The TCP/IP Guide: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Internet Protocols Reference (Hardcover)

~ Charles Kozierok (Author) "They say the best place to start is at the beginning, and that's exactly where you are now..." (more)
Key Phrases: vendor information fields, table name system, object name hierarchy, Internet Protocol, Router Advertisement, Address Resolution Protocol (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A New TCP/IP Classic" -- Slashdot, December 14, 2005

"A rocking, well-organized, profusely illustrated book . . . Probably the best new introduction and reference book around." -- NetPerformance.com, June 12, 2006

"It's informative and easy to read, even when discussing rather nasty protocols." -- ;login:, April 2006

"Nicely organized, from an introduction to networking through administration and troubleshooting, the book clearly explains each topic." -- Library Journal, January 15, 2006

"The TCP/IP Guide is great for anyone and everyone . . . it can act both as a reference guide and a textbook." -- Linux Security, April 6, 2006

"The most comprehensive guide to TCP/IP protocols we have ever come across . . . [and] the most readable . . . we highly recommend it." -- Network World, November 28, 2005

"This book is the Real Deal . . . you will appreciate the mastery of Kozierok's achievement." -- WatchGuard Wire

"This is a really well-done book, . . . easy-to-digest information about TCP/IP." -- IBM’s DeveloperWorks, January 18, 2006

"Well-organized, well-illustrated, and has a conversational tone that makes it easy to read and learn even for networking novices." -- Windows Networking, May 10, 2006

Product Description

The TCP/IP Guide is both an encyclopedic and comprehensible guide to the TCP/IP protocol suite that will appeal to newcomers and the seasoned professional. It details the core protocols that make TCP/IP internetworks function, and the most important classical TCP/IP applications. Its personal, easy-going writing style lets anyone understand the dozens of protocols and technologies that run the Internet, with full coverage of PPP, ARP, IP, IPv6, IP NAT, IPSec, Mobile IP, ICMP, RIP, BGP, TCP, UDP, DNS, DHCP, SNMP, FTP, SMTP, NNTP, HTTP, Telnet and much more. The author offers not only a detailed view of the TCP/IP protocol suite, but also describes networking fundamentals and the important OSI Reference Model.

What reviewers are saying about The TCP/IP Guide:

"Keeps things interesting and flowing well enough that working one's way through... is actually entertaining instead of torture." -- Slashdot

"This book is the Real Deal... If you've read as many bad IT books as I have, you will appreciate the mastery of Kozierok's achievement. His warmth and style don't smack you in the face at first, but keep reading, and you'll discover an IT brother." -- WatchGuard Wire

"The most comprehensive guide to TCP/IP protocols we have ever come across. It also is the most readable. This is a book that will be staying on our shelves, and we highly recommend it." -- NetworkWorld

"Now I can retire all my other TCP/IP books I have gathering dust on my bookshelves... This book however may become timeless, because it not only talks about, but shows everything." -- MacCompanion

"Smartly illustrated, the book is easily navigated for both brief overviews of the subject matter and more in-depth study of TCP/IP-related topics... A welcome change from the information congestion common on the Information Superhighway" -- About This Particular Mac

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1616 pages
• Publisher: No Starch Press (October 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159327047X
• ISBN-13: 978-1593270476
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 2.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #19,824 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

83 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Monumental, but not a must-read, September 25, 2006

By	Richard Bejtlich "TaoSecurity.com" (Metro Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Right away I must state that I did not read "The TCP/IP Guide" (TTG) cover-to-cover. I doubt anyone will, which raises interesting issues. This review is based on the sections I did read and my comparisons with other protocol books.

Protocol books should be divided into two eras. The first is the "Stevens era," meaning those written around the time Richard Stevens' "TCP/IP Illustrated, Vol 1: The Protocols" was published. For six years (1994-2000) Stevens' book was clearly the best protocol book, and it taught TCP/IP to legions of networking pros. The second is the "modern era," beginning in 2000 and continuing to today. TTG fits in this group.

I question the approach taken by TTG. The book contains extremely basic information (what is networking, why use layers, what is a protocol, etc.) and extremely obscure information (PPP Link Control Protocol Frame Types and Fields, SNMPv2 PDU Error Status Field Values, Interpretation of Standard Telnet NVT ASCII Control Codes, etc.). If TTG were an introductory book, it wouldn't need the obscure material. If TTG were a reference, it wouldn't need the introductory material. I think beginners would be scared by this book, although the tone and explanations are suitable for those with a real dedication to learning. (Note: TTG features 88 chapters, 14 of those are 8 pages or less.)

For beginners, a better introduction is Jeanna Matthews' "Computer Networking: Internet Protocols in Action." Matthews' book is shorter (273 pages), more direct, and packet-example-based, meaning it ships with a CD-ROM of traces that readers can analyze as they read Matthews' commentary. The lack of examinations of packet traces is one of my biggest problems with TTG. If TTG aims to be comprehensive, it should have looked at real traffic using Ethereal/Wireshark instead of staying at the specification level.

For intermediate readers, Eric Hall's "Internet Core Protocols: The Definitive Guide" is a great look at the building blocks of networking, albeit without IPv6 or application protocols. Hall's book is also packet-oriented, with examples for each concept.

For expert readers, "Troubleshooting Campus Networks" by Priscilla Oppenheimer and Joseph Bardwell is outstanding. J. Scott Haugdahl's "Network Analysis and Troubleshooting" and Kevin Burns' "TCP/IP Analysis and Troubleshooting Toolkit" are also excellent. All three show packets.

Those with some networking experience looking for a thorough (but not packet-example-based) examination should definitely read Adrian Farrel's "The Internet and Its Protocols: A Comparative Approach." Farrel demonstrates deep subject matter expertise by showing similarities and differences between protocols. He also covers protocols like MPLS and SCTP that are ignored by TTG.

So what could Kozierok's TTG have done differently? First, the book should be split into three volumes. Volume 1 should cover all of the core protocols (ARP/RARP, IP, IPv6, ICMP, ICMPv6, UDP, TCP). Those of us already familiar with those protocols or already in possession of other books on the same subject could safely ignore Vol 1. Vol 2 should be the first of two volumes on application protocols. Vol 2 could cover all of the standard application protocols well-documented elsewhere (DHCP, DNS, SNMP, TFTP, FTP, HTTP, SMTP, POP3, IMAP4, Telnet, SSH, SSL/TLS). Many people could ignore Vol 2 too. Vol 3 should cover protocols not well-documented elsewhere, but important, like SMB/CIFS, NFS, NTP, various flavors of P2P, VoIP, and instant messaging and IRC.

If a book like TTG is going to devote a chapter to Gopher (which I probably haven't used in 10 years), it should cover SMB, Microsoft's file sharing protocol (also known as CIFS, incorrectly called "NetBIOS" by some). TTG covers NFS instead, saying NFS is "the most common [network file and resource sharing protocol] for TCP/IP." Given Microsoft's domination of the desktop, SMB is ubiquitous. (A few of my recommended books address SMB.)

TTG is still a monumental effort. I did find several sections very helpful. The discussion of bit masking (set bits with OR, clear with AND, invert with XOR) in Ch 4 was clear. Ch 28's explanation of NAT terminology, such as using DNS with bidirectional (inbound) NAT made sense. I agree with Gordon Shephard's review, including the comment about TTG's PPP chapter being unique.

I'm not sure exactly who should read TTG. I would strongly consider it if your networking shop has no other TCP/IP books and you work with people of varying networking skills.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding TCP/IP resource, December 28, 2005

By	John Downing (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I read and review IT related textbooks as part of my work as a VoIP trainer for TrainingCity. "The TCP/IP Guide" is an outstanding reference text and deserves to be in the reference library of every IT professional.

I noticed an earlier review that claimed this text is not for the serious engineer. Well, I am a Professional Engineer with over 18 years experience in the field, and I found the TCP/IP Guide to contain all sorts of useful information in a format that was both comprehensive and enlightening. In MHO, this text is a great resource for both design engineers/ software developers, and enterprise IT staff.

I was hoping the TCP/IP Guide would include additional information on topics such as RTP (Real Time Protocol). However, given the length of the text (1600 odd pages!), I can understand why some of these more exotic TCP/IP topics were excluded.

Overall, this book is well worth the price.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A valuable encyclopedic compendium of TCP/IP information, October 14, 2006

By	Ed Tittel "Developer of Exam Cram" (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

At 5.25 pounds and 1616 pages, and chock-full of charts, figures, and diagrams (its lists of figures and diagrams alone are 19 pages long) this book truly earns its subtitle. I've been working with TCP/IP for a long time (as far back as the early 1980s) and I've never seen a book on this subject before to match this one. That said I've only been working with it for months so I'll probably update this review after I've lived with and used the book a while longer -- but even now, I know of no other resource (except its online analog at [...] to equal its depth or breadth of coverage.

Literally, when it comes to TCP/IP, this book's got it all. You need only flip through the table or contents (better still, the index at the back) to get a sense of how truly encyclopedic its coverage really is. Let's take a hike through the top two levels of The TCP/IP Guide's table of contents (slightly abridged for brevity):
Section I: TCP/IP Overview and Background Information
Part I-1: Networking Fundamentals (61 pp)
Part I-2: The OSI Reference Model
Part I-3: TCP/IP Protocol Suite and Architecture
Section II: TCP/IP Lower-Layer Core Protocols
Part II-1: TCP/IP Network Interface Layer Protocols (SLIP & PPP)
Part II-2: TCP/IP Network Interface Layer Connection Protocols (ARP & RARP)
Part II-3: Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4)
Part II-4: Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)
Part II-5: IP-Related Feature Protocols (NAT, IPsec, & Mobile IP)
Part II-6: IP Support Protocols (ICMPv4, ICMPv6)
Part II-7: TCP/IP Routing Protocols (Gateway Protocols: RIP, OSPF, BGP, others)
Part II-8: TCP/IP Transport Layer Protocols (TCP & UDP)
Section III: TCP/IP Application Layer Protocols
Part III-1: Name Systems and TCP/IP Name Registration and Resolution (DNS)
Part III-2: Network File and Resource Sharing Protocols (NFS)
Part III-3: Host Configuration and TCP/IP Host Configuration Protocols (Bootp, DHCP, DHCPv6)
Part III-4: Network Management Framework and Protocols (SMI, SNMP, RMON)
Part III-5: TCP/IP Application Addressing and Application Categories
Part III-6: TCP/IP General File Transfer Protocols (FTP & TFTP)
Part III-7: TCP/IP E-mail Concepts and Principles (RFC 822, MIME, SMTP, more)
Part III-8: TCP/IP WWW and HTTP
Part III-9: Other File and Message Transfer Apps (Usenet, NNTP, Gopher)
Part III-10: Interactive and Administrative Utilities and Protocols

The content in this book is accurate, clear, and both well written and illustrated. See Chapter 12 "PPP Protocol Frame Formats" for some of the best uses of charts and tables to illuminate TCP/IP we've ever seen. See Chapters 8 and 45 for outstanding descriptions and explanations of the history of TCP/IP protocols in general (8) and the TCP protocol in particular (45). The discussion of TCP windowing in Chapters 46 and 49 is also great, and all four of the pages that make up Chapter 86 on Gopher are simply a delight to read.

Like some other reviewers, I was initially intimidated by this book's sheer mass and overall coverage. But as you use this book on a day-to-day basis you'll find it creeping ever closer to your hands over time. It started on a bookshelf near my desk, and now sits on my desk most of the time. As references and resources go, for those who work regularly with TCP/IP it's as close to indispensable as a printed work can get. Given readily available discounted prices of around $50 ($50.37 on Amazon, $49.95 at Bookpool) it's on a par with high-dollar ham or salami and less than prosciutto or smoked salmon by the pound -- and stays with you one heck of a lot longer. How could things get any better than that? Stay tuned, we'll come back to this book in six months and let you know!