Globalconfig.net

Cisco thinks you do. And you know what? If they have the old ones as part if the selection I certainly will once I pass. Perhaps one of you already certified chaps can login and tell us if there is a selection. Here is what I’m talking about.

On September 18th Cisco announced the online Certificate Purchasing Tool.

The Certificate Purchasing Tool can be accessed at www.cisco.com/go/certifications/login.

According to Cisco you can purchase printed certifications “or” electronic certificates online.

The Printed Certification includes:

A printed (hard copy) certificate includes a wallet card, congratulations letter from John Chambers, official Cisco Certificate, and 16-digit certificate verification code printed on the certificate.

I am ok with that, however they used to just send you this for free. I’m not sure if the first one is free then you pay for the rest or not, but here is what kinda erks me:

An electronic (soft copy) certificate includes wallet card and official Cisco Certificate via PDF, 16-digit certificate verification code printed on the certificate, and a congratulations letter sent via e-mail.

ok, but really….15 bucks for a digital copy that I am gonna print myself:

Each kit costs US$15.00. Shipping and handling will vary depending on recipient’s location. Candidates may purchase up to two (2) kits per active Cisco Certification. Purchases can be made using your VISA, MasterCard, or American Express only.

Anyhow, I’m curious to hear what everyone else thinks. I can tell you this. I will not pay for an electronic copy of a certificate.

I did login to see what it looked like.  Here is what it says at the top of the list:

As far as the CCIE plaque goes here is what I can see:

If you want to read it yourself its here:

Online Certificate Purchasing Tool

I forgot to mention in my last post that Ascolta Training (the company I work for) is offering a 5% discount if you mention my blog when you register for a class. 

Hey a few hundred bucks is nice to keep in your pocket! 

I haven't been the most active at posting to the blog lately because things have been really hectic for me.  I'm finding myself limited on the time I spend doing anything other than work, a small degree of CCIE Study, and taking care of my 2-1/2  year old and my 5 month old. 

Still I haven't forgotten why I started blogging.  I want to make sure I post tips that are useful in your studies, recommend products that I feel are worth spending some money on, and to have an open communication channel for my students. 

I do have a video on EIGRP authentication that needs to be edited.  Ill get that done in about a week.  Then its on to OSPF videos.  In the mean time Ill try to get a tutorial post up and an update on the Amazon Kindle.  You won't believe what I can do with it now!

Thats all for now. 

Brandon…

So I’m in the Cisco Office in Richfeild, Oh. this week teaching an ASA class.  Still, I am a bit listless from lack of excitement in my CCIE studies.  Of course I would be much more excited if I had lab gear to study on.  This is the first time in over a year that Ipexpert and IE have been completely booked in the same week. Now I know that there are other vendors out there of rack time.  But I already paid for rack time with IE and Ipexpert and I dont want to spend any more money.  Is that a crime?

Oh well. I suppose I could do some labs with dynamips.  I just wish there was some canned dynamips topologies for the IE or Ipexpert security workbooks.  Anyone know of someone that has them?  I started creating a topology with GNS3 of Ipexpert lab 1.  The issue I am having is memory.  I have 2 gigs in my macbook and there are 5 routers in lab 1.  I boot 2 and it sucks all my resources.  I try to set the idlepc value and that doesnt help.  Not sure what to do next.

On another note, does anyone have PIX 7.x running in GNS3 on a Mac?  That would REALLY make me happy!

I just saw this in the bottom of the Internetwork Expert newsletter:

Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Thanks IE for hearing some of us and answering the call. I hope I get a good deal on them when they come out!

Today while I was at lunch I got an email from someone named “Jack.” Jack apparently doesn’t understand what the CCIE is about and what the NDA with Cisco related to the NDA is about. Here is Jacks email:

On Sep 10, 2008, at 11:28 AM, Jack wrote:

Hi Mr Carroll,

I recently came across a set of labs which are said

to be part of the real lab exam, and I was wondering

since you have taken the lab exam already if you would’nt

mind taking a look at the topology and seeing if any

matched the one you took.

If you don;t mind please do email me. Thank you.

Now here is my response to Jack:

Hi Jack.

If you want me to look at a practice lab topology and tell you if I think it will be useful in your studies I am willing to do that but I would not be willing to compromise the integrity of the actual exam by confirming material that is said to be “the real test.”

In short, I do mind. I am under NDA with Cisco and do not wish to compromise that relationship.

And finally for all those Jacks out there here is what Cisco says (notice what I highlighted)taken from http://tinyurl.com/ccienda:

* Violation of test policies for the purpose of cheating
* Possession of notes, books, cell phones, pagers, electronic media, recording devices, or any other articles or devices other than those provided by the proctor during exam testing
* Removal of any test materials, scrap paper, diskettes or other media from the lab environment
* Discussions concerning test content with anyone other than the proctor without express written permission from the CCIE department
* Posting of test content to study groups internal to Cisco or external to Cisco with the exception of ccie-lab@cisco.com
* Forwarding of test information to persons or companies without the express written permission of the CCIE program
* Falsified or altered certificates, score sheets, or other documents or electronic media used to misrepresent the certification status of a CCIE candidate
* Providing falsified documentation as a means of claiming a false identity, false address or solicitation of someone to take a test on another’s behalf
* Failure to follow procedures prescribed by a testing facility or proctor
* Failure to follow the exam retake policies (waiting 5 calendar days between written exams or only taking a beta exam once)
* Disruptive or harmful behavior
* Use of Cisco support services (TAC) to resolve test questions or to study for the CCIE written or lab exams
* Failure to protect CCIE lab content through carelessness or in an attempt to shield facts regarding a violation that has occurred
* Improper use of CCIE logo (reports of companies or individuals that use the CCIE logo without express agreement with the CCIE program can be directly reported

Wow! I thinks its guys like this that cause companies like CertGuard to exist. Even though CertGuard hasn’t been a favorite among Cisco bloggers since the Ethan Banks issue on Network World it makes sense why these guys are around. People Cheat. Possessing the actual CCIE lab and using it to study is Cheating. There are plenty of other resources out there to help you study. Learn the material- not the lab.

Man it feels good to get that one behind me! I really felt good today. Here is how I broke it down:

That was it. What a day. Tomorrow I start Lab 16. Tonight I veg out and read something on my Kindle reader!

One of my students writes in with the following question:

***Keep in mind that the question below does not refer to an actual test question, rather a practice test question from a Cisco Certified Source.  GlobalConfig.net does not recommend the use of BrainDump, Cheating Sites or Pirated material***

Brandon,
Can’t find this is any of my books from class or purchased books. I’m sure it’s on web sites but oh well These practice tests aren’t fair to the training and book information.
 
Need serious help with this spanning-tree question. If switch E is the ROOT Bridge then:
What route will Host 1 take to get to server x. I don’t know if traffic always has to go to the root bridge?
 
I’ve messed around with this but the practice test doesn’t give priority, cost, or port numbers.
 
I understand all three versions of spanning-tree but this is a bit complicated. Not sure if a switch is the root bridge if everything has to go through it and how the other loops are handled. I know all ports on the root bridge become designated-forwarding. Least cost non-root bridge ports become Root ports.  But not sure on all the other ports.
 
Maybe you could list what ports would be R, D, and blocking.
 
The scenario is does host 1  go from
1-      A, E, C, D, and then to server X?

2-      A, B, C, D, and then to server X?

3-      A, D, and then to server X?

 
Thanks,
Jeff

Now here is a look at the topology in question:

So where do we begin?  Well since this is an example of a test question and not all the information that you may use is not made available to use lets think about spanning-tree and what we do know about it.  Here are the fundamental rules of spanning tree.

1. One root bridge per network (vlan)
2. One root port per non-root switch
3. One designated port per segment

Now we do know that SwitchE is the root:

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

The scenario calls for us to determine which path Host 1 will take to communicate with Server X.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Now knowing that each switch gets a root port as long as they are not Switch E we could determine that Switch A would choose the link directly connected to Switch E as its root port.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch
!

Now finding the designated ports could be tricky because there isnt a lot of information given but lets look at it from the perspective of loops and fill in the blanks. First the Blue Loop:

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

You could assume that each switch that is not the root is going to find the best path back to the root. In this case the Green squares would represent root ports.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Now we can fill in the designated ports. Remember its 1 per segment.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Now we have a link between Switch A and Switch B that doesnt have a root port so one needs to be designated and the other side will be non-designated, or blocked. It doesnt matter in this case which one you choose. You dont have all the information so just pick one.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Now lets look at the yellow and orange links that indicate paths that are available for Switch D, and lets figure out how Switch D will reach the root.

You have to assume it will choose the shortest path back to the root, assuming that all links are the same cost. The Problem with that logic is that both paths would be the same.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Normally we would use other information as the tie breaker, however this information is not given to us in the question. Lets go ahead and just choose one.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

In this new topology you can see that Switch D will travel to Switch C to get to the Root. Now where does this leave us with the original question. How does Host 1 get to Server X. The answer for this example, the way spanning tree sits right now, is that the packet will travel from Host 1 to Switch A to Switch E to Switch C to Switch D to Server X.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Now the question is, will it actually do this? I would say that the question doesnt give adequate information. You can only assume and you know what happens when you assume. Keep in mind that we guessed what ports Switch D would choose as the root and blocked ports so the answer could have changed had we chosen different ports.

Best bet? Recreate it if you have the switches.

Alternative? Guess and move on.

While the exam is trying to test your knowledge of a topic area it is not trying to confuse you. By giving you too little information there may not be a right answer (which the test probably wouldn't do) so I personally would choose the best "wrong" answer and move on.