TCP/IP

Rating:
Summary: A solid reference!
Review: I have both of Dr. Feit's previous editions. They have grown in maturity and breadth with each new release.

I am a TCP/IP instructor. I commend this book to all my students for several reasons. First, it's as readable a text on a dry subject as you will find. Her writing style is easy to follow, even engaging. Equally important, she never leaves you hanging. If there are three possibilities, she explains all three. Many other technical books leave you wondering about that third possibility.

She is a stickler for technical accuracy. If you read it in her book, you can take it to the bank.

When I have a question, I turn to her book first. Most of the time, the answer is right there.

I do on occasion have a very detailed question, and for that I refer to Stevens if necessary. However, his book is too detailed for most people and sometimes lacks perspective. In particular, his cursory treatment of BGP was not up to his usual high standard.

In Dr. Feit's book, there are subnetting explanations, exercises (and answers!) in the back which I use all the time in class. They are well thought out and each one has a point to make.

I have read Doug Comer's books. Students often bring his books to class to show me. As a net-head, I don't care for them. Way too detailed for net people, but great for TCP/IP programmers writing stacks, internals or apps requiring detailed API knowledge. Not great for people who run and maintain TCP/IP networks. I think this explains why the disparity in some of the reviews.

In sum, if you want only one book, I recommend hers!

Rating:
Summary: A book that you will return to time and again
Review: Just a short note to express my appreciation for this wonderful book. I have attempted several times to read books on this protocol, but have never been able to return to them. Until now!

The author has taken the very intelligent approach of weaving protocol structure, protocol mechanics and protocol behavior into an integrated description that is useful to the network engineer as well as to the programmer.

All features of the protocols are explained in clear unambigous language. The reasons for each protocol construct are clearly explained.

The book is entirely free of typos (to the best of my knowledge), and is very well produced with excellent diagrams and generous margins.

Rating:
Summary: A book that you will return to time and again
Review: Just a short note to express my appreciation for this wonderful book. I have attempted several times to read books on this protocol, but have never been able to return to them. Until now!

The author has taken the very intelligent approach of weaving protocol structure, protocol mechanics and protocol behavior into an integrated description that is useful to the network engineer as well as to the programmer.

All features of the protocols are explained in clear unambigous language. The reasons for each protocol construct are clearly explained.

The book is entirely free of typos (to the best of my knowledge), and is very well produced with excellent diagrams and generous margins.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent bridge to IPv6
Review: This book explains IPv4 quite well while providing me with current, practical information about IPv6. It has very little fluff and gets straight to the point. I also found the detailed coverage of all the upper layer protocols and the Winsock programming interface quite helpful.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent bridge to IPv6
Review: This book was a major disappointment. The coverage is very light on sockets, ARP, and many other specifics. This books lives in nomans land: written for a beginner but wants to pass as a reference for experts. It accomplishes neither.

Forget about this book or any other TCP/IP book and just get Steven's - TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1 : The Protocols or my second choice for advanced study and first choic for a beginner would be: Comer - Internetworking with TCP/IP Vol. I: Principles, Protocols, and Architecture.

Pass on this one, I wish I had.