TCP/IP for Dummies (Paperback)

~ (Author), (Author) "You bought this book (or maybe you're just flipping through it) to find out about TCP/IP..." (more)
Key Phrases: rwho daemon, stealing cycles, rfc index, World Wide Web, United States, Internet Explorer (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

TCP/IP for Dummies is for anyone who wants to explore what really makes the Web tick. In a lighthearted style, the authors explain the basics of TCP/IP and other technologies. They discuss what TCP/IP can do in the context of various types of networks such as LANs and WANs and briefly introduce the reader to concepts such as firewalls and client/server applications.

The book continues with tutorials on SMTP--the standard mail protocol of the Net--and other bedrock protocols such as FTP, Telnet, and DNS in easy-to-understand language that demystifies the oodles of acronyms. Information follows on how IP addresses, IPv6, dial-up networking, and thin clients work.

In the Part of Tens section--a hallmark of the Dummies series--the authors go wild with lists such as Ten Reasons to use TCP/IP, Ten Frequently Asked Questions about TCP/IP, and Ten RFCs Worth Tasting. If you want to leave the safe world of your browser to go down the technical route, TCP/IP for Dummies offers an easy read and an informative presentation. --Stephen W. Plain

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.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 3nd edition (March 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764504738
• ISBN-13: 978-0764504730
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,258,158 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 41 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

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

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.

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars a book for EXTREME dummies, December 21, 1999

By	+++ (CA, United States) - See all my reviews

The idea of the series "for dummies" is to present complicated concepts in a simple way, so that people without any background in that particular area of knowledge could easily follow and understand. This is not an easy task, and many authors use analogies from the everyday life to explain complicated technical issues. In this book, the usage of analogies exceeds all reasonable and necessary proportions, and some of these analogies are tasteless and excessive, from my point of view. I really wonder what level of "dumminess" did the authors anticipated in their readers to choose such a level of explanations. Furthermore, the subdivision of the text into 2-3 subsection per page with weird titles like "Let network be Santa, and it just might work", along with the above mentioned examples (which are pretty much in the style of the subtutle, quoted above) distract from the topic of the book rather than help. To be fair, I should admit that the book does contain all the basics of the TCP/IP networking, and could be a good starting book, if it were better written. However, if it is NOT your first book on networking, it will not teach you a lot, and it is certainly not deep enough to be used as a reference.