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Bit of a day today, had some good, had some bad.
I’ll start with the good because I like life that way. I took a Juniper JNCIA-SSL (Juniper Networks Certified Internet Associate – SSL) exam and passed it.
I say I “passed it”, I kinda blew it apart by getting 100% on it, in 15 out of the 90 minutes allowed. I expect that looks a little suspicious, but heck the JNCIA is the basic level of certification, and the exam was on a subject that I’m pretty familiar with – VPNs. Ok so I’m more au fait with IPSec VPNs, but a lot of the theory carries over, and it’s SSL which everyone uses every day, and on a product that I’ve been administering for the last year, and I only did the course a fortnight ago so it was fresh in my memory.
I guess what I’m saying is don’t judge me.
Of course being a Juniper exam it doesn’t exactly fit in with my previously stated goal of getting a CCIE. What can I say? I had to do this one for work, best just to get it done and out of the way.
That was the Bam! part of the day, and earned me a celebratory GBK burger and milkshake. Yum.
The Bang! part of the day was the bad stuff.
On the way to the test centre I ran over something that managed to slice right into one of the rear tyres of my car. I wasn’t driving too fast so it didn’t blow out, and I was close enough to the test centre that I drove the 150 or so metres on the flat and changed it in the car park (before the exam).
I was actually happy that it was a rear tyre because my car has one of those horrible skinny temporary spare tyres, and I hate having that on a driving wheel. I once swapped a fit rear wheel for a punctured front one just to avoid driving home with that spare on the front, that’s how much I distrust it.
One painful hit to the wallet later, and a scolding from an unimpressed tyre monkey who says I shouldn’t have driven on the flat at all, and it’s all sorted. I gave the car a wash to cheer it up.
I however didn’t need cheering up, I’ve had an excellent day. I think I’ll be finishing it off with some beer, a pizza, and a few movies and games.
Yes, this is that post, the one that’s been due for about the last year, the one that I keep on putting off because posting this makes it official and I’ll have to actually do it.
I intend to study, attempt, and hopefully gain a CCIE Security certification.
That statement won’t mean anything to many people, to some it will mean something, and for a few it’ll be a sign that I’m a bit wrong in the head. But having now said it, I’m committed.
CCIE is Cisco Certified Internetworking Expert, the expert level certification is the second highest that Cisco do (the highest being architect, I won’t be doing that one). CCIE is available in several tracks, and because my particular interest is network security that’s the track I’m going to attempt. The certification comprises a 2 hour written (multiple choice) exam, followed within 18 months by an 8 hour lab (practical) exam.
I actually decided to do the CCIE security a few years back after completing my CCSP, but when I looked at the blueprint (or syllabus) it was obvious that my general networking knowledge was a bit lacking. I took some time away from Cisco certification to get to grips with a new job and to get up to speed on Checkpoint, then I returned to the fold and did a CCNP to build that solid network foundational knowledge.
I finished that over a year ago. I convinced myself that I could take a bit of a breather, do some Blue Coat and Juniper learning, and then come back to the CCIE. I got out of the learning groove, and now I have to get back into it, big time.
The CCSP took me about six months for five exams. The CCNP was one exam, and then a year later another three over about five months.
The CCIE won’t be done in those time frames. I’ve read reports of people taking anywhere from 10 months to a few years to achieve CCIE certification. Hopefully I’ll be nearer the former than the latter, but I think it would be unrealistic to say that I’ll have it all done inside of a year. A year of spending every spare moment reading and studying. Of hours spent practising the lab material over and over and over and over again until the commands flow from my fingertips without concious thought. I forsee a lot of headaches in my future.
At the end of it, if I pass I’ll get a number, I might buy myself a hat, maybe I’ll get a raise or a promotion (I’m not counting on either of those though). What I will have I hope is a feeling of achievement, and not of having wasted a whole lot of time and money.
Of course I won’t have any of those if I don’t stop procrastinating, and I am an ace procrastinator.
Hello, I haven’t completely neglected this blog, I just have very little going on in life right now so I don’t have anything to write.
While I work out what’s goign to happen with the blog, here’s a picture of a chimp that was on the back of a bottle of Innocent orange juice.
Stay tuned, I’ll either start wittering or posting techie topics, or maybe a bit of both, again soon.
What a week.
Someone asked me recently why I always take exams when I have time off work. The truth is that I take time off work to do exams, that’s how I roll baby! The only real time I can make for myself to study is on days when I don’t have to travel to work, so weekends or holidays. So it was this last week, I had an exam scheduled for Friday so I took the week off for some final (and some might point out necessary) preparation.
Unfortunately this week I managed to come down with a rather vicious cold that made any kind of study difficult from Monday through until Wednesday afternoon. So my week of study suddenly became just a couple of days, and I wound up doing the exam through a medicine induced haze.
Continue reading CCNP – Done
Did an ONT exam today, and passed it.
I didn’t enjoy that exam one bit, the preparation material i had which was the Ciscopress ONT official exam certification guide was quite light on some of the areas that the exam covered, some of the software in the exam was based on older versions of the software than are current… overall a bit of a nightmare. Led to me getting just 890/1000 which is quite low for me, I generally get over 900, but a pass is a pass so I shan’t gripe about it too much.
Still at least it’s done. I only have BCMSN to do now and then I have a CCNP. I have no idea what I’ll do after that, maybe I’ll do something non-Cisco, or maybe I’ll plough straight on to a CCIE. Who knows?
I actually finished the exam a bit early, the receptionist was impressed and exclaimed “Wow! That was quick!” “Thanks,” I replied “that’s not usually a compliment.” I think she then drew the conclusion that I was some kind of idiot 
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