Brian Morgan | Craig Dennis
1 A very good review of the subject matter.
I was able to pass the 640-605 test handily using this book as my primary source of study information.
There were a good number of small mistakes, (for example a 2511 router has 16 and not eight asynchronous interfaces) which were mildly annoying. One would hope that it would have been better edited technically. Still, it's better than the other choices out there, some of which I've been very disappointed in.
The text was organized well, and was surprisingly easy to study, especially considering the subject matter. As a Cisco book, it seemed to have a clearer idea of what the test would expect; I noticed no major oversights as I took the test.
Overall, very good, with some improvements possible.
2 Covers Every Single Question
Brian Morgan's book is not only easy to read, it also gives more info than it is required for the exam. Especially the Q/A parts at the end of each chapter were pretty similiar with the real exam. Well let me put it this way, I definitely owe him these 5 stars.
3 Excellent. Much better than BCRAN.
Absolutely excellent. This is the best of the 4 CCNP Cert guides, and one of the best titles in my large Cisco Press collection. It's also one of the few cert-oriented guides that would stand just as well (if not better) as a "regular" reference. It's far better than Building Cisco Remote Access Networks; the authors certainly seem more knowledgable, to be sure.
Concise, accurate, and readable. This is one of the few books that someone could get away with using alone for a CCNP-level exam, and one of the best Cisco Press titles in general.
4 Avoid This Book
The authors here did not do their homework. It is hard for me to believe that they wrote this book and have a CCIE certification. It looks as if someone else, besides a CCIE, wrote the book. There are many mistakes and contradiction especially in the area of "Assembling and Cabling the Wan Components" section. The authors contradicts themselves by saying a Cisco router 1000 series can be used for SOHO and branch offices then later say that branch office routers start with the Cisco 2600 series routers. The author does not give concise, and precise data and information to the reader so that they can be successful in passing the examination. I finally decided to acquire the Cisco based course, "Building Cisco Remote Access Networks, ISBN 1-57870-091-4." This book has everything you will need to successfully pass the examination. In fact, the examination objectives come straight from this book for the most part and are where many of the online self-test software companies go by. I would not recommend this book to anyone who wants to pass the first time.
5 3/4 CCNP
I used this book and the Sybex study guide (Todd Lammle) to pass this test. I think that I could have passed the test with this book alone. The screen shots for the "show" and "debug" commands are very helpful. 90% of the test material is covered in this book. The rest is covered on Boson Tests. I did not use the CD or the labs, but I did take all of the preliminary and chapter review tests. I found alot of syntax errors in the Appendix of answers.
6 THE guide to pass the exam
I worked (hard) on this book for 3 weeks (without doing the labs), and I passed the #640-505 today with a 808 (703 required). To be clear I will just enumerate the good and bad points; here are the good ones:
1. It covers very well the exam (except for the chapter about Win95! there were questions in the exam, but hopefully very easy), and some questions in the CD were in the real exam
2. Short and clear
3. Only a very very few mistakes (actually I found only a couple of them, mostly on the CD, which decided me not to buy any book whom reviewers say it is full of mistakes)
4. Feeling to learn something, not just working for an exam (just a feeling, not a proof it is a good book !)
The bad ones:
1. The test exams on CD do not respect the format of the exam; when it is about IOS commands, you have to choose within a list of 40 or more commands, not just 4 as usual. Actually, I found it more difficult to choose within 4 commands than 40, because the 40 ones are mostly all different one from another. But he could have told me what was the exam format!
2. It covers the exam, but the study is not in depth; too often I had questions on topics I had seen, but "ah, just on this case, what happen ?"
3. Consequence of the (2): I will not keep this book; I've taken my little notes, now I can sell it. The advantage of this book is also the disadvantage: it is designed to make you pass the exam, no more. But it is in the informal contract from the beginning.
If you want to pass the exam learning things, buy this book. It is really more than enought, and a pleasure to read.
7 Not enough information given
The writing and explanations are not bad. It has better flow than Catherine Pauet's "Building Cisco Remote Access Netowrks". However it has less information. Most importantly you will not be able to truly understand the material, much less apply it. In order to be able to do the job, read Bill Burton's "Remote Access for Cisco Networks". Bill Burton's book is excellent, very clear and coherent.
One more tip, all remote access books I looked at miss one important piece - they do not explain the complete set of interrelationships between serial interfaces, asynchronous interfaces, lines, controllers, vtys, ttys, etc. Therefore you need to read introduction section from "Cisco IOS 12.0 Dial Solutions". It is a horrible read and you will have to fight through it. Read it five times, if you have to. But, it will give you the mental map and the foundation needed to understand any book on this topic.
8 Very Good Exam Coverage
The exam topics were broken down into 12 chapters that were discretely sized. It made the material easy to chew. I liked the length of this book. This author didn't get wrapped up in wording. It was precise and to the point, covering pretty much just the material on the exam. It really decreased the difficulty in preparing for the test by narrowing the field.
I noticed a couple of errors, but nowhere near the amount of errors that the Routing Exam Certification Guide had.
There are the right number examples speckling the topic discussions, but not too many to confuse or get you off course. I liked that the author included the configuration mode before the command examples - router(config#) command. There is no glossary of terms, but the chapter summaries, questions and the scenarios were well done. Overall, it's a great guide!
9 This is the book to help you pass.
Remote or home workers are popping up more and more everyday. You the administrator have the task of making sure they can login and work. You are using Cisco routers and now you need to know what types of setups you can have.
What this book does is take apart the Remote Access Exam objective by objective and break it down to level that will ensure that understand the concepts and ideas before moving on to the next topic.
With discussions about WAN Equipment, modem configurations and PPP setups, ISDN and DDR setups and configuration, 700 series router, X.25, Frame Relay, NAT and IP and AAA you have an excellent learning tool to work with.
There are over 25 scenarios to work and practice with as well as review questions with each chapter. The cd rom included has practice test questions and you can customize the testing format. Overall a very good value.
10 got 841/1000 (passing 706) using only this book
I have very little experience with any of these dying technologies but I passed the exam easily (841/1000 - passing 706) after reading the book. Just read the book cover to cover and do the CD-ROM practice test.
11 remote access exam
about all the information of hardware and networking solutions.i should buy the book and read it my self.because my knowledge is not happyful.ok.it is my first time that i join the computer hardware and networking guidence.
12 remote access exam
about all the information of hardware and networking solutions.i should buy the book and read it my self.because my knowledge is not happyful.ok.it is my first time that i join the computer hardware and networking guidence.
13 Execellent Study Guide
This book is very very good study guide for BCRAN test. It is very helpful if you have learned the material and use it as for review. Use it with BCRAN course material! The Cisco Press BCRAN book has a lot of information, but not very organized. This book helps you systematically prepare for the test.
14 Great Resource
Excellent companion to the BCRAN book. The CD has a test engine and a bunch of other usefull informaion. The CD alone is worth the price of the book.
15 Excellent detail
Excellent study guide. Great detailed explaination of the examples shown in the book. It help you understanding the concepts better. It help me pass the exam.
16 Another great one from Cisco Press!
This book is an excellent study tool for the Remote Access Exam. The sections on ISDN and Frame Relay are well-written, as is the rest of this certification guide.
Oh, and I passed the test on the first try.
