Troubleshooting Voice: MGCP
Over the coming weeks I will be running a new series here on Troubleshooting Voice. I often have students in class that report to me that one of the most difficult parts of their CCIE Voice exam experience was having to deal with the inner workings of some of the protocols and how to read and decipher them accurately. I have also begun to see this more and more across the various mailing lists and forums, and so I decided it was time to start an entire series on these not-to-be-feared topics. Since these protocols are covered quite in-depth in the CCNP Voice course (most specifically in the CVOICE portion), I highly encourage people starting out in Unified Communications, not to skip the lower level courses, and to really dig in at that CCNA Voice and then CCNP Voice level, before going into the CCIE Voice. At each level something is presented that is not explained at the next level, so it really is crucial to go through each progression of the track in a sequential and systematic order. This goes especially for those who might already have a CCIE, and think they understand what the CCIE is all about. They probably understand very well what the exam itself is all about, however the underlying Voice technologies are quite vastly different than the data world they may be used to. In fact, I hear this quite a lot from people making the jump from a R&S IE to the Voice side of the realm – “Man, this Voice stuff is totally different!“.
To begin with, we will start out a bit easy, and go over the basics of everyone’s favorite client/server gateway protocol – MGCP or “Media Gateway Control Protocol”.
Tags: CCIE Voice, ccnp voice, cucm, gateway, MGCP, troubleshooting, UCM
Just ahead of our brand new CCNA Voice live online bootcamp beginning this Monday, I thought it might be nice to provide an easy-to-follow graphic for those starting out in Voice (or on any other Cisco networking track). This graphic was from last year, but remains quite easy to follow for each and every Cisco track.
Be sure you have a high resolution set if you wish to see the entire thing, otherwise scrolling may be necessary.
Tags: ccie, CCNA, CCNP, Cisco Certification
We’ve added a new CCIE Voice bootcamp in London, UK this June, and loads of new CCIE R&S bootcamps to our schedule.
Tags: bootcamp, CCIE R&S, CCIE Voice
UPDATE: I have received numerous submissions and currently in the process of reviewing them. I’m going to extend the deadline until Wednesday (2012-01-18). At that time all people who submitted working solutions will be awarded 100 tokens!
Recently I have been working with a large enterprise customer that is looking to implement a new change control policy. The main goal of the policy is to be able to track who is making changes to devices in the network, and specifically what those changes are. As opposed to using a full blown network management suite to do this for them, I suggested a simple solution of using TACACS for exec and command accounting (all devices are Cisco), and EEM scripting along with a TFTP server for tracking the actual configuration changes in case they need to roll back to a well-known good working config. The final result worked out very well, and I thought it would make a good CCIE level challenge as well.
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Tags: challenge, change control, eem, tftp
We have added some new US and International CCIE Voice bootcamps to our schedule!
With every 10-Day Bootcamp purchase, INE gives you your choice of either:
- Cover your $1500 CCIE Voice Lab Fee
- 2 Year Subscription to Our All Access Pass
- 56 Hour CCIE Voice Advanced Technologies Class Download
Tags: CCIE Voice, Cisco IP Phones, l2tpv3, L2VPN, UC, unified communications
We are finished with our L2VPN beta testing, and are very happy to report that all 38 of our beta testers reported back not only no issues with connecting to us, but also an incredible experience overall with phones that appear directly connected to their rack switchports, and that behave and function exactly as they did when any of them have previously sat for the CCIE Voice lab exam. We are happy to announce that every one of our Voice racks now fully supports SIX Layer 2 VPN connections – one for each phone.
At INE, we are all about putting as much knowledge in your mind as it can hold, as many tools in your hands as possible, and doing it all for far less than anyone. We offer so many ways of connecting to our Voice racks and often I get asked which method is the best and which they should use. So I thought I would take this time to quickly outline all of the ways we offer to connect to our racks, and then break them down by most-to-least desirable methods for doing so after the break.
Outline of Connection Methods
- Layer 2 Hardware VPN – Use Your Own Hardware Cisco IP Phones
- (This option is the only true way to experience the CCIE Voice lab)
- Layer 3 Hardware VPN – Use Your Own Hardware Cisco IP Phones
- SSL AnyConnect VPN – Use Our Rack-Connected Phones with FREE Web-Based Remote Control
- IPSec (EzVPN) VPN – Use Our Rack-Connected Phones with FREE Web-Based Remote Control
- NO VPN AT ALL – Use Our Rack-Connected Phones with FREE Web-Based Remote Control
Tags: CCIE Voice, CCNA Voice, ccnp voice, ezvpn, L2 Tunnel, l2tpv3, L2VPN, Voice Rack
A new update to INE’s CCIE Routing & Switching Written Exam Bootcamp is now available in streaming format for All Access Pass subscribers, and available for purchase as a download. This completely new video series, taught by me – Brian McGahan, 3 x CCIE #8593 (Routing & Switching, Security, Service Provider) – is specifically designed for students looking to focus on the topics and technologies covered in the CCIE Routing and Switching Written Exam version 4 blueprint.
As a precursor to our CCIE Routing & Switching Advanced Technologies Class and our CCIE Routing & Switching Lab Workbook Volume 1, the Written Exam Bootcamp helps to create a solid foundation of the concepts covered in the CCIE Routing & Switching version 4 Written Exam, as well to give students the knowledge they need to continue straight into their hands-on CCIE Lab Exam preparation. This bootcamp will also benefit current CCIEs who need to re-affirm their knowledge from a theoretical standpoint in order to recertify on the various technologies covered on the CCIE Routing & Switching Written Exam blueprint.
Tags: aap, ccie written, update
With so many requests for these classes, but also with so many telling us of their limited travel budgets, we made the decision to change our previously Seattle-based courses for CCNA Voice and CCNP Voice to online courses. They will still be packed with all of the same material to fully prepare you for all your exams. We have also reduced the price of the course to only $499, and once the course is over, you will have the ability to download this course at no additional charge. These will be live classes taught by CCIEx2 #14073 Mark Snow.
You may get more information, as well as register for the courses here.
Also, for our existing All Access Pass subscribers, you will be given access to this online streaming class. You will still need to register with sales, but no additional cost will be necessary.
Tags: CCNA Voice, ccnp voice, Online Bootcamp

