The ambiguous first post…

Taking a page from a few others that I have been following I have decided to start a blog to document my journeys along my way to gaining a set of the coveted CCIE digits.

Just to add a little back-story my name is David Rothera and I’m 21 from Leeds, England.

I have been working in the network support world for the last 2(ish) years working for a network service provider in Harrogate, England. Whilst working for them I have had experience of all kinds of Cisco hardware ranging from little 837’s right up to the 7609 monsters.

When I started at the company my only knowledge of networking was that of being able to set up a simple home network, everything else was a mystery to me.

Shortly after starting my position I could feel myself being pulled more and more down the dark path that was Cisco (compared to the other path that would have been the server support side of things) and that is where my story starts I suppose.

Back in October 2008 (around 2 months after starting the job) I completed the first part of my CCNA (ICND1) and started to work towards my ICND2 which actually took until June ’10 complete. This was not because I couldn’t complete it, it was more that I had put the certification track on the back burner.

I am currently studying towards the first part of the CCNP (the new track of ROUTE/SWITCH/TSHOOT) and aim to hopefully have it complete by the end of the year (yes this is quite ambitious but hey, you have to have goals right!?).

I will be using this blog as a way of posting things that I have learned whilst studying, posting labs and generally talking about the certifications.