Rating: 
Summary: a good book, but not a good book for the test
Review: I bought this book and read it all the way through. It is very well written, and easy to understand. However, this book was written for the Cisco support exam #640-506. Cisco has updated the exams and the new support exam is #640-606. It is my opinion that this is not the best book to prepare for the new 640-606 exam. Cisco Press has another book written for the support exam called "Cisco Internetwork Troubleshooting". While this book was also written before the new exam, I believe it will better prepare people for it. I used both books to study for the new exam (which I passed and am now a CCNP), and I believe the questions for the new 640-606 exam were taken from the Cisco Internetwork Troubleshooting book. Could you use the Support Certification Guide book to pass the new exam? Sure, but the test is already hard enough, why make it harder.
Rating: 
Summary: The definitive CCNP Support Exam Cert book
Review: I can't understand how Amazon allows incredible books like this to be trashed and not have any back up. I respectfully disagree, and say that this is the only book that has helped me in my training and study for the CCNP exams. The Cisco CCNP Support Exam Certification Guide gave me a great review of the concepts involved in diagnosing, isolating, and correcting network problems that I have encountered, and no other book has done this. My biggest challenge was in Network Layer protocol troubleshooting. My issues were solved with The Cisco CCNP Support Exam Certification Guide from Cisco Press. Thank you Cisco Press and thank you Mr. Ranjbar!! I challenge anyone to pick up this book and prove me wrong. Go into a book store if you are unsure, but be aware that this is the only book that helped me. I can't say enough good things about it (although it is a little dry). It's obvious that the author is very well connected in the Cisco community. I thought I had thought of everything, and then he gives some real world examples that blew me away. And I also have to give credit to Cisco Systems for creating this line of books. Every single exam, I have passed because of their books. I am also trying the Cisco Interactive Mentor (CIM) line of products as well and love them, but that's another story. It sounds like the negative comments are coming from a disgruntled employee at Cisco (why would any be disgruntled??), or maybe another book publisher. That's unfortunate, because this book helped me in more ways than I can say thank you. I also think it was underpriced (for what that's worth, but that will be our little secret).
Rating:
Summary: A great book
Review: I cleared this exam by just reading this book.Amir not only covers the exam objectives but also give us the readers a lot of 'on-the-job" information - great book !! A must pick up even if you are not doing the CCNp Support !!
Rating:
Summary: Absolutley Brilliant
Review: I have to agree with the previous reviewers of this book. This has to be one of the best certification books ever. It provides more than enough information for both the exam and for an on the job reference. And all this in just under 400 very easy to read pages - and the CD is great as well. Even in the Introduction written by the author himslef, he stops short of saying 'i guarantee you will pass with this book' even though you can tell he wants to. If you are taking the support 2.0 CCNP exam - then you must have this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book, but makes some assumptions
Review: I just took the support test today and scored a 908, so I can't complain too much about the book. I will say that some of it apparently assumes that you are very familiar with some things, like Appletalk. I had to borrow a friends book (Sybex) to brush up on the things (Appletalk) that I wasn't very familiar with. My friend used the Sybex book only and didn't score very well, so I would definitely recommend this book if you want to pass the CCNP Support test (640-506).
Rating:
Summary: A work of art, a must have for work and pass the exam !!
Review: I passed the CCNP Support Exam 640-506 on Feb 18 2001. I had purchased Amir Ranjbar's book 3 weeks ago,last week of Jan 2001. I also bought CORIOLIS support Exam Cram by Matthew Luallen. The following is what I did to pass the exam. 1. I read Mr. Ranjbar's book cover to cover 11 Chapters. Second time around I read the Q&A in each section and the Foundation Summary in each Chapter. ( Excellent layout ). Third time around I just paid attention to the screen print out of all commands, there are many and Mr. Ranjbar has done a great job of explaining various sections of the output. Great diagrams of the ISDN, Internal architecture of 7000 & 7500 series Routers, and troubleshooting scenarios. These are actual printouts of the commands just visualize you are looking at a screen on a PC, and you will be fine. This book is GREAT !!! on the job too, it is practical. 2. Tear out the cram sheet on the Coriolis exam cram book. it has 103 commands and brief description of each, this is imperative to know,laminate this sheet at office depot for one dollar. Keep this laminated sheet with you wherever you go, good for rush hour commute, waiting at Dentist's office etc. Keep looking at it every day, it will make sense in a week or so. 3. 3-4 days before the exam, just read the Coriolis book 13 short and easy reading fun chapters, take the exam at the end of the book, keep in mind that the actual exam is much more harder than that, fill in the blanks are great. 4. Take the exam on the test engine provided by Mr. Ranjbar's CD that comes with his book, keep taking the exam until you start getting above 90% and close to 100%. If you fllow the above directions, with discipline, dedication and hard work you can pass this exam too. Good Luck to You.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the book for CIT 642-831
Review: I Read the book and took the exam. While it may show you trouble shooting methodologies, it does not even come close to preparing you for the CIT exam. The CIT exam requires technical expertise and skills in frame-relay, ISDN and router configurations. This book only explains terminology and the "show" command. Bottom line is if your using this book to study for the exam, think again it's not worth the purchase price.
Rating:
Summary: This book is superb! Excel. study guide, very well written
Review: I used this book along with the CIT course notes (I didn't do the actual course). I also used the Todd Lammle CCNA & Chris Lewis books to brush up on areas like IPX and Appletalk. I passed easily and credit is mostly due to this book. This book is superb! I especially enjoyed the Frame Relay and ISDN sections. The author points out inaccuracies in the CIT course notes e.g. Pg 325/326 he shows that debug frame-relay VERBOSE = incoming packets, debug frame-relay PACKET = outgoing packets, debug frame-relay EVENTS = frame relay arp events. He states that the CIT course training manual confuses the debug frame-relay command (apparently no longer supported) with the debug frame-relay events command (in the CIT manual this is shown as the command to monitor incoming packts - it should be verbose). I for one am glad to have these things pointed out. What good is it learning inaccurate material? In the ISDN chapter he shares a small exercise he did (with debug outputs) as he was curious about what conditions might cause an ISDN switch to ask a router to give up it's assigned TEI and request a new one - he shares his observations and simply states there may be other situations in which the same activity may occur, it's nice that he lets you know this is just his observations not something set in stone. It also helped me understand why such a function would be necessary from the Switch. I noticed a couple of very slight errors e.g. Pg 365 "In Summary the SHOW DEBUG and the DEBUG DIALER commands..." should be "In Summary the SHOW DIALER and DEBUG DIALER commands..." but these are easily spotted and there are far less of these errors than other books I've read from Cisco Press even including the (Excellent) Jeff Doyle TPC/IP vol 1 book. All in all, this is definately the recommended book for CIT and I'm still referencing it afterwards for CCIE written study.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I used this book for my main study guide for the CCNP support exam. Without it, I doubt I would have passed the exam. I also found it to be a book I will keep on my shelf because it is one place where tons of Cisco information is summarized. Thanks again Amir for this book!
Rating:
Summary: Scored 899 With this book
Review: I used this book to study for the 640-606 and passed today with a 899. Very well written, cuts all the useless information and helps you focus on what you really need to learn.
This Book + Boson practice test = Pass exam
Excellet source for future reference as well. It's Money well invested.
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