ccnp switch... passed today...

that was an arduous six months... the best part of it all is that ccna has been extended  three years for me and i will officially never have to take the ccna exam again... thank God...

i often hear about people who allow their ccna to lapse... that is a sin... like starting all over again in beginners...  who wants to doggy paddle again after learning to swim... argghhh...

although i started route towards the end, it is nice to know that i can now dive in head first without a twinge of guilt...

what i used:
the ocg, of course, and used that to create a bunch of anki decks that included, glossary, key topics, diagrams, tables, do i know this already, etc. anki is invaluable...

i've recently been checking out freemind lately, seems like a lot of work, but worth the effort... any active studying is good studying...

also:
paul browning, switch simplified; chris bryant, ccnp switch (great mp3's that i played every day on the way to work); of course cisco.com and cln, and anybody's site out there...

and my lab... ahhh my lab...

countless hours on the lab... there is no other way at the professional level... build em, tear em down, troubleshoot em, and do it again... create your own break/fix... test the limits of the commands and interfaces, any scenario... and i highly recommend the net academy switch lab book from cisco press...  learn to do it the cisco way or the highway... it's part of the drill...

i've also  looked into jncia...  if you like unix, you will love junos...

below is a diagram from a friend (nuno) who has been putting ospf into freemind... you need to use this...