McGraw Hill's Encyclopedia of Networking and Telecommunications with CDROM (Network Professional's Library) [Hardcover]

Tom Sheldon (Author), Thomas Sheldon (Author)

Book Description

Series: Network Professional's Library | Publication Date: January 2001

This encyclopaedia seeks to help readers understand networks and global communications systems by providing succinct executive-style briefings of important networking technologies, along with easily-digestible diagrams that illustrate key topics, topologies, architectures and configurations. The accompanying CD-ROM contains a fully searchable version of the book, more extensive coverage of topics, and hyperlinks to relevant Web sites.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The Most Complete Volume of Networking Technologies Available

Authoritative and up-to-date, this all-encompassing book and CD-ROM package is filled with thousands of explanations and analyses of core and cutting-edge networking and telecommunications topics­­from Abilene to QoS to ZAWS. Extensive cross-referencing throughout helps you understand the relationship among the technologies. This is a must-have resource for every network professional, as well as technology investors, marketing managers, head hunters, technology writers, and anyone interested in networking. The book also includes the most comprehensive guide to the Internet engineering documents (RFCs) available today. The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Networking & Telecommunications reflects the latest in networking and Internet technologies.

Topics covered:

ASP (Application Service Provider) Bluetooth Cryptography Distributed Computer Networks Embedded Systems Hacking and Hackers InfiniBand Java Linux Load Balancing Mobile Computing NAS (Network Attached Storage) Network Processors Optical Networks Outsourcing PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) QoS (Quality of Service) SAN (Storage Area Network) Switching Fabrics Transaction Processing UNIX Webcasting XML

Praise for the previous edition:

"In the rapidly converging disciplines of voice and data networks, I haven't found any other source that provides the coverage that [this book] provides."

--Randy Johnson, Applications Engineer, Nokia IP Telephony Business Unit

"The best reference I could find as a student learning about networks."

--Joe Higgins, Southwest Memorial Hospital, Director of Education/Telemedicine

"I interface daily with network engineers. This encyclopedia has helped me 'keep pace' with the engineering units."

--Steve Goldman, Chief Technical Specialist, Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield

On the value-packed CD-ROM

Complete, fully searchable version of the book with thousands of hyperlinks to related topics in the book External hyperlinks to author-selected Web sites for further information Illustrations of complex networking topics

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1445 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies (January 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072120053
• ISBN-13: 978-0072120059
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.7 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #619,647 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a nice addition to my technical library., June 10, 2001

By 

Michael J Woznicki "Michael J Woznicki" (Holland, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: McGraw Hill's Encyclopedia of Networking and Telecommunications with CDROM (Network Professional's Library) (Hardcover)

From a technical level I am always looking for great reference manuals. From a support standpoint I ma looking for books that I can use to explain to the end-user in a language they can understand. Now I have both with this book.

I was amazed what was packed in this 1400 page book, everything from A to Z or should I say from 10BaseT to Z39.50 and everything in between. What the author has done is taken each word or topic and simplified the explanation in short snippets that give you a basic understanding of the material.

There are pictures, figures, and web references for related topics, RFCs, tables and diagrams to make it easier to understand certain concepts. The book seems to be up to date and well documented. I have already used it in my job and found that it was easy for the end user to understand.

The CD-rom included is the complete book in electronic format making this as portable as possible. The electronic format has web links to site with more information. Overall this combination of book and software make this a very good deal indeed.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The one book that I would choose, July 9, 2001

By 

George Warner (Chantilly, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: McGraw Hill's Encyclopedia of Networking and Telecommunications with CDROM (Network Professional's Library) (Hardcover)

This is my first public review of a book, but this book is impressive and truly worth writing about. I was looking for a single reference that would cover a broad range of telecommunications and networking subjects, yet provide enough detail to make those subjects meaningful. My search included the reference books that I could get from my fellow workers, a public library and a technical bookstore. I looked up several test subjects. Some books had more reference headings, but none came close to the number of subjects covered in a meaningful way. For instance, by looking up QAM (which some other references didn't even have), I was given an accurate synopsis modem modulation methods (which I could validate because of my familiarity with the subject). Examining other subjects was an educational experience, as the author brought me up to date with his very readable explanations. The CD-ROM filled in where the alphabetical arrangement and in the index left off. Its search/query function was much more comprehensive than could be expected from a paper index. For instance, it found that the Cable Data Network combines QAM with forward error correction. It also was the means for looking up PSK V.22 and V.92 (other subjects related to modem modulation). Overall, I am highly pleased, both with the book and the included ROM.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb, Across-the-Board Reference, November 16, 2001

By 

S Stewart (Reno, NV United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: McGraw Hill's Encyclopedia of Networking and Telecommunications with CDROM (Network Professional's Library) (Hardcover)

I picked this volume up at TechEd 2001. The competition with other books in this category brought the race down to "McGraw-Hill's Encyclopedia of Networking & Telecommunications" winning by one length over the "Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking".
Tom Sheldon provided the most well-grounded and well-rounded information to fulfill the title of an "encyclopedia of networking" compared to Mitch Tulloch's very good but more Microsofted (I think microsoft as a verb can now come into play) approach to the subject and its fields.
Sheldon's book contains a greater variety of entries and their corresponding information (i.e. terms/acronyms like "NSA" & "PKI") instead of a namebrand focused presentation. I would like to see a "Special Characters" index category like Tulloch's book has, but this is not as necessary when using the search capability of the book's CD edition (which is included and loaded with hyperlinks to outside information sources).
I highly recommend Tom Sheldon's book. It's useful, it's layout and design is easy on the eyes, and I'm glad to have it at my desk (when I'm able to return it there after tracking down who last borrowed it).