 "Came in the time specified" | 2010-02-02 |
| - Reviewed By anonymous |
| This book came in the time it said it was supp9sed to be. This is a very good book. But the site said this book was new but there was a small crack on the bottom. |
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 "Best EVER intro to the latest computer networking technologies" | 2010-01-30 |
| - Reviewed By Ting Liu from New York, NY, USA |
To refresh my computer networking knowledge, I bought this book based on reviewer "Michael Yasumoto"'s book review. Compared with the Peterson and Davie (P & D) book that I read a few years ago. This new edition from K&R is far better than "P&D" 's book. The significant advantages are:
1) Extremely easy to read. Unlike P&D's book which presents you with many implementation algorithms that are not useful for network application developers, this book provides you with the most important algorithms and give you the overall forest so you will never be lost in the trees.
2) Detailed explanation for key concepts. P&D's book might just use a few words to explain certain key concepts. But this book uses a few pages and examples to make sure you completely understand. This makes self-study an enjoyable journery.
3) Innovative approach to explain complex protocol. Many TCP/IP books simply state the protocol details, lots of details described and finally become a memory bunden. This book uses an innovative approach that describe general principles for designing a reliable protocol in chapter 3. This has helped me extend what I've learnt from the book to the protocols that I worked on during my daily work e.g. FIX protocol for trade exchanges.
4) Very up-to-date. The book contents are very up-to-date, unlike other network books (e.g. Tanenbaum) which I flip through and finally put it down, this book contains the most current contents and focused on the forefront development of the computer networking technology.
5) Inspiring and fun to read. The interviews supplied at the end of each chapter are very inspiring and fun to read. I wish I had read this book during my university years.
6) Very nice hard cover design, excellent printing quality. I have bought it a few weeks ago and have not been able to put it down yet. Its nicely designed hard cover makes you really want to read it.
Overall, this is the BEST computer networking introduction book EVER. 10 stars is my rating for this book. |
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| "great delivery" | 2009-07-06 |
| - Reviewed By lalitha from va |
wonderful in time delivery and book is looking great.... its just like new book :)
thanks |
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| "Very Informative" | 2009-06-28 |
| - Reviewed By Michael Leighton |
| I needed it for an SMTP application and it had all of the information required. |
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| "Top 4 Computer Network Books Compared" | 2009-05-24 |
| - Reviewed By peacekeeper56784 |
This review compares the following four books:
Computer Networks by Peterson and Davie (P & D)
Computer Networks by Tanenbaum
Computer Networks by Comer / Internetworking with TCP/IP
Computer Networking by Kurose and Ross (K & R)
By far the best book in the list is "Computer Networking" by Kurose and Ross. This book covers all of the essential material that is in the other books but manages to do so in a relevant and entertaining way. This book is very up to date as seen by the release of the 5th Ed when the 4th Ed is barely two years old. There are lots of practical exercises using wireshark and the companion website is actually useful and relevant. The attitude of this book with regard to teaching networking concepts could be summed up as "try it out and see for yourself". One interesting thing to note is that the socket programming example are all in Java.
Next up is the Peterson and Davie book which covers everything that Kurose and Ross discuss but is slightly more mathematical in how it goes about things. There are a lot more numerical examples and defining of formulas in this book which is fine by me and in no way detracts from the book. Also the socket programming examples are in C which is a little more traditional. The points where this text loses ground to K & R is that it doesn't have the practical application exercises that K & R has and it also doesn't extend the basic networking theory that is covered to modern protocols like K & R.
The two Comer books come next. Comer's "Computer Networks" book is probably the most introductory book out of this whole list and is more of a survey of networking topics that doesn't cover anything in any real depth. Still, this is an excellent book in that it is a quick clear read that is very lucid in its explanations and you can't help feeling that you understand everything that is covered in the book. Comer's TCP/IP book is the equivalent of the other authors' computer network books and in that respect it is pretty average. It covers all of the relevant material and in a manner which is more than readable but that is all. There is nothing exceptional about the book which stands out from the rest.
Last comes Tanenbaum's book from the author who is probably most famous for his OS books. This is probably the most technical and detailed of the books with lots of sample C code belying is experience with operating systems and their network stack code. The weak point of this book is that all of the code and technical minutia might prevent the reader from seeing the forest for the trees. Unless you are trying to learn how to program your own network stack for a Unix/Linux system, then I would get either the K & R book or the P & D book to learn networking for the first time. This book would best be served as a reference in which case the technical nature of the book becomes a benefit rather than detracting from the text. |
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| "More Fun than Sudoku Puzzles" | 2009-04-23 |
| - Reviewed By Kris L. Holt from Plymouth, MN United States |
This book is a thoroughly enjoyable learning experience!!! I bought this book before Christmas out of curiosity and out of a potential need to learn more about computer networking and brush up on it when asked about it on a technical interview.
Since I already had certified as a Java Enterprise Architect, which required knowledge of Java 2 Network Security and protocols such as HTTP, HTTPS, IIOP, JRMP, I had some limited, specialized knowledge of network protocols. However, this book really gave me much more background on the Internet than I had anticipated and it broadened my perspective about future technology developments, which will probably continue to be born out of the Internet. Should it be no surprise that a language such as Java, which started out as a network programming language has become much more than that? No doubt the Internet has proven to be much larger of an influence in the world than ever expected. For example, years ago I remember reading about the seven-layer ISO OSI reference model using in data communications in telecommunications. This book made it clear that this has all been compacted into a five-layer Internet protocol stack. Something arcane and mystical has been simplified and is very public domain.
This book covers the five-layer protocol stack: Application Layer, Transport Layer, Network Layer, Link Layer, and Physical Layer. I thought I might be turned off by some of the geeky topics in the network protocols, but instead I found them quite tasty too and I gobbled up the whole book.
The introduction chapter outlined most of the topics covered in later chapters such as each of the layer protocols and then topics that build on them such as security, wireless and mobile networks, multimedia networking, and network management.
Some of my major learning experiences included: DSL, circuit switching, packet switching, application protocols, DNS servers, socket programming using either TCP or UDP, building reliable data transfer protocols such as TCP, TCP congestion control, routers, IPv4 and IPv6, routing algorithms, designing subnet IP addresses, network interface cards/MAC addresses, Ethernet protocol details, and then some.
I also used the book's programming assignment downloads, and Ethernet Wireshark labs, study guides and self-assessment tests. All of this really anchors and expands upon the topics covered in each chapter. This book and the online learning aids was more fun and brain expanding than sudoku puzzles! |
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