CISSP Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, 4th Ed.

Author : Shon Harris Edition : 4 Number of Pages : 1145 Publisher : McGraw-Hill Osborne Media List Price : $79.99 Amazon Price : $45.89 Used Price : $41.97

Product Description

All-in-One is All You Need

Fully revised for the latest exam release, this authoritative volume offers thorough coverage of all the material on the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) exam. Written by a renowned security expert and CISSP, this guide features complete details on all 10 exam domains developed by the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISCAndsup2;). Inside, youAnd#39;ll find learning objectives at the beginning of each chapter, exam tips, practice questions, and in-depth explanations. CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, Fourth Edition will not only help you pass the test, but also be your essential on-the-job reference.

Covers all 10 subject areas on the exam:

• Access control
• Application security
• Business continuity and disaster recovery planning
• Cryptography
• Information security and risk management
• Legal, regulations, compliance, and investigations
• Operations security
• Physical (environmental) security
• Security architecture and design
• Telecommunications and network security

The CD-ROM features:

• Simulated exam with practice questions and answers
• Video training from the author
• Complete electronic book

Customer reviews

written by an elementary school teacher by .. J. Feldman (Washington, DC)
I took and passed the CISSP this year and found Shon Harris's book to be the worst of the study prep guides. Too verbose, too much information, although the information is factually correct, you can tell through her writing that she did not fully understand the subject material or WHY this material is important to know for the CISSP. The exam is an inch deep and a mile wide. Shon writes her book to be a mile deep and a mile wide, with a few inaccuracies thrown in for good measure!

Save your money and what's more important, save your time! 90% of what's in the book will not be on the test.

Don't expect to learn anything by .. Ian Howson (Sydney, Australia)
I hate to be difficult, but this is an awful, mediocre book.

I'll keep it simple and factual:

- This book is horrendously inaccurate. Some chapters are OK - Crypto approaches 90%. Some are terrible. Telco and Network Security was maybe 30% accurate.

- Shon does not understand a great deal of the material that she is presenting. Examples that stick in my mind are "what is a race condition" and "why do we do processing on a smart card". Tracing the references, it becomes plainly obvious where Shon has paraphrased without comprehending the (very important!) subtleties of the subject.

- A mechanical point, but important nonetheless: when a new idea is explained, it is explained using all of the jargon and assuming all understanding first. Afterwards, the lower-level understanding is filled in. This makes it very difficult to follow - you constantly need to move back and forth to get the full picture.

- It's extremely verbose and conversational. I believe this is inappropriate for a topic area where correctness and precision is crucial. A previous reviewer commented on the jokes inline with the material. I probably missed a lot of the inline jokes, mistaking them for factual errors.

I could go on, but I think you get the picture. I bought the book to get an understanding of where my knowledge was lacking in advance of taking the exam, and it served that purpose. The obvious and consistent factual errors made it difficult for me to actually believe anything, however - I found myself looking things up on Wikipedia (of all places!) when I needed clarification on a topic.

Good Read, But... by .. Rob B (Florida)
Ms. Harris' book is written in a more conversational style than your average technical read, but don't forget you will be tested on the official ISC2 materials. I recommend their book for studying and Ms. Harris' book as a supplement, not a substitute.

Now less than 12 hours away from taking the test, I found many of the post-chapter questions to be not well-formed, though much the same can be said about the ISC2 workbook. It is evident the human factors practioners (those who actually study how to write good questions) have not vetted these.

The CD that comes with Ms. Harris's book is somewhat better. By the way, the 4th Ed. cover has a blue field, not a red one.

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet by .. C. Wallace (Minnesota USA)
Wonderfully quick response and shipping time. Nice to have a request for any comments.

Overly wordy novel on CISSP by .. G. Miller (FT Bragg, NC (SOF))
This book is presented in novel format where huge paragraphs dominate.
People don't mentally store information in paragraph format; they store it in bullets or chunks of data so you first have to read the paragraph, then deduce the bullets for mental storage. It's weird but I think most books are written like this.

There are endless stories about security using sometimes inappropriate metaphors for security which don't always equate to the technology at hand.

Also, the chapters aren't laid out in the 10 Domains covered by the CISSP exam so you have to jump around to go through the domains.

By comparison, the Sybex CISSP book does a worse job because the chapters aren't even named in relation to what the ten CISSP domains are so you have to guess which chapter goes to which domain.

There is good use of graphics but there is a lot of extra information not on the exam so if you're looking for a concise technical review of CISSP exam material, look elsewhere.

PS the Shon Harris videos are as long and drawn out.

Related Search : ed , guide 4th , one exam

CompTIA A+ Certification All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))

Author : Glen E. Clarke Number of Pages : 1176 Publisher : For Dummies List Price : $39.99 Amazon Price : $21.52 Used Price : $21.24

Product Description

• At the end of 2004, more than 600,000 people had received CompTIA's vendor-neutral A+ certification, a key credential for anyone pursuing a career as a computer technician
• This competitively priced new guide offers seven minibooks and 1,000+ pages covering every aspect of the two required A+ exams, plus customizable test-prep software on CD-ROM
• Minibooks provide a thorough review of all the hardware and operating system topics tested in the exams: installation, configuration, and upgrading; diagnosing and troubleshooting; preventive maintenance; motherboards, processors, and memory; printers; networking; and operating system fundamentals
• Published day-and-date with the CompTIA's latest revision of the A+ exams

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Customer reviews

******** A Very Detailed Step By Step Guide************** by .. Armghan ()
Very good if you want to be certified as A+ , and also goo dif you are just trying to gain some knowledge about computers and the hardware . I loved it . Definately recomeded!

Most helpful by .. M. Vanraam ()
If you are wanting certification this is the perfect book. Not to technical or just the right amount of technical, good for anyone looking for A+ training.

Straight from a Dummie's Mouth by .. Ghost (California)
As someone new to IT ( not a complete novice, I do know how to use a mouse/keyboard and surf the web, etc. ), this book is great especially when compared with the other A+ books one can find out there. For the price it's a steal, I highly recommend it.

Poorly Organized by .. T@2249 ()
While there is a lot of good info here it is all mixed together. If you are looking for a book to study for the A+ by test get something else. The book is organized by chapter with the Essentals test mixed in with parts 1,2,3,4. You have to go to an index in the back to lookup which parts of each chapter to study for which test you are preparing for. This wastes a lot of time. I ended up having to get another book locally to study.

Good starting book by .. Idnas (Milwaukee, WI United States)
I just passed my A+ certifications. This book helped me a lot with the basic portions that weren't sticking from the other A+ books I had read. I didn't use the test engine, but the basic knowledge from this book helped me pass the test. I wouldn't use this book as a final review, but as a starting point it is extremely helpful (especially if you aren't in the IT field yet).

Related Search : one desk , tech , reference dummies

Oracle Database 10g OCP Certification All-In-One Exam Guide (Oracle Database 10g Handbook)

Author : Damir Bersinic Edition : 1 Number of Pages : 926 Publisher : McGraw-Hill Osborne Media List Price : $105.00 Amazon Price : $54.39 Used Price : $49.89

Product Description

Four for the price of one! Oracle Database 10g OCP Certification All-in-One Exam Guide is the only book that offers thorough exam prep and a great on-the-job reference for both the latest OCA and OCP exams.

Also includes the Boson’s Oracle self-assessment engine to get experience taking the test in the environment it will be given

Customer reviews

good book but look out for errors! by .. Fabian Wiktorowski Pb Polsoft (UE)
i've found book quite interesting and what the most important "thinking-oriented" and helpfull to PASS the OCP exam.
but i found a lot of errors in text, some that are just obsolete informations like env variable EMHOSTNAME, which may be fine in 10.1 but in 10.2 you have to use ORACLE_HOSTNAME instead,
some others are typographic errors like calling column resource_manager_group but it should be resource_consumer_group (p855), forgetting to list BYDAY in interval specifiers (p866).
But the other things are really unpleasent surprises:
"maximum number is limited by the JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES instance parameter; this defaults to 0, but if that value is used, the Scheduler will not function" -- not true -- see art. no 413399.1 and own practice as well.
q7 in questions about scheduler: B)freq=hourly;interval=1/2 -- i got error ORA-27465: invalid value freq=hourly;interval=1/2 for attribute REPEAT_INTERVAL which was expected -- according to documentation so this is not proper anwser.
on page 574 "Image copies can be made of datafiles, the controlfile, and archive logs. Image copies cannot be made of the spfile"
-- but during copy of controlfile we have:

RMAN> backup as copy current controlfile;

Starting backup at 06-SEP-08
using target database control file instead of recovery catalog
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: sid=153 devtype=DISK
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting datafile copy
copying current control file
output filename=/u01/oracle/flash_recovery_area/ORCL/controlfile/o1_mf_TAG20080906T201002_4d5kvv6v_.ctl tag=TAG20080906T201002 recid=5 stamp=664747803
channel ORA_DISK_1: datafile copy complete, elapsed time: 00:00:01
Finished backup at 06-SEP-08

Starting Control File and SPFILE Autobackup at 06-SEP-08
piece handle=/u01/oracle/backup/cfc-1177494707-20080906-00 comment=NONE
Finished Control File and SPFILE Autobackup at 06-SEP-08

so it seems to be not true too.

And the information which was the most surprising to me:
tip on page 796 "The views V$ASM_DISK and V$ASM_DISKGROUP are only
populated in an ASM instance. They are always empty in an RDBMS instance".
but oracle doc says: "In a database instance, V$ASM_DISKGROUP displays one row for every Automatic Storage Management disk group mounted by the local Automatic Storage Management instance".
And talking about ASM one more important thing: there is no information about templates and aliases in ASM file names which one could get on exam test!
that's not the complete list of errors i'm afraid.
and it's worth to notice that from december '08 the contents of the book won't be enough to get OCA/OCP:
http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=231.
regards.

Long-winded by .. X_HOBBES (NJ, USA)
PRO's:
- Detailed guide covering material on OCA and OCP exams
- OCA is Part 1, OCP is Part 2 of book

CON's:
- Author is VERY long-winded.
- Not enough use of diagrams
- Not updated for Oracle 10g Release 2 (current exam topic)

If you like long, boring discussions on a topic so much that by the end of the section you forgot what the main point was, then this book is for you! However, if you like short and straight to the point, you won't get that here.

The author tends to ramble on forever on each topic. It makes reading not only boring, but confusing. Use of a few simple diagrams like those found in the Sybex books would have gone a long way. It would have clarified the point without lenghty paragraphs. I found that the author tends to repeat himself often, too.

The main problem with this style of writing is that you will miss cruicial details because they're burried deep in a sea of text. Also, you CANNOT quickly skim through the book for a brief refresher.

I would have rather seen the book written such that the main points were stated first, followed by supporting detail and a diagram or two. So, you would be able to quickly skim through the first sentence of each paragraph or so to get the gist without deep reading.

It's painful to read through this book!

Giving it 3 stars because as painful as it is to read through, I am learning from it and it will help me pass the exam. But it could have been MUCH better.

Decent guide, but don't expect it to do all the work... by .. Justin Stanley (Vancouver, WA)
I recently took the Oracle 10g Administration Workshop class and purchased this book in preparation for the OCA exam. While the book itself did a great job of covering some of the basic, under-the-hood topics you need to know (not just for the test, but to be a decent DBA), it fell short in a few areas.

1. The screen shots and examples in the book aren't consistent with the latest versions of Oracle Enterprise Manager/Database Control. The version I downloaded and installed for Windows just a few weeks ago was occasionally different than the images I saw in the examples. Sometimes, the differences were minor (just a slight variation on the name of a link, for instance), but other times they were a little more severe (columns that don't appear in the version I downloaded, or functionality that seems to have been moved).

2. The last chapter in Part 1 of the book covers a topic that's an objective for the OCP test, not the OCA one (at least according to the Oracle site as of this morning). Not a big deal and it's good info to know, but if you're studying specifically for the exam you might not want to spend time on info that isn't directly relevant.

3. I could live with 1 and 2 above, but this is by far the worst part... The companion CD includes practice tests for the OCA and OCP exams, one of the main reasons I bought this book. Before I cracked open the book, I took the test labeled "OCA" to get a sort of baseline read on my current preparedness. Having taken the instructor-lead course Oracle recommends for preparation, I thought I should do reasonably well.

I scored a 23%. To make matters worse, the questions themselves were baffling, at times covering subjects I hadn't even heard of. I was completely disheartened. Did I sleep through my $3000 class, or was I just that dumb (please don't answer that)?

A couple of days later, I figured it out: the software was bunk. The tests were mislabeled (that is, the one labeled "OCA" was actually the practice test for the more advanced "OCP" certification exam and vice versa).

Furthermore, many of the questions themselves have typos. I found a few, for instance, that don't actually state the question, going right from the background info to the possible answers. You'd get a "question" that looked like this:

Jill has four bananas. Mike has three apples.

A) Monkey.
B) Six.
C) Spaghetti.
D) None of the above.

Or, in at least one case, a question that told you what the actual answer was before giving you the choices:

What's 4+2?

B is the correct answer. 4+2 equals 6.

A) 3
B) 6
C) 18
D) Pi

One last beef with the included practice tests... After completing the test, you're given the option of reading a review of the questions you missed. Great feature that all practice test software should give you. While reviewing your misses, though, there's an utterly useless "References" portion that always just refers you back to the text. Doesn't tell you which page to look at for more info, or even which chapter. Just ever-so-helpfully tells you that there's more info on that question SOMEWHERE in the book. Thanks for nothing.


Clearly, more of my problems were with the companion CD than with the book itself. If I reviewed only the text on its own merits, I'd probably give it 4 stars instead of just three. Likewise, the CD would only get 2 on its own.

Again, though, it's imperative that you don't rely solely on this text for the exam (or for learning the software itself, for that matter). Download it and install it, get familiar with EM as it is now. Look on the Oracle site to find out whether or not the exam topics have changed. And, if you can afford it (or sweet talk your employer into it), take an instructor-lead class. It's a requirement for the OCP cert, anyway.

Oh, and in case you wanted to know... I took the test yesterday and did, indeed, pass.

Good coaching. by .. Toshiro 34 (U.S.A.)
I passed OCA exam thanks to this book and with a little help of SelfTest software.
Very good writing. Authors definitely know the subject practically.
It is a good reading on Oracle RDBMS internals. And more entertaining than the Oracle Concepts Guide.
Again - their writing style is excellent, they do not over-complicate things and manage to explain complicated subjects simply and clearly.
I wish they wrote something on efficient oracle design :).

Good OCP guide by .. M. V. Chetan (Charlotte , NC USA)
This book is very good not just for clearing OCP but also reference for novice as well as experienced DBAs . The authors have covered the exam syllabus very concisely without leaving anything yet keeping the volume to a minimum .
However for the part 2 exam , one might have to read oracle manuals thoroughly especially for resource management and scheduler concepts .
The pratice test CD that comes with the book is very helpful.

Related Search : 10g ocp , exam guide , oracle database

A+ All-In-One Certification Exam Guide

Format : Bargain Price Author : Michael D. Meyers Edition : 3rd Number of Pages : 1263 Publisher : Osborne Publishing Amazon Price : $14.21 Used Price : $2.00

Product Description

A+ Certification Bestseller Rockets Your Career. Why wait for opportunity to knock when A+ Certification can open doors for you? Now in its Second Edition, Michael Meyhers's bestselling A+ Certification Exam Guide has already shown over 60,000 career-minded professionals how to rocket ahead as a high-paid A+ Certified PC technician. Plus, this proven coaching tool not only prepares you to ace the exam's Core and DOS/Windows modules, it serves as a dependable on-the-job advisor that can hone your technical skills in installing, configuring, maintaining and troubleshooting all major PC hardware, operating software, and peripherals. Complete with a step-by-step study plan, points to remember, trouble spots to avoid, insider tips for taking the exam and more, it makes it a snap to master correct troubleshooting and repair procedures for: *Microprocessors *Power supplies *RAM *Motherboards *Floppy and hard drives *Expansion buses *DOS and memory *Windows 95/98 *SCSI systems *Printers *Modems *Video devices *CMOS and BIOS setups *More

Customer reviews

A little old book, but it works pretty well by .. Wiver (San Jose, Costa Rica)
This is a rather old book, but it does have a lot of niec and interesting content.

Check Out - www.totalsem.com/support/errata/aplus5.htm by .. ()
Before purchasing the book you should access www.totalsem.com/support/errata/aplus5.htm
This webpage show errors and give the corrections for errors in the Fifth Edition of the All In One A+ Certification Book.

Wait For Next Edition by .. ()
CompTIA is updating the test the end of November. So in one month this book becomes obsolete. Keep an eye out for the updated edition that should be published shortly.

All of that aside this is a great book. Beginning with historical back ground then bringing the reader "up to date" helps make these ideas stick. After each chapter there are sample questions that insure you are truly getting it.

Add to that the bonus CD with practice tests and useful utilities that you, as an official CompTIA certified technician, might actually use in the field and you got a no brainer.

Five stars!

Fourth Edition; Good but could be better by .. Harold Woodward (Seaside, CA USA)
The version I have is the fourth edition copyright 2002. I have been working with/on PC's since 1986.

Overall I found this a good preparatory book for the exams. I especially liked the historical perspective Michael Meyers gives at the beginning of many chapters. I did find an occasional mistake in these, but nothing major. I feel the explanations throughout the entire book are simplified enough that someone with little to no experience after studying the book could probably pass the two exams. I expect the sheer size of the book; 1137 pages, 2 1/2 inches thick may discourage some beginners.

I feel at times the author went overboard with his analogies, especially with the ones related to how a CPU works. He does this so much that I could not find a clear definition of the function of the external data bus, in the external data bus section. It was clouded by his analogy. Instead I found it in the questions at the end of the chapter.

I feel in some places the proofreader(s) for the 2002 edition left some things the way they were in previous editions, when they should have been updated for the current technology and prices. A few examples; p 245 "Document the position of the wires for the ...turbo switch, turbo light..." and p 377 "Buying floppy drives one at a time is expensive and a waste of time." (since 2000 I have been buying new floppy drives for $10-$15 individually. I don't consider that expensive.) and lastly p826 "A CDR burner must be specifically designed to support the longer 80-minute CD-R format, something that currently only a minority of CD-R drives do." The author needs to be carefull of using the phrase "all versions of windows". NT does not have Device Manager or a Safe Mode, but "all versions of windows" on page 598 and 546 would leed you to believe so.

I think for the sake of beginners I would have preferred that all of the images of the Celeron SEP package show the side with the actual CPU chip on it. Many show the backside with the circuit traces.

This book did save me money. In the front it suggests to buy vouchers, vice paying the full cost for the exams. I bought vouchers, along with an enhanced version of the practice examinations and still paid less than the retail cost of the exams.

Dispite my criticism of this book I did like the book and I plan on keeping it for a long time to come as reference material. There is no way I could ever have written a book, this in depth, with as few errors as this book has. I passed the hardware exam easily (I took 6 minutes for the adaptive version) and expect to easily pass the operating system exam tomorrow. I only used my experience, this book and an enhanced version of the practice examinations that came with the book.

A new version of the A Plus exam is due fall or winter of 2003. Comptia has already published the new exam objectives, so I would expect a fifth edition of this book early 2004.

Bravo. The best A+ guide. by .. Sandra Isaacs (Oak Park, IL USA)
This All-In-One book has cartoonish pictures and explains basic computer techie stuff. I did extremely well on both exams. I do have a couple years of hands on experience, but I have a habit of buying books and not reading them. However, this book I read cover-to-cover. It may be a bit of overkill in terms of theory for the test. However, I'm a better tech because of doing the exercises. Especially, the ones in the lab manual. For daily reference, I use Upgrading and Reparing PCs.

Related Search : one certification , exam guide

Network+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, Second Edition

Author : Michael Meyers Edition : 2 Number of Pages : 708 Publisher : McGraw-Hill Osborne Media List Price : $59.99 Amazon Price : $9.25 Used Price : $0.98

Product Description

Written by Mike Meyers, the industry's leading certification training expert, this authoritative reference offers complete coverage of all material on the Network+ certification exam. You'll find exam objectives at the beginning of each chapter, helpful exam tips, end-of-chapter practice questions, and photographs and illustrations. The bonus CD-ROM contains practice tests, hundreds of questions, and video clips. This comprehensive guide not only helps you pass this challenging certification exam, but will also serve as an invaluable on-the-job reference.

Customer reviews

Definitely a worthwhile read!! by .. Kevin J. Lang (Boston, MA)
I just took the test yesterday and passed, first try. This book is well constructed in terms of keeping the user interested. Without saying technology has it's fun, sexy areas and the grueling, mind numbing areas that will bore you to tears no matter how much you love computers - this book balanced that out nicely so that you are not reading 400 pages of sure-fire insomnia cure. Likewise, with the accuracy - I have been working as an admin for a few years now and what I did know matched Mike's knowledge almost perfectly. All in all it is definitely worth your time whether or not you decide to take the test. However, it is sad this book will be out dated after the first quarter of 2005. (The new test comes out.) However, I would definitely buy another book buy Mike Meyers; I have no doubt that the 3rd edition will be just as good.

Out of Date by .. Kevin Stenger ()
I am very disappointed in this book. I used the A+ book to study for and pass the exam but the Network+ book was a grave disappointment.

The difference in the material on the test and what is stressed in the book and on the practice questions makes me believe that this book was written for an older exam. Even the format of the questions differed from the ones in the practice exam.

I bought the book on the basis of my experience with the A+ book and cannot recommend it for the Network+ exam.

A well written, effective study guide. by .. Kristian Brekke (Madison, WI)
Thank you, Mike! I just passed my Network+ exam with 860 out of 900, using this guide as my primary study source. I also bought his 600 practice questions bundled with a Prometric exam voucher for $157 from his website, www.totalsem.com. The practice tests were quite close to the actual exam. I recommend following up with the Network+ certification soon after completing the A+ certification because there is a large overlap in material. Together these certifications can be used to cover the elective exam requirement for Microsoft's MCSA certification.

Finally a great certification book! by .. Richard D. Lyons (Chicago, IL United States)
If you have read by past reviews of IT books you know that I'm pretty unforgiving toward sub-par certification books.

Thankfully, Mike Meyers, "Network+ Certification All-In-One Exam Guide" is a glowing example of how lots of experience, great writing and skillful editing can unite to form a beautiful book. This is rare in the days of, "can't wait to get it to press (profit)" publishing.

Meyers writes VERY clearly, gives detailed examples, plenty of illustrations (which really helps me to remember) and terrific, easy-to-understand analogies. It is actually a joy to read!

I haven't taken any practice tests yet, so I'm unsure how well Meyer's focus and depth are appropriate for the exam. However, it seems to me that Meyer's differs from other authors in that he provides a lot of detail, but then explains the details in such a way to make them understandable and thus EASY to remember! I really quite amazed because I haven't yet found an author who is as capable of doing this.

Meyer's tone is perfectly balanced between the two extremes of being too dry and too humorous. I can take the dry humorless tone of some authors but the intrusive- often stupid- humor of other authors have lead me to sometimes return books the same day I've purchased them. In short, I find Meyer's tone unobtrusive and actually refreshing- and I tend to be very picky about such things.

Great job Mike!

Update July 11, 2004:

Ok, I've taken my Network+ exam and passed (846 out of 900). Meyers book was not the only preparation material I used though. The Exam Cram 2 Network+ review book is excellent. It goes into more detail than Meyer's book, but you really need to first read Meyer's book to understand the Exam Cram 2 fully. In addition, I used the Transcender practice exams which were right on the money- very similar to the actual exam. I also tried the 2nd Boson practice exam which was only ok. The practice exams in Meyer's book were much easier than the actual Network+ exam but is a good review before tackling the tougher Transcender exams. Best of luck to you!

Not bad..but use a good exam practice cd by .. ()
Mike Meyers is funny in his computer humor (probably meant for true computer geeks). He really needs to focus more on the facts of the exam instead of attempting to be the other Mike Meyers...which he isn't. I like the book it was really easy to read and he made a point to specify what pertained to the exam. I passed the exam on 4/16/2004 with a 740. I have to admit I used the transcender simulated exam test and it was fairly close. I think in the end that you need to know the OSI layers inside and out and focus on the ridiculous memorization of the PORTS for ftp, smtp...etc to pass. But if you read this and do some exam prep it should be a breeze. keep up the good work Mike.

Related Search : network certification , one exam , guide second