CCNP Bsci Exam Certification Guide (CCNP Self-Study, 642-801)

I am doing the CCNP recert. My biggest weakness is getting hands on. I have some 2500 and switches, so the simulations will be very helpful. I am also using along with it the labs from All in one for doing the hands on. Same for the switch book by Hucaby. I am taking the 642-891 around mid May in case I fail I can mount a retest. By now anyway if doing recerts, I am using both the Diane Teare and Gough book and other Cisco books.

The CCNP BSCI Exam Certification Guide was a long read. But as far as the material contained within, the ends were worth every minute. Ms. Gough does not skip corners or spare the important details. Nor, does she put in a lot of the fluff or redundant wording. The chapter writings are instructional without being repetitive. And, the Practice Questions and Scenarios are right on target as both real-world examples and real-exam questions. The flow of the chapters is meant to build the reader up to handle the deep thought nature of the BSCI Exam and the ever changing nature of current internetworking. Ms. Cough compartmentalizes important topics to highlight it's importance without isolating the reader from the real network impact each topic can have on both simple and complex Internetworks. One slight negative, the final edit of this tome seemed jumpy at times and occasionally wordy. But, the overall content and presentation were exceptional.This book is stuffed with of everything a person needs to move into the advanced concepts of routing and networking. Troubleshooting flowcharts, practice questions, make-them-think scenarios, Real World Examples, detailed and concise explanations of concepts, theory and practice, etc... It's all here and more. The CD contains a database of 350+ questions for the test practice engine to pull from. And, since many of these questions were directly from the text, the text provides good explanations to clear up any misunderstandings or misinterpretations.I would recommend this Cisco ECG to all experienced networkers with or without a Cisco background. For those looking to complete their Cisco Routing Reference Library, the Cisco Press BSCI ECG offers a great value. No three other publicly published books will give you the amount of reference materials and examples you'll find in this one volume. For anyone prepping for the BSCI Exam, you'll be very hard pressed to beat this. The CD alone will be of great value to prepare individuals looking to hone their test taking readiness.If you are planning to take the BSCI Certification Exam and have a good introductory foundation of internetworking theory, practices and principles, then this book will take you where you need to be. I will say that this book is NOT meant for the beginner or even a lower-level novice to Internetworking, but then again neither is the Cisco BSCI test. This book more than meets it's intended purpose: Prepare the intermediate user for the BSCI Certification Exam AND the real world tests that will follow such a certification. But, this book can be used for so much more long after the test has been passed.

The CCNP BSCI Exam Certification Guide is a great resource for CCNP recertification. The material is not in-depth but informative enough for those that already taken BSCI exam before. The accompanying CD-ROM with sample test questions is also very helpful. With this book, along with the CCNP BCMSN Exam Certification Guide and related Transcender practice exams, I was able to pass the CCNP Composite exam (642-891) and complete my CCNP recertification.

CCNP Self Study: CCNP BSCI Exam Certification Guide 3rd Edition by Clare Gough, CCIE No. 2893ISBN 1-58720-085-6 First Printing December 2003Copyright © 2004 Cisco Press Indianapolis, IN 46290 USAReview by: Alan Spicer ([email protected]) CCNA, Systems and Network Administrator for approximately 10 yearsAbout the reviewer:I started my interests in communications and computing devices back in my teens in the late 1970's. I worked in communications both visual (Morse Code, International Signaling Flags) and radio in the United States Navy initially qualified as Signalman (SM), and later studied to qualify as Radioman (RM) by official U.S. Navy Correspondence Course. I worked some with High Frequency (H.F.) Radio and Teletype over H.F. Radio. After leaving the Navy in 1981 I pursued a U.S. Radio Amateur Radio License of the Technician Class. My first Personal Computing device was a Texas Instruments TI-59 Programmable Calculator, and I have used a lot of the micro computers from Tandy/Radio Shack, Atari, Apple, and more in my thirst for computing and communications knowledge and power. In the 1990's I got interested in Networking along with Systems Administration from a BBS Sysop background which led me directly into the Internet as soon as we (ordinary) humans could access it. I worked remotely making user Tech Support Pages for several South Florida ISP's and eventually went to work full time for one of them. This increased my wanting for knowledge about both networking and Unix Systems Administration. I have been doing combinations of both ever since then. Cisco networking is a natural extension of the things that I love.On to the book review:The layout of this book is 8 PARTS, with 6 main parts, and 2 other parts being Part 7 Scenarios - Scenarios for Exam Preparation, and Part 8 Appendixes - Answers to Chapter "Do I Know This Already?" Quizzes and Q & A Sections.The "Forward" gives a typical "it goes without saying" warning about blending your learning environment with classroom instruction and hands-on experience. I hope we already know that before we get to reading that forward. It is very true that hands-on experience with the equipment and command-line is the best way to reinforce topic materials you are learning. Unfortunately for many that is simply not possible. I myself have been lucky on occasion and found jobs with routers to practice on and even purchased a Cisco uBR 924 cable modem. There are also labs online where you can get some free or pay-for-rack-time use of different routers and switches. In my experience in general, many companies and organizations want "experience", but a lot less of them are willing to pay a talented individual reasonably to work for them while gaining such experience. This isn't just for Cisco experience, but I.T. in general.I think you can have a good foundation base, at any level, CCNA, CCNP; but the only way to handle certain situations, like debugging, is to have an actual reason on-the-job to tr

I've just finished taking a class on this subject and bought this book as a way to supplement my knowledge in preparation for the BSCI exam. I've now gone 65 pages into the book and I am amazed by the depth of knowledge this book brings. Whereas in the class, we may have used VLSM to come up with some very simple VLSM addressing schemes, this book shows you how to implement a five-level VLSM scheme - Region, Campus, Building, Floor and Host. Everything is written very clearly and I am recommending this book to my friends.