Foreword

CCNP Practical Studies: Remote Access is designed to provide you with another vehicle to obtain hands-on experience, which is a critical component of any preparation program for the Cisco Certified Network Professional exams. The detailed lab scenarios contained in this book illustrate the application of key internetworking concepts covered on the CCNP BCRAN exam. They help you master the practical skills you need to build, configure, and troubleshoot a remote-access network to interconnect central sites to branch offices and small offices/home offices. With the introduction of performance-based testing elements to the CCNP BCRAN exam, these hands-on skills are of critical importance to succeeding on the exam and in your job as a CCNP professional.

Cisco and Cisco Press present this material in text-based format to provide another learning vehicle for our customers and the broader user community. A publication does not duplicate the instructor-led or e-learning environment, and we acknowledge that not everyone responds in the same way to the same delivery mechanism. It is our intent that presenting this material via a Cisco Press publication will enhance the transfer of knowledge to a broad audience of networking professionals.

Cisco Press will present lab manuals on existing and future exams through these Practical Studies titles to help achieve the Cisco Internet Learning Solutions Group's principal objectives: to educate the Cisco community of networking professionals and to enable that community to build and maintain reliable, scalable networks. The Cisco Career Certifications and classes that support these certifications are directed at meeting these objectives through a disciplined approach to progressive learning.

To succeed on the Cisco Career Certifications exams, as well as in your job as a Cisco certified professional, we recommend a blended learning solution that combines instructor-led, e-learning, and self-study training with hands-on experience. Cisco Systems has created an authorized Cisco Learning Partner program to provide you with the most highly qualified instruction and invaluable hands-on experience in lab and simulation environments. To learn more about Cisco Learning Partner programs available in your area, go to www.cisco.com/go/authorizedtraining.

The books that Cisco Press creates in partnership with Cisco Systems meet the same standards of content quality demanded of our courses and certifications. It is our intent that you will find this and subsequent Cisco Press certification and training publications of value as you build your networking knowledge base.

Thomas M. Kelly
Vice President, Internet Learning Solutions Group
Cisco Systems, Inc.

September 2003

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