CCIE Security Practice Labs (CCIE Self-Study)

Rating:
Summary: benefit of a doubt because...
Review: I am a CCNP, CCDP and getting experience at work in Cisco ops. I am slowly pursuing CCIE as time permits.

I have brought this book and any other Cisco titles that will help me practice, practice, etc. So I have not gone thru any or all the labs. In fact I am currently pursuing the CCSP this year and practicing on my router/switches as time permits.

I have also ordered the CCIE practice R/S coming soon, and may pursue that first since I have much more gear. I don't have the PIX, VPN .... which is around another $5-7K but pretty close to what I need for ccie r/s. So why am I giving it 5 stars because other books/workbooks cost many times more than this. So the one interview which gave this a bad rap, he has dug into it and knows but this type of material usually is many times the cost of this book. If you have the gear, want to pursue ccie its worth it.

Otherwise ccie prep classes $2-4k, ccie workbooks $hundreds of dollars, so these Cisco CCIE practices labs, practicals are GREAT as far as I am concerned. Its quite possible and probably true that they contain "errors" but us so called CCIE candidates are supposed to be "experts" or are we just looking for something so we can just follow the cookbook and earn the CCIE title.

I for one want to work thru the configurations and figure it out to become a CCIE. Either I have what it takes or not. If I can't figure it out then I don't deserve the title.

Rating:
Summary: full of mistakes
Review: I am disappointed with this book!! Full of mistakes!
Example lab 1: Advertising a route into RIP ver 1 does not work if the major net on the interface has a different subnet mask then the subnet he tries to advertise to R5. What he is trying to accomplish is nonsense! You cant advertise a route if it is in the rip database by just creating a loopback interface on router R1!
Then further on OSPF why would he configure authentication on a loopback interface which is printed out on the CD under configuration examples? Quite frankly this book is not a 5* for sure. I bough it to prepare myself for the lab but I am looking forward what else I discover. So perhaps the author should publish some corrections or updates to this book!

Thanks!

Rating:
Summary: Get a feel of CCIE Security Lab
Review: I did my CCNP about 2 years ago. Have a big Cisco Lab at home. For long time I was loking for a book that can give me a real feel of actual CCIE labs. I found that in this book. The CD has all the answers for the all 7 labs. Since I have not attempted the exam yet, I don't know how close they are from real exam.

Rating:
Summary: Great CCIE Lab tool
Review: I recently read the book titled "CCIE Security Practice Labs (CCIE Self-Study)", by Yusuf Hussain Bhaiji. ISBN: 1587051346. This is a great book to use for preparing for the CCIE Security Lab. The main benefit that this book has to offer is that it allows the reader to think outside of the box and configure different Cisco network security devices and features in a way that would otherwise be overlooked.

The book is made up of 7 practice labs which are fairly equal in complexity. As the author states in the book, the labs are relatively straight forward, however it's the detail that one needs to pay attention to in order to help reinforce skills needed to pass the CCIE Security Lab.

Technologies covered in this book include a fairly good portion on general network features such as IP routing protocols (OSPF, EIGRP, BGP and RIP), a few data link layer WAN technologies (ISDN, Frame Relay), Firewall and Intrusion Detection scenarios as well as Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA).

The labs give the reader a mixed bag of scenarios that is designed to challenge not just the configuration of each individual piece of the architecture, but more so the configuration of all features and protocols in a given unlikely scenario.

I like the way in which the book is laid out, because it is designed to allow the reader to really think through how to accomplish a given task by presenting the task in loose pseudo code verbiage.

There are adequate diagrams and screen prints that help map out the objective of each lab. Each lab has a diagram associated with it to help the reader understand visually, what is being accomplished. I think this helps a great deal when mapping the lab to ones memory.

After each lab, which is broken out into sections, the authors gives hints on how to accomplish what has been ask of the reader to build in the lab environment. Again, I like the format, because the answers are not given away fully. Causing the reader to comprehend what they are doing and not just pasting in configurations. However, for those who can't stand digging for answers, and like the answers upfront, a CD-ROM that contains the entire configuration for the lab is included with the book.

Each section of each lab is broken up into tasks and given a weight or points on successful accomplishment of that particular section. According to the word on the street, in the real CCIE Security LAB, if you miss one little detail on a section, you don't get any credit for that section. So you night have the section 75% right and 25% wrong, but you get 0% credit for that section. Which make the CCIE Lab a toughie. That's why it's all about the details, details, details.

CD-ROM contains lab configurations, but they're all contained in one ACSII file. Have to cut and paste out configuration and look for the output for each configuration. Would be better to have the output and configuration in separate files for separate devices. Each lab is kind of jammed into one file. Not pretty for viewing, but effective.

Overall I think this a good book to compliment Cisco Press strong documentation relating to network Security and to help someone achieve the coveted CCIE certification.



Rating:
Summary: Good Tool For Those Trying To Get CCIE Certified
Review: Not being a Cisco expert myself I can't speak much on the technical accuracy of the book. There are some reports out there of mistakes in some of the labs, however CCIE classes and boot camps can cost thousands of dollars and many CCIE workbooks and preparation programs cost well into the hundreds of dollars. For the $50 price of this book I think a few mistakes can be tolerated. In the end, even if there may be a few mistakes, there are seven practice lab scenarios to help you learn and practice configuration and troubleshooting of solutions. The accompanying CDROM contains the solutions to the lab exercises including the configurations and the output of the SHOW commands. In my experience it is possible that a few mistakes here and there may actually make the experience of using a book like this even better. The process of troubleshooting to determine what the mistakes are generally serves to strengthen the information and cement it in your mind.

Tony Bradley is a consultant and writer with a focus on network security, antivirus and incident response. He is the About.com Guide for Internet / Network Security (http://netsecurity.about.com), providing a broad range of information security tips, advice, reviews and information. Tony also contributes frequently to other industry publications. For a complete list of his freelance contributions you can visit Essential Computer Security (http://www.tonybradley.com).

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: The labs are very challenging and the layout is perfect. The "show" commands and configs provided in the CD are very helpful. Also each chapter includes hints and verification sections. It is surely worth the money. Compared to other high priced lab workbooks, this is a steal.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: The labs are very challenging and the layout is perfect. The "show" commands and configs provided in the CD are very helpful. Also each chapter includes hints and verification sections. It is surely worth the money. Compared to other high priced lab workbooks, this is a steal.

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't have passed without it
Review: The most authentic study material out there. Will almost guarantee success at the real CCIE Security Lab exam.