Customer Reviews

CIW(tm) Foundations Certification Bible

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought two books to help me study for the Foundations exam, this one and the Dummies book. I wasn't looking for a book to teach me all about Web design (I've designing Web sites for 5 years), I just wanted a book to tell me what I needed to know for the test and explain some of the network terms that the test covers. Both this and the Dummies book do that, but this one goes a little overboard -- spending too much time on emailing, for example. Also, this book tells you a lot of specific steps to take to perform certain tasks in various programs (such as Outlook), but the test doesn't cover how to perform tasks in programs. If I had it to do over, I'd just buy the Dummies book. It gets straight to the point, makes it really easy to understand and costs 15 dollars less than the others on this topic.

I took the CIW Foundations exam over a year ago, I had almost nothing to study from and passing the exam was quite the challenge. Had I had this book I am confident that the exam would have been less trouble and made my life easier.

The 860 page book tackles the 1D0-410 Foundations exam and after reading through it I found that it was tailored made for the exam, objective by objective. Detailed information is given and if you use this book I also found that you have enough information to pass the iNet+ exam from CompTia.

In part 1 the author takes on the internet fundamentals with topics like browsers, search engines, plug-ins, security and e-commerce. Part 2 is dedicated to HTML both in the basic and some advanced techniques.

The HTML covers versions 4 and 5 and the breakdown is in a step-by-step format with actual coding examples to work with. Also basic coverage of CSS, DHTML and XML has been broken down into a understandable but technical manner.

Part 3 is the networking fundamentals sections, with topics ranging from TCP/IP, OSI model, servers, security and disaster recovery to LANS, WANS and hardware and troubleshooting.

Each chapter has exercises, questions, and labs to re-enforce the concepts and you can read and reread as often as necessary. There are also hundreds of resources included with every section.

Finally there is a cdrom include with several network tools like Visual Route, but what I found most important was the practice tests include was from Boson, a highly respected name in testing software. Overall this is by far the best book I have seen on the subject matter to date.

This book did the job, and I passed the first time with a 92%. After reading the book, I went back and focused on the chapter highlights and the chapter exams. Whenever I found myself guessing, I went back and re-read the section in question. By the time I got to the real exam, the exam questions seemed obvious.

Also, I didn't encounter much on the exam that wasn't in the book, with one exception- It may be helpful to know binary math to understand the IP Addressing section more easily, and the book doesn't cover this much.

I didn't find NUMEROUS mistakes as others have, but I did see one or two- usually editorial mistakes, though, and easy to spot.

This book was not my only source, though. For information on the TCP/IP stack and the OSI/RM (knowing these subjects in DETAIL is absolutely VITAL!) I used a CD-ROM from learntcpip.com. It only cost about ... but it helped alot.

Overall, I will recommend this book to anyone planning to take the Foundations exam.

If you are already comfortable with the material presented and are able to weed out the many mistakes and typos in the book, then you will certainly be able to pass the exam. I have never seen a book with so many mistakes in it. It makes me leary of buying any other books from Hungry Minds.

Just yesterday I took the CIW Foundations exam (1D0-410) and passed! It was due entirely to the use of this book. I found the layout, design and content to be VERY good. It is quite easy to read and follows the exam objectives very closely.

The accompanying CD-ROM is chock full of materials and the practice exams were very helpful in my preparation.

The only problem is that there are quite a few typographical errors throughout the book -- hence the 4 out of 5 rating. I found this especially frustrating in the HTML codes where accuracy is THE most important factor. Looking back I guess this was good because I was able to spot the errors which meant I had learned what was right and what was wrong. Some of the practice exam questions at the end of each chapter were wrong as well as far as the letters from the multiple choice question did not match the letters in the answer key. In other words, the letter was wrong in the answer key, but the subsequent description as correct. This seems to be due to the editing process.

I had also purchase another exam preparation book for the same course and it was not nearly as good as this one.

There were only one or two questions on the exam that were not covered in the book. Due to the fact the exam is multiple choice, however, I was able to eliminate some of the answers due to the knowledge I gained from studying with this book.

In all, this seems to be the best preparation book that I have found. I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone studying for the CIW foundations exam.

I passed the test using only this book as a written resource. The book does a good job covering a very broad subject area. There were only 2-3 questions on the exam that were not covered in the text.

The only problem with the book were a few superficial typographical errors in the assement and pre-chapter question pages.

The CD-ROM contains well written and comprehensive testing software by Boson. It allows you to review missed questions, target individual chapters, save test score results and a neat flash card utility.

The greatest benefit of this book and CD are the hundreds of questions provided. Many of the questions are very similar to the actual exam questions.

This book covers the old Foundations exam, retired in 2005. The new exam has many topics not covered by this book, including XML, XHTML, IT job roles, and project management concepts. The test engine is similarly outdated. If you plan on getting certified, look for newer books based on the CIW v5 Foundations Exam 1D0-510.

Just passed my exam today with a 93%. I used this book as my primary study material and supplimented it with other practice exams I found on the internet.

I probably did more studying than most, but I read the book cover to cover and did all the practice exams. I found they went into more detail than was necessary for the network portion of the exam. However, don't let that mislead you, because you are tested on a LOT of networking and TCP/IP concepts. It's just that they went into more detail than necessary, (however, it's nice to know, especially if you're not as familiar with networking as with the web aspects of the test). But again, if you don't know the networking aspect, you will *not* pass this test.

I think that this book could (and should) have covered more on encryption and line speeds. I had to go outside the book because they didn't go in to enough detail there.

I will also second the motion that there are errors in the book; however if you read the chapters carefully, you'll pick up the errors fairly easily.

In all, I'd recommend this book. I would not have passed the test without it. Good luck!

Good book that covers all aspects. However, be cautious because there A LOT of errors in this book.