August 2011

CCNP ROUTE – Crash and Burn!

I took the ROUTE exam yesterday afternoon. Felt confident going in but midway through the exam I wasn’t quite sure.

Compared to the CCNA exam, ROUTE is much tougher. Looking back, I probably would have labbed a lot more.

My theory to labbing ratio wasn’t that great. This time around I’m going to be labbing heavily, trying to create my own networks.

I took my exam at the Coleman University on Balboa Ave in San Diego. If you’re taking your Cisco exams in San Diego I would recommend this place. It’s newly renovated so the test center is sectioned off from the actual campus. The computers are brand new which means my test ran without any problems. They have lockers where you can keep your personal belongings. Comes with a lock as well.

As for the exam itself.. I didn’t have any problems. The wording of the questions were clear. My recommendation for anyone taking the exam is to lab while you read. Get to know how things actually work.

I would recommend getting a real lab or you can get by with GNS3 for this exam.

In the end, I ran out of time but only because I spent the remaining time working on the last question which was probably the hardest for me.

I’ll say that there isn’t one particular topic that you should focus on for this exam. Know how to do everything in the blueprint. Create your own lab, break it, fix it, configure it and try to do it quickly (just because of the time restraint).

What am I going to do differently?
I’m going to study right after I finish writing this blog post but here’s what I’m doing differently:
What did I do to prepare for this exam?
  • Primarily read the CCNP ROUTE OCG
  • GNS3 for labs
  • Read other people’s notes
  • Went over my notes
  • Used Boson exam that came with the OCG book
My opinion on the Boson exam (that came with the book)
It tests your memorization of the protocols and configuration. What it doesn’t prepare you for are the sims. Would I purchase the ExSim from Boson? Probably not. I would just stick to the questions provided by the books and use a lab to solidify your knowledge. I felt that the questions provided in the practice exam were a lot easier than the actual exam. WAY EASIER. But then again, it came free with the book.
Good luck on your exams and wish me luck!

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CCNP ROUTE Studies

I’ve been MIA for a bit. Reason being is that I have been studying furiously for my CCNP ROUTE exam and I also have a 3 month old newborn ;)

I’ve read both the CCNP OCG and FLG from front to back. That’s a lot of reading. I have a ton of notes which I am reviewing constantly using Evernote. I took the Boson exam twice already and I am improving. The exam came with the OCG book. Now I am just focusing on my weak areas and trying to maintain my strength in the others.

The green colored numbers are areas I did great and the red colors are areas I did poorly compared to my first practice exam. I’m quite happy that I went from 67% to 84%. I’m planning on taking another practice test soon to see how well I retain information.

I take the practice test during my lunch break at work and I find it best to just get in my car and do it there. It’s hard to find peace and quiet when people stop to chat.

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Vulnerability in OSPF Discussed at Black Hat

I came across an article on Network World from Black Hat stating that OSPF has a serious vulnerability. A vulnerability so bad that in order to resolve it you either have to change routing protocols or change OSPF itself.

What I read from the article was that you would need to compromise a router, steal the encryption key, connect a rogue router on the network, become adjacent with your network routers and advertise false routes that would cripple your network.

I don’t think it is really a vulnerability in OSPF itself. The vulnerability requires that the rogue router be connected to the actual network. Now if an attacker was able to get his router onto your network then you have a few security issues there.

I’d like to see the presentation but I think this vulnerability is just the same as saying I can cripple a network with VTP. If an attacker has access to the victim’s network then he could damage the network much faster by connecting a switch compared to stealing encryption keys.

Either way, I’m interested in reading more about this.

 

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