I wish I had known of this book when I was studying for my CCNA exam. Do not be fooled into thinking that the Cisco Press books adequately cover all exam topics; they DON'T. This is the ONLY text out of the four that I've read [Exam Cram, Cisco Press Exam Certification, Cisco Press Network Academy, and this one] that covers ALL exam topics:

OSPF Adjacencies & Designated Router selection
2950 Commands [NOTE: Cisco has DROPPED 1900 syntax from the exam]
Overloaded NAT Configuration
Frame Relay Troubleshooting
ISDN Troubleshooting

The included CBT's on the CD-ROM are very useful, and of all the texts including Boson's Simulation software, the topologies included in THIS text by far are the most intricate and complex. [For the record, the toplogies in Cisco Press's simulator are simply 2 routers w/ a Point-to-Point connection, each branching off into a switch].

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This is a great book. I would have put it at 4.5 stars but that option is not available. I used this book and the CCNA ICND Exam Certification Guide by Wendell Odom to study for the ICND exam. I have several years working in the field. I read Wendell Odom's INTRO exam guide and easily passed that exam. For me, the ICND was harder but I passed it and this book has a lot to do with it.

I see some complaints about errors in this book, but as far as I am concerned it was fine. This book certainly does not seem to have any more errors than any other study material I have read, including material from Cisco press or even the Cisco web site. And I have seen some poor stuff out there.

As a matter of fact, at least one of the other reviewers seems to be outright lying about some supposed "errors" in this book.

The biggest thing I liked about this book is the author's writing style. It is more interesting to read than almost any other study material out there.

If you have some experience in the field and you go through this entire book (including the Certcams and lab exercises) this book should be all you need. You may also want to go through Wendell Odom's books and a practice test or two from another source.

This book is very thorough on the content of the CCNA exam. Sometime even a little too much. For example, you won't see any questions on the 1900 switch, although the topic is covered in the book. I took a CCNA boot camp class which had Cisco press reviewed material and the Deal's book seemed to be a little better as far as depth and explanations. Although, make sure you get the errata from the editor's web site. The book does contain quite a bit of mistakes (not all of them are in the errata though)which sometimes are misleading - although from what I read, all the CNNA books do! So...

One aspect of the book that I thought really helped me on getting ready for the exam was the simulation exercises. They are by far the best switches/routers simulations I worked on to prepare for what I had to achieve during the exam. Although the best, I still found the exam simulations harder in the sense that they would have you work on more than one topic at a time - like design IP addressing for a network while also configuring for a couple of different things. The simulations of the book concentrate on one aspect of configuration. Let's say a routing protocol for example. The troubleshooting exercices on the CD are also very useful to get ready for the exam.

Overall, this book has a good contents relative to the CCNA objectives although sometimes too in depth in a few instances - but the more you know, probably the better on the job! Good simulation material and very helpful quiz on the CD (multiple choices, free entry, simulations). I saw a few discrepancies with other books on the contents or explanation of certain things, so I think this book should probably be reviewed to eliminate the last few mistakes and remove the 1900 switches topics. But overall, I would recommend this book to anybody preparing for the CCNA exam.

I used this book along with 2 others (sybex and ccna fast pass for review) as study material to take 640-801. Overall I'd have to say this one was the most in depth of the three. The concepts are generally covered fairly well, more so than the test requires but you will know the material in the end. I passed my CCNA on the first try with a 945.

That said, this book was obviously rushed to press. There seemed to be an error every other page while I was reading. This comes up a lot during the practice tests since half the time the trick questions were really just errors. So, as long as you don't use this as your only study material you should pass just fine.

For CCNA 640-801, i used sybex and passed in the 1st try with 950 score, so i gave that book 5 stars. and i used to recommend that book for exam preparasion in the past, but now, not any more.

i found this 10 stars McGraw-Hill book on CCNA title, OMG, it is even better than what i already impress from sybex. if i can choose only one CCNA study guide it will be this one (in the past few months, it would be sybex). I highly recommend this book for both (especialy !) educational purpose and exam preparasion.

i already passed CCNA with 950, i can really tell u this is the best book on CCNA title, even better than CCNA from Sybex (i used sybex befor). This book come with very good learning packet: video clip, router simmulation, flash card, exam prep software, e-book. The book is easy to read, beginer can read this book without problem (unlike sybex book, which i don't recommmend for beginner in my review).

The best parts i like most from this book are (beside hard copy):

-" Interactive Video clips" that show you how to perfom each excercise in the book, i really like this, it fell like i am sitting just beside the author and look at how he perform a task.

-"Router sims tool" that allow you to practice and get yourself familair with router and switch (sybex won't give this); these are the things i gave this book more stars than sybex book.

Beleive me, you can't find a better book than this one, this packet will educate and entertain you in the netwoking world.

I realy hope that McGraw-Hill/Osborne continue produce the same quality product in CCNP, surely i will buy them.