Networking: The Complete Reference

Rating:
Summary: The damn introductory networking book, period.
Review: There are plenty of books that claim to be good starting points to teach someone about networks, unfortunately, most of them are just bad.

This book is the only one that I have found that does an extremely good job explaining networks from start to finish. With detailed material on everything from the exact bits and bytes that make up protocols, to more advanced topics such as networking systems. Overall, this book covers just about every concept that a beginner would ever need to know.

It will definitely take some stamina to read this book. It is necessary to reread each chapter several times before it finally sinks in and makes sense. If you make it to the end, you will have a solid foundation on networks, that could damn near land you a job managing a the network for a small business. On the other hand, if you plan for broader things like MCSE, this book will lay a very solid foundation that will make advanced concepts a breeze.

The best thing about this book, is that unlike so many other introductory books, it does not leave you with the typical hangover: a concept introduced and explained, but you are clueless of how to actually adjust a computer in that area.

The author does have one serious shortcoming, he is clearly biased against li/unix. He goes into great detail on Microsnake, and Novell, but gives only a few blurbs on li/unix.