I feel I've learned a lot
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I initially wrote a negative review when I got to chapter 12, but the rest of the book revived my interest...
The book runs along smoothly, introducting each topic pretty thoroughly with an obvious attempt to avoid terms the reader hasn't met yet. There is a certain expectation that you will make a little extra effort to research more on each part, especially as the book proceeds to NAT and ISDN. In isdn, the author hangs ppp chap auth tantalisingly in front of you, daring you to get up and go find out more from the cisco site!
There are three authors of this book and it shows. Chapters 13 until 17 are evidently by Jeremy Cioara, an easy and pleasant style making those parts of the ccna course a joy to learn. He includes some extra evil exam questions (the dialer-list/dialer group question made me want to hurt someone), to make sure you understand how a rote learning approach can trip you up.
It's a pity that the routing sections are written by another author. Chapter 12, which is about OSPF and EIGRP, is a car wreck, the blizzard of mistakes and the hard-to-read style making a difficult section a complete disaster. A brick wall across a smooth freeway, I'd advise skimming the chapter and then looking elsewhere for more information. With the EIGRP feasible distance and reported distance metrics the wrong way around, the author writing this section evidently has no real understanding of the subject matter.
Aside from the above, recommended.
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