Cisco WAN Quick Start

I passed the CCNA exam over a year ago and since that time I have been working with routers both as a network administrator and an instructor. Recently I worked with someone looking to connect all his WAN location with switches and I finally found a book, the only book to cover this are. Naturally Cisco Press was the publisher. Covering Exam 640-410, CCNA WanSw, the book does a fairly good job of breaking down the exam and the objectives. In Part I, the Quick Start, you cover topics like Serial communications, narrow and broadband including J1, T1, Y1, DS3, E3 and SONET circuits, digital voice. Also Frame Relay with DLCI, IARP and NNI is covered. Finally the section breaks down ATM and cell technology, IP addressing in both the classless and classful environments. With Part II, the installation of the switches, the 8400, 8600, 8550 and 8220 are the primary focus. Wan switching topologies and technologies like flat, tiered and structured topologies are tackled first. Then you move onto IGX and BGX switches, troubleshooting and the alarms sections. Overall the book does cover the exam but there is very little coverage of the commands needed or no practice exam questions on a cd-rom. Since this the only choice out there you do need this and I think it will help greatly but updates are needed.

This is a fairly good book on the topic of WAN switching.