Computer Networks (5th Edition)

Plenty of the reviews already point out specific features of the book. I wanted to illuminate the mentality necessary to appreciate this book. In my opinion, this book is not meant to *establish interest* in networks for the average student. It is meant to present a fantastic swathe of knowledge to those *already interested*. This is why there are reviews that say its boring and dry and then reviews that say its one of the best books they had at engineering school. The appreciative reviewer likely already had interest in networking, or similar subjects, whereas the unappreciative reviewer probably wasn't too enthused by the subject matter!This is not a knock on the reviewers who rated it poorly, but rather an attempt to ward off those who don't have preliminary interest from buying this book. If you already have the interest, this a fantastic reference source. For those looking for a first course in networking, I would tend to recommend Kurose and Ross over this book for its more accessible wording and topic coverage. This is still a nice one to have in the collection though.

I received this book yesterday (10/26/10)and here is my quick review: while other books on computer networks give a general overview, this book goes into minute details on the going ons of information transmission. As I skimmed through the book, Professor Tanenbaum used a lot of mathematical data and charts to show the inner workings of information transmission (and believe me, my math skills are horrible!). This book is geared to students who attend colleges like MIT, IIT in Chicago, and the Polytecs of the world. In closing, if you're a person who love computers and have a mind for numbers, this book is for you!

While the book does cover a number of low-level protocols like ARP, ICMP, IP, and TCP/UDP, many of the chapters seem to be more focused on the history of computer networking - about how the internet came to be and why certain protocols were used, which is probably why this book is about two inches thick.I like that the book introduced how a wire carries more than one signal at a time when communicating - something I was completely oblivious to before reading. It may have been out of the book’s scope, but I would have liked the book to explore the physical layer (PHY) a little more. For example, giving modern solutions to clock-data recovery and some signal multiplexing circuitry, which is essential for transmitting serialized data on a single wire. The book seemed to only cover generic communication on the PHY layer and glossed over everything else.

I work at a tech company as a sales rep but never had any formal computer networking training. I wanted a book that would walk me through each major aspect so that I could build upon it independently. I was getting frustrated trying to learn on my own because everything out there expects you to have fairly deep knowledge on the subject and that isn't the case for me. After reading some of the reviews, I was a little worried that would be the case with this book as well. There are certainly parts that go into the weeds but overall I've found the book very easy to understand and really interesting!

My book looks nothing like what I ordered. There were stickers all over it on certain blacked out spots and a film that someone put over the whole book. Like a celophane wrapping. When I pulled it off there it was. I'm now an owner of an illegal copy. There is a specific label under the wrapping that says where it can be sold and the US is NOT one of them.I'm very disappointed that Amazon doesn't check their sellers better. I went by ISBN the picture online matched the book I wanted. These international versions have to be better monitored. I wish sites wouldn't link the propr ISBN to an int'l version!

This book is very keen on describing without math many of the cool things people use every day without thinking about it. I happen to want the math, but that is why im in other classes. But, it is nonetheless a good read. dont be fooled by the cartoonish cover. I previously didnt know much about stack protocol or packets etc so i cant compare it with a previous source, and im sure others here dont express the same views as i do.

Very very very dense. Very hard to follow. Must be an EXPERT before reading this book. This book assumes significant knowledge of Networks.

This is the best book I have seen about the foundations of computer networks. It describes the concepts in a clear, often humorous, way (just look at the cover for an example).This is the book with the famous quote: "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway." It is just as true today as it was in the early editions.