Data Communications and Networking

One of the more accessible books on computer networks. Very nice and simple illustrations of key concepts. Good explanation of fundamental concepts. Plenty of exercises. Wish I had this book when I started learning about computer networks. For instructors, this book comes with a comprehensive online resource. In particular, solutions and jpeg images that you can use in your lectures.

I conducted a full book research for an undergraduate networking class I'll be teaching, and this volume quickly rose to the top, and stayed there. It may not be perfect for a strongly math-centric or engineering-based curriculum, but it's perfect for IT/IS and general CS. It is the textbook I wish I had when I took my first undergraduate and even graduate level networking class in college. This is also a book that I actually enjoy reading and flipping through--a prerequisite for students. There is no doubt for me that this book will stand the test of time as a reference book for them through the coming years. This book is well organized, well written, well researched, comprehensive, and is consistently high quality across the board (table of contents, end of chapter material, glossary, index, illustrations, figures, tables, callouts, boxes, etc.). Please, I challenge you to refer me to a book with a better glossary, or as up-to-date content as MT-RJ connectors (with a Figure, no less!) The website for the book is also top-notch! Students can take a chapter quiz, have it electronically graded, and submit the results via email to themselves and to me. Guess what we're going to do at the end of class? ;-) The layout and color scheme of the book is surprisingly conducive to learning, something you can't say about every textbook. There is more than enough stuff for a good professor to be able to fill a basic networking class. Probably the only thing I found lacking, and this is for professors, not readers or students, was a more thorough pedagogical discussion of proposed curriculum paths and sequences for professors to consider. Most will go their own way, but it is helpful up front to know why the author(s) organized the way they did, included what they did (vs. specific model curricula), and what the ramifications might be of moving things around, etc. Personally, I'll be de-emphasizing chapters 6, 8, 10, 11, 17, 18, 22, 24, and 29--FWIW! But that's just me... I also would have liked to have seen, somewhere (even if it was online), a practical primer for students, on how to use Hyperterm, for example, and links to some free utilities for network monitoring, etc. If that was there, I haven't ran across it yet. Oh, and possibly a discussion of certification paths, for those that are interested. But then again, professors shouldn't be handed everything on a platter. So those are minor criticisms. This was an easy textbook to adopt, and I am quite sure the students will greatly benefit from the work Behrouz and his technical review team did on this great text. I am not always easily impressed, but in this case I was.

I bought Behrouz's data Communications and Networking (4th ed) book for self-study purpose. I found it to be an excellent book. It is not wordy but still very detailed. It has a lot of figures and diagrams to explain the concepts. You can hardly find a page without graphics. The concepts are clearly explained with minimal use of math. You can download very nice power points from publisher's website. If you want to learn about networking, then this is a book worth every penny spent on it. I highly recommend it.

I teach a second year under-graduate (degree) course in Data Communications and Networking. This is the first networking paper that students will take. I have used Shay, Stallings and Tanenbaum in the past but have changed to Forouzan because I believe that it does an excellent job of introducing concepts at a level that is readily understood by a novice. Student feedback confirms that it is about the right level and that they feel they actually understand the text - quite a bonus ;-)Another review recommends the above authors - and I agree they give an excellent treatment of the topic - but they require an advanced student. I would select Stallings or Tanenbaum for a paper that follows the introductory paper (we actually use Comer for the advanced paper which is specifically TCP/IP)Forouzan's "Data Comms and Networking" is clear, plainly written - yet gives a good depth to the topics being considered. The diagrams and practice questions are excellent.I highly recommend this book for an introductory under-graduate text.

This book is one of the great texts on the subjects covered. It has been a required text for two undergraduate and one (so far) graduate class that I have taken.Mr. Forouzan's prose is clear and his examples understandable. The only thing that might make portions of this book a difficult read for some people is the complexity of some of the material covered. The book starts at the electrical (Manchester encoding, NRZ, etc.), and gradually builds until the networking process is clear, top to bottom. In terms of completeness, I have not seen another book that covers everything from the LAN to the WAN like this book. Also included are related topics like cellular networks, PSTN, encryption, and even the application layer of the OSI model. The complete OSI model is covered with great depth.