Routers and Routing Books

I have had this book for a number of years and just got around to reading it. It's a good read as long as you know why you are buying it. Huitema's book is more of an academic book, he gives a very good history of why protocols where developed in the way they were and obviously knows his subject extremely well. It is not for someone who is new to Routing and wants to learn the protocols, as he assumes a certain level of knowledge. He reminds me of my professor at college, if you went into knowing nothing you would just come out confused. For someone at the CCNA/CCNP level wanting practical advice with a Cisco slant, without having to read the Cisco course books (which really only teach you how to pass the exam) I would recommend James Macfarlane's book over this. For someone who is a competent Network Engineer wanting to learn why routing protocols behave the way they do, I would recommend this book.

My manager instructed me to learn about BGP. We're talking total novice here. First I tried looking in some CISCO books but they were highly specific towards CISCO products, and that wasn't what I was looking for. Besides, we weren't using CISCO. What I needed to see was the big picture.

This book gives the big picture. Quite honestly I wish there were more books like it.

One reviewer mentioned that the book was rather dry and that he'd "rather read the RFC's". Personally, I find the RFCs much more difficult reading, because they assume prior knowledge.

This book won't give you recipies on how to configure a certain product. Products come and go, new technologies arrive. What this book does give you is a balanced view of the many protocols out there and how they work. It will be on my shelf at work for quite some time to come, while the CISCO books grow old and stale.

This is a good book, but, there is nothing in it that warranted
a second edition. Certain areas, such as multicast and
multi-protocol BGP are due for a complete re-write, but
that is barely reflected in the book. In short, the new edition
is good-- if you need it, buy it. But, if you already have
the first edition, don't bother, or you will be disappointed.

There is a general rule of 80/20. It means 80% of networking books cover 20% of the available networking technologies because they are most common. The average book about internet routing includes 10% of RIP and IGRP, 25% of OSPF, 20% of EIGRP, 20% of BGP and just few words about multicasting, IPv6, resourse reservation, Internet architecture, mobile hosts etc. Another common feature of such books that they give you static shot of current state.

Usually it's more then enough for day to day operations and many people are completely satisfied. But some people want to learn a bit about other 20% and see piture in motion. This book is exactly for them. Probably it doesn't help you much in Cisco router configuration, but you can learn internet history and future from the routing point of view. You can learn a way how routing protocols are developing, what are the current problems and what to expect in a recent future.

This book was included in the CCIE library set and many people were really disappointed because it isn't focused on Cisco routing and switching. In opposite, the most part of this book covers everything that is usually not included in Cisco books. From CCIE or Cisco prospective this book is not really interesting, but it has another goal.

A few more words about this book. It was written by French guy, and he is not Cisco employee. His style is completly different from e.g. Cisco press books'. Cisco wants to show you how well and smoothly it has solved problems, and this book wants to show you what are the problems and drawbacks of current solutions. Cisco gives you answers and this book sometimes just states questions without answers. It's more academic review then manual. Keep it in mind if you are going to buy it.

The final words. Sometimes the language is dull and too dry but if you want to know current state of the internet evolution this book gives you information which is hard to find in any other single book. This book is very good but it's goal is different. It's like the most part of passengers have questions about tickets and they ask ticket agency. But some of them might want to learn more about airplane itself. They can find very good book about airplanes. It's also interesting book but it's definitly different and optional reading for the traveler. The same about this one. It's optional and not the highest priority book but it really gives you a lot of new information about internet routing.

My manager instructed me to learn about BGP. We're talking total novice here. First I tried looking in some CISCO books but they were highly specific towards CISCO products, and that wasn't what I was looking for. Besides, we weren't using CISCO. What I needed to see was the big picture.

This book gives the big picture. Quite honestly I wish there were more books like it.

One reviewer mentioned that the book was rather dry and that he'd "rather read the RFC's". Personally, I find the RFCs much more difficult reading, because they assume prior knowledge.

This book won't give you recipies on how to configure a certain product. Products come and go, new technologies arrive. What this book does give you is a balanced view of the many protocols out there and how they work. It will be on my shelf at work for quite some time to come, while the CISCO books grow old and stale.

Fairly good summary, not too many errors in the book itself - although there *are* some miserably poor diagrams and badly construed tables. The CD questions are *very* outdated - virtually useless. The "test engine" is really fluky/flaky - it simply doesn't work very well; combined with realy old, early CCNA1 and pre-CCNA questions it's almost worthless. The book itself, however, is a nice little summary, albeit not for a novice. (just passed excruciating CCNA2 with a 967)

Excellent book! It has saved me lots of time on preparation the exam.

Good Lord. This was a very consise and insightful book. It's also very often wrong. Too often.

I am preparing for the CCNA exam, I read this book first of all. It gives you a basic understanding of many topics in the exam objectives. But it's lack of in-depth concepts make it a bad single choice to prepare for the exam.

This cheat sheet was very easy to follow. Among the other items I've read this one gave me the best information to complete my project.

I found the book very confusing. The endless diplay of routing tables became very boring it seemed most of the pages are filled with routing tables. As far as a book that is supposed to help prepare for a test this was the worst one I have ever read and I am presently a CCNA CNE and MCSE so I have taken many tests.

Also one of the reviews mentioned a cdrom with the book that must be a mistake as I am looking at the book now and there is no cdrom with it.

There is no doubt that Cisco is one of the most sought after an coveted certifications going today and Robert Myhre is making sure that you have every chance to pass the certification exams on the first shot.

As with his CCNA certification book, Myhre covers each exam objective completely and with excellent attention to detail. His knowledge of the subject matter is very evident right from the beginning.

The mixing of screen shots with tables, figures and diagrams throughout the book help to make the topics easy to see and comprehend. Topics like routing concepts and protocols like IGRP, EIGRP, OSPF, BGP, internal and external are given sections in this book.

Myhre also includes review questions at the end of the chapters and this allows you to gauge you learning and also to allow you to review the sections you find more difficult. At the end of the book is Appendix A covering routing commands and B covering subnetting, both are excellent references to have on hand.

The cd-rom included has practice questions and the installation was simple and no major complications were encountered. Also visit Prentice Hall Website to find even more book on several certifications.

I read the Cisco book. I also read the Sybex book. Both gave me a fairly good understanding of the subject. It was not until I read this book that I felt I knew the material well enough to take the test. DO NOT use this book as the only source. Use this book AFTER reading Cisco or Sybex. This book will really bring it together for you. I cannot say enough about the style Robert Myhre uses. The book "talks" to you like someone explaining in person how the protocols work. If you want to really understand routing, this is your book. I read and studied this book after reading the Cisco book (dry, yawn) and this book really kept my interest. I took the test today and scored an 839. If you want to not only pass the test but REALLY understand EIGRP, OSPF and BGP buy this book.

I read this book and will say that this book is certainly not as good as the author's ccna book. Compared to cisco press's books, it lacks clarity and coherency. There were many technical errors- I had to consult cisco CCNP books very often. In the end I decided to return the book from where I purchased it from.

The First-Step series are introductory books intended for those new to the topic and assumes no previous experience. Routing First-Step, by Bill Parkhurst guides the reader through the intricacies of routing by building upon situations experienced in everyday life. Throughout the book are useful illustrations, tables and configuration examples making it easier for the reader to understand the concepts presented. Each chapter ends with a series of review questions that reinforce the material read and gauge the readers understanding of the chapter. There is also a glossary provided to help the reader understand and become more familiar with industry terms.

The first chapter begins with comparing routing to events that occur in everyday. How the delivery of mail, driving from point A to point B and establishing a telephone call are synonymous with routing. In addition, the author has the foresight to begin laying the foundation for route summarization. Throughout the book, these everyday events are referenced to reinforce the concepts conveyed, making them easier to understand.

The next two chapters move into numbering systems and IP Addressing, discussing topics from converting between numbering systems to hierarchal IP Addressing schemes. For an entry level book the author went a bit overboard on the different numbering system conversions but it makes a good reference for those of us who do not remember the steps. The IP Addressing chapter is very useful, taking the binary numbering system already learned in the previous chapter and applying the concepts to hierarchical addressing, subnetting and summarization. Having a solid understanding of these concepts is necessary for anyone involved in designing an organizations IP Addressing scheme.

The book continues with the introduction of routing protocols, starting with the distance-vector routing protocols RIP v1/v2 and the Cisco proprietary IGRP/EIGRP. The next two chapters move on to the link-state protocols OSPF/IS-IS and then onto a chapter on BGP. The final chapter details the various protocols used with Multicast. The content of the chapters are much more in depth than I would have expected for this level of book (I would go so far as to say that the content rivals some of the CCNP Routing books I have read in the past). The examples and illustrations provided for each protocol will assist in building readers understanding of the information.

The author has done a wonderful job at taking a very complex subject, reducing it to its core components and presenting the material in an understandable format. When the reader completes this book, they will have a good understanding of the concepts of routing and routing protocols. I would recommend this book for those looking for an introduction to routing and IP addressing and although I would not recommend this book as the sole resource in preparing for Cisco Certification, it definitely would assist in one's efforts.

Cisco First-Step books are exactly as the name implies. This book assumes that you have zero experience with what routing is, how it works, what's the addressing structure or anything else. It starts off with a discussion on how to set up a snail mail system using horses, kind of like the Post Office had to use in its early days. How would you address an envelope? There is a convention that says the return address goes in the top left hand corner. But it doesn't have to be there, if we all agreed, it could be where ever we liked. But it has to be somewhere.

This is the level of detail of where the book begins. After that, it goes on to a highway system. You want to mail a letter from San Jose to Chicago, what kind of addressing do you need, where does the letter stop on its way. Finally, these conventions become standardized, and we give them names. The names just happen to be those of the computer protocols - surprise, surprise.

By the end of the book he is discussing Border Gateway Protocols, Multicast and things like that. By then you understand that the Post Office where you started doesn't do multicast -- they don't have copiers. By then you understand how the internet addressing scheme works. You clearly understand routing and what a router does. You're ready to move on to the next step.

This is one of three routing intro books in the Cisco Press line. It appears to be positioned at the very entry level, ostensibly because of its inclusion of a chapter explaining routing with a post office metaphor, and a chapter on decimal and binary numbers.

Although the book is well organized, and covers the major routing protocols, it is surprising that, as an entry level book, there is no review of networking equipment, let alone an explanation of what a router is and how it functions. Many other basic routing concepts such as default routing and redistribution are not covered, but they may simple be beyond the scope of the book.

However, explanations of various topics included in the book leave a bit to be desired. For example, the chapter on EIGRP mentions early on that EIGRP can support discontiguous networks. An example is provided with no immediate explanation. The student would be unable to apply the knowledge to a different scenario. Later in the chapter, route summarization is explained. It is the way route summarization is configured that makes discontiguous networks possible, but that fact is not mentioned. Since the two sections are never tied together, the student will end up having to refer to a different routing primer in order to develop an understanding of the topic.

Routing First-Step
(Your first step into the world of routing)
Reviewer Name: Steve Owen Scheiderer, Network Administrator
Reviewer Certification: MCSE NT 4.0, CCNA

ISBN: 1-58720-122-4

To earn my CCNA it took a year's worth of time in Cisco Academy modules, numerous labs,
two 990+ page books, a test study guide, and the Cisco Simulator (which I also reviewed).
Bill Parkhurst did an excellant job of summarizing basic concepts in under 400 pages. I
would recommend Chapters 1 - 6 and 9 for those pursuing CCNA certification.

What is difficult to understand, from the perspective of Cisco Academy material, is why
topics like IS-IS and GP are included in this book. Even some of the OSPF discussion
seems advanced (pp. 217-227). As a mere, humble CCNA, these sections were somewhat hard
to follow and at times produced more questions than answers. On the other hand, the
introduction to these topics was appreciated and could be helpful to some who want a quick
overview of how more advanced protocols work.

Those just starting out in routing may wish to skip some of Bill's discussion. For example,
a lot of space is devoted to the "Octal Numbering System" which Bill explains "is not used
much" (p. 45). Some of the discussion was tedious and more advanced topics seemed out of
place in a book for beginners. The time spent in the practice Bill recommends would have
been better spent with the numbering systems more widely used.

While I follwed his analogy of post offices and phone systems as they parallel ip addressing,
a novice might actually find the parallels hard to follow. This is particularly true where
there are points when the analogy breaks down. At times I wished summary statements at the
end of a discussion had been put up front to help with focus (p. 90, ip headers; p. 103,
subnets and masks take time to master). At other times, concepts were mentioned prior to
their main treatment (TCP/IP Layered Model on p. 83, then explained on p. 90; VLSM on p.
142 under Rip 1, then explained as working only under Rip 2 on p. 150).

While there are many things which commend this book as a "first step into the world of
routing," I believe it is more of a mid level book. The information above is offered to
the beginner as a way to start using this as a "first step" book.

I like this book. The reason I like it is that it fills a gap if you are studying for the CCNP. The Cisco Press CCNP books are good, but they are a bit dry, and are more about the configs and passing the exam. This book has that plus more of the theory behind the protocols and some of the issues with each protocol. The writing style is informal so it feels like he is talking to you rather than just issuing instructions.

NETWORK ROUTING BASICS: Understanding IP Routing in Cisco Systems, by James Macfarlane, is worthy of consideration if you're interested in learning from someone who knows how to TEACH routing. Macfarlane's approach, humor, sidebars, and up-to-date information make this book a cut above others I've read and reviewed. After "Networking Overview" and "Routing Basic" chapters (One and Two), the reader will have to slow down a bit to absorb "Static Routing" and especially "Dynamic Routing" (Three and Four). The middle part of the book (Five through Eight) focuses on routing protocols: RIP, IGRP, EIGRP, OSPF; the last two chapters are helpful as introductions to "External Routing Protocols" (Nine) and "Redistribution and Default Routing" (Ten). This layout serves the goals of the author well and seven appendices provide a set of welcome supplements. While this book may indirectly assist in CCNA certification, I would only refer to it after consulting a book designed directly for that goal.

This book provides an excellent starting point for anyone who wants to understand how routing protocols work in depth.
I liked the approach of explaining the why behind the how, and the fact that it's not focused on passing a certification exam, but rather giving the tools to configure and troubleshoot routing in simple and not-so-simple networking systems.

The tables with the characteristics of each routing protocol are not only a good way to explain and summarize the concepts, but they are also a good reference for further consultation of the book.
The examples are complete and clearly described, giving a real life consistency to the theory described.

A consistent portion of the book is dedicated to the OSPF protocol. Here Macfarlane does a great job in not only clearly explaining the characteristic of OSPF, and how it works, but he also provides tips on how to design networks using OSPF, and how to avoid the most common mistakes.

One can tell that the core of the book was born in a classroom, in front of students who could ask questions and give feedback, therefore improving its clearness and completeness. The book has a didactic spin that is missing from other networking books.
This is so much more than just a routing protocols manual: it's a textbook.

I looked around the book store and started with this book ONLY because the others were to advanced for me to start with. I needed to get my feet wet first and this book did just fine. I now have another more advanced book that I am studing and I am happy I started out slow and easy. That is just my kind of pace. Nice writing styles and down to earth.

This book is just o-kay. I took the first semester of two with this book (Kelly "cannonball" Cannon was the instructer ). You will still have to buy another book to learn what you will need to know for the test. The book covers tpoics that aren't CISCO objectives, and there are many typos. I also bought the book the two books by Todd lammle. They were more in depth, and had there own faults. Good luck

This book is *EXTREMELY* detailed in its discussion of routing protocols. Although the detail may be useful for becoming a guru in the intracasies of how Cisco routers do their thing, I don't think you'll find it particularly helpful for passing any of the cert exams. Especially because the book makes no mention of IS-IS. Again, if you want details including actual router output, this is a good book. If you want something useful for passing cert exams, look elsewhere.

This book gives a great overview of the material on the CCNP exam.

Learning the finer points of IP, routing and IP routing protocols could be very expensive in a formalized training center, right? You need to learn at a pace comfortable for you and at cost that won't require shelling major dollars.

Prentice Hall and Ulyess Black have put together a package that may rival any formal training course out there. The package is made up of two books and two videos.

In book 1 - IP Routing Protocols there is 260 page covering protocols like RIP, OSPF, BGP, PNNI, IGRP and EIGRP. Also there is coverage of SAPs, stub areas and NSSB and NHRP. The book finishes with bridging and bridges.

Book 2 - IP Routing Protocols Workbook goes with the first book and the two videos. Video 1 covers the first 11 sections, while video 2 tackles the remaining 9. There is over 3 ½ hours of video material.

This package is an excellent way to listen and learn and this package allows you to learn at your own pace. For the money this is a very good learning tool to purchase.

The course presents a good overview of IP Routing but fails to give any indepth information. As someone who works in networking, I was hoping for more. However, as an introduction to routing, and for an understanding of the basics of these topics, this set is a good buy. The videos are easy to watch, and Mr. Black is a decent speaker, but he does pause on occasion (almost like he is waiting for a cue card to be changed?!?) I would recommend this set to people who are starting out or who need only an overview of IP routing.

The Routing Protocols and Concepts Labs and Study Guide book has been really helpful for me. As a NetAcad student, I found myself going back and rereading each section online to remember the concepts I learned. This book helped me reinforce my concepts and remember the material covered in this course. With fill-in-the-blanks,matching, and study guides in every chapter, I was able to remember all that I learned. There are also a lot of labs for each chapter, which helped me improve my troubleshooting skills and increase my knowledge. The topologies of the labs were different than the ones you find in the original online NetAcad course, so you get more practice too! You also get a CD with this book which has all the labs and packet tracer files. I brought this book to help me review my vocabulary, practice labs, and get more troubleshooting experience, and this book does just that! I'm satisfied with my purchase.

great labs, but too many review questions when the answers are not there, or online to check yourself. Typically we are adults in this class, answers would only help be sure we are not closing the book with the wrong answer written in, and not knowing.

With Cisco Certification becoming more in demand every day, you need an edge in obtaining the certification. Coriolis, a known leader in certification study material has put together a testing package that allows you to try before going live.

Covering exams 640-503, 504, 505 and 506 the package includes over 400 questions divided up between the 4 exams. While this may seem like a great deal of question in reality it's about 100 per exam and for the money I think you should be given more.

Although the questions do cover the exam objectives, it doesn't a long time to go through them. I like the idea that you can do online downloads to obtain more question, but as stated before for the price the data bank should be full.

The software was a snap to install and with Windows 98, NT, ME and 2000 there was no problems. I would recommend disabling any virus software to ensure a smooth install.

The testing software can be taken in review mode to learn as you go or in either the real mode with no time limits or the simulator mode to give you the feeling of the actual exam. Overall add a few more questions and this is a great learning tool.