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| Network Warrior | 
| Author: Gary A. Donahue
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $44.99
Buy New: $27.32
You Save: $17.67 (39%)
Buy New/Used from $20.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  (30 reviews)
Sales Rank: 10621
Format: Illustrated
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: First
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 598
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
Dimensions (in): 9 x 7 x 1.4
ISBN: 0596101511
Dewey Decimal Number: 004.6
EAN: 9780596101510
ASIN: 0596101511
Publication Date: June 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Essential reading for both the exams and everyday networking. February 24, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
In preparation for the CCNA exam, I have gone through several networking books, both Cisco-specific and otherwise. I had thought that the official Cisco Press CCNA set was the best resource... until I took a chance on this tome. While I have found the Wendell Odom CCNA set to be the definitive guide to CCNA/CCENT material, I now must admit that this book is nearly - or even exactly - as essential as a CCNA exam prep guide. While the other guides read like textbooks, giving the reader adequate conceptual and theoretical information, this book felt like a nice long chat with a seasoned "network warrior" about real-world, everyday issues faced by network engineers.
What set this book apart from the thousands of pages (hey, I'm dedicated!) of material I'd already covered?
- CatOS commands; the new Cisco Press books barely mention that CatOS exists!
- anecdotes and real-world examples; even if you know how it *should* work, this book reveals how it *does* work
- objective viewpoint on Cisco technology; no "Cisco's way is the best way" dogma here
- meaningful discussion of high-end, core-strength equipment; everything in the Wendell Odom set focused exclusively on Catalyst 2960 switches and one model of router
- frank, direct, humorous, and engaging style; half the material I've covered previously was dreadfully dull
- illustrations for every concept; this makes my life so much easier when trying to explain things to fellow junior technicians
While the book may seem daunting at nearly 600 pages, I'm flying through it at about 80-100 pages per day. The text is very engaging, and the author's way of phrasing things is informative and structured yet very flowing and casual. I feel that every chapter contains some point, if not several points and concepts, that I wouldn't have known from the other books out there. What is possibly the best feature of this book is the real-world, realistic approach to every concept and issue. The Cisco Press books seem to assume that the reader will be using 2960 access layer switches running IOS 12.2 or better. Network Warrior does not make this assumption. The author makes the realistic assumption that the reader's network could have all kinds of gear networked together, and thus includes information about CatOS as well as a wide variety of Cisco hardware. Also included are some quick and dirty tricks to save time, money, and effort. For example, I didn't know that I could abbreviate almost any command in IOS ("sho" instead of "show", etc.) and still get the same result until I read this book. While I feel that the by-the-book approach of the Cisco Press material is necessary for building a clear foundation, I feel that this book's get-the-job-done take on networking is a necessary follow-up.
The book assumes some working knowledge of networking, but not too much. It doesn't explain the bare basics of networking, nor does it give a history lesson about the histories of each and every cabling standard and networking protocol. It's not a total replacement for a book about networking basics, nor a beginner's guide to the CCNA and/or Cisco equipment. What it does instead is reshape one's conception of what a network is and how to manage it. What it does as well, and does excellently, is fill in the gaps that sorely needed filling in the great mass of other Cisco material out there. If you are preparing for the CCNA, or if you have already passed and think you know all you'll need to know about managing Cisco networks, this book was written for you. I guarantee you will learn something new.
Fills a LOT of gaps February 16, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book won't help you become an OSPF expert, but it will help you become a better network engineer. It's one of the only books I've every seen that embraces the fact that our jobs have a gruesome amount of logistics inherent to them, far more than a programmer or DBA, for example. I'v spent the last 2+ years at MySpace, and Donahue's descriptions of the problems faced by explosive growth brought a tear to my jaded, burnt-out eye. Finally someone understands we're not just idiots! (If you disagree, try scaling from 10Gbps in transit to 80 in one year, then shoot me an email :) ) Even better, since his anecdotes and advice on the practicalities of our niche are often only mildly technical, they're easy to read. I was able to blast through 100 pages at a time, often laughing and nodding, while still learning a new spin on simple things like IP address allocation.
On a more technical level, this book fills a ton of gaps that aren't covered anywhere else, or the documentation is difficult to find or understand. The section on storm-control was excellent in this sense. If you do nothing else, go to Borders and read that section. It's useful information in its own right, but demonstrates Donahue's tendency to spin something simple in a way that shows you something new. I picked up a lot of weird details in this book, even if I skimmed half of it.
I also noticed a lot of his sidenotes pointed out some very common pitfalls, such as appending a space to your password in PPP on one side of a link by using the context help, then not doing so on the other end, and wondering why your stupid link won't come up.
So what are the cons? None really, just a few things I would have liked to see in there (none of which detract from the 5-star rating).
- I would have liked to hear how Donahue approaches the issue of spares and money, specifically convincing management to buy spares, or hiding them in budgets
- The NTP section could have used a blurb on anycast, which works beautifully for NTP
- I would have liked to see him mention the troubleshooting assistance that change management provides, since if something breaks and your engineers issued a change request, you pretty much know where to start
- I'm also a huge fan of peer-review for CM, as having a manager rubber-stamp your ACL update is ... of limited technical value
I'd say that, along with about 5-10 other books that go into hardcore depth on various technologies (Doyle's routing books, Halabi's BGP, QOS Voice exam guide, etc.), this book should be on a shelf near you at work. If you're already pretty advanced it's a really quick read that tosses some golden nuggets at you when you least expect it.
One more thing, since one guy punished the book's rating for being Cisco-centric, I'd like to take a moment to point to the Book Description, specifically the part that says, "Network Warrior is a Cisco-centric book". If you're at a book store (do they still exist?) and thus do not have access to this description, please see the first paragraph on the back of the book, specifically the part that says, "...helps you deal with real Cisco networks..."
First Ever Review for Amazon February 6, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Great book. Highly recommended for anyone who needs intermediate network skills. Go beyond your entry level cert. I got this and the linux network cookbook plus some Red Hat specific material to prepare for the RHCE- should keep me busy for awhile.
 Cisco-specific book January 8, 2008
14 out of 22 found this review helpful
I bought this book because of the rave reviews here, and I have been a bit disappointed so far. Why? Not because of the author's style which is clear and concise - but because of expectations based on reviews I read, and the book title "Network Warrior." I expected a book which would cover all protocols, not just ones used in Cisco-land.
If this book were called "Cisco Network Warrior" I would certainly give it 4 or 5 stars.
Here are two examples - I want to implement GVRP in a mixed-vendor environment, but this book is of no help. GVRP is in fact supported on cisco equipment, but there is not even a passing reference to it in the section on the cisco-proprietary VTP. In addition I was hoping for a clear description of the standards-based LACP, but it is only given brief mention in a section on Etherchannel.
To his credit, the author mentions that he takes a Cisco-centric view in the book.. It's just that I was misled by one of the amazon reviews.
Network's Best Starting Reference December 31, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is an excellent book on networks, because it scratches the surface on all aspects of networks, including Hardware and Software. The writing is very easy to read and understand, it gives real situation problemas and it also explains how to promote your ideas, troubleshooting and many more. I have learned a lot from this book and it think is one of the best networking books out there.
Highly recommended!!
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