Wassim

Today I successfully passed the exam! I got a score of 420. How I studied for the exam I watched the Vmware E-learning fundamental videos, took notes, reviewed them with a big mind map, then registered and sat for it. I sat studying in many small sessions (remember the power of chunking). What it feels to get Vmware certified It’s great to sit for an exam and pass it from home :) it’s also great to see there are other folks out there who are sharing the same experience. Thank you Vmware! It took me a total of 6.5 hours of learning:

In this post, we explore the configuration of an MGCP gateway in CUCM. Given a router equipped with a E1/T1 VWIC card, we will configure it as an MGCP gateway that performs PRI Backhauling with CUCM. Configuration Steps On CUCM We start by adding a new gateway: We select the router platform: We tell CUCM that it is going to be an MGCP gateway: We configure our VIC card or network module: And we need to set the gateway name. This depends actually on whether we activated DNS lookup on the router or not. When a network engineer in IOS gateway has already configured the following command: ip domain-name then he must use the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) when he adds the MGCP gateway on CUCM. Otherwise, he must simply use the hostname of the router. In our example, we have no domain name configured on the router. So we can use the router hostname: On this router, we have already inserted a T1/E1 card that has one RJ-48 Multiflex trunk. To determine on which subunit this card is, on the...

I got this from a co-worker. This is so true. It’s the shortest and wisest career-related speech I’ve ever read. If you struggle finding a reason to balance work and life, read this: Don’t reinvent the wheel. Just get the lesson and have a balance in your life.

There are times when you want to schedule a router reload, but you don’t want to stay late or come to the office during weekends. “Reload at” is your friend.   How to reload your router at a predefined time You want to reload your router (or switch) at 7pm, but at the same time, you’ll be having a coffee with your friend and you don’t want to have this discussion: “- Sorry guys, I have a router to reboot. I’ll be back in 30mn. – What is a router? – Well, a router is..I’ll explain that to you later!” Solution: the reload at command. Pay attention that you have to have correct time set on the device. do a show clock on your device and compare the time with what you have on your wrist watch, if you still wear any :) Having a reason to reload You may want to add a reason for your reload, in the command line. It can be done in the following way: Displaying scheduled reloads It’s possible to schedule multiple reloads pe...

It’s not because your voice sounds different on the phone that you treat people in a mediocre fashion. It’s not because the other person is far away that you can afford to downsize him. A key element in the many phone conversations that I make daily, is that I treat people on the phone as if I see them in front of me. I even find myself gesturing like I was giving a speech in front of deaf people! Does that mean that I should pay attention to my facial expressions? Can I wear McDonald s’-like make-up and talk to my boss? not that far :)  But , smiling over the phone can be sensed. And it makes the other person comfortable and very receptive to you. Take a couple of minutes and think about these questions: – Do you check the caller’s name before you answer the phone? – Do you have special ring tone for each caller? –  After you looked at the caller’s name, do you think more than 3 seconds before answering the call? – Do you make facia...

This is an obvious piece of advice. But respect comes disguised often times. – Giving back money to your client with a smile is a sign of respect, – listening to customer complaints with empathy and attention is a sign of respect, Why am I telling these two sentences? because today I’ve been treated with disrespect from a cashier, in a reputable hospital. Usually, I don’t care much about people’s manners when they talk to me. I often understand them, given the humble NLP technologies that I’ve learned. But what made me angry is to see my brother being poorly treated too. I value family bonds a lot. I consider hurting my family members red lines not to be crossed. If you ask me how tolerent to offenses I am, I can quickly answer you that I’ll be tolerant as long as you don’t touch my family. Imagine what would Don Corleon do, if one of his family members has been hurt. That would be my reaction, if I were allowed to carry weapons...

When you tell people that you work as a network engineer, clients usually think that you are “Mr All-computer-stuff”. They expect you to fix any computer issue they have at work. They may even ask you to help them open a file attachment that their sister-in-law sent to them in a mail they received in their spam inbox! For example, I once tried to explain many times to a client that I ‘m the networking guy, not the server one. He didn’t stop telling me about the thousand dinars transaction waiting to be processed, about his busy schedule, about the delays in processing clients requests…as if cared that much :) He did not give a darn. I was hungry, thirsty, tired, all sweaty in that very hot day. When you practice network engineering, the goal is not to show your skills. It’s solving a technical problem, whether the solution is to unplug a cable or to add a new module to the network. I remember I once changed a network cable for the CEO. I t...