Networks Books

I found this book very detailed, especially on Ch3 which will basically take you by the hand and explain slowly how subnetting and subnet masks work. In addition, The author will summarize after all the facts that were presented and use a real-life experience to help you understand. Very good book.

While this book alone will not help you pass the TCP/IP exam, I still recommend it whole-heartedly for understanding the material on the exam. This book provides a truly rich, no-nonsense, brief, but detailed explanation of the subject. I suggest supplementing this book with a practice exam (Transcenders, or Measureup.com). That should be all that you need. One thing for sure is that you WILL understand subnetting by the time you read through this book. It sure beats reading those 700 page door stomps, in my humble opinion.

Study Guide? -I'm not so sure; The book doesn't ha ve a Glossary, or questions at the end of each chapter. For anyone wanting to understand subnetting, the author has devoted no less than 70 pages toward this subject(Chap. 3). The author has a clear and concise writng style, for easy transition from "page to brain". But I will still give it 5 stars!

The title of this book is misleading, you cannot and WILL not pass Exam 70-059 by studing this book alone. That's the bad part...

What you'll get though, is an astonishing detailed, accurate, and REAL world examples of how TCP/IP and Subnetting/Mask truly work. How many books have you read but only to be disappointed by lack of Subnet/Mask explaination?

I personally have read through more than a dozens of them but NONE can really explain TCP/IP, They CLAIM they know -- BUT where are the explaination and notes? Two pages? Get real! None comes EVEN CLOSE to this book. Some of the books just explain the "concepts" rather than any real world knowledge how it actually works.

For the first time in my life, I TRULY understand how TCP/IP, Subnetting, Subnet Masks, and Router all work together, Dave Kinnaman deserves the highest recoginition for his work. You've earned my respect for life. Please keep up the excellent work.

Even though the TCP/IP exam is being retired, this book is a classic that should be republished. (Maybe with a new name --"Everything You Need to Know about TCP/IP".) I used this book while setting up a network with two subnets. It has real-world advice, not just exam-cram factoids. My copy is dog-eared, highlighted, and well-used.

Subnetting is not easy to learn. Read and re-read Chapter 4, "Subnets and Subnetting." It is the heart of this book, and an excellent tutorial. If you're having trouble getting a handle on subnetting, this book is for you.

I'm sad I waited so long to read this excellent book. "Troubleshooting Campus Networks" (TCN) was published in Jul 2002, and it belongs on every network administrator's shelf -- now! This is the best networking book since Scott Haugdahl's "Network Analysis and Troubleshooting" and Eric Hall's "Internet Core Protocols." TCN will truly test your networking knowledge; you'll quickly validate the truth and discard the fiction.

So many books discuss networks, but somehow distort subtle points. Authors Oppenheimer and Bardwell know their material inside-out and explain key points in clear, concise prose. Ever hear of the "37% utilization rule for Ethernet?" It's false. Think that TCP sequence numbers count packets? Wrong -- they count bytes of data. And why are sequence numbers seemingly "off by one?" Look at the difference between ordinal and cardinal numbers, described in ch. 9.

TCN displays an uncanny ability to include just the information that is needed. "Reversible half-ASCII," which accounts for odd-looking NetBIOS traces, appears in ch. 12. The sections on Windows networking are first-rate, with helpful comparisons of NetBIOS with IPX, TCP, and NetBEUI. Even theoretical but damaging attack methods, like corrupting Hot Standby Router Protocol messages (ch. 8), are illuminated.

I have two complaints. I would have liked more attention paid to the mechanics of analyzing traffic, including the use of taps. Also, the Windows chapter seemed to end abruptly, just when the dynamics of Windows 2000 networking and port 445 should have appeared.

TCN is designed to educate protocol analysts. People with this skill set can administer LANs, analyzer network-based IDS traffic, and deploy network infrastructure. I thank the authors for their efforts and look forward to their next endeavor.

I have had this book for about 10 days. It is excellent, destined to become a bestseller in its category. But this will not be surprising because Oppenheimer's previous book has received a stamp of approval in its category (Top Down Network Design, Cisco Press, ISBN: 1578700698). For those privileged to have Top Down Network Design, we know what I am talking about: a self-contained book that delivers beyond a Cisco Certification test.

It is in this very light that I rate Troubleshooting Campus Networks: it is a an extremely valuable reference book for network administrators, but it will also help you pass the Cisco CCNP Support exam.

Briefly going through the contents, Chapter 1 describes the book itself and its audience. Chapter 2 details formal network troubleshooting methods, including the Cisco Troubleshooting Method, protocol analysis, network traffic types and the various troubleshooting tools. Above all, it emphasizes the importance of proactive network management.

Chapter 3 provides in-depth knowledge on troubleshooting and Analyzing Ethernet Networks. And Chapter 4 will be even more appreciated: about 55 pages dedicated to troubleshooting and analyzing IEEE 802.11 Wireless Networks. This chapter alone will be of great assistance to those preparing for Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA) from Planet3 Wireless, Inc. It provides an excellent introduction for those who want to know what Wireless LANs are all about.

Chapters 5 and 6 provide indepth knowledge on troubleshooting and analyzing the Spanning Tree Protocol and Virtual LANs respectively. Chapters 7 and 8 do the same for Campus IP Networks and Campus IP Routing Protocols.

What I have found to be of equally great value is Chapter 9, detailing TCP, UDP, and Upper Layer protocols' troubleshooting and analysis. Here, one would find the answers to the questions he may have had about HTTP, FTP, SMPT protocol analysis and the like.

Chapters 10, 11, 12 and 13, respectively provide the skills needed for troubleshooting and analyzing Campus IPX Networks, AppleTalk Networks, Windows Networking and Wide Area Networks.

In all, this is a powerful tool from which you will not only find the answers to day-to-day networking issues, but will also empower you to become a better network administrator.

If you are in network administration, a networking professional generally or preparing for Cisco CCNP Support exam, this is the book!

Good book for anyone who is having problems with their networks. Author makes things easily understandable and the book is a great reference.

Many books have I read where authors speak of Ethernet or TCP/IP or other subjects. This book fills in the gaps without being too vendor biased. Cisco and WildPackets are excellent companies, but the book really focuses on enhancing your network to it's fullest. I learned that just because my network "works", there may be many things ready to break that had not been troubleshot before. Now I really feel able to properly "fix" my troubles and not just make my network magically work when there is trouble behind the scenes waiting for a Friday night to break.
The two authors have been in the industry since it's inception and bring a passion for networking to the table with a focus on teaching those of us who do not have 20+ years in the trenches.
This book is not only a reference book, but a well written, easy to read explanation of networking and troubleshooting. With real-life scenarios from the authors and practical situations played out. I felt as though I had a mentor walking me through the logical steps of analysis.
Buy reference books and keep them on your selves for when you need them. Buy this book, read it and keep it close because you will need it!

My overall impression was that this is a great book. I felt that the first chapter was unnecessary detail, and sort of seemed like chest thumping to me. I find this book to be an excellent reference about just about all aspects of LAN communications. I was not impressed with the WAN protocols however. I sort of expected more of that, as you might find in a Campus network. I keep this book handy, and often find myself using it as a reference when I am unsure of a conclusion I have drawn. I recommend this book to anyone looking for reference material.

I just finished this book and I have to tell you this book taught me more than I ever knew about the Network Marketing industry. I never knew there was so much to learn about MLM's, Pyramid Schemes, Business practices and how to conduct business presentations as well as marketing. This book I recommend to anyone interested or curious about What is Network Marketing? How to prospect? How to present your business compensation plan and more.. I enjoyed this good book and I am sure you will to!. If you are unsure if network marketing is for you then I suggest you read this book and keep a copy of it as a reference guide, it will be the best coaching material to add to your library.

This book is the most beneficial , most informational step by step guide to success for the novice network marketer I have ever read. Almost every page is marked up or highlighted with solid tips and techniques I have found to be of utmost importance. This is the stuff the BIG BOYS don't ever tell you to be good at the game. They just fill you with hype...complete with a wide array of additional resources at the end of each chapter.

A great, inspiring read by different successful contributors in the network marketing field. Best to read one chapter and let that information process before going on to the next, that also makes it easy to fit into tight schedules.

I'll keep this short. I purchased 6 different network marketing books, this was the best of the bunch. It covers everything very well. Provides accurate info for current times. It offers good resources. First half of the book are Goals and Attitude, last half of book gets into the nuts and bolts of direct selling. Excellent read.

Steve

There is a lot of great wisdom in this book! The other thing I think is great is that since there are 37 different contributors to this book, if you connect with the style of one person, you will then know if that person has authored any of their own books, that you will know what to buy next. You will definitely find something in this book that appeals to your style.

Honeynet solutions were seen just as a research technology a couple of years ago. It is not the case anymore. Due to the inherent constraints and limitations of the current and widely deployed intrusion detection solutions, like IDS/IPS and antivirus, it is time to extended our detection arsenal and capabilities with new tools: virtual honeypots.

Do not get confused about the book title, specially about the "virtual" term. The main reason to mention virtual honeypots, although the book covers all kind of honeynet/honeypot technologies, is because during the last few years virtualization has been a key element in the deployment of honeynets. It has offered us a significant cost reduction, more flexibility, reusability and multiple benefits. The main drawback of this solution is the detection of virtual environments by some malware specimens.

The detection of honeypots has always been one of the main concerns in the honeynet community, basically because if the attacker can identify them, they are useless. For this reason, one of the chapters is just focused on providing some light, tips, and tricks about what an adversary can really accomplish. In fact, we have not seen lots of real-world incidents where the attacker actively checks the existence of honeynet setups.

I have been working with honeynets during the last 5 years. We founded the Spanish Honeynet Project on 2004, and almost at the same time we became part of The Honeynet Project and released the Scan of the Month 32. The main honeynet/pot book reference till last year was the book published by the Honeynet Project. As this is a rapidly evolving field, definitely it has been replaced by this book, written by two project members.

The first chapter is a very brief introduction to honeynet technologies and basic tools. You can jump through it if you are not new to this field. Then, the book covers the main two honeypots types: high and low interaction. The high interaction section provides details about the tools to virtualize your honeypots: VMware, UML, or more specific solutions, such as Argos. The low interaction section provides details about some the most relevant honeypot types to cover lots of detection scenarios: worms, traditional server attacks, Google Hacking, Web-based attacks, etc. It is a wide overview that will give you lot of ideas for new deployments.

The whole book has been cooked with a how-to mentality , and it explains in detail how to install and configure the different tools and software elements covered. Additionally, it provides guidelines, best practices, and analysis recommendations for each tool based on the authors experience. However, for the how to portions take into account that most of the solutions are Linux-based, and the installation and setup process will vary based on the tool version and the Linux distribution you are using (library dependencies, etc). In any case, the step by step guides are very useful as a general setup reference.

From my perspective, the most valuable part of the book is chapters 4 to 6. The authors, Niels Provos and Throsten Holz, are the lead developer/architect for honeyd (chapter 4 and 5) and strongly related with nephentes (chapter 6), respectively. These two are the most famous and advanced low-interaction server-based honeypot and malware honeypot. They know what they are talking about :), and you cannot find a better reference out there for these two tools. The book is an excellent guide, covering from the design principles and innovative deployment ideas, to all kinds of configuration options and possibilities, including limitations on real-world scenarios. Chapter 6 is complemented with other less popular malware-based honeypots (except for Honeytrap).

The book includes some extra material, covering academic and research hybrid solution, still on their early stages, but that can give you and idea of where these technologies are evolving to and the major challenges we are facing nowadays. This pretty much theoretical content is well balanced with the case studies chapter, where real incidents involving different honeypot types are presented. These are always a fun read and a way of getting experience and learn how to deal with intrusions.

Finally, one of the main expansion areas we are involved today is the creation of new client-based honeypot technologies. This book section (highly recommended) does a great job introducing multiple high and low interaction honeyclients currently available, their benefits and drawbacks (chapter 7). This information is perfectly complemented by the last two chapters, focused on tracking botnets and analyzing malware with sandbox environments. Once a client is compromised, it typically becomes a member of a botnet, and for easy and quick categorization, we start by performing a malware analysis of the specimens. I recommend you to add all this knowledge to your incident handling and response capabilities.

Something I would have liked to see in the book is a section about a fully virtualized honeynet environment, showing how using VMware, you can build up a virtual Honeywall (just slightly mentioned on chapter 2) and different honeypots, creating a complete, cheap, mobile and multi-purpose virtual honeynet infrastructure. Also, we receive multiple questions related to this kind of setup in the Honeynet Project mailing lists, because all the previous whitepapers are obsoleted now. I've been deploying these type of solutions for fun and professionally during the last few years and I strongly recommend you to start using them. You won't be disappointed about how much you can learn of what is going on in your networks and systems, and this book is the best starting point.

If you have any relationship with the intrusion detection, incident handling and forensics, threat analysis, or SOC and CERT security side of things, definitely this book is for you. Go through it and improve your capabilities with easy to deploy virtual honeypot solutions. You just need a (not so new) computer, virtualization software, and some time!

The book is well written and I feel that I will be successful in setting up my first honey pot once I get my network segmented for security purposes.

Excellent, really good, sorry for my bad English, but is EXCELENT BOOK.

Regards

Carlos

I have relatively little to add to the praise that has already been given of this book, but I found it extremely enjoyable. In particular, the chapters on collecting and analyzing malware were quite good, in my mind. I think the book delves a bit too deeply into man page territory with the level of detail provided on the minutia of utilities, but that doesn't detract from the book, as it is very clearly segmented away from loftier topics.

Overall, I found this book to be quite excellent, and very informative and accessible to those new to the arena of Honeypots.

It's fairly difficult to find good books on digital defense. Breaking and entering seems to be more exciting than protecting victims. Thankfully, Niels Provos and Thorsten Holz show that defense can be interesting and innovative too. Their book Virtual Honeypots is your ticket for deploying defensive resources that will provide greater digital situational awareness.

A security technician with some degree of proficiency should be able to read Virtual Honeypots and then implement at least one of the solutions presented. This sounds like a fairly common event, but too often technical books do not provide the detail required to transform theory into practice. Virtual Honeypots offers installation and operational guidance for a variety of deception and analysis systems, primarily for server-oriented technologies. I especially gained a better understanding of Honeyd and Nepenthes, the two applications about which I cared the most.

While I liked the first 2/3 of the book, I have to say I really enjoyed the last four chapters. These covered Detecting Honeypots, Case Studies, Tracking Botnets, and Analyzing Malware with CWSandbox. Of these the final chapter was superb. Ch 12 has probably the clearest explanation of hooking I've read anywhere. I am not a rootkit writer or Windows kernel programmer, but the text was so well written I had zero problems following along.

I gave Virtual Honeypots five stars because it is so unique and well-written, but I do have a few minor issues to mention. First, I was somewhat disappointed by the honeyclients section (ch 8). I was not as confident that I could implement a honeyclient solution after reading the great material on server-oriented honeypots. Perhaps the second edition or a separate book will give greater attention to this area. Second, I found a few small technical items. On p 4, it isn't accurate to say "TCP...[gives] each packet a sequence number." Bytes of application data are numbered, not packets. On p 13 we are told to use a snaplen of 1500 bytes, but this will cut off the last 14 bytes of many Ethernet frames. Try it with ping -s 1472 while sniffing with Tcpdump. As you can see, these minor issues are easily fixed in a future printing and do not justify dropping a star.

If you are at all interested in potentially deceiving intruders, buy and read Virtual Honeypots. You'll learn about more than VMware (QEMU, UML, etc.) as well as numerous open source tools you can download and try for free. I look forward to reading more from these authors -- perhaps a book of true case studies?

This was one of the best books on leadership in a church setting. The book is a revelation of the heart. As you are reading, the insights that are given hit home into the chest because you can relate to the situations. It is a comforting book because of the feelings that are generated. You realize that you are not alone with the feelings that come from leading a congregation. This is one of the best ministerial books I have ever read. It would be best for a minister of course, but also elders within the church would grow from it. The book begins with a character studies of Moses, David, Paul, and Jesus. These character studies connect well with the present leader. The nature of leadership within God's people have not changed much through the centuries. God's process of developing leaders is the same. The book continues with an exploration of a leader's culture, call, community, communion, conflict, and the commonplace. All of these chapters are excellent with the section on conflict being the best. The book is a modern day masterpiece for congregational leadership. It is a book that is intended to refine and train the heart. It accomplishes the desired purpose.

This is an outstanding work about leadership in the church. It is written in such a way as to bring leaders out of their seats and into the 21st century. "A Work of Heart" will change your thinking about leading today's church.

It is said that before one can address a problem - or opportunity - one must understand that problem (or opportunity). McNeal certainly has understood the opportunity offered the Christian Church to reach out to a pre-Christian (not post-Christian) North American culture. This work presents a passionate appeal to transition to a missional, externally focused approach to ministry by gaining insight into how God shapes the hearts of spiritual leaders through six distinct shaping dynamics in the Christian life. These spiritually formed leaders will have drawn closer to the heart of God, thus recognizing their call to serve in Jesus' name and in His way. Excellent book. Highly recommend.

Absolutely the best book on spiritual leadership and development I've ever read! I have bought and sent numerous copies to friends involved in spiritual leadership positions. I'm sold on Reggie McNeal and the powerful scriptural insights he shares.

One of the best books on leadership I have ever read. The four brief biographies (on Moses, David, Paul and Jesus) that make up the first part of the book are extremely insightful and practical. McNeal writes with authenticity and clarity. There's not a lot of "fluff" or stuff that's rehashed from one leadership book to another. Every chapter is well worth a slow read. His dry wit also adds some spice to the read. Very good stuff.

ESPN always puts out a good almanac, and this is of the same quality of years past. It provides data for the past year for all of the major sports (baseball, football - college/pro, basketball - college/pro, hockey), plus racing, soccer, amateur sports, world sports, and some business information, too. It's nice that it provides a lot of historical data, too, single-season and career records. It's probably not the guide if you want all of the historical baseball information ever (or something like that for any other sport), but it's authoritative in its scope of all sports.

Like any almanac, the yearly data quickly ages. I suppose I would rather them carry data for the 2000-01 NFL season, for example, rather than the 1999-2000 season, but I suppose that given the continuous nature of the sport seasons, they have to make a trade-off for one sport.

It's very good; I highly recommend it for any sports fan with a knack for trivia or who frequently finds themselves asking (or arguing) about records and statistics and superlatives.

This is the best sports almanac you'll ever find! It is full of interesting facts about every sport and all the information you'll ever want to know. I highly reccomend this book to anyone who likes sports.

When it comes to sports, the letters that come to most people's mind are ESPN. Those letters have stood for sports for the last two decades. And the Sports Almanac delivers, every year.

This book is for everyone from the casual sports fan to the stats geek. It covers all sports. (At least every one I could think of!) For the amount of content and the price, you can't beat it!

I own a world almanac for knick-knack arguments and discussions, but I have found that when I am locked up in a heated sports debate, there is NO SUBSTITUTE for this book! It's the best! It's easy to read, and it has info on all of the sports that I care about (and even on some sports I could care less about!). It not only covers the pure stats of the games, but it also covers some facts about the arenas in which they are played! That, coupled with the in depth and far reaching historical material that it houses make this indespensible for the avid sports nut!

ESPN has shown the world once more that it is the beginning and end of sports information. Every sports fan should have this reference, as even the most avid fan will marvel at the breadth of knowledge contained in this must have publication.

This book is really a good read and reference source for those who wish to help fight and rid the country of GOP poision........it does highlight some GOP speak, and it highlights some very useful web sites that can be used in the effort to cleanse America and bring back to our beloved country the true ideals in which it was founded.

My only problem with the book; the authors give readers only a smattering of ways to actually "take out" the cancer of America, such as the lunatic religious right, and hate mongers such as Corsi, Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, and Dick Morris.......etc...... There should be more concise efforts to drawn a plan of eradicating the disease of the GOP's lunatics, thus allowing the conversion of more Republicans, who want to become true believers in democracy, such as the recent convert, General Colin Powell!

This book is worth many times the price of the book, if just for the web site leads and quotations found at the bottom of each page.

i'm buying copies to give to family and friends. i'm buying copies to hand out to the young, disinfranchised people i meet. it's invigorating and i plan to follow all its suggestions.

This is the must-have quick reference guide for progressives and moderates. Whether you are an activist, an aspiring activist, or a someone who just wants to have the answers to shut up your conservative friends and family, this is the book for you. This is the handy go-to book for anyone looking to take on the misleading propoganda of the right in today's fractured society.

Let me also say that if you are looking 50 simple ways to take on the Right, this book will give you that and much more. Yes, it does have 50 areas in which to take on the Right, but it provides several options for doing so in each of the 50 areas. Therefore, you can choose some or all of the options depending upon what you choose. Moreover, it lists resources where you can go for assistance or more information.

But "50 Simple Things" does not stop there. Need a list of progressive news sources: it's in the book. This book is chock full of internet web sites and web logs to help you coordinate with others or gather more information. Media watchdogs: they're in the book. In fact, there are so many internet sources listed in this book that I became physically tired of linking to all of them.

But this book is not just for internet geeks like me, it has phone numbers for organizations that you can contact. Ideas for campaigns and campaign volunteers. Little ways that you can stick it to the Right.

This is the handiest quide for progressives and moderates I have yet to see. I have read many books on progressive issues, but none match "50 Simple Things" in ease of reading and coverage of major issues. And the best thing is that "50 Simple Things" is about simple things everyone can do and it is set out in a concise book that is less than 200 pages. All of the things you need in a small, very portable format.

This is a great resource for anyone concerned about the direction our country is being moved in. It's time for the "common sense" majority to stop being silent witnesses.

As the title states, this book describes a number of things that anyone can do to counteract the Right's strong influence in present-day America.

Some of the actions included require little or no effort. Join a progressive group, be it local or international. Take back control of the American political vocabulary. Donate a subscription to a progressive magazine to your local library. Become familiar with the parts of the Bible that support progressive positions. Visit alternative news web sites. Also, visit right-wing sites to begin to understand the Right.

Some actions require a little more effort. Adopt a blog. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper (even if your letter is not printed, it might encourage the editor to print a similar letter). Did you know that the Pledge of Allegiance was written by a Christian socialist named Francis Bellamy? Talk to your neighbors, and to your congressperson's local office. Attend local meetings, like school board, city council or planning and zoning commission; the Right will be there. Support public education, along with local arts and artists. Stand up for science in the classroom. Volunteer for a political campaign.

For the committed individual, become an expert on a particular subject. Look for right-wing spin in your local media. Start your own media. On Election Day, become a poll watcher. Spread the word the "person of faith" does not automatically equal "conservative." Last, but not least, why don't you run for office?

The only part of this book that may cause disagreement is the assertion of the publishers that the Democratic Party needs to be reformed back into the progressive party it once was. Like it or not, America is a 2-party system, and reforming the Democratic Party is easier than starting over with a third party. On the other hand, many people in America believe that the Democrats are just as bad as the Republicans, and, therefore, not worth saving.

Aside from that, this is a gem of a book. It contains plenty of inspiration for people of any age or income level. Even if the reader can do only 1 or 2 of the things mentioned in this book, it will help to change the tide in America. This book is very much worth reading.

This is a great book for anyone interested in collecting books, or who likes books, or even anyone just interested in what makes a book collectable. Different people adopt very different approaches and strategies to book collecting and Basbanes documents a number of them. The eccentric madness of it all is what makes it entertaining and I found that this quickly became a hard book to put down. After reading this I suspect that I will never look at books the same way again. The fundamentals of book collection are not unlike other forms of collection, so people who are self confessed "collectors" (You know who you are!) are likely to find this an exciting read. In among all the entertaining yarns is a pretty good starters guide to book collection, and this book contains a number of practical pointers to web sites and book sellers to get the novice started. Overall it was really enjoyable to read and very much a page turner.

Reading Basbanes is like engaging in a long, relaxed conversation over coffee in your living room with a very knowledgeable friend. In this third volume of his slightly rambling but always fascinating and well-informed discussions of books, book collectors, booksellers and dealers, and all the periperal subjects they engender, he combines advice on bibliophily in the age of the Internet with reminiscence on how collecting used to be done, and what the old and the new still have in common. As a small-time collector of limited resources myself, I enjoy reading abut the fabulous collections built up by those who not only have money to spend but also the intelligence and passion to add value to what they hunt down and acquire by adding to the accretion of knowledge. In fact, as Basbanes makes clear, becoming personally involved with books and other "stuff" is what separates collectors from mere accumulators. In fact, I find I have also become a collector of Nick Basbanes. . . .

In "Among the Gently Mad," Basbanes declares, "the more you read or read about reading, the more you will uncover about other books." And, the more, it seems, you will get to know an ever-expanding circle of people who collect and/or sell books. All their stories are here...what they collect, how they collect them, how much they spend and on and on until the value of this book is almost hidden under their weight.

However, if you are serious about book collecting, "Among the Gently Mad" is a tremendous resource. Reading between the lines of other book collectors' stories, you will find out which web sites, bookstores, dealers, book fairs, organizations and other sources can help you fill out your collection. By the way, this is not just a book for those who collect rare books. An antiquarian book is simply described as any book that is worth more now than when first published. Basbanes's first rule of collecting books is to focus on subjects that hold your interest and, in fact, your collection should contain books you actually want to read. If you are gently mad, that is "taking delight in the pleasant touching of books long coveted," this book is an indispensable tool to fulfilling your own madness.

In rapturous, elegant prose, the author envelops the reader in his consuming passion for books and the people who love to collect them; as the hours flew by while I curled up with Basbanes, I assuaged my guilt at forsaking mundane tasks with the right-on lines that end the book's first chapter: "... a sentiment that I confess I savor on a daily basis: Books are not Life, But then what is?"

A wonderful read about the world of books by one of the preeminent writers on the subject of book collecting.Using the word 'subject' to describe the passion of books is akin to using 'subject' to describe love or any other passion.Blame that on me,if you will,not Nicholas.
It seems I never get enough of these books about books and this is one of the best.Here we are given a look in on the wonderful life the author has in the world of the High End Collectors.Those like me,and that means all but a very miniscule number,who can only dream of attending and partaking in those auctions,where single rare books sell for tens of thousands,and lots or even complete personal libraries sell for sums equalling the national treasury of small countries.That doesn't mean reading about that sort of thing isn't very interesting;and the author has the ability to make one feel they are part of that activity.What one gets from this book is that anyone can have the same desires,same enjoyment,and all the rest of what comes along with having a passsion for reading,collecting,owning,sharing,arranging,their personal collection whether it is a small number of favorite volumes or some huge ammassment--it's their collecion and is what they have the ability,desire and resources to call their own.I suppose many who work with books like booksellers or library staff can even imagine the books around them are their own.I remember once reading somewhere, something to the effect that nobody ever really owns a book,but only has the privilege of being its caretaker for a while until it eventually passes on as its "owner" is sure to do--it's only a matter of time.This idea comes through very clearly as the author shows how collectors spend lifetimes searching for books that eventually end up in university,library and other collections.
The author describes the personalities he encounters and we can identify with all of them as we pursue our passion with books.
In a nutshell you'll get from this book that the only real difference between your collection and the world he writes about is a matter of scale
A great read and highly recommended to anyone who loves books and reading.

This book answered so many questions I had about how the Internet works and how enterprises can use BGP in their networks. The writing style is clear and a pleasure to read. I did not notice any errors or typos. This is one of the best Cisco Press books I've read. The material covered is a logical extension (fill-the-gaps) for the knowledge one gains when studying BGP as part of the CCNP/CCDP BSCI exam. The case studies for enterprise BGP core design and Internet connectivity were one of the most interesting and useful real-world scenarios one can strive to implement. Same for the service provider examples. One caution however, this is not "beginner" material. One would greatly benefit from having a CCNP-level understanding of BGP prior to attacking this book.

This book starts by identifying key features and functionality in BGP. It then delves into the topics of performance tuning, routing policy development, and architectural scalability. It progresses by examining the challenges for both the service provider and enterprise customers, and provides practical guidelines and a design framework for each. BGP Design and Implementation finishes up by closely looking at the more recent extensions to BGP through Multi-Protocol BGP for MPLS-VPN, IP Multicast, IPv6, and CLNS.

I purchased this book both to supplant my knowledge of BGP and as a resource for my CCIE studies. I found the book to be of value more towards practical implementations of BGP. This book is geared toward a high-level architecture - not if only needing to design a 10 node BGP community. One down side is there are not that many configs. On the flip side, nearly every page either has a diagram or show output. One chapter of value is Chapter 8, which focuses on Route Reflection and Confederations. The book also makes good use of Regular Expressions (pg 110) and route conditions - something that is sorely missing in CiscoPress cannon. The last few chapters dive into support for multiprotocol extensions (MPLS VPNs and IPv6). While, upon reflection, I don't believe this book is a necessary tool for the CCIE, it is certainly a book worthy of it's title.

I give this book 4 pings out of 5:
!!!.!

I would just like to add my comments to the list of reviews: if you work with BGP this book is essential! What makes this book unique is that it is intended for the real-world, production environment engineer, with outstanding results. Personally, I have used this book on two major projects with excellent results; I am sure I would not have been able to find this type of information, knowledge in any single place - if at all - since as another reviewer noted, it distills years of practical experience into a well organized, accessible format. Again, my thanks to Mssrs. Zhang and Bartell for a truly outstanding, practical book that has saved me hours of work, research. Highly recommended!!

This book provides an excellent reference for understanding advanced BGP designs and implementations. It expands on the general BGP functionality and configuration covered in other BGP books like Internet Routing Architectures (ISBN: 157870233X). If you need a general BGP book or are just starting to learn BGP, start with Internet Routing Architectures to learn about BGP then use this book to understand how to use BGP.

Advanced BGP design concepts are presented in a logical flow and practical design scenarios are included to help you understand how and why the concept is deployed. In addition to advanced BGP designs, topics covered are performance tuning, policy control, Enterprise and Service Provider design guidelines, MPLS VPN, Multicast and IPv6. These are topics not clearly discussed in Cisco documentation with this same emphasis on learning advanced BGP concepts. My only wish (not a complaint in any way) is that a chapter or appendix was included as a general BGP review for reference. Maybe in the 2nd edition as the book is updated? Kudos to the authors and Cisco Press for compiling this information in such a useful and readable book! Highly recommend!!

This is a very good book for people who want to learn the in depths of routing in general and cisco routing in particular. Protocol description is very well written going from beginner to advanced level. I recommend this to everybody who wants to make a networking career.

This is a corner-stone of Cisco routing engine explanation. It doesn't contain any braindump stuff like many books do. But it covers many topics: theoretical basis, IOS pseudo code explanations, configuration examples and trace/debugging methods. There are also many interesting details and gismos that I didn't find anywhere . It's very useful as a preparation guide -- you have to read this book if you do want to pass some sort of serious Cisco's exams (I mean CCNP or CCIE). So it's outstanding title (in other words -- it worth to spend 50+ bucks for it guyz!) :))

Btw, now I'm waiting for your next book. Why not? Will it be dedicated to MPLS or MLOSPF? Huh? :))

This book is not for the faint of heart.
Ever read a book and find a sentence that makes you say "man that one fact was worth the cash!". You get about one sentence like that every page in this text.

Example:
ip route 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 s0 172.17.1.33

I bought the book because I wanted to understand when, why, and how that command works. All of my questions were answered.

Since I'm not a programmer some of the explainations took me awhile to get, but worth it.

Gold.

With my CCNA exam date staring straight at me, I decided to finally read my copy of Alex Zinin's 'Cisco IP Routing.' This book clearly exceeds the level of knowledge to pass Cisco's entry level certification. It is aimed more at CCNPs or CCIEs who need a deeper understanding of Cisco routing. Nevertheless, I found the book's explanations of certain subjects to be absolutely outstanding, even for a CCNA candidate. I recommend anyone wishing to learn Cisco router operations read 'Cisco IP Routing.'

This book seeks to deliver the 'why' as well as the 'how' of Cisco routing. It was published in late 2001 and uses IOS 12.1 as its reference platform. This IOS version is recent enough to meet my expectations, so don't fear that the book may not apply to more recent Cisco software and hardware. Remember that the 2600 series router was introduced in January 1999, and the modular 2600XM series arrived only in May 2002.

The first compelling aspect of 'Cisco IP Routing' is its exceptionally well-written and thorough explanations of various routing topics. Although my understanding of the subject was improved by reading Todd Lammle's Sybex CCNA books, Alex Zinin's approach assisted me immensely. For example, he helped me understand that classful addressing offers basic subnetting, which 'was used in the real world long before VLSM [Variable-Length Subnet Masks] appeared' (p. 22). He made it clear on p. 52 that 'when multiple matching routes are available to the same destination, routers choose the longest matching route to forward the packets.' This allows specifying a default route that is only used when more specific routes do not match a given destination.

Beyond very insightful routing discussions, Alex makes his point using a variety of methods. In some cases he presents tables that compare protocols. Elsewhere he uses diagrams or figures. Throughout the book he demonstrates syntax and configuration, along with debugging messages showing how protocols work in real life. His innovative use of 'pseudo-code' shows how Cisco might represent protocol information within IOS itself. In many chapters he presents and answers frequently asked questions. These help to dispel myths readers may have concerning Cisco routers.

I cannot complain about any real aspect of this book. As a minor point, Alex's thorough examinations of routing packet headers should have been augmented by real packet traces. I would like to see a companion volume introduce topics like spanning tree, BGP, and other routing and switching issues. Readers looking for such coverage now might like Radia Perlman's 'Interconnections, 2nd Ed' and Iljitsch van Beijnum's 'BGP.'

If you want to truly learn what your Cisco router does when it makes forwarding decisions, you must read 'Cisco IP Routing.' I have not seen any other books so powerfully expose the inner workings of these critical systems.

The first time I heard this book is when I took the Internetworkexpert's online course. Brian McGahan recommended it. Becuase of its high customer rating, this book should have something worth studying. After reading through a couple of chapters, I feel it is a great book in IP Routing protocols.

This book presents concepts along with router outcome, so it's fairly easy to follow the author's logic in each different technology. This makes this book easy to digest. The way it presents how routing protocols work is very similar to Doyle's TCPIP vol.1. Yet, its editing style is more concise and it covers more in-depth materials in the IGP area.

Associated with Doyle's TCPIP and Parkhurst's OSPF, this book should be a required reading for CCIE RS candidates.