Rating: 
Summary: Good troublshooting info, passed the exam.
Review: The text is a little dryer then the CCNA study guide, but I don't think Todd wrote this book, only edited it. His name is listed last on the cover. However, I passed the exam. Seems like the book did what it was suppose to do.
Rating: 
Summary: Thick in volume, thin on content.
Review: This book appears very thick, but after a quick skim it becomes very apparent that the book is has been "padded out". Alot of the IOS outputs that fill the center pages are needless and unexplained. The questions are not well thought out and consume about 1/3 of the book Laura Chappel's book from Cisco is thinner, has about twice as much information and is well structured in comparison.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Preparation for the 640-406 Examination
Review: This book is good preparation for the exam. But you will need to suppliment it with the Cisco Internetwork Troubleshooting book author: Laura Chappel, ISBN: 1-57870-092-2. Since the test is based on troubleshooting from Cisco's perspective. That means the methods used should conform to there standards, not Bay and/or Lucent's. Master the techniques for problem solving various types of networks, TCP/IP, Netware IPX/SPX, Appletalk, NT etc. The skills obtained in this course will assist you with the CCIE Lab. This is the foundation of your skill set for years to come.
Rating:
Summary: Unacceptable absence of detail!
Review: This book just pastes in the output of Cisco commands without any adequate explainations. Obviously the authors know less about the material than many of the readers... Notice that all the "positive" reviews give no details as to what's good about this book. I guess Lammle and Co. are going to have to submit more "reviews" to compensate for this bit of realism...
Rating:
Summary: Unacceptable absence of detail!
Review: This book just pastes in the output of Cisco commands without any adequate explainations. Obviously the authors know less about the material than many of the readers... Notice that all the "positive" reviews give no details as to what's good about this book. I guess Lammle and Co. are going to have to submit more "reviews" to compensate for this bit of realism...
Rating:
Summary: Received my book on Friday, so far, it is great.
Review: This is a great book. I have read the first five chapters, and it is formatted real nice. I bought Lammle's CCNA book, and I really liked that book. This is a book of information. It has a lot of stuff that I can use at my work right away. I haven't taken the exam, but I should take it in about two weeks. I'll let you know how it goes. The review questions at the end of each chapter are pretty hard, and they cover the harder concepts found in each of the five chapters I have been through.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Sybex's best bot a good study guid
Review: This is not the usual Sybex study guide quality but it's still a good book. I purchased it with the expetation of being a great book and it fell short. To me there was a lot of filler that didn't need to be there. I would have liked to have seen more meat and less potato's...I know potato's fill pages but the meat is what you need to pass the test. This book will help you prepare for the CIT exam but will not get you there.
Rating:
Summary: Not Sybex's best bot a good study guid
Review: This is not the usual Sybex study guide quality but it's still a good book. I purchased it with the expetation of being a great book and it fell short. To me there was a lot of filler that didn't need to be there. I would have liked to have seen more meat and less potato's...I know potato's fill pages but the meat is what you need to pass the test. This book will help you prepare for the CIT exam but will not get you there.
Rating:
Summary: Can't understand the good reviews.
Review: This is the most 'padded out' technical book I have ever seen. I can't see why anyone would be impressed by this. I notice that most of the positive reviews for this book are pretty brief and don't give any particular reason for buying the book only that they "passed the exam". Perhaps I am just a cynic... There are surely better ways of setting about passing this exam. The fact that the only good material in the book is pretty basic LAN stuff suggests that the authors are not of a sufficient level. I thought Sybex were good for the CCNA, but now they seem to be getting out of their depth. Let's hope they don't start writing CCIE study guides next. Or if they do, that people are not naive enough to buy them.
Rating: 
Summary: There is no 'real-world' experience in this book...none!
Review: This somes up every chapter in this book: Pages and pages full of unexplained cut and paste show commands. Tuns and tuns of show commands listed in line, no real-world troubleshooting experience given to add some meaning to the commands. The book reminds me of my college essays I used to do: Filled with padding to get to that mimumim required number of pages, and done at the last minute, without having done any 'real' research.
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