IP Routing Primer

Rating:
Summary: Why I wrote this book and what I hope it will do for you
Review: Every network engineer involved in supporting the dynamic routing protocols in use by most IP based networks today must have a firm grasp of the following concepts before they can be successful in their job.

o Variable Length Subnet Masking
o Discontiguous IP Networks
o Split Horizon
o Poison Reverse
o Convergence
o Route Summarization
o Default Routing

All dynamic IP routing protocols (RIP, OSPF, IGRP, EIGRP and BGP) are affected by these concepts in one way or another. Unfortunately most of the books on IP routing protocols and IP network design available today either ignore these topics altogether or they provide only a brief introduction to them.

My goal in writing this book was to provide in detail the knowledge that should be a prerequisite to any course of study which includes dynamic routing protocols. In an American University curriculum a book on IP Routing Fundamentals could be considered "IP Routing 201" whereas my book could be considered "IP Routing 101".

One of the things that frustrated me when I was first mastering these concepts was the inconsistency of the explanations I would get from other support engineers to questions like "what does convergence mean?" or "what is split horizon?.".

I decided that I would avoid offering subjective explanations of these concepts by creating scenarios (small networks) with Cisco routers that illustrated each concept and then taking my material directly from the routers.

I manipulated the router configurations so that they provided diagnostic output, which could then be presented with accompanying explanatory text.

In other words this book is not just my interpretations of the RFCs or other standards upon which these concepts are based - it is Cisco routers showing how Cisco Development Engineers implemented the RFCs or other standards upon which these concepts are based.

Please note that this book was not written with the intent of teaching Cisco router configuration techniques or how to design networks with Cisco routers. Nor is it intended to be an in depth guide to the TCP/IP protocol suite or to specific routing protocols like IGRP, EIGRP, BGP or OSPF.

Rating:
Summary: Should have been 5 stars, however..
Review: Excellent material, covering vital IP fundamentals, for people who intend understanding and supporting IP networks. Notwithstanding the fact that technical books are by far the most difficult to write, for their appeal to their intended audience, and the intended knowledge transfer, this book achieves these feats rather well. This book would have benefitted greatly from a knowledgeable proof reader. It is possible that people completely new to this material, may suffer somewhat.

Rating:
Summary: More confusing than helpful
Review: I was looking for a book to explain networking to a friend who's just starting out in the field. I've been doing this for 6+ years and I found this book to be more confusing than helpful. I have *never* heard the nomenclature used in this book anywhere to describe networks. I can't think of a great disservice to new networking admins than to fill their heads with words they wont use and problems the wont need to solve.

I would wager that > 95% of networks installed today don't use IGRP and RIP because of CIDR and VLSM constraints (among other reasons), yet these are the only two protocols described in the book. By using such antiquated protocols, problems easily solved are compounded into difficult and obtuse examples of what may occur if one goes out of their way to make life more difficult.

The digression into a 3 year old Cisco bug, just to prove a point, I found to be a further waste of the readers time and another classic example of this books inability to leave the reader with a useful set of examples that may one day appear on their job.

This book would have been much more useful if it went over EIGRP and OSPF - protocols that networks actually use today. Then time could have been spent on more useful digressions into route propagation and updates.

This edition to the Cisco Press has proved a long held belief. They print as much garbage as they do gems. After reading this book, the only thought I had left was, "I want 5 hours of my life back".

Rating:
Summary: More confusing than helpful
Review: I was looking for a book to explain networking to a friend who's just starting out in the field. I've been doing this for 6+ years and I found this book to be more confusing than helpful. I have *never* heard the nomenclature used in this book anywhere to describe networks. I can't think of a great disservice to new networking admins than to fill their heads with words they wont use and problems the wont need to solve.

I would wager that > 95% of networks installed today don't use IGRP and RIP because of CIDR and VLSM constraints (among other reasons), yet these are the only two protocols described in the book. By using such antiquated protocols, problems easily solved are compounded into difficult and obtuse examples of what may occur if one goes out of their way to make life more difficult.

The digression into a 3 year old Cisco bug, just to prove a point, I found to be a further waste of the readers time and another classic example of this books inability to leave the reader with a useful set of examples that may one day appear on their job.

This book would have been much more useful if it went over EIGRP and OSPF - protocols that networks actually use today. Then time could have been spent on more useful digressions into route propagation and updates.

This edition to the Cisco Press has proved a long held belief. They print as much garbage as they do gems. After reading this book, the only thought I had left was, "I want 5 hours of my life back".

Rating:
Summary: Why I wrote this book and what I hope it can do for you
Review: I wrote this book to help people who want to learn how IP behaves in a router-based network but don't have a local expert to learn from. Many of the people who have become experts in IP Internetworking since the beginning of the Internet had the advantage of learning from their peers and from the broader Internet community. They also benefited from the fact that they developed their understanding and knowledge during the evolution of the technologies that make the Internet what it is today.

Anybody attempting to enter the world of IP internetworking support today has a daunting task ahead of them The technologies already in place are extremely complex and the changes just keep on coming. And the one thing that everybody needs to understand - how IP actually behaves in a router-based network - is often miss understood or not understood at all. For example; ask any three people what "IP Routing Convergence" really means and you are very likely to get three very different answers. This book attempts to get beyond theoretical discussions of IP convergence by actually showing what happens when a network loses a transmission link and must converge on a new topology. It also avoids expressing opinions on what "should" happen during IP convergence by showing in detail what actually happens. IP convergence is only one of the topics that are presented in this real world manner. How routers make decisions on where to forward IP packets and many other concepts are included as well.

This book was not written with the intent of teaching Cisco router configuration techniques or how to design networks with Cisco routers. Nor is it intended to be an in depth guide to the TCP/IP protocol suite or to specific routing protocols like IGRP, EIGRP, BGP or OSPF.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book to add to one's library.
Review: I'm not a network engineer, I'm a recruiter specializing in recruiting network engineers, so much of this book is a bit too technical for me.

However, this book has been an extremely valuable reference for someone like me who at times will need to research specific networking topics.

IP Routing Primer speaks in a manner that is easy to understand.

Rating:
Summary: Provides a solid foundation for anyone new to routing.
Review: Robert Wright is an excellent technical writer, and I found the book not just informative but a joy to read. If your studing for the CCNA, I recommend this book, "Introduction to Cisco Router Configuration", and "Internetworking Technologies handbook" all by Cisco systems press. Two thumbs up!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent introduction to IP routing with Cisco routers
Review: Robert Wright provides in his book a clear introduction in IP routing. He describes RIP, RIP-2 and IGRP and provides a lot of practical examples to demonstrate the various routing and addressing concepts.

He also provides an overview about routing metrics & distances, IP addressing, VLSM, default routing and gives some detailed explanation about summarization and the problems with discontigous networks.

As I'm working as a technical instructor I used a lot of his examples to eplain my students some of the inside concepts of IP routing.

I strongly recommend this book to everybody who intends to dive into the world of IP internetworking. This book is not only for beginners it also provides some valuable information for intermediate users or even experts.

Very well done, thank you, Robert:-)

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book to add to one's library.
Review: This is a an excellent book. Contrary to its title, I do not think this book is for raw beginners. Nor does this book help for the CCNA. But its loaded with supposedly "basic" topics that you must know and that other books just gloss over, like: route summarization, default routes(in detail), VLSM, IP Unnumbered, Discontiguous Networks, etc. All of the above subjects are covered in the context of how routing is affected.

Rating:
Summary: Good Book: Covers Basics That Are Glossed Over by Others
Review: This is a an excellent book. Contrary to its title, I do not think this book is for raw beginners. Nor does this book help for the CCNA. But its loaded with supposedly "basic" topics that you must know and that other books just gloss over, like: route summarization, default routes(in detail), VLSM, IP Unnumbered, Discontiguous Networks, etc. All of the above subjects are covered in the context of how routing is affected.