[c-nsp] CCIE SP Lab brasil

[Pete Templin]

Matt Hill wrote:
> Sao Paolo is remote?
> 
> Are any other labs remote?  For what you pay to do the exam, you think
> Cisco can afford to put a few low-end routers in the test lab to avoid
> any reachability issues that may occur half way through the exam.

With practice labs going for $12k and up, the real thing most likely 
costs more than that.  Considering they get to use one set of backbone 
routers for the entire room, there's a cost savings (even if they are 
older units) by aggregating the gear.

> I would be most displeased if I were sitting a lab then at 3pm when I
> was checking my configs the link drops and I am forced to repeat the
> whole lab another time (even if it is offered for free).

I would doubt that a "primary branch" Cisco office would have 
single-homed connectivity, though it all likely goes through one telco. 
  I would think they'd simply extend the "gotta stop" time to account 
for any delays.

> How does the remote setup work?  My guess is via something high speed
> (>1MB) to avoid latency where possible and more than likely IPSec'ed so
> that "resourceful" people don't intercept the streams to get an idea
> what configs are being typed in on each router and hence deriving
> answers/questions from there.

Can't say for sure (I'm not versed in sites outside the US), but I would 
think that ~10 9600 baud console connections wouldn't need high 
bandwidth.  And with as much as they've been tightening down on the CCIE 
program, you can bet that it's very high security into there.

pt