CCIE Voice Candidates (Mainly those ever renting Voice vRacks from Proctor Labs)

UPDATE FOR ALL VPNs – PLEASE READ IF YOU USE Proctor Labs vRacks

Four things have been changed to give everyone a much better experience when renting Voice vRacks from Proctor Labs. I’ll list each of them briefly here, and then go into more detail on each one of them regarding what each enhancement means for you as well as what you need to do to take advantage of the new changes.

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Tags: ccie voice, hardware, IP Phones, Proctor Labs, VPN

Any of you who have been studying for your CCIE Voice for any time now, know the importance of having phones to test your calls with. In the past, with the v2 exam, this was not too much of a problem because of the wonderful product called IPBlue (the only SCCP-based softphone client on the market). With it you could test all of the needed calls, XML display functions such as Services, Softkeys, and Line appearances.

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Tags: ccie voice, Cisco

OK, the wait is finally over for the upgrade we have been promising.

Before I even get into the main announcement, I thought I should bring something else small to your attention. We just made a large investment in our server farm infrastructure, and have increased server performance by a factor of almost 6 times! For instance, the CUCM CallManager Service Parameter’s web page used to take around 60 seconds to load.

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Tags: 3.0 blueprint, CCIE, Load Lab Configs, Proctor Labs, Proctorlabs, v3, Voice, vRack

Many folks have requested the ability to be able to log into the Proctorlabs web UI and interact with a “demo” vRack before they purchase a rack session. It would give them the ability to “test-drive” our acclaimed web UI and easy-to-use controls before they purchase. Well in response to many requests, I have setup such a vRack for access.

Starting out with Voice v3 vRacks, we now have a permanent demo vRack that can be logged into at any time using our standard web UI, giving the viewer complete simulated functionality over what would be an otherwise actual Voice vRack. Being that there is actually no hardware hanging behind this demo vRack – there are a few things that will not show up, such as “status” for any device. Of course you also will not be able to telnet to any router, or log into any CUCM Server or otherwise. However you will get a good feeling for what your actual vRack session will be like when you rent from us – and you will be able to see the changes we have made in terms of features such as “Load Lab Configs” and “PSTN MAC Address and Phone Type” configuration.

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Tags: ccie 3.0, Cisco, hardware, ipexpert, Proctor Labs, software, Voice, VPN, vRack, web ui

Lab(s) 5 A/B have now been released and should be in your ipexpert.com “Members Area”. Lab 5 deals with Configuration and Troubleshooting of Advanced Call Routing Policies. This lab is not for the faint of heart! This lab not only covers advanced topics like Local Route Groups and Calling/Called Party Transformation combined with Translation Patterns, but also dives deep into Device Mobility, Unified Mobility (Single Number Reach), and Mobile Voice Access.

Please be sure to read the “pre-requisite” section as we outline some rather important changes to phones – both type and MAC address if you are using the software VPN option – and following the prerequisites will ultimately determine your success or failure when it comes to both performing the lab as well as testing it later.

You will find the Workbook and detailed Proctor Guide (solutions guide) in your “My eBook” section, and the text-based configurations in your “My Configs” section. Along with the router/switch configs, you will also find an updated “All Volume 1 Labs – Tables” PDF with some new information. As well, along with those previous documents, you should find some .reg files to assist you in a much easier setup process if you happen to be using IP Blue for softphone SCCP clients for the changes mentioned above.

We have actually gone back and made a number of changes and some improvements to previous sections as well, and in fact all sections have been updated to some degree or another. So please be sure to download those previous sections as well. Also we have made changes and improvements to the PSTN Dial Plan for Volume 1 – so don’t forget to use the “Load Lab Configs” feature every time you sign onto Proctor Labs – so that you receive the latest PSTN config, as well as the CUCM Servers, etc. For those of you using your own labs at home – please update your PSTN-WAN router files with the latest you download from your ipexpert.com account. (BTW – for Volume 1, whenever we make a change to a PSTN-WAN file – we go back and retroactively make the change for all PSTN-WAN files – so choosing any file is perfectly fine – they should all be the same. Again – only for Volume 1 will this occur).

We have also upgraded few more of our Voice vRacks to the v3 BP standard. Out of our 24 full racks of equipment for CCIE Voice – we now have 16 running the current v2 BP – and 8 running the new v3 BP – plenty for both sets of folks preparing for either version of the lab exam. Our new v3 vRacks aren’t yet at capacity – so have confidence we will have a rack for you when you need one. As soon as they begin coming close to capacity, and as we grow closer to approaching the new lab exam – we will be converting more of them.

Speaking of which – many of you may have seen this – but if not – the official “Go-Live” date for the new CCIE Voice Lab Exam is July 16, 2009.

Lab 6 and 7 are going to be finishing up here shortly, and we are already getting underway with some Multi-Protocol (Mock) Labs – so stay tuned!

Tags: ccie voice 3.0, exam date, labs, proctor guide, Proctor Labs, Workbook