Customer Reviews

Ethernet: The Definitive Guide (Definitive Guides)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The RJ in RJ-45 stands for Registered Jack. Now I know. This book truly does provide all the information you will need to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to selecting a contractor to cable your new building, or to do the job right if you choose to become such a contractor. Compliance with local building codes is beyond the scope of the book, but guaranteeing that you don't have hard-to-trace problems with your wiring stemming from the power line being too close to the data line inside the wall is not, and suggestions about how to find the local building codes are included.

With clear and readable descriptions of everything from electrons to hub management consoles, this book covers coax, twisted pair, fibre, at all current standards, up to 1000 bits per second, at all use case levels, from design of hardware protocols, to defending your requirements analysis design documents, to configuration of managed hub equipment.

For those to whom reading equipment advertising is not dissimilar to interpreting the menu in a restaurant in a foreign land, industry terms are explained in non-industry terms, with etymological notes detailing the various jargons from which the ethernet equipment terms derive, and extended explanations on terms such as "terminator" that have different meanings in different contexts.

After reading the Octopus book, I'm going to wire my charter school, rather than hiring a contractor. Armed with that experience, I will then be able to offer wiring buildings as yet another service. And you will too.

Networking your home? Perhaps your are preparing to network a Fortune 500 company? Maybe you just want to get your computer talking to your wifes downstairs. In any fashion, O'Reilly's "Ethernet: The Definitive Guide" is one of the best networking reference books I have purchased in quite some time.

The author explains everything, from what Ethernet is all the way up to installation and troubleshooting. The comprehensive section on understanding how to plan for your network will save you time and

headaches when it comes to implementing and supporting your network.

One of the best features of the book, by far, is the explanation and breakdown of Ethernet/Networking terms. Do you know what a Fiber Optic Loss Budget is? How about 10Base5 Signal Encoding? The author does a terrific job of explaining, with great detail, terminology and networking concepts that even the most experienced network administrator may sometimes have trouble with.

Performance issues are covered in great detail, along with troubleshooting an existing network. Through examples, you will be able to target bottlenecks in your existing setup, and diagnose failure issues with ease. I found it a great tool as I was attempting to find out why I had a high packet collision rate after a recent network card change in my Linux box.

Even those who are writing network-aware software may find this book a goldmine of information. The technical explanation of the MAC protocol as well as the breakdown of information that is flowing over the network was of great value to me when I was attempting to write a device driver for a network card under BeOS.

This book is geared heavily towards those who support and maintain networks for a living. However, there are many helpful examples and tips that will make this a great reference even for those who are looking to network their homes. From the pre-planning stage, to purchasing the right equipment, this book is a definitive guide to Ethernet networking.

(This review is written by the author of the book, to help clarify the subject matter and intended audience of the book.)

Ethernet: the Definitive Guide, is written for anyone who needs to know how Ethernet functions, and how to install, manage and troubleshoot an Ethernet system. The book covers the complete Ethernet system, including half-duplex and full-duplex operational modes, the Auto-Negotiation system, the twisted-pair and fiber optic media systems, switches and repeaters, cabling systems, network management, troubleshooting and more.

The book is focused on a single topic: Ethernet. Ethernet is a link layer network technology which is designed to carry any and all high-level protocol packets between computers. However, the Ethernet system is completely separate from the various high-level data protocols and applications. Ethernet is the trucking system for data transmission; it doesn't care what high-level protocol packets may be inside the data packages it is carrying. The Ethernet standard and the operation of the Ethernet system does not include TCP/IP, ARP, or any other high-level protocol packets.

For that reason, there is no significant coverage of the TCP/IP protocol suite in this book. This is intentional, since the book's focus is the complete Ethernet system, including all of the widely used Ethernet media systems. To that end, the book provides 498 pages of solid Ethernet information.

There are a number of books that cover the TCP/IP system of protocols and applications, and anyone interested in these topics should find and read one of these books. However, you don't need any in-depth knowledge of TCP/IP to understand Ethernet. Nor do you need any in-depth knowledge about Ethernet, or any other link layer network technology, to understand TCP/IP protocols...

Complete, well written, and extremely useful reference. But only 4-star in my opinion because...

Some points are repeated over and over ad nauseum, where once would really be enough. A good editing job is needed, with the focus on removing repetition. That would thin the book considerably without any loss of information.

Also a handful of factual errors need correcting, particularly relating to the electrical signalling. (The author confuses the concept -ve and +ve signal polarities in a differential pair with actual absolute voltage measurements.)

I would have liked to see more detail on encoding schemes and electrical/optical signalling.

If you've read an introductory book, and hunger for the REAL details, this is the Ethernet book for you! I loved this book, because it covers everything the introductory and certification books can't. You get a thorough discussion of the MAC protocol - learning such details as slot-time and why the standards are set the way they are.

The author speaks from experience, has in-depth knowledge of past, present, and ongoing technology. Anyone aiming to be a professional Network Engineer, do yourself a favor and snatch this book.

This book is exactly what I was looking for in a high-level overview of Ethernet. I an a non-IT engineer who just needs to know the principles of ethernet operation, especially troubleshooting and performance monitoring, and those subjects are covered well, although very briefly. The book doesn't bury the reader in ill-defined acronyms as so many other technical books do. It does use plenty of technical acronyms but they are well-explained in the text and are also defined in the glossary.

The book starts by briefly covering the history of ethernet and how it developed, as an aid toward understanding it better. I find that all too often authors leave out just a few sentences on the background of something that can make all the difference in the world toward truly understanding the subject, because it gives you something interesting to remember it by. A standout feature is the clearness of the diagrams and illustrations, as well as the text. The book is an excellent example of technical writing.

As an aside, I am very impressed by ethernet creator Bob Metcalfe's place in computer history. Ethernet is just an incredible example of a design that has stood the test of time and is still serving as the foundation of the latest networking technologies.

First I read the standard, which destroyed my brain temporarily. Then I read this book. Then I went back to the 802.3, but with a much greater comfort. Here's the deal: the book is practical, for example, it tells you what's used and what's not. The standard legislates everything, but in reality a good part of it you don't need. Out of XXBaseT protocols you need only 10/100/1000Base-T/X. You wouldn't know this w/o the book. That's just one example. In general, this book simplifies matters, clarifies, puts everything in a realistic perspective: I've found it an easy, reasonably quick, and very helpful read.

Now, if I were to nitpick, I'd mention an intermittent conceptual muddle-headedness the author suffers from: for example, on page 23, he defines the notion of "half-duplex" as follows: "Half-duplex simply means that only one computer can send data over the Ethernet channel at any give time". This is incorrect. Half-duplex is a mode of communications where data can flow in only one direction at a time. How many computers take part is irrelevant to the definition. Now, the original Ethernet happens to be run over a shared medium, and it is _this_ fact that _necessitates_, as a ramification, the use of half-duplex over it, and, in turn, that only one station can talk at a time. A definition is different from a corollary, this is obviously unknown to the author. There are a couple of typos (nothing much, really, "bag full" instead of "bagful", this kind of stuff, nothing proofreading or an editorial intervention would not solve.)

Overall the book's very useful, recommended.

At the same time, do not believe it _alone_ is sufficient: at some point, you'll have to visit the IEEE site and download 802.3 itself (and the LLC perhaps; and MAC bridging too, most likely) -- all in all about 1500-2000 pages. That'll make your brain hurt, but the book will help quite a bit.

Btw, the standard isn't badly written: it's very clear, amazingly so at times; the difficulty is in its being detailed and precise; it's lawyerly reading, really. Not easy. Get the standard first, read it, don't try to memorize or even understand everything, just make one pass over it. Take a few days off to recover, then read this book. Then go back to the standard: it'll become much more meaningful now, smoother. That's what I did, and I think it's a good way to learn Ethernet.

A couple of points about other reviews here: the ones that say the book is not practical, are correct in a sense: it's not a net admin's installation manual (take this, plug it here, close the box, buy Cisco box ABC, type this into console, etc.) It's higher-level, it's an overview, it's fundamentals. I think it is so by design and don't consider it a flaw. If you need to configure a Cisco box, get a Cisco book; this book won't help you much with any vendor specifics.

Another reviewer whines about the lack of ARP coverage; this one is speaking out of ignorance: ARP is an IP, not Ethernet artefact (and so is reading analyzer traces). ARP is used to get IP addresses, who are, by definition above anything 802.3 covers. (Btw, ARP does get mentioned, though not in any degree of depth). One needs to understand the OSI layering to know what belongs where and not confuse things. Any book on the IP protocol stack will cover ARP; this one doesn't need to, it's outside of its scope.

Once again, a good book.

I own several O'Reilly publishing's books including this one. Based on what I owned, I see that the O'Reilly tends to make books for novice to intermediate (experienced) poeple. I think O'Reilly's books fit for end users and early programmers or early system administrators. The books I think also fit for someone with computer science background who needs to learn more about LAN, WAN, and telecommunication network or protocols.

Therefore, the topics covered are in mild. They are not too basic, but also not too advanced. The topics are also explained in wide area. This way, the reader (novice/experienced reader) would get the concepts from a several point of view; which led to more understanding on the topics.

This "Ethernet: Definitive Guide" I think likewise fits the description. It is a nice introduction to Ethernet. It is also a nice introduction coverage for someone who needs to deploy, install, and maintain Ethernet LAN. This book covers basic IP addressing and routing, Ethernet cabling, and a little background on what makes Ethernet popular.

Those who understand more advanced IP routing or LAN cabling, will find this book is too straightforward and "not really helping" to understand more about Ethernet. I agree with previous commentator that the title "The Definitive Guide" is quite misleading, especially for more advanced reader.

Here is my suggestion to the "expert". For the cabling people, I recommend "Communications Cabling" by James Abruzzino or "LAN Wiring" by James Trulove. For the routing people who need to know the frames and packets, I suggest "TCP/IP Illustrated Volume 1: The Protocols" by Richard Stevens.

If you think you have a little or no prior knowledge on TCP/IP; before you read this book "Ethernet: The Definitive Guide", I recommend you to read first "Internetworking with TCP/IP Vol. 1: Principles, Protocols, and Architecture" by Douglas Comer. Without a sufficient background on TCP/IP, reading this Ethernet book would be confusing/misleading or at least gaining improper understanding.

The book was obviously once an encyclopedic reference on 10/100 ethernet with three small chapters on Gigabit, network design and troubleshooting. There are some factual errors in the book, but only the most pedantic would care about them, things like a single mode fiber showing light going straight down the core, not being refracted along a single transmission mode. I disagree with some of his usages of technical terms, but have seen others in the industry use them that way, and some of the details of designing a network are inconsistent with common practices, etc. Nowhere is propagation velocity factor discussed, and nobody in the real world would care. In short, unless you are a complete pedant, this book does what it sets out to do, and does it very well. If you want the definitive guide to historic ethernet, this is your book. If you want to know how to design and engineer ethernet networks, or you want to know about any modern standard, this is not the book you are looking for.

This is an excellent reference book for Ethernet networking. Read the whole thing and you will know more than most network administrators about network hardware, network topologies, and pros and cons of various alternative ways of building a network top to bottom (at least up to the point where it joins your computer). Incidentally, the book's introduction and first chapter also do a really good job of explaining why Ethernet works so well (having defeated all other would-be networking standards such as token ring).

From time to time I check to see if it's been updated. I'm always slightly disappointed that it hasn't, but then I realize it doesn't need an update just yet because Ethernet technology is mature now and the changes are incremental. But rest assured that when O-Reilly updates it, I will buy it again because this is one of those books that I have to have handy.