Rating: 
Summary: Cisco IP Telephony by David Lovell
Review: Cisco IP Telephony
By David Lovell
ISBN 1587050501Have you ever had a book labeled the definitive guide, the bible, or the ultimate guide, well this book could have easily been called the bible, or the ultimate guide, or the definitive guide to Cisco IP Telephony. What
I am saying is this book covers it all. It was somewhat overwhelming at times. That is not meant to be a bad thing, I am just saying that is covers the subject to the nth detail. If you read and study this book and don't pick-up something about IP Telephony you have a problem. The introduction to this book said that the book is a foundation for IP Telephony, but this is an understatement. The book is very organized in its layout. There are 14 chapters and Appendix A & B. The chapters are divided into four (4) parts, Getting Started with Cisco IP Telephony, Basic Configuration, Advanced Configuration, and Applications. Part five (5) is the Appendixes. Almost every chapter starts with a pre-test to test your knowledge in the area covered, or to see if you need to work on certain areas in the chapter.
Then it covers abbreviations, the subject, and then a summary and test to see what you have learned. Part I chapter 1 is an introduction to Cisco IP Telephony. Part II is basic configuration, such as, Navigation and Setup, Call Manager Rout Plan Menu,
Call Manager Administration Service Menu, Call Manager Features and User Menus, IP Telephony Devices, Using Bulk Administration Tool (BAT), and Installation, Backup And Upgrades. Part III is Advance Configuration. It covers LAN Infrastructure, Call Preservation, Media Resources, WAN Design and Best Practices. Part IV covers Applications. If you are doing a self study on Cisco IP Telephony, or if you need a complete reference for your Cisco IP Telephony System, David Lovell's book is just what you need.
Rating:
Summary: Cisco IP Telephony by David Lovell
Review: Cisco IP Telephony
By David Lovell
ISBN 1587050501 Have you ever had a book labeled the definitive guide, the bible, or the ultimate guide, well this book could have easily been called the bible, or the ultimate guide, or the definitive guide to Cisco IP Telephony. What
I am saying is this book covers it all. It was somewhat overwhelming at times. That is not meant to be a bad thing, I am just saying that is covers the subject to the nth detail. If you read and study this book and don't pick-up something about IP Telephony you have a problem. The introduction to this book said that the book is a foundation for IP Telephony, but this is an understatement. The book is very organized in its layout. There are 14 chapters and Appendix A & B. The chapters are divided into four (4) parts, Getting Started with Cisco IP Telephony, Basic Configuration, Advanced Configuration, and Applications. Part five (5) is the Appendixes. Almost every chapter starts with a pre-test to test your knowledge in the area covered, or to see if you need to work on certain areas in the chapter.
Then it covers abbreviations, the subject, and then a summary and test to see what you have learned. Part I chapter 1 is an introduction to Cisco IP Telephony. Part II is basic configuration, such as, Navigation and Setup, Call Manager Rout Plan Menu,
Call Manager Administration Service Menu, Call Manager Features and User Menus, IP Telephony Devices, Using Bulk Administration Tool (BAT), and Installation, Backup And Upgrades. Part III is Advance Configuration. It covers LAN Infrastructure, Call Preservation, Media Resources, WAN Design and Best Practices. Part IV covers Applications. If you are doing a self study on Cisco IP Telephony, or if you need a complete reference for your Cisco IP Telephony System, David Lovell's book is just what you need.
Rating: 
Summary: Very hard to read and understand. May not be what you want!!
Review: I am preparing for CIPT exam. I thought this was the preparation guide for CIPT. I was hoping that this book goes in depth analysis of all components of CIPT clearly. In my opinion, this book is short of explaining VoIP protocols. It needs a little more elaboration on the fundamentals. For example, I read about clusters in this book. I was very much confused. Then I read about the same subject in Cisco CallManager Fundamentals. It was actually a streightforward concept. All discriptions in the book are confusing, and insufficient. I vote strongly against this book if you are planning to buy this book only because you are preparing for the CIPT test. It might be a good reference for using the CallManager menus.
Rating:
Summary: Exam/Book Compliance
Review: I am the author of the book and the exam. Although the exam cited in the book is the retired exam (9E0-569), the book is written for all 3.1 and above releases of CallManager, which include the current exam (9E0-402). At the time of publication, only the existing exam (9E0-569) could be cited, even though the book was written to apply to exam 9E0-402. Regardless if you plan to take the exam, this book is good to learn about the Cisco CallManager and the CIPT solution.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Useful Overview of CallManager
Review: I didn't buy this book to pass the CIPT exam. I bought it to fill in some gaps in my CallManager knowledge in preparation for the CCIE Voice. I found it to be a useful introduction to CallManager. It takes the reader through the basic configuration of CallManager using well thought out (albeit fairly simple) examples. It is very similar to the materials found on the CIPT course. If you are going to have to administer/configure a CallManager for the first time - this book is a good place to start. If you are going to sit the CCIE voice it is probably too lightweight for your needs (although it is on the prescribed reading list!)
Rating: 
Summary: What Exam is this for?
Review: The current exam for CIPT is 9E0-402 - in the first few pages of this book it states that this book is for CIPT exam 9E0-569...the recently retired CIPT exam!!! What is the story here?? The book just came out and it is already out of date?
Rating: 
Summary: Not sufficient for IP telephony certification
Review: This book does not cover all the topics probed in the exam.Needs to be updated and aligned with the latest Cisco IP Telephony Certification Exam.
Rating:
Summary: This book may not be what you are looking for
Review: This book is a conglomerate of information that can be found elsewhere throughout Cisco literature. 40% of the material is directly lifted from CCO, another 40% is from the CIPT courseware (which the author wrote as well), and 20% is extra filler. The material itself is not bad, but its terribly disjointed due to the way it was put together. You'll often find the author using technical telephony terms that are described much later on in the book, or sometimes not at all. This book is not tasked based, and that is my biggest gripe. If you are new to this product and need a general deployment guide, then do not look here (i.e. the steps to take when trunking to a PBX, or rules of thumb in designing dialing plans...). Don't look to "IP Telephony Fundamentals" either (its the other Cisco Press book), because that's more of a desk reference than anything, and it's practically all theory. In defense of the author's posts however, this book will help you pass the latest test if that's what you're looking for. I do not recommend anybody buy this book unless they've already taken the CIPT class or have a good base knowledge of the product. This book is not good for traditional data engineers looking to ramp up on IP Telephony technology without taking the class. Unfortunately there aren't any good general deployment books published for the Call Manager yet. Somebody at Cisco should try to fix this, because there are far too many botched installations and it's making the product look bad. ...
Rating:
Summary: This book may not be what you are looking for
Review: This book is a conglomerate of information that can be found elsewhere throughout Cisco literature. 40% of the material is directly lifted from CCO, another 40% is from the CIPT courseware (which the author wrote as well), and 20% is extra filler. The material itself is not bad, but its terribly disjointed due to the way it was put together. You'll often find the author using technical telephony terms that are described much later on in the book, or sometimes not at all. This book is not tasked based, and that is my biggest gripe. If you are new to this product and need a general deployment guide, then do not look here (i.e. the steps to take when trunking to a PBX, or rules of thumb in designing dialing plans...). Don't look to "IP Telephony Fundamentals" either (its the other Cisco Press book), because that's more of a desk reference than anything, and it's practically all theory. In defense of the author's posts however, this book will help you pass the latest test if that's what you're looking for. I do not recommend anybody buy this book unless they've already taken the CIPT class or have a good base knowledge of the product. This book is not good for traditional data engineers looking to ramp up on IP Telephony technology without taking the class. Unfortunately there aren't any good general deployment books published for the Call Manager yet. Somebody at Cisco should try to fix this, because there are far too many botched installations and it's making the product look bad. ...
Rating:
Summary: Don't bother.
Review: This book is poorly put together, dry, repetative, and does a very poor job of explaning the material. Whatever good there is in it seems verbatim from Cisco's web site. Save your money.
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