From: Gary Duncanson (gary.duncanson@googlemail.com)
Date: Sun Sep 02 2007 - 07:42:08 ART
I'm comfortable with my home lab for the moment. I work fulltime and study 
in the evenings. I find my rack of old equipment plus a couple of 3550's 
serves most of my needs and it's paid for.  For the rest I use remote racks 
and usually don't have a problem getting the slot I want.
I do wonder if setting all the dynamips stuff up would be a royal pain in 
the ass. I will however set one up in due course as I like the laptop idea 
when you are on the move or in hotels (internet charges in those places are 
not pretty).
Regards
Gary
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Scott Vermillion" <scott_ccie_list@it-ag.com>
To: "Cisco certification" <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2007 6:05 PM
Subject: RE: Dynagen folks...
> Scott,
>
> I will ask of you the same thing I asked of Joe:
>
> Please be specific on what you can do w/ a stack of e-bay routers that
> you cannot do in Dynamips *that matters in the lab.*  I'm honestly
> interested in hearing from people on that issue.
>
> I agree that there is a time investment to get this set up.  And a $$
> investment in the real switches.  But I have now have 24/7 access to a
> full "rack" and I don't have to schedule anything with anybody.  For
> those of us who remove ourselves from the working world while we prepare
> for the lab, this can actually be a cost savings (every day that goes by
> is a day I can't bill any clients for my time, so the more intense I am
> about this, the sooner I get back in the money).
>
> Regards,
>
> Scott
>
>  -------- Original Message --------
>  Subject: RE: Dynagen folks...
>  From: "Scott Morris" <smorris@ipexpert.com>
>  Date: Sat, September 01, 2007 5:48 am
>  To: "'darth router'" <darklordrouter@gmail.com>,  "'Scott
>  Vermillion'"
>  <scott_ccie_list@it-ag.com>
>  Cc: "'Cisco certification'" <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
>
>  And the self-handling have no risk of STD. ;)
>
>  Anyway, there are some subtle things that cannot be done on a
>  virtualized
>  devices. There is a LOT of time to be spent in order to get a full
>  system
>  setup and integrated with real switches in order to get the full
>  flavor of
>  actual equipment/lab.
>
>  However, it's a bit cheaper to go virtual! Either way, virtual stuff
>  isn't
>  a substitute for real equipment, but I don't think it would add up to
>  someone failing because they just did Dynamips. Unless of course,
>  they did
>  Dynampis exclusively on routers and virtualized ethernet connections
>  without
>  touching ANY switches. Then there would be a significant number of
>  points
>  lost and likely unable to recover enough to pass.
>
>  Worst case, do most of the L3 'n' up studies on Dynamips.... Go rent
>  some
>  rack time and concentrate on the L2/ethernet side of things. Problem
>  solved, money saved.
>
>  Ya know there's a holiday for your parenthetical analogy there....
>  Palm
>  Sunday. ;)
>
>  Scott Morris, CCIE4 (R&S/ISP-Dial/Security/Service Provider) #4713,
>  JNCIE
>  #153, CISSP, et al.
>  CCSI/JNCI-M/JNCI-J
>  VP - Technical Training - IPexpert, Inc.
>  IPexpert Sr. Technical Instructor
>
>  A Cisco Learning Partner - We Accept Learning Credits!
>
>  smorris@ipexpert.com
>
>  Telephone: +1.810.326.1444
>  Fax: +1.810.454.0130
>  http://www.ipexpert.com
>
>  -----Original Message-----
>  From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf
>  Of
>  darth router
>  Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2007 3:04 AM
>  To: Scott Vermillion
>  Cc: Cisco certification
>  Subject: Re: Dynagen folks...
>
>  You guys are going it all wrong. You have to fight analogy with
>  analogy.
>
>  (Even if you arent a virgin, sometimes you would just rather whack
>  off) =
>  DYNAMIPS!
>
>  I had a full CCIE lab, sold it, recouped money, and dynamips is much
>  much
>  more efficient as far as building topologies and changing things.
>
>  bwahahahhaha!
>
>  On 9/1/07, Scott Vermillion <scott_ccie_list@it-ag.com> wrote:
>  >
>  > I'll take this a step further Joe (and maybe you have a good
>  answer, I
>  > don't presuppose with any degree of certainty, but I can suspect):
>  >
>  > Other than some of the text that flies by during the boot sequence,
>  if
>  > the Brians secretly redirected you to a rack where the routers were
>  > all Dynamips instances (excepting the ISR, which Dynagen does not
>  > emulate as of this time), how would you know they had done that,
>  > exactly? Would it be the "feel" perhaps? The "force" maybe?
>  >
>  > I'll tell you one way you might notice: I can boot a router
>  instance
>  > on this Mac Mini in a matter of a few seconds! I get "press return
>  to
>  > get started" in a very small fraction of the time I do when booting
>  a
>  > hardware router. Other than that and the aforementioned text thing,
>  > I'm not sure how you'd ever even know sitting from afar?
>  >
>  > -------- Original Message --------
>  > Subject: RE: Dynagen folks...
>  > From: Scott Vermillion <scott_ccie_list@it-ag.com>
>  > Date: Fri, August 31, 2007 10:38 pm
>  > To: Cisco certification <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
>  >
>  > I am a true Dynamips/Dynagen believer and have built my lab prep
>  > "rack"
>  > around it/them. Please explain, Joe, how I will fail the CCIE lab
>  > because of it ("nothing else can prepare you for the real thing")?
>  > What
>  > is it about that "feel" that makes the difference (can you go
>  "feel"
>  > the
>  > routers during the practical? Can you "feel" the routers in that
>  > remote
>  > rack?)?
>  >
>  > This has the potential to become the next "CCIE vs. college degree"
>  > topic, me thinks. It's probably not a very good use of bandwidth,
>  > come
>  > to think of it LOL, but I can't resist asking you to elaborate on
>  > these
>  > seemingly unfounded generalizations. I would prefer that you answer
>  > with
>  > "I have hardware routers and I also run Dynamips/Dynagen on a
>  machine
>  > of
>  > sufficient horsepower, and here are the things I can do on the
>  former
>  > that I can't do on the latter *that matter in the lab* (i.e. don't
>  > tell
>  > me about toggling the power switch...yawn...you can't do that in
>  the
>  > lab
>  > anyway by all accounts I've ever heard).
>  >
>  > I'll start, going the opposite direction:
>  >
>  > I run Dynamips/Dynagen on a machine of sufficient horsepower, and I
>  > can
>  > directly capture traffic from a router interface into a .cap file
>  and
>  > scrutinize every one and zero using open source WireShark. When I
>  > want
>  > to do that w/ physical routers, I have to use Ethernet (no serial)
>  > and
>  > set up a span port on a switch or put a hub in between the two
>  > routers,
>  > with a machine running WireShark hanging off of the hub (and I'm
>  > obviously in HDX at this point, which means the test environment is
>  > different than the non-test environment). Otherwise, I'm limited to
>  > only
>  > debug. I, of course, acknowledge that you're limited to only debug
>  in
>  > the lab, but in your preparation for the lab, it's powerful to have
>  > such
>  > a tool at your disposal so that you can truly understand what's
>  going
>  > on
>  > under the hood when you see certain debug output.
>  >
>  > BTW, I'm told Juniper has this capability to write .cap files on
>  > physical
>  > routers, but I cannot personall y verify. I have never heard of
>  such
>  > a
>  > capability on Cisco routers, but I'd love to be proven wrong.
>  >
>  > There are more, of course, but I've already stated many of them in
>  > other
>  > recent threads and posts...
>  >
>  > -------- Original Message --------
>  > Subject: Dynagen folks...
>  > From: "Joseph Brunner" <joe@affirmedsystems.com>
>  > Date: Fri, August 31, 2007 9:53 pm
>  > To: "'Cisco certification'" <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
>  >
>  > Nothing feels as good as the real thing. And else nothing can
>  prepare
>  > you
>  > for the real thing.
>  >
>  > (Remember if you only have had sex with a condom, your still a
>  > virgin, LOL)
>  >
>  > Check out the Brian's racks!
>  >
>  > http://www.affirmedsystems.com/photos/IERACKS.JPG
>  >
>  > Rack12R6#sh vers
>  >
>  > Cisco IOS Software, 2800 Software (C2800NM-ADVENTERPRISEK9-M),
>  > Version
>  > 12.4(13a), RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
>  >
>  > Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
>  >
>  > Copyright (c) 1986-2007 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
>  >
>  > Compiled Tue 06-Mar-07 17:01 by prod_rel_team
>  >
>  > ROM: System Bootstrap, Version 12.4(13r)T, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
>  >
>  > Rack12R6 uptime is 6 hours, 4 minutes
>  >
>  > System returned to ROM by power-on
>  >
>  > System image file is "flash:c2800nm-adventerprisek9-mz.124-13a.bin"
>  >
>  > This product contains cryptographic features and is subject to
>  > United
>  >
>  > States and local country laws governing import, export, transfer
>  and
>  >
>  > use. Delivery of Cisco cryptographic products does not imply
>  >
>  > third-party authority to import, export, distribute or use
>  > encryption.
>  >
>  > Importers, exporters, distributors and users are responsible for
>  >
>  > compliance with U.S. and local country laws. By using this product
>  > you
>  >
>  > agree to comply with applicable laws and regulations. If you are
>  > unable
>  >
>  > to comply with U.S. and local laws, return this product
>  immediately.
>  >
>  > A summary of U.S. laws governing Cisco cryptographic products may
>  be
>  > found
>  > at:
>  >
>  > http://www.cisco.com/wwl/export/crypto/tool/stqrg.html
>  >
>  > If you require further assistance please contact us by sending
>  email
>  > to
>  >
>  > export@cisco.com.
>  >
>  > Cisco 2811 (revision 53.50) with 196608K/65536K bytes of memory.
>  >
>  > Processor board ID FTX1101A1Z0
>  >
>  > 2 FastEthernet interfaces
>  >
>  > 1 Serial(sync/async) interface
>  >
>  > 1 Virtual Private Network (VPN) Module
>  >
>  > DRAM configuration is 64 bits wide with parity enabled.
>  >
>  > 239K bytes of non-volatile configuration memory.
>  >
>  > 253160K bytes of USB Flash usbflash1 (Read/Write)
>  >
>  > 62720K bytes of ATA CompactFlash (Read/Write)
>  >
>  > Configuration register is 0x2142 (will be 0x2102 at next reload)
>  >
>  >
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