CISCO NETWORK PROFESSIONAL’S ADVANCED INTERNETWORKING GUIDE

5 Comments

1. voiceoverthewall.com says:

   September 30, 2009 at 9:07 pm

   In a former role at my current company, I was a junior network technician. While I never quite completed my CCNA studies, I gained a large amount of networking experience and knowledge in the process. Although I am not CCNA-certified, I am a CWTS, as I am also a adjunct instructor in wireless technoligies at the college level.

   This book follows the tried-and-true Sybex style. It includes self-check questions in each chapter as well as a CD with sample tests and a PDF copy of the book.

   This book covers network design, switching, STP, routing (distance, link state, and vector), EGP, multicast, IPv6, redundancy, WAN concepts, VPNs, security, firewalls, IDSs, IPSs, VOIP, QoS, Wireless , Wireless management and Wireless security. This list of topics is standard for what you would expect a CCNA to understand before reading this text, but as I said, this book is targetted at the CCNP exams. The main point that I need to make about this text is that you should already have our CCNA before attempting to cover this material. This book does a great job at taking what the CCNA should know, and expanding that knowledge into more advanced areas.

   The coverage is excellent, not overly wordy, and fills 800+ pages. Each chapter begins with a quick review (meaning just a few pages) of the basics required to understand the real meat of the chapter. It doesn’t explicitly say that you should already know this material, but delivers the background material in just such a manner.

   Overall, my advice to you is this: Once you earn your CCNA, this book is your next step. Advance your knowledge with this book, perhaps get another book for CCNP studies, and then take the exams. I have found that experience and multiple books help in preparation for exams. Good luck!
   Rating: 4 / 5
2. M&M Catboy says:

   September 30, 2009 at 9:20 pm

   This book covers a wide range of network topics, which is good. I am glad that topics on QoS are included as well. I really liked the diagrams and screenshots. The text is a bit dry, but just as expected.
   Rating: 4 / 5
3. A. D. Lum says:

   September 30, 2009 at 11:51 pm

   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.
   Rating: 5 / 5
4. Timothy Walker says:

   October 1, 2009 at 12:11 am

   Sybex Cisco Network Professional’s Advanced Internetworking Guide is a highly specialized book. If you are not Cisco certified, you are not part of its target audience. Even earning a CCNA isn’t necessarily a sufficient prerequisite… earning your living as a CCNA is.

   Meet the criteria? Read on.

   As Mr. Conlan freely admits in his introduction, no one book could possibly teach every topic covered by the CCNP exams. However, this work comes pretty close – any closer and the book would be too heavy to lift – offering an excellent examination of routing and switching protocols, security, wireless, and QoS.

   The author’s decade of experience as an IT instructor is evident in these pages; in first person voice, he leads the reader through a case study of a fictitious multinational’s network infrastructure, building outward from the campus LAN to the enterprise edge. All major subject areas of all four exams are dealt with in due course, reinforced with end of chapter reviews and useful code samples on the bundled CD. While admittedly some of the material was over my head, I feel confident that it is accurate (Todd Lammle may have proofread) and, perhaps surprisingly, engaging and enjoyable to read!

   I recommend this book without hesitation as a self-study textbook of advanced Cisco internetworking… if you’ve finished reading Network Warrior, buy it now. It would also make a great starting point for certification prep, providing a comprehensive and logically structured overview of the CCNP Official Exam Certification Library… just don’t even think about sitting for the CCNP exams without first spending many, many hours in the lab.

   Thank you, Mr. Conlan, for a wonderful book. I look forward to re-reading it when I am ready.
   
   Rating: 5 / 5
5. Matthew A. Grulke says:

   October 1, 2009 at 2:19 am

   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”.
   
   Rating: 5 / 5