A good book, but difficult to understand
This is a good book, but not by my standards. After reading I still did not understand some abstract concepts, I have to find some other books to clarify the confusion. It seems to me it was written for those people who already know the subjects quite well.

Not a beginners book
I picked this up on a whim and found it rather hard to read due to the level of plain detail. The first few chapters especially about SS7 were exceptionally dry and a bit of a snoozer. They read more like an RFC rather then a teaching tool.

This book does need some prior knowledge. If you are a beginner and lack knowledge about telephony and networks; you will read it and probably not pickup much.

Even towards the end; I found the chapters didn't explain much. More like a list of features.

I found the case studies a little interesting.

The amount of information the authors were attempting to cover needed more detail. This book should have been at least twice it's size with a little more lesson oriented approach.

Overall, it's an ok book. Again if you are a beginner, you should wait and build your knowledge before attempting this book.

Like eating dry leaves
I've read many certification books, but this one was far and away the driest book I think I've ever read. On every page I'm thinking, "Oh, no - not another page..." The book is great on technical-ese; but the authors don't seem to get it when it comes to readability. No personal notes, no analogies to help keep the reader's interest - only pure technical information, and the more detailed, the better. Woe to you when you get to the SS7 section!

I don't really have anything good to say here, unfortunately. I'm about to order a different CVoice book to study. Anything could only be a step up. If anyone says that this book is easy to read, well, they've been paid by Cisco Press to say it, IMHO.

VoIP Guide
Very well written. I am learning quite a bit about VoIP. Highly recommend it.

Covers the Underlying Technology
With companies like Vonage beginning to advertise for broad based end user sales on television, VoIP must have become of age. I do notice, however, that Vonage still charges by the minute. I guess they think that this is what customers are used to paying so why not.

This book is aimed not at the Vonage type end user, but at the technically savvy individual. It aimed at three types: people who know circuit switching and want to know more about packet switching, people who know packet switching and want to know more about circuit switching, computer types who know computers but are not expert in communications.

It starts with how the traditional phone system worked and then moves to explain the difference between the old circuit switched system that Ma-Bell developed to the newer packet switched systems of today.

Most of the equipment being discussed is Cisco, as is fitting because it seems that they have just about the most complete line, and because this book is put out by Cisco Press. This is a resonably high level book, it is not intended for the absolute beginner who wants to use VOIP, but at the person who wants to understand the underlying technology. You'll learns lots of new With companies like Vonage beginning to advertise for broad based end user sales on television, VoIP must have become of age. I do notice, however, that Vonage still charges by the minute. I guess they think that this is what customers are used to paying so why not.

This book is aimed not at the Vonage type end user, but at the building of a comprehensive understanding of VoIP and would appeal to the sophisticated home user and to the corporate network engineer charged with moving his company to VoIP. It starts with how the traditional phone system worked and then moves to explain the difference between the old circuit switched system that Ma-Bell developed to the newer packet switched systems of today.

Most of the equipment being discussed is Cisco, as is fitting because it seems that they have just about the most complete line, and because this book is put out by Cisco Press. This is a fairly advanced book. It is not intended for the person who wants to set up a system, but for the person who wants to understand the underlying technology. You'll learn lots of new algorithms.