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Rating: 
Summary: AVOID THIS BOOK AT ALL COSTS -- READ REVIEW
Review: I am an avid reader of Datacom books, and this book is hands down the worst book I've ever read. I bought this book by looking at the reviews before me, and I am hoping that others will benefit by my waste of money/time.First off, this book should not be called IP Multicasting, but more an "intro to networking" because the author literally covers every possible avenue unrelated to IP Multicast he possibly can to create a larger book to sell for more money. He literally doesn't even talk about multicasting for the first 100+ pages. Actually if you took apart the chapters that had anything to do with Multicasting the book would be half the size. If you further removed the redundancy in his material where he repeats himself in different chapters, you would probably take off an additional 25 pages. There is ZERO structure to this book. He jumps back and forth between topics chapter to chapter. It seems almost insane that he even had an editor, because the person obviously did not do anything to help organize the topics in the book. He literally repeats the same topics with almost identical verbage 1-2 chapters apart. He BLATENTLY has wrong information all throughout the book. As I was reading the book, I was making stars next to the pages where he has wrong information. Rather than typing a 10 page review, suffice to say he is probably the worst author I've ever read. It was grueling to even get through the book with reading so much mis-information. I simply wished that the people that reviewed this book would have honestly read the book, or have read any books in the area of multicasting/datacom, because anyone would give this book a horrible review. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
Rating:
Summary: AVOID THIS BOOK AT ALL COSTS -- READ REVIEW
Review: I have had a chance to read the book, which is very well written. It is very easy reading and intresting also for someone who is familiar with all the concepts.
Rating:
Summary: What were they thinking?
Review: I have to agree with the "reader from USA": this is one of the worst datacom books I've ever come across. It is so bad that, in addition to throwing away the book, I am taking the time to write this. Goncalves maintains his unique style of NO STRUCTURE which I was introduced in his "Voice over IP Networks" book. Not only does he repeat the same topics across chapters, not only does he repeat the bullets in text with the same bullets in figures, he has pretty much the same topics as his other book. I am tempted to believe that he is paid per page. Big mistake McGraw Hill. I find it hard to believe that he has any 'real'experience with the topic. Noone who has done any programming would include the code snippet on pg. 333 - 7 lines of #include's with no header files mentioned! And if you have not worked with code, then just don't include it in "your" book. My guess is that Goncalves is a good researcher. Anyone who surfs the net for "IP Multicasting" can grab whitepapers, tutorials, presentations from the consortiums, forums (fora?) and vendors and write -- rather cut & paste, and "make" -- a book of the same caliber. No comments on Niles. Her bio clearly explains her contribution to this book. I was fooled by the title and the subtitles and bought both books at the same time. Same shock... twice. McGrawHill: fire the editor, say bye to Mr. Goncalves, and recall these books. I cannot believe the 5* ratings, something conspicuous there. Only if you are an IP guru, you may enjoy the book -- patting yourselves on the back as you read the 1500 different topics associated (and sometimes not associated) with the topic and going "Yeah, I know this. I know this, too. And that, too. etc. etc." Do not buy this book. You'll be better off reading the RFC's.
Rating:
Summary: What were they thinking?
Review: I have to agree with the "reader from USA": this is one of the worst datacom books I've ever come across. It is so bad that, in addition to throwing away the book, I am taking the time to write this. Goncalves maintains his unique style of NO STRUCTURE which I was introduced in his "Voice over IP Networks" book. Not only does he repeat the same topics across chapters, not only does he repeat the bullets in text with the same bullets in figures, he has pretty much the same topics as his other book. I am tempted to believe that he is paid per page. Big mistake McGraw Hill. I find it hard to believe that he has any 'real'experience with the topic. Noone who has done any programming would include the code snippet on pg. 333 - 7 lines of #include's with no header files mentioned! And if you have not worked with code, then just don't include it in "your" book. My guess is that Goncalves is a good researcher. Anyone who surfs the net for "IP Multicasting" can grab whitepapers, tutorials, presentations from the consortiums, forums (fora?) and vendors and write -- rather cut & paste, and "make" -- a book of the same caliber. No comments on Niles. Her bio clearly explains her contribution to this book. I was fooled by the title and the subtitles and bought both books at the same time. Same shock... twice. McGrawHill: fire the editor, say bye to Mr. Goncalves, and recall these books. I cannot believe the 5* ratings, something conspicuous there. Only if you are an IP guru, you may enjoy the book -- patting yourselves on the back as you read the 1500 different topics associated (and sometimes not associated) with the topic and going "Yeah, I know this. I know this, too. And that, too. etc. etc." Do not buy this book. You'll be better off reading the RFC's.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty much useless
Review: Novice could find some general knowledge, but 50 pages of it are scattered all over the book. Previous "one star" reviewers gave very good description of this book.But they forgot to mention the included CD-ROM. It contains a generic network troubleshooting utility for DOS (Award-winning in 1994!) and pdf files with unrelated to the book product literature from several vendors. Inclusion of the CD is clearly attempt to boost the price.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty much useless
Review: Novice could find some general knowledge, but 50 pages of it are scattered all over the book. Previous "one star" reviewers gave very good description of this book.But they forgot to mention the included CD-ROM. It contains a generic network troubleshooting utility for DOS (Award-winning in 1994!) and pdf files with unrelated to the book product literature from several vendors. Inclusion of the CD is clearly attempt to boost the price.
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