Monthly Archives: February 2012

Plan of attack for the Cisco SWITCH Exam

So, to achieve my goal of Cisco CCNP status, I need to pass 3 exams:

  • SWITCH – Implementing Cisco IP Switched Networks
  • ROUTE – Implementing Cisco IP Routing
  • TSHOOT – Troubleshooting and Maintaining Cisco IP Networks

There’s no right or wrong order to take the exams in although it makes sense to take TSHOOT last. my plan is to start with SWITCH, mainly because of it’s relevance to projects I’ve been working on recently.

I’m very lucky in that my employer is great when it comes to training and development, so I am attending the official Cisco instructor led course starting next week. My usual method of tackling certification exams is to attend the course, and then spend weeks going over the course material, practice labs and practice questions, and then taking a shot at the exam. I’ve had reasonable success using this method in the past, but this time around I’m taking a different approach.

For SWITCH, I’m going to almost reverse the process by doing as much work as possible before attending the course. Specifically, I’ve been working my way through the following titles from Cisco Press:

  • CCNP SWITCH 642-813 Official Certification Guide
  • CCNP SWITCH Portable Command Guide
  • CCNP SWITCH 642-813 Quick Reference
  • CCNP SWITCH Lab Manual

My theory goes that having read through the above, and worked through the associated lab exercises, the actual course should bring all the information swirling around my brain together, thus allowing me to tackle the exam fairly soon afterwards.

That’s the theory anyway, so let’s see how it actually works out in reality…..

Rich

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Well, here we go then….

Welcome to my blog! In a nutshell this is going to be about data networking and security, plus my pursuit of Cisco Certified Networking Profesional (CCNP) status in Routing and Switching.

Along the way I’ll be blogging about where I’m up to with my certification studies, exams passed/failed etc (could be embrassing!) I also plan to use this blog to document study notes, labs etc that may even be useful to someone else….maybe getting a bit ahead of myself there…..

Also, I plan to blog some “how to” guides and useful (or useless) stuff relating to Cisco, Nortel and Check Point in particular and networking in general.

I’ve been inspired to start this blog after following several other networking blogs on the internet, and if I can add something that someone finds useful, then I’ll be happy.

Finally, why is my blog called “Not The Network”? Well, for most of my career in networking I’ve found that it’s very often the network that gets blamed for most problems, and I’ve spent a lot of time trying to prove otherwise….

Rich

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