Customer Reviews

The Switch Book: The Complete Guide to LAN Switching Technology

5 star:		(15)
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The main reason I'm writing this review is that I feel that this book is not getting the readership it "rich"ly deserves.Rich covers the basics of Lans with elan (all puns copyrighted).You will understand the concepts and implementation of bridging thus allowing you to view routing in a better perspective.Rich's laws of networking are absolutely gems: a chapter summarized into a line.His excellent and generous use of flowcharts and diagrams deserve some stars by themselves.Also the description of the protocols, the tradeoffs made during their design leaves you with an insight as to how to (and in some cases how not to) design a working protocol.

The last chapter is a gem - it covers the life of a packet as it enters the bridge till it exits on one of the ports.If you're a router guy, read this and you'll never sneer at a bridge again.

The explanations are lucid,simple to the point and are peppered with the odd bad engineering joke (better than Radia Perlman's sarcasm :)]I bought this book based on other readers recommendations and am glad for the same.

This book is a networking bible along with those by Stevens,Comer,Perlman and of course thomas maufer.

While you can more or less read any chapter in isolation, you are recommended to go in order to maximize your output from this book.

PS: A layer 1 switch is a shared hub or a repeater * A layer 2 switch is a bridge * A layer 3 switch is a router *

The rest of this review was lost due to collisions on the lan. Back off Rich,Back off !! :)

Rich Seifert has played a significant role in the development of Ethernet and other high-speed LAN standards and is the perfect person to write a book on this subject. Also an excellent teacher, Rich knows how to take the reader from basic introductory information through comprehensive technical details, with an often humorous writing style that works for advanced-level engineers and ordinary people like me who are mathematically-challenged!

If you need to design, install, or manage networks with switching and need to fully understand Layer 2 and 3 switching, Virtual LANs, Link Aggregation, QoS, and more, this book is a must-have. Simply understanding the terminology used when talking about switching will help the reader select the correct products for his or her needs. Rich does a great job of cutting through the marketing hype.

Of course, I am biased in that Rich and the publisher asked me to be one of the early reviewers of this book and I thought it was great then and am thrilled that it is finally available for the rest of the world.

I have been in the telecom industry for 8 years and have worked with ATM, TDM and SONET/SDH. The time has come for me to join the switching and routing folks. I have read a number of technical books relevant to what I do, and I have never finished one (cover to cover). It was not until I bought "The Switch Book" that I actually could not stop reading this book. It is the perfect book if you want to get into the switching world. In fact he explains fundamentals, history and technology so well that you cannot help but learn it.

His style of writting, his sense of humor and the way the book is organized is fantastic.

A must have and a must read.

There are many books on LANs and switching. Most of them are too basic and not well written. "The Switch Book" is a rarity in this crowded field. It covers a lot of different aspects of switching in great detail, yet the book is so well written that it can be read in a week! I read it four times from cover to cover now and every time I learned something new. At our company we require every new application engineer to buy this book. I will love to see Mr. Seiffert write a follow up to this book covering more advanced topics. It is reading good books like this that makes a person feel sane, that one wasn't imagining that the other books were badly written rush jobs. This book joins the list of other excellent books like Stevens' "TCP/IP Illustrated."

I have read 100's of technical books on many different subjects. I have to say this is the most well written book of any.

The author clearly knows his subject matter and explains things well. He even tells you when a particular section can be skipped without loss of meaning to the rest of the book.

I hate technical books with lame jokes. His jokes are FUNNY and worth reading.

This is a great book if you want to learn about switching concepts. The book is very detailed and a surprisingly easy read for its technical contents. It has the right mix of history and logic behind the way protocols were designed.

After reading this book you are not going to need any other book on this subject. Global picture is here. Details are here. You just have to take the switch in your hands. That is not included in the book. You have to buy it yourself. The author was really not selfish to share his knowledge to interested readers.

I work in the bottom 3 OSI layers and pretty much refer back to the same 3 books all the time:
1. Ethernet by Charlie Spurgeon
2. TCP/IP Vol 1 by W.Richard Stevens
3. Switched, Fast and Gig Ethernet by Breyer & Riley
These 3 books are tops.
The Switch Book belongs right up there with these three.

Outstanding coverage of switches, from beginner level to advanced. Well written, clear, and even funny in places.

I read the first 140 pages before my rottweiller ate the book a couple of days ago. On the strength of those 140 pages, I ordered a replacement copy. Seifert has been involved in the development of LAN standards for many years, so he has intimate technical knowledge of how switches work. His writing is lucid and entertaining--many amusing anecdotes, asides & aphorisms are sprinkled throughout. The introductory chapters provide sufficient background for LAN novices to understand the later material. This is the definitive text on LAN switching technology, and it is an easy read.