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Network geek w00tage

unharmed

unharmed

Iron Fishes
May 19, 2003
741
1
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London, England
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#1
Seeing as I've been posting a bit more regularly these days, I thought I'd go the whole hog and start my own asinine OT thread :)

I just passed the CVOICE (Cisco Voice Over IP) exam this afternoon after a fairly brief and troubled preparation (almost entirely my own fault). This means I am 1/3 of the way to achieving my VoIP Support Specialisation. I know there are a few network-type geeks out there who will know what I'm talking about :D

Then I went and bought Josquin Des Pres' "Bass Fitness" book. Double w00t!

:D :bassist: :hyper:
 
#2
unharmed said:
Seeing as I've been posting a bit more regularly these days, I thought I'd go the whole hog and start my own asinine OT thread :)

I just passed the CVOICE (Cisco Voice Over IP) exam this afternoon after a fairly brief and troubled preparation (almost entirely my own fault). This means I am 1/3 of the way to achieving my VoIP Support Specialisation. I know there are a few network-type geeks out there who will know what I'm talking about :D

Then I went and bought Josquin Des Pres' "Bass Fitness" book. Double w00t!

:bassist: :hyper:
Click to expand...

Cool! Congrats! :)

I´m right now pursuing the CCNP.

Have fun and good luck!

B.t.w. I work in the largest hospital here in Iceland and including it there is only one other large company in the world which has completely moved over to VoIP.

We installed Cisco VoIP system in 2002 and I basically worked for a whole year in that project! Fun stuff!
 
#3
Very cool. Good luck with your NP. How far through it are you?

I've recently been working with a product called Broadworks which is a SIP-based softswitch. It has been bought by two tier-1 carriers over in this part of the world to form the base of an IP Centrex offering. One of them has recently sold their service to a large bank in the order of 30,000 handsets. I've been doing some work on that project but not that much. Mainly I have been dealing with faults raised by the carriers during their roll-outs. A bit of design works as well.

The company I work for has quite a few clients who have or are in the process of rolling out VoIP solutions. Exclusively Cisco Call Manager based apart from my team unfortunately.

Thanks again :)

Ben



Ívar Þórólfsson said:
Cool! Congrats! :)

I´m right now pursuing the CCNP.

Have fun and good luck!

B.t.w. I work in the largest hospital here in Iceland and including it there is only one other large company in the world which has completely moved over to VoIP.

We installed Cisco VoIP system in 2002 and I basically worked for a whole year in that project! Fun stuff!
Click to expand...
 
#4
Cool!

We provide VOIP and Voice over ATM services. We interface with a lot of Cisco Call Managers. They are getting better but still have a ways to go in terms of QoS. People are justifiably reluctant to jump into new and more efficient technology at the risk of inferior voice quality. We have some very unhappy customers using Cisco's VOIP boxes.

Anyway, voice/data convergence is here to stay. One day we'll get rid of all those legacy TDM switches in our network. It's going to be a while though...
 
#6
Definitely. I count myself fortunate that I don't have to deal with them very much :)
We are a Cisco gold partner so pretty much any solution that we design and sell is going to be based around Call Manager except the stuff my team works on. A little island of scalability and reliability in a sea of proprietary signaling protocols :D

There is definitely a lot of trepidation around VoIP. In the Australian market it's pretty important for the 30,000 handset project I mentioned before to go smoothly to produce a knock-on effect for other companies.

Thanks and good luck :)


baba said:
Cool!

We provide VOIP and Voice over ATM services. We interface with a lot of Cisco Call Managers. They are getting better but still have a ways to go in terms of QoS. People are justifiably reluctant to jump into new and more efficient technology at the risk of inferior voice quality. We have some very unhappy customers using Cisco's VOIP boxes.

Anyway, voice/data convergence is here to stay. One day we'll get rid of all those legacy TDM switches in our network. It's going to be a while though...
Click to expand...
 
#11
They're not too bad as long as you know the material pretty well. Cisco like to use deliberately ambiguous and misleading questions to try and trip you up. They don't just try to see if you know the right answer, they actively try and make you choose the wrong answer.
A typical Cisco question will have four answers for you to choose from. Two answers will be right and two will be wrong but one of these will be 'more' right than the other.

IME, the MCSE and the CCNA (and probably all other, entry-level certs) are pretty well completely commoditised by now. CCNP is heading that way and even CCIE is not such a huge deal these days. Still worth pursuing but you have to do more to differentiate yourself now.

Best of luck with your certs/career.


Im a sock said:
Cool beans. From what I've heard the cisco exams are tough. I'm just starting out (taking my A+ and Network+ exams soon...), but I think I'm gonna concentrate on an MSCE after I get these two under my belt.
Click to expand...
 
#12
Im a sock said:
Cool beans. From what I've heard the cisco exams are tough. I'm just starting out (taking my A+ and Network+ exams soon...), but I think I'm gonna concentrate on an MSCE after I get these two under my belt.
Click to expand...

I'm not downplaying you or anything, but A+ and MSCE certs aren't really a big deal. Get them if you can, but don't waste tons of money on it...I'd dedicate resources to the other stuff.

Unless you find some admin job where it's a requirement, I'd think about going after the other stuff first. Most knowledgable IT people will tell you that MSCE/A+ aren't required or necessary. If you can get through the Ciscos, IT people are going to know you can handle the other stuff.
 
#13
The little red dog has a point. I know that when I review CVs, I place little significance on the CompTIA certs. An MCSE, although it bears no relevance for the positions I've hired for, at least shows me somebody has the basic discipline and intelligence to sit down and pass two dozen exams or whatever it is now ;)


GoneFarAway said:
I'm not downplaying you or anything, but A+ and MSCE certs aren't really a big deal. Get them if you can, but don't waste tons of money on it...I'd dedicate resources to the other stuff.

Unless you find some admin job where it's a requirement, I'd think about going after the other stuff first. Most knowledgable IT people will tell you that MSCE/A+ aren't required or necessary. If you can get through the Ciscos, IT people are going to know you can handle the other stuff.
Click to expand...
 
#14
well im a telecommunications tech (woooo..big name :p ) and i do mainly the cabling side cat5, cat6, optic fibre, lead in's, phone cabling, phone systems and i find it rather fun.....never in the same place, always a good perv at work sites :smug: , the only bad thing is getting in roof spaces in the middle of summer...in under 5 minutes you're dripping wet with sweat and covered in itchy insulation...but its all good
 
#15
Cable-monkey, yeah! :bassist:


heath_the_great said:
well im a telecommunications tech (woooo..big name :p ) and i do mainly the cabling side cat5, cat6, optic fibre, lead in's, phone cabling, phone systems and i find it rather fun.....never in the same place, always a good perv at work sites :smug: , the only bad thing is getting in roof spaces in the middle of summer...in under 5 minutes you're dripping wet with sweat and covered in itchy insulation...but its all good
Click to expand...
 

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