Status Update: 14 – 20 January

Last week was a pretty good week.  I redid a couple of labs and watched a couple of the IEATC videos.  I don’t have a lot to report.  I think that redoing labs is a good idea, but I was surprised (and disappointed) that I fell for a couple of the same pitfalls the second time around.

I got a new laptop.  It has 2 Gigs of RAM and a duo-core CPU.  I loaded up the entire IE Dynamips lab.  The processor usage fluctuated between 60 – 90%.  I will try out a full-scale Volume III lab (minus some Layer 2 bits) this week to see if this laptop can handle the load.  I’m probably going to buy a CPU/Mobo combo for one of my desktops and drop Linux on it if this Windows laptop can’t handle the load.  I’ll probably end up buying the Dynamips version of the IE Volume II labs (only $99 because I already own the workbook – not sure if that’s $99 for each 10 lab installment or $99 for all 20 labs).  I really need to get cracking on more full-scale labs.  I am thinking about redoing a lab during the week (spread out over a couple of nights) and using the weekend for new labs.  I am probably going to do my first “mock lab” the weekend after this one.

Here are my goals from last week: 

Redo Volume II lab 3.  Redo Volume III lab 2.  Do 4 random labs from each of Volume I OSPF, EIGRP, RIP (12 total).

I managed to complete all of my goals this week.

Goals for this week:  Do Volume II lab 6.  Do Volume III lab 4.  Do 4 random labs from each of Volume I OSPF, EIGRP, RIP (12 total).

Days Until Lab:	131
Readiness (1 to 10):	2
Lab Hours This Week	20
Study Hours This Week (estimate):	2