Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
We use it on whatis.com as a great information source!, June 14, 1998
As the network administrator for some large and small companies around Boston, Chris Brenton noticed that networking books almost always focused on only one kind of network. Brenton's experience was that most companies invariably needed to mix Novell Netware networks with, for example, Windows NT, perhaps also supporting some Macintoshs that speak AppleTalk, and, with the increasing importance of the Internet, every administrator also needed to understand TCP/IP. Brenton's book is about how to be calm and organized and master all of it. He starts from the beginning with elementary network concepts and facts: what's actually on the transmission line, the kinds of line and airwave media, and basic network topologies. He describes each of the different kinds of networking hardware, from punch-down panels and PC Cards through hubs and switches (including those that handle VLANs). A chapter that begins with the Open Systems Interconnection OSI) reference model discusses specific network protocols including IP, the various TCP/IP application protocols, Novell's Domain Name Service (DNS), IPX, NetBIOS, and AppleTalk, and relates them all to OSI. After discussing these protocols together in a single chapter, the author provides a chapter on each major network operating system - Novell's IntranetWare, the Windows NT server, and UNIX systems - and adds a chapter about Lotus Notes, a network application likely to be superimposed on any of them. Having discussed servers, Brenton then describes how to configure the client programs at workstations and how to consolidate protocols. The final chapters describe the troubleshooting tools available to an administrator in general and within each operating system and provide approaches to diagnosing real-world problems. Unlike a number of networking books we've seen, this book is a pleasure to read. Brenton's conversational style set into a well-organized framework lets you read, meander, or do a quick look-up. The book design and the book's many illustrations ! aim at clarity. At whatis.com, we haven't had this book long, but we find ourselves making frequent use of it. This book is not just for network administrators. We recommend it without qualification to anyone who wants to know more about how networks work.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An indispensable resource to busy folks, August 3, 1998
By A Customer
Hats off to Chris Brenton! I'm a Dir of MIS, I wasn't always, one of the hardest things for me to do is communicate, to my non-technical peers, why we need to spend money on our net gear. This book is a great resource for helping me remember and explain things at almost any level. This book reads like a conversation with the author not the standard stereo instruction I see all to often these days. I find myself going back and reading it over and over. It's become required reading for my staff.Regards Jerry Buote Dir. MIS Adams ,Harkness & Hill Inc. Boston,MA
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A good book that was never edited for grammar., July 5, 1998
By A Customer
The description suggests a wide discussion of multiprotocol networks--Novell, Windows NT, UNIX, and Lotus Notes. In reality, the book is heavily weighted towards Novell. The vast majority of examples, descriptions and figures are specifically from Novell. Not that that's bad, but be prepared for lightly covered NT and Red Hat Linux. I'm still confused about why Lotus Notes was included in a book of NOSs. Still, the book was well laid out, easy to follow, and fairly exhaustive in covering networking, from a topical viewpoint. Anyone who wants to understand any part of networking, from beginning to end, Chris Brenton touches on it.Although the author seems very knowledgeable, the grammatical errors are like boulders on the interstate; all that clutter makes navigation terribly slow. I'm astonished the publisher let this title go to print with its name on it. That leads me to believe Sybex is more interested in shaking down its readers, than in providing decent reading material. (Does Sybex know about editors?) Sybex got me once, but never again.
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