CCIE attempt #2–Brussels

Back in April, I had a second attempt at the CCIE voice lab. It had been nearly a year, so I had to take it otherwise I’d have to re-sit the written as well. I had a very accelerated period of practice leading up to the exam. Not enough, obviously! I know where I went wrong. A single typographical error played a big part in my downfall as it caused me to waste a lot of time very early on things that I can do in my sleep. (Type the correct IP address and things work much better!)

So what can I say within the bounds of NDA. Again it was a fair test, everything I came up against was something I would expect to know. Brussels lab is much nicer than Sydney. The lunch is much better value 1500USD + VAT for up to three courses, with steak and chips as an option, is much better than a sandwich. I had no need to ask the proctor for clarification this time, but he was friendly and looked after us. There were a few first-time R&S guys doing the exam along with one other voice person. I was one of the last to leave, so I don’t know how anyone else felt they went.

Would I have passed if I’d had more time? I think if I had another hour I would have been very close. Do I think I’ll do it next time ? Well you never know, the average is around the 3 attempt mark, so its quite possible.

I stayed at the Van Der Valk Brussels Airport Hotel. It is a very good hotel, at a reasonable rate and its no more than 5-10 minutes walk for CCIE Central. The shuttle bus was at the airport when I arrived, and took me back after the exam (I walked back to the hotel and jumped on). The restaurant food was excellent, and breakfast was also a good buffet. The in-room free Wi-Fi was good enough for me to have a Skype video call with my wife (it is rate-limited at 256kbps up/downstream). If you want faster, you can pay, but for what I wanted to do (Skype & BBC radio via my home VPN) it worked fine.

So when’s the next attempt (as you can tell it’s now June). Well as a self-funded independent consultant, I have been having a little market-forced rest & relaxation, which seems now to be over (hopefully!). So I’ll be looking at how my schedule will be going with clients, and then it’s back to Brussels.

Until then….

Where have I been ?

As many a person will have done, I looked at my blog today and thought – has it been that long since I posted anything! I then went back through my draft blogs and found a couple that I had written (in August last year!) and thought – I’m sure I published them. Turns out I hadn’t, so today I did. Sorry they are a little late!

I have since stopped working in the City of London. and have been working for clients in such places as Reading, Scotland and Somerset, mostly home-based. This meant that I haven’t been commuting by train (where I did most of my blog writing), or at all! This has meant working on designs for CUCM 8.6 and doing lab implementations of the new features including SAF, Cross-cluster extension mobility and Single Sign-on. I should really blog about my experiences with those beasts.

I also decided to update the template for the blog, removing & shift around the layout of the blog, hopefully making it feel a little fresher.


I have also had a second attempt at my CCIE voice lab in Brussels, there’s another blog post right there. Looks like I’d better get writing!

CCIE Update–It’s A Winter Sport

NOTE: This post was originally written Aug 2011

It’s been a while since I updated this blog, so I thought I’d post a quick update on my CCIE lack of progress. The weather at the weekends has been really very good since May on the whole, and I’ve been unable to remove myself from having a good time riding my bicycle at the weekend. I’m not the fittest of people, but combined with riding “Boris Bikes” in the week and “long” 20-30km rides at the weekend, I think I’m getting there. This combined with the usual summer social life means I haven't had the spare time to focus on what I need to do for the lab. So I’ve decided to call it a winter sport and will pick up again and crate time when they days are shorter and the nights longer. My study location is nice and warm in winter, but just a bit too warm at the moment for long periods in there! I’m not throwing in the towel completely, I’ll continue to read and keep my knowledge up with VoDs and the like on my daily commute. So until the winter then….

To 3 or not to 3–a mobile dilemma

NOTE: This post was originally written Aug 2011


As a long time Vodafone UK customer (10+ years), I have had many contracts and been mostly happy with there network coverage, which can be a little patchy on my train journey home. I had a long-running billing issue with them which was eventually sorted out and on the whole their customer service has been excellent when I’ve needed to use it. But there is one thing that really annoys me – and that is their data policy.
Just over two years ago when I got my Vodafone (HTC) Magic, as I wrote about here, Vodafone were giving “Unlimited” data packages, and I’d signed up for a two year contract. The “Unlimited” actually meant 500MB, but with no penalty for going over this. About halfway through the contract, Vodafone moved this from “Unlimited” to capped, and enforced the 500MB limit with charging beyond that. This didn’t go down well. I’m not a heavy data user, but that is as much to do with my network coverage at the time I would use data, i.e. on my daily commute from London to Bicester – most other times I’ll be on Wi-Fi, or using my phone as a phone!

Recently I upgraded one of my contracts to get a Samsung Nexus S – and it is by far the best smartphone I have ever owned (best phone award still goes to the Nokia 6310i for its battery longevity and the fact it just kept making calls). However it being a powerful smartphone means that I’m using my applications on it and more data. When I went to Australia earlier this year I put a Telstra PAYG SIM in it and it worked flawlessly. So this got me thinking. My Magic is now out of contract – and I don’t see a need for a new phone until the next Nexus comes out. So I thought lets give the 3 network a try – they are forever advertising their “all you can eat data” packages, which they also do on PAYG. This meant I could just get a SIM for £2 (or free from their website I think!), register it and try it out.

First impressions were not good – I put the SIM in the Nexus S and waited for it to register on the network (I was in the office of my current client, where I spend roughly 8 hours a day 5 days a week – so quite important that it works in here – and it is a bit of a black spot for some mobile networks) – eventually it found a trace single and registered – I know this because when I called the number I was initially getting Number Unobtainable, and finally I got to my new voicemail box, but never did my phone ring – it did get the occasional welcome SMS, but not all of them. So I went outside – and that finished the job – all set up now. My Magic had my Vodafone SIM so that I could make/receive calls, so I wasn’t completely cut off. One nice surprise was that once I’d registered on the my3 website, I got a few £10 + 150MB data credit – this’ll allow me to test them out for £2 I thought.

Saturday, I was working in the office and decided to stay with the 3 network for the day. Once on the train while sat at the station I ran a Speedtest and got a very respectable 3Mbps down/2Mbps up and thought this is nice. So once on the train I set up the phone in wireless tether mode and used the internet lightly (Google services) all the way into London with negligible issues (tunnels are a problem for all networks!) Back in the office  – again not much signal, however the odd thing is that 3G data still seem to work, although only intermittently, voice/SMS was right out of luck. However, for the big test on the way home, I again went to wireless tether mode and fired up Test Match Special via BBC iPlayer, i.e. live streamed radio, and I listened to the England v India Test Match all the way home – once very happy commute I’ll say!

Sunday, long (by my standards) bicycle ride, network coverage seemed fine – 3G when I needed it for maps, MMS etc. Ok, lets forward all calls from my Magic to my 3 SIM.
Monday, true test – no Vodafone SIM in hand off to work. I didn’t receive any calls all day, nor could I make any while in the office. I missed at least 3 calls I should have been able to take and when I went outside I had to reboot my phone for it to be able to place calls. I think you know where this is going.
So today I am back with my Vodafone SIM, my 500Mb data plan and not listening to streaming media on my commute. Would I recommend the 3 network – well if you live in a tent and don’t work in an office in the City of London or you don’t need to make and receive phone calls then yes! Their data coverage is excellent and at £15 on PAYG for a month of unlimited data its hard to go wrong. But if you want to make and receive calls, then go to someone else.

Update May 31 2012:

I have not used the three SIM since – however it did prove useful for my Mum when she was over here from Australia recently and needed a UK SIM for her mobile. It worked flawlessly for phone calls and texts, she had no need for data.

I am also now using a Samsung Galaxy Nexus as my primary phone, but that’s a different blog post.