While looking over the profiles of people sending me friend requests on Facebook (Pro tip: if I’ve never said two words to you before, don’t bother.) I came across this page Cisco Training Online which is selling CCIE bootcamps. Just for the heck of it, I scrolled down the page. Besides the ads for their bootcamps, one image jumped out at me. It was labeled TCP/UDP Port Numbers, and it had a very familiar theme to it. Yes, it is one of PacketLife’s cheat sheets, but with the copyright information conveniently chopped off.
So out of curiosity, I kept scrolling down the page. Everything that was text, I put into Google. I found material copied directly from networklessons.com, material copied from a very old Cisco Press book, and material from other blogs. They’re charging money I’m sure, but have they created any original content at all? Yes, I commented on the above post, and I commented on many others as well. I doubt my posts will still be there by the time you see this. But who knows with their clear lack of attention to detail.
If you don’t stick with the well known training companies (I think it’s safe to say trainers like Narbik Kocharians and Keith Barker aren’t stealing content), then be sure to look into what you’re paying for. Don’t pay someone to give you material that is not theirs. And more important, don’t pay someone to give you material that is freely available on the Internet. You can go to PacketLife yourself and view the excellent content there.