Mastering Cisco Routers

Rating:
Summary: Very Good Book for CCNA / CCNP Candidates
Review: I have just finished "reading" Mastering Cisco Routers. This book was VERY helpful and filled in some knowledge areas that were a little "Grey". I recommend this book to anyone seeking their CCNA and or CCNP.

Rating:
Summary: Mastering Cisco Routers
Review: I picked this book up at a local store as almost an after thought to go with my collection of other Cisco books, including Sybex and Cisco press. After having read it, I really, really enjoyed the book. What I found most useful were the excellent screen shots and step by step diagrams and instructions. I highly recommend it as a very good introduction and day to day use of Cisco routers.

Rating:
Summary: Mastering Cisco Routers
Review: I picked this book up at a local store as almost an after thought to go with my collection of other Cisco books, including Sybex and Cisco press. After having read it, I really, really enjoyed the book. What I found most useful were the excellent screen shots and step by step diagrams and instructions. I highly recommend it as a very good introduction and day to day use of Cisco routers.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference
Review: If you want real world knowledge buy this book. This is not a CCNA "how to pass the test" book; this is an "everyday usable" book. It helped me much more with my work than the Lammle CCNA guide. Very helpful for day to day operations.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference
Review: If you want real world knowledge buy this book. This is not a CCNA "how to pass the test" book; this is an "everyday usable" book. It helped me much more with my work than the Lammle CCNA guide. Very helpful for day to day operations.

Rating:
Summary: Great book for those with some Cisco knowledge
Review: Mastering Cisco Routers is a great book for understanding many aspects of Cisco routers not typically covered by CCNA books. The author has great information on how to secure your router, usefull information on creating access lists to block standard DoS attacks, and some great information on VPNs. The book also covers TFTP, Syslog, and SNMP setup for both the router, and UNIX and Windows hosts. The last 2 chapters present very useful scenarios for both large and small networks. The only things that were lacking was the chapters on routing (doesn't really go into any detail on setting up routing protocols), and the chapter on LAN protocols which barely touches on IPX, AppleTalk, and NetBEUI. Overall, if you already have a decent understanding of the Cisco IOS, and want to get some knowledge outside of the normal CCNA type information, this is the book for you.

Rating:
Summary: Easy reading for new users, some technical errors
Review: This book will introduce you to the basics of LAN/WAN and Cisco router technology. You should not use this book as a single source for the CCNA test. This book is best suited for, as Chris Brenton says in his own review; "the individuals who needs to get up to speed quickly on deploying and managing Cisco routers." There are some technical errors and no errata as yet so watch out for them.

Rating:
Summary: Very Good Book
Review: This is a very good book for anyone willing to understand Cisco routing (CCNA/CCNP).Of course some people may find it "the poorest book ever written on Cisco Routing";It all depends on how you read books and what you are expecting from it.This book is an easy to understand way to handle complexity.

Rating:
Summary: enjoyable yes, helpful no. Don't buy it.
Review: This is one of the poorest books I've ever read. Its basically a 700 page "intro to basic routing concepts". it's extremely wordy -- explaining the most mundane concepts in excruciating detail, multiple times without ever getting to the detailed information that would actually be helpful in planning or debugging a WAN.

the book appears to have been written in a 'stream of consciousnesss' style, the author flits between one idea and the next, never stopping to fill in any bothersome detail such as why, where, when or how the concept could or should be used. dictionary style definitions although, are abundant with the same acronym defined multiple times throughout

i found myself consulting the index constantly, vainly trying to assemble information scattered across hundreds of pages into a coherent idea. (If you doubt this look up all the entries for NAT.)

in a nut shell, if you have any knowledge of routing at all, don't have a lot of time, or need detailed information on Cisco syntax or routing theory -- stay away form this book.

on the positive side, it's kind of entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: Focus is both hands on and design
Review: With all the Cisco books on the market today, why pick up this one? While most Cisco book are specifically geared towards earning a certification, this book focuses on the individuals who needs to get up to speed quickly on deploying and managing Cisco routers. So while a CCNA book may focus on the actual router configuration and a CCDA book focuses on design, this book melds the two topics in an attempt to give you a complete set of tools for both laying out and deploying your infrastructure.

True, you may very well be able to pass your CCNA or CCDA based on the material presented in this book. I can guarantee however that you will not see a sufficient number of exam questions on TFTP to make it worth the heavy coverage it has received in these pages. If however you are actually deploying a large number of routers the material presented on how and when to use TFTP as well as how to configure it on multiple operating systems will be extremely valuable.

So the focus here is on getting the job done. I've made few assumptions on the readers prior knowledge. This means that the book includes enough background theory to get the truly green up to speed. For those a bit more seasoned, you can skip the introductory information and jump right into the meat of the book. If you've been assigned the task of redesigning your company's network, you may want to jump right into the design examples to start getting a few ideas.