Computer Networks, Fourth Edition

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Summary: Great book to polish your knowledge about networking theory
Review: This book is written in an easy to read style. Recommended for intermiediate to advance readers. (Not for newbies!!)

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Summary: Very practical book of a very theoretic field
Review: Tanenbaum it's one of the best writers in the field of Computer Science of our days. He explains every subject not only with great detail, but also with great sense of humour: he can always come up with the best analogy or example to help "digest" the theory. This book, being to ambitious in the imense range of topics covered, lacks a chapter with some background on math and queueing theory but ... computer networks are a very extensive subject to be covered with just one book. Nevertheless, it's very practical, well organized and with good and creative exercises.

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Summary: A fairly good book, albeit a little detailed
Review: As an undergraduate student, I'm quite enthusiastic about all the topics Tanenbaum has covered in his book. However, to read it cover to cover is a lot of work; it's better to use it as a reference book.

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Summary: This is the most worthless college text i have ever read!
Review: This book is long winded and overly detailed. The text is written with an arrogant tone stating the answer is "obviously" this or that. The examples are hardly explained and the chapter questions are better answered by OTHER texts that i have on this subject! This text is an excercise in frustration from begginning to end. Do not buy this book. Avoid this book at all costs. $81.00 will buy two or three other books that are FAR better and you will get more use out of them. Trust me. You do not want to torture your brain with the textual vomit contained within the pages of this book.

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Summary: abundant but diorderly
Review: It is difficult to explain the main ideas of computer networks to anyone,including college students majoring in computer science. Background information in many aspects are required. Since details in the 7 layers are mixed and crossed, the author should write a better introduction, or the readers will be confused with the technical parts followed. But Tanenbaum just scatter all materials through the chapters, and constantly remind the readers of the facts like "it's the same idea as in ? layer". Too many history, too few concepts. If you ocassionally need to know what the words like "CSMA/CD", "GSM", "ATM" mean, this book is a good choice. But I don't think it's a good textbook for college studies.

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Summary: Lots of good material, but poorly organized
Review: While it's much better than some of the other networking books out there, this book is poorly organized. If you want organization and something that it easy to read and understand, go with Data Communications by William Stallings. But if you want a book that contains information on just about everything you want to know about computer networks (including theoretical aspects -- where Data Communications is weak), Tanenbaum's classic is the way to go.

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Summary: Good book, highly reccomended.
Review: I'm in the networking field and found this book to be very informational. Excellent place for beginners to start, very easy to read, with an excellent amount of technical detail.

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Summary: Networks classic!
Review: Tanenbaum's Computer networks book is "The Book" the canon of computer networks books so you have to buy this book if you are interested in Networks, this is not a book for beginners so you have to know about some mahtematical knowledge like fourier series and those stuff...

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Summary: Comprehensive and well written overview of Today's Networks
Review: I have found this book to be both an easy to read reference and a well written overview of most aspects of todays Networks.

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Summary: Tenenbaum has disappointed
Review: I am a great fan of Tenenbaum. Before this book, I studied three of his other books. The best being "Modern Operating Systems". But here Tenenbaum has produced a pathetic book. The chapters are not well organized at all. Too much information bunched together. Networking is a lot of mathematical stuff; and this book is theory oriented. The book could be considered okay as a reference book. But to consider this the sole book for networking knowledge is a big mistake. Plus, the book is too expensive!