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A New TCP/IP Classic
FrazzledDad writes "Network geeks and developers working in the TCP/IP domain are most likely familiar with Douglas Comer's Internetworking With TCP/IP Vol.1. Comer's book was central for my understanding of how things really worked in the small corner of a world-wide network I use to manage. Charles Kozierok's The TCP/IP Guide has knocked Comer's book off my shelf. Kozierok's weighty book (1600 pages!) does a terrific job both as a reference and as a learning aid." Read on for Jim's review.
The TCP/IP Guide: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Internet Protocols Reference
author
Charles Kozierok
pages
1616
publisher
No Starch Press
rating
9/10
reviewer
Jim Holmes
ISBN
159327047X
summary
Amazing broad, deep coverage of TCP/IP in an understandable fashion.
Kozierok spent at least four years working full-time on this book, according to the dedication, and it shows. He covers everything from networking fundamentals to individual application protocols such as Gopher.
Do you need to familiarize yourself with Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routing protocol basics? It's covered. Do you need to understand the pros and cons of Network Address Translation, and how static and dynamic mappings work? It's covered. Do you want the nitty gritty of how message formats are laid out? It's covered.
Kozierok also presents several chapters specifically on IPv6, laying out changes in the new version before diving into the nuts and bolts of it. He discusses the major additions, and dedicates an entire chapter to the new addressing scheme. The transition from IPv4 to IPv6 is a well-written section talking about the difficult conversion between the two versions.
THE BOOK AS A LEARNING GUIDE
TCP/IP can be a rather dry topic to read about when trying to learn portions of it. Let's face it: reading about BOOTP's messaging over UDP is not something most folks will give up a Friday night on the town for. OK, Kozierok's writing style won't make that happen, but he does keep things interesting and flowing well enough that working one's way through such topics is actually entertaining instead of torture.
For example, Chapter 18's discussion of subnetting concepts lays out the fundamentals in clear order without sliding into unfathomable academic blabberspeak. His use of "Key Concept" boxes throughout the book helps point out important items.
Just as important to the book's clarity and usefulness are the amazing graphics. In the Acknowledgments Kozierok specifically thanks the folks at SmartDraw.com for their illustrating package. He's put the tool to fantastic use for everything from breaking out the control bits from a TCP segment header to showing how iterative DNS name resolution works.
THE BOOK AS A REFERENCE
The level of detail in the book makes it a valuable reference in addition to its role as a learning guide. For example, readers can find specifics on details of SNMP data types, NFS server procedures, or TCP segment format layout. Additionally, Kozierok discusses many of the various TCP/IP utilities, such as using "netstat" for troubleshooting with a detailed discussion of various outputs.
Kozierok must have spent a lot of time figuring out how to best lay out the book, and it pays off with sensible organization. Two tables of content, one brief and one detailed (32 pages!), help one to get to the right spot to look up needed information. The index is nearly 50 pages and seems to be quite exhaustive; another great tool for getting to the right spot. There are also comprehensive lists of Figures and Tables if you're trying to access something via that route.
WHAT IT DOESN'T COVER
Kozierok is upfront about things he's left out of the book. You'll need to look elsewhere (back to Comer's book, perhaps) for details on TCP/IP in ATM networks, security and firewall design, and the lower levels of socket usage.
CONCLUSION
To me, a significant advantage of this book is No Starch's binding system that they make so much hay about. I can open this massive book to any point and leave it flat on the table. Pretty impressive!
Kozierok also has a companion website (www.TCPIPGuide.com) with errata, a FAQ, and various other areas. You can also purchase an electronic copy of the book.
The TCP/IP Guide is a tremendous work, and it's a significant resource for anyone working with TCP/IP."
You can purchase The TCP/IP Guide: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Internet Protocols Reference from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Kozierok spent at least four years working full-time on this book, according to the dedication, and it shows. He covers everything from networking fundamentals to individual application protocols such as Gopher.
Do you need to familiarize yourself with Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routing protocol basics? It's covered. Do you need to understand the pros and cons of Network Address Translation, and how static and dynamic mappings work? It's covered. Do you want the nitty gritty of how message formats are laid out? It's covered.
Kozierok also presents several chapters specifically on IPv6, laying out changes in the new version before diving into the nuts and bolts of it. He discusses the major additions, and dedicates an entire chapter to the new addressing scheme. The transition from IPv4 to IPv6 is a well-written section talking about the difficult conversion between the two versions.
THE BOOK AS A LEARNING GUIDE
TCP/IP can be a rather dry topic to read about when trying to learn portions of it. Let's face it: reading about BOOTP's messaging over UDP is not something most folks will give up a Friday night on the town for. OK, Kozierok's writing style won't make that happen, but he does keep things interesting and flowing well enough that working one's way through such topics is actually entertaining instead of torture.
For example, Chapter 18's discussion of subnetting concepts lays out the fundamentals in clear order without sliding into unfathomable academic blabberspeak. His use of "Key Concept" boxes throughout the book helps point out important items.
Just as important to the book's clarity and usefulness are the amazing graphics. In the Acknowledgments Kozierok specifically thanks the folks at SmartDraw.com for their illustrating package. He's put the tool to fantastic use for everything from breaking out the control bits from a TCP segment header to showing how iterative DNS name resolution works.
THE BOOK AS A REFERENCE
The level of detail in the book makes it a valuable reference in addition to its role as a learning guide. For example, readers can find specifics on details of SNMP data types, NFS server procedures, or TCP segment format layout. Additionally, Kozierok discusses many of the various TCP/IP utilities, such as using "netstat" for troubleshooting with a detailed discussion of various outputs.
Kozierok must have spent a lot of time figuring out how to best lay out the book, and it pays off with sensible organization. Two tables of content, one brief and one detailed (32 pages!), help one to get to the right spot to look up needed information. The index is nearly 50 pages and seems to be quite exhaustive; another great tool for getting to the right spot. There are also comprehensive lists of Figures and Tables if you're trying to access something via that route.
WHAT IT DOESN'T COVER
Kozierok is upfront about things he's left out of the book. You'll need to look elsewhere (back to Comer's book, perhaps) for details on TCP/IP in ATM networks, security and firewall design, and the lower levels of socket usage.
CONCLUSION
To me, a significant advantage of this book is No Starch's binding system that they make so much hay about. I can open this massive book to any point and leave it flat on the table. Pretty impressive!
Kozierok also has a companion website (www.TCPIPGuide.com) with errata, a FAQ, and various other areas. You can also purchase an electronic copy of the book.
The TCP/IP Guide is a tremendous work, and it's a significant resource for anyone working with TCP/IP."
You can purchase The TCP/IP Guide: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Internet Protocols Reference from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Whats wrong with TCP/IP illustrated, 1,2 and 3?
Theres only so many books you can read on the subject - no matter how hard core you are.
Why UNIX?
> Network geeks and developers working in the TCP/IP domain are most likely > familiar with Douglas Comer's Internetworking With TCP/IP Vol.1
No, dude. We read "TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1" by Richard Stevens. The bible.
Save yourself almost THIRTY ($30) BUCKS by buying the book here: The TCP/IP Guide: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Internet Protocols Reference. And if you use the "secret" A9.com discount, you can save an extra 1.57%!
Now, I always heard that Comer was the last word, and I picked up the three volumes years ago, and on and off have worked at them.
However, in a phone interview recently, I was told that the tear-down on a TCP/IP session was a four-way handshake. Websites I was pointed also said this. But when I go to the Comer, Vol. 1, it says that it's actually a six-way: a three-way from the originator, and a three-way from the recipient.
Which, of course, leads me to wonder about his accuracy.
mark "and the O'Reilly TCP/IP book says three-way...."
IPv6??? WTF???
We just finished upgrading to IPv5, and it cost us nearly $1.2 million
That's the last time we hire "Dogbert IT Services"
The best documentation on TCP/IP is the RFCs themselves, especially anything written or edited by Jon Postel.
Why wade through someone else's interpretation when the specifications themselves are so good and freely available?
It's twenty bucks cheaper on Amazon
I didn't knock only one book off my shelf, it knocked all of them off - when it pulled the entire bookcase off the wall...
He covers everything from networking fundamentals to individual application protocols such as Gopher.
And is coverage of Gopher supposed to be a selling point for this book??
I haven't used Gopher since... well, actually, I never used Gopher for anything other than idle curiousity to see what the hell it was. The Web made Gopher completely obsolescent.
Talk about a way to pigeonhole your book as "old news".
Coverage of bittorrent would be far more interesting and relevant.
And the full contents of this book, including BOOTP Client/Server Messaging and Addressing are really entirely available on its ADdicting website as it seems to claim!?!
I wrote to him to discuss something I'd noticed in the IPv6 sections, and he wrote back. It was very nice to discuss it with him directly, and I'll gladly echo the fact that his work is both easy to read and informative.
I've read a LOT of networking crap over the 25 years I've been doing computer networking, this ease of reading is not common to the genre.
His work is also online:
http://www.tcpipguide.com/free/index.htm
Bob-
The Ludwig von Mises Institute. The reasoning individuals economics
Just curious... Why does one need a book (especially 1600 pages long)? Does it cover something that's not in the RFCs?
' s-face-on the-cover books that the MSofties have on their desks collecting dust?
I guess what I'm thinking is that TCP/IP networking is hardly rocket science. Surely the basics can be described in just a few pages. For everything else, you're going to have to look at specs anyway.
Am I missing something? Or are network prototcol programmers jealous of the multi-thousand-page-red-softcover-with-the-author
"Internetworking with TCP/IP" is good, but "TCP/IP Illustrated v.1" is outstanding.
For many years until a RFC was published, the "official" reference (for example, to quote in an article or book) about TCP's fast retransmit and fast recovery was Stevens' book, unless you wanted to quote the original Usenet post for Van Jacobson.
He makes the material available gratis on his website and if you buy direct from him you pay only $5 more than amazon and you get a CD of the PDFs and he'll autograph it on request.
Why not kick back a few bucks his way to reward him for his good work?
It is worth mentioning (since the reviewer didn't) that the book is available free online in HTML format. Start with the table of contents. He also sells (erm, "licenses") PDFs for $35, though I'd rather buy the book itself for $50 at Amazon. The HTML version has those annoying fake-link ads that pop up sundry advertisements when you mouse over them, but I still commend him for posting the book. I have bookmarked it for future reference, and I'll likely buy the book if it proves more useful than the RFCs next time I need it.
The VAX/VMS Orange books used to fill an entire bookcase.
Now *those* were manuals.
Danged useful, too.
Still the standard, in my book.
As much as I love *nix, it still falls way short
of VMS in a couple of areas, and one is good documentation.
thank you IBM - its a fantastic resource and reference.
Telnet over that Treo 650:
http://www.conklinsystems.com/palm/online.php
Darn. As useful as this looks, I was hoping that we'd finally have an update of that famous TCP-IP classic, Ping the Duck . (Hint: read the top-rated review)
No, network professionals are (or should be) familiar with W. Richard Stevens' "TCP/IP Illustrated" and "UNIX Network Programming" books and Cisco's "Routing TCP/IP" book.
It was mounted on rails
From what I have read around, the Ruby manual is so hefty that lots of people have Ruby on rails.
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu