Voice Over IP First-Step

by Kevin Wallace

Your first step into the world of IP telephony No IP telephony experience required Includes clear and easily understood explanations Makes learning easy Your first step to the world of IP telephony... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1587201569
• ISBN13: 9781587201561
• Release Date: December 2005
• Publisher: Cisco Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.4" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Exceptional Introduction to VOIP

Once in a while an author appears who stands head and shoulders above most other technical authors. Kevin Wallace is definitely one of that rare breed of authors who has the unique ability to impart substantial technical information in a really accessible manner. I found this book incredibly easy to read, having attempted reading some other books on VOIP and not getting past the 2nd Chapter with most of them. Even though the book focuses mainly on Cisco's VOIP implementation, the information is put across in such a way that you get a good understanding of VOIP principles in general. The chapter in this book on QOS alone is worth getting the book for, as it explains Cisco QOS in a most lucid and user-friendly way. His anologies are excellent and his occastional injection of humour also makes reading the book a most pleasurable and useful learning experience. If you are a newbie to VOIP, then I can't think of a better book to get your hands on. Highly recommended!

An excellent introduction to Voice Network

For those who are intending to go for Cisco Certified Voice Professional but don't have much knowledge about Voice, this book would be an excellent introduction to general Cisco Voice Networking. It introduces you to many expects of voice from ground up without giving too many technical details to the point you can get bored. For voice newbies, this book would be a great companion.

Excellent quick-read book to introduce yourself to VoIP the Cisco Way

The title of this review pretty much summarizes my thoughts about the book. This is an excellent, quick-to-read book that provides all the basic info about VoIP, focusing on Cisco's offerings. Although I read the book over a couple of days, I believe I put in less than 3 hours to read the entire book cover to cover (over all those days). The book is very simple to read. The book is ideal for network administrators as well as system/equipment design engineers to quickly introduce themselves to VoIP. The book is also good to understand all the varied VoIP offerings from Cisco and how stuff plugs together to provide an integrated service. The last chapter of the book goes beyond vanilla-VoIP, by discussing (in brief) Cisco's IPCC and other interesting offerings. Great book! Read it to quickly and easily understand the fundamentals of VoIP as well Cisco's VoIP equipment.

Learn the basics without being a computer whiz!

Kevin Wallace's VOICE OVER IP FIRST-STEP joins others in the 'first step' series in providing a basic introduction to IP telephony services. You don't need to be a programmer or even a computer whiz to understand the basics as presented here: whether you're a home user interested in lowering a monthly phone bill or a business person using data networks, chapters provide real-world applications using case studies throughout, no prior IP telephony experience is required to learn the basics here. And networking instructor Kevin Wallace knows how to cover them easily.

Like the Title Says, a Good 'First-Step.'

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. It is, as the title says, a 'first-step' book. It's enough to get a system operating. But if you really have to get down and dirty into the operation at a teckie level, you'll need more books. It is an excellent 'first-step.'