By starting at the application-layer and working down to the protocol stack, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet provides a motivational treatment of important concepts for networking students. Based on the rationale that once a student understands the applications of networks they can understand the network services needed to support these applications, this book takes a "top-down" approach where students are first exposed to a concrete application and then drawn into some of the deeper issues of networking. Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet focuses on the Internet as opposed to addressing it as just one of many computer network technologies. Students are enormously curious about what is "under the hood" of the Internet, creating an extremely motivational vehicle for teaching fundamental computer networking concepts. This text features a comprehensive companion website which includes the entire text online. It allows for direct access to some of the best Internet sites relating to computer networks and Internet protocols.The website has many interactive features, including direct access to the Traceroute program, direct access to search engines for Internet Drafts, Java applets that animate difficult concepts, and direct streaming audio. Finally, the website makes it possible to update the material to keep up-to-date with this rapidly changing field.
Certain data-communication protocols hog the spotlight, but all of them have a lot in common. Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet explains the engineering problems that are inherent in communicating digital information from point to point. The top-down approach mentioned in the subtitle means that the book starts at the top of the protocol stack--at the application layer--and works its way down through the other layers, until it reaches bare wire.

The authors, for the most part, shun the well-known seven-layer Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocol stack in favor of their own five-layer (application, transport, network, link, and physical) model. It's an effective approach that helps clear away some of the hand waving traditionally associated with the more obtuse layers in the OSI model. The approach is definitely theoretical--don't look here for instructions on configuring Windows 2000 or a Cisco router--but it's relevant to reality, and should help anyone who needs to understand networking as a programmer, system architect, or even administration guru.

The treatment of the network layer, at which routing takes place, is typical of the overall style. In discussing routing, authors James Kurose and Keith Ross explain (by way of lots of clear, definition-packed text) what routing protocols need to do: find the best route to a destination. Then they present the mathematics that determine the best path, show some code that implements those algorithms, and illustrate the logic by using excellent conceptual diagrams. Real-life implementations of the algorithms--including Internet Protocol (both IPv4 and IPv6) and several popular IP routing protocols--help you to make the transition from pure theory to networking technologies. --David Wall

Topics covered: The theory behind data networks, with thorough discussion of the problems that are posed at each level (the application layer gets plenty of attention). For each layer, there's academic coverage of networking problems and solutions, followed by discussion of real technologies. Special sections deal with network security and transmission of digital multimedia.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Good introductory book - easy to read but can be a bit wordy at times
Comment: This is a good introductory book. It gives board coverage of all important areas of computer networking. Easy to read and it has been kept up-to-date with every edition with the changes in the field.

My minor complaints are (i) that each chapter is quite long; (ii) it gets overly wordy at times but it does help to reinforce what you just learned; (iii) it is hard to review the material (after you have read through it once) because too many materials are crammed into each topic.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Greate book, Computer networking
Comment: This is a very good book for someone who is thinking of going into
computer networking. The price was right,the service was great. Bought this book for my grandson who is thinking of going into this field. He has
been reading it ever since.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Good book and good seller
Comment: The book was required for computer networking course. Good book to know the basics. Book delivered on time and in good condition. Would like to buy more stuff from this seller.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Most readable book in my entire CS curriculum
Comment: Lots of other reviewers have said it so I won't go on at length, but this is a fantastic book. Very easy to read, while still presenting gobs of information. Authors have a great sense of humor. They are able to make the broad concepts as well as the nitty gritty of networking crystal clear, without undue effort from the reader. Highly recommended.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: reference
Comment: I am a very beginning student in computer networking and find the chapters dense but clearly written. My instructor has encouraged us to keep the book for future classes because even though we may not cover all the material in this course, it will be a handy reference for us in more advanced ones. The labs and Java applets are great for visualizing a lot of the more tricky concepts. The top down approach of working from the things you know (applications) helps you not feel totally lost right at the beginning before you get hit with all the acronyms. I would recommend this book to networking students at any level of expertise.

---