Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:  
Summary: Great Cisco networking book. Every sys admin should have it.
Comment: This is a great book on Cisco networking, so just buy it now. I've tried reading the CCNA prep books before but never got around to finishing them because they got into too much detail and I wasn't working with Cisco products enough to get hands-on experience.
At my current job I'm more involved in networking, so when I saw this book, I thought I'd give it a shot. So far it's been very helpful. This book is strictly practical in nature, so you won't get a lot of detail on Ethernet framing or the OSI model. (Note to author, it would be helpful in the second edition to include one concise chapter on the OSI model and network protocols as a refresher.)
If you have a certification such as MCSA, MCSE, Network+, or CCNA, you will have all the background info you need before reading this book. If you have no networking knowledge at all, this book is not for you.
I've been skipping around reading different chapters (this is the kind of book where you can do that). This is one of the few IT book that I've read that actually gave me practical info that I could put to use right away. Here are two examples:
1.) From Ch 2 regarding auto-negotiation: In June 2008 we moved to a new office that had all new gigabit Cisco switches that replaced our 10/100 switches. A few weeks after our move we started getting reports of errors when saving files to our EMC Celerra NAS. Users would get errors saving files to the NAS and their computers' system logs would report a "Delayed Write Failed" error.
Source: MRxSmb
EventID:50
{Delayed Write Failed} Windows was unable to save all the data for the file \Device\LanmanRedirector
The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere.
This looked to be a network issue so when I was poking around the Celerra Manager I noticed that its NICs were hard coded to 100 full duplex. Since we were on gigabit switches that were set to auto-negotiate, I deduced (from the knowledge gained in this chapter) that the EMC devices should be set to auto-negotiate as well. So after contacting EMC and then changing the EMC NICs to auto-negotiate, we've had no more reports of these errors.
2.) From Ch 9 regarding routing: I ran into an issue with improper configuration of the gateway of last resort during our office move. For whatever reason, the gateway of last resort was not configured on our new VLANs. We noticed the problem because we couldn't get to the Internet, but we could get to our other offices. When our network support vendor walked my manager through running the sho ip route command, I immediately saw "gateway of last resort is not set" at the top and knew that it was the issue. So even though I had only been reading this book for two weeks, it paid off. I'm sure the vendor would have found the issue after a few more minutes, but it was nice to be able to point out the issue to them.
Customer Rating:
Summary: What a great book
Comment: I loved three things about this book:
1- The simple style it conveys from cover to cover. Every subject in network administration is divided into short but detailed chapters in order to keep the reader's attention focused. Anyone can write a book that lists an experienced user's knowledge of the subject, but it takes a real engineer to compile the data in small doses of knowledge.
2- The clarity of the information mentioned. The author uses the same style of defining the problem, suggesting the best solution, and detailing the technical commands to implement the best solution.
Common pitfalls, problem symptoms, and real life examples are provided as well.
3- The deep coverage of the subject at hand. The author goes over almost every subject in network administration, but without the extra fluff. It's really what you need to know.
Definitely a great buy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Comment: I found this book to be absolutely remarkable. The text at the top about it being what you need to be that wasn't on the CCNA is all too true.
Mr. Donahue's writing style is what makes the book. He explains often complex topics in a manner of a grizzled old veteran telling a war story. He doesn't break down into the deep technical details, he tells you how it works and why you should do it the way he's telling you to.
There's more that goes into being a network monkey than just knowing what commands to type, and the insight he offers into the more social aspects of how to be a network guy are invaluable. It is my honest opinion that the final chapters, particularly those on how to deal with management and being a nerd, should be required reading for anyone that works at a technology company.
It is my sincere hope that Mr. Donahue continues his writing career and takes his style of communicating to other complex subjects. I would love a dissertation of BGP written in the same manner, for example.
If you're a bright shiny new CCNA, or studying for the CCNA, and you're serious about pursuing a career in networking, buy this book. It won't help you pass any exams, but you'll find it as one of your favorite reference materials nonetheless.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A good effort, needs a little more depth in some places
Comment: Network Warrior is another quite useful O'Reilly effort in the Cisco handbook space. It really is potentially handy for many real-time network operators. One thing I wish the author had spent much more time on is Ethernet switching. He does dig into some of the quirks of configuring VLANs in the Cisco environment but to my way of thinking associated subjects (mirroring, span port config, spanning tree troubleshooting) need a lot more exposure. One area that cannot be talked about enough are the twists involved in setting up spanning tree through a complex VLAN network. Another potentially vital topic involves interoperating with other vendors' equipment in a spanning tree network. I bought this book hoping for more exposure than I got in those areas. This is the only reason I didn't give it five.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great next read after getting your CCNA!
Comment: One of the best networking books I have read, period. Not just how it works, but why it works and should be configured. After you study and obtain your CCNA, this is the next read that will fill in many information holes.
Highly recommended.
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