BKPGDCTW.RVW   20041210

"A Professional's Guide to Data Communication in a TCP/IP World", E.
Bryan Carne, 2004, 1-58053-909-2
%A   E. Bryan Carne
%C   685 Canton St., Norwood, MA   02062
%D   2004
%G   1-58053-909-2
%I   Artech House/Horizon
%O   U$85.32/C$119.50 800-225-9977 artech@artech-house.com
%O  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1580539092/robsladesinterne
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1580539092/robsladesinte-21
%O   http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1580539092/robsladesin03-20
%O   tl i rl 1 tc 3 ta 2 tv 0 wq 1
%P   253 p.
%T   "A Professional's Guide to Data Communication in a TCP/IP World"

The preface states that this book is intended to present a picture of
the TCP/IP stack, and a guide to the protocols of the suite.  The
typical reader would be familiar with telecommunications terms and
concepts, although not with TCP/IP itself.  Instead, what we seem to
have is a grab bag of random communications protocols and information,
with occasional mentions of, but hardly a concentration on, TCP/IP.

Chapter one provides a quick trip through the major protocols and
structures for the Internet.  Basic data communications, the OSI (Open
Systems Interconnection) model, and TCP/IP stack based thereon, are
reviewed in chapter two.  Ethernet, token ring, and FDDI (Fibre
Distributed Data Interface) protocols for local area networks (LANs)
are discussed in chapter three.  Chapter four lists various WAN (Wide
Area Network) protocols, mostly older ones, and irrelevant to TCP/IP. 
Chapter five covers interconnection protocols.  The protection of
networks, in chapter six, provides some very odd misinformation, such
as describing firewalls (of every type) as proxies, defining tunnels
as requiring encryption, and using "firewall" as a term to describe
multifunction firewall appliances.  Transmission media and factors are
examined in chapter seven.  Chapter eight, entitled "Convergence of
Voice and Data," talks about using phone circuits for "last mile" data
connection to the home or small office, and voice over IP.

The book is very difficult to describe.  The lack of structure in the
material is neither helpful to the novice nor quick to reference for
the professional.  The topics are disjointed, and seemingly collected
at random.  It is hard to say for whom the work would or might be
useful.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 2004   BKPGDCTW.RVW   20041210