I work for a company that has both Cisco and Enterasys (Cabletron)
equipment. Cisco's CLI seems more logical to me than other CLI's, especially
moving between different interfaces. I try to push Cisco equipment but I
guess my boss has a wood for Enterasys equipment.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Newton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 2:38 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: Best study materials to use [7:16946]
I agree that sometimes navigating through a Cisco device can
be difficult.
But it is still ten times better than most of the
competition. I have spent
a lot of time lately working with Extreme and Nortel
equipment. Their CLI is
so awkward that it makes the work twice as hard. Now I know
that there will
be some of you out there who have spent lots of time on
these boxes and will
say that they are easier than Cisco, but I think even with
all of its little
drawbacks, IOS still beats most other operating systems.
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
Behalf Of
Priscilla Oppenheimer
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 1:23 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: Best study materials to use [7:16946]
No, Cisco is not listening. ;-) Serisouly, they don't follow
Group Study
(not officially any way.)
The Cisco course developers wrote the material in the Cisco
Press course
books. Many of them have an engineering background but
prefer to develop
courses and write. I was one, for example. ;-) The idea of
using course
developers and writers that aren't subject matter experts
doesn't work,
although many companies have tried it. The results are
awful. Having
engineers write doesn't work either in some cases. But there
are people who
can do both and that's generally who Cisco hires in the
training
department. (with some exceptions)
Regarding the tests, I'm not sure, but I don't think they
are written by
subject matter experts. They are written by testing experts
that go through
the material written by the course developers and pick out
phrases to turn
into questions.
Regarding configuring Cisco switches. I agree. It's way
harder than it
needs to be. There are some things that just make me laugh
out loud they
are so ugly for no reason. I have a theory about this. I
think the commands
are planned by junior software engineers. But that theory
may be as wrong
as your theory about Cisco course developers.
Priscilla
At 01:29 PM 8/23/01, Leigh Anne Chisholm wrote:
>Unfortunately Peter, having just written the Routing 2.0
and Switching 2.0
>exams, I'd have to disagree. To pass the exams, Cisco
Press is the best
>source you can get if that's your only goal.
>
>The old CCNP 1.0 exam series took a lot of heat for being
ambiguous, poorly
>worded, difficult to understand. Likely they were written
by people with
>technical knowledge that didn't have any experience
writing. The new CCNP
>2.0 exam series is straight forward, very little ambiguity,
and the
>questions seem to be word-for-word straight from the course
material. I
>think Cisco likely went in the opposite direction and hired
people that
knew
>nothing about networking but could write. With a miniscule
of knowledge
>about multicasting, I read over one chapter the night
before, skipped the
>second on how to configure multicasting, and scored 100%.
My third highest
>section score was multi-layer switching, which I read over
the morning of
>the exam.
>
>Cisco--are you listening?
>
>I'm extremely disappointed in the quality of the questions
on the exam.
I'm
>tinkering around with a Cat 5 and a 2924XL right now. It's
been a year and
>a half since I last touched a Cat 5 (I was quite proficient
back then) but
>I'm constantly accessing the help facility to get the
correct format of the
>command on the Cat 5 and as for the 2924XL? That's just
plain ugly. I'm
>used to the 1900 series IOS commands. "Trunk on". "Set
trunk on". Who
the
>heck would think that a trunk command would be prefaced
with "switchport"?
>That's the last place I looked on the 2924XL.
>
>It's now ungodly easy to become a paper CCNP - because I
passed the exam
and
>yet I'm as awkward as can be navigating the switch. Yes I
know the
concepts
>and theory... but it will take me a bit of time to get up
to speed finding
>my way around--and I'll be there in about two and a half
weeks. THAT's
when
>I should be able to pass the exam--and not before. With
the relative ease
>of questions, with the fact that you don't have to apply
the knowledge to
>pass (just regurgitate), the CCNP certification won't be
highly regarded in
>the industry and it shouldn't be.
>
>One thing I might mention--is that I'm disappointed in the
exams--not the
>Cisco Press material. Cisco Press's books are a great
resource for finding
>out how to do things. If the only goal is to pass the
exam, Cisco Press is
>the way to go. And that's truly disappointing.
>
>What we do at CertificationZone.com... what I do at
Sybex... that's such a
>completely different philosophy. The focus there is on
learning--having
the
>skills and knowledge to pass the exam. You've got to think
because you're
>not spoon fed. CertificationZone as a preparation source
is just awesome
>(but then again, I'm biased aren't I?)
>
>If you're the type of person that wants to use the tests to
determine how
>well they've developed a skill set... CertificationZone and
other 3rd party
>publishers that publish quality material are the best
source of study
>material because you won't pass based on straight
regurgitation. Moreover,
>if you pass your CCNP exams based on 3rd party sources, in
my opinion
you're
>more likely prepared "on the job" at "at the lab" if you're
going for your
>CCIE. It's funny that Cisco spends so much time worrying
about the NDA
when
>really you can find the questions to the exam almost
word-for-word in a
>Cisco Press book.
>
>Cisco... why not try hiring technical people that can
write? Why not try
>hiring people that can develop questions that require
knowledge to be
>applied to scenerios?
>
>Cisco--are you listening?
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of
>Peter Van Oene
>Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 6:39 AM
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: RE: Best study materials to use [7:16946]
>
>
>Cisco Press is just another publisher and in my opinion
indicates no more
or
>less valuable text than any other publisher.
>
>*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
>
>On 8/23/2001 at 6:10 AM Munzir Khan wrote:
>
> >Cisco Press is always the best bacause it is more
specific what you see
in
> >the real exams although some people read other books
along with cisco
press
> >which are more users friendly and easy to pickup like
sybex, examcram
etc.
> >
> >CCDP is just an addition to CCNP where you see more about
desgining
> >networks
> >and you have to give two additional exams CCDA & CID to
obtain CCDP cert.
> >
> >Cheers.
________________________
Priscilla Oppenheimer
http://www.priscilla.com
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message Posted at:
http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=17040&t=16946
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