Communications Books

This book was great! It's about two twins who were separated, Elizabeth and Isabel when their parents split up. So when Isabel dies, Elizabeth goes to live with her father and pretents to be Isabel since no one knows she's dead and since here father's recently had a heart attack, he doesn't really remember stuff. Then, Elizabeth and Rob, which was Isabel's boyfriend fall in love and he finds out that Elizabeth isn't Isabel and then he tells her that he loves her and they know that Isabel is up to something but...it leaves you on a cliffhanger and you have to buy book 2, which is Twin Terror.

Its about two girls Isabel and Elizabeth. That ELIZABETH
takes over her boyfriend, friends,and her things. But at the end does she find out that her sister was not really dead.
This book is a really great book because it leaves you hanging at the end of the story. You just want to keep reading it.

this book is about twin sisters elizabeth and isabel!iz and liz for short!anyway isabel is murdered or so they think and liz takes her place to see if she can figure out who muredered her sister!!i couldn't put this book down and i am dying to read the sequel!!i hope you like it as much as me!the sequel is called TWIN TERROR!!
krysti

this is a really good exciting and thrilling book!
it makes you want to keep reading and turning the pages from the beginning until the very end!
it's a great horror book, and it was definitely one of the best I've ever read
i hope u enjoy Twin Sisters, and that this review has helped!

Twin Sisters by Janice Harrell is a AWESOME book! It keeps you in suspense throughout the whole thing! It was very well written and I couldn't put it down! Anybody from the ages 10 to about 20 would enjoy this book. It's about 2 twins that were separated when they're parents divorced. One day, one of them died, so the other one, goes 2 live with her dad. Scary and creepy things keep happening @ her sisters house...find out what happens by reading it yourself. I KNOW YOU WILL ENJOY IT!

We have here an engaging chronicle of the last years of G. I. Gurdjieff's life set against the tragic backdrop of war, its madness, shame and deprivation. Paris was under Nazi occupation for over four years during the Second World War, beginning in June 1940. All during this period, Gurdjieff continued to live in his small apartment at 6 rue des Colonels-Renard, where he met regularly with his students.

There are thirty-two transcripts of these meetings, which were attended at great hazard, with spies and checkpoints everywhere. The discussion is focused on the spiritual work of self-remembering and self-observation which Mr. Gurdjieff is teaching. He is not interested in "who wins war . . . all have ideals, all have peaceful purpose, all kill." He has seen enough of war and revolution, what he calls man's "chief particularity. . . the periodic arising in them of. . .the urgent need to destroy everything outside themselves". For him, war is the result of the slavery that men have accepted and embraced as their lot. There can be just one solution to war and that is to teach men and women how to free themselves from the hypnotism of contemporary life.

Alongside Gurdjieff's quiet discussions with his pupils, we hear Hitler's historical justifications, the fumbling and surprise of politicians and military men as France's defenses fail and she is overrun, the rationalizations for collaboration and the calls for resistance from her intellectuals on the right and the left. The author has faithfully drawn a picture of the crisis Hitler represented for the West. He points to the passive support Hitler received from the elites of many countries. They admired the new "barbarians" and hoped the Germans would deal a blow to communism. We also hear brave accounts of the resistance, and the challenge to action facing writers like Albert Camus, Andre Malraux, and Francois Mauriac. We see Charles de Gaulle, with his difficult personality which isolated him from the rest of the French military before the invasion, and how well it suited him for the historical role he would eventually play, pressuring Churchill and Eisenhower on behalf of the Free French Forces.

With these two perspectives, author Patterson has given us a new point from which to see those conflicted times. He casts new light on the often puzzling mystic and teacher, Gurdjieff. This is a remarkable meditation on war and I recommend it highly. It was nominated for the National Book Awards in 2001. Well researched and documented, it is an extremely interesting read and it will be welcomed by serious students of the Gurdjieff work as well as general readers.

In Voices in the Dark, William Patrick Patterson takes us to Gurdjieff's meetings in Paris during the Nazi occupation. The records of the meetings are interspersed with accounts of the historical events taking place. Gurdjieff's oft-given instruction to the student to "outwardly play a role and inwardly not to identify" takes on a new importance during these times. Yet the problems of a student of the Fourth Way seem the same as always from the perspective taken in the meetings: work with attention, struggling with self-love and vanity. The timelessness of the teaching brought by Gurdjieff, a work in life, is brilliantly illustrated in this book.

With the possible exception of Mr. Patterson's autobiographical Eating the `I', Voices in the Dark is his best book to-date. A strong opening immediately takes the reader into the Paris of World War II, and into the emotional and psychic turmoil that characterized that time. A turmoil that is all the more striking with its relevance to our current "age of terrorism." This topic alone would be worth the price of admission, but Mr. Patterson deftly interweaves this with two others. One is a seemingly minor theme - the role of the occult in Nazi Germany - though this takes a surprising turn as its impact on western occultism in general is exposed. The third stream consists of previously unprinted transcripts of G. I. Gurdjieff meetings with students in the midst of the Nazi occupation. Interestingly, there is little commentary connecting these streams; the relationships are built by juxtaposition.

The story of occupied Paris is based on the experiences of such luminaries as Charles De Gaulle, Jean Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus. Mr. Patterson allows these protagonists to speak for themselves, quoting from diaries, transcripts and letters. Personally, I was most struck by the words of Jacques Lusseyran, a blind resistance fighter, who rose to become leader of an entire network.

Interspersed through the storm of events impacting Paris is the quiet nexus of meetings conducted in the face of curfews, privations, and Nazi checkpoints. Despite the incredible barriers each person faced in simply attending meetings, there is no mention of these external events. Yet these same events lend the context in which real questions arise.

Mr. Patterson presents us with authentic voices, which reflect both a particular moment of history and the recurrence of experiences throughout time.

Voices in the Dark is a rich collection of notes from Gurdjieff's meetings in Paris during the WWII Nazi occupation. This is essential material for anyone who studies Fourth Way literature and a good introduction for those would like to start.

As with his earlier book, Struggle of the Magicians, Mr. Patterson carefully weaves the meetings in a historical context. But unlike the former book, he adds an additional element that consists of `voices' from prominent leaders (from both sides), writers, and philosophers of the day. I would have thought that, given the dangers and rapid changes people lived with on a day-to-day basis, many of the questions in the meetings would have focused on how to live and survive during those dangerous times. However, it seems that, because of the difficult and life-threatening times, students were doubly serious about their inner work. The context - the dangerous situation - makes what was spoken of during the wartime meetings that much more rich, important, and insightful.

This book made me ponder what is truly important in life. And I recognized that it's not the `outer' things that are important (which we tend to give so much value to), but all the seemingly `little' inner things that we take so much for granted in ordinary life.

One of the things that Mr. Gurdjieff said in a wartime meeting - which has stayed with me for a long time after reading this book - is that God does not exist for a person while his or her parents are still alive. I don't know why, but this statement, in particular, really struck me. After a long period of contemplation and the recent event of a family member becoming ill - perhaps terminally - I have come to a far deeper understanding of what this means and its implications in terms of my own spiritual study and growth. Given this recent insight (some months after having read the book), I'm now certain that a first reading has only scratched the surface of the book's potential value for me. The material provided here really warrants further, serious study.

"Voices in the Dark" gave me a greater appreciation of the Work. The people who were in the Work continued their self-exploration even though they were in the midst of WWII. It must have been very difficult under these conditions of war to keep to one's spiritual aim, but it showed what Gurdjieff's students valued. For most people, however, the war became the focus of their lives. This juxtaposition was beautifully illustrated by the interweaving of what was happening in the war through the writings of people of that time and the transcripts of meetings that Gurdjieff held with his students. Reading this book reminded me that hope needs to be placed in consciousness and Being and not on the external conditions. For that reminder I am grateful.

Vacca's new book provides a comprehensive overview of the emerging wireless data technology. The book is geared toward experienced Internet professionals who need to learn how to install wireless networks quickly. It provides numerous hands-on examples, such as an access network protocol, and useful discussions about issues such as the implementation of homeland security (currently most available protocols and products have huge holes). A large portion of the book is devoted to the design of wireless networks, dealing with issues such as standards, robustness, ease of installation and use, and, of course, security. Detailed schematics demonstrate typical filter and uplink applications. The final chapter offers a series of recommendations to support Vacca's assertion that wireless technology is the key to the future of communications and concludes that future networks will require a new methodology that integrates all layers of network design. The book is organized to move from an overview of this emerging technology through the planning and design, installation and deployment, and configuration phases. It also supplies advanced solutions to wireless design problems and new directions of the technology. Altogether a must for those people who are charged with implementing this type of network in their organizations.

This is the practical stuff you can't ever learn by going to grad school.
Wonderfully comprehensive and chalk full of highly useful information for today's high tech world. Wireless Data hits every conceivable corner of wireless technology with a well balanced mix of overview, technical depth, and hands on applications. The diagrams and illustrations are very well done. Highly recommended for the spectrum of tech managers, network engineers, and technicians. This book will be a mainstay for my reference library.

Vacca provides a unique value in his books in allowing the reader to drill down to the technical level required. This one is certainly no exception. His top-level scenarios are enlightening and encourage you to leap onto the technological bandwagon, but I particularly appreciate his caveats - particularly where he indicates what standardisation or legislation is required within the industry, as well as his very specific cautions against over-design within your application. Subsequently, he proceeds into the technical rationale for such limitations, and where it can be bypassed or overcome.

As I have spent the majority of my applications career interfacing between management/marketing ideals (necessary for progress) and technical viability within the available staff (typically pessimistic after the first few confrontations with external technical reality), I sincerely appreciate Vacca's substantiated presentations of current viability, emergent solutions, and futures.

JohnVacca has again written a book about a subject that has great application in the near future. As notebook computers are fast replacing desktop computers and as flat screen monitors are replacing CRT monitors, wireless data is replacing data transmission via cables of different types. Several companies have already replaced their local networks with wireless networks at work place where their employees can move about the work place and be connected to not only the company's Intranet but also the Internet. This book provides a good explanation in the understanding of wireless data transmission and the challenges for companies that provide wireless transmission to improve this technology as more companies and organizations will soon depend on this application to conduct business.

I have added also this new book by John vacca to my Company library. Practically all of John books end up being used to train all of our employees . You did it again John!
Keep at it , you are the best

Tullio Bortoletto

Palumbo is a writer turned psychotherapist. He saw all his own problems writing, and understood others also had them, and found his new voaction counceling other authors at various stages in their careers. As such the book differs from most other writer's guide books. He focuses on the internal processes of writing: self-doubt, negative judgement, hopelessness, loneliness, lack of ideas, etc. And he does give very valuable advice. Basically, he tells us to turn our weaknesses into strenghts. We can use anything in our writing, even our procrastination and depression. An idea that actullay goes back all the way to Nietzsche.
Thios book will not write anything for you, but it will help give new clarity to your thoughts about writing, and in that way help you with your writing.

One of the most humane and heartening books on the perils of the writing life I've come across, it's hard to recommend it highly enough. I'd give it more than 5 stars if I could.

Based on his own career as a writer and as a therapist, Palumbo knows all the secret agonies serious writers face; and he has, through experience, gathered wisdom for dealing with all of them. He imparts this wisdom in gentle, down-to-earth chapters that always stress the real over the theoretical.

I came across this book at just the right time (recommended, I think, in one of Elizabeth Lyon's terrific writing guides) and now I don't know how I ever got along without it. I have a copy next to the chair where I work; I will refer to it often, and recommend it heartily.

Just what the doctor ordered for writers who wrestle with the demands of the writing life, which is all of us. Palumbo is a healer, and this book now lives on my nightstand.

Eric Maisel's "Living the Writer's Life" is one of the best books I've found on the writer's life, right up there with Rachel Simon's "The Writer's Survival Guide". Palumbo's, unfortunately, is not so spectacular, although it definitely has its merits.

One of Palumbo's best-conceived ideas is that in order to be happy with our writing, we must learn to enjoy the process for its own sake, not simply for external rewards such as sales and good reviews. I particularly like his view of writing as meditation, "a hushed, private space"--a calling more than a career. Palumbo talks about the problems all writers face, and it might help you to realize that you aren't so alone after all.

As much as I loved the good parts of Palumbo's book, however, there were definitely some parts I didn't like. For example, I took real issue with some of his claims regarding bipolar disorder, particularly his claim that bipolar is nothing more than an unhelpful label. As someone who HAS bipolar disorder (a genetically-inherited, biologically-based *illness*), and whose life was very much aided by the proper medication, I can say that such "labels" can be very helpful indeed! If you're worried about somehow losing your creativity if you medicate and calm your manic phases, I can personally testify to the fact that in many cases medication makes it much easier to actually sit down and take advantage of your creativity, rather than taking it away.

It is clear that Palumbo has some very strong feelings on certain matters, and every few chapters these feelings detract from the usefulness of the book. He bashes would-be writers who haven't yet written anything, comparing them to someone who says that they've always wanted to give heart surgery a try one of these weeks (the analogy holds merit in that writing requires skill, but falls apart in that writing requires more learning-by-doing, and can at least be attempted, explored, and practiced by the unskilled!). If there's one thing I took away from Maisel's book, it's that every writer was once a would-be writer. And the line between "wanna-be" and "would-be" isn't something we can assume just by looking at someone.

I don't recommend this book to the novice or "would-be" writer. Unlike Maisel's book, it's likely to give you a few skewed ideas about creativity and your own role in writing. On the other hand, it has a lot of very useful suggestions for writers who have some experience and are looking for help with the ups and downs of their craft. Palumbo has written lots of scripts and screenplays, so he has plenty of advice that is of particular use to those writers dealing with Hollywood.

For many years I experienced writer's block, lonliness, doubt, fear of rejection and just plain fear. Just like the summary on the back of the book. I am glad that I am not alone and it made me realize that is part of the the writing life. This book gives hope and support that yes you can make it as a writer maybe not the riches in terms of money but maybe to quench your thirsty soul. Dennis Palumbo doesn't give away all his secrets(of course he still has a practice to run as a psychotherapist) but enough answers to make you realize yes you are not nuts or crazy but simply a writer. A good reference book to keep by your writing desk whenever you feel down or have the inevitable writer's block.

I both enjoyed and learned a great deal from reading Carmine Gallo's 10 Simple Secrets Of The World's Greatest Business Communicators.
Carmine's words and sentences are "turbo-charged" with right-on-target examples and no-nonsense information from page 1 through page 226. I strongly recommend this book to my family members, friends, colleagues ... and, yes, even to my "enemies." After all ... who wants to sit through another presentation that's more "sedative" than "seductive.!!

Whether you're a driven, career-oriented individual OR NOT, this book is a must-read. This book will change the way you see your life.

I'm not going to say much except this book is a must buy because of the examples drawn upon. They're fantastic and they make this book the best business/leadership/communication books I've read recently.

Gallo does a great job of distilling the important characteristics of successful presenters into simple, practical, easy-to-emulate bits of advice. I have found the book's format particularly convenient. I can easily pick the book up, open to any page, and start learning. No need to read it from start to finish if that's not your style. Gallo shows considerable insight into what makes for success. Buy it!

After reading this book for 2 days, i can tell this is the best book about Speech i've ever read. I am hoping someday this will be required reading for every sales executive in different company large and small. the book is well organized and well research, my copy is mostly hightlited in every pages, notes everywhere. good job, carmine.

Nat

I looked high and low, and this has to be the best option for developing an LDAP or ADSI component in C++. Find this out of print book and buy it instead of buying another book that is still in print.

Really awesome AD programming book. Covers all the basics of AD and ADSI and then dives into the LDAP API which all other authors try to avoid and dont cover well. You do not need any other AD programming books if you have this one.

Very good book, extensively covers LDAP programming
unlike others.

I've struggled with using LDAP and this explains it all with code samples, which for the likes of makes it easy to learn and best of all Copy and Paste

Really awesome AD programming book. Covers all the basics of AD and ADSI and then dives into the LDAP API which all other authors try to avoid and dont cover well. You do not need any other AD programming books if you have this one.

This book is well written and includes some very interesting cases of NDEs. The children simply "tell it like it is" without too much religion getting in the way...however, all of the children had been exposed to religion so the NDEs weren't devoid of religious terminology. It's a shame that we haven't had more scientific studies regarding these experiences. Apparently the U.S. and the U.K. are now undergoing a joint study of NDEs in cardiac arrest patients. Hopefully this will shed more light on these very compelling cases.

This book was a quick read for me. It was interesting, enlightening and even heartwarming! The children tell of seeing the Light- an all-knowing, all-loving being that made them never want to return to their earthly bodies!!

I have read numerous books on the subject of NDE's. This one touched me like not other I have on the subject. Dr Morse has written many books on the subject as it is apparent he has dedicated a large part of his life studying the facets of the near death experience. Let me just say that this book is always by my bed. It's pages have been read many times over, so much so, that they are now worn. Very well written, very enlightening. Powerful.

I first read Dr. Morse's collection of near-death experiences in the mid-1980s when death was only an academic subject for a thiry-something person. I was fascinated by the accounts he and physician Raymond Morse had collected from patients and felt a sense of reassurance that the compiler was a scientist. The stories are so compelling, it is hard to put down the book. These reports changed my outlook on life. Now, about two decades later, this book makes it easier to accept a most shattering loss, the passing of my partner and husband of 33 years. However, I'm more drawn now, not to the accounts of "tourists," who have gone and come back, but the permanent residents whom mediums like George Anderson have interviewed.

Description
~CLOSER TO THE LIGHT~ Learn What Children "SEE" When They Are Near Death, OR Have Just Crossed The Threshold...
. TRUE STORY FROM ME-- I Had A Neice Who Died And Saw A Field Of Beautiful Flowers And Green Grass. She Could Smell The flowers. She Was Told She Could Stay And She Remembers Looking At her Body All Bandaged Up, Her head covered in Bandages.... She Heard Doctors Tell Her Parents To Be Prepared To call In The Family.
The Car Accident Had Been Horrible. When She Fell Asleep And Drove Off The Bridge She Hit A Very Large Boulder in The Creek Bed... It Had Destroyed Most Of Her Right Brain. She Was Going To Be Paralized, A Quadipledic (sorry bad spelling)
She Could Hear Her Dad Crying. He Felt The Whole Thing Was His Fault For letting His 16 Year Old Daughter Drive From Calif. To Colo.Even Though He was In The Car Behind Her.
He Saw It All Happen, happen so fast and he could do nothing But Look At The Crumpled Mass That Used To be His Daughter's Car..
His Daughter Made A Decsion To come Back For Him, To Tell Him It Was Not His Fault. She Choose To Leave Her Peaceful Place And Come Back To A World Of Pain To Comfort Her Father.
While In The Comma, She Heard And Felt Everything Done To Her, Her Father's Caress And His Tears As They Fell On Her Unchecked. Her Mother Crying In The Background, Her Grandparents Rushing Into The Room And Trying To Hold Her... She Woke Herself Out Of The Coma To Tell Them She Was Going To Stay A While Longer..She lived another 8 Years Till her father Could Let Her Go. She Told Him It Was Her Time Now To Move On, And Her Father Was Able To Let Her Go Now Knowing She Would Be Safe In The After Life.~~

This is a must read book for anyone who is serious about how to bring their spirituality to the workplace.

The hard part about starting or running a business is not the long hours, the tight deadlines, or the stresses of being overworked in the face of an insecure future. The real challenges that make or break us surround dealing with our own integrity, our priorities, and conflicts with others.

This book covers those challenges and offers many tools and examples of how we can manage them and come out ahead having built a stronger foundation and a stronger company.

I personally can't stand the idealistic tones of the book but I will admit, unlike most of these books that I have read, this one is much more grounded inthe harsh challenges of reality such as the fact that, while in business and in dealing with others failure is not an option but success is not always achieved.

If you read this book you will find yourself referencing it as you deal with life on any level because the authors clear mind and direct language gives you the language to describe and communicate the situation and how best to manage it.

Fred Kofman does a good job explaining his concepts, however his accent can be a little disconcerting at first. If you are a Landmark Education graduate, the material on these CD's is very nearly a rip-off of the same concepts (i.e., having Integrity, Honoring your Word, etc...). For non-Landmark graduates, these CD's cover many soft-skills concepts that can be effective in your personal life, but he applies them (a little obscurely) to a work environment. If you are trying to get your own business off the ground, "Conscious Business" does not offer strategies for doing so, but rather best practices to remain successful. In other words, you won't find tips regarding how to file your returns, collect data effectively, or document discipline. You will instead find tips about the importance of keeping your word, how to stop stressing about work, and things of that nature. The program was not bad--in retrospect, I would have found it no more than $15 worth of value. Take that for what you will.

Written by Fred Kofman (co-founder and president of Axialent consulting company), Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values is a straightforward guide to applying conscious awareness to its fullest extent, recognizing the needs of others, and effectively expressing one's own needs order to build responsibility, integrity, leadership, and reputation - all of which are invaluable tools to a business' continued success. Drawing from real-world examples by such famous companies as Microsoft, Yahoo!, and much more, Conscious Business reveals how being mindful of fundamental human virtues and even "spiritual" questions such as "Who am I?" and "What is my real purpose here?" are positive, empowering assets. A clarion call for balancing fiscal obligations with ethical and moral responsibilities for increased success in all dimensions of business life.

Business is an essential part of our lives. Doing business consciously, Fred Kofman, a co-founder of the consulting firm Axialent, is an essential part of living consciously. The author presents a business model where managers are more conscious of the inner and outer lives of employees.

Anyone who works intuitively understands there are two types of managers. As a professor of accounting, Kofman begin his classes by having students listen to one of Beethoven's pieces over and over. Gradually the students would realize that the music was not in the CD; but in the listening. In music as in business, Information's only value is in how it is interpreted.

Most recognize the need for smart employees with the latest in technical competency. Kofman argues it is more important, and less recognized, that organizations recruit and retain employees with high-level consciousness.

He draws a contrast between unconscious attitudes and their conscious counterparts. They are:

Unconscious Attitudes.....................Conscious Attitudes
Unconditional Blame.......................Unconditional Responsibility
Essential Selfishness........................Essential Integrity
Ontological Arrogance.....................Ontological Humility
Unconscious Behaviors....................Conscious Behaviors
Manipulative Communication..........Authentic Communication
Narcissistic Negotiation....................Constructive Negotiation
Negligent Coordination.....................Impeccable Coordination
Unconscious Reactions.....................Conscious Reactions
Emotional Incompetence...................Emotional Mastery.

These qualities are simple to understand; yet, they are difficult to implement. They represent common sense; yet, they are not found widely in common practice. They seem natural, yet they challenge deep-seated assumptions individuals hold about themselves, others and their world.

Kofman opens the reader's conscious to a unique resource for maximizing profit and potential in the workplace and beyond. Written concisely and coherently he communicates an uncommon wisdom about the truth of our emotions and healthy interpersonal practices in business and life.

my husband and I knew Daisy. She would be so glad to see us, especially Bill, as he helped with her baths.When you looked into her eyes [and Daisy looked into yours] you could see eternity. Everything Helen wrote about really happened. We gave her book as gifts to five people and each one read it and each one learned something new. This is a must read for anyone who loves animals and for anyone who is curious about life, death and the afterlife.

Anyone who loves and respects, and has a close bond with animals
can not help but love this book. Helen Weaver tells a heartwarming story of loss and then continued communication with her beloved dog Daisy. People who don't "dig" this book are really not in tune with animals. It stirs all the good emotions in those who do.
Bernard Wasserman, D.V.M., author of The Dog Who Met The Queen and Other Stories.

This warm and sentimental story on the subject of animal communication is a must for all Animal Lovers. As we think of the love given by our four-footed and winged friends, we must realize that there is an intelligence there to be respected and cherished. The author has given an important slice of her life,
expressing a sensitive and caring attitude toward her dog, Daisy. Anyone who has ever owned a pet will understand the feelings involved.

This is a must for dog-lovers and particularly meaningful (just ask its many fans) to people who have loved and lost a dog.

Weaving, no pun intented, though Daisy's story is the story of her remarkable person Helen and Helen's remarkable mother.

The Daisy Sutra suprised me in its exploration of human-dog relations. I was touched by the humor, pathos and finally metaphysical reach of this little gem. I have bought 5 for gifts. Deep, rich, rewarding read.

I was skeptical about buying a book this old, but I just finished it and am still slightly amazed at how little has changed in multicast technology in ~8 years. I have read Doyle's multicast coverage, listened to InternetworkExpert's excellent "class on demand" (CoD) on the topic many times, and worked through over half of their 20 CCIE lab scenarios, all of which have multicast sections. This doesn't make me an expert by any means, but I know enough now to recognize that the material in this book is still worth reading.

The differences between this book and Doyle's (2004) are:
- Williamson dedicates a lot more effort to explaining the mroute table. This was my single biggest stumbling block in multicast routing
- Doyle, IMO, gives IGMP a better treatment
- Doyle goes over mtrace and mstat
- Williamson spreads the information out over more pages via liberal usage of config snips and diagrams, often one per page. This allows him to go into *brutal, painful and excruciating* detail about every line in the mroute table, every flag, every state transition, etc.
- Williamson does a more thorough job of explaining exactly what happens in PIM-SM networks (100+ pages to Doyle's ~25)
- Doyle goes over Anycast RP and gives a better explanation of MSDN, which appears to have been rather cutting edge when Williamson put finger to keyboard

I finished the book in about a week of serious effort, but I skipped the following chapters (Cisco has not put much effort into the technologies described), leaving me with about 400 pages of groovyness:
DVMRP
CBT
MOSPF
Connecting to DVMRP Networks
and several sections of other chapters

To be sure, some things have changed. I didn't see any mention of the "ip pim autorp listener" command, which negates the need for sparse-dense mode when configuring Auto-RP (can't recall if Doyle mentioned that either). Also, in current versions of IOS one *does* need to specify the RP on the RP itself, whereas Williamson (and Doyle) explicitly say this is not the case (they were both right at the time of print, Cisco has changed this). Overall however, I would say that easily >95% of the material is solid here.

So which book to buy? Well if you're serious about the CCIE and/or running a multicast network you'll get both, and read them both several times. I do hope Williamson updates the book though, as he alludes to several draft proposals, and gives a "state of the multicast internet" address that I would like to know more about without digging through two dozen RFCs. Also, the few things that have changed would be a boon to the book.

I come from a routing shop - never having a customer need for Multicast. This book brought me up to speed very quickly on the both the beauty and ease of Multicast. As a tool for my CCIE studies, I felt the first 200 pages were of immense value at helping my studies. I felt Chapter 5 (on DVMRP) was not nearly as valuable as Chapters 6 and 7 (on PIM-DM and PIM-SM).

Some typos I was able to pick out:
page 144 - 2nd line from bottom should read "...it too sends a Graft message to Router C" - not Router D.

page 168 - 3rd line on the 1st paragraph should read "...SPT to pull the (S2, G) traffic down to the RP..." - not (S1, G).

There are some other typos, but they are few and far between (but I'm not an expert on multicast!). I have heard of this book being talked about as the 'bible' for multicast - I can see why.

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

Multicast has for several years been used in LAN environments to easily exchange information among users, especially in educational and academic research environments. The advent of audio and video conferencing has increased its use in these environments, and it is now making its presence known in WAN and Internet environments. This book gives an overview of the how to implement IP multicast on Cisco devices, and does a good job in that regard. Readers with a general knowledge of networks, even those who have not administered Cisco devices explicitly, can gain much from the book. This reviewer was not interested in the actual implementation of Cisco multicast networks, which is covered in Part 3 of the book, and so this review will concentrate on the other three parts of the book. These parts are mostly descriptive, but they do discuss some of the performance issues involved with the deployment of IP multicast, although nowhere in the book are test cases discussed, even though their inclusion would have been extremely helpful. Multicasting by itself is not a complicated phenomena to understand and use, but when it is deployed over Layer 2 or when coupled with QoS some interesting issues can arise. This reviewer was mostly interested in traffic engineering in multicast environments, and the author spends an entire chapter on this topic.

The book begins with a history of multicast and the MBone, the latter of which is a collection of Internet routers and hosts that are interconnected and are able to forward IP multicast traffic. IP multicast is of course an unreliable transmission mechanism, based as it is on UDP. Along with stating the assigned scope of the multicast addresses over IP, the author also reviews the scheme for multicast MAC addressing. The MAC address mapping will cause a CPU performance hit though since the CPU will have to be interrupted in order to deal with all 32 of the IP multicast groups. This arises since the IP multicast address information cannot be mapped into the available space of the MAC address space. There is a 32:1 address ambiguity when an IP multicast address is mapped to a MAC address.

One can summarize the properties of the multicast routing protocols discussed in the book straightforwardly:

PIM (Protocol Independent Multicasting) can run in three different modes, namely Dense (DM), Sparse (SM) and Sparse-Dense. A router will always forward multicast traffic on a dense mode interface unless all the PIM neighbors of the interface prune themselves from the multicast tree. Multicast traffic will be forwarded on a sparse mode interface only if at least one of the PIM neighbors explicitly joins the multicast tree. In sparse-dense mode, the interface can be running in sparse mode for some groups and dense mode for others. There is a "hello interval" for PIM multicast which is the frequency at which the router will send PIM query messages, the latter of which are used for selecting a PIM designated router. The PIM designated router is responsible for sending IGMP (v1) queries. Bootstrap messages can be forwarded from an interface in PIMv2. This allows all PIM-SM routers in a domain to dynamically learn all Group-to-RP mappings.In PIM-DM, the multicast traffic is periodically forwarded even on pruned interfaces of a source-based distribution tree. This allows the learning of membership changes. This 'state-refresh interval' can be configured on the first-hop routers of the multicast source, allowing the interface to periodically send a state refresh control message down the source-based distribution tree. When doing multicast in an NBMA (NonBroadcast MultiAccess) network, a router will replicate multicast packets for all neighbors configured for broadcast (actually pseudobroadcast to use the author's characterization). To avoid this, one can configure the router in NBMA mode, which will then only allow the replication of packets for PIM neighbors. NBMA mode is only supported by Cisco for SM networks.

DVMRP (Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol) does neighbor discovery, where network routing information is exchanged between neighbors. This information consists of Route Report messages that advertise a source network and a hop-count. DVMRP generates two routing tables, one is a multicast routing table to the receivers and a unicast routing table to the sources. When forwarding, a DVMRP router will use the unicast table for RPF (Reverse Path Forwarding) checks and the multicast table for forwarding multicast packets. When doing unicast routing, the router will use the unicast table for the RPF check, but will use a different multicast routing protocol for forwarding multicast packets. There is a metric value associated with a DVMRP unicast route, which is the sum of the interface metrics of a route between the router originating the report and the router in the source network.

For multicast traffic, one can control bandwidth with: 1. Aggregate rate limiting, which sets an upper bound for all multicast traffic being sent on an interface. 2. Mroute table entries wherein each individual multicast stream is set to a maximum rate. 3. `Scoped zones' and multicast boundaries, which prevent multicast traffic with a high rate from traveling outside the provisioned regions. Doing actual multicast traffic engineering is complicated do to the need for calculating the proper RPF (Reverse Path Forwarding) interface (and not the destination IP address). The author discusses in detail some of the techniques that can be used, such as GRE tunnels and `pseudo load-sharing.' GRE tunnels are used to do load-splitting of multicast traffic, which cannot be done otherwise since multicast is allowed only one incoming interface. He also describes how to do traffic conversion between broadcast and multicast, this being allowed for Cisco IOS 11.1 or later. This is a useful capability for networks where the source or the receivers, or both, do not support IP multicast.

Multicasting is truly a technology solution in search of a problem. Excepting highly specialized conferencing applications (a few of which are mentioned here) it is difficult to see how multicasting can be a money-making service for carriers and providers, and the protocols have yet to really penetrate to wide deployment. That said, knowledge of this separate realm of IP networking is a must for any professional in the telecom space.

I'm glad to say that this book rewards determined scrutiny. As a technical writer supporting a very complex product line that has recently added PIM-SM to its bag of tricks, I've found this book painstaking and tremendously informative. You will need to understand IP networking before approaching this title; on the assumption that you do, you will fully understand shared trees, SPTs, and their combination in PIM to an absolute fare-thee-well. My focus when reading this book was on IGMP and PIM-SM, so I have not read absolutely every page of this title. However, Williamson breaks the processes down packet-by-packet for each protocol in the multicasting suite in almost excruciating detail. Advanced coverage of topics such as registration, pruning, and Rendezvous Point behavior means that you will have complete mastery of Cisco multicasting, and for any platform that conforms to the standards, by the time you are finished.

This is an excellent, excellent effort in what I think is a consistently solid networking series.

This is the best multicast book on the market. It is a must have whether you are preparing for the CCIE Lab or just want to understand multicast.

The explanation was simple and clear. There are tons of configuration examples covering pretty much all kinds of scenarios. The author actually explained every single line of the configurations.

I bought this book for my Lab exam, and after two days of reading, 99.99% of my questions were answered (the only one I still have is I actually made PIM-DM work in a hub-spoke frame relay network. The prune message from one spoke was actually seen by the other spoke, I don't know why the hub would forward it out).

I have to admit this is one of the best books I've read for a long time. Just like Jeff Doyle's TCP/IP Routing is the Bible of IGP, this book is the Bible of Multicast.