Cisco Networking Simplified

I'm a network professional who bought the book to test my knowledge on the subject and to my surprise learned a few things.This book is a must read for newbies who wants to understand how a network works.

The best book I've ever seen to study network and network related basics. I can recommend it for people without any network know-how and it's also a great reference book for IT and network experts to refresh their knowledge. A lot of high quality illustrations supporting the easy to read text. Marco

Cisco reference libraries and those catering to Cisco operators will find engrossing this updated visual explanation of modern networking technologies in general and Cisco's networking capabilities in particular. Students and IT professionals receive a visual display packed with color diagrams and clear explanations which examine networking from small to large systems, discussing how they work, how to build and design superior networks, and how to secure them. Highly recommended for any college-level collection where Cisco networks and systems are discussed.

This is a great book for the right person. Real techies will be displeased with it, as it is not a technical manual for Cisco products. It is, however, a great book for overviewing current networking products, services and potential uses by business and IT directors. The book highlights the current popular uses for networking beyond connecting your computer to your printer. The book includes VoIP, IP conferencing, e-learning and quite a bit more. If you are a business manager and wondering what the network might do for you OR you are an IT manager and trying to expand your department's uses then this book is a great place to start.

Cisco Networking Simplified, published by Cisco Press, ISBN# 1587200740, Pages=288, Paperback, no CD-ROM includedWhen most folks hear the word Cisco, the first thoughts that come to mind are routers and the Internet. But what this book does is introduce you to so much more. You'll see that Cisco networking as a whole includes a vast array of hardware, software, telecommunications gear, protocols, and cutting edge technologies. Authors Paul Maggiora (CCIE, a former Cisco employee) and Jim Doherty (a current Cisco marketing manager) bring Cisco networking direct to you with an illustrated approach to learning a myriad of internetworking topics. If you're the type of person who prefers a visual approach to learning, the colorful illustrations and easy-to-understand diagrams should make you feel right at home.Before obtaining this book, the question I had was "what does this book have to offer?" As I found out, a little bit of everything. For example; are you interested in learning more about optical networking, ATM, broadband networking, or how frame-relay works? Are you interested in network security, hackers, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems? Perhaps you'd like to understand what being a network administrator is like with respect to bandwidth monitoring, routing, switching, or high-availability networking? Other topics of interest include: explanations of how information is moved along that "information superhighway" we've all heard about, what Storage Area Networking is, how you can create networks without wires, and why your organization may be utilizing VPN's or MPLS. You'll find the answers to these questions and hundreds more in this book.I believe the target audience for this book is "rookie" technical or help-desk staff that have some experience with computer networking, although those readers who are completely new to this area of computing shouldn't be "bulldozed-over" with tons of technical jargon. Seasoned IT professionals shouldn't pass this book up as being too easy either, because we all need a good refresher course on the basics from time-to-time, and that's the niche that this book fulfills.A common complaint among IT professionals is that many books written nowadays are filled with "real-life" situations the author has experienced. I find that many of these situations aren't useful to me, and find myself rather distracted from understanding the books intended content. "We just want the facts" is what many technicians and networking professionals are saying. Thankfully, this book gives you nothing but the facts accompanied by clear and concise explanations.The only criticisms I have of the book are that it didn't contain specific references to additional information and that it wasn't bigger! It was so easy to read and understand that when I finished studying it I thought, "Well what about this technology, what about that protocol, where's the best place to go for more info?" Published in June 2003, I've found it contains