May 23, 2012

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Number 1 Reason to avoid using the Cisco Learning Network

November 4, 2008 By 3 Comments
  1. Frustration with being treated like a child.

What in the world am I talking about?  Well, I like to cruise the forums for good info, either to help others or enhance my understanding of topics.  I like the IEOC.com forums, the CCIEBlog.com directory of CCIE bloggers, and a handful of other blogs that relate to Cisco technologies.  At Cisco Live in Orlando they really pushed the use of the Cisco Learning Network.  I thought it would be a good resource.  Instead I noticed that you cant blog there, good thing that CCIEblog lets you create your own blog, and so does IEOC now.

But the forums is where I find the most content, aside from the stuff that was already on Cisco.com and has just been ported over in the form of a PDF or a “Highlight!”

Anyhow, today when I was looking at the CCIE Security forum I saw a post that simply asked if it would be necessary to configure certain parameters in the CCIE Lab.  Seemed to me that this was a simple, and valid question.  Do I have to practice these types of configurations for any topic of the Blueprint?  Well, someone didn’t think so.  In fact, someone pulled out a ruler and smacked the hand of the person asking the question by “reminding” them not to break the terms of the NDA.  In fact, this moderator felt the need to tell EVERYONE that they better watch it.

* names have been removed to protect the innocent and the moderator.

Now I don’t condone cheating, releasing actual lab information, using test king, using pass4sure, or any other means of passing the exam in an fraudulent way, but come on.  Big Brother is definitely watching.  I say no thanks to the Learning Network.  Moderator comments like that make me feel like I’m reading something dirty on the overhead projector and I better just close my browser window.

Filed Under: General Information, Rants Tagged With: ,

Wanna buy a CCIE Plaque?

September 24, 2008 By 3 Comments

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

Filed Under: General Information, Rants Tagged With: ,

Surfing a state of ennui…

September 22, 2008 By 2 Comments

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!

Filed Under: CCIE Security, Rants Tagged With: , , ,