Jennifer Huber: Lab attempt 02/02/2010 - first go round with the lab

 

If you have dreams of being a Cisco CCIE Wireless Expert and you aren't following Jennifer Huber CWNE#51's blog, then you should be! Jennifer just recently attempted the Cisco CCIE Wireless Lab this week. This was her first attempt.

At last count only 17 folks have passed the CCIE Wireless Lab. Just to give you an idea, San Jose is booked till August 2010!! 

Jeniffer Huber's Blog Post:

http://jenniferhuber.blogspot.com/

Well, I suppose I should put a few words together about my first experience at sitting for a Cisco CCIE Lab.  I didn't expect to pass, considering that there isn't any formalized training available for the wireless lab like there is for all the other CCIE tracks.  I scored a 60, and needed an 80 to pass.  I signed up for the next exam right after checking my score, and the earliest available date is was in August, so I booked the date.

I was glad that someone recommended that I bring ear plugs - they were a godsend since the CCIE Pod 01 I had was right next to the racks of equipment.  I had originally thought the ear plugs were so you didn't hear any one elses' freak out..  I couldn't hear anything over the noise of the rack w/o them & was glad for the quiet they provided.

I lost some time trying to figure out which shortcut on the desktop led to the PC that would let me web into the controllers once I'd gotten them initially configured.. I guess I should have asked about that sooner instead of waiting till after lunch.  I really didn't like the way the tasks were laid out in the book.  I felt that the information I needed was scattered around within the text, and the key pieces of information could have been laid out more clearly.  I guess that is part of the point of the lab though - and I need to come up with a way to lay out the information I'll need for all the configuration before I start.  I spent a lot of time flipping back and forth through the diagrams and scenarios looking for naming conventions and vlan numbers when if I had made my own "spreadsheet" it would have been one stop shopping.

Now that I know what I'm up against, I have drawn up a better plan of attack.  I have to be *much* quicker at the CLI of IOS APs and for WLCs.  I couldn't have anticipated how little time I'd have to complete each task correctly within the 8 hours allotted for the lab.