Narbik Bootcamp Day 4/Day 5

Some more notes for your enjoyment! Day four covered RIP and QoS. Again, both were covered very in-depth. And don't believe that RIP is an old, easy, simplistic routing protocol. Narbik is quick to point many of the nuances of RIP and it's versatility. Remember - the LAB isn't asking you how you do something, but they usually ask if you know the most CREATIVE way of doing something, just to make sure you are well versed in the topics.

The QoS lecture ran most of the day, but again, it was a great lecture. I can't say enough about it. Day five covers multicast and generally wrapping everything up. Narbik is going to let us know how to best attack the lab exam. He is going to give us his suggestion, and if we follow his suggestion, he suggests 70% of us will pass the CCIE on the first attempt. This is great news and I plan to follow his suggestion - whatever it may be, to a T. I am certainly focused on attaining the CCIE and I am not going to let anything stand in my way.

Narbik again suggests that EVERYONE attend his bootcamp a week or two before our lab. I am going to double-up on this suggestion. There is a bootcamp in Columbia, MD the first week of May. There is another bootcamp in Herndon, VA the month of July - right before my exam. Hopefully with three bootcamp sessions, and all my studies - I'll be one of those 7 out of 10 to past on the first try.

Narbik Bootcamp Day 2/Day 3

Well after a long day, I didn't get around to posting yesterday. Not a big deal because it's not like I am going to post all my notes anyway. Day two covered OSPF cover-to-cover. Narbik runs you through almost every possible command in OSPF and he explains what the command does and where to apply it. My understand of OSPF, while already pretty good, is much better following Narbik's lecture.

Narbik also covers EIGRP in the same manner during day two. Again, showing you all the commands, how they work and what they do. Again, I understand EIGRP better now than before. Narbik does a great job of making you want to learn about everything, and teaches in a very exciting way.

Day three Narbik covers BGP, again the same manner as OSPF and EIGRP. This bootcamp is worth every penny. I know this post isn't very long, but hey - 13 hours hacking IOS and listening to lectures kinda tires you out. More later...

Narbik Bootcamp Day 1

I promised everyone to post notes on my experience with the boot camp. First, I've got nothing but good things to say. The day started with the typical introductions, with Narbik asking us what our weak points are and how we heard about his class. From there, we started straight into the Advanced Technologies workbook, starting with with basic switching. Nothing really new or exciting but fundamental and essential. Narbik makes his rounds to make sure that everyone is progressing along. After lab time, we take a break for lunch.

After lunch we start into the lecture of switch security. The lecture was great and covered items such as DAI, DHCP snooping, mac access list and vlan access maps. After the lecture, we tore into the advanced switching labs. Again, the labs are top-notch. Narbik is available the whole time for any questions. He will also cover a topic more in-depth if someone has a question about a specific topic. It's during this time that he gives us some more labs covering private VLANs, multicast and others. These are labs he just completed so we are some of the first few people to see these labs. This shows Narbik's dedication to all of his students - past, present and future.

After the switching lab, Narbik starts into the Frame Relay lecture. Narbik doesn't just show you how to do something, he explains EVERYTHING in detail, including all the options for a particular subject. He doesn't just show you how something works, he explains to you how something works.

Well, as I've already said, the materials are top notch, but they would just be another set of workbooks if you did not take Narbik's class. When Narbik teaches, you can tell he cares about his students and shows an enthusiasm in teaching you everything he knows. He encourages everyone to take his bootcamp as many times as needed to pass the lab. He even encourages current CCIEs to take the bootcamp once a year to keep all the knowledge fresh. This shouldn't be a problem since Narbik offers free retakes of his bootcamps.

Well, that is all I got for tonight. I need some rest so that I'm fresh for tomorrow session.