JNCIA-ER Finally

After the whole year of inconsistent reading and studying, I passed the JNCIA-ER exam today with a good grade. I just focused on my studies last month and I found the exam easy because its similar to the principles in CCNA. I will finally get back to focus on the CCDA/CCDP track again while preparing for my CCIE Written exam early next year. JNCIS-ER exam will be taken on the last week of November.

I have updated my certification logos at the right hand side of the blog which now contains the JNCIA-ER logo. Hopefully I will see the CCDA and CCDP logo before this year ends. Next year, I hope to see the CCIE logo displayed there. These logos serve to remind me what I have accomplished and what should I be accomplishing. How nice would it be to see 5 CCIE logos there and even 1 JNCIE logo. Call me a certification monkey but I am more like a certification chimpanzee. :)

Juniper Configuration on the Mini Labs?

I have been busy with my preparation for my Juniper JNCIA-ER exam tomorrow thats why I haven't been able to do any technical posts here. I often read an ebook and do Juniper emulator using "Olive" even at work. Doing Juniper configuration is pretty much like doing the CCNA but learning a different command language. Remember, any networking lessons and principles that applies to Cisco is pretty much the same with Juniper provided that its not vendor specific.

Something crossed my mind while I was doing the Juniper preparation. I have read many networking blogs but I haven't found anything that posts both Cisco and Juniper configs. My idea is to include one Juniper router on the Mini Labs and post Juniper basic configs here just for my reference and for those who read this blog. It's a good way to learn Juniper configs while mastering the Cisco IOS. I am not talking about very advanced Juniper configs. I rarely come across with a Juniper router here in the global network I support so including a Juniper router in the mini labs will really help with Juniper exposure.

What can you say about this? Would this be a good idea? After all, I am looking for some aspects that will make this blog different from the rest and this one I think will make it a unique one. Will this defeat the purpose of this blog? Let me know your thoughts.

For the time being, I have booked my Juniper JNCIS-ER exam on the last week of November so I have ample time to prepare (I have been reading from time to time about Juniper few months before.) My CCDA is underway too and my ARCH exam will be taken on December hopefully.

Focused Mini Labs or Mock Labs???

I can't recall where I read it but I read some posts on which is better Focused Mini Labs or Mock Labs. I can't really say one is better than the other because in my opinion, these two should be equally useful for the CCIE lab exam preparation. I believe that a person preparing for the CCIE should focus first on the mini labs and understand the topics as clearly as possible and the mock lab a few months before the exam. What I am doing in this blog is doing the labs from the basic to the possibly more advanced topics. If you notice, I rarely jump from one topic to another but instead I focus more on one routing protocol/ subject at a time and divide it into smaller topics ( I wonder when I will finish blogging about BGP :) )

To tell you the truth, I don't have Mock Labs yet from those famous CCIE training vendors for two reasons, first I don't have money to purchase one for the moment (too bad for me ;) ) secondly I don't want to get tempted to get into the Mock Labs without first completing the mini labs I am doing. Gives me the study focus I need but its just me. There are people who the mock labs first and do mini labs later, its okay we have our own unique ways of doing things ;).

Currently, I am doing Kocharian labs but the labs I post here in my blog aren't copied from there or any source. I create my own topology for my own personal understanding and explanation. I can truly say I have understood something if I can explain it clearly and that is one purpose of this blog.

Juniper Fast Track 100% Discount on Exams

Yesterday, I was visiting the Juniper Fast Track page to find out what happened to the voucher I got when I passed the pre-assessment exam. I found out that Juniper is making the exam free and you can use the previous voucher you had to avail the free exam.

This may be inappropriate to post in this blog which is all about Cisco, but I think this will be a good certification to get. Besides, JNCIA-ER and JNCIS-ER are the certifications I targetted to achieve this year. These certifications will not only make your list of cerfications longer :), but also boost your morale for aimed certifications like the CCIE. This will give a networking individual a higher market value than those who only has Cisco certs. I am not pro Juniper or something. I consider Scott Morris my example for multi vendor certified experts and I think he has a wider market than those CCIE's who only have Cisco certifications. It's like having a coat of many colors! My opinion though, but my proof is there are a lot of companies out there looking for Juniper Certified individuals. You can check the job sites if you want to see for yourself.

As for me, I have booked my free JNCIA-ER exam by October and will be booking my JNCIS-ER by December. I am looking forward to passing these exams but I still don't neglect my aim for the CCDA/CCDP this year and ultimately the CCIE next year. Don't miss this chance to get a good and acknowledged certification for free! This will only be available throughout the rest of 2009. You have nothing to lose! :) Check the link below for more details.

https://learningportal.juniper.net/juniper/user_fasttrack_home.aspx

My Next Target: CCDA

Currently I am working as a Change Management Engineer and my job involves planning and preparing configuration for new site setups, partner vpn and just about anything in the WAN/LAN side of the network. There are times that it is required for me to do some proposals on how the network should be designed and I really need to do some research on how this should be done the proper way. As a network engineer, I believe we are not only only into configuring routers and do it for a lifetime.:) I think its best if we also know how the network should be designed and it pays a lot if you work for pre-sales job which requires designing knowledge and experience.

I first started reading Dianne Teare's book on CCDA a few months ago. I find it boring at first but when I went into the succeeding chapters, I find it more interesting. The book is so nice, you have to read it twice or thrice!:)

My journey towards the CCIE, doesn't mean I am not open for other certifications. I believe certifications like the CCDA and CCDP can greatly help not only for the exam but also for your value as an individual in the networking industry. Certifications like ITIL which I currently have, are also good in terms of the business and process side of the networking job.Being multi vendor certified is also good because there are also good networking products out there. Juniper and Checkpoints are my next targets after I have achieved my CCDP certification. I only need two more exams and I hope to accomplish the certifications I mentioned this year. I will learn as much as I can but will not forget on my target and my focus.