Rating: 
Summary: For novices
Review: A lot of pages wasted on some basic CCNA type of stuff. CCDP is intermediate level and requires deeper knowledge of the subject. It is not enough to pass the real test. Unfortunately there are no other books out there to use accept for Cisco Press, which has a lot of mistakes.
Author spends a lot of time talking about the same things, very boring and useless discussions. Feels like politician is trying to teach computer science. You would need more info to pass. Good luck.
Rating: 
Summary: A good book to start with
Review: Great reference book. It had at lot of detail on the technologies. But the book just missed the mark on helping me prepare for the test. Unfortunately at this time it was the only book I could find on this particular exam.
The practice test had a good number of questions, but there were many mistakes on the tests. I use the practice test pretty regularly, so this hurt my performance on the test.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book, Ok Practice Test
Review: Great reference book. It had at lot of detail on the technologies. But the book just missed the mark on helping me prepare for the test. Unfortunately at this time it was the only book I could find on this particular exam.
The practice test had a good number of questions, but there were many mistakes on the tests. I use the practice test pretty regularly, so this hurt my performance on the test.
Rating:
Summary: some thoughts
Review: Hi,I don't agree with some of the reviewers who give this book a low rating. It seems that there are still people that believe reading a book is enough to pass a Cisco test, well it isn't. Learning Cisco is learning technologies and protocols and how to implement them on Cisco equipment. There are a lot of protocols that evolve daily; what you learn today can be obsolete after a year. I am now 17 years in the IT business, and it still feels like a first day at school, so much to learn, so many new things that are coming to you. I have passed 16 Cisco exams, and hope to pass the big one (CCIE) this year. I have some friends that are CCIE and friend number one says: learn OSPF because I had a lot of OSPF in my lab. But according to friend number two, I should learn very well EIGRP, because he had a lot of EIGRP configuration in his lab. Conclusion: there is no such thing as brain dumps for Cisco, there are to many subjects. You just have to learn everything. Coming back to the book from Tom Thomas, it doesn't say: I shall teach you ISDN, ATM, SNA, NETBIOS, Frame-Relay etc. This book is about designing networks, and what is the best approach (according to Cisco) to do this. If you look at it that way (and you should) than this book is the best preparation for your CID exam. I think Tom has read the book from Caslow very well because I can see that this book is build in the same way. If you have done your CCDA exam, and want to pass the CID exam, it is better to do first the technical exams, and have some hands on experience. Then it will be easier to pass the CID exam. Also this book is then easier to read. I bought the book, read it in two days, and passed the exam easily. A last tip for all you people that wants to learn Cisco: download the configuration guides from the Cisco web site. They are very good, and NO they are not that easy to read if you are new to networking, but if you have experience then they are the best, and free!!
Rating: 
Summary: CID
Review: I just took the CID exam after reading Thomas Thomas's book. I thought I was taking the wrong test after a few questions. The book has some good networking examples but completely misses the test target. Its the worst book I have EVER used to take a Cisco test. Don't waste your money if you want to pass the test.
Rating:
Summary: The most complete CID reference book
Review: I personally believe that this is the most complete and yet easy to understand reference book for CID among the few other option available in the market especially in the area of SNA, WAN and Desktop protocol design. If you are "CLI" type of engineer pursuring your CCDP title or you want to know more about the network design using different cisco products, you surely want to check this out.
Rating:
Summary: A non-technical review of Cisco Routing
Review: I was very pleased to discover this book. I am by no means a techy, so it was of great surprise to find just how easy this book was to comprehend. I originally began to read this book as part of my job enhancement, but found I actually looked forward to reading it. I would recommend this book for both professional telecoms engineers as well as novices, such as myself. It is very easy to use and very informative. I gained a lot of insights into telecommunications in general and my knowledge of routing protocols has increased profoundly.
Rating:
Summary: A good book to start with
Review: If you plan to buy this book to prepare for the CID 3.0 test, it contains the essential information and covers well the exam topics. It is carefully written and it easy to read. However, just reading this book is not enough to pass, not because of the book, but the way the answers to the real exam questions are formulated. You need a lot of experience and thorough understanding of the technologies involved. Briefly, the book is very good for organizing, refreshing, and completing the knowledge you already have, but I won't keep it for reference.
Rating:
Summary: Well written and Informative
Review: Let me begin by saying that while studying for Cisco™ and other certifications, I have read many technical and certification preparation books, but this is the best by far. The CID preparation book by Pavilchek and Thomas not only provides excellent coverage of information vital to preparing for the Cisco™ Internetwork Design Exam, but is written in a easy going and entertaining fashion that even not technical readers can understand. The book is laid out to mirror the test objectives as stated on Cisco's web page, and uses this outline to provide the necessary information to not only pass certification tests, but also provide an insight into networking that is useful to anyone deploying computer networks ranging from Small Office/Home Office to large-scale enterprise networks. Each chapter in the book focuses on a major topic from the exam certification outline and contains case studies, study hints, CCDP ™ Tips, and example test questions. The coverage of each topic is in-depth and well written -- reflecting vast experience with the topics. The case studies throughout the book provide a challenging, real-life look at network design and force the reader to truly understand all facets of network design and implementation of materials covered in the book. The CCDP ™ Tips in the books are listed as "Cliff Notes™" style review of the chapter. The tips by themselves are extremely useful in exam preparation, but when combined with the text are a useful tool in understanding the text and the theories behind it. Finally, the chapter questions provide a final review of the chapter and a taste of how Cisco ™ phrases the questions on its exams. In conclusions, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in taking the exams for the CCDP™ or just learning about the deployment of computer networks. The straightforward way in which the protocols and design theories are written makes this book stand out as one of the best technical books I have used - providing not only in-depth coverage of the material, but insight, which is only obtained through years of experience.
Rating:
Summary: Well written and Informative
Review: Let me begin by saying that while studying for Cisco™ and other certifications, I have read many technical and certification preparation books, but this is the best by far. The CID preparation book by Pavilchek and Thomas not only provides excellent coverage of information vital to preparing for the Cisco™ Internetwork Design Exam, but is written in a easy going and entertaining fashion that even not technical readers can understand. The book is laid out to mirror the test objectives as stated on Cisco's web page, and uses this outline to provide the necessary information to not only pass certification tests, but also provide an insight into networking that is useful to anyone deploying computer networks ranging from Small Office/Home Office to large-scale enterprise networks. Each chapter in the book focuses on a major topic from the exam certification outline and contains case studies, study hints, CCDP ™ Tips, and example test questions. The coverage of each topic is in-depth and well written -- reflecting vast experience with the topics. The case studies throughout the book provide a challenging, real-life look at network design and force the reader to truly understand all facets of network design and implementation of materials covered in the book. The CCDP ™ Tips in the books are listed as "Cliff Notes™" style review of the chapter. The tips by themselves are extremely useful in exam preparation, but when combined with the text are a useful tool in understanding the text and the theories behind it. Finally, the chapter questions provide a final review of the chapter and a taste of how Cisco ™ phrases the questions on its exams. In conclusions, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in taking the exams for the CCDP™ or just learning about the deployment of computer networks. The straightforward way in which the protocols and design theories are written makes this book stand out as one of the best technical books I have used - providing not only in-depth coverage of the material, but insight, which is only obtained through years of experience.
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