Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach: United States Edition

This book is easy to read and easy to understand and it provides a very comprehensive step-by-step walk-through down the Internet stack protocol. It doesn't go into a lot of detail on all covered matters but goes into enough detail on the most important topics, making it an excellent choice for the ones wanting to learn about the vast world of computer communications and networks. It provides an enjoyable and very rich learning experience.The book companion Web site provides good self evaluation quizzes and very interesting and useful hands-on labs exercises. I found it to be an excellent guide for my studies and highly recommend it without hesitation.JC

the book was fallen apart, so I had to buy a new one, which means I have spent more money on two same books, than I would have spent if I just bought a new book in the first place.

I'd prefer learn by reading some articles.

This review compares the following four books:Computer Networks by Peterson and Davie (P & D)Computer Networks by TanenbaumComputer Networks by Comer / Internetworking with TCP/IPComputer Networking by Kurose and Ross (K & R)By far the best book in the list is "Computer Networking" by Kurose and Ross. This book covers all of the essential material that is in the other books but manages to do so in a relevant and entertaining way. This book is very up to date as seen by the release of the 5th Ed when the 4th Ed is barely two years old. There are lots of practical exercises using wireshark and the companion website is actually useful and relevant. The attitude of this book with regard to teaching networking concepts could be summed up as "try it out and see for yourself". One interesting thing to note is that the socket programming example are all in Java.Next up is the Peterson and Davie book which covers everything that Kurose and Ross discuss but is slightly more mathematical in how it goes about things. There are a lot more numerical examples and defining of formulas in this book which is fine by me and in no way detracts from the book. Also the socket programming examples are in C which is a little more traditional. The points where this text loses ground to K & R is that it doesn't have the practical application exercises that K & R has and it also doesn't extend the basic networking theory that is covered to modern protocols like K & R.The two Comer books come next. Comer's "Computer Networks" book is probably the most introductory book out of this whole list and is more of a survey of networking topics that doesn't cover anything in any real depth. Still, this is an excellent book in that it is a quick clear read that is very lucid in its explanations and you can't help feeling that you understand everything that is covered in the book. Comer's TCP/IP book is the equivalent of the other authors' computer network books and in that respect it is pretty average. It covers all of the relevant material and in a manner which is more than readable but that is all. There is nothing exceptional about the book which stands out from the rest.Last comes Tanenbaum's book from the author who is probably most famous for his OS books. This is probably the most technical and detailed of the books with lots of sample C code belying is experience with operating systems and their network stack code. The weak point of this book is that all of the code and technical minutia might prevent the reader from seeing the forest for the trees. Unless you are trying to learn how to program your own network stack for a Unix/Linux system, then I would get either the K & R book or the P & D book to learn networking for the first time. This book would best be served as a reference in which case the technical nature of the book becomes a benefit rather than detracting from the text.

the book is in a perfect condition almost like brand new) even though the seller said it's used. Really satisfied with the transaction.

After reading the first two chapters (so far) for class, I found this book to be quite *enjoyable* as well as informative. The layout is easy on the eyes; the examples used in this text are relevant to today's networking environment and latest best practices. The authors strike a good balance between words and graphics so that the content doesn't feel so "heavy". There are plenty of questions, problems, and discussions at the end of each chapter that you can use to verify what you've learned. Overall, this is a great book for readers who want a comprehensive introduction to today's computer networking principles and techniques.

The book was fine. It was interesting to read and the content was pretty much in my final exam. But what upset me was I bought this book new from Amazon and when I mailed it back through UPS, after 20 days I get message that the book was damaged and it was returned to me. The book is hardbound, looks like new as I barely took it out of house couple of times and has no marks or highlights in it. The same thing happened with another book as well. This is pretty lame. I do not know if its the third party merchant's fault or Amazon's policy, but I am never again buying a text book from here.