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.

Now What ?

So it’s been nearly 30 days since my first CCIE voice lab attempt and I’m soon able to take a re-sit. So where am I and what have I been doing ?

Well contrary to popular wisdom of throwing back into the books and finding where I went wrong, over analysing my mistakes and generally fretting about a re-sit, I had a holiday! And thus we go slightly off-topic. I played golf (well hit a golf ball around most of a golf course) for the first time in 20 years, thanks to my two best friends in the world – nothing better for dismissing a score report, which turned up as I was entering the first tee (as I knew what it said – I wasn’t going to let it spoil my day – although three days later when I had a look it did read better than I had expected!), than creaming a little white ball 200 yards down the middle of the fairway (I like to think that’s what I did – the reality was more 50 yards and very left or right!). I (with family of course) went to Port Douglas in Far North Queensland where I swam with turtles here.

We also got to see some really live and wild crocodiles too! He’s 3 metres in length and eating a mud crab claw!

The rest of the holiday was a celebration for my parents’ 40th wedding anniversary and my Dad’s 60th birthday – so much merriment occurred.

I also did do some study – it' just eats at you when you know there were things in the exam that you should have known and didn’t, so I now understand how to configure some of the things I didn’t expect to see (see I broke rule number 1 – expect everything to be there!), and I already feel that I have filled in some of those tiny cracks that will better prepare me for next time.

I have been struggling with flu-like symptoms since I’ve returned so I haven’t touch a router or phone in anger since the exam. I’m now looking at dates in June for Brussels – there seem to be plenty towards the back half of the month. I will have that booked shortly and we’ll go again, after all very few people pass first time do they!

Yes I knew the way!

My trip to San Jose for the IPExpert boot camp last week gave me my first taste of California. So on the two down days I had (Sunday and Saturday at either end of the trip), I had a look around San Francisco.

First however – how do you get to San Jose from SFO – easy, just jump into a shared van at the airport and then go on a geeky magical mystery tour until you get to your hotel. Travelling down the highway into Silicon Valley you see all the names of the places where those big companies you know the names of, and some other places that you go “oooh, I didn't know that was there!” (at least as a geeky Brit on their first trip anyway!) Mountain View, Cupertino, Moffett Field, Palo Alto. Hmmm!

If you are ever in San Jose, check out Gordon Birsch for a beer and a meal , a fine pint (or 3) of the seasonal bock, and a good feed – and thus ended my travelling day 26 hours after I woke up.

Awake at 4:30 hmm isn't US TV poor at this time of the morning – breakfast – UK football streamed over the internet, then time to catch the train to San Francisco. Firstly the San Jose VTA light rail to San Jose Diridon for the CalTrain to San Francisco – on time – nice! (Although given how short the change time was should have gone the opposite direction from Metro to Mountain View which is what I did on the way back) The fast train (baby bullet!) gets from San Jose to San Francisco in just about an hour (the stopper takes 1 and 1/2 hours!) and I managed to make it. Just! I’d decided to take an open-topped bus tour, but I had forgotten my coat, and it was colder than anticipated. I can however recommend it as the best way to see everything if you are very time limited (just don’t get off the bus unless there is really something you want to do!)  I had been looking forward to seeing the Golden Gate Bridge since I booked the trip – here it is!

That’s right – cloud arrived just before I did! So rather than get off I stayed on the bus and went over the bridge. It was much clearer on the northern side – but no photo of the whole bridge without any cloud. This is the best!

Down to Fisherman’s Wharf – fresh crab for lunch/dinner and then back to San Jose (CalTrain, VTA etc.). Back to the hotel in time to get a good night’s sleep before the course started.

Introduction

I guess an introductory post is always a good idea for a new blog, so here's a little about me.

I'm a UK based contact centre consultant who specialises in the design and build of IP contact centres using Cisco products. This include Unified Communcations Manager (CallManager) and (usually) Unified Contact Center Enterprise (UCCE).

I've been doing this since 2002 when I was involved in the design and build of a large contact centre for a UK retailer which grew to a significant size with centres in various locations including South Africa and India. This managed to cover not just Cisco IPT, but Nortel Symposium and Avaya integrations. I've been involved in the design and imlementation of a few IPT and IPCC systems since then.

I am a bit of an early adopter, and like my tech to come with a beta tag, not in a production environment of course!

In my spare time (what spare time!) I follow Everton in the English Premiership, and have an affection for photography (or at least I have the kit!).

Anyway enough of an intro, I'm sure more will come out in time.