Rating: 
Summary: Expected More..
Review: First, the good news. It's well written and you do get what you pay for. But, I've been spoiled by CiscoPress books that really blow me away with information and this one did not. The IP Voice section could have contained so much more. Specifically, I wanted much more info on what each dial-peer sub-command does, not just a 2 line explanation, but really dig into the details of what can be done between 2 peers. I felt like I was reading a CCO overview of commands, so I was a bit dissapointed and ended up getting most of my detailed info from CCO for topics related to IP Voice.
But, to be fair, the book covers what it states it is going to cover. CiscoPress has done such a good job of raising the bar on technical books, I hold them all up to that standard now, but this one falls a bit short.
Rating:
Summary: Expected More..
Review: First, the good news. It's well written and you do get what you pay for. But, I've been spoiled by CiscoPress books that really blow me away with information and this one did not. The IP Voice section could have contained so much more. Specifically, I wanted much more info on what each dial-peer sub-command does, not just a 2 line explanation, but really dig into the details of what can be done between 2 peers. I felt like I was reading a CCO overview of commands, so I was a bit dissapointed and ended up getting most of my detailed info from CCO for topics related to IP Voice.
But, to be fair, the book covers what it states it is going to cover. CiscoPress has done such a good job of raising the bar on technical books, I hold them all up to that standard now, but this one falls a bit short.
Rating: 
Summary: Atrocious
Review: I am almost done reading this book. The first 2 or 3 chapters are reasonably good, but then book becomes incomprehensible. There are three problems with this book. Firstly, it does not appear to have a coherent structure. Secondly, explanations are atrocious - the authors just did the assigned task of writing without any sincere intent to enlighten the reader. And thirdly, there are errors. If you can, steer away from this book. You can pick up the same information from "Integrating Voice and Data Networks" by Scott Keagy. That book is immeasurably better, that author really tries to drive the content home to the reader.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: I bought this book so that i could prepare myself for the corresponding exam. I have a range of Voice over IP materials including the CIM: Voice over IP Basics, and the Cisco Press 'Integrating Voice and Data Networks' - both of these are fine, but were more geared towards reference rather than as an exam guide (even though you MIGHT be able to use them as that) - the CIM is great for hands on stuff - but is ONLY Voice over IP nor Frame or ATM.I have yet to take the exam (it retires on the 14th of May - which makes this books late publication an interesting matter) but i feel as though i shouldn't have a problem with it after reading this. All telephony components and concepts are explained very clearly (which for someone like me with hardly any telephony experience was a good thing - it is amazing how much we take for granted the simple telephone and how it functions!). Along with the Boson CVOICE 2.0 exams this book will get me through. According to some feedback on the exam it doesn't seem to overly difficult. The above points coupled with the fact it is the ONLY study guide for this exam - should be compelling enough reasons to buy it....
Rating: 
Summary: ERRORS, ERRORS, ERRORS
Review: I read this book in preparation for the CVOICE test. It had a lot of good content but the amount of errors in the book were unbelievable. It sometimes made the topic hard to understand. I think the editors of this book need to get their eyes checked. Other than that the book covered all the necessary material and then some.
Rating:
Summary: ERRORS, ERRORS, ERRORS
Review: I read this book in preparation for the CVOICE test. It had a lot of good content but the amount of errors in the book were unbelievable. It sometimes made the topic hard to understand. I think the editors of this book need to get their eyes checked. Other than that the book covered all the necessary material and then some.
Rating:
Summary: Good Introduction to Cisco VOIP Technologies
Review: I recently picked up a copy of the Cisco Press "Cisco Voice Over Frame Relay, ATM and IP" (ISBN: 1578702275) for review and study for a variety of my Cisco IP Telephony Specialization exams. As some of the previous reviews mentioned, the book does lacks some of the breadth and depth required for some of the newer Cisco IOS features. However, if you are interested in learning the fundamentals of Cisco Voice over Frame Relay, ATM and IP, then this book should serve as a very good starting point. However, any reader should realize that Cisco in constantly adding new feature to IOS as well new hardware platforms. Therefore, if the reader is planning to use this book for exam prep, he/she should visit CCO to complement the information in this book. The first section of the book discusses the historical and theoretical components of both analog telephony and digital telephony. The book provides excellent coverage of analog technologies for those of us from the data/digital world. The early chapters discuss the various signaling concepts, sampling, and voice digitization. The second section of the book covers off on the Cisco-specific hardware platforms that support Voice over Frame Relay, ATM and IP. This is where the book is probably the weakest, mostly due to the fact that much of the router platforms discussed are now End-of-Sale for Cisco. Again, I would recommend that the reader visit Cisco.com after reading this section for the latest on Cisco-specific hardware platforms that support Voice over Frame Relay, ATM and IP. The third section provides the reader with nuts-and-bolts of configuring Cisco Voice over Frame Relay, ATM and IP. Here is where the reader can improve his/her engineering skills by looking at the tons of sample configurations to support VoFR, VoIP, VoATM, QoS, Toll-bypass, and legacy-PBX integration. The final section of the book covers off on both the legacy "old-world" enterprise PBX technologies and the emerging IP Telephony technologies. This section would probably have been better served by moving it to the beginning of the book during the discussion of Analog Telephony and Digital Telephony. All in all, I would recommend the book to any reader who is interested in learning the fundamental basics of Cisco Voice over Frame Relay, ATM and IP, with the one caveat that the reader will need to augment the materials with the latest information from Cisco's website. Mark G. Reyero
CCIE #12932
Rating:
Summary: E-X-C-E-L-L-E-N-T!
Review: I'm taking my CCIE lab in one month. Eventhough, I don't need to know everything what this book talks about, I decided to buy it because I'm very interested about Analog & Digital Telephony. This books taught me all important topics in detail. Very nice!
Rating: 
Summary: Study with this book - Fail the CVoice exam
Review: If you are looking for a good preparation for taking the CVoice exam, then keep looking. This book has a lot of good info in general, but as a test prep it misses the mark. Just ask me since I studied the crap out of this text and failed miserably on the exam. I guess I'm used to books that help me prepare to actually *pass* exams! For example, MGCP gets about 1 paragraph in this book.. but the exam requires in-depth knowledge of that protocol ...which I now see was indicated on Cisco's test blueprint all this time. Sigh.
If you need VoWhatever info, just get articles off the Cisco website, and save your money.
Rating:
Summary: Study with this book - Fail the CVoice exam
Review: If you are looking for a good preparation for taking the CVoice exam, then keep looking. This book has a lot of good info in general, but as a test prep it misses the mark. Just ask me since I studied the crap out of this text and failed miserably on the exam. I guess I'm used to books that help me prepare to actually *pass* exams! For example, MGCP gets about 1 paragraph in this book.. but the exam requires in-depth knowledge of that protocol ...which I now see was indicated on Cisco's test blueprint all this time. Sigh.
If you need VoWhatever info, just get articles off the Cisco website, and save your money.
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