Marshall Long, CCIE #20412

I started on this path by accident. I enrolled in a Written Boot camp in early 2005, with another company and was able to pass the written fairly easily. Then some of my co-workers recommended the Internetwork Expert End-to-End Program, and I went ahead and purchased the package. I spent many hours going through the classes. I found the classes both informative AND eye-opening. Although I have been working in the industry, designing and implementing networks for 12+ years, there was a LOT I was unfamiliar with. In the spring of 07, I set a stake in the ground to try to pass the lab in May. I went through several labs, and a mock lab from IE. The Mock Labs gave me a pretty fair indicator of what I still needed to work on. (...) I had practiced the techniques that the Brians promoted, I had been boning up on my services, and I passed with flying colors (Or at least an 80). (...) I liked all of the labs that I worked on, some more challenging than others. One that I think helped open my eyes to other possibilities (in Layer 3) was Lab 12. I liked how it had two separate routing AS's and they didn't get redistributed, but used BGP - I recommend that one to get a grip on routing protocol interaction. Thanks again for all of the assistance. I know I will always recommend Internetwork Expert to anyone looking to pass this test.