I’ve been graciously receiving CiscoPress books for review for a while now so it’s about time I actually, you know, review one. First up is the newest CVoice book:
I’m going through a re-cert process right now but I’m also trying to head towards the CCVP. CVoice is one of my required tests for both of these so it’s the first one I’m tackling. Earlier this year Cisco changed the requirements for the CCVP and rolled the old Gateway/Gatekeeper (GW/GK) test into CVoice and called it version 6. Luckily this book was written just for that!
I took the test blind once to see what was on it. Failed miserably. I then began reading the book. I found the book to be very comprehensive in the early sections. Specific questions that I know I got wrong I was able to track down the general answers to. This book isn’t some kind of cheat sheet but it does seem to follow the test pretty well.
I felt the sections on protocol characteristics, h.323 Gateways and MGCP configuration were all pretty thorough, as it relates to the test. The section on Dial Plans was especially good.
The one section I found to be short was CUBE. The CUBE section explained the general nature of the configuration sufficiently but I thought it stopped short of a really detailed description. I would have liked more detail in this one section.
Of the “Official” test guides I’ve read in the past I thought this was one of the better ones. A thorough reading of it will prepare you for the test, as well as deepening your understanding of voice gateways in the Cisco world.
Looks like I have some issues with the Ad formatting. Sorry, but it’s a necessary evil. It must be done. And thanks to those who have clicked in the past!
Not sure I’m allowed to say that but oh well…
Happy New Year to everyone that reads this! 2008 was an interesting year, and as they all seem to do nowadays, it went by faster every day. I’ve been ripping our home videos from MiniDV so we can watch them on SageTV and it’s been pretty interesting to see old videos of the kids. It’s really astounding how they’ve changed right before our eyes. You don’t notice it when it’s a little every day. The home we’ve built is really pretty amazing, and it continues to fill me with joy.
2009 looks to be an exciting year, one way or another. Although it’s not officially announced, I’m going to be going independent as an IT consultant over the next year. This should be really good, but it could also be tense. Provided a couple of things come together I should be in decent shape. If they don’t, I’ll have to urgently find work. More as that happens.
I’m looking forward to seeing how Cisco handles it’s issues with the economy. This foray into home media storage could be interesting but I suspect it will be a dud. What we need is standards, not more product. At least, not more product until there are standards.
I’m also interested to see what Apple does. If Jobs does end up leaving the company because of health reasons I hope the successor can continue the Apple tradition. It’s finally starting to make some market share gains and it would be a shame for that to vaporize because of the cult of Steve.
I plan on spending more time on the Cobra and perhaps, if I can stay focused, get it legal this year. 8 years after taking delivery. It’s time to get it done.
No matter what, I expect to post more often. As with most of my New Years prognastications, let’s see what reality looks like in a couple of months!
