RedWarriorNet

Yes…I can STILL subnet!!!

Ok, so you may laugh, but it’s not something I actually have to do all the time at work.  We have pretty much everything except links bewteen routers and a few random devices set up with nice and easy /24 networks.  (I know, lazy and wasteful maybe, but easy on the brain.)  being confronted with a weird CIDR notation like /27 and then having to compute the network number and subnet mask in dotted decimal was a bit daunting at first, but very quickly it all came back and I was subnetting easy-peasy and setting up my EIGRP lab to work through a couple of the examples in Routing TCP/IP.  My new favorite command is now “redistribute connected.”  Sweet.

The only problem I ran into was that one of my stub networks just would not get into the EIGRP topology table…it was stubborn I guess.  The network command just wouldn’t work, but “redistribute connected” sure did.  Now I’m left to wonder “why?”  I brought in one of my coworkers that I refer to as “The Route-Master” just to take a look.  He couldn’t find anything wrong with my addressing or my EIGRP network statement.  I may post the topology and config up here later on to see if anyone else can poke any holes in it.

Overall, I like the ease of configuration of EIGRP…it’s been a relaxing week before diving into OSPF!

Did you hear the halleuja chorus last night around 8:30 pm?

Well, you should have because that was about the time I discovered that not only does GNS3 work on Windows 7 RC1, but it appears to work a lot better on it than it did on Vista.  (What doesn’t?!)  It installed flawlessly and when I remembered that I’d forgotten to install putty, it politely reminded me of why I am still human and then once I’d finished installing that, all was bliss and I was configuring routers for my little EIGRP lab.  Sometimes it’s the little things that make life fun.

So, my plan is to crack open Routing TCP/IP tonight and set up some of the scenarios in the EIGRP and IPv6 chapters and attempt to go through them.  We’ll see how that goes after a long day of wireless surveying, but it’s good to have goals, right?

This morning I passed my BCMSN exam with a little room to spare.  I would have to say that this was one of the more fun of my CCNP exams and I thought the exam was pretty well in-line with what I was expecting, except for one sim that threw me for a bit of a loop.  Interestingly, the areas I normally find easier and do at work regularly, I scored less well on than the areas I only have book/lab knowledge of, which proves that you can overthink questions on exams easily.  Here’s what I used to study from:

Cisco Press Study Guide for BCMSN
Cisco Press Lab Protofolio for BCMSN
CBT Nuggets
Trainsignal Videos
Some excerpts from Bridges and Switches by Caslow

My hardware lab:
2 3560’s
2 2950’s

I’m excited about studying for the BSCI exam, not only because it is my final CCNP exam, but also because it is all about routing, something I actually do not handle much at work.  It should be an interesting ride and I hope to be ready to test by the end of the summer!

I was very, very sick for about a week, which threw my exam preparations into disarray, but now I’m back to studying and I have scheduled my exam for next monday morning.  I’m feeling pretty confident about the material and I’m thinking it will be a great feeling to be 75% done with my CCNP and ready to move on to routing with my last exam, BSCI.  I hope to have my CCNP all wrapped up by the end of the summer and be ready to refocus my studies back on wireless.

I am thinking that, for me, next year will be the year of wireless.  I hope to face again my nemesis, the CCNA Wireless, and defeat it, and then probably move on to the new professional level wireless certification that Cisco is rolling out this summer.  I am considering also trying to work in one or two of the CWNP vendor-neutral wireless certifications along the way.  Wireless is a big part of my current job and I support both autonomous and lightweight Cisco networks and we have the possibility of adding another network made up of a third party vendor’s gear later this year.  That is a lot of wireless to take care of and there are only 2 engineers in our company specializing in wireless, which is a big deal in our particular market, particularly as RFID applications grow.

There’s just so much to learn and so little time.