What did we cover in these two days?
I opened the doors of the SICE lab in Lucca to find a row of powered-on routers, green LEDs pulsing in sync while participants moved between the shelves to grab the right cables. It is the image I like best of all: not slides, but hardware and optics. Over these two days, we worked on the MTCRE curriculum, focusing on the areas where theory tends to get bogged down: advanced static routes, point-to-point addressing, VPNs, and, above all, OSPF.
Where do the most common errors hide?
In OSPF area management, almost everyone makes the same mistake the first time: they confuse the role of the router with that of the area, thinking that setting an ID is enough to make everything work. In the lab, we dismantled this misconception step by step, showing how neighbor states and the election of DR and BDR depend on specific interface parameters, not just the numbers we type into the configuration. It was useful to see Hello traffic and database distribution in action, because that is where you truly understand what “neighbor” means in the protocol.
Why insist on tunnels?
We dedicated time to VPNs to understand why certain protocols are obsolete and others remain valid in specific contexts. We compared IPIP, EoIP, and L2TP/IPsec, not just to configure them, but to choose the right one based on the network you need to connect. Those in the classroom asked precise questions about VLAN and QinQ, showing that there was real experience behind them that needed to be focused on. It is not about memorizing commands, but about understanding the consequences of every choice as the network grows.
How does a course like this end?
The exam took place in the classroom at the end of the second day, as scheduled by the curriculum. I stayed to answer the last questions, while those present organized the cables and powered down the devices. Lucca hosted this edition well: SICE offers a space where you can make mistakes without fear, which is the only way to truly learn to read routes.
When is the next MTCRE course edition?
The next edition is from February 4 to 5, 2027, in Lucca: you can find dates, times, and registration in the course page. The complete official curriculum, module by module, is in the MTCRE course guide.
