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I found this book very helpful in understanding what is increasingly an ubiquitous but invisible part of the infrastructure that make up the world that we live in. Being in product development, I needed a book to help make sense of all the different means for networking. This book presents that information in a very intuitive way, and helps the reader understand future advances in networking. This is written at a level for the technical staff who may need to understand this topic enough at a functional level but not at the administrative/operational level.
The section on secure communication was what I needed at the time I purchased the book, but the book's organization, level of detail and readibility will definitely make this a popular reference book.
"Great Book, Great Seller!"
2009-06-27
- Reviewed By gPapa from Miller Place, New York United States
This book is fantastic and I purchased it from the seller as listed. It was in great shape and was received quickly. Go Amazon!
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.
This is a great intro to networking book. Some of it's a little dated, but 3rd edition differs little from 4th which is just as old. There is little difference between the edition. My instructor taught from 2rd edition, and most of the class had 4th. (I had 3rd.) We never had an issue. 90% of the material is this book is pretty much timeless core networking concepts.
I have owned this book since 1999 and let me tell you its the best book in order get familiar with networking concepts... Author has explained all scenarios with the help of small examples which makes understanding matter very easy. A MUST have book..
I was made to read this book in Computer networks course. At first it was a difficult read but after a few times I got used to author's style. This book is very detailed on Network and Transport layers specially congestion control. I realize that most networking professionals miss that nitty gritty of the subject as they learn things from very applied side.
I highly recommend this book for students and professionals alike.
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International Available
"Great reference book"