Books for/about - Cisco CCSP

CCSP SNRS Exam Certification Guide (CCSP Self-Study) (Exam Certification Guide)

Publisher: Cisco Press
Authors: Greg Bastien Sara Nasseh Christian Degu

ISBN: 1587201534
List Price: $59.95
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Avg Cusomer Rating: 5
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Summary: A Must Have!
I'm an old CCIE/CNE/CISSP, and I have purchased dozens of technical study guides over the years. I believe this is one of the better exam certification guides.

Additionally, it contains real world examples and explanations. I refer to this book often in my day-to-day operations.

If you want the best study guide out there for the SNRS exam, then you need not look any further. Good luck!

Summary: Great exam book 642-502!!!
Best reference for the exam. It covered everything necessary for the SNRS exam. I wish all the books gave me as much information as this for the specific exam. Nice job!

Summary: CCSP SNRS Exam Certification Guide
This Exam Certification Guide is intended for candidates preparing to take the SNRS Exam in pursuit of CCSP certification. The book covers all of the exam objectives posted on Cisco.com sufficiently. The accompanying CD provides the book in PDF format, as well as a practice test engine to help the reader validate his/her comprehension of the material. Like other Exam Certification Guides from Cisco Press, each chapter starts with a "Do I Know This Already?" and ends with a additional Q&A.

The book is divided into eight parts, with each part containing multiple chapters. The book begins by providing a good overview on security from both a technical and organizational perspective. The second part gets into router and switch management basics. Assuming that someone reading this book would already have a CCNA level of understanding, the sections on router configuration modes seem unnecessary. If the reader finds themselves needing this information, they might find the remainder of the book a little difficult. The third part covers AAA. This section does a good job of explaining the topics, and then provides configuration examples to backup learning. Also, the included troubleshooting section provides the reader with good examples of common mistakes. The fourth part is titled IOS Firewall Feature set. The material again does a good job of providing a surface overview, but might leave the reader needing to supplement their study for the exam. The chapter on Mitigating Layer 2 Attacks was particularly helpful, as this is an area that is often overlooked in production networks today. The fifth part, VPN, covers various ways to establish VPNs using Cisco IOS. My only complaint about this section is that while there are snippets of configuration throughout, there is lack of final configurations at the end of the chapters. I would like to information on GRE and DMVPN, but as these are not exam objectives, I understand their omission. Part six specifically covers management through SDM. I would have liked this section to be more in depth, but it does adequately cover the exam objectives. Part seven covers final scenarios. Again, the lack of final configs for each section is a negative to me. The final part is the appendix providing answers to all of the "Do I Know This Already?" and the end of chapter Q&A.

Formatting of the book could have used a little more attention. There are many instances where diagrams, examples, etc., are not on the same page as the explanation causing the reader to flip pages back and forth. While this is a small detail, and not related to depth of content, it is annoying.

While I think the book does a good job of meeting its intended purpose, preparing an individual to take the SNRS exam, it does not provide adequate detail to serve as a field manual or deployment guide.

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CCSP Flash Cards and Exam Practice Pack

Publisher: Cisco Press
Authors: Behzad Behtash Grant Moerschel

ISBN: 158720133X
List Price: $69.95
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Avg Cusomer Rating: 4
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Summary: Good for reviewing on your exams
I used the book for preparing for some of the CCSP exams and it made a very nice job refreshing the concepts and clarifying some key information. I did good thank to it on the SNRS and SNPA exams, soon will be sitting IPS and I don't think it will dissapoint me this time.

Summary: Great CCSP security curriculum overview
My expectations were exceeded with this book. Each section covers one of the CCSP exams. Quick reference sheets are like the "cliff notes" of the entire class so if you have taken the class or have good experience, its a quick review of what's important. This book can be used as a study reference OR as a technical reference.

Summary: Pricey but good
Maybe it is just me but I was kinda expecting something I could rip out of book on heavy card stock to use as flash cards. While the information is presented in the book in the form of flash cards, you're still supposed to do the Q&A in the book itself as there is no perforations and the pages won't last long if you cut them up yourself. Other than that, the material is good and should work well to prep you for the exams.

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	CCSP IPS Exam Certification Guide (Exam Certification Guides) Publisher: Cisco Press Authors: Earl Carter
ISBN: 1587201461 List Price: $59.95 Amazon Price: $37.77 Usually ships in 24 hours Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: 5 Reviews: Summary: One more test to CCSP I took/passed the IPS exam today using only this book as my study guide (plus the IPS units i work w/ everyday ;). hardly any errors at all in this book, a welcome relief having just come off of the bcran cisco self study book. This book has all the information you need to pass the test. the cdrom has the pdf book, which is good to read at work :) the testing engine on the cdrom, while not the same questions as the real exam, is almost the same level of difficulty as the actual exam. Summary: who is "john matlock gunny" either this guy has no life and has truly read every book for which he has written a review. or publishers pay him to write all of these reviews.. just click on his name and look at how many reviews he has written.. and many within only a day or two of one another. IMPOSSIBLE, i say. unless this guy is living in the mountains somewhere in a lifestyle not unlike the unabomber. Summary: Professional Level Intrusion Prevention The Cisco Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) is an advanced suite of products designed to protect networks against the bad, bad world. Intrusion prevention presumes a good working knowledge of networks, and a valid CCNA or CCIP certification is a prerequisite for CCSP certification. As expected by the title, this book prepares the reader to take the IPS test. It covers the material on the test, but at the same time gives a solid background in intrusion protection. The format of this book is a bit unusual. Each chapter begins with a test, called the 'Do I Know This Already?' Quiz. This can be a real timesaver as it helps to narrow down the areas where time needs to be spent. The CD supplied with the book contains a complete copy of the book along with a dummy test with 200 practice questions all available in study mode, test mode, and flash-card format. This is a professional level book, not for beginners. Summary:

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CCSP: Cisco Certified Security Professional Certification All-in-One Exam Guide (Exams SECUR,CSPFA, CSVPN, CSIDS, and CSI)

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Robert Larson Lance Cockcroft

ISBN: 0072226919
List Price: $89.99
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Avg Cusomer Rating: 2
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Summary: Not a good book for Exam Guide, maybe reference
This book, while obviously having loads of information, is not as helpful as its price should indicate. I found many small typos throughout the book, and there are numerous times that I found actually incorrect information. After studying this book very heavily, I found that it only mentioned about two-thirds of what I actually found on the test (CSPFA 642-521). When I took the test, I was completely surprised by much of the information. The packaged test in the book is really just a test on the book itself, and does not represent the actual test very well (CSPFA 642-521). This book does have a lot of information, and can be used as a study guide, but I would absolutely recommend buying another book to supplement it, or taking a course.

Summary: Fair, considering the competition
I've used four CCSP-related books in preparing for teaching the CCSP subject material, and have found none of them completely up to the task. The All-In-One covers the SECUR and CSPFA material reasonably well, though starts to fall down with CSVPN and is mediocre at best for CSIDS. CSI? Well that gets all of four pages of bullet points reprinted from the official Cisco exam content and the recommendation to go and read the free Cisco SAFE whitepapers.

As with all CCSP books, much of the text is borrowed (some might say plagiarised, given no referencing is used) from the official Cisco documentation. Picking a page pretty much at random: p 466 discusses Split Tunnelling for the VPN 3000 Concentrator; the text here is a lightly edited copy from the (free) Cisco VPN 3000 Config Guide, rel 4.1, p 271 (13.35).

This book has many factual and editorial errors (e.g. picking random examples from my annotations: figures in Chapter 24 are all off-by-one, IP addresses given in screen grabs in Chapter 15 are incorrect; the description of HMAC on p. 292 confuses the shared key with a private key) to the point that causes the reader to question the validity of the material (perhaps this is intentional to force students to check everything!). Even some of the copied Cisco documentation has errors introduced: e.g. the diagrams of the IDS architecture in Chapter 24 are incorrect when compared to the original Cisco documentation, and the text. Pretty much all of Chapter 25 (CSIDS) is out of date and no longer relevant to the current (2004) exams. As of March 2004, the publisher's web site has not released any errata.

The material covering the SECUR and CSPFA exams is about 80-90% of what you'll need to review to prepare for those exams; for the remaining 10-20% and for the other exams you WILL need to refer to other references (i.e. the Cisco documentation). For CSIDS and CSI, this book will be of very little help.

Having said all of the above, I can vouch for this book being about the best of a bad bunch. None of the competing books seem to be any better!

Summary: The best book
The CCSP all in one is The best books I have read by far covering all the important objectives covering Cisco Security. The book covers 3.6 auto-initiation very clear and I was able to pass the CSVPN easily. The book takes a no-nonsense approach and I will find myself using it as an excellent reference now and in the future. Well written and easy to understand if you are preparing for the CCSP, you need to include this as a must.

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CCSP: Complete Study Guide (642-501, 642-511, 642-521, 642-531, 642-541)

Publisher: Sybex
Authors: Todd Lammle Wade Edwards Tom Lancaster Justin Menga Eric Quinn Jason Rohm Carl Timm Bryant Tow

ISBN: 0782144225
List Price: $89.99
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Avg Cusomer Rating: 3
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Summary: Probably not worth the purchase
In preparing for Cisco exams, I read the Amazon reviews before deciding on study material. When I decided to pursue a CCSP certification, I was disappointed to see the poor reviews that the Sybex books received. The only book to receive good reviews was the 642-501 Secur book.

I then saw that Sybex had released a brand new "Complete" book for the CCSP. I assumed that Sybex would read reviews such as the ones listed in Amazon to improve this publication. I believe I was wrong. I can not be completely sure but I believe that this Complete version is just a combination of the individual books, with no updating.

I used this Complete book to study for the 642-501 (seeing as how the individual Sybex book received decent reviews). The disturbing item was that the Secur section of the Complete book still did not include information on SDM and Router MC, two topics that I was quizzed on when I took the exam. Fortunately, I had read the Amazon reviews on the individual book and was prepared by supplementing my study on these two items.

I am forced to believe that the publication of this book was an effort by Sybex to soley make money and not to better their their product offering.

I used the CiscoPress book to pass the 642-511 exam. I am currently using the CiscoPress book to study for the 642-521 exam.

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	CCSP Self-Study: Cisco Secure Intrusion Detection System (CSIDS) (2nd Edition) (Certification Self-Study Series) Publisher: Cisco Press Authors: Earl Carter Cisco Systems Inc.
ISBN: 1587051443 List Price: $60.00 Amazon Price: $51.46 Usually ships in 24 hours Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: 5 Reviews: Summary: Strongly Recommend for Cisco CSIDS Exam 642-531 The Cisco Press "CCSP Self-Study: Cisco Secure Intrusion Detection System" is the Cisco Authorized self study book for the CSIDS Exam 642-531 (ISBN: 1587051443). The book is an excellent resource for any individual pursuing the CCSP track. In fact, I used this as my primary training material to pass the CSIDS Exam 642-531 to compliment my CSIDS web-based training. The book format follows the CSIDS training course. However, the book provides far greater detail than the tradition Cisco courseware. The book follows the standard format similar to the majority of the Cisco Press Authorized self study books. Part I reviews the basics of Network Security; if you already passed some of the other CCSP exams, such as the PIX or SECUR exam, you can probably breeze through this section. Part II begins the deep dive into the CIDS environment, reviewing IDS concepts, Cisco's IDS architecture, and the various Cisco IDS platforms. The third section of the book delves into IDS configuration. Not only does the book provide detailed information on configuring the IDS sensor and modules, but also the various switch configuration requirements and the differences between IOS and Catalyst OS. The remaining sections cover CIDS maintenance and management. Cisco Press provides numerous screenshots and configuration examples throughout the book. For those CCSP candidates who can not afford to invest in a 4200 IDS Sensor, a Layer 2/3 Switch, and CiscoWorks VMS, the diagrams, tables, configuration examples, and screen shots are very helpful in grasping the concepts and configuration requirements. Where the book truly excels is in its coverage of both the IDS signatures as well as using the IDS Management Console (a component of CiscoWorks VMS). Fifty pages are dedicated to the IDS signatures. Admittedly, my eyes got a bit heavy reading this chapter. However, understanding the IDS signature architecture is paramount for any Network Admin. The coverage of the IDS MC was also fantastic. After completing the book, I felt confident in my abilities to utilize not only the IDS MC, and also the Security Monitor component of VMS. The only instance where the book seemed lacking was coverage of the IDS Network Module for the Cisco Routers. However, in defense of Cisco Press, it is nearly impossible for a Cisco book to remain 100% up-to-date on Cisco latest hardware and software releases. The book does provide some content on the Cisco Secure Agent (CSA). Any CCSP candidate should always check www.cisco.com for the latest exam requirements and augment study material with the latest hardware and software releases from Cisco's website. All in all, I strongly recommend the Cisco Press "CCSP Self-Study: Cisco Secure Intrusion Detection System" for Cisco CSIDS 642-531 exam preparation. Summary: Excellent companion and guide I read this book over 4-6 weeks and must say its one of the best technical reads I have come across, the level of accuracy if 100 % and there are few errors even worth mentioning, it has loads of quality examples and the flow is brilliant, I don't keep many of my books but I will keep this one, highly recommended for all security engineers. Thanks Ciscopress for publishing a really high standard security manual AWESOME. Summary:

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CCSP Self-Study: Cisco Secure PIX Firewall Advanced (CSPFA) (2nd Edition)

Publisher: Cisco Press
Authors: Behzad Behtash Cisco Systems Inc.

ISBN: 1587051494
List Price: $50.00
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Avg Cusomer Rating: 3
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Summary: The Labs don't work!
I purchased this book to prepare Cisco's 642-521 certification exam on the PIX firewall. There is alot of useful information and the book is pretty thorough. However, I got a couple of PIX's and tried to go through all the labs which follow the chapters. Not everything is covered. Chapter 10 on Routing has no labs at all. Almost no lab works as written. Mostly there are small errors like using a hostname which has not been mapped to an IP address. Some are pretty extreme. For example, the labs in Chapter 16 try to connect servers on remote lans without setting up either routing or NAT. The also do nothing to allow the IPsec traffic through the firewall. There is an access list created for NAT in step 2 but it is never applied to anything. Missing from the solution are the statements:

nat (inside) 0 access-list nonat
sysopt connection permit-ipsec
route outside 10.0.2.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.2.1

It works once you add these commands, but they are also missing from the errata on the ciscopress web site. That includes several pages of corrections to the text without any corrections to the labs.

If the labs had worked, I would have given it five stars, but since they don't, it only gets three. This seems to be a common problem with Cisco Press. The extreme worst case is CCNP Practical Studies: Routing. That is a whole book of just routing labs but again, hardly any work as written.

Summary: CCSP SELF-STUDY: Cisco Secure PIX Firewall Advanced
Overall, this is a very good intermediate level text on Cisco firewalls. It is not for the beginning networker. Having an understanding of topics such as VLANS, access lists, NAT, PAT, and routing protocols is a prerequisite, if one wants to utilize the text to its fullest potential. With this understanding, this book becomes a powerful reference on setting up a Cisco PIX firewall. It walks one through the necessary steps of configuring a firewall in various different networking environments. The scenarios provided in the text can be adapted for most small to medium-sized networks. As one continues reading, the level and depth of material gets progressively more difficult. This increased difficulty may appeal to the advanced networker. Topics in this category include VPNs, attack guards, and enterprise management will not make sense to the novice, but add value and depth to the text.

Simply put, this book is a good reference and study aide on the topic of PIX firewalls. It is worth reading, if you are interested in learning basic topics or even some advanced ones. What you get from this book totally depends on the amount of time and work you put into reading and/or studying the text. This book will remain on my shelf as a valuable reference as I could not find much to fault.

Summary: Good Reference
I grabbed the book as I got in to a project where I needed to configure Failover PIX system. Given no prior experience with PIX, this book was very handy. However, I still had to consult Cisco website for useful and up-to-date information for PPTP, MPPE, etc.

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CCSP Self-Study: Cisco Secure Virtual Private Networks (CSVPN) (2nd Edition) (Ccsp Self-Study)

Publisher: Cisco Press
Authors: Andrew Mason

ISBN: 1587051451
List Price: $50.00
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Avg Cusomer Rating: 5
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Summary: Highly Recommend for Cisco CSVPN Exam 642-511
The Cisco Press "CCSP Self-Study: Cisco Secure Virtual Private Networks" is the Cisco Authorized self study book for the CSVPN Exam 642-511 (ISBN: 1587051451). I personally used this book as my primary study resource for the CSVPN Exam, which I passed with flying colors (934/1000), thanks in most part to this book.

The book format mirrors the CSVPN class format. The first chapter is nearly identical to all the other CCSP courses, discussing the general principles of network security, including types of threats and attacks. The opening chapter also reviews the fundamentals of VPNs and IPSec, which should be a review for those readers who have already passed the SECUR exam.

Chapter 2 jumps right in the meat of the course material, with an introduction to the 3000 Series VPN Concentrators. Subsequent chapters walk the reader through setting up the VPN Concentrators, from Quick Configuration mode, through complex configuration scenarios using Preshared Keys, Digital Certificates, Load Balancing, and Redundancy. Additional topics also cover the 3002 Hardware Client as well as the Cisco VPN Software Client.

The book does a terrific job presenting the material. Each chapter includes numerous screen shots relating to that chapter's specific topic. In fact, I was able to replicate many of the example configurations in my home lab.

The book obviously does not cover the latest Concentrator Release 4.7. While it is probably too soon to expect Cisco to begin testing the new 4.7 features (such as SSL VPNs), the student is advised to check www.cisco.com for the latest exam roadmap. As mentioned earlier, I highly recommend this book for any student preparing for the CSVPN Exam 642-511. Every question that I encountered in the exam was covered in "CCSP Self-Study: Cisco Secure Virtual Private Networks". When Cisco does begin testing 4.7 features, the student should be able to easily augment this text with additional information from [...].

Summary: Good intro but lacks detail
I bought this book because when I started my new job, I inherited two cisco vpn concentrators. After working with the concentrators for several months and had a good handle on how to create new L2L vpn's, remote access groups, etc., I bought this book. I was looking for a good detailed book that would explained the individual settings within vpn's, groups, etc. This book was not it. It does a good job of covering the concentrator at a 30k ft level, but it lacked the detail that would be useful in a production environment. This may be a sufficient book to pass the exam (I wouldn't know since I've never attempted the exam), but did not meet my expectations as a "go to" book for explaining the details. So if you're looking for a book to explain the basics for exam prep, then I would give this 4.5 stars, but as a reference source, I can only give it 3 stars. I think this book is marketed as a good exam guide and not a "nuts-n-bolts" book, so I think I may have had wrong expectations for this book.

Summary: Well written book
Having passed Cisco Exam 642-511 this morning with a score of 878, I would defiantly recommend this book. However, this book alone will not guarantee you a pass, the book is well written but does not cover all the exam topics, there a few questions on my exam which were not covered in this guide. I have given this book an overall rating of 4 stars and with the use of Cisco on-line documentation you should be able to gain enough knowledge the exam.

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