CompTIA Network+ All-in-One Exam Guide, Fourth Edition
ISBN:9780071614870 read summary

Great book to study for the exam, I just finished reading the book and studying the questions at the end of each section. Just started the practice test on the CD. Only 50 Questions! 50 questions is not enough to prepare for the exam. Of course, the author offers a more comprehensive practice test for sale on his website.

Being currently CompTIA A+ Certified, I already trusted Mike Meyers and his Cert books as far as passing Certifications and grasping tough concepts. Before buying his book, I bought the Network+ Study Guide by Todd Lammle, and the book was just too in depth to even absorb. I bet that even experienced network techs would read the Todd Lammle version and be like WTF? It was one of those books where you just cant seem to absorb the information, it took him 5 chapters to tell you one concept, just not what I was looking for. So since I trusted in Mike Meyers to get me my A+ Cert I decided to go back with his books. Not to my surprise, the information is SO much easier to read, he uses real life concepts to compare theories, and to be totally honest it feels like I'm reading a novel, I don't ever want to put it down. If your looking for a Network+ book to pass the Cert or just to learn about general networking, this IS the book for you.

Just finished up taking (and passing) the Network+ exam using this book as the sole reference material. I will say that the book was written pretty well and was easy to comprehend. I do know that if you are looking for a one stop reference guide to passing the Network+ exam, this book by itself could work, providing you also have quite a bit of network hands-on experience. If you are relatively new to the IT certification realm, then I would strongly suggest augmenting this book with other material(s).
Pros: Easy to read, easy to understand, made complicated concepts easy to learn.
Cons: Editing mistakes, not all actual exam questions/topics were covered in this book, review questions at end of each chapter although helpful with understanding the concepts..do not apply directly to questions on the exam. Also the CD with the practice test (includes a practice exam and a "final exam") use the same questions for each one with no variation.
Overall: Decent reference book and should help most with the exam.

My background: I am a network administrator for a very large DoD network. To prepare for the N+ exam I read this book and took a few online practice tests. The book itself is very thorough and uses humor to explain certain concepts. I think it is far more entertaining to read than some books from other competitors are. As we all know, if a book actively engages you it is easier to comprehend the subject matter. You can throw the CD it comes with in the trash because it is worthless (unless you like to read e-books). The N+ exam tests you on a very broad spectrum of topics and this book does a great job of covering the information in enough detail to enable you to pass.

I used only this book (and practice exams) and passed the exam easily (although I did have some questions that I do not think this book covered). I was more interested in the material in the book, however, since I don't really even need the certification. It does a good job at covering networking concepts in general, and I used it to fill in the gaps in my knowledge. For example, I knew a lot about TCP/IP and network security, but little about routing and cabling. This book can fill all the gaps so that you have a good understanding of all aspects of networking (I guess that's what the certification is certifying, after all!)

It was an easy read and well-written. If you understand the material in this book, you should pass (I also used the practice exams sold at the books website), which I recommend also. They let you know which areas you really know and what you need to study more. I might have failed on the real exam since it took 3-4 practice exams before I consistently passed the practice exams.