Customer Reviews

Building Cisco Remote Access Networks

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I passed CMTD 8.0 (640-405) (scored 860, passing score = 790) just by spending 12 days reading this book(I hold a full-time job). I had not read any other books or any supplemental materials.

I also took the beta test for BCRAN (cisco called it Remote Access)on the same day. 96% of the exam items are in the book. Some of the test questions are taken almost verbatim from this book.It might as well cover the remaining 4%. I must have missed or ignored them.

Topics that are not covered in this book but tested on CMTD are as follows: 1. (objective 13) xDSL 2. (objectives: 24-26Terminal services 3. (objectives: 51) Dialup cost management (IPX/SPX spoofing,AppleTalk NBP filtering 4. (objectives: 64-67) Virtual Private Dialup Networks (VPDN) 5. (objectives: 68-72) Protocal Translation Services 6. (objectives: 77-80) Configuring NetBEUI over PPP

Please go to Cisco's web site to download the exam objectives and search for materials on these uncovered objectives to make 100% sure to pass the exam for the first time.

I rate this book 4 stars because it does not have practice tests after each chapter and does not have one or two set of simulated exams, like those in the Exam Cram Series. Should it have them, then it can be rated 5 stars. Simulated tests helps a lot and save your money to buy another or other books for practice tests.

For those folks like me who were stymied looking for study material for CMTD, look no further. This book has a great deal of the info that you need to prepare for CMTD, and some chapters you should go ahead and read even if you're not preparing for BCRAN. Check your exam objectives if you're working on CMTD, and download any missing info from Cisco's website.

Catherine Paquet does a tremendous job in presenting information. The best part of the book is the case study you find at the end of most chapters. Instead of the typical multiple choice questions, you're asked to come up with solutions to customer demands for remote access. This is great practice for actually applying what you have learned, which is a must for Cisco exams.

The one problem I did have with the book -- and I considered it a major problem at times -- was the lack of flow to the book and a great number of typos. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the type to go nuts if I see a typo or two in a technical manual. However, there are parts of this book where hyphens appear and disappear from commands, and a few illustrated examples have different commands than the accompanying text, which can get pretty annoying after a while.

Again, there's a lot of great information here, and without Catherine's work, a lot of us CMTD candidates would have been up a virtual creek. Definitely worth picking up, but you might want to keep your ACRC Cisco books within arm's reach while reading this one to cross-check facts, since CMTD is basically an extension of that difficult exam.

This book contains a lot of good information about all aspects of dial-up access. But it is not written as a study guide for CMTD. Don't use this book as the only study guide for the exam.

This book covers only 80% of the exam objectives. You need to find some other material to complement the rest 20%. For example, this book does not cover VPDN, Multichassis Multilink PPP, etc.

I used this book as well as downloaded some material from Cisco Web site to prepare the CMTD exam. I passed it and got my CCNP certification title.

Used it and passed CMTD on Friday (03-10-2000). Missing sections in the book that can be looked up at Cisco web site VPDN, MMP, xDSL, Protocol Translation and NetBEUI over PPP. Exam is easy when compared to ACRC. No type-in commands.

Get it and pass CMTD before they retire this exam. All the Best!

Lot's of information. Some chapters are fair some are terrible. It does presents all the information needed to pass the test. However, to pass the test you will have to rely on memorizing the material. You will not be able to understand it, much less being able to do the job. In order to be able to do the job read Bill Burton's "Remote Access for Cisco Networks". Bill Burton's book is excellent, very clear and coherent. Unlike Catherine Paquet's book it flows smoothly, it is easy to follow and in the end you can perform the job.
One more tip, all remote access books I looked at miss one important piece - they do not explain the complete set of interrelationships between serial interfaces, asynchronous interfaces, lines, controllers, vtys, ttys, etc. Therefore you need to read introduction section from "Cisco IOS 12.0 Dial Solutions". It is a horrible read and you will have to fight through it. Read it five times, if you have to. But, it will give you the mental map and the foundation needed to understand any book on this topic.

I disagree with the negativity that few of the other reviewers expressed towards this book. As the title implies, it's not 100% designed to prepare you for CMTD exam. It's for the new Cisco Exam track which replaces CMTD with BCRAN test. In my opinion, it's a very well written book which covers most of the CMTD requirements and probably 100% of the stuff you will need to know to pass BCRAN test. I, myself used this book exclusively and passed CMTD. All you need to do is read the book, look at the exam objectives and find the missing pieces on Cisco web site. And yes, you have to dig for more information as there is no single source that would give you an answer to all the questions for this (CMTD) or any other exam. Unless, all you want is a piece of "paper".

Terrible. I've come to be fairly accepting of occassional flaws in Cisco Press books. Given the pace of the technology they must describe, its to be expected that their editing cycles can't be full and perfect. Still, this book sinks to new lows for coherence and writing quality. Stylistically, this text resembles little more than a jumble of power point documents pasted into book format. Numerous charts, bulleted lists, and diagrams are thrown together with a simulacrum of connecting text. The author's train of thought derails frequently, and copious space is wasted restating section headings. Near entire pages appear to have been cut and paste from other sections of the text (e.g. pages 29 and 30), and repetition is seen throughout.

The best that can be said for this book is that it is easy to read the author's intentions from the flawed writing style, and extract the course notes that the text has been distilled from by deductive reasoning.

Used this book as a reference for the BCRAN test. The book covered the material adequately.

However, the large number of typos and outright mistakes was very distracting. There must be well over 100 errors in this book. Command syntax is very inconsistent.

It is sad to see that Cisco is allowing such poorly edited books on to the market. This book clearly wasn't read carefully before release.

As I wrote above I've just come back from Sylvan center where I got almost 900 points on BCRAN (CCNP 2.0 track) test.

This book is very good. It covers everything you need. I used only this book and I didn't find any significant gaps.

This book looks a bit strange because it doesn't have any test question examples and you can't check yourself. ............. Questions are really close to the real test ones.

A few words about exam. It's relativly easy because passing score is low (just 709) and, the most important thing, if you are asked to enter command they give you a list of about 50 possible command to choose from. I had few questions on 1600 model line and you should memorize all 16xx configurations and types of ISDN interface. I don't know why Cisco likes 16xx so much but I heard that they usually include question on this specific model line. I didn't have any questions on xDSL, MMP or l2f.

Good luck!

As a seasoned student of Cisco and it's long list of educational offerings, this book brings no real suprises. When will Cisco take it's educational books seriously? This book is better than most when it comes to simple mistakes but there are still plenty of mistakes and when you see complete paragraphs duplicated on the same page you know it hasen't been proof read.

There is not the detail that Cisco books normally provide. Some sections go straight to the configuration without any real explanation of what is going on. Screen dumps lack the content to allow you to clearly see the full configuration. There is a real lack of clarity, probably the worst of the books I've read so far, and I've read a few. But, I've come to know that if you learn all that is in the book you will pass the exam. That is the only good comment I can make about this 'standard' Cisco offering.