Customer Reviews

Cisco CCNA Exam #640-507 Certification Guide (With CD-ROM)

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About two months ago I was invited to take the Beta exam for the CCNA 2.0 certification and I had several books on the old exam, 640-407 to study from, I wish I could have had this book and I certain I would have done a great deal better.

Updated to cover the new exam, this 800 plus page wealth of information is just what you need in order to make sure you have every opportunity to pass the exam the first time around. What this book covers is each exam objective and more with detailed information and most importantly accurate information.

Covering the IOS Fundamentals, OSI model, TCP/IP Model, Network Hardware, Routing Protocols, Routed Protocols and Routing along with Access Lists the author has left no stone unturned in presenting information about the CCNA topic.

Updated Questions and answers are included as well. Something new I thought was a real pleasure was the scenarios included in the book, along with the vast amounts of pictures, figures, tables and diagrams there is nothing missing from the book as far as I could tell.

Included with the book is a very good cd-rom filled with questions and practice tests. The cd took no real configuring to install and I was using it in a matter of minutes. I did think the questions were tougher than the exam and found that this is a good thing for me. Overall money well spent and time well invested.

To borrow a phrase Todd Lammle uses to promote his practice exams, this book pushes your knowledge of networking to its limits. Regular CCNA study guides give you a moderate coverage of internetworking technologies, but you won't believe how sophisticated and intricate they can get until you read this book.

In fact, the title could be a misnomer because much of its content exceeds the level of knowledge that you would need to pass the exam. However, to really understand the concepts that are behind the CCNA exam, you need to read it. If you don't have much time, at least browse the "Foundation Topics" section. The section on IP subnetting is the best I have read so far. I have been using a shortcut provided by Cameron Brandon (TCP/IP for dummies). Here, Odom presents it as the "Decimal Algorithm." However, he does a much better job in a systematic way.

Organized and methodological as he is, the author (CCIE #1624) has his oversights occassionally. His opinion on zero subnets, though correct in itself, contradicts that of ICND. So verify it with Cisco's official opinion whenever you have a doubt.

The accompanying CD-ROM contains practice questions that, like much the book itself, exceeds the difficulty level of the real exam. A good feature to have is the .pdf version of the book - over 800 pages and maybe four pounds!

Initially I read Todd Lammle's CCNA Study Guide, however I found this book too shallow.

I then turned to Odom and was I impressed. The layout of the book is very well done, with the 'Do I Know This Already?' quiz at the begining of each chapter aimed at eliminating unnecessary studying. In addition to numerous questions at the end of each chapter, there was my favorite, the scenario exercises. These scenarios are the next best thing to actually using Cisco products.

The depth and breath of this book is absolutely perfect, it's one of the things that Lammle's was missing (especially on the topic of WAN Protocols and Configuration). People this book is not only for an exam it's for the real world. But just in case you are only interested in passing the exam, there is a CD that comes with the book. It contains over 200 exam type questions on it, that are in most cases more difficult than the ones on the actual exam.

This is one book I'll be keeping long after the exam.

I teach the CCNA 2.0 three nights a week, using this book. It is the only book needed to pass the exam #640-507. I receive tons of books from all the different publishers-only Cisco Press does the job. If you read the book AND practice the tests on the enclosed CD, you will pass the FIRST time. I teach local, national, and internationally. My students are demanding of me (and Cisco). I boast a 100% pass rate of my students. I can ONLY achieve this with THIS book.

This book is typical of cisco press books,it goes into detail and uses cisco-speak so if you dont know the basics and/or your not fimiliar with cisco-speak you'll have a hard time with this one.This book forces you to really know your stuff and to have a deeper understanding of the material,for all you paper tecs who just want to read a book pass a test and call yourself a ccna read Todd Lamelle"s book from sybex(or something similar)but if your an Academy student or have some field experience and networking will be your life's journey This book is for you.Look at the exam requirements on cisco web site they outline this books Table of contence.

This comprehensive guide can propel you to CCNA status regardless of your level of experience. I have three years in the field with switch and router experience but never bothered with the certifications. I wish I had this book when I was starting out. Many candidates struggle with finding the right text for an exam, trying to base their decision on recommendations and online reviews. This can lead to discouragement, confusion, and ultimately, disgust. This is a real blue-collar assessment of the basic concepts needed to pass the CCNA exam. Of course, the knowledge you'll gain won't hurt your skill-set for the proverbial "real-world" as well. I'm telling you straight out, I work for a MAJOR financial institution with an extensive communications staff most of whom do not have a complete understanding of the concepts explained in this book. If you're a self-taught technician like myself (I was an English major for Christ's sake), you learn to appreciate texts like this. Get your arms around this book, focus, concentrate, and you'll get the job done. Take your time with chapter 5 if you don't already know IP subnetting. Good luck and may your God bless you...

Read this book a couple of times in view of the examination . In my opinion this book is worth it's money since it help me pass the exam(scored 804). I don't had any Cisco experience and this was my first and "main" resource. From reading the book and completing the exam, it took me three weeks. I found the Foundation Summary in each chapter very usefull. Do the case studies if you have the time, because it's a good test on how good you've really understood the material. The part on VLAN's, Access List and Frame Relay were somewhat weaker in my opinion and I felt that IPX could have been covered to a larger detail as well.

But overall, it's a well balanced book and certainly a good starting point to get on the Cisco train.

I am a Cisco instructor and this is the text I use to teach my classes with. Granted is is not easy reading at all and many of my students complain. However I think that Mr. Odem does an excellent job of explaining some very difficult topics and the text goes way beyond what is actually needed for the current exam. Many people beleave that by passing one simple test they are going to get some extremely high paying job with no experiance, which is not the case at all. It takes years of hard work and study to begin to understand the extremely complex and very difficult world of Cisco and wide area networking.

So if you are a complete begginer read ICND first, but then read this book because it is very well written and an excellent source of information. But at all cost get some routers and get some hands on experiance and do not become paper certified like quite a few MCSE's out there.

SHAZAMI-CCNA, CCDA, CCNP, CCDP

Bought this book. Read it. Hated it. Wanted my money back. This book is definetely NOT a beginner's guide. Try Sybex or somebody else because you are definetly not going to get it from this book. I expected this book to be a complete review of all material needed to take and pass the CCNA. Now I'm a pretty smart guy (quit laughing wife) and I've been around the certification block a way too many times for my sanity (MCSE,CNE, and NCC),so I know what I need to take and pass a test and this book did not give me that knowledge. I just bought routersim and we'll see how that goes. I bought routersim because the one thing that this book does not do is teach you how to configure a Cisco router or switch at ALL! They give you screen dumps of the config and that's it. Like: 'see how this router is configured.' Umm, no! I think I probably should have bought Cisco Press's ICND book, but hopefully routersim will take care of that. The one good thing about this book though is its description of the networking topics it's teaching. The Spanning tree protocol is excellent and so are some of the other area's like the OSI model. Nightmare areas include ISDN (hello! major importante!) which doesn't tell you anything at all about this crucial subject that you must know if you want to pass the CCIE much less the CCNA.

If you have taken the ICND course buy this book. If not, buy either Sybex's CCNA book or buy Cisco press's ICND book.

This book was very helpful in me passing the 640-507. I purchased this book 1 week before the test and passed with a 860. I would recommend this book for anyone looking to take the test. Every subject was covered in this book and the CD ROM is excellent too.