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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Content, Confusing Title, August 6, 2009
This review is from: Cisco Network Professional's Advanced Internetworking Guide (CCNP Series) (Paperback)
First of all I want to point out that this is the best guide for the current CCNP (2008/2009) I have come across so far. It is far superior to the 4 Volume "official" Cisco Press CCNP guides in terms of relevance, clarity, and general readability.
Highlights:
Chapter 3, Spanning Tree Protocol - Don't get me wrong. Spanning tree is still the most boring topic in layer 2 switching, but unfortunately it is absolutely essential that Network Professionals have a solid understanding of how to work with and design networks in terms of spanning tree. This is one of the few spanning tree chapters in ANY book, that hasn't made me want to shoot myself.
Chapter 8, Multicast - With the growing demand for video and voice on networks, Multicast routing is a needed in order to keep bandwidth utilization and overhead under control. While the concept of how multicast routing works can be difficult to grasp and the addressing mechanism seems like a nightmare, this chapter really helps the reader get their head around it. If you've never worked with multicast before you may still need to go over this chapter a couple of times. I would like to add that Dense Mode Multicast protocols are the Devil. Don't use them even if you do have a butt load of multicast on your network, all that flooding is bad ju-ju. PIM-Sparse Mode is the way to go.
Chapter 20, Wireless Management and Security - The author does such a good job on this section, but I just wish there was more of it! The security sections (encryption and authentication) are clear and easy to understand. It is an absolute must to understand the differences between the two and how to apply them in the real world in order to avoid looking/sounding like an idiot. The sections on the lightweight controllers and WCS management are also great. This book really just scratches the surface of what current controller based wireless systems are capable of (only a half page on mesh networking?, KILLING me here), but the chapter does cover the CCNP exam topics in the required level of detail.
My only complaint is that I believe the title is misleading. A main function of the book is clearly to act as a study guide for the CCNP Exams, but "CCNP" or "Study Guide" is nowhere in the title. This is a problem because people searching for a CCNP study guide are likely going to overlook this text because the name doesn't fit what they are expecting. Currently the book shows up at the bottom of the page (#12) when searching with the simple keyword of "CCNP".
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Solid, August 1, 2009
This review is from: Cisco Network Professional's Advanced Internetworking Guide (CCNP Series) (Paperback)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I rate this "solid", which means that you won't die if you don't have it, but it is nice to have in your arsenal. It is written in my favorite style (for an IT book), which is what I would call "friendly" or "conversational".
The target audience is people who already have their CCNAs or equivalent knowledge and experience. The book is designed to help those who are pursuing a CCNP by introducing and covering the material in building block fashion (single case study). This approach gives the reader a better picture of how things fit together. In the IT world, this is a very good thing.
Achieving a high level of proficiency in the IT world is not easy. The road is very long and sometimes full of potholes (things that are at the time, incomprehensible). Diligent study of books like this one will smooth out the bumps and help you get you to your well-earned destination.
Use the book preview that Amazon provides. Have a look at the table of contents. That will tell you what the book will deliver.
Use "Surprise Me!" to get a feel for the writing style. That will tell you how the material is delivered.
If you give the coverage and delivery a thumbs up, then buy with confidence.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Cisco Certified Network Professional Primer, December 28, 2009
This review is from: Cisco Network Professional's Advanced Internetworking Guide (CCNP Series) (Paperback)
I am a Cisco Netacad instructor and teach CCNA/A+. I also hold a CCNP and CCNA Security.
This book is a great primer for the CCNP topics of Advanced Routing, Advanced Switching, Remote Access and Converged Networks.
The Author does a great job of presenting the material in as conversational tone as possible, which makes it a lot easier to read than some computer/IT-related books. There is a logical progression to the book from the LAN, WAN, etc.
I like that he relates the topics to an imaginary enterprise network called FutureTech. This helps the reader to relate how these technologies, concepts and protocols will apply and be implemented in a network.
I was able to read through most of the chapters very briskly because of the manner in which the author writes. You can tell he has a lot of experience in instructing, and this comes through in the passages. He presents some of the concepts by using analogies, which can help to clear things up and relate them to other real-world subjects.
A couple of caveats. The book does possess quite a few typos, but they do not get in the way of learning.
Also, at this time, Cisco is in the process of revising the CCNP exam, which will now consist of three exams vice four. The revision will take place next summer, so it would be advisable to read the book now and begin preparing for the exams now. [...]
There aren't any labs that accompany the text to help the students implement the technologies and concepts. It helps to have a beginner and a complex/advanced lab. The beginner lab helps to show the student how to configure the concept/technology. The advanced helps to test if the reader has a good grasp of the topic. Some of the topics are very complicated and advanced, so the lack of labs makes understanding difficult, as some of the knowledge is gained through hands-on learning. If you're good at creating scenarios, then this will not be a hindrance.
The author also advises the reader invest in expensive lab equipment. If you have the money, then take his advice. If not, my advice is to possibly buy a cheap certification kit, use GNS3 or Boson NetSim or rent a remote network lab/rack if you don't plan on pursuing a CCIE certification.
The last thing is the current certification kit is four books, so there had to be some information that would be left off the cutting room floor. There are either command line interface commands not covered or topics not covered in-depth like OSPF (virtual links), Wireless (the different flavors of 802.1x) and other information. QOS is only two chapters, whereas the actual ONT book is more than 300 pages (versus the 100 pages in this book). It is a considerable topic, which is covered but not in-depth.
Despite this, this book is a great resource. And I'd recommend any network engineer read it before delving into the official certification kit (don't forget to buy the command guide too).
I'd recommend this or Todd Lammle's CCNA book. They're both great supplemental material.
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