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Needless to say, I felt my background qualifies me to deal with a basic, entry level exam. Any book that attempts so cover its many aspects is certainly taking on a very difficult task. My biggest complaint is that its firewall coverage is just terrible. I've worked on PIX, ASA, Checkpoint, Netscreen, Sonicwall and Fortinet firewalls. I've taught Information Systems Security at the university level. Let's face it, Cisco exams have become very difficult, and its nearly impossible to pass their exams without arduous effort. Not thrilling, but not exceptionally bad either.
One needs good resources (and a good lab). On many of the topics, this book does a reasonable job. Network Security is a very broad topic. I've decided to do a little consulting work and figured I'd refresh my Cisco certifications to insure I was current. I previously had a CCNP and CCSP (with firewall, VPN, and IDS specializations). I've also worked on F5 and IBM application layer gateways (proxies). I'll sit this exam in about two weeks. Read both books and the supporting Cisco documentation on selected topics (like Zone Based Firewalls and CBAC) if you expect to pass this exam.
That being said, how does this book fair. However, after reading the firewall chapter in this book, I felt totally lost and confused. That chapter is confusing, uneven, disorganized, lacking in proper examples and should be completely redone. I retired a year ago as a network engineer with 30 years experience, the last 10 as a network security specialist. The Paquet book ("Implementing Cisco IOS Network Security") does a much better job on all the topics related to firewalls. Hope my experience doesn't hinder my success.
This was a tough exam, I was lucky to have SDM and a router at home to practice the stuff on and passed the exam, not a great score, but still. But I'd suggest studying from at least one other book just to get a different taste of it.
Overall I think the Cisco Press book was the best as far as what it covers and how it words things. I read this book, as well as the Exam Cram book for this exam, and studied a little bit from the other CCNA Security book by Richard Deal.
So yeah, best single study source.Some final advice:I think this book was better than the other two I studied. The key topics are clearly marked throughout the chapters so you can easily flip through the book and review them, this helps keep from having to highlight and mark things on your own.
The many screen shots of SDM where helpful and the configuration examples where easy to understand. You may be able to answer all the questions in this book, but fail miserably at the questions from another book because they're different.
I honestly don't think studying ONLY this book will enable you to pass, I don't think studying any ONE book will enable you to pass, at the least you should have some way to practice everything hands-on, or "simulate" it however you can, because Cisco has questions on the exams that require you to know how to do some of the stuff hands on.
DON'T BUY. In any case, if it ever was good, it is NOT good for this exam any longer. I passed all practice exams with ease, but on the actual exam, the level of granularity on the questions was much more in-depth than anything covered in the book.
This book should be billed as a primer only. Like I said, good as an intro to the subject but definitely NOT good for exam preparation. ABSOLUTELY WORTHLESS FOR THE EXAM.
This book in no way, shape, or form prepares you for the exam. It contains good introductory-level information but was nowhere near the level of depth of information required on the actual exam. The cover says it has "realistic exam questions." Not so.
Sorry to disappoint, but either they changed the exam to make it harder, or whoever advertised the book over-reached on their claims for how the book would prepare you. DON'T BUY.
I can't imagine being able to pass this exam without this book. topics are well organized and very well covered. The included CD has the boson test on it, which is integrally tied to the book. If you miss a question on the test their is a link that will take directly to that section of the book that covers that material.
This was a very informative text that provides a nice entry into the security realm after obtaining your CCNA. Whether you plan to take the exam or not, I highly recommend it for the knowledge you can obtain from it.
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