BGP Best Path Selection Flowchart

This comes from Richard Bannister's CCIE Blog.

It is a flowchart for BGP Best Path Selection.

Quick Lists - VLAN Information

A Quick List on general VLAN information brought to you by Packet Life.

http://packetlife.net/static/cheatsheets/vlans.pdf

Packet Life Cheat Sheets

http://packetlife.net/cheatsheets/

Download all Packet Life Cheat Sheets
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CCIE Security Lab Exam Blueprint v3

A link to the CCIE Security Lab exam blueprint version 3. This blueprint is slated to begin testing April 2009.
http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/ccie/security/lab_exam_blueprint_v3.html

Quick Lists - QOS Information

A Quick List on general QOS information brought to you by Packet Life.

http://packetlife.net/static/cheatsheets/qos.pdf

Packet Life Cheat Sheets

http://packetlife.net/cheatsheets/

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Quick Lists - MPLS Information

A Quick List on general MPLS information brought to you by Packet Life.

http://packetlife.net/static/cheatsheets/mpls.pdf

Packet Life Cheat Sheets

http://packetlife.net/cheatsheets/

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Quote of the Week - 11/21/08

"Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy."
- Isaac Newton

Quick Lists - Subnetting Information

A Quick List on general Subnetting information brought to you by Packet Life.

http://packetlife.net/static/cheatsheets/subnetting.pdf


Packet Life Cheat Sheets
http://packetlife.net/cheatsheets/

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Quotes of the Week - 11/14/08

"By losing your goal, You have lost your way."
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Quick Lists - Common Port Information

A Quick List on Common Port information brought to you by Packet Life.

http://packetlife.net/static/cheatsheets/common-ports.pdf

Packet Life Cheat Sheets

http://packetlife.net/cheatsheets/

Download all Packet Life Cheat Sheets
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Quote of the Week - 11/07/08

"They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."

-Andy Warhol

CCIE Job Searching

This is a link to an article published in April 2008 about CCIE Job Searching for anyone who finds it useful.

http://www.itworld.com/ccie-job-search-nlscareer-080401?page=0%2C0

Quick Lists - Spanning Tree Information

A Quick List on general Spanning Tree information brought to you by Packet Life.

http://packetlife.net/static/cheatsheets/spanning-tree.pdf

Packet Life Cheat Sheets

http://packetlife.net/cheatsheets/

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Quote of the Week - 10/31/08

"The man who makes a success of an important venture never wails for the crowd. He strikes out for himself. It takes nerve, it takes a great lot of grit; but the man that succeeds has both. Anyone can fail. The public admires the man who has enough confidence in himself to take a chance. These chances are the main things after all. The man who tries to succeed must expect to be criticized. Nothing important was ever done but the greater number consulted previously doubted the possibility. Success is the accomplishment of that which most people think can't be done." - C. V. White

Quick Lists - OSPF Information

A Quick List on general OSPF information brought to you by Packet Life.

http://packetlife.net/static/cheatsheets/ospf.pdf


Packet Life Cheat Sheets
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Quote of the Week - 10/24/08

"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will." - Vince Lombardi

Mobile CCIE Lab Exam

As seen here:
https://cisco.hosted.jivesoftware.com/docs/DOC-3224
Mobile CCIE Labs are currently only available for CCIE Routing & Switching Lab Exam Candidates

Cisco has introduced the mobile lab program to provide candidates greater access to Lab testing while greatly reducing travel time and expenses. Mobile CCIE Labs provide a convenient and cost-effective method for candidates to test for CCIE Routing and Switching in areas which do not have permanent lab locations.

The Mobile CCIE Lab reduces the need for costly travel, hotel, passport, and visa fees, missed days of work and the need to leave the country to take the CCIE Lab exam.

Map of Cisco Lab Locations and proposed Mobile Labs



Scheduled Dates/Locations
Lab Location Dates
Johannesburg, South Africa Nov 24-28
Seoul, Korea Dec 8-12
Kuala Lampur, Malaysia Jan 12-16
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Jan 17-21
Bucharest, Romania Feb 2-6
Kiev, Ukraine Feb 9-13
Osaka, Japan Feb 17-21
Moscow, Russia Feb 23-27
New Delhi, India Mar 2-6
Lagos, Nigeria Mar 9-13
Jakarta, Indonesia Mar 16-20
Ho-Chi-Minh City, Vietnam Apr 6-10
Johannesburg, South Africa Apr 13-17
Shanghai, PR China Apr 20-24
Moscow, Russia May 4-8
Amman, Jordan May 18-22
Miami, Florida May 25-29
Singapore, Singapore Jun 8-12
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Jun 20-24
Moscow, Russia Aug 3-7

We reserve the right to cancel any mobile event if the registrations do not meet the minimum requirements.

How Do I Get Started?
For information on registering for a CCIE Mobile Lab event or for additional information about the CCIE Mobile Lab program, visit the Certification Online Support tool. Get Instant Answers to Frequently Asked Questions on the Mobile CCIE Labs

View the Discussion CCIE Mobile Lab Now Available!

For specific information on the Lab Exam visit the
CCIE Routing & Switching Lab Exam Overview Page which will include information on the following topics:
▪ Lab Environment
▪ Lab Exam Grading
▪ Results
▪ Reevaluation of Lab Results
▪ Routing and Switching Lab Locations Fixed Locations
▪ CCIE Policies

Quick Lists - IS-IS Information

A Quick List on general IS-IS information brought to you by Packet Life.

http://packetlife.net/static/cheatsheets/is-is.pdf


Packet Life Cheat Sheets
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Quote of the Week - 10/17/08

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out." - Robert Collier

CCIE Routing & Switching Lab Exam Blueprint

A link to the CCIE Routing & Switching Lab exam blueprint
http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/ccie/rs/lab_exam_blueprint.html

Frame Relay Broadcast Queue

The broadcast queue for frame relay has 3 limitations, the queue size, the bandwidth, and the packets per second. Once the bandwidth or packets per second threshold is reached, the packets are queued. If the queue hits its limit, the subsequent packets are dropped. It works as a rate-limiting for frame-relay broadcast packets; since the broadcast queue has priority over other traffic, it limits the impact it can have on the interface. The default sizes are 64 queue size, 256,000 bytes per second (2,048,000 bps), and 36 pps. In situations with many individual sub-interfaces, and routing flowing across each sub-interface, the most impacting limitation is packets per second, which when met, starts to fill the queue and cause subsequent drops.

EIGRP as an example uses multicast hellos for neighbor discovery and management. With timers on the interfaces at 5 seconds for hellos, and 3 times that for the hold-interval of 15 seconds, there is a garaunteed packet matching the rates detailed above every 5 seconds minimum. This will begin to limit the numbers of EIGRP neighbors across the frame-relay circuit upon which the sub-interfaces are configured.

This example shows a quick way to look at the frame-relay interfaces on the router and then show the numbers of PVCs. Assuming you have a neighbor on each PVC can give you a quick number to reference.
Router1#sh frame-re pvc | inc Statistics
PVC Statistics for interface Serial1/1:1 (Frame Relay DTE)
PVC Statistics for interface Serial1/1:2 (Frame Relay DTE)
PVC Statistics for interface Serial1/1:4 (Frame Relay DTE)
PVC Statistics for interface Serial1/1:5 (Frame Relay DTE)
PVC Statistics for interface Serial1/1:6 (Frame Relay DTE)

Router1#sh frame-re pvc | inc Local
Local 47 2 1 0
Local 64 1 1 0
Local 37 1 0 0
Local 213 10 9 0
Local 109 3 2 0

The below example shows the interface above the default 36 packets per second, filling up the broadcast queue, and subsequently dropping broadcasts.
Router1#sh int serial1/1:6
Serial1/1:6 is up, line protocol is up

Broadcast queue 52/64, broadcasts sent/dropped 2029709/37737, interface broadcasts 1908875

Anywhere we see drops or a queue filling up, we should look at implementing the broadcast-queue changes to alleviate lost hellos and potential adjacency changes.

interface Serial1/1:5
frame-relay broadcast-queue

The numbers used can vary. You want to increase the packets per second enough to compensate for increased hellos, but keep the bandwidth conservative enough to keep that usage low.

Here is the output of Router1 s1/1:5. About twice as many neighbors and a small fraction of the drops of s1/1:6
Router1#sh int s1/1:5
Serial1/1:5 is up, line protocol is up

Broadcast queue 1/100, broadcasts sent/dropped 4223817/33, interface broadcasts 3920140

An example of the log messages generated when a neighbor goes down and comes back up, due to this issue.
Jan 14 00:45:41.038 PST: %DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP(0) 200: Neighbor 10.1.1.1 (Serial1/1:6.144) is down: holding time expired
Jan 14 00:45:49.238 PST: %DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP(0) 200: Neighbor 10.1.1.1 (Serial1/1:6.144) is up: new adjacency

CCIE Routing & Switching Written Exam Blueprint v3

A link to the CCIE Routing & Switching exam blueprint version 3
http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/ccie/rs/wr_exam_blueprint_v3.html

Quick Lists - IPv6 Information

A Quick List on general IPv6 information brought to you by Packet Life.

http://packetlife.net/static/cheatsheets/ipv6.pdf


Packet Life Cheat Sheets
http://packetlife.net/cheatsheets/

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Quote of the Week - 10/10/08

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude." - Thomas Jefferson

Quick Lists - IPSec Information

A Quick List on general IPSec information brought to you by Packet Life.

http://packetlife.net/static/cheatsheets/ipsec.pdf


Packet Life Cheat Sheets
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Quote of the Week - 10/03/08

"Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome." - Samuel Johnson

Quick Lists - EIGRP Information

A Quick List on general EIGRP information brought to you by Packet Life.

http://packetlife.net/static/cheatsheets/eigrp.pdf


Packet Life Cheat Sheets
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Quote of the Week - 09/26/08

"Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking." - William B. Sprague

Quick Lists - BGP Information

A Quick List on general BGP information brought to you by Packet Life.

http://packetlife.net/static/cheatsheets/bgp.pdf


Packet Life Cheat Sheets
http://packetlife.net/cheatsheets/

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Quote of the Week - 09/19/08

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit." - Aristotle

How to Automate Getting Packet Captures off of an ASA

Link

Check out the link above for some good information on how to use the capture commands coupled with the wget function in Linux to run some automated gathering of capture files.

CCIE Lab Documentation Update

CCIE labs changing from UniversCD to Cisco Documentation CCIE labs will no longer support using the UniversCD documentation for the lab exam. All labs have migrated over to Cisco Documentation only.

View the Cisco Documentation webpage

Quick Lists - IPv4 Multicast Information

A Quick List on general IPv4 Multicast information brought to you by Packet Life.

http://packetlife.net/static/cheatsheets/ipv4-multicast.pdf


Packet Life Cheat Sheets
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Quote of the Week - 09/12/08

"Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash." - George S. Patton

CCIE World Statistics Udated

http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/ccie/certified_ccies/worldwide.html

Total of Worldwide CCIEs:		17840 (last updated 9/9/2008)
Total of Routing and Switching CCIEs:		15852
Total of Security CCIEs:		1764
Total of Service Provider CCIEs:		961
Total of Storage Networking CCIEs:		139
Total of Voice CCIEs:		802

Multiple Certifications:

Many CCIEs have gone on to pass the certification exams in additional tracks, becoming a “multiple CCIE.” Below are selected statistics on CCIEs who are certified in more than one track.

Total with multiple certifications worldwide:		1729
Total of Routing and Switching and Security CCIEs:		646
Total of Routing and Switching and Service Provider CCIEs:		423
Total of Routing and Switching and Storage Networking CCIEs:		34
Total of Routing and Switching and Voice CCIEs:		236
Total with 3 or more certifications		274

Journey to CCIE# 16921, part 1

I thought I might write a brief history of my journey through my CCIE adventure. I decided to break it up into 2 parts. My planning, and testing through the Professional level exams on the first part and my actual testing and trials once I decided to take the CCIE Written exam.

Based on 3 years of experience in the USMC, in early 2001 I decided to start getting certified for my eventual End of Active Service (EAS) about 1 year away. I laid out my path and my plan and set forth towards my eventual goal of getting my zip code.

At this point I was part of a Communications Company that ran operational exercises. When I was personally not on these military operations, I had a good amount of free time prepping my these operations. In addition, without and operation, there was equipment to be used as well. I spent this time stacking Cisco 2501 routers on my desk, (yes I was one of the few that had a desk) interconnecting them and began to experiment, test and run through all the labs that I could while having online and book resources with me.

I had heard that the VA would reimburse certification exams through the GI Bill, so I looked into covering the Cisco exams in this manner. When I started my exam path they had not approved Cisco exams, but instead had mostly Microsoft exams on the approved list. I decided that an email campaign was in order. I created an email template and saved it to my desktop stating my argument for Cisco exam inclusion to the approved list. Over the next 4 months, every morning when I came into work, I would open the email template and send it to the VA.

First up on the certification block was the CCNA. I studied and on April 26 2001 I passed the CCNA exam. I moved from the CCNA to the CCDA exam and took that roughly 1 month later. Based on my studies and experience I remember thinking that this was the easy part, and I certainly expected to pass both of these tests without much trouble. Now I was ready to get to work on the 4 CCNP exams.

Since I knew I was schedule to leave September 15th for Egypt on an joint exercise, I planned to take what I could in August of 2001. That coupled with the fact of being a reasonably poor individual with 2 kids, I decided to take my stab at the triple threat, since it was cheaper. 200 for the combined test versus a total of 300 for each test individually. This was the Foundations bundled test set that you could take at the time that included Routing, Switching, and Remote Access exams of the CCNP series. Not much was available at that time about the test. In the end it turned out to be like testing all 3 tests separately just at the same time than 1 bundled test. It had 3 sections of questions, 1 for each exam, and you received a separate score for each section. A failing score on any of the 3 sections failed the test. This is information I only found out once I sat down and read the instructions of the test itself, so I was a little surprised. I did however pass all 3 sections which left me only 1 test left to achieve CCNP status. It was shortly after this that I actually received a reply to one of my VA emails stating that the Cisco exams were in the process of being added, and that once I saw them added I should submit all Cisco exams I had taken so far in addition to future exams.

We started a workup exercise a week or so before we were supposed to leave for Egypt. This is a time where the different units meet out in a field with tents, and simulate the exercise. We connected all of the IT systems to make sure everything worked before deployment. On of these days was a very late day for me getting everything to work, so I decided to lay down in one of the tents about 3am to get some sleep. I was actually awoken by some other Marines watching TV screaming about planes crashing into buildings and that we had been attacked. I didn't believe it at first, but groggily walkedd over to check it out. Of course this was September 11th, 2001 and the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The rumor had it, that we may be shifting our immediate exercise to Afghanistan and be the first military force on the ground there. This did not happen and we executed our joint exercise as planned while the powers that be planned their Afghanistan deployment. We were in Egypt from mid Setptember through mid November, which is a another interesting story all by itself, and I will post it here at some point.

Upon returning from Egypt I spent an amazing weekend in Las Vegas with soem friends. Again another story that will have to be posted here at some point. Then the Sunday after Thanksgiving we immediately left for 29 Palms for more military exercises. Once things are set up in the field exercises, the networkers job is fairly relaxed. The first 2 or 3 days of any deployment, forward jump, or operational movement are extremely hectic, but after that it provides a lot of time for study. Knowing this; even before going to Egypt I scheduled my 4th and final CCNP exam for just after my return from 29 Palms on December 21, 2001. I passed the Support test, and had achieved my CCNP goal.

Since, I figured I would not be able to take my CCIE Written or Lab before my EAS, I turned my attention towards the CCDP. The fact that only 1 other test, CID, was different from the CCNP exam track, and the fact that the VA finally approved Cisco exams for the GI Bill reimbursement certainly contributed to this decision. I ended up passing the Design exam in March of 2002, a couple months before my End of Active Service.

I always found the best combination for me to study and learn, was hands on equipment doing labs, while reading about the technologies, and having the experience that comes from both aspects working toegther. Tomorrow I will write about the remainder of the journey from CCIE written to CCIE lab completion and being assigned CCIE# 16921

Quick Lists - Administrative Distances

A Quick list of administrative distances for the various routing protocols

Default administrative Distances
0 Connected interface
1 Static route
5 EIGRP summary route
20 External Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
90 Internal EIGRP
100 IGRP
110 OSPF
115 Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS)
120 Routing Information Protocol (RIP)
140 Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP)
160 On Demand Routing (ODR)
170 External EIGRP
200 Internal BGP
255 Unknown

Reference Link
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk365/technologies_tech_note09186a0080094195.shtml

Quote of the Week - 09/05/08

"Try not to become a man of success but a man of value." - Albert Einstein

CCIE Network

I just wanted to take a moment to praise the work of Paul Borghese on the CCIE Network.
http://ccie.net

Please take the time to check it out and join if you have not already. You will also find that I have created a group for General Cisco Group to discuss and pool resources to receive offers and discounts. I just received confirmation that we have been added by Cisco Press as an official Cisco Users Group.

Excerpt from the main page.

"Welcome CCIEs and CCIE Students! You are on the most exciting and innovative CCIE discussion site on the internet. From the creators of GroupStudy.com the worlds oldest and largest CCIE discussion site, comes our newest creation, The CCIE network.

The CCIE network takes the work we perform on GroupStudy and goes one step further. We are now building a complete CCIE community including blogs, small organic discussion groups, and relationship building tools. Create and collaborate with CCIEs from around the world, the way you see fit!

Join today, it is free! You will be able to:

Create a personal blog

Build relationships with other members

Join exciting and new discussion groups

Create your own private or public groups

Each group has a private discussion board and blog!

CCIE Lab Payment Deadline Update

CCIE Lab Payment Deadline Update

Policy Change to Payment for CCIE Labs

In effort to improve the availability of CCIE lab exams Cisco has updated the CCIE lab payment process.

On September 6, 2008 the payment policy for CCIE labs will be as follows:

Payment in full is due 90 days (calendar) prior to your lab date. Payment must be received to confirm your date. After 90 days refunds will not be available for cancelled lab dates.

The change in this policy will allow for lab seats to be open in a timely manner and create more desirable time frames.

If you have questions or want to confirm you are within the 90+ day window please contact customer support.

I personally like the change as it will free up dates and lessen the time required for those wanting to schedule a lab exam.

Quick Lists - Multicast Addresses

A quick List of Multicast IP addresses.

224.0.0.0   - 224.0.0.255     (224.0.0/24)  Local Network Control Block
224.0.1.0   - 224.0.1.255     (224.0.1/24)  Internetwork Control Block
224.0.2.0   - 224.0.255.0                   AD-HOC Block
224.1.0.0   - 224.1.255.255   (224.1/16)    ST Multicast Groups
224.2.0.0   - 224.2.255.255   (224.2/16)    SDP/SAP Block
224.252.0.0 - 224.255.255.255               DIS Transient Block
225.0.0.0   - 231.255.255.255               RESERVED
232.0.0.0   - 232.255.255.255 (232/8)       Source Specific Multicast Block
233.0.0.0   - 233.255.255.255 (233/8)       GLOP Block
234.0.0.0   - 238.255.255.255               RESERVED
239.0.0.0   - 239.255.255.255 (239/8)       Administratively Scoped Block

IANA Multicast Assignments
http://www.iana.org/assignments/multicast-addresses
http://www.iana.org/assignments/ipv6-multicast-addresses

IANA Assignment Guidelines
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3171.txt

Russ White discusses CCDE

Russ White, CCIE No. 2635, is a member of the Routing Protocol Design and Architecture Team at Cisco Systems. In this interview he presents valuable insights into CCDE Design Track Certification with OnNetworking.

Quote of the Week - 08/29/08

"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “Press On” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race." - (John) Calvin Coolidge

This quote has been pretty important for me during my CCIE studies and in life in general. Persistence and determination will eventually conquer everything else. Keep fighting and moving forward.

CCIE Lab Advice

This was a past Lab Advice from someone attending a QA session with Bill Parkhurst a long time ago. I have updated it a little to be posted here, but most of it still holds true.

The #1 reason for failure is lack of knowledge.
- Study concepts. Do not try to memorize configurations or scenarios.
For example, understand how an OSPF DR is chosen. The lab proctors generally power cycle all of the equipment BEFORE grading. This could change your OSPF DR if you didn't configure the router you want to always be the DR properly.
- Practice each concept on its own. For example, practice OSPF WITHOUT also turning on BGP. This will ensure that any behaviors you see are attributed ONLY to OSPF and you don't confuse a behavior that was caused by BGP to be an OSPF behavior.
- Practice Labs should be used for self evaluation. Time yourself when using a practice lab to simulate the CCIE Lab Exam experience. Only use the practice lab 1 time.

The #2 reason for failure is anxiety.
- To reduce anxiety, travel to your lab location early the day before. Visit the CCIE lab facilities the day before if possible.
- Have confidence in your abilities. If you have been studying the technology and concepts, you are ready for ANY scenario. The core R&S concepts include Layer 2 switching, VLANs, IGPs, FR, and BGP.
- If you do get jammed up on a topic, try to drop it and come back to it, even if that means configuring a work around so you can move on. Let the solution come to you while thinking on other topics, or spend time at the end of the day on it, so you do not run out of time, and miss other topics because of it.
- If needed, take a break and go to the bathroom, or get a drink and a take a minute to relax. This may seem contradictory of having a time limit, but it will help clear you head to use the time you do have more effectively.

Practice good test taking skills.
- Skim the exam for the first 5 to 10 minutes once you get it.
- Spend a reasonable amount of time diagramming your network. This diagram will help you to understand things, as well as provide benefits throughout the rest of the exam.
- Use documentation or help commands to configure the remaining exam requirements that you are not familiar with LAST...remember this is a Pass or Fail exam. You only need 80 points. Not all 100 points.
- If you believe you have a hardware problem, do NOT spend more than 10 minutes trying to fix the hardware. Ask the lab proctor to investigate the issue. The lab proctor will stop the clock and send you away while he/she checks the hardware. If it is a hardware problem, the proctor will resolve and restart your clock. If it is NOT a hardware problem, you will at least KNOW it is not a hardware problem. On the other hand, if you have a hardware problem that you spend 90 minutes trying to resolve, you will not regain this time after you and the proctor finally replace the hardware.
- You are allowed to ask the proctor anything. But ask intelligent questions, as you need to convey to the proctor that you understand the material but just need clarification on the wording of the requirement. For example, if you are unsure of what a question is asking, ask the proctor something like this:
If I interpret this question this way......then I plan to do X. But If I interpret this question this other way......then I plan to do Y. Which way should I interpret it?

Miscellaneous:
- Lab exams are usually about 17 pages long.
- A new lab is written every month and an old lab is retired every month. There are more than 1 lab exams available to be given at any time. Each lab achieves roughly the same pass rate.
- The average person that passes the CCIE exam takes 2.5 lab attempts.
CCIE candidates can cancel a lab exam up to 28 days before their exam date WITHOUT being charged. Therefore, if you are willing to take an exam in 4 weeks, you can usually schedule it in 4 weeks. Otherwise, your lab exam will probably be 6 months out.
- Grading is done with an automated script. The script gives full credit for any question that works properly. If a particular question does not work properly, the lab proctor manually checks to validate whether or not the question was answered properly. Partial credit is not given. 5 point questions are rare. When they do occur, there is usually a modular piece to it so that 2 or 3 points can be earned without getting all 5 points

Configure router as Frame-Relay Switch

I call this the obligatory Router acting as a Frame-Relay Switch post.

You will find that a lot of blogs or websites post information on configuring a router to act as a frame-relay switch. The reason for this is that is a great way to simulate frame-relay in a lab and is very important in order to work on frame-relay and how it effects various other protocols and technologies. Instead of providing yet another example of how to accomplish this, this post is to provide a link to some of those examples out there.
I personally always had an old 4500 Router with 2 4 port serial cards acting as my frame-relay switch. It served dual duty as the frame switch and one of my backbone router via an ethernet interface. As you will see though, a very cost effective with is with 2500 series routers.

Link - InternetworkExpert's examples on 2501 and 2520 series routers
Link - Example posted on CCIEtalk
Link - Example for 2520 from Chris Bryant CCIE #12933
Link - Another good example from Kyle Lutz on Tech Exams

A simple search will provide even more examples.

Global Power in CCIE numbers?

An interesting article for those CCIEs out there or those striving towards the numbered goal.
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080822_005393.html

It discusses the number of CCIEs compared to population and gross domestic product to gauge a countries networking investments.
Also interesting to note, from the article, is that 50% of CCIEs work for Cisco.

Quick Lists - IOS Version Information

A Quick List on IOS Version information brought to you by Packet Life.

http://packetlife.net/static/cheatsheets/cisco-ios-versions.pdf

Packet Life Cheat Sheets

http://packetlife.net/cheatsheets/

Download all Packet Life Cheat Sheets
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About the Blogger

A little about myself and my history. You can use the links for the quick version.
LinkedIn Profile
Facebook Profile
CCIE Verification Link (CCO Required)

I have over ten years of experience in designing, implementing, analyzing, troubleshooting, and documenting complex data communication networks. My expertise is in routing, switching, and security with main focus on the dominant player in the networking industry, Cisco. Some assumption is made that you know about Cisco, if you have found yourself here at this blog.

I started in data networks when I joined the United States Marine Corps in May of 1998. I worked on many different networks of various sizes, complexity, funding and certainly locations that many have not. We built custom data networking portables, that were self contained networking pods with room for techs and engineers on the inside that could be transported and dropped off anywhere. This was even before the General Dynamics Tactical Data Networks pods were developed.

Upon leaving the USMC, I transitioned to Wam!Net, a subcontractor to EDS on the NMCI (Navy Marine Corps Intranet). It was a natural transition for me, but ultimately proved to be a place I would have to leave to continue my growth as a Network Engineer. They have since become a part of the Harris Corporation with a few other names along the way.

I left Wam!Net to go out on my own. During this period I contracted to individual companies and eventually found myself contracting through Modis IT to Disney working on their networks supporting Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. It was an interesting experience to work on network equipment in a small closet on the back end of a dinosaur shaped sunglass hut.

I spent some time after this working directly for Riverside County IT in Riverside, CA. The change was welcomed at the time for more steady work away from contracting. This was an interesting position as I worked on DMVPN for the county in some of it's early forms. I also worked with the Riverside County fire department to build an in house alerting and reporting system working over the network.

After RCIT, I spent a couple years at Kaiser Permanente at the data center in Corona, CA. I did a lot of work on data center equipment, mostly 10GB and 1GB ethernet connections for high volume traffic like medical imaging and document retrieval. I designed and built out the network expansion into the LA Data Center, which has now migrated to Irvine. It was during this time that my main study for the CCIE Routing and Switching track kicked into high gear with the help of my study partner, David Vasek CCIE #16333.

My family and I relocated to the area where I grew up in late 2006. I began working for Fiserv EFT in Portland, OR. Our division of Fiserv processes debit and credit transactions. Next time you are at the ATM, you can think of this blog. Anything and everything in networking, we do in some fashion. This is an exciting time of growth after Fiserv's acquisition of CheckFree.

As for current study I am working on CCIE Security track, and putting some effort towards the CCDE blueprint. Check out the profiles for more information, and feel free to add me as a contact.

Blog Opening

Welcome to the Blog. This Blog will focus on computer networking focusing on routing, switching, and security. The Blog will generally have a Cisco Systems focus similar to the current industry, but will cover industry aspects and other vendors as well. The Blog will build off of public information and consolidate some of the great resources and tools that have been created and published over the years.

The initial posts will introduce myself and give readers some background about me and my experience. Technical posts will follow after that. Right now I have no goal as to how often they will happen, but smaller updates and quick links and resources will be published in between.