Today we started off class with Narbik excitingly diving into what he humorously referred to as “bad ass networking topologies” and it certainly didn’t disappoint. We looked at OSPF from conceivable angle and then tackled the inconceivable ones. While I may have felt at one point or another in my life that I understood OSPF, I am now convinced that someone should have handed me some crayons and safety scissors to match my elementary knowledge level. Good news, however, there is some serious leveling up going on.
I could feel the brain cells clicking when we looked at topologies that weren’t just examples of “stupid router tricks” but instead were excellent demonstrations of how the protocol responded under given conditions and caveats. Being able to see the problems while configuring the CLI definitely drove concepts home for me.
One of the best quotes today was Narbik saying “if Cisco says something is not supported, it becomes a puzzle for me.” This kind of attitude makes good engineers and great teachers. I’m certainly feeling the challenge this week of the vast amount of knowledge I have yet to master, but am encouraged to see that I seem to have a knack for the troubleshooting questions. Which is definitely good because Narbik also said “I looked at this switch and I asked myself what is everything that could possibly go wrong in this switch, and then I created your troubleshooting homework from that.” Yep, we are *way* passed kindergarten.
Time for sleep now, grateful there is at least a little rest for the weary.
Published 5/5/2014
And a bonus command for readers today – and I cannot believe I have never seen this before today – you can speed up your traceroutes by using the numeric keyword. This keeps it from having to waiting on DNS resolution. It’s the best thing since sliced bread, and who doesn’t like sliced bread?
R1#traceroute 1.1.1.1 ?
numeric display numeric address
port specify port number
probe specify number of probes per hop
source specify source address or name
timeout specify time out
ttl specify minimum and maximum ttl
Disclaimer: While Eman and CCIE Flyer were very generous to grant me a seat in this class and I am very grateful for it, my opinions are totally my own, as all redheads are far too stubborn to have it any other way.
Amy Engineer 
Back in the 2007/2008, Narbik’s OSPF lecture changed how I think about complex technologies. I learned that any technology can be broken down by the right teacher. I also learned how important it is to truly understand something before attempting to teach it to someone else. That lecture is still a vivid memory.
I had a similar experience in Jeremy Filliben’s CCDE bootcamp in 2013 when he lectured on multicast. I walked away with a completely different (and far more correct) understanding of how multicast trees are built. My comprehension of the technology changed.
There are some amazing people in our industry.
I totally agree! It’s amazing what a really great teacher can bring to the table, seeing things I had not even considered before. Love the energy and excitement factor as well. Can’t beat that.
i think wordpress is playing me, i posted before as Vignesh. Keep up the great work, Amy. Narbik is an awesome teacher, i have learnt quite a bit from him. You sure are a great writer!
Thanks for the compliment on my writing!! I’m having a blast in the class!
I use ‘numeric’ all the time. You can also use it on *nix, osx, and windows to speed up those traceroutes