Rating: 
Summary: A very good book
Review: A very good book for people wanting to start out on the concepts of networking. Would also serve as an exellent handbook for quick references and reads.
Rating: 
Summary: bad print job: eyestrain headache
Review: The print quality is amazingly poor. Looking closely at the characters, there are small divots around the edges where they weren't fully inked. The overall impression is of ragged, weak, and somehow slightly disorienting text. It is an annoying chore to read. (I've seen many copies in many bookstores: they are all the same gray-on-off-white mess.)The content is excellent. It's surprisingly up-to-date for a book published in 1996. The occasional use of calculus is illuminating, though the occasonal code dump is not.
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Summary: Networking information right at your fingertips.
Review: In networking you have to understand certain concepts and those concepts are crucial to becoming a valued network technician. I have seen or read many books on networking but until now I hadn't read one so detailed. This book literally takes a chapter for each layer of the OSI model and breaks it down. Starting with the physical layer and then to the Data Link layer which has chapters for the 2 sublayers as well. You'll see where protocols fit into what layer, how security is affected at what layers, where routing algorithms figure out paths and which protocols to use. The author simply amazed me with the amount of information this book covered. The book covered it all including IPv6, Java, ATM, FDDI, Routers, SLIP, HDLC and so much more. This is certainly a great addition to my personal technical library.
Rating: 
Summary: comprehensive, not mathematical; good for programmers
Review: This is a comprehensive introductory textbook, more for programmers than for scientists. It treats math and engineering formula lightly. In my opinion, it may mislead the non-discerning readers. For example, it takes only 2 short paragraphs to introduce the Nyquist frequency. That is not sufficient to most students, but certainly makes it easier to read. It contains many pseudocodes which may help programmers to sort out their thinking, but not necessary to grasp the concept. It earns its 4th star for being very comprehensive. It covers many areas, including technology which are not so new, but every curious mind wants to know. It is a good book to go along with more mathematical ones like Stalling's Data & Computer Communications.
Rating:
Summary: THE book for computer networks
Review: This book is THE book for computer networks, even if you don't know anything about Computer Networks. It will give you a fair idea of how Computer Communication happens. It is one of the best conceptual Computer Science books ever published. It does not clutter the book with very minute details, and hence the book is not just a reference book, but a book to read. The book starts with an introduction to Computer Networks, what they are, why they are, and how he plans to make the reader understand how they work. He pretty much sticks to the TCP/IP Network model, consisting of five layers. He takes a bottom up approach, and starts magnificiently with the Physical Layer, working his way up to Application Layer. Due importance has been given to the Transport and Network Layers, which are the most important and heavily loaded layers of the TCP/IP model. He not only gives the facts about the protocols in each layer, but also gives why the protocols are as they are. His way of explanation is quite intuitive, and he explains the simplest things first, making the things more and more complex. This is how he explains the data link protocols, with 6 examples of progressive complexity. Plus, of course, one of the things that makes this book a real joy to read is Tanenbaum's sense of humor. He never misses a chance to pass a side remark or comment. All in all, very good book for learning about Computer Networks. This book should be an adequate book for an undergrad one semester course, with some topics omitted. I believe it has enough content to even go with a graduate course, but with some additional reading.
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Summary: Broad coverage of networking, conceptual book, not technical
Review: When reading the other reviews, i think that some balanced review is required: Tanenbaum covers the whole world of computer networks in one book, but this is at the price of clarity and lack of sufficient details to allow a true understanding of the subject. It provides a very gentle introduction to networking but it is certainly not enough to fully understand the TCP/IP stack for instance, or important routing issues. The networking litterature is very large, but here are some good ones : - TCP/IP stack: "TCP-IP illustrated" from Stevens, "Internetworking with TCP/IP" from Comer. - Routing: "Interconnections: bridges and routers" from Perlman, "Routing in the Internet" from Huitema and "Internet Routing Architectures" from Halabi. Another good general networking book even if somewhat more advanced (than a pure introduction i mean) is "Computer networks: a system approach" from Davie, Peterson and Clark.
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Summary: THE BOOK for begin with data networks
Review: The book is structured following the layers in the OSI model. For each layer, the basic principles are explained, and some examples (for specific technologies) are given. Although most of the principles are technology independent, it would be great to update the book with more recent technlogies, and reduce references to X.25, Coax cables, Token Ring, for focusing in more updated technologies (just for convenience for the readers). However, I believe it is a mandatory book for any networking student, who expect a deep understanding of the theory behind communications.
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Summary: Simply the best
Review: There is no doubt that this is the best book describing computer networks and data communications. It covers the subject in a layered approach, and describes each one in detail. It also discusses newer topics such as ISDN, ATM etc. in great detail. Keeping up with the modern Internet world, it discusses the TCP/IP philosophy wonderfully. I would strongly recommend this book, along with Prof Douglas Comer's "Computer Networks and Internets", Prof Behrouz Forouzan's "Introduction to Data Communications", and William Stallings's "Compuetr and data Communications"; so that you understand networks and data communications completely.
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Summary: solution needed
Review: book is excellent, what i need is the solutions to the problems asked in the back of every chapetr pankaj
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Summary: Need more information
Review: This book is like a bible on network , there is no doubt about it to anyone who go through it. My idea is writing to this book is to have the solutions of the problems per topic if i can hv it i shall be highly greatful to u thanks sarbjeet singh
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