Cisco Networking Academy Program: First-Year Companion Guide [With CDROM]

I myself am a novice-networking student. Having known little about the details of networking, this book has been instrumental in my high test scores. It is clear and concise, although there are some errors in this book; I highly recommend it for each networking student.

I've bought other networking books but its all here, if you want CCNA then start with this. This book and its Second Year companion will not only get you through CCNA but will ensure that your knowledge of networking per say is much wider. Feel free to read from other sources but as with its 2nd Year companion its all here. The quality of the book, its presentation and the CD is a credit to Cisco Press. There is also a number of future publications in the pipeline for the CCNP and Routing is already out. I'm not usually so enthusiastic about training materials as I have so often been let down BUT NOT HERE!

El título de Vito Amato, "Academia De Networking De Cisco Systems : Guia Del Primer Año", no solo es un libro de aprendizaje, sino tambien de consulta. El nivel pedagojico es muy bueno, dando ejemplos de los temas que se tratan en el libro con elementos cotidianos. El libro se divide en 19 capitulos, donde se ven desde los temas más básicos de electróica, hasta configuración de routers Cisco. El título presenta varias prácticas para laboratorio, cuestionarios de repaso y un CD-ROM con utilitarios y bibliografía.Muy recomendable para quién se inicie en el mundo del internetwork.

I found the content within this book is an excellent aid to the CCNA online courseware (version 2.1). Further, without this book I would be unable to study all the material offline, because courseware (version 2.1) is designed to restrict printing.The book doesn't follow the courseware, chapter to lesson; but the order is still the same, and the contect is mostly word for word.The Flash Card software, found on the CD, tests your knowledge, and when you fail a question the software directs you to the chapter where you need to review. This software can be downloaded for free from Cisco.The courseware movies, also found on the CD, are the same found online. Having them on the CD reduces the time waiting for the download to complete.The Additional content found after the chapters can aid in your training, and is not easily found anywhere within the online courseware. If you want these resources, you'll need this book.Be warned, there is a great difference in courseware between version 1.0 and 2.0 (version 2.1 is a cleaned up and slightly modified revision of 2.0). If you are taking the version 1.0 course, this book will not follow your training as well as you might want.

When you want information about Windows 2000 you ask Microsoft, Netware 5 you ask Novell, with Cisco Routers and the CCNA exam you need to go to Cisco. The First year companion is the book that Cisco trains with at the Cisco Academy and this should be your book too.The First year companion is 19 chapters starting with basic networking and the OSI model all the way through Network Management. Each chapter is detailed and well documented, yet easy enough to understand that the reading will not lose anyone.You have figures, pictures, diagrams, tables and review questions with each chapter. You will cover topics like the seven layers of the OSI model, networking devices, ARP and RARP, topologies, TCP/IP, routing and router configuration, RIP and IGRP and the command summary.The author does a great job in giving you as much information as possible. I think that there should have been practice questions or tests on a cd-rom included with the book; the cd included with the book is filled with videos that enhance the chapter covered in the book. Overall one of the best books I have ever reviewed.