I went and scheduled my written exam today for next Thursday. I wanted to get it in before the new changes go into effect. On Feb 17 the written test changes so that the scoring uses the same method as all of the other Cisco exams, and you lose the ability to go back to previous questions. I don’t think the scoring change will be a big deal, but being able to go back to previous questions is a big help. Sometimes later questions may help you answer earlier questions.
It’s not that I want to wuss out and take the easy path. But when compared to the lab, the written test seems like more of a formality. I think most would agree that the lab is the true measure of your skills. Plus there’s $350 on the line, which is nothing to sneeze at. So I’ll take whatever advantages that I can get (within the rules of course).
The answer to yesterday’s question “When configuring a RIP enabled interface as a passive interface, what is the end result?” is RIP will not send updates. This is something unique to RIP. You can stop RIP from sending updates on an interface with the passive-interface command. But there aren’t any commands designed to prevent RIP from receiving and processing updates on a RIP enabled interface.
There are a few methods that you can use on a router to stop RIP from processing the updates. You could use different methods for filtering the routes. You could block RIP traffic with an access list. You could enable authentication on the interface. One other option would be to use an offset list to poison the routes (push the metric to 16+). Depending on the requirements of your lab, some options will work better than others.
