Security+ study guide warning

BobSutan

BobSutan

[H]F Junkie
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Apr 5, 2000
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A word to the wise for people using the Mike Myer's Certification Passport Security+ Study Guide by Trevor Kay (ISBN 0072227419). This book grossly fails to cover the test objectives completely. I knew right from the start of the exam I was in trouble as the first two questions were nothing like what was covered in the book. Kerberos, Cryptography, Tunneling, and IPSec are just some of the areas this book fails to cover in enough detail. For example, something as simple as the port numbers for PPTP and L2TP weren't even mentioned in the book.

This book is more of an intro to network security principles than an actual study guide for the Sec+ exam. Buyer beware!




Sorry, but I had to vent. Its been a bad day, and it all started with this exam.
 
Not sure if the Sybex guys do a Security+ book but I've found their CCNA coverage by Todd Lammle to be pretty good. The CCNP books aren't bad either. I've read over the CCIE book but would never take that test on the book alone :eek:
 
Sybex does make a Sec+ book, but I didn't find out about it until this afternoon. The only reason I didn't take the exam more seriously is because I figured I'd just read any old study guide to brush up for the exam (because of my previous work history). I couldn't have been more wrong. The test really does throw some curveballs at you. The Exam Cram book that I picked up this afternoon really points this out by calling them on their little "trick questions". Man that's annoying as hell. If a certification authority has to relegate itself to using trick questions in order to increase the level of difficulty for examinees, then there's something wrong with their system. This precisely the reason I've stayed away from CompTIA's certs for so long. The only reason I went for the Sec+ was because I figured it'd be a walk in the park because of my past on-the-job experiences.
 
BobSutan said:
something as simple as the port numbers for PPTP and L2TP weren't even mentioned in the book.
Click to expand...
1723, 1701 :D
I took it the first time and failed by 16pts, grrr.

Free Sec+ tests not the best, but something to learn.
Sec+ is their hardest, i found every single other one i took to be a breeze except this one.
 
I set up pptp on a machine. It required a whole other protocal to be opened up in my firewall. Seems to be called protocal 47 least in linux. :eek:
 
Careful when you intertwine port numbers and protocol numbers. Two entirely different beasts.
 
Thanks for the warning on the guide. I just found out the book I read is outdated for the new exam. I'm thinking of picking up the Sybex guide along with the Examcram2 guide. My experience with Sybex has been good so far, and I hear a lot of people like the Examcram books so hopefully the combo serves me well.
 
Holy thread-resurection Batman!

By the way, the ExamCram2 Security+ book (ISBN 0-7897-2910-5) is so much better than the Mike Myers book its hard to describe.
 
I'd rather resurrect this one than start a whole new thread. :D Plus you keep referring to your experiences in other threads so I thought I would bring this back. 4 months isn't that bad.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll go with the Sybex and the Examcram2 like I had orginally planned.
 
4 months? It was more like 8.

But I do like the fact that it made enough of an impression on someone to remember it, and that its nice to know I affected someone in a positive way (by probably saving them some frustration due to that lame study guide).
 
Woops, 8 ya. I'm used to the Canadian format dd-mm-yy. Also you mentioned Mike Meyer's Security+ book in the Network+ thread on this page, reminded me of this old fossil.

Do you guys always give some this much grief for using the search function? :confused:
 
Nah, I was just screwing with you. I can't remember the last time I've seen an 8 month old thread of mine just jump back to life. Like I said earlier, its good that it made a difference.
 
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