Checkpoint

I sat this morning and took a 30 question quiz on Frame-relay and WAN connectivity. I smoked the Frame-relay but discovered that I'm a little short on my understanding of VPN technologies. I'll be working on that this week.

I'm in the short haul here. I am planning to take the CCNA exam next week if my study goes well this week. I've shored up the routing protocols, worked through much of the L2 protocols and feel pretty good about the L1 information as far as what makes a router work, where data is stored and what kind of connectors are used in routing.

I'm also assembling a list of labs to complete before I take the exam, and I plan to focus on the troubleshooting aspects of all these technologies. I find that, in a lab situation it's easy to follow along and configure the equipment and then step back and say "Yep, it works. Now I'm an expert." Fact of the matter is, when I get into the office every day I rarely have the opportunity to set up a new enterprise routing topology. Normally I get the call that says "my network is slow" or "why can't I connect to eBay?" Knowing how to set these things up at that point is good because with no foundation it is impossible to troubleshoot, but more importantly to me is the ability to look at a configured system and figure out why it's broken or misbehaving.

So my plan for tomorrow is to take a full practice exam and figure out where I need additional work. I already know that IPSec is something I need a refresher on, and I want to lab the routing protocols and L2 protocols to death. Anyone with some experience who could tell me what else to focus on for the exam that would like to offer pointers or comments would be much appreciated.