Customer Reviews

Cisco LAN Switching (CCIE Professional Development series)

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is a must for every network engineer and designer! The content is very detailed and well structured, you may skip chapters and go back and forth if you don't feel that you don't need to read them (not suggested ;). The chapters on STP are probably the best material ever written.

It covers the whole lifecycle of a network - from the design to troubleshooting and every part of it is excellent and very well-explained which makes it easy to understand (as long as this could be "easy" ;).

Unfortunately the CLSC 1.0 test (from the CCNP track) focuses on a little different aspect than this book, which doesn't make this book less valuable. If you're planning on taking CLSC 2.0 (which is coming live later this year) this book fits so well like the test questions are written by the authors (quite likely ;).

In my opinion this book and "Routing TCP/IP" by Jeff Doyle are the best books on networking (and Cisco) ever written.

I usually hold my praise until I take and pass an exam but I'll make exception for this awesome book. Most CCNP books seem very disjointed and filled with numerous technical and egregious editing errors. Simply put they don't make a lot of sense because they seem like a collection of cut-n-paste from other techinical documents. If you were trying to learn and understand various switching technologies including LANE, STP, VTP, VLAN or etc.... i can truly say that this book is the best. It explains with authority, clearity, and humour. After you read this book, you'll feel like your time reading it was well spent because you will understand reasons and whys. Its just a beautiful book. Thanks to authors.

What this book provides: --- With some hands on experience, this book will make you an expert in Cisco LAN Switching. Every subject related to the design, troubleshooting and maintenance of switched networks is discussed in detail. I especially enjoyed the chapters on STP and Campus Design. If you already own Cisco Catalyst switches or are looking to buy Cisco Catalyst switches, this book is invaluable.

What this book does not provide: --- This book is not an introduction to LAN Switching. Many networking terms are not defined in the assumption that the reader has a networking background. If you are looking for an introduction to LAN Switching or networking, you will need to look elsewhere.

I also noticed a few errors in the book. Mostly just missing lines from networking diagrams and the text referring to the wrong figure.

CiscoPress's "Cisco LAN Switching" by Clark and Hamilton is one of the classics of Networking. For years, this book has been considered the "Bible" or the "Source" for LAN switching topologies.

Having written that, I feel that LAN Switching had covered a topic to a degree where it wasn't necessary to write another book on the same subject. Most Cisco Networkers live at Layer 3, and moving down to Layer 2 (and, in particular) STP is both a mystery and, perhaps, beneath them (both literally and figuratively - on the OSI stack). For a lot of people, Layer 2 is plug-n-play (dangerous indeed!). As Cisco's main switching workhorses (6500s) increase in functionality - the lines between layer 2 and layer 3 start to get hazy. But fear not - the layers are still distinct! LAN Switching does a superb job at dissecting the vagaries of STP - along with discussing VTP and trunking.

For 99% of people requiring LAN skills (both CCIE candidates and networkers), this will be the resource to put on their bookshelf. And "Cisco LAN Switching" by Clark and Hamilton will fill this role nicely for them.

I give this book 5 pings out of 5:
!!!!!

This book provides great information on the core switching concepts. The Spanning tree section is excellent. Unfortunately the text's age is starting to show. Most of the examples are in CatOS.

I had an opportunity to review this book and found its discussions of VLAN's, implementation, design (best practice) and pitfalls, as invaluable knowledge. The additional discussions on ATM and designing switched Network was excellent. This book is logically put together, emphasizes real world, issues , and theory. Best book on switching and application of the technology that I have seen.

I never understand why Cisco does not want to publish some newer editions of this invaluable book! I bought this item as a reliable and recommended supplementary resource to brush up on my switching skills for R&S CCIE lab test 2007-2008, yet found it almost "useless". Explaining some concepts in more details than other Cisco press books, this book suffers from a big problem: almost all examples are presented in an old fashion which makes them unusable for new exams where "set based" and other dated CAT commands can no longer be thought of as valid exam topics. Needless to say, the same problem will be experienced by readers when they try to get them implemented in real world. It sounds like a big drawback especially when it comes to CCIE lab preparation tools, as this book is supposed to be. What I needed for the test was a concise well-designed structure in terms of main concepts e.g. STP (it did have) and many complex and reliable configuration samples which I never could find in this edition (back in years ago, not surprising at all).
By the way, If you are a great Set-to-IOS converter, you might enjoy those examples.

This book, along with Routing TCP/IP, are two of the best books ever written on Networking. This book is very well written, very concise, and the examples are very useful in presenting a problem and a solution.

The chapter on Multilayer Switching, Multicasting, and Spanning-Tree alone are very extensive and comprehensive. The explanations are very technical yet understandable for the novice readers. Superb illustrations and explanations leave no holes unturned.

This book may seem outdated but don't be fooled by the publish date. It's 2001, I'm redesigning our LAN network with Cisco 6509 Core switches and this book comes in handy every step of the way.

Excellent Book! If I could find a 6 stars, I will give it to this book. If you plan to use this book for CLSC 1.0 exam, maybe you will be disappointed. It is not concentrate on the exam. But this book is a very good reference. everytime, if I find something I was not very clear in my exam preparing book, I can find answer here. For example, What's the difference between VTP and ISL? You can get the answer in this book. My english is not very good. you can know this from my review :) But I find reading this book was really easy and enjoyable. Thank the author presented us such a excellent book!

If you need to know about LAN switch technology this is what you need. It's a big book because they don't skip anything, but because of the clarity of explanation the pages just fly by.