Cisco Books

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.

I found this book to be very easy to understand, and right on track for a net admin to use, to fill in information on Cisco routers and switches. The way the book is written, it is tailored to individuals w/ extensive network and server experience that need a little help w/ routers. I have been able to refer back to the book for information needed for daily use on these pieces of equipment.

This book just took 2 days to my work after ordering. Blazing fast!

Goes straight to what matters in the Cisco Router management area.

This book was a real surprise. I had low expectations for such a short text (122 pages) but, this is a great book for anyone needing an mid-level how to do it now reference. The chapters are short and to the point. The author seems very expeienced and has many good sugesstions clearly born from that experience. It is a great book for experienced network engineers to keep handy for say a jr. admin. Give this book to somone who hasn't ever touched a router (but, knows the fundamentals of networking) and they'll have a Cisco router up and running out of the box in less than an hour.

I started a new job and had almost no experience with Cisco products. I was desperate and bought this book. What a gem of a purchase. This book takes something cryptic as Cisco appliance administration and walks you through it so that anyone can learn in hours.

I have bought books from this author before and have yet to be disappointed. The man has clearly been an admin for years, so he knows the pain we all feel. :) His humor is really refreshing on such a dry topic.

All in all, I would recommend this book for any novice network admin, or someone who wants to start a new job using Cisco products. It's worth the price.

CiscoPress's "Troubleshooting IP Routing Protocols" by Shamim, Azis, Liu and Martey is mislabeled. CiscoPress has labeled this book as part of their `CCIE Professional Development' series - I really do not see the value of placing this book in the same vein as other CCIE books in the series (such as Doyle, Solie, & Clark). However, having been employed as a Network Administrator for a number of years, the book does help troubleshoot and isolate routing protocol issues.

Each major IGP (RIP, IGRP, EIGRP, OSPF & IS-IS) along with PIM and BGP is discussed at depth. Each routing protocol is dedicated 2 chapters - one chapter discussing the protocol and one chapter discussing troubleshooting methodologies. The troubleshooting chapters start out with flow charts that can help isolate the issue. Too be honest though, the flow-charts are lacking in depth, and I found only helped verify simple routing issues. The book is also missing a much needed chapter on route redistribution.

There are not that many typos in the book. I give this book four stars as it takes a unique approach to troubleshooting routing protocol issues. However, I fail to find the reason this book needs to be on a CCIE's bookshelf.

I give this book 4 pings out of 5:
!!!.!

Absolutly the best book on the topic. Authors, thank you for making my troubleshooting life easier!!

This is an absolutely wonderful book to have. The flowcharts are easy to follow and it actually helps me to solve network problems for me. I am currently preparing for CCIE lab exam and I am sure this book will help me tremendously in the exam. Kudos to the authors who put this book together.

This book is so far is the best out there on troubleshooting IP routing protocols. If you want to learn the theory behind each modern routing protocol (RIP, EIGRP, OSPF, IS-IS, and BGP), and therefore spend less time on troubleshooting in the first place, check out "Cisco IOS for IP Routing" by Andrew Colton. These two together should take you a long way to a good understaning of Cisco IP routing.

This is the best book I have seen in troubleshooting. Especially covering a tough topic like IP routing protocol. I particularly like the error message in each routing protocol. This allows me to understand the meaning of the error message that is not covered in any of the Cisco manuals. This saves me the trouble of calling Cisco TAC. This is a must book to have if you are in Network operations.

This was a helpful and easy to understand guide book to home networking. I'm sure I'll reuse it as a reference guide for future networking projects. It covers the basics and provides detailed illustration for windows based wireless and ethernet networks. You'll learn about choosing the right network for you, what hardware options to buy, installation, setup, security, sharing.

This book has lots of nice pictures.. but for learning home networking it is juvenile and lacks depth of explanation across multiple network routers, connection nodes, and how-tos. Don't waste your money.

I have read many of Mr. Underdahl's technical books over the years. I was in the bookstore recently and saw this on the shelf... I work in the IT arena and am always looking for books for my clients that can provide walkthroughs in a simple and clear, but competent, delivery. This is one of them. Sat down and read about half of it in the store and was very impressed. Definitely not for an advanced IT person or someone who wants heavy nuts-and-bolts type info, but for the 99.9% of the population that wants to get that home network up and running and also learn how to strengthen it and make it better and more useful (say, home office users), this is a great start.

This would be an excellent getting started guide if it was included with a Linksys product, but it is disappointing as a separate purchase. Most of the step-by-step instructions presume that you have purchased a Linksys product. If you use another brand, this book may not give you much help. Even if you have a Linksys product, don't expect much coverage of intermediate or advanced topics. For instance, the book mentions remotely controlling a network computer, but it doesn't explain how to do it other than to briefly mention a few programs. I was expecting a little better coverage based on the previous reviews.

Not that many years ago, many people felt they needed either a technician or a 12-year-old to install and set-up a PC. Many homes now are starting to have more than one PC. Yet broadband connections and high quality printers are expensive if you buy one for each PC. How can those costs be reduced? Add a home network.

Before you faint with anxiety, look at this very simple book. It will guide you through the few technical questions you need to address and give you complete and simple directions you can easily follow (but feel free to recruit a 12-year-old to help you).

Before you are done reading, you will also realize that you may also benefit from being able to put noisy printers in quiet places, eliminate cables, and do lots of neat applications (like visually monitor your children's rooms and front door) with your network.

If you are like me, you've heard that wireless networks can easily be hacked into. This book tells you how to address those very real security problems.

As I stand on the brink of our first home network, I am clutching this book in both hands . . . and am ready to launch myself into familial shared cyberspace saying, "I think I can do it. I think I can do it. I think I can do it." And I know you can!

The only annoying quality about this book comes from the many plugs for Linksys products. But that's better than not having photographs and examples, so I bore with it.

This book is not only simple; you can read it very quickly.

It could have been greatly improved though by concentrating the material throughout around whether you want a wired or wireless network after providing an initial chapter that helped you choose one or the other. Now, you have to slog through every page to find all the information you need for one or the other. Perhaps in a future edition, this book will be updated to deal with that problem.

If you are into the Networking Engineering no mater novice or expert, this is a fascinating textbook on the subject, covering all major Network and Communications Technologies. This is a voluminous book, interesting and perfectly descriptive, from which you will be benefitted from studying, your target being from just gaining knowlegge on the subject, to pursuing a CCIE exam...

A handbook or manual literally means, "In ones own hand". Providing you have a large hand, the fourth edition of Internetworking Technologies Handbook is an overview of at least 52 major protocols in 59 chapters and two appendices.

The topology of the book is advantageous for an academic textbook, as well as a general reference. Instructors of networking courses should consider it for a class on networking in general, or as a supplement to any course since it is a book that will benefit the student through out there study of networking.
The book is a bargain if one plans to pursue numerous networking certifications, since there is at least one chapter that would supplement the preparation for almost any exam.

If one reads through the entire book she/he will find that some of the information is dated, yet some is clearly recent. For example in chapters on security recent virus attacks are mentioned. The reader will also note that the handbook is a smorgasbord of a broad assortment of technologies. It is unlikely that any reader would not find several topics that they were previously unfamiliar with.

The main benefit of a book in this day of instant information via the Internet is the organization and summation of many (emphasize many in this case) different references. This handbook provides quick answers to many topics. In some cases the list of references alone is several pages long. You certainly won't learn enough about any of these technologies to design, install, or administer them from this book alone. But you will get a good understanding of how they work.

This book is not an "easy read", but it's very informative. With over 1,000 pages of in-depth networking technologies, you would think a book like this would put you into "Snoozeville" immediately; but, surprisingly, I found it to be well-written and easy-to-understand. The smaller chapter sizes helps you learn in bite-sized chunks.

Eventhough I'm not going for my Cisco certifications right away, this book helped answer many networking questions I had while studying for my MCSE tests.

Internetworking Technologies Handbook, 4th Ed. (ISBN 1-58705-119-2) is a well written book compiled from the contributions of top networking engineers at Cisco Systems. The book is well laid out and meticulously works its way from the very basics and early beginnings of networking topologies and standards right up to the most current technologies in use today such as VoIP. This edition has added such recent networking topics such as QoS, EAP, and VoIP. This book easily tackles the most complicated topics and puts them into terms that are quite simple to grasp and understand in surprising detail for the novice, as well as the expert. Anyone who is involved in networking from day to day will find this resource invaluable in its explanation of each protocol and technology.
The book is broken into nine Parts that focus on different aspects of networking technology such as Lan Protocols, Wan Technologies, Bridging and Switching, and Routing Protocols. Every Part is then composed of several chapters focusing on individual topics. Each chapter within winds it way though the topic presenting it so that the reader understands the topic. It also provides Cisco design details and examples to assist the reader in any real world applications of the topic. Finally, each chapter ends with a summary and review questions that identify the most important topics of the chapter and test your grasp of them. Also provided are references for further reading on items discussed in each chapter.
Throughout the book detailed diagrams are provided to give a clear picture of what is being discussed. Each diagram is simply presented and not cluttered with unnecessary detail that sometimes accompanies technology books.
Personally, this book was able to really pull together all the little extras that I may find on my CCIE written test I am currently preparing for. There are many different books out there that will help you in preparing for the written test, but they tend to focus strictly on the test, such as a study guide, and less on giving an overall picture of networking so that the reader is both ready for the test and ready for applying their knowledge in the real world. I find that this type of book, one that assists in obtaining a certification and still teach real world fundamentals, is invaluable.
Whether you are a novice just starting out in networking or a well seasoned network engineer preparing for the dreaded CCIE written exam, this book is more than capable in providing the information needed to be successful. And best of all, it is written by the very people who understanding internetworking, Cisco Systems!
As I own many titles written on many different networking and computer topics, I would have to rank this book as 5 out of 5 in terms of content, format, and execution. I would highly recommend this book to anyone involved in network design and implementation and especially to anyone who is about to embark on the CCIE exam.

This book concisely and succintly explains all Internetworking (LAN ,WAN) concepts in a way useful to the novice and also serves as a ready reference to the experienced professional. The print is also pleasing to the eye. However this compendium is a collection of all the Cisco Tutorials on the website.ALso many technologies are dealt with at a cursory level and the treatment could have been more in depth. But to sum up,a good buy.

Quite a good book that explains newer technology/features in an easy way - Concise.

I use it to recertify my CCNP/DP and think this book is worth buying.

This an excellent book. I really like it. It helped me a lot to achieve my ccnp certification and at my job.
Although it lacks some important details, for example, in STA and MLS, that makes me search a lot to find out some answers I had, it covers all the fundamentals necessary to configure switches properly and to do a great test.
I like also the cd that comes with the book. First because I could print the exercises and write anything on the printed sheet, whithout writing on the book. Second, the test session is excellent and we have a lot of material.

This book is intensive (compared to sybex, I read that too) but easy to read.

I did not give 5 stars because of two reasons:

1)It includes ATM LANE and Token ring chapters which are not one of the exam topics mentioned in cisco's site (that means they are not included in the exam!) 2)I encountered many questions that I had no idea, never mentioned in the book (I knew every inch of that book, thats for sure)

The latter made me uncomfortable during the exam. I thought I was going to fail. Well, not so high but I scored 901 (passing was 776). Thanks to this book.

By the way, you should definitely use Clark/Hamilton book for switching. I had this one so I read it but this is just an alternative for Clark/Hamilton book. That one is the "Bible".

Good luck on the exam,

Can Zulaloglu

Compared with CCNP Routing Certification Guide this book is a success. You can see careful writing, good organization and more importantly, clear and accurate description of the knowledge, all from hard work of the authors. Q & A part and attached CD-ROM are helpful too. This book reflects the high Cisco standard. This IS like a book from Cisco Press.

Based solely on the reviews posted here, I made the decision to use this book as the foundation for the exam. However, I felt it necessary to supplement it with CCIE LAN Switching by Hamilton and Clark, primarily because some of the concepts mentioned in the certification guide needed further explanation or illustration. I would also urge you to get the errata from Cisco Press website. A few words about the testing software that comes on the companion CD; it is a bit buggy. For example, the software will ask you to select multiple correct answers for a question, but will provide you only with radio buttons (which as you might know allows you to make only one selection--mutual exclusivity). Given all its shortcomings, I still think it deserves a four star rating.

Another book that I referred to was the CCNP Switching by Lammle (latest edition). Chapters dealing with Multicast (concepts) and Multicast configuration are explained quite nicely in Lammle's book. When it comes to Multicast and its configuration I suggest you read Lammle's book first, then read the corresponding chapters in the certification guide.

Finally, I used the Boson BCMSN test number 2 (the in-house test). Boson offers three tests for [$$$] each, so if you've got the money get them all. You'll get about 750 questions with all the three tests.

BTW: I took the test yesterday (Dec-19) and passed with a score of 926.

I have read all the theory and lengthy samples from the CiscoPress books, now I need a quick reference to perform my day-to-day task as a Network Consultant. This book provided the quickest way to know the stuff in configuring Cisco Routers. This is a valuable book for those who plan to tackle the CCIE Lab exam.

The author did a great job of presenting the relatively basic information on IP routing as it applies to Cisco routers. You will find quite a few useful IOS commands discussed in the book that will want to keep it as a handy reference. I would also suggest looking into getting "Cisco IOS for IP Routing" by Andrew Colton. That book would take you deeper into mechanics of modern routing protocols (EIGRP, OSPF, IS-IS, BGP), along with a discussion of Cisco IOS commands.

Why did this kind of book took so long to be published? The content is just what is missing in the Cisco Press publications, even better, this book is the first that offer a metodology for studying the Cisco stuff, generalizes the commands and make them easy to get along with them. The price is very reasonable and gives you better material in 474 pages than other with more than 500. If you are thinking about having a better understanding of the "Dark side of Cisco" take look at this an uncover them, they are unbelievably easy to understand with Rudenko.

This book does an excellent job of calling small details to your attention that sometimes slide right by you when using larger books. Between this and Jeff Doyle's TCP/IP book, you'll be covered for the written exam and have a firm foundation for the lab. A must for your library and my compliments to the author!

Ok. So you've got all the Cisco Press Books. And you think what good is one little black book going to make. This is one of the most practical books on Cisco so far. The other one written from a practical approach was a title by McGraw-Hill.

This book is a winner. The author literally packs so much information in so few pages! unbelievable.

This book covers almost everything : Bridging, Routing protocols, Frame-Relay, Redistribution etc.

Highly Recommended. You wont be sorry. Invaluable for the CCIE Lab. Get this book plus Bruce Caslow's.

The book contains lots of useful information about how IOS works, however
the material is dated and does not cover routing platforms after the
2000-2001 timeframe.

I was looking for this information to supplement the information provided in the support exam documentation and the performance field guide from MG Hill, and online docs. This book has great information but does need to have a different name as I thought this would be more geared toward how the IOS was actually programmed and give a better understanding of IOS versions.

If you troubleshoot networks this is part of the magic bullet needed to help in understanding memory and memory pool allocation, IOS Resource Management, processes, CPU, buffers, and cache. The book spends quite a bit of time on large scale routers and needs to give a bit more focus on smaller scale equipement, also the information on Netflow is only 5 pages long

There is a lot of good information in this book that I've never seen anywhere else, so I'm going to give it 4 stars...though, it should be called something like "How some Cisco routers switch packets and use buffers". It is far from a thorough treatment of IOS internals- but what is there is well written and valuable. I especially enjoyed the discussions about the algorithms and data structures used by the various fast switching methods.

This book centers around buffer allocations and buffering problems. It will give you a better understanding of when different buffers are used. I think the title should have been "Cisco IOS Buffering, What you need to know".

You definitely have to read between the lines to fill in what all is happening to the data as it flows through the router in different ways. I feel that it is rather limited in it's descriptions of the IOS SW Architecture so don't expect to come away with the full details on how IOS does its job.

This is not a book for beginners.

I bought this book and read it cover to cover in about two weeks (which for me is pretty good). It's definitely not for beginners, in fact it really benefits people who are running BFRs like 7200 and bigger. Good detail about 7500 and 12000 architectures.

It also gave me a lot of little bits of knowledge that made sense but I hadn't thought about before. Example - if you have a 7206 stacked with fast ethernet cards but your only using half of them, IOS is allocating buffer space to every interface anyway, so pull those cards.

Other topics are queuing methods like weighted RED and a very coherent discussion of process/fast/CEF/distributed switching.

Pricey book but I thought it was worth it.

I enjoyed the first book in this mystery series featuring search-and-rescue dogs, Smoky Mountain Tracks, so I picked this one up. I just ordered the third book in the series, Gun Shy.

Rapid Fire brings the mystery a little closer to home for kennel owner, dog trainer, and search-and-rescue officer Raine Stockton: her college boyfriend, Andy Fontana, is back in the area, wanted by the FBI as a known terrorist and suspect in recent eco-terrorism crimes.

He'd disappeared ten years ago when he was suspected of bombings, but Raine's never believed he's guilty. Now they think he's back, looking for his payment for that job--a cache of diamonds.

Raine's faith is tested, however, when she keeps finding rainbows--Andy's nickname for her, and the symbol of the eco-terrorism group he's suspected of heading. Still, she believes in him and it's a race to find him before the authorities.

Rapid Fire is a more intense book than its predecessor, both because of the personal connection and emotions and because the issue isn't black-and-white. Raine has to reevaluate her former and present relationships, and has to decide where she draws the line between her views on the environment and the law.

And of course there are the dogs. One subplot involves Raine entering a dog in an event for which he's unsuited. The dog training echoes and clarifies larger issues in the plot and in life in general.

The first book was simply entertaining. This one is deeper. I'm looking forward to finding out where the series goes from here.

Donna Ball is a great author. Her books are well written and I think its great the way she incorporates the animals into the story, from the many dogs to the bears. I highly recommend her books. They are enjoyable from start to finish.

"Rapid Fire" is the second in the Raine Stockton Dog Mysteries by Donna Ball. Ms. Ball's writing is improving as she goes along, as the second is better than the first -- and the first was a solid three star. We're back with Raine Stockton and the dog she finally accepted in the first book. Although the dog is puppyish and gets into his share of problems, when the fewmets hit the windmill he does his job. The story is a good look at the dog training world but a better look at relationships between people and how politics and the U.S. current Soviet-style government will make even Americans turn on their neighbors and family members. The reason I don't give the book 4 stars is because the main character, Raine Stockton, is going backwards. (SPOILER ALERT) In the first book she was a woman coming into herself and her own independance, after twice marrying and divorcing the local sherrif for his infidelities ... with just about every woman in their small, mountain town and a few passersby just for variety. By the end of the second book Raine has played doormat to the government MIBs and sucked up betrayal from just about everyone *except* the fellow who's supposed to be the bad guy. At the end of the book, she's not just sucked it up but shacked up with ... you guessed it, her cheatin' ex. This disappointing ending made Raine a lot less likeable and left me with the urge to smack her upside the head and demand, "What are you thinking?!" Not a good way to end a book. Also not a good way to encourage me to buy the next in line.

I personally liked the book as I could relate to the main character's issues with dog training and tracking. Sometimes, dogs just don't do what's expected but "trust the nose, as the nose knows". If a reader likes dogs and mystery together, then the reader will find this a good read. The ending was unexpected which is always good in a mystery. Characters in the book were well rounded and made the reader care about the trials and tribulations they went through.

If you love dogs and very few people don't, this new series by Donna Ball is a treat. In this the second book in the series, Raine Stockton is still employed as a part time "consultant" and search and rescue officer with the Forest Service. Her own kennel business, Dog Daze Boarding and Training Facility is doing well and her free time is spent at various dog competition events. Her life is disrupted when her almost ex- husband, Deputy Sheriff Buck Lawson, visits her home with the FBI.

Raine's old college boyfriend, Andy Fontana, is wanted by the FBI as a known terrorist and has been on the run for 10 years fleeing from a bombing charge. The FBI insists he's back in the area and they suspect that he's trying to retrieve a huge cache of diamonds that he once hid in the vast forest area surrounding Raine's house. They also feel that Andy is responsible for the recent eco terrorist crime spree and the murder of a Mexican construction worker who was working for the construction company hired to clear part of the forest for a huge resort.

Raine is loyal to her memories of Andy being a good man, and she firmly believes in his innocence no matter what Buck and the FBI tell her about his criminal history. In order to prove his innocense she must (with the help of her golden retriever, Cisco) find the real killer in order to help the man she once loved. Her determination causes a rift between her and Buck, and the FBI begins to suspect she is helping Andy.

This is a great Donna Ball mystery. Anyone who loves dogs, wonderful descriptions of the Great Smokie Mts., an interesting plot and well developed characters will enjoy Rapid Fire. Raine and Buck are people you will want to continue reading about and I'm eagerly waiting for the next title in the series.