Internetwork Expert’s Open Lecture Series
Posted by jrensink78 on April 4, 2009
Recently I started checking out IE’s Open Lecture series. These are instructional videos that typically deal with a subset of a certain technology. For some reason, I never really watched these before. But now, I’m hooked on them.
Basically, these videos are the next step beyond the Advanced Technologies Class (ATC) in terms of depth. Often they focus on the less understood facets of different technologies. The videos take a deep dive in terms of not only how to configure things, but more importantly how to verify and troubleshoot issues surrounding the technologies. For instance, there is a great multicast series that focuses on how to track down issues with RPF failures, dealing with hub and spoke frame relay, and troubleshooting sparse mode joins and RP discovery. It goes beyond the meat and potatoes theory/config of the ATC to getting “lab ready” on the given topics.
When they first came out with these, IE was releasing 2-3 per week. Now it’s cooled off to 1-2 per week. But they have a lot of stuff out there to go through at this point. Also, if you purchase the “instructor led” version of CCIE 2.0, you can attend the classes live and ask questions. Personally, I’d rather save the $1000 and just ask questions in the forums. But to each their own.
So to those of you out there considering IE’s CCIE 2.0 package, the Open Lecture Series is definitely a valueable part of the package. It can really take you to the next level.
