CiscoPress's "CCIE Practical Studies - Volume II" by Solie and Lynch does a good job at preparing CCIE Routing & Switching candidates for the CCIE Lab. While this book picks up where Volume 1 left off, this volume does a much better job at both documenting and displaying some of the more advanced requirements of the lab. It is also important to note that this book should not be used to first introduce yourself to a topic. The book requires you to be familiar with the topics discussed.

The first chapter is a much needed resource on the 3550 Catalyst switch. Part 2 covers route-maps and policy-based routing. I felt the multicast section was weak but felt it was made up for in the section covering QoS. The last part is on BGP and an excellent companion to Doyle's coverage in his 2nd TCP/IP book. I would not recommend the labs at the back of the book - they are error prone.

I did find some typos or editorial errors in the book (but not nearly as many as in the first volume):

Page 389 - in the first sentence - the bandwidth should be 772 kbps - not 772 bps. There are actually multiple errors over the next few pages.

Page 566 - the last line of the first paragraph - "... then the ORIGIN value is type 3, Incomplete." The origin code is type 2 for incomplete.

Page 737 - the aggregate-address should have included the `as-set' command.

Weighing in at 1,000 pages, it will take time to properly digest this book. I'm really at a loss as to whether this is a 4 or 5 star book. But considering the depth and breadth of coverage, it is nonetheless a book that must be read before the CCIE R&S lab. Overall, I expect to find this book on many a CCIE's bookshelf.

I give this book 5 pings out of 5:
!!!!!