Author Archive
July 14th, 2009 by Ivan Pepelnjak
Fifteen years ago, the focus of the “true” service provider was on voice traffic and data offerings based on virtual circuits, implemented with a plethora of semi-compatible technologies slowly developed within the ITU organization: X.25, ISDN, Frame Relay and the all-encompassing ATM.
In the meantime, some relatively small companies (including Cisco, ...
Posted in WiMAX, wireless | 1 Comment »
June 30th, 2009 by Ivan Pepelnjak
Are you fluent in the MPLS VPN, VPLS, EoMPLS, IPTV, VoIP, IPv6 and Data Center and mobility technologies? Unless you’ve passed your CCIE SP lab exam last week, the answer is probably no. But even more important, do you know how to use them in your Service Provider network to ...
Posted in Data Center, IPv6, MPLS, New Products and Services, Training, VPLS, VPN, VoIP | 1 Comment »
March 31st, 2009 by Ivan Pepelnjak
The high-end books published by Cisco Press are usually pretty good, but every now and then they manage to produce a masterpiece that has all the potential to become a legend. The “IPv6 Security” book by Scott Hogg and Eric Vyncke is definitely in this category and is a must-read ...
Posted in Book reviews, IPv6, Security | No Comments »
February 12th, 2009 by Ivan Pepelnjak
Anyone who has ever had the "privilege" of interviewing a certified individual with purely theoretical knowledge appreciates the value of hands-on tests. The creators of certifications in the IT industry (including Cisco Systems) have responded by including more and more hands-on exercises in the certification exams. Unfortunately, Cisco decided not ...
Posted in Certification, Remote Lab Exercises, Training | 1 Comment »
February 3rd, 2009 by Ivan Pepelnjak
Readers who commented on some of my previous certification-related posts have complained about the vagueness of exam questions. I have to agree with them; I've seen my fair share of dubious questions in the exams I've taken. For example, when I was developing EIGRP and BGP courses for Cisco, my ...
Posted in Certification, Training | 1 Comment »
January 27th, 2009 by Ivan Pepelnjak
Recently, on an IPSec-based customer network, NIL installed one of the brand new platforms introduced by Cisco Systems. The initial software release had memory leaks (no problem, we all know these things happen), so we upgraded the box to the latest software. It works perfectly ... until you reload it. ...
Posted in EEM, IPsec, Tcl, Technical | No Comments »
December 24th, 2008 by Ivan Pepelnjak
Brain dumps are the biggest threat to the certification industry these days, significantly devaluing certifications that rely primarily on multiple-choice answers. Similarly to the threat-prevention measures adopted by airport security (read the insightful analysis of their behavior from Bruce Schneier, a renowned security guru), IT vendors are responding with high-tech ...
Posted in Certification, Training | 5 Comments »
December 19th, 2008 by Ivan Pepelnjak
Numerous companies use certifications to screen job candidates. Even if all the caveats associated with this process are given, you might encounter candidates who have multiple high-level certifications but cannot differentiate a router from a box of cheese. How can you identify (and reject) such people?
Posted in Certification, Training | 1 Comment »
December 16th, 2008 by Ivan Pepelnjak
My previous certification-related post described how some companies use certifications to filter job applicants for networking-related positions. Should you follow that example? If you're in a country with a saturated job market, where the number of applicants far exceeds the number of job postings (consider yourself very lucky if you're ...
Posted in Certification, Training | 3 Comments »
December 11th, 2008 by Ivan Pepelnjak
If you have been visited by a friendly Cisco sales engineer recently, you might have already heard about the ACE Web Application Firewall (WAF). If you're curious enough to start investigating on your own, you might have stumbled across the WAF product description on Cisco's Web site, which tells you ...
Posted in HTTP, IDS, Technical, WAF, firewall | No Comments »
