Microsoft® Encyclopedia of Networking, Second Edition (Paperback)

~ (Author), Ingrid Tulloch (Author) "An obsolete 1 megabit per second (Mbps) local area network (LAN) network technology..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking has a great deal to offer its readers--it's thoroughly researched, well written, and carefully laid out. A more apt title would have been The Encyclopedia of Microsoft Networking, however, since Windows NT, Windows 2000, and additional Microsoft networking solutions are emphasized at the expense of other popular and robust technologies. If you run a Windows shop or just want a reference on hand while you prepare for a Microsoft networking certification test, you'll be pleased by the contents of this book.

Author Mitch Tulloch has done a super job of defining (and, more importantly, explaining) hundreds of terms involving connecting computers to one another, sending signals across those connections, and performing useful work (such as database queries and electronic commerce transactions) with those signals. Entries tend to be long and thorough, often including examples or careful conceptual walk-throughs. The design team that organized this book deserves high praise too, because there are so many ways to find terms that are of interest to readers. (All the terms appear in a table of contents and an index, as well as in alphabetical order in the body of the encyclopedia.) There is also plenty of cross-referencing among terms.

The prime weakness in this book isn't necessarily that it favors Microsoft products, but that it's sometimes actively hostile to competing technologies. Linux is defined as suffering from corporate "reluctance to use free software ... because there is no single company responsible for its development and support," making it suitable only for students who want to learn the Unix operating system. The first statement is a standard Microsoft argument against the adoption of Linux, although it contains some truth. The second statement reflects an error of omission: Linux is suited to such students but also to many other kinds of users. The book, not surprisingly, also lacks an entry for the Apache Web server. So if you're interested mainly in Microsoft products and don't care about these matters, this is a great book. --David Wall

Topics covered: Computer networking, particularly as implemented under Microsoft operating systems, including Windows 9x, Windows NT 4, and Windows 2000. Physical media, protocols, applications, and whole business solutions that have to do with networking are explained in an alphabetically organized series of entries. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

Whether you're a system administrator, MCSA/MCSE certification candidate, or a CIO-here's definitive reference on the latest networking technologies and terminology. The superbly illustrated MICROSOFT ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NETWORKING, Second Edition, features thousands of entries-including many new entries and critical updates and revisions to the popular first edition. It offers expanded coverage of key Microsoft products and technologies, including Microsoft .NET, as well as the platforms and products of other major vendors such as Cisco, Sun, Novell, Oracle, and the Open Source Community. It's one of the most complete and accurate compendiums of networking topics available-and, with the entire encyclopedia on CD, one of the most useful!

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1313 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press; 2nd edition (May 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735613788
• ISBN-13: 978-0735613782
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.2 x 2.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #554,057 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book rocks!, June 11, 2000

By	Michael J Woznicki "Michael J Woznicki" (Holland, MA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking (It-Independent) (Paperback)

What is an Active Directory structure? What does a cookie do? What is DMS? How does an Ethernet Switch work? Why is FAT 16 different from FAT32? What RFC covers ICMP? How does the NetBIOS name work? These are but a small portion of what you'll find in the best networking encyclopedia on the market today.

From A to Z and everything in between this mountain of networking information is just what every network technician, help desk technician, LAN administrator and network engineer need at their side. Over 1400 pages give you the most complete listing of terms, definitions and explanations on the market today.

Microsoft Press has gone to great lengths to make sure you have the information right at your fingertips. Covering topics like NT Workstation, NT Server, protocols, DNS, WINS, gateway operations, configurations and installations. Everything and I mean everything has been included.

Microsoft Press left nothing out as they included an electronic version of the book on cd...For those serious about networking, from the beginner to the expert, you now have the definitive Microsoft Networking Reference manual - excellent job!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most complete networking reference... EVER!, June 4, 2000

By	Christopher Wells (Rochester, NY, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking (It-Independent) (Paperback)

This book is purely a reference, but gives clear concise defintions of every term and a "how it works" practical application of the term discussed. I am using it to prepare for an interview and it is doing a grand job so far.

Peace.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just about everything is here!, November 4, 2002

By	Stephen Bryant (Peachtree City, Ga United States) - See all my reviews

Not only are networking terms covered in this book, but hardware, platforms, standards, disaster recovery components and essentially every reference you will ever need for the industry has been documented and alphabetically sorted in this book. One of the things that impressed me the most about this book is that the descriptions are not Webster-like. In fact if you look up "shared folder permissions" you will find 3 pages and six diagrams that provide not only a definition, but a practical guide for application as well. For example; what permissions are more restrictive, how the permission changes are applied for several different operating systems ranging from Windows 98 and ME to Windows XP and .NET Server, default permissions, application of permissions to groups and even the implications of an NTFS partition.

The part that earned my respect as a seasoned consultant was the inclusion of wireless networking terms and standards. Recently, I have been involved in several writing projects and need to know a little about everything in order to provide my readers with peripheral information about a particular subject. Not only was I able to find information on the 802.11 standard, but the Tullocks' also included information on the variants including the 802.11b, 802.11a and 802.15 standards. In fact, there are nearly twenty pages of wireless protocol and support information. In addition, subjects such as Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) is covered and explained as is frequency hopping and spread spectrum. I certainly did not plan on finding those examples, diagrams and explanations. I found the same level of detail when I needed to search for information on public key cryptography. A detailed description of the different types of keys is provided as is the components that make up the environment and cross-references to certificate authorities, encryption, SSL and digital certificates including X.509 information. There is enough information on PKI that any reader could not only understand but know enough to be able to identify components and talk intelligently on the subject.

Another important aspect of networking that I did not expect to see is the networking commands and tools. For example, all the TCP/IP commands such as tracert, ping, route, rcp, rexec and tftp are defined and explained. UNIX commands are also defined and explained as are Windows 2000, XP and .NET Server commands. Detailed NET commands for Windows networking are also described and explained from NET ACCOUNTS to NET VIEW. For the most part, the commands that received the most attention in this book are Microsoft networking related, but considerable energy was spent in defining and explaining commands from other networking operating systems including UNIX. In addition, information about Apache and Linux is included as are many pages on NetWare and NDS subjects.

Aside from the many topics that I did not expect to see in the book, the topics that should be included in a networking encyclopedia are all there and in great detail. Just about every hardware element from cables and how to build a cross-over cable to fiber-optic, fibre channel, hubs switches and even routing protocols are covered and explained so that the reader can quickly see the benefits and drawbacks of each technology. It would almost seem that an entire section was dedicated to subnetting as page after page is used to explain and detail how and why subnetting is used and implemented. Many tables are provided to explain the relation between the mask and the number of subnets and hosts. The novice should immediately understand the implications of subnetting while the die-hards will refer to the section as a reference.