CCNP BCMSN Official Exam Certification Guide

Fourth Edition

• Master all 642-812 exam topics with the official study guide

• Assess your knowledge with chapter-opening quizzes

• Review key concepts with foundation summaries

• Practice with hundreds of exam questions on the CD-ROM

David Hucaby, CCIE® No. 4594

CCNP BCMSN Official Exam Certification Guide, Fourth Edition, is a best of breed Cisco® exam study guide that focuses specifically on the objectives for the BCMSN exam. Successfully passing the BCMSN 642-812 exam certifies that you have knowledge and skills necessary to implement scalable multilayer switched networks.

CCNP BCMSN Official Exam Certification Guide, Fourth Edition, follows a logical organization of the BCMSN exam objectives. Material is presented in a concise manner, focusing on increasing readers’ retention and recall of exam topics. Lead network engineer and consultant David Hucaby shares preparation hints and test-taking tips, helping you identify areas of weakness and improve your switching knowledge through the use of the consistent features in each chapter. “Do I Know This Already?” quizzes open each chapter and allow you to decide how much time you need to spend on each section. Exam topic lists and Foundation Summary tables make referencing easy and give you a quick refresher whenever you need it. Scenario-based exercises help you think about exam objectives in real-world situations, thus increasing recall during exam time. Challenging chapter-ending review questions help you assess your knowledge and reinforce key concepts.

The companion CD-ROM contains a powerful testing engine that enables you to focus on individual topic areas or take complete, timed exams. The assessment engine also tracks your performance and provides feedback on a module-by-module basis, presenting question-by-question remediation to the text.

Well regarded for its level of detail, assessment features, and challenging review questions and exercises, this book helps you master the concepts and techniques that will enable you to succeed on the exam the first time.

David Hucaby, CCIE® No. 4594, is a lead network engineer for a large medical environment using Cisco multilayer switching and security products. He also is an independent networking consultant focusing on Cisco-based solutions for healthcare and banking clients.

The official study guide helps you master all the topics on the BCMSN exam, including

• Spanning Tree Protocol concepts

• Virtual LAN (VLAN), VLAN trunking, and inter-VLAN routing

• Gateway redundancy technologies and protocols

• Wireless LAN topologies, components, connectivity, and standards

• Implementing a Cisco Unified Wireless Network

• Wireless client access

• Access layer voice concepts

• Preventing and mitigating attacks against switched network security

Companion CD-ROM

The CD-ROM contains an electronic copy of the book and more than 200 practice questions for the BCMSN exam, including simulation-based questions, all available in study mode, test mode, and flash card format.

This volume is part of the Exam Certification Guide Series from Cisco Press®. Books in this series provide officially developed exam preparation materials that offer assessment, review, and practice to help Cisco Career Certification candidates identify weaknesses, concentrate their study efforts, and enhance their confidence as exam day nears.

Category: Cisco Certification

Covers: BCMSN Exam 642-812

$59.99 USA / $74.99 CAN

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 18 Ratings

Good thing for the LAST book you read before you walk into the exam - 2008-10-21
Reviewer Rating:
I am normally good with Cisco books. I was a 19 year old CCNA/CCDA and had my MCSE at the age of 20 (now 27). When I ordered this book I began reading it and I must say this book is very sloppy in its introduction to concepts to the point as to where I am needing google to formulate a better understanding of the concepts presented in this book. My BIGGEST pet peeve being the usage of words and concepts before actually introducing them. The book is in serious need of restructuring. (I am at page 280 where it refers to BackboneFast where it introduces without ANY explaination the concept of a designated bridge. There was little mention of 'designated ports' in a previous chapter). I am on chapter 6 of this book right now and already I have had to google some of the unfamiliar language they are using. For the price I am paying for this book I should be able to sit in a coffee shop or someplace far from an internet connection and expect to receive the same level of instruction. This book simply does not provide this for me. At the time of writing this I have attempted to search the index for any reference whatsoever for designated bridge. There are also concepts as they are introduced that have made me go 'UMMMM.... HUH?' for example:
'When a switch receieves a BPDU from a designated switch that identified the root bridge and the designated bridge as the same switch the switch considers the BPDU an inferior BPDU'.
All in all it seems like a technically sound book. I havent wrote the test yet so it remains to be seen how useful this will be in the grander scheme of things. It reads like a technical manual... sometimes too technical for its own good. I would have liked to see much better consistency out of its authors and a more readable style.

Not good enough for the 812 exam - 2008-10-17
Reviewer Rating:
Does this book teach you a good amount of information about switching, vlans, spanning tree, and switch security? Absolutely. Does it cover enough of the objectives for you to pass the exam? NO. Unfortunately it falls for 2 reasons. First, there is insufficient coverage several topics. And second, there are several mistakes NOT corrected in the Errata. For brevity, I've put them in a list format below.

- No explanation of IOS naming convention.
- No explanation of switching IOS file structure [vlan.dat, config.text, bootflash, sup-bootdisk, sup-bootflash]
- pg 111 question 9 [and answer on pg 567 listed as b] Native VLANs w/ untagged traffic is a feature of 802.1q, not ISL
- pg 171 interface range prompt should be: switch(config-if-range)
- fails to mention LACP requires Full Duplex
- fails to mention the following for PAgP: STP sends packets over 1st interface in EtherChannel. MAC of Port-Channel operating in Layer3 mode uses the MAC of the 1st interface in the channel. DTP and CDP send/receive packets directly through physical interfaces in the channel
- No mention of the fact that MLS components [i.e. SE and RP] do NOT cross VTP domain boundary. Devices MUST be in the same VTP domain.
- pg 319 The actual HSRP modes [as listed on the test] are: Initial, Learn, Listen, Speak, Standby, Active
- pg 325 The scenario they have for load balancing HSRP is just silly. In the REAL world, load balancing occurs by splitting across multiple VLANs. I.e. switch #1 has a priority of 200 for vlan 10 and a priority of 100 for vlan 20; switch #2 has a priority of 100 for vlan 10 and a priority of 200 for vlan 20.
- No mention of the multicast IP's for HSRP [224.0.0.2], VRRP [224.0.0.18], or GLBP [224.0.0.102]. Oh yes, there were questions on this.
- No mention of IRDP at all
- No explanation of RTP/RTCP, H.323, or SIP. I think a cursory overview is called for since VoIP is a topic covered in the switching exam.
- No explanation of WRED or WFQ. [I had 3 questions on these.]
- No explanation of the three basic components of a VoIP system: Call Agent, Gate Keeper, MCU. [Yes, this was also on the test.]
- No mention of SPAN ports or how to configure them
- pg 418 Example 16-2. The errata found ONE of the mistakes, correcting "switchconfig#" to "switch(config-if)#" BUT another error is left uncorrected. The command should read switchport MODE private-vlan host.
- Not enough specifics on the sequence of WLC hunting used by the Layer 3 LWAPP discovery algorithm: 1) Layer 3 broadcast. 2) OTAP. 3) Previously cached in NVRAM. 4) DHCP option 43. 5) DNS via DHCP option 15.
- No information on configuring the parameters of autonomous AP's [SSID, IP, etc], NOR is there any discussion about securing Autonomous AP's [WLSE and Wireless Domain Services using Cisco's ACS]; the text ONLY discusses WLC configuration of LAP. INSUFFICIENT FOR THE EXAM!!!
- pg 481 CCXv2 information is misleading. Most people associate PEAP w/ PEAP-MSCHAPv2; however this feature is only supported on version 4. CCXv2 only supports PEAP-GTC. Also no mention of EAP-TLS.
- pg 521 Step #4. It asks for the IP parameters of the Management Interface NOT the DHCP server [which is configured from the web interface]. Obviously this makes no sense, since you can't get to the web interface w/o configuring this.

Cisco CCNP BCMSN Review - 2009-08-30
Reviewer Rating:
I found this text to be detailed and very well written and organized. It help clear up concepts that were not fully explained in the BCMSN course I attended.

Read it, then go pass your BCMSN cert. exam! - 2009-04-09
Reviewer Rating:
This exam certification guide book explains the material quickly to facilitate fast learning. You will learn a more in-depth view about layer 3 switches, VLANS, STP, redundancy, fault-tolerance, securing your layer 2 and 3 devices, and much much more. This book pays more attention to detail, therefore at times it moves at a faster pace than the CCNA books, which is what most people want anyways.

One thing that I do like about this book is it has the "Do I know this already?" Quiz before every chapter. The quiz really facilitates your learning and gives you an idea at where you stand with that particular chapter before you read it.

More than anything, this book fills the gaps of missing knowledge that you may have skipped with the ccna and/or parts that you have forgotten. The cd-rom that comes with the book is really handy since it includes test questions by providing exercises on specific topics.

This book should indeed help you obtain a passing score on your ccnp: bcmsn certification.

Good reference book for 642-812 exam.. - 2009-01-18
Reviewer Rating:
Good reference book for 642-812 exam.
I study for two weeks and passed 873.

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