Customer Reviews

CCNP Switching Study Guide (Exam 640-504 with CD-ROM)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book was very well written. I couldn't put it down. It was technical, but funny, and prepared me for the exam. The written labs, review questions, and flash cards were excatly what I needed to help me pass the exam. I scored a 910, which isn't bad since I hadn't worked on a switch before reading this book. The amount of in-depth information on the Catalyst switch series, mostly the 5000, was amazing. The exam had questions based on the Catalyst 1900 and 5000 series, and this book had everything needed on the Catalyst switch series to pass the exam. I am well pleased with all the Sybex books for Cisco certification.

Sybex and Lammle stand heads and shoulders above most Cisco certification guides and give Cisco Press a run for their money! This study guide for CCNP switching 2.0 is easy to read and understand, especially for those who are new to the catalyst line of switches. I recently passed the test with a score of 803, however I feel that if I did not complement this study guide with the Cisco Press CCIE Cisco Lan Switching guide (isbn 1578700949) and the Boson switching tests I would have failed the test. The CCIE Lan book was used for the detailed explanations and the Boson tests to find where the Sybex/Lammle book was lacking (mostly MLS and troubleshooting). Overall, there are very few errors in this text and the labs are excellent, in fact I used several of the labs as a template to install a dozen 6509's with layer3 swithing between vlans, VTP, spanning tree... the whole nine! I like to think of this book as a quick start guide and desk reference for common tasks. I also feel a lot more comfortable about using spanning tree and trunking in my networks, things I tried to avoid in the past, because of the great explanations in this text. Definitely worth the price of admission, although not quite the all-in-one study solution some people were hoping for.

I bought the Lammle CLSC and then bought this since I never took the old exam. This is a nice new book. The entire book was re-written, which was a nice surprise. I thought it would just be a little update, but it is not. Nice format, easy to read, matched the exam, etc, etc, (fill in the information for all of Todd Lammle's books here..). This book was worth the money. This really helped me understand the 5000 series command structure. Todd will discuss a subject, then domonstrate it in a network and discuss the switch output line-by-line. This book is a keeper.

Ok, let me start off by saying that I thought the CCNA 2.0 book was one of the best tech books I've read so far. So perhaps Todd has set the bar a little high... Well done book! The examples are clear and the concepts presented in a way that (provided you have the appropriate level of knowledge) makes them easy to understand. The only thing I would like to see added to the book is more info about the 'other' switches: 2900 and the 2900XL, the 3500's, etc. For the test? Probably not on the hit list, but would be good information for those of us that are doing this stuff for a living. Guess I'll just have to buy another book or two ;) Really well done spanning tree protocol information. Multi Layer Switching is heavy on the acronyms for the device parts but once over that hurdle the explanation was very simply put. This is the first book that I've read that really explains multi-casting. I've read the RFC's, but this did a good job of making it clear. So, it's a pretty good book. I've just been spoiled by the best... TTFN, Bill in Anchorage

Great book, covers everything you need to pass the CCNP 640-504 exam. Hands-on lab could be great also if not for some "Typos". I work in an Internet Data Center in Singapore and have full hands-on in 5500 Switch and 7500 Router (along with those lower-end switches and routers), and I could tell you that Sybex Cisco Certification Series Books are great if not the best in the market. I'm using all Sybex books to earn my Cisco Certs, currently I'm holding CCNA2 (which I use the greatest book ever printed, the Sybex CCNA Study Guide) and now preparing for Foundation 640-509.

This book, although very good is not enough to pass the Switching exam. I used the Cisco CIM as well as the SwitchSim simulator to prepare. The SwitchSim software was flawed as it was not compatable with this book. Only one chapter was dedicated to multi-layer switching and my exam was dedicated to PLENTY of MLS questions not covered in this book. I passed the exam (781) because the CIM was able to pick up the slack. I went with Lammle because of his outstanding CCNA book and will continue with him for the rest of my CCNP.

This book is a good study tool for those of you preparing for the CCNP Switching examination. Although I have a good amount of experience with Cisco routers, which aided my preparation, I had never dealt with Cisco switches of any sort prior to taking the exam. This text, by itself, was sufficient to pass the exam.

The two main areas of weakness in the text are multicast and multiplayer switching. If you wish to score well on all areas of the exam find additional materials to help your preparation in these areas.

Aside from these two areas, the text is sufficiently thorough to allow excellent scores in the other areas.

PJZ

I read through some sections wondering why they seamed to be lacking in detail and thorough explanation ( STP, Multicast Routing ). My conclusion is that fleshing out these areas was not necessary because such detail would not be covered on the test. Fair enough. But, it would have been more useful to nix the superfluous 85pg glossary and 23pg Multicast Address Appendix ( a publisher corallary to the consumer judging a book by its cover is judging how thick it is ) and provide the more complete detail and explanation. I suppose Sybex is peddling another book with the requisite detail. Some things I found annoying: 1 - In Chapter 5, Spanning Tree with VLANS, no network diagram is provided to give context for all the commands being demonstrated. 2 - In the "in-depth look" at STP somehow the author left out explaining root port selection. 3 - On pg392 the author describes PIM dense mode as using "source root shared tree" and PIM sparse mode as using "shared root source tree". I jotted copious notes in the generous 2" left margins. Notes gathered from Cisco's web site documents and other texts I have in my library. I found Cisco Press's "Cisco LAN Switching" to be invaluable. I did wind up passing the test. My judgement is that you may be able to pass the test with this book alone. But with this book and no experience, prior knowledge or knowledge gleaned from other texts you will be nothing but a "paper" CCNP switch specialist with a shallow understanding of Cisco switching.

This book is writen so that you don't burn out by the second chapter. It had some typo's, but I think that those where minor. The practice exam at the end of the book is horendous, use the one on the cd instead as it has the same questions, but in the proper format. The troubleshooting area could have been expanded with more examples of real world scenareos. Overall this will be yet another reference book for me. Yes I did pass on the first try with only this book, and experience.

This book is enough for you to pass the switching exam; don't believe reviews that say otherwise. I have never laid hands on a switch before; i used this book in conjunction with lammle's Switchsim and questions from cert 21 and passed. I must admit that there were quite a few questions on the exam that were not covered by the book. All in all, the material in this book in sufficient for you to ace the exam. Good luck.