Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet

I'm a graduate student in Comp Sci, and I recently had the opportunity to take a networking class again just to refresh my basic knowledge (my dissertation topic isn't related to networks). It was a pleasant surprise for me that the class utilised this textbook. I have been at the university level in CS for 8+ years (grad + undergrad), and this book is *by far* the best introductory computer science textbook I have ever read in any CS subject.The book is very well-written and extremely interesting to read. I was never bored in any chapter. Kurose and Ross are knowledgable experts in their field, and their exposition of the material is fantastic. Unlike Tanenbaum's book, they start at the application layer and move down. IMHO, this is a far better pedagogical strategy, because young students these days already have an excellent layer-5 understanding thanks to daily interaction with HTTP, IM, P2P file sharing, etc. If I remember correctly from my undergrad days, my own experience in a bottom-up approach, starting at the physical layer, really put me to sleep and put me off from networking. That's a shame, because networking is a really exciting field.The best parts of the book are the breadth, thorough use of real-world topics, and the illustrations. In fact, the diagrams and illustrations are just plain great. Most technical writers often rely too much on the written word. Here, the authors augment almost every pair of pages with an illustration; this is simply remarkable. The explanations of fundamental topics (such as packet-switching, DNS, TCP congestion control, IP routing, and ethernet) are *extremely* clear. More advanced topics are very up-to-date, covering cutting-edge subjects such as P2P, CDNs, security, NATs, 802.11, RTP, etc. I have not found a better introductory explanation of CDNs anywhere else. Although networking does have a lot of math in various areas, this introductory book does not get too much in detail in mathematical discourse, making this book very readable. That's a fine approach in my opinion, as a deep mathematical analysis of various topics is best left for grad school or a professional job.The authors' academic background really shows. Every topic is filled with citations/references to other work. This is great, because this book is just an introductory book with wide breadth but is otherwise lacking in significant depth. The interested reader (future grad student or network engineer?) can easily follow up on any topic he/she likes thanks to the exhaustive list of references.As if all of that were not enough, there is an accompanying website that has interactive Java applets demonstrating various topics as well as a set of Powerpoint slides for download. Furthermore, I enjoyed the interchapter dialogues with various famous researchers in the field.All in all, this is an outstanding book for the undergrad level, and I expect this would be a great book for professionals who want to have a firm grasp on networking fundamentals. I wish all my undergrad books were written as well as this one.

I had a wonderful experience reading this book. Not only is Mr. Kurose a good writer but his teaching is excellent. I had the opportunity to take a class with Mr. Kurose using this book. The book breaks down the Internet/Networking into 4 layers ( did not use the application, session, and physical layers ) and explains them very well. Excellent examples! Well written. In addition to those 4 layers the book goes over security, multimedia, and network management.I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about networking.

There's nothing wrong with the product per say, but I didn't realize it was just the study companion. Looking back at this page, it's fairly clear - I'm unsure if it was different when I purchased it (over a year ago).

After taking two classes in computer networking, one using this book - with a top-down approach, another with the down-up book, I have to say Kurose's method is superior.Kurose takes a well drafted course thorugh the often murky waters of networking, and explains to you how the services you know - the web, e-mail, FTP - work, so that as you progress you will have the ability to understand why the underlying protocols do what they need to do. You understand what is needed to make the Internet work and getting the general perspective first and delving deeper as you go is a great, and sadly unique, way of doing things.An excellent book for those in school or those just interested in learning how networking works.

This book has 8 chapters for a total of 700 pages.It is one of the best books I have read. The language is simple, authors covers complex topics in highly understandable way. The language is informal, still highly informative.This book follow the OSI model from a top down approach, starting from the application layer. I think this is a good approach. Generally people reading this kind of books already has a general concept of how computer programs over a network works. So starting from the application layer simplify a lot the understanding of the material presented here.There is not much math involved here. All concepts are explained "verbally" as much as it can be.The material is well organized. You'll never feel lost. All you need to know is here. Reading this book is a pleasure.The only penalty I can assign is the price: too high for a book of this category. If I can say three adjectives to describe this book, well, I choose "complete, clear, accurate".If you are searching a book about computer networks, this is the book for you. Buy it without doubts.

It is one of the best books on the topic i have ever read.First of all it is a top down approach starts from the application layer rather than physical layer. This helps you relate directly to applications used over the net, like http protocol in one's browser, then it proceeds downward to transport layer uptill the physical layer, so you have one end of the thread in your hand as you proceed. When starting from physical layer usually readers are lost and cannot directly relate to their understanding of a network.It gives a very good conceptual understanding of the layers.I owe to this book my understanding and concept of layers and what is actually happening at which layer.While studying Tanenbaum i was usually lost as where i actually am (i-e which layer) and was usually lost about the head and feet of the story even though the topics were writen in an excellent manner.This book gives excellent material on what's inside a router how it uses a tree data structure to find output paths for incoming packets. Has one of the best references to online papers etc.The only thing weakly written is the last chapter on network management, it's good but didn't come up to the standards this book gots me used to.It is now being taught for the third consecutive year in university of engineering and technology, Deptt. of Elect Engg., Pakistan.

the book is very easy to read and provides a wonderful explanation of the issues surrounding network management, quality of service, multimedia networking and network security. However those are the later chapters, the earlier chapters of the book provides a very readable and detailed explanation of the 5-layer Internet protocol stack.A highly recommended book for students that provides all you need to know regarding the Internet and its protocol stack and the introduction and detailed overview of the three major issues that surround the Internet (multimedia networking, network security and network management).

I'm sure it was good for the purpose of exercise questions relating to topics taken from the actual "Computer Networking: A top down approach featuring the internet..." textbook; but be warned, it is NOT the textbook! I thought I'd got myself a bargain with this item, but had to return it.Also, note that the other customer reviews on this page are for the actual textbook, rather than for this study companion!