CCIE R&S 4th Edition : Personal Thoughts

I have just finish my Cisco CCIE R&S 4th Edition book; I will now take one week to make a big review of all the amazing stuff I had read in this book.

I often read on Internet  that this book is not so good as it should be, for me I think it's a good book (not great but good) ; how can we expect more for a book who try to browse all the CCIE R&S Written exam topics in only 900 pages . The authors do their best, I learn a lot reading this book, I will recommend always read this book with an internet connection at your side.

Why? Sometime some explanations may or may not trusty, so google them (just to be sure, remember you want to be a CCIE don't trust anybody)

This book sometimes doesn't going deeper as some others readers would aspect but in only one book you can't have all the details you want; if you want some more specific explanations about MPLS buy a dedicated MPLS book : Cisco MPLS and VPN Architecture, if you want to be more precise in security buy  Cisco Network Security Technologies and Solutions.

Before reading this book you should be already familiar with the CCIE R&S blueprint and have some advanced knowledges in networking and switching. You should never began your CCIE R&S Written exam study with this book.  Before reading this book, I read TCP/IP Vol 1 & 2 (mandatory for all CCIE aspirants); watching the entire CBT nuggets for CCIE R&S (course and lab video) of Jeremy Ciora, and the last but not the least I'm CCNP (the new version); why new version? Ii think new CCNP help you much more on your road to be a CCIE than the older one (personal thought of a man who study BSCMN, BSCI before switching to the SWITCH,ROUTE and TSHOOT exams)

I will plan to take my written exam at last the 15th of July. I will also began watching the VoD course of my IPexpert BLS by Joe Astorino.

PS: I have a new colleague, Network and Telco engineer like me. He is also involved in CCIE R&S track (he use CISCO CCIE 360 Program), it's good to not be alone sometimes :-)