Customer Reviews

Comm Netowrks A First Course (The Aksen Associates series in electrical and computer engineering)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This book is not worth the price!!!!!

A very poorly written book. It is not suitable for beginners because it assumes prior knowledge of communication networks. It is also not suitable for network veterans because it is too basic and just touches on a lot of subjects.

Organization: First few chapters will make you wonder how much you were suppose to know to read this book. In the beginning 2 chapters, there is too much jumping around and nothing really gets done. Some concepts are barely mentioned while others, seemingly without reason, are heavily drilled upon. Chapter 3 is heavy on routing algorithm with hard to understand figures. Ch. 4 and 5 are well written on the different LAN's. Suddenly, ch. 6 talks about data link layer. And then ch 7 talks about the layer before that, the physical layer. I couldn't understand this organization. Why not describe each of the 7 layers? Why start from data link and then go down to physical?

Figures and plots: very very hard to understand. Almost cryptic. Sometimes words in the plots to describe a transmission or node do not correspond to the words used in the text.

Text: Concepts are not explained clearly. Having typos that mislead you don't help either. The author assumes that the reader already understand some of the notations used in describing network systems, like notation for sets and binary arithmetics.

On many parts of the text I have read it over 5 times trying to understand the concepts but still gave up at the end. Now I have given up reading the text completely.

1. This 2nd edition has tons of typos and poorly-stated questions and ambiguous diagrams 2. It does a LOT of handwaving. This is frustrating beyond description. 3. It DOES NOT EVEN say what fields are in a TCP header! Yet it asks a question on it! 4. We used this for a course and EVERY WEEK, the instructors and TAs had to interpret, re-word or explain text and problems from the book that were part of weekly homework. 5. I dont see how that reviewer from San Jose can give this 5 stars. I can only guess that s/he got this book confused with the other Walrand books. To add insult to injury, this awful book has an exhorbitant price (it is but 3/4" thick). There is much more i could say!

TRUST ME: Do NOT buy this textbook and if a prof is using it for a course, DROP the course and/or BEG the professor to use ANY OTHER book (like Tanenbaum or Peterson&Davie). Avoid this book at all costs!

this book is absolutely worthless. i actually took a communication class with the author of this book at UC Berkeley, and it is hard for me to decide who's worse: the book or prof. walrand. the entire class hated the book, even the TA's were not able to help us understand it because they didn't understand the book either. this is absolutely the worst book i've ever read. the prof knew the whole class hated him, so he didn't even dare to show up during the finals.
any other book in networking would be better.

This book was the absolute worst textbook I have ever encountered. Unfortunately, I needed it for my first Master's degree class in Communications. Absolutely unclear in its explainations and problems and questions that seem to come out of the blue. The appendices were useless is describing queuing theory and statistics. The entire class hated this book, but had to buy it new. I'm embarrassed to say that the professor for the course reviewed it.

This book is a huge waste of money and material.

This is a very good book. It strives to give students of networking a broad view of modern communications, along with
the elements of networks. As it also strives to pack all this
into 336 pages, it can be fairly "to-the-point" at certain places. But intelligent readers can fill in the gaps. The book
is not designed to convey the details of say, transport control
but the basics, the most essential points. It succeeds to some
extent on that front. Heartily recommended.

This has to be the worst textbook I have ever encountered. If you want to understand the material in this book, you should have plenty of networking background in your pocket already. Even with 5 years and industry certifications under my belt, I came away from this book with more confusion than understanding. Ross & Kurose is a better start, as is Todd Lammle's networking certification materials. For that matter, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Networking does a better job at explaining some concepts in this book than this book does. If the author had decided to go for clarity rather than brevity, this might be an ideal book for reference. As it is, it serves as little more than a $100 paperweight.

When I purchased the book, I thought it would be a concise yet well-explained book for the price. It turns out that it is horrible. The book leaves out many details, expects you to have previous knowledge of many topics (or to look outside for explanations), and has many errata. The figures are poorly drawn and explained. The problems often require more knowledge than is available in the book.

This is one of the worst texts I've ever read! The author writes as though the reader totally understands every complex example presented. This is amazing because some parts are very simple and easy to understand. The calculations and formulas are almost to impossible to comprehend. Don't waste your time with this book! There are better, more comprehesive communication networks books out there. This text is by NO means "A First Course"!

Excellent read. The explanations were clear with lots of examples. Teaches network basics as well as intermediate topics. Includes historical facts and future projections.
Highly recommended for beginners and refreshers.