9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely the best Multicast book available, May 23, 2004
This review is from: Developing IP Multicast Networks, Volume I (Hardcover)
This is the best multicast book on the market. It is a must have whether you are preparing for the CCIE Lab or just want to understand multicast.
The explanation was simple and clear. There are tons of configuration examples covering pretty much all kinds of scenarios. The author actually explained every single line of the configurations.
I bought this book for my Lab exam, and after two days of reading, 99.99% of my questions were answered (the only one I still have is I actually made PIM-DM work in a hub-spoke frame relay network. The prune message from one spoke was actually seen by the other spoke, I don't know why the hub would forward it out).
I have to admit this is one of the best books I've read for a long time. Just like Jeff Doyle's TCP/IP Routing is the Bible of IGP, this book is the Bible of Multicast.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good foundational book, even in 2008, January 27, 2008
This review is from: Developing IP Multicast Networks, Volume I (Hardcover)
I was skeptical about buying a book this old, but I just finished it and am still slightly amazed at how little has changed in multicast technology in ~8 years. I have read Doyle's multicast coverage, listened to InternetworkExpert's excellent "class on demand" (CoD) on the topic many times, and worked through over half of their 20 CCIE lab scenarios, all of which have multicast sections. This doesn't make me an expert by any means, but I know enough now to recognize that the material in this book is still worth reading.
The differences between this book and Doyle's (2004) are:
- Williamson dedicates a lot more effort to explaining the mroute table. This was my single biggest stumbling block in multicast routing
- Doyle, IMO, gives IGMP a better treatment
- Doyle goes over mtrace and mstat
- Williamson spreads the information out over more pages via liberal usage of config snips and diagrams, often one per page. This allows him to go into *brutal, painful and excruciating* detail about every line in the mroute table, every flag, every state transition, etc.
- Williamson does a more thorough job of explaining exactly what happens in PIM-SM networks (100+ pages to Doyle's ~25)
- Doyle goes over Anycast RP and gives a better explanation of MSDN, which appears to have been rather cutting edge when Williamson put finger to keyboard
I finished the book in about a week of serious effort, but I skipped the following chapters (Cisco has not put much effort into the technologies described), leaving me with about 400 pages of groovyness:
DVMRP
CBT
MOSPF
Connecting to DVMRP Networks
and several sections of other chapters
To be sure, some things have changed. I didn't see any mention of the "ip pim autorp listener" command, which negates the need for sparse-dense mode when configuring Auto-RP (can't recall if Doyle mentioned that either). Also, in current versions of IOS one *does* need to specify the RP on the RP itself, whereas Williamson (and Doyle) explicitly say this is not the case (they were both right at the time of print, Cisco has changed this). Overall however, I would say that easily >95% of the material is solid here.
So which book to buy? Well if you're serious about the CCIE and/or running a multicast network you'll get both, and read them both several times. I do hope Williamson updates the book though, as he alludes to several draft proposals, and gives a "state of the multicast internet" address that I would like to know more about without digging through two dozen RFCs. Also, the few things that have changed would be a boon to the book.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Finally! Someone Get's It., March 15, 2003
This review is from: Developing IP Multicast Networks, Volume I (Hardcover)
Multicast is a pain to learn only because most authors make it seem like rocket science. FINALLY an author who gets it right! Presenting in a logical manner and with an understanding of his audience.
I picked up what I needed to know with multicast for the CCIE lab exam in just a few evenings with this book. That was the end of a 6 month search for a good reference.
The chapters IP PIM DENSE, IP PIM SPARSE, IMPLEMENTING IP PIM DENSE, IMPLEMENTINT IP PIM SPARSE, are worth the cost of the book alone, but you get much more.
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