Networking Book Reviews
Revised September 8, 2018
A fascinating history of the Internet:
Where Wizards Stay Up Late (the origins of the internet)
Authors: Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0-684-83267-4
This book includes:
- The beginnings at ARPA ...
- The twenty-fifth anniversary party ...
- And everything in between!
Not only does this book discuss the technology, people and politics of the early Internet, it also includes some cool photos of the first routers!
The story of the World Wide Web, as told by its creator:
Weaving The Web
Authors: Tim Berners-Lee (with Mark Fischetti)
Publisher: Harper Business
ISBN: 0-06-251587-X
This book includes:
- How and why the WWW began
- Where it is today
- Where's it will be tomorrow
Very interesting stuff!
A timeless collection of Software Engineering stories:
the mythical man-month (Essays on Software Engineering)
Author: Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.
Publisher: Addison Wesley
ISBN: 0-201-00650-2
The classic from the 1960's, as true today as it was then.
When people ask me for an "intro" book on the IP suite, this is what I recommend ...
Internetworking with TCP/IP, Volume I (Third Edition): Principles, Protocols and Architecture.
Author: Douglas E. Comer
Publisher: Prentice-Hall
ISBN: 0-13-216987-8
This is also a classic, and contains information on:
- Basic networking and TCP/IP theory and principles.
- IP addressing.
- Subnet masking.
- ARP and RARP.
- IP, UDP and TCP headers and options.
- DNS, FTP, TELNET, and other higher-layer protocols.
- Features of IPv6.
All in all, an excellent reference. Make sure you get the THIRD edition!
If you want to know how the Internet suite protocols work on the inside, I have two suggestions ...
This first one:
- Talks about how the protocols behave,
- Comes at things from a UNIX perspective, and
- Focuses on examples of the protocols in action.
TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume I
Author: W. Richard Stevens
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
ISBN: 0-201-63346-9
Note: This book goes through the protocols in the IP suite one by one, using a UNIX-based protocol analyzer to illustrate "real-life" operations. Highly recommended for "bit-heads"!
And the second book for aspiring "protocol geeks":
- Looks at the code,
- In the "C" programming language,
- With Finite-State Machines (FSM's)
- Etc, etc, etc.
Internetworking with TCP/IP, Volume II (Second Edition): Design, Implementation and Internals.
Authors: Douglas E. Comer and David L. Stevens
Publisher: Prentice-Hall
ISBN: 0-13-125527-4
Note: This is not an "easy-reader". It is meant for programmers. You have been warned!
A good overview of bridging, switching and routing:
Interconnections - Second Edition: Bridges, Routers, Switches and Internetworking Protocols
Author: Radia Perlman
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
ISBN: 0-201-63448-1
This book includes:
- An overview of networking
- Transparent bridges
- Spanning-tree protocol (STP)
- Ethernet switches
- Routing versus bridging
- Very nice descriptions of X.25 and ATM
- Comparisons of IP, IPX, AppleTalk, CLNS and DECNet
- IP routing protocols, including IS-IS, RIP, OSPF and BGP
- And much more ...
Radia Perlman developed the Spanning Tree Protocol (as well as NLSP, IS-IS, and other things). The first edition of this book has been considered a classic for years, and in the second edition she adds coverage of layer-2 switches, and expands on other things. Note that this book is all theoretical, there is no Cisco config info in it (nor any other vendors, for that matter).
Meanwhile, down at Layers 1 and 2, if you want info on:
- Ethernet
- Fast Ethernet
- Gigabit Ethernet
- And some really bad jokes ...
Then acquire a copy of:
Gigabit Ethernet: Technology and Applications for High-Speed LANs
Author: Rich Seifert
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
ISBN: 0-201-18553-9
Note: This is a great book, and accomplishes the goal of being both technical and readable. It compares and contrasts 10, 100 and 1000 Mbps Ethernet, shared and switched, half and full-duplex, on copper and fiber (Seifert chaired the IEEE committees for some of these). It also compares the Ethernet family to ATM, FDDI, Token Ring, etc. Wonderful stuff!
Looking for details on:
- Transparent Bridging
- Layer-2 Switching theory
- Layer-3 Switching theory
- Source Route Bridging and Token Ring Switching
- VLANs
- Ethernet Priority Mechanisms
- Switch Architecture and Management
- And jokes that may even be worse than those in "Gigabit Ethernet" ...
You need ...
The Switch Book: The Complete Guide to LAN Switching Technology
Author: Rich Seifert
Publisher: Wiley
ISBN: 0-471-34586-5
More info about layer-two switching than you ever wanted to know. Seifert is an IEEE guru, so his book is heavy on IEEE protocols (802.1D, 802.1p, 802.1Q), with less emphasis on proprietary technologies (Etherchannel, VTP, etc). The IEEE protocols do the same things (trunking, VLANs, etc) as the proprietary stuff (most of the open standards are based on the proprietary protocols), and this book is an excellent reference.
If you want the straight info on OSPF, including:
- History and overview.
- Basic concepts.
- LSA's and the OSPF database.
- Single-area and multi-area (hierarchical) routing.
- OSPF extensions, including Multicast (MOSPF) and Demand Circuits.
- Descriptions of RIP, BGP, IGRP and EIGRP.
- Interfacing OSPF with RIP, BGP and other routing protocols.
Then check out:
OSPF: Anatomy of an Internet Routing Protocol
Author: John T. Moy
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
ISBN: 0-201-63472-4
Note: This is an excellent book, written by the author of the OSPF RFC's, and very readable. Highly recommended!
For a thousand pages of IP routing protocols, including:
- Static versus Dynamic
- RIP v1 and RIP v2
- IGRP
- EIGRP
- OSPF
- Integrated IS-IS
- Redistribution
- Route Filtering
- Route Maps
Check out:
Routing TCP/IP - Volume I
Author: Jeff Doyle
Publisher: Cisco Press
ISBN: 1-57870-041-8
NOTE: This book is a good overview of IP routing protocols (IGP's), and includes an excellent discussion of IS-IS, and how to configure it for IP on Cisco routers. BGP is not covered in this book (it's in Volume 2). There are some things I don't like about this book, and they are:
- It's a little out of date (published in 1998, and things have changed since then), and
- There are some technical inaccuracies (for example, Cisco's IP RIP does not use split horizon with poison reverse, but the book claims that it does).
If you're looking for the "big picture", this is a great book. If you're looking for nit-picky technical details, then take things with a grain of salt.
For another thousand pages of protocols, including:
- BGP operation and configs, with examples using Cisco IOS syntax.
- BGP regular expressions, route maps, prefix lists, suppress lists, etc.
- An excellent discussion of NAT, with:
- Static mappings
- Dynamic mappings
- Overloading (PAT)
- Server load balancing
- IOS config examples
- Multicast routing protocols, featuring discussions of:
- IGMP
- DVMRP (with IOS config examples)
- MOSPF
- CBT
- PIM (Sparse and Dense)
- IOS config examples for DVMRP and PIM
- IPv6 (with IOS config examples)
- Router management, including:
- SNMP
- RMON
- Syslog
- NTP
- TACACS+
- RADIUS
- AAA
- HSRP
- IOS config examples for all of them.
Take a look at:
Routing TCP/IP - Volume II
Authors: Jeff Doyle & Jennifer DeHaven Carroll
Publisher: Cisco Press
ISBN: 1-57870-089-2
NOTE: Along with Halabi's book, this should take care of your Cisco BGP needs.
If you want BGP, including Cisco configs and examples, and ...
- A boring history of Internet address management politics (Chapter 1).
- A nice discussion of Internet routing issues (Chapter 2).
- A wonderful discussion of subnetting, VLSM, summarization, CIDR and IPv6 (Chapter 3).
- A concise discussion of the characteristics of routing protocols (Chapter 4).
- The theory and operation of BGP, with explanations and diagrams (Chapters 5 through 10).
- Lots of BGP examples, using Cisco IOS syntax and "show" commands (Chapters 11 and 12).
- Regular expressions, BGP route maps, prefix lists (new with IOS 12) and more ...
Then you want:
Internet Routing Architectures - Second Edition
Author: Sam Halabi (with Danny McPherson)
Publisher: Cisco Press
ISBN: 1-57870-233-X
NOTE: If you're serious about learning BGP, you absolutely need this book. Make sure that you get the second edition!
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