Todd Lammle | Eric Quinn
1 Yes It Does Cover HSRP!
Try reading pages 313 to 321 and you will find coverage of HSRP. Good god and these people want to be CCNP's? I give up!
2 Wondering which to buy for your 640-604, Cisco or Sybex?
I passed 640-604 Exam only studying with this book with the score of almost 900.
I also bought the Cisco Press's book for the same subject, but could not even go through it to the end once, because, it just made me very sleepy after few minutes every time I tried although I believe this is a great study book.
On the other hand, this Sybex book was very fun to read, covering the exam well. Even for those who do not have Engish as a native language like myself, can easily read this book, take the exam in English and can pass it.
The only bad point is, like the other reviewer pointed out, this book does not cover HSRP, which was still questioned as of May 2003. I would recommend that you buy the Cisco's book too and take a look at only that section to get a quick knowledge of HSRP, then you are good to go!
3 HSRP on the test
Outstanding book. Provides everything you need to know to pass the test, except for HSRP. I realized that this was not in the book when I went to take the test. It was a good thing that there were only a few questions on HSRP. Maybe I guessed right, but I did pass the test and that is all that matters.
4 A good book? Very likely.
I must confess, that I used this book only for:
1) The chapters discussing multicast concepts and configuration (Chapters 8 and 9), and
2) The testing engine and flash cards contained on the companion CD.
This is the reason why I chose to go with the average rating of the book on Amazon, which at the moment is 4 stars. I'm sure there is truth to reviewer(s) whose opinion affected the rating from five stars to four.
I opted for CCNP: Switching Certification Guide, a Cisco Press book, as the base for preparation. However, I found the discussion on multicast confusing and lacking adequate illustrations. This is where Todd Lammle's book came to rescue. Lammel's book has good diagrams to illustrate how source distribution tree, shared distribution tree, bidirectional shared tree, PIM DM mechanisms (flooding, pruning, grafting), and PIM SM pruning work. The understanding gained from this book helped me comprehend multicast as discussed in the Cert Guide.
The testing engine was just an added bonus. I particularly like the flash cards that I download on my Palm for when I'm stuck in a traffic jam, which btw happens a lot in a crowded city.
5 Warning: HSRP information not included !
Although the book is overall very good, it completely lacks information about "Configuring HSRP for a Fault-Tolerant Routing", an topic in the 640-604 Switching Exam.
6 Easy to read but inadequate for learning
After taking and passing the exam (luckily) today I can honestly say that this book did not prepare me well enough for the exam. Between 1/3 to 1/4 of the questions I was presented with I simply had to make an educated guess at because they were not covered in the book (For Example: I was asked questions about the user configurable options of PAgP and the configuration of the 3500 series of switch. In the Sybex book PAgP is given about 1/4 of a page that does not mention configuation and the 3500 series never appears in the book). On top of this there were several annoying typos and editing problems such as using the acronym CAM two chapters before it was defined as Content Addressable Memory.
It also appeared that Todd Lammle got bored or was working on a deadline because the last 3 chapters were in general harder to read and contained more errors than the first 8.
Overall this book is useful for those who are just beginning to learn about Cisco Switching and need a book that is readable to develop a basis on which they can build with other books such as those printed by Cisco Press. As a book that can prepare you for the exam or worse yet that can prepare you for actually working on the Cisco equipment this book is totally inadequate.
7 Excellent
Scored me a 903 after 1 week of studying. I just read the book, and used the flashcards. There were some confusing points, like acronyms that would pop up, and not be explained until the next chapter, but all in all, it is excellent for a study guide.
8 Good CCNP Study Guide
This book is a good study tool for those of you preparing for the CCNP Switching examination. Although I have a good amount of experience with Cisco routers, which aided my preparation, I had never dealt with Cisco switches of any sort prior to taking the exam. This text, by itself, was sufficient to pass the exam.
The two main areas of weakness in the text are multicast and multiplayer switching. If you wish to score well on all areas of the exam find additional materials to help your preparation in these areas.
Aside from these two areas, the text is sufficiently thorough to allow excellent scores in the other areas.
PJZ
9 Good study book
It looks like the two major offerings in the CCNP area are from New Riders and Sybex. I found the Lammle/Sybex book on sale, so I decided to go with this one and give it a try.
I bought this book just to read up on switching and VLANS, which I didn't know as much about compared to routers. Most people are probably buying this book to pass the exam, but I was more interested in just getting somemore background in the subject since I am a professional NT administrator.
I found the book was excellent for that. The book is clearly and concisely written and although I'm not an expert on switching, I worked on a large corporate network for a lot of years and have been around switches for some time and so have some understanding of them, and it seemed to cover the subject pretty well. The sample tests at the end of each section are sure to be helpful to those taking the certification test, and there is a long general assessment exam at the very beginning of the book too.
Another book I picked up that I've found useful is the "Network Certification" volume from Microsoft. I also have the more general CCNP "Support" volume from Lammle and Hale in this series, and although I haven't gotten into it much, it also looks like a good study book on the basic routing material. I'll probably write a brief review for that when I've had some time to take a more thorough look at it.
10 Pretty good overall
I took the switching exam this morning and scored 969 out of 1000. To prepare I used this book, the RouterSim simulator, and the Boson exams. The book did a good job covering the conceptual material and also on laying out the command language. I do think that it would have been harder for me to learn all the command syntax without doing some labs on either real routers or a simulator. Too bad that the more complex labs (MLS, multicast) couldn't be simulated.
There were a few things on my exam not covered in the book but not enough to keep you from passing, for example some trouble shooting scenarios. With some experience, common sense and a little luck you should get most of those right too I think.
I gave only four stars since I felt the practice tests to be a bit easier than the real one so would recommend also doing a Boson exam or two. The author says in his books that Boson is the best source of practice tests.
11 Expected more detail and better explanation in some areas
I read through some sections wondering why they seamed to be lacking in detail and thorough explanation ( STP, Multicast Routing ). My conclusion is that fleshing out these areas was not necessary because such detail would not be covered on the test. Fair enough. But, it would have been more useful to nix the superfluous 85pg glossary and 23pg Multicast Address Appendix ( a publisher corallary to the consumer judging a book by its cover is judging how thick it is ) and provide the more complete detail and explanation. I suppose Sybex is peddling another book with the requisite detail. Some things I found annoying: 1 - In Chapter 5, Spanning Tree with VLANS, no network diagram is provided to give context for all the commands being demonstrated. 2 - In the "in-depth look" at STP somehow the author left out explaining root port selection. 3 - On pg392 the author describes PIM dense mode as using "source root shared tree" and PIM sparse mode as using "shared root source tree". I jotted copious notes in the generous 2" left margins. Notes gathered from Cisco's web site documents and other texts I have in my library. I found Cisco Press's "Cisco LAN Switching" to be invaluable. I did wind up passing the test. My judgement is that you may be able to pass the test with this book alone. But with this book and no experience, prior knowledge or knowledge gleaned from other texts you will be nothing but a "paper" CCNP switch specialist with a shallow understanding of Cisco switching.
12 Pretty Good Book, But Not Ideal Study Guide
In studying for my CCNP/CCDP certs, I read the full set from Sybex and also the Exam Preparation Library from Cisco Press. I found that the Sybex books did a better job of introducing certain topics and laying the foundation for further study - further study from Cisco Press, that is. The switching book is better than Lammle's Routing or Remote Access books, and by that I mean it does a better job of preparation. Of course, that could be because the 640-504 was one of the easier in the bunch, at least for myself. As a previous reviewer stated, there's a TON of MLS ??'s, and this book doesn't really go deep enough for my liking. I'd still choose the Cisco Press equivalent for exam prep, as the language and wording will be very close to the real deal. Besides, the questions that come with the Cisco Press book are 10x better. Really.
Jayson Tobias
CCNP CCDP
13 Decent Book
The best thing about this book is the layout and content. It is easy to read and it keeps you interested, as opposed to the Cisco Press book which is very tedious to get through. However, be warned, as another reviewer said, hardly any of the test questions that come with this book and on the CD are on the exam. The exam questions were very different, at least for me anyway. However, the book explains things very thorough and concise, except for the MLS and Multicasting sections. I'm still confused on what they were spelling out, and those were the sections I didn't do too well on on the exam. Overall, a decent book that I'd recommend, but make sure you get the Boson tests in addition to this book.
14 Not as good as I expected
After having used various other books by the same author in the past, this book was a bit of a disappointment. I missed the chrystal clear explanations that were present in some of his other books.
All in all it isn't a bad book, but it has opened my eyes to competing study guides, where I would have gone Sybex/Lammle without hesitation in the past.
15 MLS and Mulcasting are awful in this book
I studied this book throughly, and hated the chapter on MLS and Multicasting. I passed the exam with a 815, but I did poorly on these areas. This book did not prepare me as I expected. The questions on the CD are not close to the actual exam questions, and the are a lot of typos. I expected this book to be just as good as the CCNA Study Guide, but unfortunately it wasn't. I will continue with Todd Lammle's book, but I will supplement with the Exam Cram book.
16 Good book, but look out, test looks completely different.
This was the only book I used for my switching exam and I passed. I liked the book since its easy to read than other books, but this book has lots of spelling and some content errors (and lack of details). One thing I like to stress is that be in for big surprise when you take the test as questions were nothing like the questions in this book(surprised). Only reason that I passed was that I think this test was quite easy (compared to other tests and if you have experience). I think 50% of the questions were answered based on this book and rest from deduction and experience. I would recommend this book based on following criteria: 1 - if you have experience then this book is good since its easy to read book. 2 - if you don't have experience (or little) then I would recommend going with this book plus one other guide (I used sybex/boson combination with good result for routing). Good luck!
17 Quite Good
I found this book quite good, detailed & well written. The multicasting section (PIM et al) may have been overelaborate (i got no questions on this area), but generally it covers all necessary topics in enough depth to pass the Switching exam and as a reference.
I'm sticking with the Lammle theme as i've done for the CCNA and CCNP Routing papers.
Good Luck all!!!
18 Excellent book.
This is an excellent book that covers all you need to know to pass the CCNP Switching exam.
Although it contained typos (consistent with most Lammle books) the material was presented in an easy to learn and mostly fun way.
I found that the book focused a lot on multi-cast and I had only 3 multi-cast questions on the exam (though you may have more).
I studied the commands but didn't have the hardware to practice on and still did very well on the exam, taking only 30 minutes of the allowed 75.
If you are looking for a good book for this exam this could be the one. The Cisco Press book is also supposed to be good but I haven't got it yet.
This would have been 5-stars but the typos and the fact that the book concentrated on some stuff that wasn't on the exam prevented me from giving it a perfect rating.
19 easy read
This book is writen so that you don't burn out by the second chapter. It had some typo's, but I think that those where minor. The practice exam at the end of the book is horendous, use the one on the cd instead as it has the same questions, but in the proper format. The troubleshooting area could have been expanded with more examples of real world scenareos. Overall this will be yet another reference book for me. Yes I did pass on the first try with only this book, and experience.
20 Passed all Switching Exam First Time with This Book
The Switching Study Guide is a good purchase if you want to pass the 640-504 exam 1st time ! I have now achieved CCNP status and have passed all the exams leading up to CCNP with a SYBEX book !!
21 It has all that's needed to pass the exam
It appears that T.Lammle knows how to put out books that incorporate all that's required to pass target exams. Moreover, the material covered is comprehensive enough to have it sit with other reference books on your shelf. If your wanting to pass the test, this text is all you'll need. It certainly worked for me.
22 A good study guide to prepare you forthe exam
The authors' writing style presents the material in an easy to digest format. I found this text a little easier to read that its Cisco press counterpart which at times is a little dry. All switching topics were adequately covered, although I would have liked a little more material on implementing Multicasting (PIM) and Layer 3 switching. All in all, the book is a good preparation resource for the switching exam. Some nice labs and plenty of practice exam questions.
23 Good enough for you to pass the exam, if read properly
This book is enough for you to pass the switching exam; don't believe reviews that say otherwise. I have never laid hands on a switch before; i used this book in conjunction with lammle's Switchsim and questions from cert 21 and passed. I must admit that there were quite a few questions on the exam that were not covered by the book. All in all, the material in this book in sufficient for you to ace the exam. Good luck.
24 The only book needed to pass the switching exam.
Great book, covers everything you need to pass the CCNP 640-504 exam. Hands-on lab could be great also if not for some "Typos". I work in an Internet Data Center in Singapore and have full hands-on in 5500 Switch and 7500 Router (along with those lower-end switches and routers), and I could tell you that Sybex Cisco Certification Series Books are great if not the best in the market. I'm using all Sybex books to earn my Cisco Certs, currently I'm holding CCNA2 (which I use the greatest book ever printed, the Sybex CCNA Study Guide) and now preparing for Foundation 640-509.
25 Great reading, but be careful if your focus is only the test
Sybex and Lammle stand heads and shoulders above most Cisco certification guides and give Cisco Press a run for their money! This study guide for CCNP switching 2.0 is easy to read and understand, especially for those who are new to the catalyst line of switches. I recently passed the test with a score of 803, however I feel that if I did not complement this study guide with the Cisco Press CCIE Cisco Lan Switching guide (isbn 1578700949) and the Boson switching tests I would have failed the test. The CCIE Lan book was used for the detailed explanations and the Boson tests to find where the Sybex/Lammle book was lacking (mostly MLS and troubleshooting). Overall, there are very few errors in this text and the labs are excellent, in fact I used several of the labs as a template to install a dozen 6509's with layer3 swithing between vlans, VTP, spanning tree... the whole nine! I like to think of this book as a quick start guide and desk reference for common tasks. I also feel a lot more comfortable about using spanning tree and trunking in my networks, things I tried to avoid in the past, because of the great explanations in this text. Definitely worth the price of admission, although not quite the all-in-one study solution some people were hoping for.
26 On the Money
The topics covered in this book are clearly written. It will hold your attention!
27 Covered most of the basics
This book, although very good is not enough to pass the Switching exam. I used the Cisco CIM as well as the SwitchSim simulator to prepare. The SwitchSim software was flawed as it was not compatable with this book. Only one chapter was dedicated to multi-layer switching and my exam was dedicated to PLENTY of MLS questions not covered in this book. I passed the exam (781) because the CIM was able to pick up the slack. I went with Lammle because of his outstanding CCNA book and will continue with him for the rest of my CCNP.
28 Pass CCNP on first Try
Excellent book. I took the class at a Cisco training facility and then purchased the book as a reference guide. It pulled everything together!!!! It made my life easy in preparing for the test, which was a breeze. It's a great reference guide. I was never bored with reading the materials. The labs were great. If you don't get a chance to attend an instructor Led training course, THIS IS THE BOOK TO PURCHASE AND STUDY FROM.
Good luck!!!
29 Pass CCNP on first Try
Excellent book. I took the class at a Cisco training facility and then purchased the book as a reference guide. It pulled everything together!!!! It made my life easy in preparing for the test, which was a breeze. It's a great reference guide. I was never bored with reading the materials. The labs were great. If you don't get a chance to attend an instructor Led training course, THIS IS THE BOOK TO PURCHASE AND STUDY FROM.
Good luck!!!
30 Excellent
This book is fantastic!! I used this book in conjunction with the Cisco Press BCMSN book - it cleared up things that i couldn't understand from the Cisco text....but it is still awesome in its own right. I know it is hard to tell what is real from these reviews sometimes - but i have to say DO NOT HESITATE - get this book!!!
31 Good book to start with...
took my switching 2.0 exam, passed it, and well i had this book alongside with the cisco-press edition, and i must say, its an easier read compared to the latter. however, i would recommend the CCIE Lan switching txt if u really desire more info on switching (apart from just passing the exam). forget back the exam-crams, they arent much relevant meat compared to todd's version.
32 Excellent but I'm spoiled.
Ok, let me start off by saying that I thought the CCNA 2.0 book was one of the best tech books I've read so far. So perhaps Todd has set the bar a little high... Well done book! The examples are clear and the concepts presented in a way that (provided you have the appropriate level of knowledge) makes them easy to understand. The only thing I would like to see added to the book is more info about the 'other' switches: 2900 and the 2900XL, the 3500's, etc. For the test? Probably not on the hit list, but would be good information for those of us that are doing this stuff for a living. Guess I'll just have to buy another book or two ;) Really well done spanning tree protocol information. Multi Layer Switching is heavy on the acronyms for the device parts but once over that hurdle the explanation was very simply put. This is the first book that I've read that really explains multi-casting. I've read the RFC's, but this did a good job of making it clear. So, it's a pretty good book. I've just been spoiled by the best... TTFN, Bill in Anchorage
33 Right on the money for the new CCNP Switching Exam
This book was very well written. I couldn't put it down. It was technical, but funny, and prepared me for the exam. The written labs, review questions, and flash cards were excatly what I needed to help me pass the exam. I scored a 910, which isn't bad since I hadn't worked on a switch before reading this book. The amount of in-depth information on the Catalyst switch series, mostly the 5000, was amazing. The exam had questions based on the Catalyst 1900 and 5000 series, and this book had everything needed on the Catalyst switch series to pass the exam. I am well pleased with all the Sybex books for Cisco certification.
34 CCNP: Switching Study Guide
I am disappointed in the quality of this work. It is not up to par to Todd's other books, especially his CCNA book. I was very pleased with his CCNA book and it helped me pass with over a 900 score. The questions in this book, however, did not mirror the questions that I had on the test at all. Luckily, I had taken the class and knew much of the information, and I passed with an 840 score, but Todd's book was not much help. For a technical reference, it is good, but for the CCNP switching test, I would spend my money elsewhere.
Curtis
35 Nice CCNP Switching update book.
I bought the Lammle CLSC and then bought this since I never took the old exam. This is a nice new book. The entire book was re-written, which was a nice surprise. I thought it would just be a little update, but it is not. Nice format, easy to read, matched the exam, etc, etc, (fill in the information for all of Todd Lammle's books here..). This book was worth the money. This really helped me understand the 5000 series command structure. Todd will discuss a subject, then domonstrate it in a network and discuss the switch output line-by-line. This book is a keeper.
