Kevin makes some impotant points here. They are kind of why I suddenlt changed position earlier, but he out them so much better than I possibly could!
The greatest skill I have is not my knowledge of routing or switching, it is not knowing a little about MPLS. It is the inclination and ability togo find answers. Part of that is working outappropriate questions - eg earlier where I asked about what the connecting link was, as that is crucial when talking autosummary, and part of it is knowing how to go about finding answers. Neither of those are things I can easily say how I do - a little like a world class footballer struggling to explain how he knows where everyone else on the pitch is for example, but they are skills that can be developed - hopefully the three questions I asked of you in my later response will split the question down from one that may be a little daunting to small chunks you can easily find for yourself.
Even if you don't post responses, look at questions other people ask and see if you can find the answer and then compare what you find with what others come up with, and if you think you have the right answer, and someone disagrees, don't be afraid to challenge, but whenn you challenge something, try to explain why you think something is innacurate - that way leads to discussion, and that can trigger further relevant points that may illuminate why the disagreement has come about.
These forums were not about when I was studying for my CCIE. When doing that I spent a *LOT* of time in the lab, and quite often I would be sitting there with a rack of routers and switches wondering what to try. It was similar discussion groups that gave me things to learn and directly helped me learn more and pass the exams - not by simoly reading answers, but trying things, looking things up and getting the answers myself. An answer *you* have worked out will stick a whole lot better than an answer from people like Kevin, Jon, Edison or others, mainly because having worked it out, youprobably know not only that, for example, in a switched network switch six is the root bridge, but you know it is root because it has a lower priority, or a what the implcations of mac address are for root election.
