Rating: 
Summary: Good reference
Review: Good reference book for Cisco engineers. Information is scattered however. If you want a deeper coverage of IP routing protocols, also check out "Cisco IOS for IP Routing" by Andrew Colton.
Rating:
Summary: Good reference
Review: Good reference book for Cisco engineers. Information is scattered however. If you want a deeper coverage of IP routing protocols, also check out "Cisco IOS for IP Routing" by Andrew Colton.
Rating: 
Summary: Must have reference for Cisco Professionals
Review: I always thought nobody can do justice other than Cisco Press when it comes to Cisco books. I was absolutely wrong!. Just my 2 cents worth of comments to a previous reviewer saying "no backgound problem information is given". My answer is: There is a reason why they are saying it is a "CookBook". Whenever you are stressed for answers, this book will save you and give a quick solution and enough theory so you can implement what you want to. For theory there are plenty of books in the market and I don't think that approach would have added any value to the book other than size :-) I recommend this title to any cisco professional without a doubt.
Rating:
Summary: Must have reference for Cisco Professionals
Review: I always thought nobody can do justice other than Cisco Press when it comes to Cisco books. I was absolutely wrong!. Just my 2 cents worth of comments to a previous reviewer saying "no backgound problem information is given". My answer is: There is a reason why they are saying it is a "CookBook". Whenever you are stressed for answers, this book will save you and give a quick solution and enough theory so you can implement what you want to. For theory there are plenty of books in the market and I don't think that approach would have added any value to the book other than size :-) I recommend this title to any cisco professional without a doubt.
Rating:
Summary: Cisco Cookbook
Review: Scenario #1: You work for a large university which needs an internet access solution
with multiple points of failure. How do you connect your university's network to two
or more ISPs with redundant routers?
(page 327) Scenario #2: You want to use the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to keep an
eye on your network, but you'll need to provided extra security to SNMP by using
access lists. How do you set this up?
(page 621) Scenario #3: Setting up router configurations is a pain. Wouldn't it be nice if the
router could dynamically configure it's IP addressing information? It sure would --
see page 733 for a step-by-step. This hefty book (885 full pages) provides a hearty recipe to satisfy any Cisco routing
hunger you might have. A quick glance through it's pages presents well-balanced
meals of RIP, OSPF, BGP, logging, NAT and more. As a Cisco gourmand myself, I
strongly recommend this must-have cookbook!
Rating:
Summary: Good reference Good reading
Review: The Cookbook is a very useful reference. It's loaded with examples that can be applied immediatly to everyday situations.
Not much abstraction here this book is about getting the job done. Most Cisco subjects are covered. Solutions to most problems are easy to find. This book was easy to read. The Cisco Cookbook provides more than the usual information most administrators have seen many many times. I endorse this book for intermediate & advanced users. I think the Cisco Cookbook will go thru many revisions.
Rating:
Summary: A must have reference for network administrators
Review: This book is for network administrators written by network administrators. They suggest solutions for frequently encountered problems and give some good scripts to automate daily work. Not a book for begineers though.
Rating:
Summary: Great book with some assumptions and caveats
Review: This book is much like Cisco Press's the Practical Studies or the Field Manual, with "down-to-earth" explainations. I like idea of the book where it starts from a problem then to suggested solution and discussion on the "why that way". But I think before the authors throw the problems, they should start with background as to why the problems arise or what the situations are that push up the problems to arise. For years-of-experience Cisco networkers, this might not a problem. But for most of us who just start to get deeper on Cisco product configuration, the book kind leave us hanging. For instance, page 162; convert between the three different formats that Cisco routers use to present mask information: standard netmask, ACL wildcards, and CIDR bit numbers. Many of us may wonder, why would someone need to do this? What is the background situation that makes this problem come up? Another example, page 183; restrict how many paths your router can use simultaneously to reach a particular destination. The solution the authors suggest include OSPF, EIGRP, and BGP (dynamic routing protocols). The problem is that discussion on OSPF, EIGRP, and BGP comes up on next pages. So the authors expect the readers to have sufficient knowledges on such protocols. But what about most of us that only have little or no knowledge of such things but need to configure Cisco products as easy and as quick as possible? Previous reviewer mentioned about connecting a network to two different ISPs using two routers to eliminate any single points of failure (page 327). The solution the authors suggest is to use BGP. This situation comes up usually when redundant Internet connections is needed. Yes, it can be done by BGP. But the authors never mention that deploying BGP in a network is not as easy as it looks. To run BGP, there are a lot to prepare (not to mention a lot of money to spend that only large organizations can afford). For small or medium size companies, they better use other dynamic routing protocols or just static routing with equal weight (equal cost load sharing or load balancing); which the author never mention. When this book's 2nd edition comes up, I hopefully that the authors should consider this issue to make the book more appealing to "commoners", general audiences, and to people who just start configuring Cisco products. Also the authors should point out any problems, consequences, caveats, or requirements by running their suggested configurations. Therefore, anybody (especially the commoners) can have better understanding of the situations. I suggest that all readers of this book should be aware one book (including this one) is never enough as single reference of all Cisco configuration problem. You should also refer to other books and literatures such as the Cisco Presses, Cisco websites, any Cisco discussion groups, and most important; your own experiments.
Rating:
Summary: Very good How-To
Review: This is not a networking or Cisco primer. This book assumes that you have a task to accomplish, then gives explanations and examples to help you accomplish them. It's extremely helpful when you have an idea of what needs to be done and need help with specific configurations. If you know how to create and administer Cisco networks but sometimes need outside help when unfamiliar situations arise, then this book can be that assistance.
Rating:
Summary: Very appropriate title "Cookbook". I would give it 6 stars
Review: This is not the type of book you would read cover to cover, but I found myself reading 5 chapters, and I want more. If you work everyday with Cisco; vpn, routers, and need practical shortcuts, how-tos or just an immediate solution - this is the book for you. It is a heavy book (900+ pages) - and it is true that you can find this info elsewhere. It is convenient to quickly reference this book, properly indexed, and to the point. Just read the sample table of contents - there are so many useful tricks, that anyone who has any work on a cisco will appreciate it. I rate it 6 stars. Another great O'Reilly book.
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