Rating: 
Summary: Full of wrong information
Review: This book contains too much wrong information and editorial errors in the first several chapters that I read. Hope the authors can read the book themselves and fix those in the next edition.
Rating: 
Summary: CCDA Exam Guide
Review: This book is an excellent exam preparation aid and will help you understand and appreciate the topics needed to pass the new Cisco CCDA exam
(DESGN 640-861). Each chapter begins with a self-assessment quiz and ends with review questions. The multiple-choice review questions and the comprehensive scenarios in part 5 of the book aid in retention of relevant facts. As an update to the first edition of the CCDA exam certification guide, IPv6, voice and security network design issues are covered to reasonable depth in this second edition. I would suggest to anyone planning to take the CCDA exam to have CCNA-level training/knowledge before attempting this exam. The book is broken down to 6 parts-
Part 1 - General Network Design Chpts 1 - 3
Part 2 - LAN and WAN Design Chpts 4 - 8
Part 3 - The Internet Protocol and Routing Protocols Chpts 9 - 14
Part 4 - Security, Convergence and Network Management Chpts 15 - 19
Part 5 - Comprehensive Scenarios
Part 6 - Appendices The presentation of the material makes great reading, and will prove useful even after the exam. The companion CD-Rom has 280 questions. This includes questions from the book, multiple choice, drag and drop and fill in the blank questions. The test engine is similar to the ones on the Boson practice tests. I am currently preparing for the DESGN 640-861 exam and this book has been a great help. I have also taken a look at the Sybex book by Todd Lammle. The Sybex book is decent, but I find this one of greater value.
Rating:
Summary: Poor Study material
Review: This book may get you familiar with the exam material, but not prepare you for the actual exam. The test/practice questions included in the book and on the CD-ROM.. seemed useful, but the actual questions on the exam are structured much differently. I got to the point where I answered correctly every single question in that book and on that CD, but there are concepts on the exam that are not discussed in the same way as in the book. I felt after I took the exam I wasted my money on this book. I will not be buying any more books by Cisco Press, or anything written by these authors.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of material, lots of concepts, no hands-on
Review: This books covers quite an array of information. It doesn't get real deep in most areas, but conceptually it does what it needs to.
You will not find any reference to commands in this book, it is conceptual only.
I am a CCNP and am now picking up the CCDP side of things. Many of the subjects covered in the CCNP are in the CCDP, and having that background makes the information in this book make much more sense.
The book does have a few weaknesses. The first chapter was done by a contributing author whose writing style smacks of corporate goobledygook, effectively disguising key points.
The other weakness is with acronyms. Any technical book will make heavy use of acronyms, but usually the first appearance obliges you with what the acronym stands for. This exam guide almost never does this, but there is a glossary in the back.
The acronym issue is particularly troubling when there is more than one definition, such as "ABR". In the glossary, it is listed as "Asynchronous Bit Rate" but it clearly does not mean this in context to OSPF!
The included CDROM has the same format as the other Cisco books. Like other Cisco CDROMs it also has the occasional question with a wrong answer.
*** UPDATE ***
I took the CCDA test this morning and failed. There were several questions on the exam that this book made absolutely no mention of, and Chapter 1 proved to be less than adequate as there were multiple questions on the exam that really hit the details of this subject hard. The VoIP/Telephony chapter also proved to be very weak. I liked this book, (really) but now I'm buying another to supplement this material.
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