Hi all – I spent the week of May 1 in RTP, taking the wireless lab for the first time. The short version - After a long night and morning of waiting, I landed again in Dallas to find I had passed.
First and foremost, I want to thank those of you on this list that helped answer my many questions – especially Jeff, Andre, and Christos. For those working to pass the lab, this mailer is a fantastic resource that I wholeheartedly recommend you become involved in. If interested, here’s what I would recommend to someone looking to pass the lab… 1 – Fastlane WB and IPExpert WB vol 1. Both of these have their strengths and weaknesses so I can’t necessarily rank one over the other. But both do a great job of covering the foundations and having you work through them in your lab. 2 – IPExpert WB vol 2. So here’s the thing… This is really the only product on the market that has full wireless labs and for that reason, you need to get it. You need to spend lots of time simulating full length labs that tie everything together and this WB gives you 5 of those. However, you need to know that the labs are a bit outdated and don’t do a good job of emulating what you’ll see on the real lab – to an extent. Plus, the explanations and solutions are lacking at best and it can be frustrating to try and figure out what was done and why. Having said that, this WB was created before Jeff came onboard. Jeff is a fantastic instructor and I believe he’s redoing the entire thing – which is a huge thumbs up. 3 – IPExpert VOD. This is hands down, no questions asked, the best investment you will make. If you are serious about becoming a CCIE Wireless, this is simply a must have. Jeff does a great job walking you through every technology on the blueprint, showing examples and troubleshooting, and pointing out areas to especially focus on. I watched the entire VOD twice and it was time very well spent. 4 – This is the most important of all… Lots and lots and lots and lots of rack time. Either rent time at IPExpert or build your own lab – but there is simply no substitute for this. You need to know how to configure and troubleshoot a myriad of items, and should be able to do them with your eyes closed. When you take the actual lab, nerves will be a factor, the environment will be very different from your safe home lab, and the wording will require careful deciphering. The last thing you want to do is be dealing with all of these things while also trying to remember all the steps for enabling video stream (for example). Not to mention that time is definitely a factor. I finished my lab in 6 hours and spent the final two dealing with a bug in my lab and going back over each question / answer. I found several questions I would have missed simply because I overlooked something small – like configuring the requirement correctly on 3 controllers but forgetting one checkbox on the 4th. On several other questions I changed my answer after carefully re-reading the question. All of this to say, knowing the technologies inside and out so you can configure them very quickly will definitely work to your advantage. Best of luck!! Jay Killion, CCIE #17873 (R/S & Wireless)
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