Customer Reviews

TCP-IP Clearly Explained (Clearly Explained Ser.), 3rd Edition

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

There are lots of books available about TCP/IP. Some are filled with great technical information, but are difficult to follow, because of the realm of information. Others are easier to read, but lack some important details. This book strikes a happy medium: full of excellent information, but still written in a style that's easy to follow and understand.

Among the topics covered besides obviously "TCP/IP" are network addresses and names (and assigning them), internetwork architecture, routing protocols, broadcasting and multicasting, and TCP/IP applications. There are also chapters about IPv6 (the so-called "next generation of IP") and brief chapters on intranets and extranets.

The book also contains a wealth of other resources. At the end of each chapter is a list of relevant RFC (Request For Comments), so the reader can learn more. The Appendixes also contain other references, a biliography and even a glossary of terms.

Another reviewer said if he could only have one book about TCP/IP, this would be it. I wholeheartedly agree.

Do understand the difference between a MAC address and an IP address? And why you need both? Do you understand what all those dots within an IP address are for? If you don't, then you need this book.

For a long time I have understood and mis-understood various bits and peices of what TCP/IP was and how LAN's and the internet work. Now I can put that all together.

TCP/IP only **seems** mysterious because its so hard to find someone who can really explain it clearly. This book does the job.

It only took the first 2 chapters for me to begin learning. With each answer came more questions, and the answers to those new questions were on the next page!

In fact, my curiosity to learn and learn more about TCP/IP eventually led me to CISCO Certification Academy a few months ago. There we used textbooks and manuals twice as large to explain the same subject. I feel as though I have a definite edge in the Academy because I read this book first and I understand TCP/IP. (And I had no prior networking experience.)

I would fault this book only for not having more (color) diagrams, but the illustrations that are there are accurate, and illustrate the subject matter well.

Also, I think that most people will find the first half of this book more useful than the second. On the advanced topic of subnetting, I have seen even better explanations on free internet sites... but to understand those advanced topics, you have to ...clearly understand the fundamentals... and this is exactly what this book does best.

I have the earlier, 1st edition version of "TCP/IP For Everyone". Assuming this is the same book, it's one of the best computer books I've ever read (and I've read a lot of 'em). A great introduction to networking for anyone who's interested- you don't need to be a techie to understand this one. I am ordering several copies for my office and will probably give a lecture based on it for my department. The title of this book is very appropriate. I highly recommend it, and am looking forward to see what's been added in this new edition.

If you've got a degree in computer science, you probably won't like this book too much: it's written mostly for intelligent and knowledgeable people who just happen to need to understand how IP networks work. All the protocols are explained, from the bottom layers (like ARP and RARP) up to the application layer (HTTP and FTP). IP, TCP, and UDP are also explained pretty well. If you could only have one book about IP networking, this would be a pretty good one to have.

This book is, IMHO, a well-organized and straightforward introduction to TCP/IP issues. It's not as detailed as Stevens' _Illustrated TCP/IP_, which is an excellent source if you're doing network implementations--but that's not what *this* book is supposed to be. This book is very obviously intended for people who just need to understand the basics and who need to understand how all the different parts of TCP/IP fit together.

I'd definitely recommend this one for people who don't know much about networking and need to know more.

I hard hard times rating this book on the scale from 1 to 5. This book is rather unusual: it is not as much about the practical implementation of TCP/IP, but rather about its philosophy. Using simple block-diagrams, where individual networks are represented by "clouds", computers shown as icons, and connections between them shown as straight lines, the book discusses the principles which make very complicated networks of millions of computers function flawlessly and enable them to find the way to each other within milliseconds. The book is good to get some background on TCP/IP, but it is not very helful as a reference for an end user to solve practical network problems. If you sit in front of your computer, and try to configure your network properly, then you have a network settings window in front of you and try to figure out what each DNS or WINS resolution entry means, and whether your current settings are right or wrong. This book tells you a lot about network in general, but unfortunately it is too academic to get into any practical details, such as local network troubleshooting, or details of the network configuration of Windows. Summarizing, I would say it is a fairly good book, but it covers a specific aspect of the TCP/IP networking, which not everyone may need.

This book really helped me to understand how Internet protocols work. I use this book as a springboard to learning about TCP/IP and related standards--because each chapter lists references to relevant RFCs, I can dig deeper when necessary.

I was looking for a crash course on understanding TCP/IP and how it provides a foundation for the internet. I have just finished reading this book and found useful information in every chapter. This is comprehensive and technical subject matter presented in an easy to understand manner.

This is not the book for the novice to go from nothing to a complete understanding of TCP/IP, but it is a great reference. It doesn't flow very well, and it is a little technical in its approach. It does however give a good explanation of the protocols within the TCP/IP suite. It is an excellent desk reference, but don't delete your link to RFC-editor for RFCs.

This is a great book. It is not a book "for dummies," but rather one for people who want a better over-all understanding of the way internetworks operate and the protocols behind them. It is loaded with information which is presented in a very straight-forward manner; one need not be an engineer to read this book, but the information it contains makes it useful to those of us who are engineers. The book's coverage includes (but is not limited to) major network topologies, the format of datagrams and frames, the various layers of the network model and a comprehensive explanation of the major protocols with a briefer look at the more specialized protocols. It even discusses security and encryption. I recommend this book for anyone aiming to become a network engineer or administrator or engineers who require a comprehensive understanding of networking technology (I myself am a software engineer working on client/server applications).