“When I learned that O’Reilly had published the book `Internet
Core Protocols’ I figured out it might be a book for me. The
reasons for this is that I use the Internet frequently and that
UNIX can be seen as the fertile ground on which TCP/IP was grown. I
had dug into the subject before with the book `Computer Networks’,
written by Andrew Tanenbaum. So I thought that this book would be
more of the same. However, when I searched for Tanenbaum’s book,
which can be regarded as a classic, in the bibliography I couldn’t
find it anywhere.”
“This, combined with the fact that the book contains lots of
screenshots of the program Surveyor Lite by Shomiti, which is also
on the CD, wasn’t very promising. It got even worse after I read
the first chapter `An Introduction to TCP/IP’. In just 30 pages the
subjects of the ARPAnet, OSI layer model and other little things
which I regard essential for understanding TCP/IP are very briefly
touched.”
“After having read this book I feel that I’ve learned more
about TCP/IP, but I sincerely doubt that it’s worth having the
subtitle `The Definitive Guide’. The theoretical basis of TCP/IP is
hardly looked at. If you don’t know much about TCP/IP I won’t
suggest not to read this book, but I also won’t recommend it.
Tanenbaum’s book or Richard Stevens’ book might be a better
choice.”