Rating: 
Summary: Great! But be careful.
Review: The C++ code after Chapter 1 in this book will not work unless you have the latest Platform SDK installed. So don't buy this book unless you meet the OS requirements for the latest Platform SDK. As of February 2003 the Platform SDK requires Windows XP, Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 SP6, or Windows Server 2003. The SDK is NOT supported on Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Millennium Edition.I don't have any of the required OS's so running the code in this book is impossible for me. I'm not going to unfairly judge the book because of this, however. I suppose if you're a serious developer you should probably be developing on one of the required platforms anyway. I have learned a lot from this book and I could get some of the code to work with MAJOR tweaking. It's true that a lot of this book is just stuff that you could find all over the MSDN Library, but it is very nice to have it all in one book. It starts from the basics and slowly leads into more advanced topics which would be difficult to do if you're only using the MSDN Library. I don't regret buying the book, and in a strange way, since I had to do so much intense research on the Winsock functions and syntax to tweak the code enough to get it to work, maybe I learned a little more than I would have if the code had just "worked out of the box". I don't recommend learning this way though, it's very frustrating. I think it's a great book if you can get the code to run, if not, then stay away.
Rating: 
Summary: Great material, overall good presentation
Review: These days any developer is capable of throwing together a network server application, but developing a truly efficient and scalable server is akin to black magic for most. This update covers the material well, and gives the reader excellent advice on how to build better networking software with an understanding of what is going on behind the scenes. My one nit would be that the examples don't compile out of the box with VC 6.0 on either NT or Win2k, even with fairly recent platform SDK headers. After a bit of error tracing and reading the book, I found that most were written using new name resolution functions found in XP, and while they will work with older platforms, it required downloading the latest platform SDK... Since you can't download just the headers, you're going to need either a fast connection or a lot of time. It would have been nice to have this documented in the book, the code or at least in a 'readme.txt' file. Since the SDK is available for free, why not stick it on the CD since you can't work with the books material without it?
Rating: 
Summary: Don't get it if you just want to program in VC
Review: This book does not cover using sockets in VC as I hoped it would.
Rating:
Summary: Get up to speed on MS network programming fast
Review: This book is an enjoyable read because it explains the WinSock, TCP, ATM and QOS on the MS systems in a clear and concise manner. After reading the book I had a better understanding of the MS networking API and what kind of support MS has for network programming on their systems. Most of the code is in C and very simple, however I was hoping to see more complex examples; but I guess that that could be saved for a book on serious networking implementation. I gave this book five stars because it gives the reader an understanding quick. It introduces some new things like completion ports. Its good to have it if one needs to work with or program on MS systems. Good book this!
Rating: 
Summary: Of No Useful Help
Review: This book is merely a compilation of copied-and-pasted text from various web sites, as it seems. The authors do not focus on trying to help the reader understand how winsock works, but instead try to glean over a few details while at the same time straying from the topic at hand. The book is poorly written, with several typos abounding. As is often from a Microsoft Press book, this text does not strive to help the reader. If you are trying to find a book that will help you learn how to write code for programming network applications, this book is definitely not for you! If, on the other hand, you would like to read brief descriptions of winsock and not actually understand how it works, this book is written for you in mind.
Rating: 
Summary: Complete coverage of Microsoft's networking APIs
Review: This book is the first book to fully detail many of the networking APIs available on Microsoft platforms. Section I is dedicated to covering the legacy API NetBIOS as well as named pipes and mailslots. We also provide an introduction to the redirector (which provides the basis for named pipes and mailslots). Section II is the heart of this book which is Winsock 2. This section begins with an introduction to Winsock and its basic concepts and moves to basic Winsock programming. We also discuss the various address families over which Winsock communicates (TCP/IP, IPX, IrDA, ATM, and AppleTalk). Afterwards we move to more advanced topics such as IO models (blocking, non-blocking, overlapped IO, IO completion ports), socket options and ioctls, registration and name resolution, multicasting, raw sockets, Quality of Service (QOS), and service providers (both layered and name space). Lastly, Section III discusses client side Remote Access Service (RAS). In the appendices a NetBIOS command reference and Winsock error code reference are provided in addition to coverage on the IP helper APIs which allow you to perform such functions as gathering IP statistics, manipulate the ARP and routing tables, as well as release and renew IP addresses. This book was written with Microsoft's implementation in mind and as such we provide platform specific information (covering Windows 9x, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows CE) such as differing behavior between platforms. Practical code samples are provided for every chapter (including a working layered service provider and a name space provider). Both Jim and I have worked at Microsoft's Network Developer Support so we are familiar with the types of problems developers face with Microsoft's networking APIs. We hope you enjoy this book and find it to be useful!
Rating:
Summary: Completion Ports and Sockets
Review: This has to be the final authority on the complex topic of completion ports, sockets, and scalable servers. In fact, it may be the only such authority. The authors have done a great job of making the relationship between sockets and completion ports clear. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in network protocols on the Windows platforms. The one fault I would find is that, although the authors' code is C++, it might as well be C. They make no use of C++ features. Especially absent are classes that encapsulate the complexities of the protocols discussed.
Rating: 
Summary: The book is tough & stuff not well explained
Review: This is the only book, I can find for windows network programming. Unfortunately, stuff here is not well explained & if you are not a expert, do not expect to learn network programming from this book. Atleast not without a great deal of pain.
Rating:
Summary: nice
Review: to author: hey guys, nice work. i'm waiting for the second edition for all it's worth. maybe for the next one, you could rip out this binding, pick a nice one, and select a better paper quality book ;) as for the content. It's _VERY_ good. i just wish that the vb and netbios content was ripped out. i really like how you included the c examples. this is a much better approach then most of the network books i have seen. also sticking with console applications was a good way to approach as well. for your next one :) if there is to be one, it would be really cool if you could follow the same design style as K&R. as for regular readers:. just buy the damn book, it will pay it self off very soon and it's a good read. peace, akbar A.
Rating:
Summary: World Domination
Review: Ummm, I think the above critic is a mspress employee. What do you think
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