Cisco Books

The Introduction to SNA Networking and the Advanced SNA Networking(Professional's Guide to VTAM/NCP) by Jay Ranade and George Sackett is excellent. This book takes a more high level view of SNA while still giving you important details. SNA is not a protocol that you can digest in one sitting or by just reading about it. If you have no experience in mainframes, take the reading slowly and try to apply it to your current mainframe environment. I have worked directly and indirectly with SNA for the past 12 years and I still refer back to the Jay Ranade/George Sackett books. I think this book delivers greatly on introducing SNA, APPN/APPC and Cisco's implementation of DLUR/DLUS, DLSW+, etc.. This book is one of those books that you will read multiple times and find something new each time. Definintely a reference book as well as a good tool to use in learning SNA and teaching SNA. But again, it's not TCPIP, so take it slowly. If you find this book too difficult, then try to get your hands on the Introduction to SNA Networking by Jay Ranade and George Sackett.

Writing style is difficult to follow. Authors use acronyms that were not previously defined, there are syntactical errors (eg p. 338 "If a frame received at a peer from a remote peer is larger than that capable of the end station to handle"), and their whole approach is too abstract. Their configuration examples are also badly explained (eg they don't state clearly that in an RSRB over TCP configuration you have to define the local peer in the same way as a remote peer).

For configuration examples the online documentation at cisco.com (especially the technical tips) is infinitely superior. The only use I found for the book was in Part I, which is a (superficial) introduction to SNA technology.

Network engineers who need to integrate SNA to TCP/IP should keep this book as one of their reference. The author has his expertise in legacy SNA network. I still have his famous book "Advanced SNA Networking" sitting on my bookself. This time he did not give a lot of pages to explain the SNA concepts. Instead, the book provides numerous samples to describe how to make use of Cisco routers to interconnect SNA networks. Readers who lack of mainframe experience should not have major difficutlties to read this book. A lot of network diagrams and configurations to help readers to understand. Basically, he covered all the requried topics such as SRB, DLSW+, SDLLC, STUN, CIP... I don't really learn a lot from this book, but it really serves as a good reference especially for those who support SNA.

This book is OK if your a starter with the MARS product. I found the book to be interesting, though they could have gone into more customization and devices that are not natively supported by the MARS appliance.

On the good side, its somewhat better than the useless and incomplete pamphlet that comes with the MARS appliance.

But I think the price is a bit high for what your getting.

The Cisco MARS (Monitoring, Analysis, and Response System) is a network appliance that fits on your network to provide the best possible network security.

The biggest failure with MARS is that many companies plug it in, use it's standard protocols and tests and then find that their network has been compromised.

To get the most effective use out of MARS it must be actively managed. And that is the function of this book. It covers how to understand the problem, how to configure and deploy your MARS appliance as well as how the MARS works from a technical and procedural standpoint. The book is intended for professional security/network/management engineers/analysts/responders/administrators. It can be read at a level of using it to understand your system up to the actual hands-on set-up and use of the MARS appliance.

This book is, of course, heavily oriented to the Cisco security approach, however as this is one of the most common systems used in large networks this is not bad. It is a fairly introductory level book intended for use at an operational level by the individuals in charge of your sizes.

2/3 of this book is filler material - the 1st 3 chapters gives general overviews about STM, the Appendix is like the last 25% of the book. Absolutely zero coverage on how to implement custom parser functionality (needed if you have a device that doesn't have built-in support under MARS). Useful only as a basic starting point reference, but not worth the price tag. Indicates that another book on MARS will be produced - maybe that is why the content has been watered down.

My only problem with this book is that at 153 pages of text I feel cheated, I would like to have had more, a lot more. Perhaps Professor Cisco will write a more complete biography of General Gist soon.

States Rights, yes that was his birth name, Gist was an officer in the Confederacy during the Civil War he was a General in the South Carolina Militia and moved over to the regular Confederate Army during the Civil War, he was one of the second or third echelon generals of the war, a group not that much is know about other then a pigion dropings covered memorial in some small town where they born or lived. Gist was a Havard trained lawyer by trade and became an officer in the militia before the war. Through politics, his father was governor for awhile, and good organizational skills he rose very quickly to the rank of general.

When the war started he was reduced in rank to Colonel and commanded a Regiment that was somewhat less then distinguished in the field, but through losses to other officers he was promoted to general and at the time of his death at the battle of Franklin in 1864 he held the rank of Major general.

Professor Walter Cisco who worte this book does a good job of describing the battles of the Tennessee theatre of operations and how Grant defeated the Confederates at Chattanooga and how the Rebels lost the advantage through poor generalship and in itself is reason to read this book.

States Rights Gist is somewhat of a sidenote in Civil War history. As the previous reviewer stated, he is probably most remembered for his name above all else. However, upon reading this book, he could be remembered for a lot more. Gist actually led a very interesting career during the war and his marriage not too long before his death certainly adds some drama to the mix. Cisco's book does the General justice, but often times I felt like there could have been more. Gist was at the Battle of Secessionville, the largest battle fought in South Carolina during the war, but not much details come from the chapter. The Atlanta Campaign is glossed over. Even the battle of Franklin feels anti-climactic. Considering that Gist was one of the highest ranking men in the South Carolina militia, served in many of the wars major battles of the Western Theater, and was considered to have one of the best brigades in the Army of Tennessee you would expect more length and depth in the book. Cisco writes a decent book, but it reads too much like a college term paper when, it seems from Gist's life, it could have been so much more. Still recommended, though, because of such little scholarship on Gist.

If not for his name (yes that was his real name), I rather doubt that States Rights Gist would be remembered today. He was one of the fatalities at the Battle of Franklin, which had more than its fair share of Confederate general officers killed or wounded. It ended a brief military career which had been moderately distinguished if not outstanding.

Why only 3 stars? Simply put, the subject matter is obscure, even for the most devoted Civil War enthusiast, and I cannot really imagine how the man's rather short life merited a book. I only came across the book because it was a History Book Club selection. It is so specialized that only a select few would ever seek it out. The fact that no other reviews have been written on it bears this out. It isn't a bad book, just maybe an unnecessary one.

This is the best CCNA book to buy for the exam. It is written by serveral industry experts who actually work on Cisco networks. The exam watch in the book is very helpfull.
The questions in this book are realistic to the actuall exam.
The section on bridging and switching is excellant.

Many errors in this book. Some are spelling (annoying), some are wrong answers. I bought this book a week before taking the test, half way through it I had to put it down and go back to Lammle. I guess one way this book helps is you can test your knowledge by spotting their mistakes.

It is a very good book to preparate for the exam. I come from the Netherlands, and I must take the exam in Englisch. The examwatch in this book is very helpfull. From the internet you have the right to download a full exam and you get a full study book webbased for free. The questions in this book are very hard, but I like it because I thought that the exam was harder then it was. I passed the exam with 903 points.

This book, on my first read was boring. But as I go on with various chapters, it becomes enjoyable. The VPN chapters are great because it was well explained in detail. Although some chapter questions are too easy to answer, it becomes a preparatory factor in taking the exam. One more thing on this book: If you want to pass the ISCW exam, consider reading other references in complement of this book. The topics on DSL and MPLS are briefly discussed so expect you'll be craving for more detailed explanations. Overall, it's a recommended book.

I'm studying to pass the ISCW exam using this book and several other resources. While it's a decent technical overview, I have noticed some things in regards to the chapter on MPLS architecture that seem puzzling.

Page 196 discusses MPLS and presents it basically another routing protocol, with labels assigned to each IP network prefix. While this is one implementation of MPLS, it's not really an accurate way to describe this technology. I'm disappointed that two CCIE authors and their tech reviewer haven't better illustrated the functions of protocols for readers.

There are other, similar minor issues with how the book presents technical material relating to some topics. Mainly the issues revolve around how the authors fail to clearly explain some of the functionality of protocols being dealt with. Generally, though, the config samples are flawless examples of how to get the job done.

This being a Cisco press book I do hold it to a higher standard because they invented networking. They also have several highly qualified people who wrote the book, which leads me to expect a clean, accurate technical explanation.

I have read this kids book and even as a parent and I do like it. However, I would recommend that it be a chapter book. It makes it easier for kids to keep up with. I would love to meet Cisco and the author. I noticed that they are real. A really cute book for all ages.

I loved this book. This is an enjoyable and entertaing book for 8-10 year olds and also sends a good message. I can't wait til more books come out about Cisco and his adventures.

I have a theory. My theory states that any book written with big fonts and big space between lines is not good. The logic behind this thought is that some people want to write thick books to impress the readers but due to the lack of content they end up putting everything in big fonts to fill the pages. This seems to be the case. This book tries to be somewhat actual by presenting relatively new hardware like the VWIC multiflex trunk cards, with tables listing hardware and software compatibility matrixes which is a waste of paper becase this can be found in the cisco webpage. Then it falls hard behind on treating important matters like getting deeper into H.323 or SIP. For instance, the book has only FOUR pages covering SIP (including the pictures) and TWO pages for MGCP. The kicker is the chapter treating QoS and TOS field marking. It slightly goes over IP precedence with very poor and quick explanations and does not even mention the existence of the DSCP interpretation of the TOS field! Definitely a book to forget if you want something actual for VoIP. What? Why I bought this book? Well... I'm still asking myself. Maybe because I trusted in the only one review saying it rocks.

I own several VoIP titles and this is easily the best I own to date. It explains all the concepts quite clearly and the Case Studies make understanding configuring this technology very easy. I highly recommend this book!

A detailed and complete reference on on implementing Cisco VPNs. This book covers the whole gamit of implementing Cisco VPNs. Going from concepts through complete set-up and on to implementation and beyond. Excellent coverage on how to configure native Windows support for compulsory and voluntary VPNs--everyone's #1 priority - security. A complete and detailed table of contents and appendix make quick searches a breeze. This book is chock full of technical setup procedures and protocol. A very complete book on how to configure IPSEC, L@TP, PPTP, GRE Tunnels, CET, and more. Read it or be left behind!

The compilation entitled "Implementing Cisco VPNs" was a rather disappointing choice of technical literature. A significant amount of text was devoted to development of PPTP services and related Microsoft networking concepts. Although this information may have value at some fundamental level, it really serves to deliver deminishing impact when constructing environments of highly scalable architecture and elevated security requirements. The chapter on Dial-up networking presented an anomaly with respect to concept flow. Information of greater value may be found free of charge on Cisco's website.

The book gives indepth knowledge of IS-IS in all its modes with good case studies. Case studies provide a practical perspective of various design strategies. Detailed explanation of how the IS-IS database works. Its worth reading this title.

I purchased this book as I hoped it would enhance my knowledge for the CCIE - unfortunately I was wrong. The best part of the book are the first few chapters - Chapter 3 & 4. This is a good refresher for ISIS. But, as the book goes on, the continuity is lost. Particularly, the last few chapters on troubleshooting ISIS are of no real value. If you are one of the rare networks that uses IS-IS, you probably need this book. If you don't use IS-IS, then don't bother!

I give this book 3 pings out of 5:
!!..!

I didn't know anything about networking before reading this book and after finishing I've learnt the key concepts in this area.
Nevertheless, this is not a book to pass the CCNA test. I think it is a good book for those who are interested in this area and do not want to begin directly with a CCNA test book.
As a bad point, I should say the translation does not seem to be very accurate (as my English!), and sometimes is difficult to understand some explanations.

El mejor texto para quienes no quieren hacer el Programa CCNA...y está en español. Desventajas: su precio, el grueso y que la traduccción tenga algunas fallas. Pero vale la pena tenerlo.