Tag Archive - CCIE

Question the Guru

August 24, 2011 in Blog, CCIE Voice, Featured with 1 Comment

This week, I received an email from a reader of the blog.  Let’s call him Sergio Flores.

Sergio asked me a lot of great questions. Most of these questions were ones that I asked myself during the long and arduous nine months prior to passing the CCIE lab.

You know, so much time and energy is invested into this endeavor that you hope against hope that once you pass it will be worth it.

Aside from trekking in the Himalayan mountains (which I’ve done), getting married and growing a family (which I’m doing), the CCIE has been the most mentally/physically/emotionally trying experience I’ve ever gone through.

Was it worth it?  Hmm…  Is the Pope Catholic? ;)

Since his letter was so relevant to CCIE preparation, I’m going to share snippets of it in this blog post and answer his questions.  Perhaps more people than just Sergio can benefit from my answers.
Continue Reading…

One Year Anniversary: CCIE #26721

August 16, 2011 in Blog, Featured with 3 Comments

One year ago today, I was sitting in the Cisco CCIE lab in San Jose, CA, typing away at a terminal.  It was my first attempt at the lab and, thank God, my last.  I walked out of the building in the afternoon absolutely fried and utterly nervous about the results.

The next afternoon, after having flown back to Minneapolis, I sat in my living room hitting “Refresh” on my web browser every 10 seconds.  Everything hung in the balance.  Would I pass and be done with this season of life?  Would I fail and have to go back to the lab, develop a new plan, and try again in thirty days?

Suddenly, the refresh took a bit longer…  Could it be? Continue Reading…

CUCME Presence

May 21, 2011 in Blog, sho run with 3 Comments

Fact: Every CUCME deployment should contain presence information.

When you realize how easy it is to configure presence within CUCME, it’s amazing that more engineers do not deploy this useful feature.  CUCME Presence provides line state information to other users using the SIP methods of SUBSCRIBE and NOTIFY.

There are two ways that presence information is made visible in a CUCME deployment: (1) BLF speed dials configured on phones and (2) phone directories accessed through the phone menu. Continue Reading…

CCIE Voice Lab Strategy – Dial Plan

March 9, 2011 in Blog, CCIE Voice, Featured with 4 Comments

Here’s a brief video that shows one method that can be used to capture all the dial-plan information in the CCIE Voice v3 lab.

It is in no way comprehensive; however, it does provide an overview of the CCIE voice dial-plan strategy that I used on August 18, 2010 when I passed my CCIE lab in San Jose.

I have to apologize if the pace of the video seems rushed. The free application I was using to record the video (Screenr) has a five minute limit. Five minutes can easily pass when you’re trying to explain complex topics.

Have suggestions or questions? Please post concise (i.e. short), specific questions in the comments section below. I will do my best to record a follow-up video answering your questions.

Again, thanks to everyone who visits my blog!