Customer Reviews

CCNA: Cisco Certified Network Associate Study Guide: Exam 640-802

5 star:		(81)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I own too many CCNA books. I only wish I had started with this one. As a recertification candidate I was floored by the amount of new material covered by the current CCNA exams. Todd Lammle has such a great way of presenting the material as it relates to the Cisco CCNA exam objectives, but also with respect to what we CCNA's do every day. Read this book, listen to Mr. Lammle's guidance, work the labs with real equipment or a great simulator like RouterSim's Network Visualizer, and pass the exam! This book is the best, and in my opinion the only, CCNA book you need.

I used this book to pass my CCNA test on August 24th.

This text is much easier to read than the Cisco Press books. The material is easy to understand and Todd had done an excellent job showing the reader his own processes for learning. Two words, Block Size. Who knew calculating subnets could be so easy.

The additional material on the CD (testing questions) are excellent for developing skills as well.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is pursuing a first CCNA or renewing an expired certification.

I purchased this book since it would be used in an in-company CCNA mentoring program which I had joined. For that reason, I didn't even consider other books.

I read the whole book, and have to say was very disappointed with it. It has a boatload of typos, many of them in the CLI captures shown, which amazed me... I didn't think someone would actually type that stuff but rather just copy and paste it from router lab scenarios. If taken from live routers, how could so many typos be introduced? Beats me. These typos at times really hinder understanding of the concepts (costs for EIGRP topology table samples come to mind). I started making a list so as to provide it to the author, until I realized they were so many that I just didn't have the time to do someone else's job.

I have also found several mistakes, some of those discussed / reported at Lammle's website (load sharing over static routes, admin distance of a static route using exit interface, etc).

In my opinion, content was disorganized in many parts, and didn't follow a logical order.

I understand that many people may like his informal writing style. I wouldn't mind it myself, if it wasn't at the cost of accuracy and
thoroughness, which this book notably lacks in several parts.

For example, in a section describing default routing and the ip classless command, he waved the issue off by saying something like: "use this command, otherwise sometimes default routing will work, sometimes it won't". Come on, we're talking network engineering here, not cooking recipes...

A co-worker started studying for CCNA roughly at the same time I did, and had bought the Cisco Press books (Wendell Odom Official Exam Guides - 2 books). I found myself going to those books time after time to seek clarification for things that were just skimmed over in Lammle's book, were confusing, or were not even mentioned. Particularly after starting my rounds of test questions and finding many questions that had no answers in Lammle's book. I found the Odom books did explain why things happened the way they did, and were real eye-openers. They usually required you to read more pages than the Lammle book, which is not surprising since thorough coverage of subjects does require content be layed out. By the end of my review period, I was sorry about my training book selection.

I was also surprised by the significant percentage of the Lammle book devoted to Cisco's SDM. While the Cisco Press books barely touch on it, and my CCNA exam presented me with no questions on it, Lammle spends dozens of pages on it (each chapter has a good chunk on how the chapter's subjects are done via SDM).

In short, if I were to make a recommendation to someone who was to start preparing for this exam, I wouldn't hesitate in pointing him the way of the Cisco Press books (W. Odom) instead of this one.

I did pass the exam, and with a good grade, too, but I felt the real meat I learned it from the CP books, not from this one.

I'm surprised with the many great reviews the book has here, I guess maybe this book would be considered a good tool by those just starting in the networking arena. But I don't see how it would meet the expectations of anybody with a few years into this and looking for in-depth review of how things work the way they do.

Just my views here... hope they can be useful to future CCNA exam takers out there.

This is the only CCNA book you need to pass the test. Period. I went through the Cisco Press books, did all of the labs, and still failed the exam miserably. This book has everything that you need to know and more. One thorough reading of this book and I passed the exam with a 918! Just KNOW YOUR BLOCK SIZES. Todd Lammle is a networking genius, and a cool guy to boot (I had the pleasure of meeting him recently). This is probably the least dry CCNA book I've come across. Todd's got a way of making light of a very dry and complicated subject. This book actually goes above and beyond the CCNA, covering all of the objectives, even ones not likely to be on the test (and that I personally did not encounter on the test). Pair this book with the router and test sims from Mr. Lammle's company, and I guarantee, you WILL have your CCNA!

I have been teaching CCNA classes in a Cisco Network Academy since 1999 and we use Cisco Press books, but that does not mean that I think that is enough. I always tell my students to get Todd Lammel's CCNA Study Guide and I have 3 different editions on my shelf right now, including the lastest 6th edition.

I feel those that are trying to understand the CCNA should have at least 2 different sources of material, one being Cisco Press and the other being Todd's book. Todd has been doing this book since the CCNA came out and he has been doing it RIGHT!!!! When you don't understand a subject in one book, having a different view of things tends to help. Like I said, the CCNA is not easy, if it was easy - EVERYONE would be a CCNA!!!

I also would like to single out 1 chapter, one of the hardest things people in networking have trouble with is subnetting!!! Todd's chapter on subnetting is the best chapter on the subject, I have had students so lost on subnetting, I tell them again to get Todd's book and USE IT, they get the book, read the chapter on subnetting and then use it for everything else as they work towards the certification.

Now, will 1 book get you the CCNA Cert? Depends on your background but realisticly I feel you need several sources of material as well as TONS of hands-on labs with sims, emulators or best yet - REAL CISCO routers and switches.

It is not that Todd's book is missing anything - it just takes a very good understanding of the material to pass what is a very hard certification exam. I think having a well rounded education from several books as well as lab work will do that for you!

But if I was only going to buy 1 book, it would be Todd's!!!

Hope this helps!

This is one of the best tech books you can buy, the casual conversational tone used to present the very technical material is very effective! Read the book, practice the example questions; and start using the CD-Rom right away! It includes an electronic version of the book (indispensible for quick searches), and the Sybex Test engine and flash cards were a real help when I studied and passed my CCNA last week! Subnetting has never been so easy!

I can't agree more with the other reviewers. Their reviews is exactly why I bought the book.

The greatest thing about this book is the casual style it's written in. You can read it without feeling like you're reading a text book. It may not be for the person who is masochistic enough to want to be lectured to in written form, but for someone like me who can fall asleep in a second in a text book, it's fantastic.

If only my other text books were written like this...I'd maybe learn a thing.

As a CCIE and full time instructor of Cisco courses, I'm periodically asked by my students for recommendations of study resources beyond what's received in the classroom. My hope is that my review of this title will provide you with some insight into the pros and cons of Todd Lammle's "Cisco Certified Network Associate Study Guide, Sixth Edition." As stated on the book cover, this study guide is intended to prepare the reader for exam 640-802.

Positive Aspects:
- The book presents Cisco's published 640-802 exam objectives and identifies the chapter(s) in the book that address(es) each objective.
- Todd Lammle's writing style keeps the reading lively. Specifically, his writing is very conversational, is often written in the first person, and includes more exclamation points than I've ever seen in a technical book :-)
- Some of the tips given by Mr. Lammle certainly reflect his experience. He points out tips and tricks which prove to me that he was not merely rewording content from other sources.
- Mr. Lammle gives clear, but concise, descriptions of the myriad of technologies covered by the CCNA exam.

Negative Aspects:
- The book appears not to have received a sufficient technical edit. As an example, Page 116 discusses CIDR. However, CIDR (the supernetting of contiguous classful address spaces) is incorrectly defined, where it sounds more like VLSM.
- The book contains multiple typographical and topological errors and/or inconsistencies. As one example, Page 408 shows a WAN link icon connecting into a FastEthernet interface.
- The audio and video content on the CD seem to have been created for the previous exam, 640-801, even though the cover of the book states the book is targeted towards exam 640-802. Specifically, the copyright date of 2006 on the video predates the 640-802 exam, and the audio content repeatedly states that it is for exam 640-801. While the audio and video still contain relevant information, it was disappointing that no attempt was made to update it to address the current exam.

To summarize, Todd Lammle's Cisco Certified Network Associate Study Guide can serve as a valuable study aid for readers pursuing CCNA certification. While it's not without its blemishes, the good outweighs the bad, and therefore is deserving of five stars.

I used a previous version of this book to pass the CCNA exam in 2002. It was the only resource I used.

I felt that I could do the same with this book, but this was not so. I've now failed the exam twice (749 and 801) even after supplementing my learning with the free Cisco Learning Network online resource (which I highly recommend).

This book is riddled with grammatical and technical errors. This creates confusion, especially with all the conceptual information to be retained. There's not much help on lammle.com either (as the book would have you believe). Combine this with Cisco's ambiguous testing philosophy and the amount of memorization it takes to do well and you face a very tough testing environment.

I'm an IT professional with over 6 years of Cisco experience. I routinely configure Catalyst switches (4006, 4507) and routers (2600, 3600). I love technology and am not new to working with it. I'm confident that I'll pass this exam, but it's going to take more than reading this book to do it.

It's a decent book, but beware. I feel that these raving reviews are products of bias and disproportionally weighted.

Thanks for reading this and good luck with your CCNA pursuits.

I read all the other reviews and bought this book... it just isn't very good as far as I am concerned. I have found multiple errors where they just updated the old book and didn't bother to proof read: one of the most notable being when they give the definition of a switch as the definition of STP... which is wrong... very very wrong. It's materials are very poorly organized, it gives the definition of a term using a term you have never seen before and won't see again for another 100 pages. In conclusion I am gonna go spend more money on a different product while wishing I hadn't bought this one.