Could be a lot better

The reason I am giving one star to this book is because a lot of people have given 5 stars to it. Personally I would give it about 2 and a half stars.

The main reasons for my low rating are:
- The book jumps in to configuration commands without giving the proper links. The information is too disjointed. Too few actual configuration examples. The book seems littered with config commands without talking much about what info is shown by the specific show commands. How to use the commands in troubleshooting scenarios et al.

- The way in which the information is presented could have been better. Concepts seem to have been explained in a half hearted manner. And per point one, the author jumps directly to config commands.

+ The book does a good job at covering the exam. If you wanna clear the exam, this book is for you. However, if you wanna understand stuff and then actually clear the exam, be prepared to go to other sources. One excellent reference source is the CCIE Cisco LAN switching book. I ended up reading about 18 chapters (out of 20) from this book, and I only came to know about the CCIE book later on. I got it and yes it was worth every cent. Any concept (except QoS) that I needed clarification was present in the CCIE book.

Other Reviews

• Good, easy to understand, but a complementary book.
• Missing tons of information
• Vast improvement over 2nd edition
• Good exam preparation
• Could be a lot better