Customer Reviews

Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet

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

 

 

Certainly the best INTRODUCTORY book on computer networks. And ONE of the two best books on computer networks (the other being Computer Networks by Andrew S. Tanenbaum, however the two are written in a very different style.)

Brilliant work! The book describes computer networks in an very very interesting manner, with practical real world scenarios and examples, explaining how things works in real world with examples of internet, together with very interesting notes on great events in the computer networks field. The fundamental networking concepts are described and explained in a great way. The figures are outstanding helping in understanding the thoery even more. As the title suggests the chapters discuss network stack layers top to down, i.e., the first chapter dicusses the Application layer, and so on.

However regarding the contents, I think Andrew S. Tanenbaum's book covers more which is also due to the fact that this book is written with Internet as an example, therefore it mostly covers the major topics in the computer networks.

The topics are explained in very much detail. However for this reason, this book may not be ideal for someone who wants a quick revision of the network concepts.

In a way, a negative point of the book is that sometimes it is overloaded with too much unnecessary information.

Very highly recommended! Dont think, go for it, especially it if it is your first book on computer networks.

I used this book for a networks class in college. It does cover all the material that we went over in class. Although this book does contain a lot of useful information, it is also stuffed full of some complete nonsense. There's a lot of stupid stupid examples when they try to describe something technical with real world situtations. Sometimes the examples don't even relate well but are just in there because the authors felt they had to force an example into the book. Because we had to read the book for class I spent a bunch of hours reading through 500 pages of text with only 200 pages of real information. The main problem with this book is that it's really a 200 page book expanded out to 700-800 pages and I really can't appreciate that cause I have to read so much more.

Of all the CS textbooks I've read in college in these 2 and a half years, this is perhaps the only book that I can understand the content in the first time reading it.

You know how some textbooks (particularly math and physics) are written in a way that it may be difficult to understand? This book is definitely not one of those. Yet it still covers the material throughly, from general ideas to technical details. I am glad that my school chooses this book as the textbook for my networking class, instead of some random book that is impossible to understand.

This is a good introductory book. It gives board coverage of all important areas of computer networking. Easy to read and it has been kept up-to-date with every edition with the changes in the field.

My minor complaints are (i) that each chapter is quite long; (ii) it gets overly wordy at times but it does help to reinforce what you just learned; (iii) it is hard to review the material (after you have read through it once) because too many materials are crammed into each topic.

Oh my gosh this book is sooooo wordy. It's 800 pages long, yet it probably could be condensed to less than 600, all without the loss of clarity. The authors explain everything to an excruciating degree, and often times things are repeated over and over again. For example, on page 194, a sentence reads:

"Web servers typically spawn a new process or create a new thread for each new client connection".

And then, only two sentences later, the authors write:

"Web servers often use only one process, but create a new thread with a new connection socket for each new client connection"

I'm not saying that this book should be written so as to be as precise as good code, but oh my gosh, spare us the overbearing details. Just give us the facts, please, and dispense with the jargon!

[A review of the 3rd Edition.]

Kudos to the authors for eschewing the traditional 7 layer description of the Internet. Too complex. Instead, they give a clear and pragmatic understanding of 5 layers. Physical, data link, network, transport and application. A very logical subdivision. From this flows the User Datagram Protocol and TCP/IP.

At the network layer, there is a good airing of common routing algorithms, used by Cisco and others. Including broadcast and multicast routing. These are very efficient methods of using the available bandwidth; especially for applications like video being viewed by many people.

Wireless and mobile networks also get a mention. Important since in the developing world, more people are likely to have a cellphone than a computer. There are different issues here, compared to fixed landline networks. Like mobility management.

The only possible drawback about the text is the brief discussion on IPv6, the next generation Internet. If you need a comprehensive discussion, seek a different book.

Got this for a college class. Actually needed 5th edition, but for the most part, this is the same book (some of the questions at the end of the chapter are different). For the most part though, the chapters themselves are the same, so it is nice to have a second book so that I can leave one at work and read during my lunch hour without carrying it back and forth. The author is fairly clear, though some of the metaphors are a little strange.

This book is very easy to understand, but some of the assignment is challege. I learn a lot from this book.

I found this book the best reference yet that I have come across to give a person a great deal of knowledge in a rapid and easy to understand format. It deals with internet protocols and other networking principles -- it is a great book to start with.
One of my favourite recommendations

I have taken a Cisco CCNA Networking class, and I believe, though I have not completed this book, that it is significantly better. I enjoyed starting at the application layer. It also explains things in a much less clinical and detached manner. One thing that always irked me about Cisco was the ridiculously dumbed down explanations, the information was also very sparse. This book goes into significant detail. I really think it's the difference between wanting to actually study the material, and wanting to know enough to pass a cert test. Which, incidentally, Cisco does not even do very well either.

One thing that I dislike about this book is the lack of a glossary of terms or acronym definition listing. I did however buy a library edition that has a billion type-o's and misspellings. But if you have the regular edition and this is a problem I suggest searching "networking acronyms" on google, there are some good websites for help.