Rating: 
Summary: Good content, but rife with errors.
Review: Oddly enough, I like this book. Odd because, usually, when a book is so poorly edited and contains so many contradictions and errors, I just plain don't like it. Even though I do like it, I don't trust it completely.I purchased it orginally as a reference about eight months ago and only recently set out to read it carefully from cover to cover. When I did, I discovered that quite often, the text and accompanying diagrams disagree. Values listed in tables for IP address ranges in A, B, C, D and E class networks disagree with the authors text. At one point, the author references a table showing differences between feature-set differences between RIP, IS-IS and OSPF. When I looked at the table, I discovered that every entry in the table said "Yes," indicating that there were *no* differences. Why include the table? A diagram intended to show a chronological sequence of events has no sequencing information whatsoever. In fact, the diagram added nothing of value to the discussion. Besides disagreements between text and accompanying tables and and diagrams, there are many errors of grammar that confuse the points the author is trying to make, to the degree that I wasn't able to understand what I'd just read, re-read and read yet again. At one point, I stoped reading in disbelief that any editor could have allowed this book into print. I checked the flyleaf and found no fewer than eleven editors listed. Amazing. Eleven people listed as various kinds of editors and not one of them caught the errors. This book reads fairly well; I've learned quite a bit from the author so far (I'm only into chapter four) and, oddly enough, I'm enjoying it in spite of the problems. However, I have to say this looks far more like a rough draft... I'd strongly recommend that anyone learning OSPF from this book study other works carefully. I can learn from this book, but the number of errors I've found in the first four chapters makes me feel certain that, somewhere, the author has made mistakes that I won't be able to catch. That means I won't be able to trust completely what I've learned from his writing. Overall, I'm quite disappointed. I rated two stars instead of one star only because of the content and organization, which I find good, even though rife with errors.
Rating: 
Summary: A clear vision that moves from basics to deployment
Review: One of the things I like about this book is how well its content and its title go together. Some other books and courses use OSPF in the title, but stay quite general without going into OSPF depth. At the same time, Tom is clear that he is writing a book for people who are deploying OSPF solutions, not people who are writing code for routers. The latter is the proper audience for John Moy's book, which complements this one.
While some of this material is found in earlier Cisco documents, Tom has added much more value in advising when to use techniques, not just how. He also gives useful pointers to the continuing development of OSPF, which is not standing still!
The book organizes a great deal of information and then gives additional real-world experience for the designer of medium-sized enterprise networks.
Rating:
Summary: A must for serious CCIEs
Review: Our esteemed collagues from the UK are obviously very confused as to the content of the CCIE test. Deciphering OSPF packets is not even on the objectives as listed for the CCIE. Read the reviews!! The CCIE Program Manager recommended this this book in these very same reviews. This book provides all the REAL information a CCIE Candidate needs to know. I should know it helped me pass the OSPF portion of the lab! It certainly is much more than just a Halabi reprint at 800 pages how anyone could draw that conclusion is beyond me. This is one of the most technically accurate books that Cisco Press has produced. Don't let a few misguided souls sway you from the quality presented in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: practical and more
Review: This book can do a lot for you if you have your OSPF concepts straightened out esp if you have read the anatomy book by Moy. This book actually covers all the cisco implementation details of OSPF and talks about practical real world scenarios. It has some really cool case studies in which you have to design an OSPF network to connect several remote locations with the campus network. In fact, you can download that chapter from cisco's website. I didn't read this book from cover to cover but use it as a reference to figure out OSPF related issues. For instance if you want to see how the 'designated router other' selection works in cisco, you can easily look up in this book. It has good explanation of all OSPF parameters that cisco has implemented in the IOS and the examples show the actual configuration as well. You'd have guessed already, but it covers in detail the implementation of OSPF areas, NSSA, stub area, virtual links, IGP interaction and interface related parameters etc. One of the reviewers who recommends TCP/IP vol 1 instead of this book is obviously comparing apple with an orange! Comer's book is classic and a must read for all networking folks but its targeted towards TCP/IP suite of protcols and not specifically towards routing protocols.
Rating: 
Summary: Disorganized and confusing
Review: This book is disorganized and the author's style is confused and contradictory. Leave this one on the shelf and read "Routing TCP/IP Volume I" twice.
Rating:
Summary: In depth analysis of OSPF protocol Design and Implementation
Review: This book is very well organized and the flow keeps the students interested all the time. It discusses the protocol architecture, design and implementation with real life examples. In fact,I used the Frame-relay point-to-point examples in my lecture notes. I'd recommed this book to anyone who desires to understand the indepth analysis of OSPF protocol from a design and implementation perspective. Its an excellent book for people migrating their networks from other IP routing protocols to OSPF.
Rating:
Summary: This is really a great book !
Review: This is the best book I've read about OSPF. The book takes a reader from basic OSPF concepts to in-depth design as well as troubleshooting techniques. The book is easy to read and flows in very logical manner. The author tries to highlight all the detailed information that you need to know about OSPF in a systematic way. It's a must read if you want a solid understanding of OSPF. Nowadays, you cannot totally trust the book review from Amazon because there are a lot of biased comments out there. Hardly you can determine whether it is a good book or not. Of course, each individual might has different expectation. A book is good to a lot of readers may not be a good one to certain people. Luckily, I did not waste my money! Thanks to those who gave unbiased comments to this book.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Spend your money and effort on this book
Review: When I read the chapter on Redistribution from this book I thought I was getting a nice book on OSPF. But after buying this book and started reading it, I felt let down mainly by two aspects. First is the printing mistakes and the second is skipping intricacies of the OSPF protocol details such as Packet formats and the explanation of the contents. If you are looking for a solid book on OSPF, refer to Jeff Doyle's book and you will see the difference in quality. I wish I had not spent my money on this book. It is unfortunate that there is no single reference book that is dedicated to OSPF concepts,Design guidance and configuration.
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