July 2008 Archives

I've been a "quasi-apple fan" for years...When they came out with the MacBook Pro, I bought the 17" giganto-screen model and have been using it to configure Cisco devices ever since. Recently, I was at a client site...he pulled out an old Dell X200 12" laptop to configure a Cisco router. I suddenly found myself being jealous over a thin laptop (2.9 pounds) that cost 1/10th what my behemoth MacBook did. I'm thinking I'll hit Ebay to pick one of these up for a couple hundred bucks (they're older), but before I do...does anyone know of a better super-thin, small, lightweight laptop to use for base Cisco configs? Nothing fancy, just needs to run a terminal window.

I thought this might start a good thread for "Cool ultra-portable Cisco-configuration laptops" everyone (including me) can use.

UPDATE: I've settled on the Dell D400 since it has a built-in serial port.

Someone showed me a great feature today. One of the constant pains in the network is when you get a port err-disabled on the switch. Regardless of how many times I see it, it always seems to be the last thing I check. There's a little-known feature in the IOS called "err-disable recovery" which automatically turns a err-disabled switchport back on after 5 minutes (by default). The good news is that this command allows you to choose specific reasons where you'd like to re-enable the port, such as re-enabling ports disabled because of a port-flap instance but keeping mac-address security violations error disabled. Here's the syntax to make it happen:

These were rumored at the end of last year...looks like they have finally arrived! VUE Testing enhancements:

• Photo on Score Report and Web - On completion of a certification exam at the test center, candidates will receive preliminary score reports imprinted with their photos and unique authentication codes. The authentication code can be used to access a candidate's official score online at Pearson VUE's website usually within 72 hours of the examination. The online score report will also display the candidate's photo. Candidates may share access to their online records with employers or other third parties.

• Forensic Analysis - Exam results and other testing data will be continuously analyzed by forensic software to detect aberrant testing behavior and to flag suspect exams for further investigation.

• Preliminary Score Report - All paper score reports will be preliminary, pending the results of forensic analysis, until official exam scores are posted to the Web usually within 72 hours of exam completion. Once the exam scores are official, candidates may use the authentication codes on their score reports to access the Pearson VUE website for score and photo verification.

That "Forensic Analysis" section looks pretty interesting. I wonder if they're looking for the TestKing brain dump-style tests? I'm very curious!!!

Here's another great blog/website resource to add to your list:

http://www.packetlife.net

The site is well organized into interesting sections. I especially like the cheat sheet (for technology, not exams) and Network Monitoring / Utilities categories.

Pretty cool article talking about using kron jobs on a Cisco router to schedule periodic configuration backups.

http://supportwiki.cisco.com/ViewWiki/index.php/Tech_Insights:Periodical_Configuration_Save_of_Cisco_Devices

Alright, this afternoon I took the CCNA Voice exam (aka Implementing Cisco IOS Unified Communications, 640-460). While I completely loathe brain dumps, I am all for getting a good idea of focus areas and the general feel for the exam, so that's what I'll give you here.