Customer Reviews

Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Our course, Networking and Data Communications, was assigned to me in the eleventh hour. Though I have been teaching Computer Science for 22 years I had not taught this course before. I chose this book because it seemed to be well written and had good support materials but, as we all know, there is no guarantee that the students will agree.

The course is over now and I just received the student evaluations of me, the text and the course. They were much better than I hoped for and I give the bulk of the credit to this textbook. Here are the three written comments from students regarding the book

"Book was good, approach was beneficial."

"The book for this course [Kurose,2000] was excellent. I recommend keeping it."

"The book was very useful, but the website could use some work."

Students are also asked to rate the book on a scale from 1 (difficult to understand) to 5 (Clear and easy to read). The book was rated as follows by the 22 students in the class: 8 fives, 13 fours, 1 three, 1 two and no ones. As an instructor, I found the book to be well written and well edited. Rarely did I find errors in the text and most of those that I did find were typographical errors. I found the web site to be especially useful. The discussions by other readers pointed out things to watch out for and gave me an easy way to make general preparations well in advance. I had my students do the first three lab assignments. They especially liked the two application layer assignments and had a good bit of trouble with the transport layer assignment. I found the supplied code to be well organized and the parts that were left out for the students to complete challenged them (and me) in the right directions. The approach of focusing on Internet networking was an excellent choice for an introduction to networking. The choice to start at the application layer and move down to the physical layer is natural and understandable. It drives home the whole idea of layered architectures well and is a great example of the power of top-down approaches.

I will follow the advice of the student that recommends we keep this text when I teach the course next year.

As any reader of this might guess, I highly recommend this text and ancillary materials for an introductory course in networking. I congratulate the authors and all that helped them on this project for the fine work they did.

I've taught Park University's Computer Networking course four times now and I've used four different textbooks. I'm very happy with my most recent choice - Kurose/Ross's Computer Networking. The Kurose/Ross textbook is everything I've been looking for.

Our computer networking course is an overview of networking. Many of the textbooks on the market are overly mathematical or overly business-oriented. This one is just right. Personally, I love Tanenbaum's networking textbook, but I have to admit that this one is better suited for an introductory networking course.

I thought that the PowerPoint slides were pretty good, but I still didn't use them much because I'm ultra-picky about my lecture presentation and I thought that I needed to write my own slides for added clarity.

Positive attributes:
1. Emphasis on the Internet and the Internet protocol stack. As the authors point out, that makes for a more relevant model than the old OSI model. Students can more easily get a handle on the Internet protocol stack model.
2. Great website.
3. Well written.
4. Great content. Lots of detail when you need it, but it introduces difficult concepts in a manner that is not overwhelming.
5. Good homework problems. I haven't tried the programming excercises because my students didn't know Java, but next time I teach the course, the students will know Java and I plan to use the programming assignments.
6. Great response from the authors. I enquired about a typo and Keith Ross replied the same day with appropriate help.

This is a great introductory networking text. Kurose and Ross acknowledge that today, when we talk about "Computer Networking", we are really talking about the "Internet". They explain computer networking using the Internet as a guiding light. Besides being a great textbook for an introductory networking course, the book is highly recommended for anyone interested in learning what makes the Internet "tick".

Kurose and Ross' writing is direct, to the point, and easy to follow. Oftentimes, networking principles are explained with human analogies, which really help in getting the point across. Kurose and Ross manage to convey the principles of computer networking (often considered "dry" material) in a technically precise yet entertaining way. A good measure of humorous bits and off-the-cuff remarks are sprinkled throughout the text, making the reading fun (students love it).

Interesting sidebars on the history of the Internet and the implementation of networking principles in practice provide additional background. The book features interviews with the very people who designed the principles upon which the Internet is built. The interviews add to the "entertainment value" and lend the book a sense of authenticity.

The book is accompanied by a great web site (password comes with the book), which provides valuable web links and applets to play around with. There are also on-line quizzes, which are graded automatically and allow students to test their knowledge. These web features are especially helpful for distance learning students. The authors also provide a full set of lecture slides, which are an invaluable resource for instructors.

In summary, a highly recommended book, learning about computer networking has never been more exciting and fascinating.

I have read this book and am a great fan of it as well. The contents are so nicely organized that you never know that you are learning some great stuff. The complexity of the topics is handled to such an extent that even the novice will find the subject of Networking very interesting. Also the java applets added at the end of the sections are very useful in conveying the concepts. Among them the ones I liked most are traceroute & the dns one. At the end of each section the links provided at the bottom also proved very helpful to track the detailed understanding of that subject. Also the links for the RFCs are provided at the bottom. All upon these added virtues of this book, what I found most interesting about this book was that the language used in this book is so simple that you never know that you are reading some great technical stuff. Its great, it really great.

This is a great book if you are starting out in the computer networking field. It is also a good compliment to "Computer Networks" by Andrew Tanenbaum. This is not a book for someone well versed with the basic concepts as it lacks the depth and details.

This book looks at the networking concepts from the software engineer/ computer science perspective rather than computer engineer/ electrical engineer one.

It explains many of the concepts with very simple everyday analogies and the simple language makes it very readable. The book does miss out on many emerging technologies, like sensor networks, mesh networks, etc.

Also the lower OSI layers like physical, MAC lack the details and information worthy of a basic book. The application, transport and network layers are covered well since this a primarily a software engineer's look at networking.

Overall, its a good book for beginers(specially for computer science) but not for intermediate or experts in the field .

Contrasting this book w/ Tanenbaum's 'title-holder' for the best computer networking book out there, this book wins hands down. Tanenbaum's approach has always been VERY wordy in all his books. This book goes straight to the point, usually illustrating all concepts w/ an analogy, which is what I liked most about it, because it lays a pretty good foundation for grasping the technical concepts very easily and quickly. The website is also very good, with some fancy applets and interviews. This book has replaced Tanenbaum's in my university's networking class and all the students really prefer this book to Tanenbaum's, which is still great, but things are changing so quick now that you really need to learn stuff quickly. This you cant do w/ Tanenbaum, but you can do w/ Kurose-Ross. See for yourself!

I've just finished reading the first chapter of the book and it's already solved a lot of questions that have been confusing me for a long time.
The only complaint is that you can't use the online materials if you're using an international version like I am,especially when you're in a contry where international VISA is also prohibited.So there's no way to reach the online materials in this case.I hope the it address this issue in the 2nd edition.

This is the best book from two respected networking researchers. It explains the TCP-IP model unlike the most other networking books which explore the outdated OSI model. Compared to Tanenbaum, the new networking concepts (such as Diffserve) are addressed and well explained. A side effect of Tanenbaum's book is that you are lost in the details and can not see the overall picture. I loose my motivation and excitement when I read Tanenbaum's book.

If you want to really learn the underlying motivations for the current Internet protocols Kurose and Ross's book is the best. Highly recomended, even for the professionals in the networking business to brush up their knowledge and improve their understanding of networking concepts.

As a software engineer, I read this book upon recommendation from some people at work. The book really put the whole computer networking / Internet /Web area together for me. Before reading the book, I was already familiar with Ethernet, the web, HTTP, etc., but the book tied it all together, and now I have a deep understanding of the subject. I have carefully read the first five chapters. I look forward to the last three. The other thing I really like about the book is its great companion web site.... Not only is the whole book online, but also it includes many useful applets that really let you see how these protocols work. Highly recommended.

I am coming down to the wire on a Masters degree in Information Technology with about four classes to go. This is the best textbook I have used to date. It is organized in a manner that actually teaches. It is well written with clear concise use of technical terms. It has a good support system in quizzes on the web. I will be keeping this book for a reference for quite a while. The authors have done a great job.