14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Make a few updates and this is a great book., April 24, 2002
This review is from: CCNA Practical Studies (Cisco Certification & Training) (Hardcover)
I have always wished that there was some sort of lab manual for the Cisco Press books that would allow the student to be able to work with real world examples. Now with the release of Practical Studies you have a handy study companion to work with.
The 500 page book is more than just an ad-on reference manual it is a useful study tool for the new 640-607 exam. The authors went to a great deal of time and effort to make sure all exam objectives were covered and the material up to date and technically accurate.
One thing I was impressed with is that this book fits right into any ICND training course because not only does it cover the exam it provide information for other CCNP exams as well. The breakdown examples use actual router code and show you what is happening throughout the examples.
While this manual is for the intermediate to advanced user the material is tailored made for those ready to take the exam but need just a little more help. One drawback is that you will need a great deal of equipment in order to follow the examples and that's why a router simulator should have been included.
Also the book does not have nay practice question software and this is something that should also be included in the learning process. The only other thing I saw was the inclusion of EIGRP routing protocol which the exam does not cover. Overall a few minor adjustments and this book are ready to use.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Needs an update, plus corrections of misconceptions, November 29, 2005
This review is from: CCNA Practical Studies (Cisco Certification & Training) (Hardcover)
Bottom line: This book is only recommended for people who intend on going further than CCNA as a guid for building a serious home lab, or else those CCNA candidates who already own good router simulator software.
For everyone else, you can pretty much ignore this book until they update it to be fully conformed to the CCNA 640-801 exam.
Read why, below:
This is a decent lab guide on how to set up your Cisco home lab, detailing what sorts of gear you need, how to configure it, and some challenge problems that will not only prepare you for the CCNA, but for real-world work.
By the time you work through the book, you will get setup practice, switching and VLAN configuration practice, routing practice, and even some insight into network design. You will get hands-on experience that reinforces the conceptual learning from the Cisco Press CCNA books and the various CCNA study guides. This lab guide and the hardware will be invaluable in making the IOS commands "second nature" by the time you take your CCNA exam.
Measured against that standard, this book is nearly a 5-star book. It gets "points off" for using the menu based configuration for the 1924 switch instead of the IOS/CLI approach used by the 2950 series switch (the latter is what is on the CCNA 640-801 test).
But there are two very important flaws the potential purchaser of this book should be aware of: The book gets 1 star knocked off because it still has a lot of reference to Token Ring LAN technology, which is practically extinct. It loses another star for having a lot of the content on routing for Novell IPX/SPX, which is seldom seen anymore.
By basing so much material on these two obsolete (and non-exam) technologies, this book loses much of its value. These archaic technologies can be worked around and "converted" to TCP/IP, but this requires a depth that most CCNA candidates will not have - after all, that's why you are looking at this CCNA lab book!
So the biggest cumulative deficiency is that the book is in dire need of an update the entire text from the old 607 exam to the current CCNA 640-801 test standard. This involves dropping all the Token Ring and IPX/SPX activities, and adding more on 802.3 Ethernet LANs, and 802.1q VLAN trunking with an additional switch via the CLI (not the menu!).
As mentioned by others, this book does require access to a lot of lab gear, which is cost prohibitive for someone just starting out in networking. But it's not nearly as expensive anymore. In a pinch, you can use a commercial router/network simulator to do almost all of the labs if you don't mind the limitations such software has. Search Amazon or EBay, there are plenty of software based CCNA/CCNP simulators available, just be aware of the limitations.
If you are just grabbing a book and equipment for long enough to pass the CCNA exams and intend to do no further Cisco certification work, then you probably do not need this book. The most use you could do would be to read it for the examples and solutions, and maybe set up all this in a simulator environment (like the Boson router sim). If instead of a simulator, you want actual hardware that's simply adequate to pass the CCNA exam, then go to Amazon [...], and grab a pair of cheap 2501 routers (with AUI adapters and back to back cables), and a cheap 1924-EN switch, and use them to create scenarios from your CCNA training books.
However, if you are in the networking business to stay, then this book and the gear involved will be the basis for your continuing professional education, providing you with a source for plenty of hands-on experience across a broad range of problems.
[...] I know because I bought one and use it myself in my lab; it connects a pair of 2503 routers, just as the lab says.
Another correction is that you can pick up almost all the 2500 series routers needed to build the home lag for well less than $100 each. The exceptions to this are the 2511-Access router (usually about $200-260) and the 2520-Frame router (about $150-200).
The main switch involved (a 1924-EN) frequently sells for less than $50. Search Amazon and EBay for "Cisco 2501" and similar routers or "Cisco 1924" for the switch.
Note that a Cisco 4500M (sells for about $40 typically) can replace the $200 Cisco 2520 as the frame router/switch, and a 2509 (costs usually near $100) can replace the 2511 model for the purposes of this lab, providing the needed 8 serial console connections.
Just be sure to buy the Ethernet versions of the 2500 series routers, not the token ring versions. And remember you will need crossover cables to connect the WAN serial ports, and AUI transceivers to connect the AUI ethernet ports to your RJ-45 Cat5 network cables.
So, yes, by the time all is said and done, you will have laid out some cash to build the lab. But the cost is not nearly as much as some have said. And remember, this lab will also support you quite well in achieving not only your CCNA, but is a solid basis for your CCNP with the addition of more switching equipment (for VLAN trunking exercises), and will be adequate for most tasks all the way up through the CCIE tests. And you can use it to set up and explore network scenarios as a job aid for your day to day work as a network engineer.
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