Publisher: Cisco Press
Authors: Brian Morgan Craig Dennis
List Price: $49.95
Amazon Price: $35.02
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Reviews:
Summary: Excellent Book to prop the old desk up!!!!
This book has so many errors, and missed topics its not worth your time purchasing this book. I used the BCRAN Student Guide instead to pass this test.
Summary: Cisco's worst, Editor MIA?
I think, for this title, Cisco put 1000 monkeys in a room with 1000 typewriters for a couple of years and then published the results. Of course they made sure it wasn't Shakespeare first, to avoid those pesky accusations of plagiarism...which seems to be the extent of their editing on this title. The most glaring error is the author's repeated insistence that in public key cryptography one provides their private key to the public so information can be encrypted, then the destination party uses the public key to decrypt the information. WHAT!?! Please, please do not do that! C'mon Cisco...even Microsoft got this one right. At one point later on the author seems to demonstrate the process correctly. I imagine he got encryption confused with digital signatures. Ok, fine, but WHERE WAS THE EDITOR!? There are countless other places in the book where the author contradicts himself, and other places he's just dead wrong. Fortunately I have enough experience to spot some of these, but I'm sure not all, since I am obviously still learning. I don't trust the author enough now to believe that he's telling me the truth. This is the worst Cisco Press book I've gotten ahold of yet. This is the last test I have to take for the CCNP and I imagine I'll pass, but it won't be due to this book. Even the CIT book by Ranjbar was better than this. While his didn't really reflect what's on the exam, at least it was very well written. If you can get your hands on the Student Guide for the BCRAN, use that instead and UniverCD on Cisco's site to polish up the rough spots. Rotsa ruck!
Summary: A Cisco disappointment
I was extremely disappointed in this text. I have read several Cisco Press books in the past to prepare for certification exams, and have always been reasonably satisfied. Not so here.
The most frustrating aspect of the book is its dissimilarity with the actual exam. The questions in the book and in the CD are almost exclusively about nitpicky factoids (default timer settings, maximum data rates, etc.) DO NOT BOTHER TO MEMORIZE THESE. Instead, the exam focuses on really understanding the router commands and debug outputs... two topics which the book is very weak on. There were also many, many questions which were not covered in the book.
First off, the subject matter within the BCRAN book is presented in a very conversational and meandering fashion. For example, a command or concept is often mentioned several times in the text before it is explained in the text - if it is ever explained at all. Utterly frustrating.
There are also several sections of the book that are criminally unclear and confusing. I re-read the CHAP section 4-5 times before giving up. I found a CHAP document on the Cisco web site, skimmed it, and immediate understood it perfectly.
Most commands are not well documented in the text, which is a sad contrast to other Cisco Press books. Commands are frequently demonstrated via a single, specific example and without the technical format which explains which portions are fixed, which are optional, which are variable, etc. This book also lacks a reiteration of commands during the foundation summary of each chapter.
I took the test yesterday having used only this book as a study guide. I failed with a heartbreaking 786 (790 to pass.) I have never failed a certification exam before.
You should seriously consider purchasing much cheaper books from other sources.
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