Rating: 
Summary: A welcome revision of an already fine book
Review: A few months ago, I needed to quickly re-educate myself about Weighted Fair Queueing (WFQ). I have a bunch of networking texts on my bookshelf, but I automatically reached for the first edition of Peterson & Davie. I got what I needed: a clear, thorough, yet self-contained discussion. I even got a little extra from the text, which pointed me at other related topics and raised some open problems.It's true that several of those other books cover WFQ, but I've learned over the last few years that I might as well start with Peterson & Davie, because I usually end up there. They cover almost all of the interesting topics in computer networks, and at just the right level of depth for a quick introduction or refresher. (The authors wrote this as a textbook, and I don't doubt that it would also be an excellent foundation for a graduate level course.) I'm glad to see the second edition, because they've included new material, as well as expanding some of the existing coverage. This is not the book for exhaustive and definitive coverage of every network protocol; to get a fuller story, readers should turn to the concise list of references cited at the end of each chapter. (In fact, I found at least one mistake in their coverage of HTTP, an example that simply won't work, which is repeated in exercise 24 of chapter 9 -- some students might find this confusing.) But into a book that one can actually lift, Peterson and Davie have crammed a remarkable breadth and depth of detail, written with a clarity often missing from the primary source material.
Rating:
Summary: A good general introduction, not an engineering textbook.
Review: Although this book clarifies the concepts of networking quite good, it lacks in-depth mathematical & statistical theory.
For those who are interested in the general picture, it's an excellent book. The authors actually succeeded quite good in not making it 'too dry'. For those who need 'more', like engineers and students in telecommunications/electronics, such as theories, applications and examples on efficiency, network performance parameters, etc., please look further as this book just doesn't offer that (and it probably never intended to).
Rating: 
Summary: This is about the best it gets folks...
Review: Bottom line: if you're even interested in learning about the subject and it's various areas and applications, and you have even a below average understanding of computer science in general, this book is excellent. Excellent for all levels of learners. It is a required text here at the University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign in the Electrical engineering and CS departments, and although it is a 300 level course, it is a solid text to accompany the high powered course. Overall excellent, not to mention the authors are truly scholars (one is a Cisco Systems Fellow- how many of them are there! ).
Rating:
Summary: How about 6 stars
Review: Excellent organization! Excellent choice of topics! Excellent approach to presentation and teaching! Very timely as far as material covered. It covers issues that are just starting to be covered in the computer industry weekly magazines. Bypasses basics we are all familiar with and goes right for the good stuff network admins and designers want to know more about, like switch design, congestion control, and high-speed networking. The writing is more advanced than most of the rag books out there, but non-computer science majors will easily follow along and appreciate the ease with which excursions into advanced topics are handled. Another plus is the physical layout and design. It is printed on quality paper with nice type. Very appealing. With all this raving, you might think I work for the publisher. Actually, I write for another publisher. I first browsed this book in a bookstore and immediately knew it was a winner. I will be referring my readers to this book.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended
Review: For a reader with a background in programming and/or computer science, this book is a great introduction to all major aspects of computer networking. The writing is easy to understand -- it seems the author is more interested in really communicating the ideas than in dazzling the reader with unnecessarily complicated language. The book is long on the underlying principles of networking, but also maintains a certain level of practicality that I really appreciated. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Computer Networks: A Systems Approach
Review: I am a marketing professional and was asked to read this book by a client. Needless to say, the prospect of wading through a dry, historical summary of how computer networks arrived at their current state was less than appealing. I was pleasantly surprised, however, right from the beginning. The writing is clear and while it does cover certain topics in more detail than I required I wasn't penalized for glossing over them. This book is something rare, a great introduction to the topic for laypersons and a detailed examination of how networks have evolved and where they will likely go in the future. I read it a few months back and find myself still using it as a reference since almost every term catalogued in the index is explained at several levels in the text. Simply put, this book is well written and easily read, a rarity in this field.
Rating:
Summary: masterpiece of teaching language
Review: I cannot remember to have read any book which is able to combine lively writing with a high level of theory in an abstract topic. the writing style makes builds up the overall picture more or less by itself in guiding your thoughts in a way that wants you to know more. The structure is perfectly modular, therefore it is also reference for the important ideas after you have gone through the book in the classroom as in my case. i can only congratulate the authors to this perfectly organized masterpiece in writing, i would appreciate having them as teachers.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive book
Review: I think it is a comprehensive and outstanding book. It covers all I want about computer networks.So far, I think it is the best general book on computer networks. The materials contain is quite up-to-date. Ihe content is organized in a good way. From the network foundation knowledge to internetworking, even also talk about networking security, application. You can find more information about packet switching and internetworking in this book. I would appreciate the part of "congestion control and resource allocation". It really gives me much information about it. It is easy to read. I think it is suitable for beginner who want a general full picture about computer networking. Although it is not a practical but theoretical book, I am still pleased to read it, at least it does not make me fall asleep.
Rating:
Summary: The way to write books!
Review: I used this book for two courses that I taught: One was for a graduate course at Carnegie-Mellon University and the other was for a group of Software Engineers in a startup company. The students in both setting overwhelmingly liked this book. I carefully considered about dozen books before selecting this book. The organization of the book is very logical and makes even the difficult concept very simple for the students to understand. This is the way to write computer networks textbooks.
Rating:
Summary: The way to write books!
Review: I used this book for two courses that I taught: One was for a graduate course at Carnegie-Mellon University and the other was for a group of Software Engineers in a startup company. The students in both setting overwhelmingly liked this book. I carefully considered about dozen books before selecting this book. The organization of the book is very logical and makes even the difficult concept very simple for the students to understand. This is the way to write computer networks textbooks.
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