Comptia Network+ Certification All-In-One Exam Guide, 5th Edition (Exam N10-005)

Would I recommend this book? Yes.

The book definitely covers all that you need to know for the test. I bought the book, read it once, took notes during a second read through, studied my notes frequently, reread a couple chapters, recopied notes for a couple chapters, took the practice exams that came with the book, and took the practice exam on the CompTIA site (it was for the N10-004 so it wasn't that helpful for this test) over the course of thirty days. I passed on my first try. As far as previous networking experience goes, I've set up home wireless routers, worked in a computer corporation warehouse (long time ago when 10BaseT was current), and have read A+ second and seventh editions (I still haven't taken the A+ certification). Obviously, I had a little catching up to do in the networking arena.

What I found challenging was sorting out all the acronyms. There are nearly 350 acronyms and a lot are very similar. But, once I started associating groups of acronyms to their related networking topic, knowing what they are and , just as important, knowing what they are not, became much easier. Knowing the acronyms, in my opinion, is crucial.

The exam tips in the book are relevant and accurate. Know the OSI and TCP/IP layers, port numbers, cable types, command prompt tools, subnetting, etc. All the information is there. It is just a matter of studying and organizing it all well enough to remember it. My personal tip is "know your acronyms!"

Passing the test really comes down to two things: 1. How experienced you are with networking? and 2. How good are your study skills? This is also covered in the first chapter of the book.

I think most people want to know if the test can be passed with this material. I am proof that it can. However, it was simply due to studying the material hard and long enough to have a relatively good understanding of not only what things are called but also how they work. It isn't terribly difficult material but there are a lot of topics to cover and some require in depth working knowledge. But, again, it just comes down to dedicating enough time and energy to studying in order to learn the material.

Good luck!

One of the first things you will notice in the book is that it gives a table to help calculate your time of study required. This is very helpful in planning a schedule and setting an exam date. After taking the exam there only seemed to be a handful of questions that were not covered by the material and these could have been unscored seed questions.

The number of acronyms that you must know for the exam is huge. This book includes them and the practice exams will test you on your ability to remember what they are. There are many tables in the book and you need to know this information. For example, know the different types of cabling and connectors, along with their properties. There are vast numbers of diagrams and pictures in the book to help you understand and visualize the information that is being presented.

I found the book to be a fairly easy read. The images and diagrams help to break up the pages a lot better than books that take the wall-of-text approach. Personally, I found that reading 20-45 minutes at a time worked very well and most chapters would take 2-3 such sessions.

I have 8 years of experience in the IT field, mostly Windows server and desktop support. I left the field about 4 years ago. I read this book twice, one month between reads. I also took both practice exams twice. My total time was 46 hours of preparation. I scored 860 on the exam.

If you are new to the field I would still suggest a second text as it often helps to have the material presented in multiple ways. I can not suggest any other books as I have not read any besides this one.

One of the first things you will notice in the book is that it gives a table to help calculate your time of study required. This is very helpful in planning a schedule and setting an exam date. After taking the exam there only seemed to be a handful of questions that were not covered by the material and these could have been unscored seed questions.

The number of acronyms that you must know for the exam is huge. This book includes them and the practice exams will test you on your ability to remember what they are. There are many tables in the book and you need to know this information. For example, know the different types of cabling and connectors, along with their properties. There are vast numbers of diagrams and pictures in the book to help you understand and visualize the information that is being presented.

I found the book to be a fairly easy read. The images and diagrams help to break up the pages a lot better than books that take the wall-of-text approach. Personally, I found that reading 20-45 minutes at a time worked very well and most chapters would take 2-3 such sessions.

I have 8 years of experience in the IT field, mostly Windows server and desktop support. I left the field about 4 years ago. I read this book twice, one month between reads. I also took both practice exams twice. My total time was 46 hours of preparation. I scored 860 on the exam.

If you are new to the field I would still suggest a second text as it often helps to have the material presented in multiple ways. I can not suggest any other books as I have not read any besides this one.

I read this book in 3 weeks, studied for an additional week with the included practice exams from Measureup and passed the Network+ exam with a 90%! I do work in the IT field and had a few years of experience prior to taking the exam and reading this book, but I feel like even the most novice reader would have no trouble at all passing the exam after reading this. Everything is clearly explained and Mike points out certain sections which can be skipped over if you are only wanting to learn what is relevant to the exam. One of the things I liked the most about this book is that you learn real information and not just what you need to pass the exam (although you can read just those sections if you so desire). There are several exam tips highlighted throughout each chapter as you read so you can be sure of what to know when you take the exam. There are 10 multiple choice questions and answers at the end of each chapter so you can check yourself to make sure you read everything. I did all of them immediately after reading the chapter and then went back and re-read anything I missed. The practice exams from Measureup are very valuable. It comes with 2 of them and they are very close to the questions you will see on the Network+ exam. I've read several IT exam books in the past and none of them even come close to the quality of this book. I recommend this to anyone who is looking to pass the Network+ exam or is just wanting to learn more about networking itself. Way to go Mike, thanks for such a great book!

Note: I haven't taken the test yet.

After reading the CCENT textbook I decided to certify in this first while I became familiar with the Cisco IOS. The book is written to be re-read either that or the author has worse ADD than I do. You will constantly be flipping back (and forward) trying to get a solid fundamental understanding. Don't get me wrong this book has definitely taught me a lot but I think it is trying to be a reference book and a textbook at the same time and that to me makes the reader suffer. This is just my opinion.

Now onto the thing I DON'T like. The pdf is not a pdf. It is some form a super hyper encrypted DRM garbage. Seriously anyone could easily download a copy illegally if they wanted so the solution... punish the purchaser. Why is it garbage.
1. You need special software just to download it
2. You need special software to read it on both desktop and your mobile devices

Another thing I don't like is the definitions. In order to get a definition one would turn to the glossary. This is not the case in this book; you have to look all over for a complete term. For example, "Spanning Tree Protocol" has a very vague (and to me incomplete) entry. It's like if I were to define "gasoline" by "makes the car move." In fact you have to look up the term "Bridge Loop" and that is where it defines what STP does. It's almost like every chapter you have to read the text and glossary for all terms in order to learn the true term. Not to mention that every chapter develops terms further (or uses terms defined many chapters ahead), which is understandable as an entry level textbook, the only way for you to have a chance of putting order to the whole term is to re-read the whole book, use google, and potentially a higher level textbook (CISSP for the dainty security chapter). Also typos are understandable but not in the glossary and especially not with numbers ("Well-Known Port Numbers"). End up second guessing the author and having to double check with wiki.

Edit 12/4/13
Found another number typo on page 201. 2^24= 16,777,216 not "16,277,216". Intro textbooks can't have mistakes like these because the author is already withholding information for simplicity; so when errors like these occur you won't know its an error until the author finally discloses enough info for you to be sure you know all the variables.

Edit 4/1/14
So I had some family stuff come up so I had to take a break. I came back and you'll never guess it ANOTHER Error! CARP is not the CARP used for squid, at least in ComptTIA N+ (and the fact they have different names), it is the successor to the VRRP protocol. Oh, that's right, VRRP isn't even in the book yet it is on the N+ acronyms list. I'm starting to think this is a publisher issue because I can't understand how a CompTIA Authorized book doesn't define all the terms on the exam's list unless someone wanted to save some ink.

Edit 4/7/14
So many errors I don't know why people keep saying this book is awesome. Apparently the market for a decent Network+ book is wide open. Now on to the error of the day. Default VLAN is VLAN1 not VLAN0 as he explicitly states on pg 413. How did I find this out? I used the practice test included and was told I was wrong (VLAN0). Did he screw up the test question or the book... onto Wiki we go. This routine is getting pretty old.

I passed the N10-005 with a score of 877/900 after studying for 2 weeks. But it was not because of this book. Although this book is short and not too boring to read, it does not contain all the information to pass the test. There is a ton of information left out from this book so do not rely solely on this book. Go to another source as well such as Professor Messer. There is enough information to just barely pass the exam if you want to risk it. In the end, I was not pleased with this book.

Good book lots of great information. the one drawback which is a big one for me, the book is not on the CD that comes with the book. You have to download it. And be careful which PC you put in on because you only get to download it once. How many I.T. people do you know that has only one PC. I have 4 just at work and another 4 at home. And you need a special program to read the download. what a pain. Who can lug around a 3 inch book all the time. I need to be mobile. Looks like i'll be switching to a different author/book publisher. what a shame. Would have got 5 stars if it weren't for that. Honsetly, Mike is the best author/teacher but i get tired of things like this and I just wont buy it.

Network+ by Mike Meyers is right on the money. In my opinion, the 682-page book is well laid out, well written and covers all objectives necessary to pass the Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) Network+ exam. Be advised, however, that Network+ is crammed full of complex, mind-boggling information, so it's not an easy read. It covers everything from from the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) seven-layer model and the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) model, to network topology, all the way through each network objective and, finally, to building a functional SOHO layout and trouble-shooting a full-fledged network. It's all in the book. It's definitely not light reading and, of course, your success in understanding the material also depends on how much-hands on experience you have. The TIA recommends you have nine to twelve months of actual field experience. But experience isn't absolutely necessary. I have no network experience. Zero. But even so, I had no trouble following Mike's discussion of the subject matter, and I attribute that directly to Mike Meyer's straight foreword and well-organized writing style. He definitely knows how to put together a textbook. I do have one minor criticism. I didn't quite get Mike's explanation of classless CIDR subnetting. I read the section over and over, but it just wouldn't sink in. I got the concept, but the mechanics wouldn't work for me. I finally had to consult other sources.

There are practice exams on the accompanying disk to test your progress. I found those useful. And, if that isn't enough, you can always read Mike's follow-up book, "[[ASIN:0071789057 Mike Meyers' CompTIA Network+ Certification Passport, 4th Edition (Exam N10-005) (CompTIA Authorized)]]" Since I'm a total beginner to networking, I bought both books from Amazon at the same time. I have read other books by Mike Meyers including [[ASIN:007179512X CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, 8th Edition (Exams 220-801 & 220-802)]], [[ASIN:0071702989 Mike Meyers' CompTIA A+ Certification Passport, Fourth Edition (Exams 220-701 & 220-702)]]and [[ASIN:0071760229 CompTIA Strata IT Fundamentals All-in-One Exam Guide (Exam FC0-U41)]] They were all topnotch. I highly recommend this book to anyone studying for the Network+ exam.

The author has some good infomation but what I can't stand is his analogies and his old war time stories of history. For example from pages 459 to 468 which is his remote connectivity chaper he talks about how the phone company works and how they built there network. He also ad's jokes and makes ridiculous comments. i'm a slow reader and my teacher goes at a very fast pace this book can be cut in half if he would stop all the stuff that is not needed for the course.

While the book does give seemingly good preparation for the Network+ exam (I only used this book to study and passed 799/900), it has a few errors. I found the descriptions of 1000Base-SX and 1000Base-LX cables switched and test answers in Total Seminar's software concerning the same cables to be inconsistent (sometimes correct, sometimes incorrect). Also, the book's coverage of (logical) ports is not as extensive as what the practice tests cover. On that note, the book could use an appendix of ports that are needed to be known for the exam.

The book is also too long. The book is almost 800 pages but could easily be half that if the unhelpful pictures were taken out. Every other page features a cartoon to depict the author's point, such as two computers with dialog bubbles to illustrate a simple network. The cartoons add humor, but not illustration to explanations. I often found them annoying and I especially resented them when I had to carry this tome across the city.

I cannot imagine another preparation book could be less helpful, but I am not familiar with any other.