Certification Books

I am impressed with the fast & reliable delivery of the book. It came in the time that was promised. The book, as told ,is in good condition. I would like to shop on this site in future too.
The book is good for exam preparation, but , since I did not get the CD-Rom with it, I need to go to various sites for the exam practice tests like brainbench.com, prometric.com, etc. which will definitely help me to improve my skills before attending the test.

This title is excellent for reviewing for the exam only. It covers all the subjects faced on the exam, and nicely hits a few fine points pinpointed on the exam. If you already know database design then this book should be enough for the exam. However, it will not teach a newcomer enough.

I used this primarily to narrow down what subjects to review for this particular exam. As other reviewers have stated, the sample questions are easy compared to the final, but the concepts are the same.

The authors will give you a leg up. This is a very succinct book clearly outlining SQL 7.0 design. Although you will need to supplement with additional analysis and design theory, the book continues to be a valuable resource in my personal library. Whether you are new to SQL or a veteran of legacy systems the coverage is excellent.

I found the book to be useful and slanted towards real-world practice. Good examples and projects at the end of each chapter. Both tests on CD have several wrong answers.

Each chapter was about 30 pages, so I was able to read one or two chapters each night. I passed the exam in about 2 months of studying using this book, Books Online that comes with SQL, and Transcender. I had very little knowledge of SQL Server when I started (I am an experienced VB programmer).

My only criticism is that the chapter summary quiz questions were only on the CD, instead of in the book, so I just printed them out. Also, explanations of the answers on the quizes were seldom provided - other than reviewing the chapter again. (I prefer New Riders Publishing's approach in this regard). I didn't use the practice tests on the CD, so I can't comment on that.

(climbing on soapbox) I'm a big fan of Transcender - but don't send me e-mail looking for my copy. If you're aiming to be a software professional, don't rationalize some excuse for ripping off some other software developer. (climbing off soapbox)

This was the first Readiness Review book that I used for a Microsoft test and it was very good. It made an excellent supplement to the Sybex study guide. The questions tend to be a little on the easy side when compared to the actual test, so you should make sure you can answer every question before taking the actual exam. Some of the questions in the Review were nearly word for word on the test. This book helped me get a 933 on this test.

Very helpful book to pass the exam, questions are very similar to the real test. But you need to have read a text book before using this book, I read first a TCP/IP book ISBN: 0130112518, then I complement it with this Readiness Review and scored 866 on the exam.

I took and passed TCP/IP this morning. This is the forth test that I have used a Readiness Review book to prepare. However, it is not enough to study using ONLY this book. Pick up Exam Cram or any of the others. This book is all questions and answers. It tells you why an answer is right, but even more importantly why an answer is wrong. It helps with the nuances of the exam, what they are really looking for based on how the question is worded. Also, all four times I have used these books I have found that they helped me nail a particular concept that I was struggling with. For example, by going over the subnetting-related questions last night and seeing the REASONS of why the right answer was the right answer it all finally just clicked.

I bought this book strictly based on the reviews from amazon. The book is all questions and most of the test is word for word. You may want to buy a supplement book such as exam cram. That is pretty much all you need.

Just to buck the trend...I agree totally with the comments regarding balance and content - but I just didn't think the questions presented here were hard/comprehensive enough! - relative to those I received on the actual exams! I initially used this book to finish off after a MOC course on TCP/IP and failed the exam - just. I used additional material to flesh out the concepts, and passed easily today. (On a more positive note - I did find it's sister publication on Networking Essentials an excellent/comprehensive prep tool).

Perfect for Lab and real example on Bgp and Multicast!

"Routing TCP/IP, Volume II" by Jeff Doyle and Jennifer DeHaven Carroll picks up where "Routing TCP/IP, Volume I" left off. And, like the first volume, this volume is an essential "must read" for any aspiring CCIE-candidate.

The book is divided into two sections, Exterior Gateway Protocols and Advanced IP Routing Issues. The first section provides an historical review of Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP), an introduction for Border Gateway Protocol version 4 (BGP), and finally details on configuring and troubleshooting BGP. As with the first volume, numerous configuration and troubleshooting examples and exercises are included. However, one flaw is that the student will need twelve routers to actually stage the configuration example / lab at the end of this section.

The second part, Advanced IP Routing Issues, covers a variety of topics, although Multicast received the bulk of the attention. The Multicast chapters are concise, well written, and easy to digest and understand. Other topics include Network Address Translation (NAT), IPv6, and Router Management. However, since the initial publication date (2001), Cisco support for IPv6 has matured, making the chapter here a bit outdated. In fact, the Second Edition of Volume I does a much better job of incorporating IPv6 throughout. Also, I felt the chapter on Router Management was a bit light and was left with the impression that is tossed in at the last moment as a sort of "filler".

The reader should definitely make sure that he or she is comfortable with the topics presented in "Routing TCP/IP, Volume I" before delving into this book. Concepts covered in the first volume, such as Interior Gateway Protocols (RIP, OSPF, EIGRP) and the fundamentals of route redistribution, are referenced throughout this volume. If you do not completely understand the topics covered in Volume I, you will likely have a difficult time grasping the topics and concepts covered here in Volume II.

All in all, a very good book for a student working towards a CCIE. You will likely need to augment the BGP coverage with Halabi's "Internet Routing Architecture". When I first bought the book a few years back, I would have given it 5 stars. However, given some of the outdated topics I mentioned earlier, I've knocked it down to 4. A Second Edition refresh, similar to what was done for "Routing TCP/IP, Volume I", would likely bump it back to 5 stars. Good luck!

Mark G. Reyero, CCIE 12932

Routing TCP/IP, Volume II presents a detailed examination of exterior routing protocols (EGP and BGP) and advanced IP routing issues such as multicast routing, quality of service routing, IPv6, and router management. You will learn IP design and management techniques for implementing routing protocols efficiently. Network planning, design, implementation, operation, and optimization are stressed in each chapter. Cisco-specific configurations for each routing protocol are examined in detail. Plentiful review questions and configuration and troubleshooting exercises make this an excellent self-study tool for CCIE exam preparation.

I personally feel this book is even better than Volume I. Several hundred pages are spent on BGP and Multicasting, going through details that aren't necessarily found in the more well-known books on those topics. An excellent companion to Halabi and Williamson.

The book was a major help to me in achieving my CCIE R&S. I just with Jeff would write a Security book!

Chris Bryant
CCIE #12933

CiscoPress's "Routing TCP/IP - Volume II" by Doyle and Carroll is one of the `must-have' books on any CCIE's R&S bookshelf OR any network admin who needs to understand the intricacies of external routing. I have referenced this book many times for my preparations for the R&S lab and real-world implementations.

The book's first 320 pages are dedicated to BGP. I believe this book does the best job at preparing a R&S lab candidate for BGP (better than Halabi's book). For instance, the book does an excellent job at describing the issues and nuances of IBGP and IGP synch starting on page 118. The BGP configs are complete and complex - you will be diving into some of the more arcane commands quickly (for instance - aggregate-address, as-set, backdoor).

The NAT section is probably the weakest of the subjects covered in this book, and can be found in other CiscoPress books. Still, the information presented here will be enough for the R&S lab. The next 3 chapters are devoted to IP multicast. Again, as with the BGP section, I do not believe you will find better material for the R&S lab in any other CiscoPress book (even considering Williamson's multicast book). I am admittedly weak in multicast, and Auto-RP did not `click' for me till I read this book.

If I picked up this book, and dangled it, I would probably have about 20 pages of notes fall out of the book. The book crams in a lot of information (even considering that it fills more than 900+ pages). I consider this book one of the `holy trinity' of R&S books (along with Doyle's Routing TCP/IP - Volume 1 and Clark's LAN Switching book).

I give this book 5 pings out of 5:
!!!!!

After searching for resources for the CCIE security exam, I found this book (CCIE Practical Studies: Security, ISBN: 1-58705-110-9) from Cisco Press website. Even though the title is ¡§Practical Studies: Security¡¨, it should contain more practical studies on security part of the lab exam. ¡§CCIE Practical Studies: Security¡¨ is useful for experienced Networkers to practice the security lab exams by deploying case studies and sample labs before the exam.
An advance feature of this book is it provides a lot of case scenarios. Throughout the book, readers can learn Cisco¡¦s security implementations by step-by-step configurations. Other useful features also include: Review questions and FQAs at the end of all chapters (except Chapter 26: Sample Lab Scenarios) which help readers to get solid idea of security principles and impermanent. The solutions of the 8 complete lab scenarios from the companion CD-ROM also illustrate the complexity of the CCIE Security lab exam.
However, I only give this book four out of five stars since some of the topics listed on the CCIE security written exam blueprint are missing from the book. Two of them are Cisco Secure Policy Manager and Cisco Secure Scanner. CCIE Candidates might not need to configure those Cisco Applications during the lab exam, however, every CCIE should know how to run those applications and how they work. I would love to see those topics will be covered in the next edition of this book. And, If you want to know the principal of Committed Access Rate (CAR), details on Intrusion Detection and specification on Security in General, you should read ¡§CCIE Professional Development Network Security Principle and Practices¡¨ by Saadat Malik (ISBN 1-58705-025-0) first.
Another problem of the book is it uses 42% of its 1000 pages on Routing and Switching, those chapters should be leaved to other books suggested by Cisco Systems (Routing TCP/IP by Doyle and Cisco LAN Switching by Clark and Hamilton). This is book should focus on security part of the exam only. It should mention more on Intrusion detection and Network-Based Application Recognition (NBAR). In my opinion, the first three chapters should also be summarized into a small chapter. CCIE candidate should know how to ¡§formulate a study plan¡¨ or ¡§take regular breaks while studying¡¨. People who don¡¦t know those ¡§study habits¡¨ should take a learning assistance class in a junior college. CCIE exam is one of the toughest professional exams for network administrator and network security engineer. So, if you don¡¦t know how to deal with problems, such as ¡§There¡¦s too much to remember¡¨, don¡¦t take the exam.
Poor Cisco IOS commands organization is also a reason that this book has only four stars. For example in Chapter 17: IP services (page 558), under section ¡§Monitor the MNLB Forwarding Agent¡¨
The book said
¡§To display the status of affinities, or connection information, use the following command:
R2#show ip casa affinities
To display the operational status of the Forwarding Agent, use the following command:
R2#show ip case oper
To display ¡K.¡¨
The section can be rewrote like this
¡§To monitor the status of the MNLB Forwarding Agent.
R2#show ip casa [options]
Options
affinities the status of affinities, or connection information
oper the operational status
stats the statistical information
wildcard information about wildcard blocks¡¨

This is much clear, easy to read and save time if you need to look up the command real quick. Other Cisco press books used the similar format, but I don¡¦t know why this book didn¡¦t follow it.
As the writer wrote in the book ¡§No single source ¡V including this book ¡V can or should claim to be a one-stop solution for the CCIE lab preparation.¡¨ (page 901), readers who are preparing for the exam should also consider buying other books from Cisco Press or searching more information on Cisco Security Applications from Cisco Connection Online. I would recommend this book to CCIE Security candidates who need lab practices and configuration examples. Although you can find plenty of examples from Cisco.com, the book is worth to buy for lab practices before the Armageddon.

After searching for resources for the CCIE security exam, I found this book (CCIE Practical Studies: Security, ISBN: 1-58705-110-9) from Cisco Press website. Even though the title is ¡§Practical Studies: Security¡¨, it should contain more practical studies on security part of the lab exam. ¡§CCIE Practical Studies: Security¡¨ is useful for experienced Networkers to practice the security lab exams by deploying case studies and sample labs before the exam.
An advance feature of this book is it provides a lot of case scenarios. Throughout the book, readers can learn Cisco¡¦s security implementations by step-by-step configurations. Other useful features also include: Review questions and FQAs at the end of all chapters (except Chapter 26: Sample Lab Scenarios) which help readers to get solid idea of security principles and impermanent. The solutions of the 8 complete lab scenarios from the companion CD-ROM also illustrate the complexity of the CCIE Security lab exam.
However, I only give this book four out of five stars since some of the topics listed on the CCIE security written exam blueprint are missing from the book. Two of them are Cisco Secure Policy Manager and Cisco Secure Scanner. CCIE Candidates might not need to configure those Cisco Applications during the lab exam, however, every CCIE should know how to run those applications and how they work. I would love to see those topics will be covered in the next edition of this book. And, If you want to know the principal of Committed Access Rate (CAR), details on Intrusion Detection and specification on Security in General, you should read ¡§CCIE Professional Development Network Security Principle and Practices¡¨ by Saadat Malik (ISBN 1-58705-025-0) first.
Another problem of the book is it uses 42% of its 1000 pages on Routing and Switching, those chapters should be leaved to other books suggested by Cisco Systems (Routing TCP/IP by Doyle and Cisco LAN Switching by Clark and Hamilton). This is book should focus on security part of the exam only. It should mention more on Intrusion detection and Network-Based Application Recognition (NBAR). In my opinion, the first three chapters should also be summarized into a small chapter. CCIE candidate should know how to ¡§formulate a study plan¡¨ or ¡§take regular breaks while studying¡¨. People who don¡¦t know those ¡§study habits¡¨ should take a learning assistance class in a junior college. CCIE exam is one of the toughest professional exams for network administrator and network security engineer. So, if you don¡¦t know how to deal with problems, such as ¡§There¡¦s too much to remember¡¨, don¡¦t take the exam.
Poor Cisco IOS commands organization is also a reason that this book has only four stars. For example in Chapter 17: IP services (page 558), under section ¡§Monitor the MNLB Forwarding Agent¡¨
The book said
¡§To display the status of affinities, or connection information, use the following command:
R2#show ip casa affinities
To display the operational status of the Forwarding Agent, use the following command:
R2#show ip case oper
To display ¡K.¡¨
The section can be rewrote like this
¡§To monitor the status of the MNLB Forwarding Agent.
R2#show ip casa [options]
Options
affinities the status of affinities, or connection information
oper the operational status
stats the statistical information
wildcard information about wildcard blocks¡¨

This is much clear, easy to read and save time if you need to look up the command real quick. Other Cisco press books used the similar format, but I don¡¦t know why this book didn¡¦t follow it.
As the writer wrote in the book ¡§No single source ¡V including this book ¡V can or should claim to be a one-stop solution for the CCIE lab preparation.¡¨ (page 901), readers who are preparing for the exam should also consider buying other books from Cisco Press or searching more information on Cisco Security Applications from Cisco Connection Online. I would recommend this book to CCIE Security candidates who need lab practices and configuration examples. Although you can find plenty of examples from Cisco.com, the book is worth to buy for lab practices before the Armageddon.

I would like to congratulate Dmitry and his team and cisco press for putting together this title. This book covers all the topics in good details with examples. It covers 12.2(15)T IOS features which are not easily found elsewhere. Amount of information and labs contained in this book will take anyone hundreds of hours to go through these labs and will certainly prepare them for THE CCIE lab. I am sure Concentrator and IDS chapters will be added in due time.

Full scale labs are very well laid out. If you are prepping for this test, you must go through these labs couple of times.

Great job Dmitry and crew! way to go!

-Keyur Shah-
QUAD CCIE# 4799 (Voice;Service Provider;Security;R/S)
Hello Computers
http://www.hellocomputers.com

Incredible work by the authors. I like the way this book is laid out. The neat thing about it is the way it combines material which could be split into several books. My own CCIE study was not funded by an employer. I had to pay my own way (like most people), so having been able to save money on courses and books was a great benefit to me. The CCIE Security lab requires having a strong background in routing and switching and this book is a great bundle of information that reduces your search and study to the areas on which you are most likely to be tested. I don't have R&S CCIE, so seeing real examples of how routing & switching provides basis for security helped me pass the lab. I failed my first attempt because in my studies I assumed that it was going to be only security based, not realizing that I would be tested on the R&S background as well. I bought this book after I failed, and after completing all the practice labs in the book, I was able to get my CCIE after the second attempt. This book does not go into detail on IDS and VPN Concentrator, but I didn't have them on my test (maybe it was added afterwards).

I disagree with previous reviewer's comments. It seems like the author recommends taking 2 classes worth about $3200 each and buying several books which do not provide applicable lab scenarios instead of a $70-some investment into this book. Whatever topics are not listed in this book (and they can't, otherwise the book would need a forklift to pick it up) can be easily found on CCO for free. It's funny that the reviewer is admitting that somebody with a different background from theirs would give it 5 stars. Well, it seems that my background is different and I do give it 5 stars.

I ordered this book in the hope that it would help me study for the CCIE Security Lab exam. I already have Soli's Practical Studies (both volumes). The beginning chapters in the book are related to Ethernet, ISDN, Routing Protocols etc. Don't expect the same level of detail for these topics here that you would find in Soli's book or in Jeff Doyle's book. Use those books to cover these topics. The security Practices (Part IV) of the book is why you bought this book.
Being an instructor for almost all cisco security courses, I was disappointed by the level of detail in Chapters 14 through 17. But then, the book might be covering just what you need for your exam. In my opinion, you need Saadat Malik's book Network Security Principles and Practices. I would give that book 5 stars!.
For me, the only chapters worth anything were Advanced VPNs (Chapter 20) and Chapter 26 (Sample Lab Scenarios -- which has eight scenarios).
The VPN Concentrator, which now appears on the lab is nowhere to be seen in this book. This is a big MINUS for this book.
Depending on your background with network security, you might want to give a better rating to this book as to the depth of the material covered. If you already have Doyle + Soli's books, get Sadat Malik's book + IOS Network Security documentation and attend the CSVPN course and CSIDS courses (if you can). This book does not cover the IDS Sensor at all. It only covers the limited IDS of the PIX and routers.
I would have liked it better if the routing/switching topics would have been left off totally from this book and the focus would have been entirely on the Security stuff (read VPN Concentrator and the IDS Sensor etc). People would tell you that you can get them off the Documentation CD. Well, if so, the stuff that the book has is also on the doc. cd :-)

As a networking instructor, it would not be exaggeration if I say that I had the "privilege" of studying and teaching this fantastic book. We used it as our main routing reference when we were doing CCNP courses and after several years when I decided to get down to the nitty gritty to take the CCIE written exam, it worked perfectly again and I enjoyed its nice examples and clear writing. Perhaps the most exciting thing about this book is that, there is no hard/easy or rich/poor section, all chapters seem quite solid and contiguous.

I used only this book as a reading material for the exam and I passed on my first try. This book contains a lot of valueble material about routing and it is good as a future reference for routing.
A must for future CCNP's.

I passed my exam using this book, and nothing else beside it.

Having stated that, let me point out a few things:

1- This book covers EVERYTHING you need to know to pass the exam. No question on my exam was not covered somewhere in the book. I find it hard to judge whether the authors took it a little far with the extra material, or not, which brings me to the second point..

2- The book is loooong !! It took me over 3 months to "study" the whole thing ! I know the BSCI exam is one of the hardest exams Cisco offers, but does the book need to be this long ? The Sybex Book wasnt .. and despite that, many of my friends used it, and passed the exam.

3- The language is not very easy, or maybe the writing style wasnt very smooth. This book reminds me of "big" references that we used in college, vice short and to the point text books that sufficed with covering the Syllabus, and only that. This certainly is NOT a text book !!

4- The labs at the end of each chapter ? What labs :-)

5- To do the authors justice, I have to say that this book was worth every penny I spent on it. This may not be the best book to read if your sole concern is to pass the BSCI exam, but it certainly is THE book on routing ! If you're planning on becoming a CCIE one day, this is a must read. You will sweat a little, but it will be worthwhile. I will have to give it 4 stars, not 5, beacuse this is a Certification Self-Study, so it needs to address the length of the book as well as the easiness of the presentation. Otherwise, this is a highly recommended book for all networking professionals.

Evereyone has an opinion on a book, so I thought I would share mine. Yes, this book has a ton of information, maybe too much for the exam.

This edition is a far cry from the first one. The Lab configurations could drive you crazy. It was very hard to follow because 1 pod is 4 routers plus a frame switch and 2 Backbone routers! How many people have 7 routers????

The first edition called for 3 routers in a pod and 1 backbone router. This made preparing for configuration exercises easy.

Comparing the OSPF section from the 1st to the 2nd edition is totally different. All the information is the same but the 2nd edition makes for much harder reading.

I acutally returned the book. I was uncomfortable with the layout and organization of it. I am very disapointed with the way the authors changed it. They should have left it exactly as the 1st edition and updated it with new information. Instead they changed sections and made the Labs difficult.

I guess if you never owned the 1st edition, you would think this book is great.

I am using this Cisco Press Self-Study and Cisco Press Exam Certification Guide for BSCI exam. Generally, I find this book much helpful compared to certification guide. Most concepts are elaborately discussed with good lab examples and I have almost no problem understand all of it at first glance. (I have just begun career in networking while reading this book and I don't have in-depth knowledge of routing protocols). I like the author style of writing and I am looking forward to read another of her certification books.

Note : For those who plan to purchase this book, please read BGP route reflector and probably BGP community, both found in Appendix A before going for the exam.

Not sure why this book is so highly rated. Having taken (and passed) the CISSP several years ago, I need to retake this exam and bought three books for review and study purposes. I have a previous version of the Harris book and it is ~900 pages. This new version is 1100+ pages, but seems to be filled more with fluff and some of the actually useful knowledge has been removed! One example which stands out is the removal of the effectiveness and acceptance charts for biometrics methods. This is an important concept and it is entirely ignored in this version. Other things have been changed to no real benefit. The CIA triad (as is the de-facto acronym, even in her previous book) has been renamed to the ICA triad. There is no reason for this.
Finally, the entire book is written in a dumbed-down, cutesy fashion in an attempt (I believe) to make the book more approachable. All it has done, IMO, has increased the number of pages, possibly forcing out relevant materials.
I will pass this test, but it won't be because of this book. Buy the ISC book and the Krutz book (and/or a previous version of the Harris book) - you will not be disappointed.

If youre going for your CISSP, then this book should be looked at as your first and last line of study!
Shon truly is the best instructor I know of for CISSP!

Yes this book is the one stop shop. If your looking at this book hopefully you have a month or more to study. I had three weeks and was reading 50 - 75 pages a day(and yes I passed). The book covers all the material that you need to pass. Shon tries to keep it a little lively and adds real life examples. Her style is for you to UNDERSTAND the reasoning. This not a book that helps you break the test. You learn the material and UNDERSTAND the answer.

Disclaimer: I'm a tech-oriented geek and that's how I like my books.
That being said, this book gives an good view on the various aspects of security. As the CISSP requirements seem to be more focused on completeness (...) then on details, this book is a good start to obtain the certification.

What an excellent book. Shon Harris has done a fantastic job in breaking it all down for the CISSP. The All in One Guide is exactly that, it's all you need. I was surprised at how well everything is covered and explained. It should be a mandatory read for all Security Professionals.

Just wish her new CISA book was available now. Let's hope she finds the time to tackle CISM.

Thanks...

This is the book I have always wanted to have. As a guide and reference, it is perfect. But, if you are new to NT 4, this book may not help you much. It assumes that you are familiar with basic concepts of Windows NT environment.

This book provides good study outline and a strategy for tracking your progress but it's not detailed enough to be a primary study resource. I wouldn't buy it again.

A good reviewer book...but certainly lacks in a few areas that the exam tests you on. And areas you would need when working with a server/network! Like Pulse or Replication Governors! There is no mention of it in the book, but it is important in a network admin's world, as well as the exam--I about saw it everytime I took a transcender and the exam! What about the AT command? Be sure to know about these things, because they show up! Also, another missing part is how to configure Network Monitor inclusion lines! Very important (at least to me and others I know) in monitoring my network...! In all fairness...I think it is a very good review book for the exam, but should not be your only source. Use other books, use trancenders, check your answers, and definitely have HANDS ON knowledge...

This is a very good book if you already know a lot about NT. If you don't know a lot about the subject, you shouldn't be studying for this test any way. There is not one book you can study by itself to pass any of the MCSE tests. Use this in conjunction with Transcenders practice tests and you will pass the test.

I am an experienced administrator and I found this book sorely lacking for the exam prep. I will admit that it is very acurate, but not very complete. I would not rely on this as a sole source for exam preparation. I ended up using quite a bit of other material to fill in the holes left by this book.

I'm holding on to my copy and still consider it money well spent. The concise nature of the book does make it a good quick refrence guide to keep in the office.

Just finished chapter 3, and as an NT4 MCSE, this book is wasting little of my time on the basics of Windows, while still providing adequate depth (and clarity) on Win2K-specific concepts. Granted, this book isn't explicity mapped to the test objectives, but it does cover all the objectives in the four "core" MOC courses, with a lot more readability than usually found in the MS "Training Kits" (which are almost always based on the MOC courses).

This book lacked depth. It covers all the essentials but leaves big gaps. For example: in setting up sites, this books does not adequately cover subnets, nor how to add objects to the site.

This book was very good, and will continue to be a resource for actual implementation of Windows 2000. The book parallels Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC) 1560, and does not go into many of the details necessary to pass test 76-203. As an example - the book's material in performing an NT 4 Upgrade with basic disks with a RAID5 configuration to W2K and performing disk replacement was not be be found, but asked on the test. Much of the info. seems to be based on W2K Release Candidate 3.

Bottom line - this is the best book I've seen, it may need a revision shortly, but will not get you through the exams alone.

Bret Moeller MBA, MCSE, MCT, CNA, CCDA, CCNA, CCA

As an MCSE , reading this book refreshed many of the information about NT 4.0 with its first part chapters , uptil part 2 of the book where the real staff of windows 2000 begins which is AD , the third part is exactly as reading a book about the TCP/IP exam "i.e WINS,DNS,DHCP,...etc" for windows 2000. The book is wonderful as a head start , if you are looking for a book to learn the general specification of windows 2000 and comparing them with windows NT 4.0 this the ONE !!!

Just finished chapter 3, and as an NT4 MCSE, this book is wasting little of my time on the basics of Windows, while still providing adequate depth (and clarity) on Win2K-specific concepts. Granted, this book isn't explicity mapped to the test objectives, but it does cover all the objectives in the four "core" MOC courses, with a lot more readability than usually found in the MS "Training Kits" (which are almost always based on the MOC courses).

Although this book is geared specifically at passing the exams, they do not contain all the info you will need. Find other study materials, or, be certain you have an excellent user's knowledge before paying for the exams!

It was very useful in its guideline of what you need to know to pass the tests, but covering that information was only average.

I was looking for a book to take a rank beginner through certification. Because this book is so comprehensive, it only devotes about 100 pages to each exam. The "hands on" exercises are laughable. I would recommend this book for a person who already has a working knowledge of the Office 97 products and who just wants a review of the fine points needed to pass the exams.

The web sites listed in the introduction are no longer current and Sybex does not maintain a web site with updates.

Great book! Direct to the point and concise. I read the Word 97 skills for two weeks and passed the expert test. Then I read Excel 97 for a week and passed the expert test again. I just passed my Powerpoint 97 expert test after a week of reading. That's 3 expert tests in less than a month. But don't get me wrong, the book didn't give me everything. I already had a working knowledge of all three. All the book did was give me the proper and easier procedures to do things. Plus, the terminology they used is a lot more direct to the point that it almost seemed that the MOUS test was based on this book. My advice : get experience working with the program, read the book, and learn how to use the help menu!!

I'm back! Just passed Access 97 Expert, it was harder than what the book made me to believe it would be. That's probably because I didn't have that much experience with Access. Best thing to do is read the book, get some experience, PLUS get some advance topic classes. The book probably gave me about 60% of what the test covered. About the 40%, you'll have to look somewhere else!

Well I've been using Mysql for the last 5 years now and got to say that I already had pretty good hold on it. But through this book I came across numerous interesting things that I was unaware of and no prizes for guessing that I cleared the exam with ease. The book has each and every detail of topics that are asked in the exam and hence is a must for anyone looking to give the exam

This is the book for MySQL CMDBA, CMDEV, and CMA certifications!

But please note we do not include vouchers for the exams in the latest printing.

I didn't buy this book for the exam, I bought this book as a general resource for MySQL. I already have a background in MS SQL Server. The book was very good at covering the essentials needed to become proficient in MySQL, and is a great desktop reference. However, I wished it had covered advanced topics such as clusters. But you really can't expect one book to cover everything.

If you need the information to study for the MySQL dev and dba exams, this is the book. It covers most everything, but it is more of a manual than a book covering the subject. So although it covers all the material (and then some), it isn't a comfy read.

The book is quite big and my first impression was it's going to take a long time and it's full of useless info. But once I started reading, I had a nice surprise. The book actually covers 2 certifications (Dev and DBA), 2 exams each. I can't speak for the Dev part, but the DBA part was very well structured and each exam required less than 200 pages of reading. The information was dense enough and always up to the point. The practice questions were really not a question samples, but more like a 60 pages summary of possible exam topics.

I also liked the style very much. It's very proffesional but not too dry and reading is not boring.

There are a few glitches here and there (table of content is off, the CD ROM didn't work well), but they are not really impacting your study.

Overall, I liked it very much and I wish more vendors would adopt that format and style.

And, by the way, I passed both exams at the first try using this book only (well, I've been working with MySQL a bit in the past, but I clearly had holes in my knowledge before).

So I highly recommend this book as a perfect MySQL certification guide and general reference.