CID: Cisco Internetwork Design (McGraw-Hill Technical Expert) [Hardcover]

Each chapter in the book focuses on a major topic from the exam certification outline and contains case studies, study hints, CCDP ™ Tips, and example test questions. The coverage of each topic is in-depth and well written -- reflecting vast experience with the topics. The case studies throughout the book provide a challenging, real-life look at network design and force the reader to truly understand all facets of network design and implementation of materials covered in the book. The CCDP ™ Tips in the books are listed as "Cliff Notes™" style review of the chapter. The tips by themselves are extremely useful in exam preparation, but when combined with the text are a useful tool in understanding the text and the theories behind it. Finally, the chapter questions provide a final review of the chapter and a taste of how Cisco ™ phrases the questions on its exams.

In conclusions, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in taking the exams for the CCDP™ or just learning about the deployment of computer networks. The straightforward way in which the protocols and design theories are written makes this book stand out as one of the best technical books I have used - providing not only in-depth coverage of the material, but insight, which is only obtained through years of experience.

I don't agree with some of the reviewers who give this book a low rating. It seems that there are still people that believe reading a book is enough to pass a Cisco test, well it isn't.

Learning Cisco is learning technologies and protocols and how to implement them on Cisco equipment. There are a lot of protocols that evolve daily; what you learn today can be obsolete after a year. I am now 17 years in the IT business, and it still feels like a first day at school, so much to learn, so many new things that are coming to you.

I have passed 16 Cisco exams, and hope to pass the big one (CCIE) this year. I have some friends that are CCIE and friend number one says: learn OSPF because I had a lot of OSPF in my lab. But according to friend number two, I should learn very well EIGRP, because he had a lot of EIGRP configuration in his lab. Conclusion: there is no such thing as brain dumps for Cisco, there are to many subjects. You just have to learn everything.

Coming back to the book from Tom Thomas, it doesn't say: I shall teach you ISDN, ATM, SNA, NETBIOS, Frame-Relay etc. This book is about designing networks, and what is the best approach (according to Cisco) to do this. If you look at it that way (and you should) than this book is the best preparation for your CID exam. I think Tom has read the book from Caslow very well because I can see that this book is build in the same way.

If you have done your CCDA exam, and want to pass the CID exam, it is better to do first the technical exams, and have some hands on experience. Then it will be easier to pass the CID exam. Also this book is then easier to read.

I bought the book, read it in two days, and passed the exam easily.

A last tip for all you people that wants to learn Cisco: download the configuration guides from the Cisco web site. They are very good, and NO they are not that easy to read if you are new to networking, but if you have experience then they are the best, and free!!

Briefly, the book is very good for organizing, refreshing, and completing the knowledge you already have, but I won't keep it for reference.