Routers and Routing Books

I recently purchased this book based on the rave reviews even with an updated second edition off the press. I can honestly say that this book is Awesome in detail and explanation and is still extremely relevant to understanding the how too's and processes involved in routing tcp/ip. The most amazing feature about this book is how well explained and the book makes topics that would normally seem dificult or confusing easily understood, in other words grandma could learn how routing tcp/ip works from reading this book!

Brandon, Rome, GA

Great book for understanding IGP in details.

If any book was ever considered as the MUST HAVE BIBLE for Interior Routing Protocols - then Jeff Doyle's first effort on IGPs is THE book (how many cliché's do you want in one sentence)!! The book goes through at a very even pace - dissecting and describing the majority of both open-standard IGPs (OSPF, RIP and a little on ISIS) and Cisco-proprietary IGPs (IGRP and it's beefier brother - EIGRP). The book also includes some invaluable appendixes - including tutorials on working with Binary and hex.

But let's focus on the book's main reason for being - explaining IGPs. Take for instance OSPF - one of the most popular and widely implemented routing protocols in use today. On page 416-417, the book correctly discusses virtual links as a type of network type. The OSPF chapter typically employs 5-8 routers (and shows the required configs). Such a daunting exercise may at first seem like overkill, but Doyle is able to show how (and why) the all these router configs are necessary (to show, for instance, how they interact with or whether a DR or BDR). The book does have it's typos though, as the table on page 484 incorrectly documents stub networks as allowing type 5 and 7 LSAs (not so - thus a stub!)

I cannot imagine there are many CCIEs out there that do not have this book on their bookshelf.

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

I am reviewing Routing TCP/IP Volume 1 (ISBN 1578700418), part of the CCIE Professional Development Series from Cisco Press. This book is widely regarded as part of the "Holy Trinity" of CCIE preparatory books. In addition to CCIE prep, it is also highly valued as an essential desk reference for anyone pursuing a career as a senior-level routing engineer. The author, Jeff Doyle, having written the two most recognized tomes on IP Routing, is a respected authority on the topic. His writing style is very clear and not at all difficult to read, which sets him apart from a lot of the authors in the "high-end routing book" category.

The book is part of a set of two books. TCP/IP Volume 1 contains coverage of the major interior routing protocols (RIP, IGRP, EIGRP, OSPF & ISIS) and follows it with coverage of route redistribution, filtering and mapping. TCP/IP Volume 2 covers the BGP exterior gateway protocol and follows it with coverage of advanced IP routing issues. As someone who's come up through the CCNA-to-CCNP-to-CCIE-candidate path, I recognized all of the topics from the BSCI curriculum. All this book really does is takes them to another level of depth. I highly recommend this path of coming at the CCIE, because unless you've done it all and seen it all, there's way too much information to take in during a single reading. Reading the BSCI book first gets you familiar with all of the topics, so that you're not overwhelmed when reading the Doyle books.

While many pan this book as being outdated since it was written in 1998, my contention is that all of the covered topics are still fair game for the CCIE qualifying written exam and the book still retains all of its original value. There are a lot of topics which are on the test which are not in Doyle's books, but if you look at the CCIE blueprint, the topics covered in the books map exactly to the topics in the IP Routing & IP Multicast sections of the blueprint. You can't treat any book as being a one stop shop for CCIE preparation. That's impossible. The book would be the size of my desk. I would actually contend that, on the next rewrite, they should break the 2 volume set into 3 volumes, one for the interior protocols, one for BGP by itself, and one for all of the advanced routing issues and multicast. This would make the volumes a bit less daunting and also somewhat easier to carry.

But, carry-ability issues aside, this is a very good book. It takes all of the topics to the degree of depth which you would expect for a CCIE-level book and explains things in a way that doesn't lose the reader. I had to work to keep the examples straight in my head, but no one said becoming a CCIE was easy. On the downside, the book contains no disc. This is unfortunate, because I always like to have the book on PDF. Also, it would be nice to have the review questions and answers put into a question bank. The book is also missing the "Do I Know This Already" section for each chapter, which is present in all of Cisco Press' certification guides. I realize that this is probably due to the fact that this is more of a desk reference / learning book than an official certification guide. However, as someone who's studying for an exam, I always like as many free practice questions as I can get.

I give Routing TCP/IP Volume 1 a 5 on my 5 ping rating scale and look forward to reading Volume 2.
!!!!!

Routing TCP/IP Volume 1 by Jeff Doyle (ISBN 1578700418) is an advanced level book on the theory and practice of routing and its implementation in Cisco routers. The 1026-page book (with a 50+ page index - always an important part of any technical book) is packed with useful information, example network architectures, and sample commands and their corresponding outputs to help the reader get a thorough grasp of real-life application of the theory.

The book is meant for working professionals in the network and routing field. Part I presents some basic routing theory along with the routing types - static and dynamic. This section, as in other books, is meant as a review for those seasoned engineers who have been working in the field for some time. It also helps to bring up to speed the other readers who may lack the necessary background. Part II contains the real substance of the book. It covers the interior routing protocols in detail including RIP 1 & 2, IGRP, EIGRP, OSPF, and IS-IS. The material presented in these chapters is definitely solid enough to give a detailed understanding of the subject matter and provide the necessary knowledge to allow one to troubleshoot the problems that creep up in maintaining networks running these routing protocols. Part III presents the issue relating to the optimization of networks running these routing protocols such as filtering and redistribution. Part IV consists of the appendices.

The most useful part of the book in my opinion is the examples and sample outputs. These really help the reader to understand the details on implementing the concepts presented in the book. Jeff presents a sample network architecture and uses that architecture to explain various aspects of the topic being discussed. For example, to illustrate various aspects of EIGRP routing and load balancing, a 5-router mesh architecture is presented followed by a detailed discussion of concepts such as succession, load sharing, route transitions and updates, etc. This approach really helps in understanding all aspects of a particular topic with concrete examples to relate to.

I took hold of this book not to help in preparing for the CCIE but to assist in the understanding of routing protocols that I use in my work life. As such, I can not comment on the applicability of this book to preparing for the CCIE exam but as for its application to real world scenarios, this book far exceeds any other on the topic of routing in the Cisco environment.

I am really impressed with the material presented in this book. The book is thorough and detailed in its coverage of interior routing protocols. Jeff Doyle is an expert in his field and this book proves it. On a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest, I give an enthusiastic 5 to Routing TCP/IP Volume 1 by Jeff Doyle. I can't wait to get my hands on Volume II.

This is a really great book on BGP and Internet Architecture. The explanation of BGP at the protocol level is great. More importantly though is its explanation and examples of using eBGP / iBGP with an IGP.

I've heard it criticized as being dated and too Cisco specific. Though it is Cisco specific, it's still very relevant. I would start with this book and read past NANOG presentations on introductory BGP if I wanted to learn how the Internet works.

Internet Routing Architectures is considered the BGP4 handbook and rightfully so. I found the overall composition easy to read. Even though the book is aimed at varying levels of expertise, it does not assume any level of knowledge in TCP/IP or routing. It explains all the concepts, from the simplest one right up to the most demanding, in a fluent way. The book works hard not to withhold protocol details and design-oriented information, while at the same time realizing that building general understanding comes first. An in depth look at BGP is supplied here from the theory aspect, if you need actual configurations and commands I suggest also:

Cisco BGP-4 Command and Configuration Handbook : CCIE Professional Development

This is a good book, let there be no doubt about it. But in my opinion it goes beyond the scope of the 682-661 exam for which purpose I bought it. However, every ISP backbone routing engineer should have this book with him and use it as a dictionary in case of.

This is the best BGP-4 book out there in preparation for the CCIE. Do not waste your money on others this is the one that you need. It takes you from the beginnings of the Internet to the current uses of the protocol. This book is a must have.

I have always felt that I am part of the small minority that just does not see the beauty of this book if studying for the CCIE. I have, for years, read other's comments on the how Halabi's "Internet Routing Arch" is a `must have', yet I still have not found a similar reason why. While I do feel that the book does (probably) the best job at explaining BGP and how to implement BGP in a Cisco-centric world, I have not discovered the value for the CCIE. I would much rather spend my time with CiscoPress's "Routing TCP/IP" Volume 2, by Jeff Doyle and Jennifer DeHaven Carroll than this book.

One item of concern, there is a noticable amount of trivial errors in this book that can lead to disaster if implemented incorrectly. For example:

Page 106 - "...any traffic that has an origin OR destination that does not belong to the local AS." This clearly should be an AND, not OR.

Page 315 - "You can also specify a PREFIX list..." - I believe this should be a filter list, not a prefix list.

And then there are places where the book is too opinionated - for example - page 206 "Many operators choose to filter dynamically learned defaults to avoid situations in which traffic ends up where it is not supposed to be." I do not feel this is true, and can think of multiple times when not filtering the advertised default route may just end up being the worst option. In fact, I do not feel either configuration is the right configuration to admit or condone, as the wrong configuration can have disastrous effects.

I still have to give this book 4 stars - simply because of it's utilitarian value and overwhelming sense of loyalty given to this book by others. But I don't reach for this book too often.

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

This is a great book on Cisco networking, so just buy it now. I've tried reading the CCNA prep books before but never got around to finishing them because they got into too much detail and I wasn't working with Cisco products enough to get hands-on experience.

At my current job I'm more involved in networking, so when I saw this book, I thought I'd give it a shot. So far it's been very helpful. This book is strictly practical in nature, so you won't get a lot of detail on Ethernet framing or the OSI model. (Note to author, it would be helpful in the second edition to include one concise chapter on the OSI model and network protocols as a refresher.)

If you have a certification such as MCSA, MCSE, Network+, or CCNA, you will have all the background info you need before reading this book. If you have no networking knowledge at all, this book is not for you.

I've been skipping around reading different chapters (this is the kind of book where you can do that). This is one of the few IT book that I've read that actually gave me practical info that I could put to use right away. Here are two examples:

1.) From Ch 2 regarding auto-negotiation: In June 2008 we moved to a new office that had all new gigabit Cisco switches that replaced our 10/100 switches. A few weeks after our move we started getting reports of errors when saving files to our EMC Celerra NAS. Users would get errors saving files to the NAS and their computers' system logs would report a "Delayed Write Failed" error.

Source: MRxSmb
EventID:50
{Delayed Write Failed} Windows was unable to save all the data for the file \Device\LanmanRedirector
The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere.

This looked to be a network issue so when I was poking around the Celerra Manager I noticed that its NICs were hard coded to 100 full duplex. Since we were on gigabit switches that were set to auto-negotiate, I deduced (from the knowledge gained in this chapter) that the EMC devices should be set to auto-negotiate as well. So after contacting EMC and then changing the EMC NICs to auto-negotiate, we've had no more reports of these errors.

2.) From Ch 9 regarding routing: I ran into an issue with improper configuration of the gateway of last resort during our office move. For whatever reason, the gateway of last resort was not configured on our new VLANs. We noticed the problem because we couldn't get to the Internet, but we could get to our other offices. When our network support vendor walked my manager through running the sho ip route command, I immediately saw "gateway of last resort is not set" at the top and knew that it was the issue. So even though I had only been reading this book for two weeks, it paid off. I'm sure the vendor would have found the issue after a few more minutes, but it was nice to be able to point out the issue to them.

I found this book to be absolutely remarkable. The text at the top about it being what you need to be that wasn't on the CCNA is all too true.

Mr. Donahue's writing style is what makes the book. He explains often complex topics in a manner of a grizzled old veteran telling a war story. He doesn't break down into the deep technical details, he tells you how it works and why you should do it the way he's telling you to.

There's more that goes into being a network monkey than just knowing what commands to type, and the insight he offers into the more social aspects of how to be a network guy are invaluable. It is my honest opinion that the final chapters, particularly those on how to deal with management and being a nerd, should be required reading for anyone that works at a technology company.

It is my sincere hope that Mr. Donahue continues his writing career and takes his style of communicating to other complex subjects. I would love a dissertation of BGP written in the same manner, for example.

If you're a bright shiny new CCNA, or studying for the CCNA, and you're serious about pursuing a career in networking, buy this book. It won't help you pass any exams, but you'll find it as one of your favorite reference materials nonetheless.

I loved three things about this book:

1- The simple style it conveys from cover to cover. Every subject in network administration is divided into short but detailed chapters in order to keep the reader's attention focused. Anyone can write a book that lists an experienced user's knowledge of the subject, but it takes a real engineer to compile the data in small doses of knowledge.

2- The clarity of the information mentioned. The author uses the same style of defining the problem, suggesting the best solution, and detailing the technical commands to implement the best solution.
Common pitfalls, problem symptoms, and real life examples are provided as well.

3- The deep coverage of the subject at hand. The author goes over almost every subject in network administration, but without the extra fluff. It's really what you need to know.

Definitely a great buy.

Network Warrior is another quite useful O'Reilly effort in the Cisco handbook space. It really is potentially handy for many real-time network operators. One thing I wish the author had spent much more time on is Ethernet switching. He does dig into some of the quirks of configuring VLANs in the Cisco environment but to my way of thinking associated subjects (mirroring, span port config, spanning tree troubleshooting) need a lot more exposure. One area that cannot be talked about enough are the twists involved in setting up spanning tree through a complex VLAN network. Another potentially vital topic involves interoperating with other vendors' equipment in a spanning tree network. I bought this book hoping for more exposure than I got in those areas. This is the only reason I didn't give it five.

One of the best networking books I have read, period. Not just how it works, but why it works and should be configured. After you study and obtain your CCNA, this is the next read that will fill in many information holes.

Highly recommended.

This is a very good book for people who want to learn the in depths of routing in general and cisco routing in particular. Protocol description is very well written going from beginner to advanced level. I recommend this to everybody who wants to make a networking career.

This is a corner-stone of Cisco routing engine explanation. It doesn't contain any braindump stuff like many books do. But it covers many topics: theoretical basis, IOS pseudo code explanations, configuration examples and trace/debugging methods. There are also many interesting details and gismos that I didn't find anywhere . It's very useful as a preparation guide -- you have to read this book if you do want to pass some sort of serious Cisco's exams (I mean CCNP or CCIE). So it's outstanding title (in other words -- it worth to spend 50+ bucks for it guyz!) :))

Btw, now I'm waiting for your next book. Why not? Will it be dedicated to MPLS or MLOSPF? Huh? :))

This book is not for the faint of heart.
Ever read a book and find a sentence that makes you say "man that one fact was worth the cash!". You get about one sentence like that every page in this text.

Example:
ip route 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 s0 172.17.1.33

I bought the book because I wanted to understand when, why, and how that command works. All of my questions were answered.

Since I'm not a programmer some of the explainations took me awhile to get, but worth it.

Gold.

With my CCNA exam date staring straight at me, I decided to finally read my copy of Alex Zinin's 'Cisco IP Routing.' This book clearly exceeds the level of knowledge to pass Cisco's entry level certification. It is aimed more at CCNPs or CCIEs who need a deeper understanding of Cisco routing. Nevertheless, I found the book's explanations of certain subjects to be absolutely outstanding, even for a CCNA candidate. I recommend anyone wishing to learn Cisco router operations read 'Cisco IP Routing.'

This book seeks to deliver the 'why' as well as the 'how' of Cisco routing. It was published in late 2001 and uses IOS 12.1 as its reference platform. This IOS version is recent enough to meet my expectations, so don't fear that the book may not apply to more recent Cisco software and hardware. Remember that the 2600 series router was introduced in January 1999, and the modular 2600XM series arrived only in May 2002.

The first compelling aspect of 'Cisco IP Routing' is its exceptionally well-written and thorough explanations of various routing topics. Although my understanding of the subject was improved by reading Todd Lammle's Sybex CCNA books, Alex Zinin's approach assisted me immensely. For example, he helped me understand that classful addressing offers basic subnetting, which 'was used in the real world long before VLSM [Variable-Length Subnet Masks] appeared' (p. 22). He made it clear on p. 52 that 'when multiple matching routes are available to the same destination, routers choose the longest matching route to forward the packets.' This allows specifying a default route that is only used when more specific routes do not match a given destination.

Beyond very insightful routing discussions, Alex makes his point using a variety of methods. In some cases he presents tables that compare protocols. Elsewhere he uses diagrams or figures. Throughout the book he demonstrates syntax and configuration, along with debugging messages showing how protocols work in real life. His innovative use of 'pseudo-code' shows how Cisco might represent protocol information within IOS itself. In many chapters he presents and answers frequently asked questions. These help to dispel myths readers may have concerning Cisco routers.

I cannot complain about any real aspect of this book. As a minor point, Alex's thorough examinations of routing packet headers should have been augmented by real packet traces. I would like to see a companion volume introduce topics like spanning tree, BGP, and other routing and switching issues. Readers looking for such coverage now might like Radia Perlman's 'Interconnections, 2nd Ed' and Iljitsch van Beijnum's 'BGP.'

If you want to truly learn what your Cisco router does when it makes forwarding decisions, you must read 'Cisco IP Routing.' I have not seen any other books so powerfully expose the inner workings of these critical systems.

The first time I heard this book is when I took the Internetworkexpert's online course. Brian McGahan recommended it. Becuase of its high customer rating, this book should have something worth studying. After reading through a couple of chapters, I feel it is a great book in IP Routing protocols.

This book presents concepts along with router outcome, so it's fairly easy to follow the author's logic in each different technology. This makes this book easy to digest. The way it presents how routing protocols work is very similar to Doyle's TCPIP vol.1. Yet, its editing style is more concise and it covers more in-depth materials in the IGP area.

Associated with Doyle's TCPIP and Parkhurst's OSPF, this book should be a required reading for CCIE RS candidates.

When I got a copy of this book and realized what was on my hands I hurried up to ask for a copy to our University Library. Unfortunately, it seemed that the book has been discontinued from Addison Wesley's catalog. 'It must be a joke...' I thought. Well, I'm not pretty sure about that, but if it's true 0 stars for AW editors!

I really think that this should have be a bestseller, if only the 've made a better promotional campaign. I found the book thanks to a cross reference in 'Wi-Foo', a masterpiece of Wi-Fi security. I had never heard of Puzmanova's book before.

It's a superb guide about networking interconnections, at the same level of Radia Perlman's Interconnections book. But with some useful enhancements, including keywords and concepts highlights, and a very organized content presentation. It's extremely easy to find what you're looking for in a moment.

I agree with the other reviews about the contents so I won't add anything here. No matter if you only manage to find a used copy, it worths your money and effort. Get it!!

Excellent. Well written, well structured and comprehensive. Breadth of coverage necessarily means less depth on any given subject, but good references allow in-depth follow up. All in all, easy to read and very insightful.

I am a Beng Electronic engineer Final Year student doing my final year project on routing efficiencies, investigating packet arrival times using different routing protocols. I have so far found this book extremely beneficial, which explains a lot of the terminology and techniques in the routing world in great detail. For me its not a book to read from back to back, but one that I found very handy to have near by when working along with my project.

I bought this book on Brian Dennis' recommendation, and I've been very happy with my purchase. The book goes into a tremendous amount of detail on various bridging techniques and routing protocols, but it's quite easy to read and very enjoyable. Excellent work.

Chris Bryant
CCIE #12933

Puzmanova says the main aim in her book is to show what's behind "the evolution in network interconnection, and give some clue as to where industry developments and standardization efforts are headed: to gain performance by avoiding unnecessary processing in the internetworking device itself, whether router or switch."

Part I is on the principles of network interconnection. This is an overview of the layering principles in building and operating networks. Puzmanova's enthusiasm comes out here as she talks about how she became fascinated in the relaying (routing) principles observed in each layer. She peeled the OSI onion from the outside in, looking at the network from the top layers down. The relaying principles at each layer cover pretty much all the widespread LAN (802.3, Token Ring, FDDI) and WAN (X.25, ISDN, Frame Relay, ATM and SONET) technologies. Then she covers network management and remote monitoring, as well as the principles of network interconnection. At this section she addresses a key question: What is the difference between a router and a switch? After all, switches route, and routers switch. The difference is in the architecture. A switch architecture provides additional forwarding capacity as ports are added. A router typically has a single forwarding engine and additional ports still share the capacity of this single engine. Interestingly, this is somewhat analogous to the difference between shared and switched media, seen in the evolution from hubs to switches. With hubs (as with routers), users share the capacity; with switched media, the capacity is dedicated to all the users.

Part II is very brief and talks about bridging, essentially a precursor to switching. It talks about transparent bridging which is used for Ethernet and source route bridging for Token Ring. The difficulty in creating hybrids for these two is discussed, and indeed there usually has to be some kind of routing function. The important thing with transparent bridging (which has pretty much won the day by the way - forget about Token Ring at this stage) is the prevention of loops through the spanning tree protocol.

Part III deals with switching principles and architectures, including circuit switching, packet switching, and cell switching. Switches have pretty much the same functionality as bridges, breaking up collision domains and sharing a broadcast domain, but with greater port capacity and most of the functionality in the hardware. Virtual LANs (or VLANs) are a way to break up broadcast domains at Layer 2. WAN switches also do cell switching for ATM. The developments in switch fabrics and congestion management define where some convergence in routing and switching is taking place-in multilayer switches (Layer 2 and 3). This has also led to some high speed routers and switches.

Part IV, Routing, is what seems to fascinate Puzmanova the most. All routing has become Routing IP - other routed protocols like IPX and AppleTalk are fading away and more or less don't matter any more. This is good, because routing protocols are complicated enough. Older distance vector protocols (like RIP and IGRP) which use direction and hops and provide the whole routing table in updates, have given way (thankfully) to link state protocols (like OSPF and ISIS); the latter are tougher to administer but bring rapid convergence and all routers know of a topology change, whether it's due to a broken link or an added device, in very short order. Knowledge of routing protocols and their behaviors in different scenarios is the key to the highway for network administrators. Especially important is how different protocols play with each other, in terms of how they coexist, how the filter traffic or redistribute routes into one another, or how they tunnel (wrap packets from) one protocol into another. Routing protocols have extra intelligence but these smarts are processed and take up cycles, and anything that can be done to limit the overhead, by choosing a lighter weight protocol, by redistributing routes, or by using a dial-up link as a backup, is potentially helpful to the performance or the scalability of the network. Part IV also talks about the architecture of routers, in terms of their internal switching fabrics and switching processes. Then it discusses how the highest performance can be achieved with advanced mechanisms that distribute the effort among different devices - the foremost example is label switching or label swapping as used in MPLS, which is essentially a protocol that operates at both Layers 2 and 3, and which helps a network combine the speed of switching with the scalability of routing. This provides another example of the convergence that the book's title implies.

Part V deals with hot topics of the day: speeding things up with QoS and high performance, and optical networking. It also goes into a lot more detail on MPLS, which was alluded to in Part IV. The advantages and disadvantages of routing versus layer 3 switching, and the question of when to use a router and when to use a switch are detailed here. It explains how MPLS clearly distinguishes between path determination (which should mainly be performed at the edge) and packet forwarding. Packet forwarding is very fast because once the packet is labeled at the network edge, it quickly traverses the network, only requiring the label switching routers to perform the label processing without actually performing any lookups in the routing tables. Packet forwarding will be getting faster in the future with optical networking and the development of optical switches that can operate within MPLS networks, perhaps at the dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) level with multiprotocol lambda (wavelength) switching.

The appendices include an acronym glossary, standardization notes, troubleshooting guidelines, port transmission speeds, and some general useful numbers including port numbers, hex to binary conversion and multicast addresses.

Routing TCP/IP, Vol 1 - 2nd Edition

I have used the first edition of Jeff Doyle's Routing TCP/IP volumes 1 and 2 for some time now. I consider them essential to studying for the CCIE lab exam. They also act as an ongoing reference for any networking professional. I was anxious to review the second edition and have not been disappointed.

I was impressed that this second edition appears to be a well thought out re-presentation of the material. By that I mean it is not just the first edition with some bolt-on additions but rather a fresh covering of the material with the updates that inundate our industry woven in as opposed to added on to the existing text.

I find rare cases to employ RIP in my current work but as an old dog, I tend to monitor its evolution. The book does one of the best jobs of conveying RIPng and its exclusive use with IPv6 that I have seen. An important note that other writers seem to overlook is the reliance of RIPng on IPv6 authentication mechanisms. Coverage of EIGRP's approach to IPv6 was lacking but I am told this was due to press dates vs. standards publishing or some such. Separate research for this technology would be required for those that need it.

In typical Doyle fashion, information is presented in a very matter of fact way, diagrams are clear and correctly annotated. Command output is easy to follow and well trimmed of content that does not apply directly to the point being illustrated. I have chastised other Cisco Press books for failure to hit this level of clarity and correctness. It is a peeve of mine to have to flip back and forth several pages (or even chapters) to reference a diagram or a table that is being discussed in the current chapter.

Overall: As expected I was quite pleased with the book and will recommend it to anyone pursuing their CCIE certification. I will also recommend this book (as I have the first edition) to anyone involved in higher level network design and administration. I heartily give the book five stars as I believe most reviewers will.

I read the original edition of Jeff Doyle's "Routing TCP/IP, Volume I" (ISBN 1587052024) a few years back while studying from my CCIE. The first edition was a "must read" for any CCIE candidate. I am happy to say that the second edition improves upon and updates this essential classic in Cisco and network architecture.

Let's face it, internetworking has evolved tremendously since the original edition was published in 1998. The CCIE lab has also changed enormously since the first edition. For example, gone is IGRP, IPv6 is on the horizon. "Routing TCP/IP, Volume I, Second Edition" reflects these changes.

For new Doyle readers, the book covers the essential Interior Routing Protocols (IGP) for IP version 4 and IPv6, including static routing, RIP (version 1 and 2), EIRGP, OSPF, and IS-IS. The chapter on IGRP from the first edition is dropped, and instead is briefly discussed from a historical perspective in the EIGRP chapter. The second half of the books discussed the intricacies of routing protocol redistribution and introduces the reader to the concepts and uses of distribution lists and route-maps. Readers interested in BGP and Multicast should look to Doyle and Carroll's Routing TCP/IP, Volume II (ISBN 1578700892).

I especially loved the IPv6 content incorporated throughout the book. Prior to reading this new edition, my knowledge and understanding of IPv6 was at an elementary level. I found Doyle's explanation of routing IPv6 and examples to be concise, practical, and very helpful. I was easily able to walk through most of the configuration exercises on my home lab. Guess what, routing IPv6 isn't much different than routing IP version 4.

Who would have guessed that you could improve upon a classic? If you are a season veteran, the updated version is well worth the purchase price. For the aspiring CCIE, the book is an absolute "must have".

Mark G. Reyero
CCIE 12932

Doyle's first edition of Routing TCP/IP, Volume 1 became the gold standard of TCP/IP routing preparation for prospective CCIE candidates. With the new content of the CCIE lab, the expectation was very high that this book would also become part of a CCIE candidate's "required reading" list. It went on mine.

The things I like about this book:

While much of the content of this book was first published in the first edition, there were nevertheless many enhancements spread throughout, reflecting on newer IOS versions, newer features, etc. Much changed during the seven year stretch between the two so the second edition was refreshed to reflect that, even though much of the core content stayed the same.

Notably, the major additions to this book center on IPv6 and related technologies, such as RIPng and OSPFv3. Doyle has historically shown strong ability to break down technically difficult material and present it in such a way as to appeal to both novice and expert alike. This book did not disappoint as it provided a basic but detailed discussion of IPv6. From addressing to integrated services, the reader will have a firm grasp of IPv6 from a Cisco IOS perspective. The reader will also find numerous references to IPv6 configuration and functionality differences where applicable throughout the other chapters of this book.

The first edition of this book was fairly clean as editorial errors are concerned and this edition follows in its footsteps. Certainly there are some minor mistakes here and there but I was not able to identify any that were notable.

The things I do not like about this book:

This book lived up to my expectations and there was nothing that disappointed me.

Jeff Doyle's 2nd edition of his best-selling book - "Routing TCI/IP Volume 1" is a welcome revision to the cannon required for any CCIE Routing & Switching candidate. Jeff Doyle, along with Jennifer Carroll, has done an excellent job at updating what is considered by many to be THE book on routing. In particular, the new edition does a terrific job at describing the white-elephant in the room - IPv6, IPv6's packet format and how to configure some routing protocols to advertise IPv6 prefixes.

The primary focus of this book discusses the most popular routing protocols - RIPv1 & RIPv2, EIGRP, OSPFv2 and, particular to IPv6, RIPng and OSPFv3. Dedicating over 450 pages to these topics alone makes the book worth itself. A further 130 pages are used to discuss route control (redistribution, filtering and route-maps).

In particular, I was impressed by:
* The book is fully-updated, and is not just a copy-and-paste of subject matter from the first book. For instance, on page 439 is discussed the use of a much misunderstood newer command `area nssa translate type7 suppress-fa'. This is just an example of complex and new commands that are documented.
* Of all the books I have looked at, this book does the best job at introducing oneself to RIPng.
* The book wastes little time discussing site-local addresses for IPv6. As the difficulties of using of IPv6's site-local addresses has rendered ths address as too complex to implement (and was, in fact, deprecated in RFC 3879), this books notes this and moves on. This goes against other recent books that that wastes pages and time discussing IPv6 site-local addresses. As any CCIE candidate will attest, studying time comes at a premium.

There are few cons worth mentioning:
* The book repeatedly incorrectly documents IPv6's link-local addresses as FF80::/10. Link-local addresses start as FE80::/10.
*IS-IS is discussed (which is no longer on the CCIE R&S lab). The book went to press too late to discuss EIGRP for IPv6 and is sorely missed.
*The book does bypass some interesting subtleties that you know Doyle is aware of but are, for the most part, undocumented. For instance, the differences between EIGRP and RIP when using the neighbor command.

The path to the CCIE R&S can be a long (and costly) road. While this book is focused towards candidates for CCIE Routing & Switching Lab, I believe this book would be a welcome addition to any Networkers' bookshelf.

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

Well ideally any CCIE (R&S) preparation has to start with this book as in my case. Though a IE level book the book is very clear,precise and easy to comprehend. I really liked the language which is very easy to understand so anybody with basic knowledge should be able to read this book.
Lot of examples is another great feature of this book. Each concept is followed by topology with lot of configuration illustartion showing routing tables and OSPF database. The best part of this book is the coverage of OSPF v2 which is in great detail showing all the formats of LSA and other packet types. The new topics included are IPv6 ,RIPng and OSPF v3.

You won't be configuring a router from scratch with this book, but it shows you how to handle about 90% of the common scenarios that you'll encounter with a Cisco device. Highly recommended if you are someone like me, who knows just enough IOS to get around and handle the basics, but configure these things maybe once a year and will never know enough IOS to do it on their own.

always when i forget some of command i find in book, this is cool book..

This book is pretty much an all in one book, it won't prepare you to pass any exam, but it will help you in your work if you have to do something with your cisco router when it's outside your scope.

i found this book is very well written, it gives you an example of how to configure something, then it will give you a detailed explanation of what it does and other options that you can do to adjust your need.

more things that i found very interesting is the "handling queuing and congestion" part which helped me implement qos for my router and make my network runs better.

there are many other interesting chapters for me, which will be too much to review. but i will recommend this to any body who works with cisco devices to get this book for in job reference or even just for study because this book will teach you more than what a ccna can do.

A book that resides outside of the often-essential Cisco Press series of books, Cisco IOS Cookbook delivers the goods. I'd like to see more coverage of Ethernet switching, which is a huge part of Cisco's business (and many modern Cisco Catalyst releases run IOS now). Communication between Ethernet and Token Ring is fully covered, however. Otherwise, this is an excellent, accurate and razor-sharp configuration reference for Cisco router hounds. Very good coverage of all L3 routing protocols and subjects such as serial interface and CSU/DSU setup, all of which I've done in previous jobs. Check out the Chapter 19 section on Access Lists. Finally, if you really need a thorough introduction to IPv6 on Cisco, go straight to Chapter 25. Another solid effort from O'Reilly.

This book should be on every Cisco & network admin's shelf! If you manage several Cisco routers, this book is packed with loads of time-saving tips, tricks, scripts, and real world solutions to make router management easy and take the pain out of repetitive daily processes. Some Perl & Unix knowledge is helpful as well as some basic "CCNA level" understanding of Cisco IOS. Troubleshooting and configuration commands are taken to the next level beyond most boring and dry CCNA and Cisco Intro books.

The 'JUNOS Cookbook' by Avivia Garrett is a great resource for learning about JUNOS software. Filled with 650+ pages of material, this book will enable you to learn about setup, configuration, and all the ins and outs of this technology so you can better administrate and get more done in less time!!!

For anyone that works with JUNOS on a daily basis, this is a great reference book to have by your side, written in typical fantastic O'Reilly fashion.

***** RECOMMENDED

I would give this book six stars, if it were possible. This book presents a hands-on guide to JunOS. From installation and upgrade to routing protocols and MPLS -- this books spills the beans. The author provides "recipes" to acheive common routing tasks on JunOS quickly and without fluff. There are no filler chapters on theory, design, and protocols. Just plenty and plenty of practical, extremely useful recipes.

For anyone with a Cisco background, this book will get you up and running quickly with JunOS. Using this book, I was able to:

1) install JunOS;
2) upgrade JunOS;
3) configure NTP;
4) configure network interfaces;
5) configure BGP and ISIS;
6) enable a packet sniffer for troubleshooting purposes;
7) configure RADIUS authentication;
8) backup and restore JunOS configurations over the network;
9) and enable ssh access to a router running JunOS.

That's just scratching the surface of what this book covers. The more I read it, the more I learn -- and the more JunOS impressed me.

The absolutely best technology book I've purchased this year. Highly, highly recommend it to anyone using JunOS or moving to JunOS.

Realy helpfull, all the basic configuration otes that you need for a simple network

Aviva's flair for concise explanation makes this book a real joy. It's rare that I read just one recipe. If you want a concentrated dose of JUNOS that's sweet and easy to swallow, then get this book.

Even though you've been configuring or operating Juniper routers for long time and you think you are familiar enough with JUNOS, you'll still learn something you don't know from this book; the "Problem/Solution/Discussion/See Also" structure helps to quickly find and read the exact information you need and nothing more, if you don't need to, just like you would use a standard dictionary.

If you operate a Juniper router from time to time, or even on a daily basis, this book should be always on your desk, handy to grab, so you can use it whenever you need to answer a configuration or operational question, when you exhausted reading the standard configuration guides and the online help, and just before calling for help from a friend or from Juniper's Technical Assistance Center (JTAC).

This book discusses most aspects of network design to an impressive level of detail. No fast answers are given as is appropriate for a design book. The author's approach is such that he immediately commands the readers respect and from what I have seen is only matched by Cormac Long's design book. The only gripe I might have is that I found the style a tad long-winded at times, since I personally prefer books to be as concise as possible.

this book has cleared up a lot of clouds in my mind about Internetworking concept as well as router/switch issues. Thanks, Howard.

I really like this book. Despite a slight tendancy to ramble, Berkowitz style is very enjoyable, humourous at times, and he explains everything in detail. This is a book geared towrds understanding the concepts of routing and switching, rather than analyzing everything from the manufacturers viewpoint. As a result, you get a firm understanding of the fundamentals. Where appropriate, he does discuss manufacturer specific design/philosphy (e.g. cisco, nortel, etc.), but for the most part it's completely independent of that. Hence, this is useful regardless of what gear you're using. This is a must for every network engineer's library.

Delightful might seem like a strange word to describe a technical book, but it's exactly what I mean to say. I find myself being delighted with Howard's unique way of presenting the essence of a network technology. I hear myself say "ah hah, that's what all that incomprehensible text in those other books meant!" Howard uses analogies and real-life examples to ensure that the reader really understands the basics and the details. Great book for learning routing and switching architecture design.

This book is incredible. Howard speaks with a voice of absolute authority. He presents all sides of the issues and leaves the reader to come to his/her own conclusions. He is obviously a master of his craft, and reading this book is sheer pleasure. It would be a fantastic book if it was comprised of dry text and facts, but that's far from the case: this book was written by a man who understands the writer's prerogative to keep his audience awake and entertained. To my knowledge a better book on network design does not exist. Highest recommendation.

A fantistic guide to IP routing. It is a good read on a very tough topic. The authors made these topics understandable and interesting. I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants to know more about OSPF, BGP - and internet routing in general.

The toughest challenge today is finding all study materials comprehensively explained in one place ..I was looking for a book that i could use for enhancing my CCIE LAB preparation....THIS IS IT ... Each and every protocol for IP routing very clearly explained ....the authors have done a great job in precisely placing the examples ...I love the section on IS-IS , OSPF and BGP specifically. Worth every penny ..I'd highly recommend this for anyone preparing for the lab.

This is one of those books you can classify as 'no nonsense'. I was browsing the bookstore to look up an IS-IS problem and just happened to pick up this book and to my astonishment it had 45 pages of IS-IS config and troubleshooting, diagrams, IOS output and what not. I just had to get my hands on this book.

The book starts from the basics of IP routing with cisco IOS in mind, even tell you about 'routed' vs 'routing' protocols! The protocol coverage starts from RIP then moving on to IGRP, EIGRP, OSPF, IS-IS and BGP. It has an entire chapters on Static and default routing, Redistributing routes, DDR. Appendix has a nice brief discussion of access lists, VLANs, NAT and HSSRP.

If you deal with cisco routers, you got to have this book. Specially the beginners can get a lot from the text coz it not only covers the config issues but also the theory behind various routing protocols.

All in all, a pleasant book to own and benefit from. And yes I did find solution to my IS-IS problem in the book.

In the past year I have reviewed a number of books that cover routing, Cisco, CCNA and TCP/IP. Cisco IP Routing Handbook is the first to bring the topics together and make it easy to understand while at the same time delivering quality information.

In this 500 plus page reference manual you start off with a great breakdown of IP routing and the different types of routing. The author make easy work of how routing functions and what you need in order to make routing occur. Then the book breaks down the RIP protocol very well, however the book should have included RIP2 and what the similarities and differences are and how to use them separately and together.

The section on IGRP and EIRGP is also excellent, taking you from the basic understanding right through troubleshooting. This is the first book I have seen that was able to do this and do it well, although both protocols could have been given separate chapters for more detail.

OSPF is another protocol this book delves deeply into and this is by far the best breakdown of the topic. The configuration section is highly informative and for the most part easy enough to follow without getting lost.

The BGP Protocol section is broken down to explain, in great detail, what is required to make this protocol work both an IBGP and EBGP. The advanced configuration section leaves nothing out and the troubleshooting section give clear, concise explanations of how to make the protocol work and work correctly.

Other section of their book covers topics like static and default routing, redistribution routing and DDR. Each section sheds enormous light on the best methods and ways to make sure your routers are setup and running properly.

Finally the appendicles included cover access list configuration, routing with VLANs, which could have been given a section in the book if the information was expanded. About the only drawback, and a very small one, is there was no real coverage of TCP/IP and subnetting, which if included would add more value to the book.

Overall this book can be used as a handy reference manual and a study guide for Cisco tests. The price is small in comparison to what you get.