CCNP Q's

[ChestHair]

Heyo, I thought I would finally launch my CCNP  studies and I have a quick question for those with experience and mojo (y'all). What order did you take SWITCH and ROUTE, and why? I work primarily with layer 2/3 switched networks so I thought SWITCH, but maybe ROUTE is the way to go?

Thanks

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[deanwebb]

I think the wisdom here is it's a coin flip between the two, but do both first and then TSHOOT is a piece of cake.

[ChestHair]

I think the wisdom here is it's a coin flip between the two, but do both first and then TSHOOT is a piece of cake.

Thanks Dean

P.S. Thank you for this forum!

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[wintermute000]

makes no difference in the long run, and they don't really inform the other that much so go for whatever floats your boat.
most people do SWITCH first for some reason (probably because they've touched switches way more than routers as a junior)


my only tip is: if you find switch boring, then rest assured route will blow your mind, because @ the end of the day, switching IS boring

[ChestHair]

That's what I was wondering specifically, if ROUTE covered something that was beneficial to know for SWITCH or vice versa. Thanks.  Books will be here on Tuesday!

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[Dieselboy]

I found the BCMSN book (old switching CCNP) the most interesting and as I was learning, I was able to put that to use immediately on the job. I did find it the easiest out of all of them.
The routing exam was the hardest for me and was something that I needed to swim through, if the swimming pool was filled with honey and there's two 6509's strapped to your feet.

Some people say you should tackle the hardest problems first so that it's all downhill from there, but in this case I think tackling the switching exam first so that you fully understand the Layer 2 side of things, then tackle the routing so that you can build on top of the L2.

[NetworkGroover]

Nah - it really doesn't matter what order you do them in as long as you do SWITCH and ROUTE first, then TSHOOT.

Knowing what I know now.. unless you can drop a decent wad right now.. you may want to work on ROUTE while you save up for lab gear that you'll need for SWITCH - but that was back in my day when I was doing (wow that sounds old) - Cisco may have other options now, and I think they did away with being able to run their stuff in GNS3?  (Boooooo.)

[icecream-guy]

- Cisco may have other options now, and I think they did away with being able to run their stuff in GNS3?  (Boooooo.)

Nah, ya can load 15.2(4) on a 7200 in GNS3, that's about the only device that supports 15.x in GNS3

[wintermute000]

Just bite the bullet and license a copy of VIRL. latest code, all the features, switching (except for a few features - the big ones like STP, SVIs etc. works fine), totally legit.


Or spin up as many CSRs as your hardware can handle. Everything works except you're rate limited to 100k which does not matter at all for ROUTE.

Also check out Unetlab

[Otanx]

Another vote for VIRL. Also if you don't want to run the hardware there is a cloud solution (You still need to buy VIRL). Pay by the hour, and it isn't expensive.
http://virl.cisco.com/cloud/
With the CSR don't do what I did, and forget about that 100kb/s limit. It took me a while to remember about that, and the VM I was playing in was behind the CSR it took me longer than I would care to admit to figure out why my scp copies were not working.
I have not played with Unetlab. Going to have to look into that.

-Otanx

[wintermute000]

Unetlab is tbe bomb for multivendor.

[jason.copas]

I did SWITCH first because I do mostly switches at work, and it was quick.  Something like 30 days from getting the cert guide to taking the test because I do 75% of the exam at work daily.  I found the SWITCH test easier than the the CCNA for that reason, but the labs were far more in depth so be prepared to spend longer on them.  That said I have been studying for ROUTE for about 6 months and do not feel as well prepared. 

My thought process was I wanted the material I am less familiar with fresher when I sit TSHOOT.

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[deanwebb]

Excellent plan, Jason. That's a great way to do it. In this profession, we use it or we lose it.

Ironically, working with NAC has me doing much more with switches these days than firewalls, my first love.