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Rating: 
Summary: Essential knowledge for networking safety
Review: Networked computers are now what makes the world go round. Whether they represent money, programs, or notes to your mother, the bits that pass from machine to machine now manage a large percentage of the world economy. In industrial societies, the majority of the populations are able to connect to networks from their home and a small but significant percentage have networks inside their homes.
When operating an automobile, there are some basic principles that you should know about the vehicle. Knowing things like how to check the oil and coolant, put air in a tire, change a tire, and how to recognize problems such as a weak battery are critical to your safety on the road. Working with computers that are connected is very similar. In the world of viruses, worms, and concern for personal privacy, knowledge is the only way to be safe.
This book is the networking equivalent to a book I read many years ago, "Auto Mechanics for Everyone." It contains all of the basics of networking presented at a level that anyone can understand, although experienced computer people will find nothing of value in it. High quality color pictures are used to explain the concepts with captions of text sequentially numbered in the order they should be read.
The material is separated into seven parts:
*) Communicating by wire
*) Mixing computers and telephones
*) Local area networks (LANs)
*) Links between LANs
*) The Internet
*) Networks for online business
*) Intertainment
so the coverage is fairly thorough in breadth.
The world of cyberspace is growing more dangerous every day, with malicious code and the creeps behind it lurking everywhere. One of the most effective ways of fighting back is to learn the basics of networking, and you can learn all of the fundamentals from this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: After reading the reviews on Amazon, i went ahead and bought this book. This book's simplicity is misleading- the author' explanations are neither well thought out or well-written, concepts & basics remain unclear. The illustrations are a fright! Dark colors & unneccesary complexity amplifies the illegibility. I wouldve given it no stars at all, but, that' not an option.
It's sad that certain Certifications prescribe this as an essential textbook. I hope there are better, basic books out there which explain network fundamentals. Note for beginners, if you have had no experience with networking, this is not a book for you. Internet searches/sources will explain the basics much better than this publication.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: After reading the reviews on Amazon, i went ahead and bought this book. This book's simplicity is misleading- the author' explanations are neither well thought out or well-written, concepts & basics remain unclear. The illustrations are a fright! Dark colors & unneccesary complexity amplifies the illegibility. I wouldve given it no stars at all, but, that' not an option.
It's sad that certain Certifications prescribe this as an essential textbook. I hope there are better, basic books out there which explain network fundamentals. Note for beginners, if you have had no experience with networking, this is not a book for you. Internet searches/sources will explain the basics much better than this publication.
Rating: 
Summary: Too simle
Review: Bleary eyed geeks cramming for their MCSE or CNE exams needn't bother with this text. However, people who are new to networks and in need of a context in which to place the many parts of networks will find that this book fills the bill. I especially appreciate the history of communications which allows the reader to see that contemporary networks didn't spring to life with the WWW but are part of a long, sophisticated, evolutionary process. Any professor of education will tell you that learning is facilitated by cultural literacy (see E.D. Hirsch) which is just what Derfler and Freed have created.
Rating:
Summary: Elementary school returns
Review: I bought this book because it was required (a textbook for a class I was taking). Because it was a college-level class, I was expecting a college-level textbook. That's not what it is at all. The book is filled with color illustrations that aren't even very helpful. I was hoping for more reading and explanation of terms. Illustrations are great if they are used right -- to compliment the text instead of replace it. I wouldn't recommend this book for someone who is serious about learning the ins and outs of networking.
Rating:
Summary: Elementary school returns
Review: I bought this book because it was required (a textbook for a class I was taking). Because it was a college-level class, I was expecting a college-level textbook. That's not what it is at all. The book is filled with color illustrations that aren't even very helpful. I was hoping for more reading and explanation of terms. Illustrations are great if they are used right -- to compliment the text instead of replace it. I wouldn't recommend this book for someone who is serious about learning the ins and outs of networking.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent introduction to rookies.
Review: I have read 2 other beginner-networking books and the advantage this book has over others are its language-simplicity plain-English, and attractive colorful illustrations.I really hooked-up with this book that I finished reading it cover to cover, 2 times, in 3 days. Even so, this book provide only basic and rough idea. But is sufficient for anybody who just want to get to know what networking is all about. I'm looking forward to the collections of Frank J Derfler, Jr's articles in PC Magazine. (Is it already available?)
Rating: 
Summary: Great Ongoing Reference Book for the Beginner
Review: I have read this book and recommended it to many people that are interested in an overview of networking. Reading some of the other reviews, I agree that this book is an effort to take something complex and make it understandable. This book accomplishes that and is not condescending about it. Other reviews that complain about missing a few details, well that is ok in an entry level book ( my first algebra book didn't cover any calculus). Buy this book to get started and when you decide to get more into networking, dive in deeper.
Rating:
Summary: nice VOIP and p2p explanations
Review: The Internet is a special kind of computer network, though by now the most important. But have you ever puzzled at the innards of it or any other network? The problem is that most explanatory texts are aimed at the computer professional. And indeed, often for someone planning to specialise in writing applications to run on that network.
Derfler and Freed write for a different and far broader audience. They do not assume that you are a professional programmer, or plan to become one. So the jargon is not as impenetratable as in other texts. Plus, a distinguishing feature of this book is the skillful and generous use of diagrams, to illustrate ideas in the text. Takes a lot of the abstraction out of the problem of learning the material.
Furthermore, this edition contains explanations of 2 very hot topics. Voice over IP, which gives the potential of cheap (free?) phone calls. And peer-to-peer networks. For the latter, two cases are covered - with a central server, and without. Refreshingly, the example usages are not of copying music or video. To show that, yes, there are good usages of p2p networks.
Rating:
Summary: Too simple, yet too complicated
Review: This book makes the somewhat complicated technology of networks too simple to be of any real use in understanding what really goes on, but uses terminology that would confuse its target audience. It's a little like a tour guide who tells you how to get somewhere by telling you that the place you're looking for is right by the Foo, Bar, and Baz, Inc. Building--if you don't already know the city, you probably don't know where the Foo, Bar, and Baz Building is, either. At times, the authors' noble efforts at simplification succeed even too well, stripping out so many parts that the explanation is misleadingly simple; the section on IP addressing is a good example of this. In addition, the pictorial section on "How the Domain Name Service Works" is just plain wrong--it cuts out an important piece of what makes the system work. The pictures are simply there to appeal to visual learners. Unfortunately, they give so little information as to be useless. The mostly single-page introductions before the eye candy does little to fill in the gaping holes in the pictures. The only reason this book receives two stars from me is its breadth. Although it gives a minuscule amount of information on each subject, it at least covers a wide variety of them. Both Syngress and Sybex publish excellent works on networking ranging from beginner to professional level. In fact, most of their books on any subject are solid quality. I used many of their products while I was working on my A+, Network+, iNet+, Server+, Security+, CISSP, and MCSE certifications. At any rate, avoid this book.
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