Customer Reviews

Cisco Cookbook

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is not the type of book you would read cover to cover, but I found myself reading 5 chapters, and I want more. If you work everyday with Cisco; vpn, routers, and need practical shortcuts, how-tos or just an immediate solution - this is the book for you. It is a heavy book (900+ pages) - and it is true that you can find this info elsewhere. It is convenient to quickly reference this book, properly indexed, and to the point. Just read the sample table of contents - there are so many useful tricks, that anyone who has any work on a cisco will appreciate it. I rate it 6 stars. Another great O'Reilly book.

Scenario #1: You work for a large university which needs an internet access solution
with multiple points of failure. How do you connect your university's network to two
or more ISPs with redundant routers?
(page 327)

Scenario #2: You want to use the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to keep an
eye on your network, but you'll need to provided extra security to SNMP by using
access lists. How do you set this up?
(page 621)

Scenario #3: Setting up router configurations is a pain. Wouldn't it be nice if the
router could dynamically configure it's IP addressing information? It sure would --
see page 733 for a step-by-step.

This hefty book (885 full pages) provides a hearty recipe to satisfy any Cisco routing
hunger you might have. A quick glance through it's pages presents well-balanced
meals of RIP, OSPF, BGP, logging, NAT and more. As a Cisco gourmand myself, I
strongly recommend this must-have cookbook!

The Cookbook is a very useful reference. It's loaded with examples that can be applied immediatly to everyday situations.
Not much abstraction here this book is about getting the job done. Most Cisco subjects are covered. Solutions to most problems are easy to find. This book was easy to read. The Cisco Cookbook provides more than the usual information most administrators have seen many many times. I endorse this book for intermediate & advanced users. I think the Cisco Cookbook will go thru many revisions.

I always thought nobody can do justice other than Cisco Press when it comes to Cisco books. I was absolutely wrong!.

Just my 2 cents worth of comments to a previous reviewer saying "no backgound problem information is given". My answer is: There is a reason why they are saying it is a "CookBook". Whenever you are stressed for answers, this book will save you and give a quick solution and enough theory so you can implement what you want to. For theory there are plenty of books in the market and I don't think that approach would have added any value to the book other than size :-) I recommend this title to any cisco professional without a doubt.

Cisco Cookbook is a a complete reference guide for field engineers and Network Administrators. The book has practically everything you need to know to competently configure cisco routers for a production environment. However, if you do not already have a working knowledge of Cisco networking technologies this book maybe over your head. For experienced Engineers and Administrators, the book is a must have for your desk reference.

Thomas Villarubia
CCNA CCNP

Very impressed with this book. I have some experience with setting up linux based firewalls, but very little IOS experience. With the help of this book, I've just finished setting up a new Cisco router for NAT/PAT, logging, SNMP, access control and an IPSec VPN. Everything I need was covered in the book, even a non-trivial section on VPNs.

The few things I would add are:

- A "recipe" for a basic setup on a new router. Just a template that covers most of the bases (logging, access, etc) and forms a good starting point for more specific configuration later.

- A simple syntax overview when new commands are given. Something like "logging buffered <buffer size> <severity>". A couple of pages in the appendix would suffice.

Clearly these are trivial points and I'm happy to give Cisco Cookbook top marks.

This is a great reference for anyone who supports Cisco routers, BUT... some of the sections are out of date, for example, the section on QOS. Also, a section that needs to be added is MPLS. I would buy a new version just for these two enhancements! Hopefully it is being updated right now and we'll see a new printing this year!

This book is for network administrators written by network administrators. They suggest solutions for frequently encountered problems and give some good scripts to automate daily work. Not a book for begineers though.

I don't write many reviews, but I had to say something for this title. Within 48 hours of receiving this book (along with "Hardening Cisco Routers" also from O'Reilly) I had put some of these recipes into production.

I even find that I can read each chapter like a study or reference guide due to its excellent structure. The first few recipes of each chapter are very basic and explain the concept of what you are trying to achieve. However the author clearly states that the basic solution is either full of pitfalls or security holes. The following recipes cover each pitfall or hole until the last recipe, usually titled 'Putting it All Together', is a full fledged, practical solution with no theory.

The theory and study guides should take some cues from this book, and begin really teaching real-world networking.

ONE WARNING - This book covers working with routers primarily. "Cisco Router Cookbook" would be a more apt title. However I have applied some of the VPN router concepts to Pix firewall configurations.

Mr. Dooley, where is the Cisco Switching Cookbook!!??

If you are an administrator and you have forgotten details about a router configuration, that you need. this book will be the real lifesaver.
Basic and advanced router config have been included and all the topics are grouped and explained in a clear way.
I found Chapter 9:BGP very useful, showing a hard topic by using a easy to understand solutions.

Si eres un administrador y se te olvido detalles de una configuración, este libro realmente te ayudará.
Se han incluido configuraciones básicas y avanzadas y los temas están agrupados y se explican brevemente, pero muy claro.
Me intereso el capitulo 9 sobre BGP, en que muestra un tema difícil de entender, en una forma sencilla con ejemplos claros.