The CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional) certification is the second step toward the CCIE (Cisco Certified Internetworking Expert) certification. This book is mapped to the Cisco Internet Troubleshooting course and includes coverage of all exam objectives.
The back of
CCNP Exam Notes claims that the book "provides the fastest and most effective way to make sure you're ready for the CIT exam". It's right. If you have a fair amount of Cisco experience and you think you're ready to take the exam, read this book to make sure you've got it all down the official Cisco way--and as all good certification junkies know, real-life experience doesn't guarantee a passing grade. It's always a good idea to double-check what you know, and this book serves that function admirably.
What the back of the book doesn't tell you, though--and it is sad that it doesn't--is that it makes an excellent and affordable starting place for a competent CCNA to get a concise explanation of the issues and objectives covered on the CIT test. The authors honestly tell you that you'll need hands-on experience with a Cisco router to pass using this book alone but if you want a good high-level overview that explains the core concepts clearly, this is a fine book.
The concepts covered map almost exactly to the exam objectives. One of the strengths of CCNP Exam Notes: Cisco Internetwork Troubleshooting is its introductory section, which has 10 pages-worth of charts listing common networking problems--and the usual fixes--for each exam objective. Memorising this section alone would be helpful for the CIT.
There are multiple-choice spot quizzes after each section as well, but there are a limited number of these and they tend to be simple questions that are highly unlikely to appear on the notoriously brutal Cisco exam papers. The questions seem to be there to ensure your conceptual knowledge, not to prepare you for the test. The lack of simulation-style quizzing detracts from the book, as troubleshooting is all about taking diverse, complex network setups and narrowing it down to the one or two problem elements. This book does not develop or strengthen the skills needed to screen out the irrelevant factors, although it does give the reader an extremely thorough primer in what is likely to go wrong with each technology individually.
A further problem is that much of the voluminous "show X" router output that is screen printed in the book is not properly explained. Given the often confusing gouts of information provided by many of these commands it would help to have them explained line-by-line but then again, the book's focus is aimed at the networking professional, who probably does not need the hand holding.
The clarity also takes a slight dip when explaining problems with VLANs and Catalyst switches. Careful reading and rereading may be required to acquire these concepts fully from this book, although to be fair they are complex areas. The rest of the book sports fine, lucid writing that explains technologies succinctly with a minimum of fuss.
But these are minor carps on what is basically an extremely good book. Overall, this is an excellent choice for the Cisco technician looking for a free upgrade, or for the new CCNA looking to get an overall grasp before diving into the guts of Internetwork troubleshooting. --William Steinmetz, Amazon.com
Topics covered: The Cisco-certified eight steps of problem solving, applying Cisco troubleshooting tools effectively, diagnosing both TCP/IP and Novell IPX problems, diagnosing downed VLANs and Cisco Catalyst switches, solving Frame Relay problems, ISDN BRI troubleshooting, and executing router core dumps.
