Voice Over IP Networks

Rating:
Summary: Save your money and wait for a better book.
Review: For a book entitled Voice over IP Networks, there is surprisingly little voice covered within. The book devotes 2-3 pages to the H.323 reccomendation. The chapter on audio codecs gets 6 pages, 2 of which are Windows screenshots.

This book is more about networking technologies and IP-- and I could reccomend far superior books on those topics. If you're looking for a book on voice over IP, save your money and pass on this one or wait for it to show up in the bargin bin.

Rating:
Summary: A nice book for someone who need to sell or buy products
Review: I agree to other reviewers that obviously the author does not understand anything about VoIP technologies. I think the author made this book based solely from online archives (RFC, ATM Forum, IETF, etc.). Based on his background, I think the author only has knowledge of Windows NT networks and never has a solid understanding of VoIP technologies.

If you need an introduction to VoIP technologies, I suggest you read "Carrier Grade Voice over IP" by Collins. If you are a technician or an engineer, you will find Collins' book is useful. If you are a student or someone with a little or no prior knowledge, I suggest you read "Internetworking with TCP/IP Vol. 1" by Comer before you read Collins' book.

But if you are a librarian, or your job is downloading or colleting info regarding VoIP technologies; you might consider to read this Goncalves' book. This book is more suitable for managers, marketing, sales, customer services, or archivers rather to someone who need to know the technologies themselves. This book contains overview of VoIP technologies, the jargons, and the players. This book is a little and nice one for someone who need to emphasize more on selling or buying VoIp products.

Rating:
Summary: An insightful book on Voice Over IP
Review: Marcus has done what many for centuries have tried to do through the use of the stars or cards or even tea leaves; he has given us a glimpse into the very near future of voice over IP. Through Marcus' crystal ball, we too can look into this feature. In this book the author points out the applications made possible, but ties together not only IP telephony, but the various networks which exist in the present day such as Frame relay, ATM and SONET backbones, and how VoIP ties into all these infrastructures. Excellent book! I'm a little surprised with some of previous reviews.

Rating:
Summary: Very comprehensive coverage to VoIP technologies
Review: The book provides a full review of all the main technologies driving the VoIP industry as well as the major players. I was surprised with the two reviews posted here.

According to Netguru bookstores, the book was a bestseller at INTEROP last October in Atlanta. It also was piked as the book of the week by computer literacy. I think the trash of some are indeed the treasure of others! I particularly liked the many Powerpoint slides in the book, which provides a graphical overview of the subject being covered.

Certainly this is not the ultimate word in VoIP technology, and I don't think it was addressed for the engineers implementing it. However, I think this is a great book for decision-makers, CIOs and others evaluating the technology. The foreword, done by an expert on the subject confirms it.

Rating:
Summary: Does author understand the subject?
Review: This is about the worst book on any of the several subjects I care about. There is NO conceptual coherence in the treatment of the subject at hand - Voice over IP. It is simply an assorted treatment of various topics like ATM, FR, networking, vocoding without any logical thread running through them. I recently bought another book (IP Telephony by Goralski) which is a much better book on this subject. Avoid this one; save both your time and money.

Rating:
Summary: This book is not about VoIP
Review: Unbelievable! This summarizes my frame of mind after I attempted to read this book. Major waste of resources (paper, ink, McGraw Hill employees' time, etc.) and more importantly :-) my money!

CD-ROM does NOT feature any demos or utilities. It is just a collection of pdf's and ppt's from ABL (by the way, their Director of Marketing praises the book big time in the foreword -- shameless plug), Nuera, and Telogy. You can get these files and more from these companies' Web pages. In fact, search the Web for "VoIP" and you'll be better informed, compared to reading this book.

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK.