Computer Networking: Internet Protocols in Action

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 288 pages
• Published by: Wiley January 3, 2005
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0471661864
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0471661863
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 1 pounds

Product Description
Hands-on networking experience, without the lab!
The best way to learn about network protocols is to see them in action. But that doesn't mean that you need a lab full of networking equipment. This revolutionary text and its accompanying CD give readers realistic hands-on experience working with network protocols, without requiring all the routers, switches, hubs, and PCs of an actual network.
Computer Networking: Internet Protocols in Action provides packet traces of real network activity on CD. Readers open the trace files using Ethereal, an open source network protocol analyzer, and follow the text to perform the exercises, gaining a thorough understanding of the material by seeing it in action.
Features
* Practicality: Readers are able to learn by doing, without having to use actual networks. Instructors can add an active learning component to their course without the overhead of collecting the materials.
* Flexibility: This approach has been used successfully with students at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Appropriate for courses regardless of whether the instructor uses a bottom-up or a top-down approach.
* Completeness: The exercises take the reader from the basics of looking at quiet and busy networks through application, transport, network, and link layers to the crucial issues of network security.

Back Cover Copy
Hands-on networking experience, without the lab!

The best way to learn about network protocols is to see them in action. But that doesn’t mean that you need a lab full of networking equipment. This revolutionary text and its accompanying CD give readers realistic hands-on experience working with network protocols, without requiring all the routers, switches, hubs, and PCs of an actual network.

Computer Networking: Internet Protocols in Action provides packet traces of real network activity on CD. Readers open the trace files using Ethereal, an open source network protocol analyzer, and follow the text to perform the exercises, gaining a thorough understanding of the material by seeing it in action.

FEATURES

• Practicality: Readers are able to learn by doing, without having to use actual networks. Instructors can add an active learning component to their course without the overhead of collecting the materials.
• Flexibility: This approach has been used successfully with students at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Appropriate for courses regardless of whether the instructor uses a bottom-up or a top-down approach.
• Completeness: The exercises take the reader from the basics of looking at quiet and busy networks through application, transport, network, and link layers to the crucial issues of network security.

Reader Reviews
I eagerly anticipated reading Jeanna Matthews' 'Computer Networking: Internet Protocols in Action' (CN:IPIA). I am always looking for good networking books to recommend to people asking how to enter the digital security field. I am pleased to report that CN:IPIA is an excellent, hands-on, packet-oriented introduction to networking, suitable for all entry-level analysts. Even those with several years of experience may learn a trick or two, as I did. The book is very logically organized. Section 1 is an introduction to using Ethereal to collect and inspect packets. I was unaware of Ethereal's ability to color packets based on user-specified 'color rules'. Section 1 also describes the various Ethereal panes and what they mean. Section 2 starts the hands-on packet analysis work. The CD accompanying the book offers thirty MB of packet traces collected by the author. She uses these traces to expertly illustrate a variety of networking concepts. Section 2 introduces the top of the protocol stack by looking at application protocols. I learned about HTTP Last-Modified, If-Modified-Since, Cache-Control, and ETag headers. Section 3 discusses transport layer protocols like TCP and UDP. I really liked the author's exposition on TCP Selective Acknowledgement (SACK), and I was glad to see she fully understood and explained TCP sequence numbers. I also finally grapsed the idea behind TCP time sequence graphs by reading this part. Section 4 covered network layer protocols. After fairly standard material on DHCP, ping, and traceroute, I was surprised and pleased to read about routing protocols. Both interior protocols (RIP and OSPF) and an exterior protocol (BGP) made appearances. Better yet, analysts can examine traffic traces to understand how these protocols work. Section 5 talked about link-level protocols (wired and wireless), and section 6 concludes the book with a few examples of security-related network events. My few problems with CN:IPIA are overshadowed by the excellent material elsewhere. On p. 79 the author writes that a mail server involved in exchanging a message is the system which makes a DNS query. In fact, the trace shows it's the mail client, a laptop, making the query. Since the mail server in the example is also the sample network's DNS server, any query it makes would be answered by itself -- and wouldn't appear on the wire. On p. 109, in the second paragraph, the last two references to 'packet 7' should be 'packet 6'. I also think readers should have seen an example of active FTP to complement the book's discussion of passive FTP. If you're looking to gain a packet-oriented understanding of networking, you must buy this book. It's a fast read, but I have not seen a better hands-on introduction to network traffic. Those wishing to learn packet analysis should start their journey with CN:IPIA, and spend plenty of time inspecting the traces on the book's CD.