CCNA Exam Notes: Cisco Certified Network Associate

In CCNA Exam Notes: Cisco Certified Network Associate, respected expert Todd Lammle provides more than a mere exam preparation guide for those preparing for the CCNA test (exam 640-407). This book represents a valuable resource for those on the job with internetworking equipment long after they earn their certifications. Lammle sticks close to Cisco's published exam objectives and wastes no space in this compact volume.

Each chapter begins with a list of subjects and skills, with page references for each. The author treats each exam element with clear, easy-to-follow text and numerous conceptual diagrams, pausing every few pages to present some multiple-choice questions (though answers, with brief commentaries, appear right below the questions, so fair self-testing is somewhat hard). Lammle also makes frequent use of definition lists and sample output from routers running IOS. --David Wall

Topics covered: The seven-layer Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) network model; popular wide area network (WAN) and local area network (LAN) protocols; Cisco Internetworking Operating System (IOS) and the fundamentals of routing, switching, and network security; WAN protocols: frame relay, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), High-Level Data-Link Control (HDLC), and Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP); LAN protocols: Internet Protocol (IP), IPX, and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP); routing algorithms include Routing Information Protocol (RIP) and Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP).