Globalconfig.net

Routing Protocols Comparison for CCNA 

Here are the slides for the CCNAVideo.net presentation I did today for CCNA candidates.  The program is open for Charter Members.  It doesnt officially launch until July 1st.  Feel free to use the comments section to shoot any questions you may have to me.

If you missed the video you can view it here.

Thanks to all that attended!

Brandon

Get the Slides Here!

If the Widget below does not allow you to register simply leave a comment with your email (nobody but me will see it) and I will manually enroll you.

In the near future I will be releasing a CCNA Mentoring Program designed to assist CCNA candidates in obtaining the CCNA Certification.  As an introduction to the program I will be holding a free CCNA Technical Introduction online this Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 5pm PST.  the embedded widget will allow you to register. 

Again, this is designed for those working on the CCNA. I realize many of you that follow my blog are well beyond that. In the future I hope to extend my reach. For now, this if for anyone that is wanting to get the CCNA.

I don’t usually have a quote of the day but I’ve finished reading “Ready for Anything” by David Allen.  If you are not familiar with David Allen he is basically an Efficiency coach.  He wrote a book called “Getting Things Done” which I read about 14 months ago.  I really enjoyed that book and it helped to break up the monotony of my CCIE study.  Because of that I decided to read his other book in my spare time.

At any rate, the point is that I came across this quote in there that made me re-think how I have studied in the past, and how I plan on studying in the future.

Ready?

Here it is:

It’s possible to own too much stuff.  A man with one watch knows what time it is.  A man with two watches is never quite sure.

- Lee Segall

So now you may be asking what the point is.  Well, here is the tie in to you Certification studies:

When you search Amazon for the word CCNA it returns 1440 books and Google has 13,900,000 results for the same keyword.

The point is, there is so much information out there, but only so much on the test.  You don’t need it all.

So what should you do?

Pick one!

Wow, did I really say that?  Yes I did.  So, If you are going to pick a book, I recommend the CCNA Official Exam Certification guide by Wendell Odom.  Wendell has a great writing style and his book comes with a Test Engine that you can use to practice and get this…it’s Cisco Certified Material.  You dont have to worry about the folks at Certguard tracking you down and accusing you of Cheating and you dont have to worry about Cisco pulling your cert after you have passed the test.  Here is a link to the CCNA Exam guide:

Some time back I purchased a 1st generation Amazon Kindle. I really liked it. While I owned it I bought 5 Cisco Press books, including Network Security Principles and Practices. There was some talk about Internetwork Expert releasing their workbooks for the kindle, and I actually had some email correspondence where I was told I could be a beta tester. Well that never happened, and although IE announced that the kindle version was coming soon I think they kinda just dropped the thought and changed directions. It probably had something to do with how difficult Amazon makes it to add items to their store.

At any rate, I sold my kindle in leu of an iphone. I love what the iphone can do, and have the “safari bookbag” from ciscopress on there so I can read my safari books. Well, yesterday I received the icing for my cake, that is, the Kindle App for the iphone. The App is free and once installed it allowed me to sync up all the books I purchased when I owned the kindle. It is really easy to read, and remembered what page I was on in all my books. Amazon also has what they call “whispersync” that will sync the iphone app to the kindle if you have both.

Now if IPexpert were to put their workbooks on a kindle, or better yet on an iphone, I would have it all! I’d rather carry the phone or a kindle with me when I travel versus a ton of workbooks! I say IPexpert because I have decided that I like their style and they are pretty much my vendor of choice now. Sorry IE, but I still think highly of you.

Well I MUST get back to my labs. Time is closing in on me….

A week ago I did a Webinar detailing the topics of the CCNA Wireless.  The video has now been posted, minus the sample chapter.  I will try to record the sample chapter in the near future, however must get permissions before posting a recording of it.

Last week I posted a brief announcement that IPexpert, the CCIE training company, was to launch a “Sister Company” called IPexpert Training.  I didn’t have a lot of time last week to sum up any real thoughts on the subject.  Today, I still don’t, but I will anyhow. Where to begin?

Lets begin with the announcement (all quotes from http://ipexpert.ccieblog.com):

Over the next few months you’ll begin seeing the following:A separate brand named “IPexpert Training” (at www.IPexpertTraining.com) that will be focused on CompTia, VMWare, CCENT, CCNA, CCDA, CCNP, CCSP, CCVP and MCSE training products.

My first thought was….wow!  If anyone can do it right it would certainly be IPexpert.  They did however mention the following”

These classes will *NOT* be Cisco authorized and neither business unit will endorse or offer the Cisco 360 CCIE Lab offering.  After understanding the 360 program, products and Cisco’s initiative – I have made the decision that the current CCIE Lab offerings we have (already shipping) are much more mature, proven, more up-to-date and more cost-effective for our clients.

This will make things interesting.  What about Cisco Learning Credits (CLC)?  Many people that take Cisco training have budgetary constraints and the CLC program helps alot.  Will IPexpert find a workaround?  Well, regardless I still think they can do it right.  Lets examine some more of the announcement:

These classes / products will include self-study materials (Blended Learning), lab workbooks, Audio, Video on Demand, eBooks, quizzers, iPhone applications, ILT (traditional classroom-based training), online mentoring and online training classes – and will be priced very competitively.  Students taking these classes will be eligible for a *significant* discount on all IPexpert, Inc. CCIE lab products as that will be their next progression (eventually).  These classes will be delivered during the week – as our CCIE Lab classes are (from IPexpert) – however, we will also have weekend and even classes available online and at various locations.

As a user of the IPexpert BLS I have to say that this will be sweet!  The CCIE BLS is a fantastic product.  I can only imagine that the lower level certs would be as well.

Next:

An online community for these students.

I don’t know how this will compare to the Cisco Learning Network, but I can tell you that the Cisco Learning Network doesnt let you blog there.  They do however cover ALL categories of Cisco Certification including the CCNA, NP, SP, VP, and IE.

While this sounds pretty cool I have to point out my favorite part of the announcement, and what I believe to be the best feature for a student:

Proctor Labs vRack rental for these certifications (Cisco and Microsoft – VMWare down the road in Q2).

I can’t stress enough how big of a gap this is for students.  Think about it, you take a class, work on the gear for a week, go back home and book study until you take the test.  Usually you lose the practical knowledge and end up with lopsided book knowledge.  If you can use the PL equipment to make a topology that supports ANY certification class you may have a corner on a market that is lacking.

Anyhow, it looks like it could be a great option for students, however I dont know how Cisco will handle it.  I’m sure that Learning @ Cisco folks are not happy about another “non-certified” solution but I do know that IPexpert takes care of their customers and will certainly produce a quality product.

You can read the entire announcement on the IPexpert blog.

And now back to my studies!  Cheers.

For those of you not familiar with learning credits you may be missing out on training.  Check out this page over at Cisco.com that details the program, then go see if you have any that are about to expire.  Contact Ascolta, Cisco Learning Partner of the Year- 2007,  and register for the class you want using the learning credits you already have.  Don’t miss out- they expire after a year!

You may be interested in these courses in Bellevue, Wa.  Odds are I’ll be teaching them if they are a Security,   Wireless, or Routing and Switching class.

Configuring EIGRP for the CCNA is easy. In fact, there are only a few commands that you need to know. You should be aware of the goal of the configuration first. Assume you are required to enable the protocol using Autonomous System 100 and that peers on interface Serial 0/0/0 should authenticate each other using MD5.

Just break it down:

Enable the EIGRP protocol:

router eigrp 100

Then define the networks to participate in EIGRP routing:

network 10.0.0.0
network 192.168.1.0

Next create the key-chain to be used for authentication in global configuration mode:

key-chain eigrpkey
key 1
key-string cisco123

Now enable the authentication process on the serial interface. Make sure this matches on both sides of the link otherwise you will not form up a neighbor:

ip authentication mode eigrp 100 md5
ip authentication key-chain eigrp 100 eigrpkey

Thats it! You are in business. To verify use the following commands:

show ip eigrp neighbors

----- look for a neighbor on the interface that you
setup authenticaiton for.

show ip route

--- look for routes marked "D"

show ip protocols

--- look for eigrp to be enabled and routing for the proper
networks

This is a great book for the final month of prep.  It keeps you focused and thats a good thing!