Hands-on networking experience, without the lab!

The best way to learn about network protocols is to see them in action. But that doesn't mean that you need a lab full of networking equipment. This revolutionary text and its accompanying CD give readers realistic hands-on experience working with network protocols, without requiring all the routers, switches, hubs, and PCs of an actual network.

Computer Networking: Internet Protocols in Action provides packet traces of real network activity on CD. Readers open the trace files using Ethereal, an open source network protocol analyzer, and follow the text to perform the exercises, gaining a thorough understanding of the material by seeing it in action.

Features

Practicality: Readers are able to learn by doing, without having to use actual networks. Instructors can add an active learning component to their course without the overhead of collecting the materials.

* Flexibility: This approach has been used successfully with students at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Appropriate for courses regardless of whether the instructor uses a bottom-up or a top-down approach.

Completeness: The exercises take the reader from the basics of examining quiet and busy networks through application, transport, network, and link layers to the crucial issues of network security.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 9 Ratings

OK introduction, needs proofreading - 2008-09-15
Reviewer Rating:
This book is an OK introduction to networking, but has enough typos and contextual ambiguities to warrant a new edition. It walks a tightrope between giving a general overview and avoiding distracting details, a task rendered difficult by use of a protocol analyzer software which by definition exposes the reader to protocol details... this is sometimes not a bad thing as it makes you think and reflect (as do the typos and other mistakes :-) both within and beyond the scope of what the writer is saying about a particular topic.

The choice of top-down exposition of the Internet Protocol Stack layers has its problems, as this results in 'forward references' to lower-level material not yet explained, esp. due again to the use of the protocol analyzer which tantalizes us with details of the current and lower-level layers. A bottom-up approach might have been better.

The price is too high for the content given.

Brilliant but you now need to download Wireshark instead of Ethereal. - 2008-05-22
Reviewer Rating:
[...]

I came into Information Security from a physical security background. I have done SANS GSEC which gave me the basics but I am really starting to get the hang of packet analysis thanks to this book. Jeanna Matthews is a wonderful teacher. I recommend you google for her website and see what her students are up to.

The Ethereal packet analysis tool on the CD is a bit out of date. These days you need to install Wireshark for your operating system which is an open source fork. Wikipedia or google Wireshark to find out how.

Have a look at the teacher site too.

Otherwise the book is brilliant.

Informative and Enjoyable; great inro to networking protocols - 2009-08-05
Reviewer Rating:
I'm about half way through the book. It comes with a packet analyzer and pre-captured packets on a CD (make sure the CD is included!). The book walks you through analyzing the packets with the program and explains what you are looking at along the way. I feel I learned a lot. Maybe since I'm a newbie I don't know what should have been there if, in fact, the book is lacking. However, I would definitely recommend this to others looking for an intro book that guides you through the basics and then some.

Thin on content and explanations. - 2008-07-19
Reviewer Rating:
I bought this book because it received high customer reviews. However, this book is quite disappointing as it lacks details and gives very little explanation. Its price is also pretty high especially when considering the amount of content (which is very little). The examples in the book are few and rudimentary. Where is the beef??

A Hands-On Approach to Computer Networking Theory. - 2008-06-13
Reviewer Rating:
Studying computer networks without this book would be like studying to be a motor mechanic without any practical experience in taking an engine to pieces.The CD accompanying this book contains a large number of actual traces captured during a variety of tcp/ip processes and the ethereal program included allows you to closely examine the headers and data in each packet.This is a very practically oriented book and one which I can thoroughly recommend.

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Top Level Categories:
Networking

Sub-Categories:
Networking > Internetworking
Networking > Protocols