so welcome any teaching :-)

Are Dynamips Days Numbered?

Are Dynamip's days numbered or will it be here for a long time yet? The reason this question popped into my head is reading on the superb IOS Hints and Tricks blog that the new IOS only supports one of the Dynamips platforms namely the 7200. Read the post here. That would be bad enough on it's own but then I read on the Network Ninja blog and Joe Harris's blog that Cisco is slowly planning to roll out it's software activation and licensing feature. So what does this all mean for Dynamips, are it's days numbered or will someone come up with a way to get round these obstacles? Not sure what will happen but I do think that it is definitely in Cisco's interest to allow people to access it's software for learning purposes. The more engineers that are trained in Cisco technologies the more potential customers Cisco will have. I have also seen rumors that Cisco has it's own emulation software that internal staff can use, so if they do and they kill Dynamips maybe they can release it to the community. If Richard or Joe or someone else who works for Cisco can confirm if they do have their own internal emulation software that would be most helpful :-)

Cisco Exam Security

I have just received the email pasted below. Basically it lays out Cisco's new exam security procedures and the most important point of the whole thing in my opinion is that your result is not final until 72 hours after you have done your exam. In this time Cisco (or probably a company they have outsourced it to) run forensics software against your exam to try and determine if they think you have legitimately passed the exam or used some sort of cheating method. Anyhow at least they are trying to do something about exam security and it looks like the measures they announced some time ago have finally been implemented.

Cisco and Pearson VUE Launch Global Test Delivery Exam Security Enhancements

Cisco and its global testing provider, Pearson VUE, a business of Pearson Inc. are pleased to announce a series of security enhancements that will reinforce the integrity and value of its Career certification program.

The advanced security enhancements include the use of digital photographs for candidate-identity verification and forensic analysis of testing data. The new measures, to be implemented beginning on Aug. 1, will include:

• Photo on Score Report and Web – On completion of a certification exam at the test center, candidates will receive preliminary score reports imprinted with their photos and unique authentication codes. The authentication code can be used to access a candidate’s official score online at Pearson VUE’s website usually within 72 hours of the examination. The online score report will also display the candidate’s photo. Candidates may share access to their online records with employers or other third parties.
  
  
• Forensic Analysis – Exam results and other testing data will be continuously analyzed by forensic software to detect aberrant testing behavior and to flag suspect exams for further investigation.
  
  
• Preliminary Score Report – All paper score reports will be preliminary, pending the results of forensic analysis, until official exam scores are posted to the Web usually within 72 hours of exam completion. Once the exam scores are official, candidates may use the authentication codes on their score reports to access the Pearson VUE website for score and photo verification.

These new exam security measures are part of Cisco’s overall strategy to protect the value and integrity of its certifications. Other measures include simulation-based testing, dynamically generated questions and emulations to help ensure that Cisco certified networking professionals continue to have the knowledge, skills, and credentials to perform well on the job.

To find out more about Cisco Career Certifications access the Cisco Learning Network at www.cisco.com/go/learnnetspace.

To sign up for a Cisco exam at a VUE testing center go to http://www.pearsonvue.com/cisco/online/

San Fran Network Admin Saga Over

The San Fran Network saga that cciepursuit posted about is over. It has all come to a bit of tame end in my opinion. Terry Child's brain must have caught up with his ego or it might be that he was not keen on life in a US jail. Mind you I would not be keen on going to jail in the US or any other country for that matter :-) Anyhow head over to cciepursuit to read his full post.

Study Update 23/07/08

Things have not been going that well on the study front so far. My new job is exceptionally busy and I do not get as much downtime as I did in my previous job to do reading or watch the Internetwork Expert COD's. That said it has been a good change and I am enjoying it. New jobs however do not go well with CCIE study and on top of that my wife and son were sick, so I had to look after them. Also I need to find a quite place to study which is a bit of a problem at the moment as my desk is in the living room with the TV while some of our other rooms are out of action. Jeez that is a lot of excuses! Anyhow I am moving on with the Internetwork Expert BGP labs at the moment and making slow progress on gathering the required BGP theory. My plan is to really nail the core theory and configuration for the core routing protocols in time for my written exam. I plan to do this by using the Routing & Switching Exam Cert Guide, Routing TCP/IP vols 1 and 2 and Internet Routing Architectures. For the core config I am moving slowly through the Internetwork Volume 1 version 4.1 labs. Once I have completed this I plan on hitting the IPExpert core labs and then I will hit the Internetwork Expert Volume 1 version 5 labs which should be out by the time I finish this lot hell they even might be on version 6 if I take much longer. So a lot of work to do and not much time to do it in :-(

cciepursuit's cool OSPF/EiGRP Trick

I cannot claim any credit for this as I read about it on cciepursuit's blog quite some time ago (original post here) but this is the only time I have got round to trying it and it is a pretty neat trick in my opinion. It is on what seems like my favorite topic at the moment the network command. Basically cciepursuit posted that instead of having to enter the wildcard when you type in the network command you could type the mask just as you saw it. So as the CLI is worth a thousand word here we go.

Rack1R3(config)#router eigrp 2
Rack1R3(config-router)#network 155.145.167.13 255.255.255.224
Rack1R3(config-router)#do show run | sec eigrp
router eigrp 2
network 155.1.13.3 0.0.0.0
network 155.1.23.3 0.0.0.0
network 155.145.167.0 0.0.0.31
auto-summary

Awesome

I just logged into the IPExpert website again and found that I must have bought my version 9 workbooks when they introduced their investment protection. So I was pleasantly surprised to find the new version 10 workbooks as well. The new workbook has been divided into 2 workbooks (well 3 actually but I do not have access to volume 3). Volume 1 focuses on the core technologies and there are 22 labs to get you started. This is probably the workbook that I will focus on at the moment. I really need to schedule some rack time with Proctor labs and go through this workbook. The trouble is that at the moment I have not managed to agree a time with the wife that I can dedicate to labbing. I am hoping that I can find some time to agree an 8 hour lab slot once a week. The other problem is trying to synch up the time for a lab slot with the remote labs hosted in the States and me being in Europe it could get interesting. I am not the best without any sleep so I do not want to be starting my labbing at some ridiculous hour of the day. Anyhow I will post a review of the IPExpert version 10 workbooks when I have had a bit more chance to read through them and get some rack time.

CCDE Practical Exam Beta

I just received the email below from Cisco. So for those of you that are close enough to Chicago and thinking that you can pass the CCDE then go for it. For me I still have a way to go to my CCIE so one step at a time.

Now Available! Cisco Certified Design Expert (CCDE) Practical Exam Beta

Cisco is now registering beta candidates for the Cisco Certified Design Expert (CCDE) Practical Exam. Cisco has finished development of the second exam needed to attain the CCDE certification, the practical exam, and is now soliciting candidates for the beta delivery.

The CCDE practical exam is a computer-based, performance assessment that evaluates a candidate’s ability to gather network requirements, perform design analyses, and implement complex networks.

Cisco will be offering this beta delivery of the exam on October 1, 2008, in Chicago, Illinois, at a Pearson professional testing center. Only candidates that have a passing score on the CCDE qualification exam can register and participate in this exam. Exam beta pricing is $980US and registration inquiries should be sent to ITPC@pearson.com, notifying us of your interest. You will be notified of your eligibility, instructions for registration, payment and logistics in a follow-up email.

Location: Chicago, Illinois USA
Date: October 1, 2008
Cost: $ 980 US

Prerequisite: Passing score of exam 352-001 on the CCDE qualification exam (ADVDESIGN)

For more information on the CCDE program and the CCDE practical exam visit: www.cisco.com/go/ccde or the Cisco Learning Network at www.cisco.com/go/learnnetspace

The Network Command

The network command seems simple enough does it not? Well actually for years I misunderstood the humble network command not that I knew it at the time. Well see ever since I did my first CCNA all those years ago until fairly recently I always thought you used the network command to specify the networks you wanted to advertise. I was wrong as you will hear quite a few times in the Internetwork Expert CoD's (Class on Demand) the network command is not used to specify the networks you want to advertise. Rather it is used to specify the interfaces you want to participate in a particular routing protocol. Well except in the case of BGP where it is actually used to specify what networks you want to advertise to your BGP peer. However BGP is the exception (there always has to be one of those hey?) and in all other routing protocols it is used to specify what interfaces will participate in the routing protocol. I do not think this was emphasised enough in the CCNA materials I used, although when I get some time I will have a browse through the new CCNA materials and see if they mention this small but in my opinion often over looked fact.

Embedded Packet Capture

I just saw a post on Embedded Packet Capture on the excellent CCIE in 3 months blog. I had never heard of it before and it looks an awesome tool. I will need to get some test kit together to properly. In the meantime take a look at the full post here

Hectic Day

Today was a pretty hectic day in work. Things were going fine just had a few bits of QoS configurations to look through and then just as I wanted to go get some lunch all hell broke loose. My Networking Monitoring (NM) application on my machine hung so just as I was about to reboot my PC thinking it was a local problem, then other people started complaining that they could not access their servers. Soon after reports that certain users and several sites could not access their servers started to flood in. It was a really confusing problem we could ping our servers but no Telnet, or RDP access and as I do not have permissions to the servers anymore (I am fully a network guy now no touching servers anymore boo hoo :-( )I could not use the Remote Command Shell to try access any servers. The problem got even more weird when I discoved I could access our NM server again and that there were no alarms showing any network problems but my colleagues right next to me could not access the same server. I found it really frustrating not having full permissions anymore, in my previous job I could have tested up to the application layer by trying to jump on to a server with RDP or telneting on port 25 to an Exchange server. However no such luck anymore I am not the man anymore just another cog in a very big machine. So I am learning you have to really on other people and work much more as a team. I do miss my old job in situations like this but I needed a change and prehaps I was becoming a bit to much like that San Fran network admin who thought he owned the network so good thing I did not go down that road. Anyhow the problem was eventually tracked down to only affecting TCP traffic and after 5 hours the culprit was found. However it did mean I was starving to death and I am a grouchy boy when hungry and only eating after 3 in the afternoon is not good for my mood. It also ment I did not get to do any reading in my lunch hour and my luck did not change when I got home. My wife is sick and so is my child so it looks like any ideas about doing some reading at home are out the window as well :-( Oh well no one said this was going to be easy.

Study Plans

At the moment I am trying to work my way through understanding fully the major routing protocols. The plan is to really umderstand the major routing protocols before I take my written, which I hope to do at the end of August. I have read TCP/IP Volume 1 as well as the chapters on OSPF and EIGRP in the CCIE Certification Guide 3rd Edition. I have also worked my way through the OSPF and EIGRP sections in the Internetwork Expert Volume 1 Workbook. However at the moment I am working on BGP. Unfortunatly my BGP study plans did not go very well this weekend got caught up doing some decorating and watching the Springboks play Australia which was not good for my blood pressure :-) Hopefully though I will get back on track this week and manage to get through a few more of the BGP labs and solidify my understanding of BGP.

San Fran Network Admin

CCIE Pursuit has just posted a really interesting article on a rogue network admin in San Francisco head over to his blog to check it out http://cciepursuit.wordpress.com/2008/07/19/weekend-fun-ccie-keeps-city-locked-out-fiberwan-devices/ To me the managers in this mess are just as culpable as the engineer. I mean how did they let this situation continue for years and why did they not ensure that everything was documented just in case something happened to the senior engineer?

Scott Morris and Internetwork Expert

Well it is old news but since I have only just started blogging Internetwork Expert have acquired Scott Morris. Now in the CCIE world this is big news hey in my little world this is pretty big news. Scott Morris was the first CCIE instructor I ever heard of mainly by reading his column in TCP mag. He was the reason the first materials I bought were from IPExpert. In fact to me Scott was IPExpert and from opinion I get from the other blogs and forums out there many other people saw him in the same way. So the news that he had moved was at that time pretty earth shaking in the CCIE training world. I wondered what would happen to IPExpert would they fold was Internetwork Expert going to be the thousand pound gorilla in the CCIE training world. Initially it seemed that IPExpert would indeed be fading away. However in recent weeks they seem to be generating a bit of a buzz well at least to me anyhow, I am starting to see more and more IPExpert banners on the blogs I read. They have come up with some great new products and ideas. The CCIE blogging site seems a great idea and from some of the stuff I have read their new blended learning solution seems pretty awesome. I also happened to find this blog http://mdownipexpert.blogspot.com/ Now he is not a CCIE trainer his blog says he is a CCIE training advisor but he does seem to have some pretty good ideas on marketing and hey if you are a good blogger and nice to him he is even offering you the chance to earn some freebies. He also has some pretty interesting posts up on his blog about the underside shall we say of the CCIE training market. Anyhow even if IPExpert have lost their glamour instructor they do seem to have some pretty cool ideas up their sleeves and if they can pull them off especially the CCIE blog/community thing I think they will cause a real stir in the market place.

Study Materials

I have been toying with the idea of doing the CCIE for a little while now and have actually bought all my study materials already. I bought the old IPExpert Version 9 Workbook (not the new blended learning solution) at a time they had a sale on so I got the Proctor Guide, the Class on Demand and the Audio CD's. I was very impressed with the materials however I did not like the fact that the COD did not include actual footage of the command line in action, it was more a series of slides with a lecture and I felt the labs were a bit advanced for me. So in a moment of madness or when I was feeling rich with an intrest free credit card offer I also bought the Internetwork COD with the two workbooks. I still have to get ready for my written exam but I wanted to be doing some work on the CLI at the same time I was reading so I have been working through the Internetwork Expert Version 4.1 Workbook 1 as I read about a technology. I am still working through these labs and am waiting patiently for all the new Version 5 labs to be complete. Investment protection from Internetwork Expert has to be one of the best things about buying your materials from them, as it means that you have access to all the upgrades of the product you bought until you pass your CCIE. For someone like me who wants to retain their family (when they are good :-) ) and their job while they try and study for the CCIE investment protection was a major selling point.

The first steps

I am starting this blog as some where to keep my study notes and a place to keep track of my progress. I have decided that I am going to try and get my Routing and Switching CCIE however I do have a lot of work and family commitments so this might be a long journey so please bear with me :-) However as they say a journey of a thousand miles begin with the first step so here I go.