Customer Reviews

The Network Architecture Design Handbook

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

 

 

People facing networking problems, even if as user only, would like to find answers for three kind of questions: What is a network and how does it work? You can read the book by Tanenbaum Computer networks to find it out. Which requirements have I to meet to design a network? And the book Practical Computer Network Analysis and Design by McCabe is good for this task. How can I design it in order to integrate required services and choose the right equipment to build it? And the book by Taylor does NOT provide an answer, not even useful hints. Maybe it tries to, maybe it is obsolete, the author takes more than five hundred pages (plus appendixes) to say actually nothing but a long and never ending chat, in which many subjects are often repeated, using a vague language. More details are explained about protocols, but, despite the title of the book and inside chapters, very little is said about their relation to network design. However, you can find almost everywhere publications providing any detail you need about protocols, so you don't need to purchase a textbook about network design. And a bit more, but just a bit, can be found in the last chapters about bridging and routing (that is why I think the book deserves two stars instead of one). But for these last subjects, in my opinion, the book provides you material to speak about networks in a pub in the same way other people speak about sport or girls. But nothing else.

I found The Network Architecture Design Handbook to be one of the best books on the subject of hybrid and LAN\WAN networking. I highly recommend it to anyone who is seriously interested in learning more or just looking to expand his or her knowledge base in this fascinating field.