Business Data Communications (5th Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Business Data Communications
Review: Excellent layman's book on Communications. Despite its ease of reading, it is detail oriented and directs you to sources if you require more specific information on the topics. You won't be able to pass the MCSE after reading the book, but you will certainly have a good idea of system networking.

Rating:
Summary: Good Book for CIS Majors
Review: I bought this book for an online course on Network Communications which I took as a Computer Science major. This book is riddled with technical information and looks at things from an 'implementation cost' perspective (the case studies at the end of almost every chapter are good examples of this) which is good for Computer Information Systems (CIS) majors since they tend to focus more on the business aspect of the 'field'.

The majority of the chapters are easy reading (if you like reading technical info.). I found some of the problems at the end of some chapters to be quite challenging (which was a treat being the geek that I am). I've also used this book as reference for TCP/IP when doing low-level network programming.

Conclusion: if you're a CIS major or a business major focusing on IT, then I recommend this book for you.

Rating:
Summary: Solutions CD
Review: I was very fascinated about this book and the way it brings a sometimes difficult to understand content to the reader in a funny and easy way. But I was angry about the problems and questions in the book and that there weren't any solutions available.
So more or less accidentally I came to the "Solutions CD" of the fourth edition. Take a look at amazon.de and lothar_ast here you can buy the book+CD for 73,90 Euro.

Rating:
Summary: Take the Lead
Review: It is an excellent book to teach graduate courses. While the students find this book too dry and technical, at the end of the course they see themselves with the basic skills for this growing field. For the IS practitioner, the book is an ideal resource. It gives exactly the level of detail needed to understand projects related to data communication technology.

I have read the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions. I find the authors to progressively focus on new technology and issues of current interest. I recommend this book to someone wanting to learn fundamental concepts in data and TCP/IP communications.