Customer Reviews

CCNP Routing Exam Certification Guide

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I usually like Cisco Press books--they often seem to go into a lot of detail, much deeper than what the exam covers, and I like that. I think the details builds a more solid base for the workplace than just exam cramming to pass a test. As soon as I started reading this book, however, I realized that I had made a mistake. Nearly every example has an error in it. Even the few "working configuration" examples have so many errors that you will spend more time trying to figure out what the book is talking about than you will actually learning. Nearly 30% of all commands that have hyphens (access-list, passive-interface, etc) are written incorrectly in the book. Not only are they written incorrectly, but they are written inconsistently. I finished the book this morning and I have no idea which the command spellings are correct because they waiver back and forth. Granted, the CCNP exam probably won't ask questions on how to spell a command, but the CCIE lab exam will, and I won't want to have to start studying again from scratch for CCIE. The quizes are almost useless for the same reason. There are quiz answers that directly contradict the content of the book. There are also many quiz answers that just don't make any sense. For example:

Q2-1.2 You noticed the access list commands have been changed: How do you remedy the situation:

Router(config-if)#access list 110 permit 10.10.10.10 255.255.255.255 eq smtp

Answer: the problem is that the source and destination have been transposed. The list should read as follows:

Router(config-if)#access list 110 permit 10.10.10.10 255.255.255.255 eq smtp

First you notice that access-list is missing a hyphen. Next, you see that the question and the answer have the exact same text. Finally, the description is bunk: The first list didn't specify a destination at all.. there was no transposition.

Even more ridiculous is that if you could see the example diagram, you would see that there are no ip addresses on the diagram. Even if there were a source and destiation address, you couldn't know that they were transposed because you wouldn't know which was which.

The book isn't great even aside from the typos. Compared to the other books out there, there are fewer configuration examples and figures are poorly written, making it hard to determine what you are supposed to learn from them. Furthermore, most of the command examples have no context. Every other book out there will show each command with the appropriate router prompt(config), (config-if), etc. Not only does this book not show them, it will show several commands--each belonging to a different config mode--one right after each other. If you were typing as written into a router, you'd get nowhere.

I've had other computer books with typos . . . these books are so thick and so time-sensitive, that it would be impossible to not make any mistakes. But the errors in this book extend far beyond the example I've pointed out, and the book is nearly unreadable. The errors will leave you confused and distracted, and even if you make it to the end, you won't know what was right and what wasn't. I spent hours online figuring out which commands were correct and which weren't. Do not buy this book. It just isn't worth the pain.

I rated it three stars because it did not live up to my expectations. I just took the routing exam and passed using this book as my sole study guide. The writing lacks humor unlike some of the american-authored technical books. I had to read some of the paragraphs several times just to understand it. Okay, I'll list down all the things I hate about this book: 1. There are quite a few mistakes. 2. The diagrams are not very accurate. 3. The commands in the example doesn't include the prompt. 4. It's too long.

Given that it is long, the contents are still not enough for you to be able to answer all the questions in the exam. I guess you really have to have a hands-on experience of the routing protocols to get a higher score. But I think this book is still better than the Sybex book because it has more and better coverage of the exam topics. Also, Gough said in the book that Route Maps are not included in the exam, DON'T BELIEVE HER, it's there! I almost had a heart attack when i saw one question about it. I didn't pay much attention to Route maps because I believed in what the author said.

I'm quite disappointed with this book. I have been diligently reading it for the last week. At first, I noticed an abundance of typos. I just finished reading the OSPF chapters. Too much effort is wasted trying to figure out what the author is trying to say. The typos are now showing up in very critical areas. Information isn't consistent. After spending a very long time trying to understand the material, I realized that it was the authors presentation and typos that I was trying to work through not the actual material. Rather than waste anymore of my time, I'm going to purchase another book and start again.

I totally agree with all of the bad comments on this book. I spent more than a month to read through it because I trusted it to be a good book. However during this period too much of my effort were spent on struggling with those misleading presentations and mistakes in the book. I kept looking up in white papers and other materials to make myself understand those topics. When I eventually understand everything, I concluded that the studying experience would be much much less frustrating and time-consuming if I chose a better book.

I totally agree with the bad comments below. This book is a disaster. As someone says before: 1. There are a lot of mistakes. 2. Many diagrams are not very accurate. 3. It's too long. I'd want to add that is't incredible that 4 CCIEs (Clare Gough, Jorge Aragon, Steve Gifkins, Martin Walshaw) are involved in this work. What happens Cisco Press ?? The old-ACRC book (Laura Chappell)was definitely a good book for a long time in the routing theme. Hey Laura !! Could you teach these guys how to write a readable, useful and accurately book ??

I am very disappointed after finishing this book. At first, the book had a few minor mistakes which could be clarified from other sources. As I approach to the end of the book, it was not worth my time to use this book as my primary study guide. The way it was written was terribly messy. Examples and figures just were confusing (check out Figure 9-6/Example 9-1). BGP is already a hard topic to grasp, but this book really help you to be TOTALLY CONFUSED. Some test questions on the CD had questions that you really can't find an answer for in the book. This is my first review ever on any book and regret it had to be a bad review. I am very disappointed by it as the usually reliable Cisco Press had given me such a bad experience. I urge anyone who's planning to use this book for the exam to think twice before purchasing this book.

First of all there're errors and typos in this book, especially in the example and figure. The style of writng is wordy and not direct to the point. However, it covers all CCNP exam topics. I think that it's better to read "Routing TCP/IP vol.1 & 2" which cover everything you need.

This book made so much more sense to me only after I read Todd Lamels CCNP Routing book. It has about the same info., but Todds books are so much clearer and easier to read. This book just jumps from one thing to another, it does not flow. I used this book for the new BSCI exam, I know it dosn't cover IS-IS and yes IS-IS is heavily tested on the exam, I got at least six questions. I would suggest using this book as only one of your resources. there were at least three questions I can think of that I could only find the answers in this book. I have passed two exams so far using these three resources: Todd Lamels books, Cisco press books (as a Reference),and Boson practice questions.

I thought it was a pretty good book. I used this book and a few cisco whitepapers, and I passed the first time. I thought it covered each topic more than well enough to pass the test.

You would think anything Cisco attach's their name to should be first rate. Unfortunately, that doesn't hold true for this book. I have to agree with the others that the language and diagrams were far too difficult to understand to be of any use. I plan on using another study guide, along with Routersim software to pass the exam.