Tcp/Ip for Dummies, Fourth Edition [Paperback]

Candace Leiden (Author), Marshall Wilensky (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0764507265 | ISBN-13: 978-0764507267 | Publication Date: August 11, 2000 | Edition: 4th

If you want to keep up on the ever-changing technology of networking and the Internet, you'll like this friendly guide, which now covers the latest protocols as well as Windows 2000 and Linux. Find out about the Internet, intranets and extranets, advances in security, the internationalization of TCP/IP, and more.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

TCP/IP for Dummies aims to decode the protocols and executables that underlie the Internet and other networks that comply with its data communications standards. By combining how-to information that explains how to configure TCP/IP networking on various Microsoft Windows systems (including Windows 2000) with plenty of academic material on how Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP) work, the authors deliver considerable value to their readers. There ought to be TCP/IP configuration coverage of Linux and Mac OS, too--TCP/IP is, after all, ideal for heterogeneous networking--but the detailed information about the stack's workings offsets the hands-on shortcomings.

The authors spend a bit too long explaining elementary stuff about the Internet. Still, they unravel Internet phenomena very clearly and explain, for example, that FTP is a protocol, a service, and an application in complete TCP/IP suites. Dummies books are big on the use of analogies to explain technical subjects; this book uses food and a dinnerware set as an analogy for the TCP/IP software, and sometimes distracts from its educational objective by struggling to make the comparison fit. Regardless, the authors succeed in explaining an important and complex set of internetworking technologies to readers who have no prior TCP/IP experience. You'll appreciate the background that this book provides if you're planning to configure a small TCP/IP network or work your way toward more elaborate jobs. --David Wall

Topics covered: The TCP/IP stack and its applications, explained in terms that--while not oversimplified--will be understood easily by someone who has little networking knowledge. Fundamentals of networking, client-server communications, TCP/IP protocols (including SMTP, HTTP, POP3, FTP, and various routing protocols), Windows configuration procedures, and name resolution all get attention. A nice section explains IPv6 well.

Review

“…a definitive learners’ guide, an amusing one…a great starter kit…”(IT Training, June 2003) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 373 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 4th edition (August 11, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764507265
• ISBN-13: 978-0764507267
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,355,927 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Helps to demystify the topic, but falls short, October 28, 2000

By 

gwennie-michele "gwennie-michele" (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: TCP/IP for Dummies (Paperback)

Background: I am a software tester who has worked on several projects using network technologies to implement the software solutions. In each case, I had no training or understanding of the underlying techologies used (a situation that creates tons of stress and frustration). I have been a purchaser of many of the "For Dummies" books because they do often succeed in providing an introduction to, and conceptual framework for understanding the subjects they discuss.

My Review: This book has been a mixed bag. Before reading TCP/IP for Dummies, I did in fact feel "like a dummy". Reading it has helped to allay that feeling. The authors do succeed in explaining many TCP/IP technologies and networking issues. I now have an awareness of what was going on under the hood of those software implementations I worked on and why they were implemented as they were. However, I must agree fully with the reviewers who found the food analogies used by the authors excessive and unuseful. For the most part, the analogies did nothing to illustrate the concepts. At several points I just stopped reading altogether because I knew the author(s) were off on their food tangent again, had forgotten their subject matter, and more importantly their audience. At other times, I crossed out entire paragraphs because they contained nothing but the continued bad use of these annoying analogies and explained nothing. (However, I blame these lapses on the editors as much as on the authors.)

Beyond these frustrations, I also took the following exceptions with the book:

(1) the authors fail to explain key concepts such as ports and subnetting in an understandable fashion. I found no reference to or discussion of TCP/IP sockets. (I have subsequently learned that understanding these concepts are key to understanding the communication process between two networked computers).

(2) the internet protocols are poorly explained and in some cases not explained at all. This lapse occurs in Chapter 6. The entire chapter needs to be re-written.

(3) terms are introduced before they are explained (for example ports), or are not explained at all. The authors have one subsection in Chater 6 called "Protocol, application or service", the idea being that some TCP/IP functions are one, the other or sometimes all of these. Still, the authors do not provide any distinguishing explanation between these three things or provide a meaningful explanation of them. By the end of the book you know (sorta) but where is the simple explanation that could have given clear and immediate understanding to the reader?

(4) the index is poor -- on a couple of occasions I could not find reference to the topics that I was looking for (memory escapes me now as to what they were).

(5) the compact disc that comes with the book includes files containing the RFCs, which are technical specifications and explanations of the protocols, but there isn't any reference on the CD of the topic of the RFCs (just their number). You have to open up each file and browse them to see what the RFC is about. Who's got time to do this?

In summary, the book has merit for the truly uninitiated, which is what I was at the time that I read it. I am no longer ignorant (which is in and of itself a reward). Of the several books that I browsed at the time I bought TCP/IP for Dummies, and those I've browsed since reading it, I still conclude that this was the right book to start with (even if it does leave you with that feeling you get after an unsatsfying meal: You're no longer hungry, but you do want and need more.) Sorry, I just couldn't resist the food analogy.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars TCP/IP For Dummies By Dummies, October 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: TCP/IP for Dummies (Paperback)

I was mislead by the title. This book doesn't teach us the innards of TCP/IP or its programming or adminstration. Instead, it is a shallow survey of internet applications. All the good info is pointed at (rather than included) in the form of urls. I spent $20 for a bookmarks folder. It should have been called Internet for Chefs. The food analogies were the worst the authors could have chosen to illustrate the concepts. They were distracting, annoying and downright harmful to the text flow. The humor was tasteless, and the constant ridiculing of the "nerdy jargon" gives the feeling of authors who hate the subject matter rather than love it.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The book for beginners, not Dummies!, February 3, 2002

By 

"orvillec" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tcp/Ip for Dummies, Fourth Edition (Paperback)

How do you teach TCP/IP to people who have little computer technology experience. That is what I faced as an engineer teaching 'newbies' the inside of the technology. My courses are taught to ordinary people, who just want a basic understanding of the field. TCP/IP is a tough subject to get across, even to 'techies'.
Having reviewed several books on the subject I found this to be the most useful. It's fun to read. It gets the IDEA across.
And, yes, it's not a book for serious, career seekers. It's a book for the average Joe - Joe Public.