boson's tshoot simulator...

119 bucks... is it worth it...

that depends on you... it certainly helps you, you have to give it that... it can't hurt either but it cuts you off at the knees in a lot of areas, especially if you are practicing for speed... yes speed... unfortunately speed is a factor in this thing...

where it helps:

anything that forces you to train, helps... yes virginia, this is training and training is not always fun so suck it up...

you get better simply by forcing yourself to pinpoint problems...

you get better by determining solutions to said pinpointed problems using a limited command set...

where it sucks:

in the limited command set specifically...

no tracert from the pc...

no interface trunk... that's a big one... that is my go to command at l2...

no piping... another big time saver...

you end up using show run an awful lot, which isn't troubleshooting... show run is hunting and pecking... show run does not help you... 

but at least if they are going to make you rely on show run, make available show run interface... no show run interface...

face it, it's not real troubleshooting, it's a flash script... which makes me wary of the troubleshoot section in the ccie lab... if they (cisco) are going to use flash scripts for such an important test, they had better issue the limited command set that is supported on the test to the public ahead of time... anything less is dirty pool...

i cannot imagine sitting the ccie lab without benefit of piping... especially with the troubleshoot section which basically gives you ten minutes a ticket... gimme a friggin break here...

tshoot...

yesterday i got the boson ccnp tshoot exam simulator, and i'm fairly impressed... if you've taken a moment to look at cisco's tshoot demo here:

http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/le2/le37/le10/tshoot_demo.html

which you should, you will note the boson simulator has the look and feel of the demo... it is essentially constructed the same way, operates similarly...

for a little more than a hundred bucks you get about 30 multiple choice questions and 32 trouble tickets to work... screen shots below...

i am not disappointed...  some essential commands are missing, ie, tracert from the pc and show run interface from devices, etc, but you'll get over that...

i communicated with kelson today from boson (on cln) that i thought it'd be a great idea if they did something like this for the trouble ticket section of ccie r&s... cisco should have done something similar on their own before waiting on boson to jump in... o well...

so arteq, are you recommending this for me?

quite honestly, i don't give a shit what you do... i know when i started looking at cisco's demo that i wanted more from it as preparation for this kind of delivery... it is an unusual way to troubleshoot to be sure... using cisco's demo you can at the minimum familiarize yourself with the commands that will be available... i'd prefer real equipment to a simulated experience five ways from sunday, but it is what it is...  i'm guessing the trouble ticket section of the ccie r&s lab will have a similar feel...

i've read many people give short shrift to the tshoot exam, while i will take it no less seriously than switch and route...  you've done enough cisco exams by now to realize that scripted flash delivery simulation is not going away... 

i also have the net acad lab manual for tshoot en route...  i used net acad lab manual's for switch and route too, if you've been paying attention... i'll be posting about that soon...

for those of you who are in this simply to pass a test, then you are doing this for the wrong reason... don't let the door slam you in the ass on your way out...