TCP IP Lean: Web Servers for Embedded Systems [With CDROM]

This book is an excellent introduction to TCP/IP on embedded systems and webservers. The author is very clear and divided the book in a very smart way. The last few chapters which talk about the low level codes are excellent. This book will be one day recogized as the ultimate reference of embedded TCP/IP.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who needs to implement a complete embedded webserver, but has no prior knowledge of ethernet, ip, tcp, or http. There are a few good state diagram pictures, and snippits of C source to walk through every state. It goes above and beyond a raw technical RFC explaination and mentions features and techniques common in other implementions. This book does not cover HTTP as completely as it does the lower level protocols, but it does cover it well enough to implement a small, simple embedded webserver. Combine this book with UNIX Network Programming / W. Richard Stevens. And you have an ideal combination. TCP/IP Lean works from the bottom on up (over-the-wire transmissions) and UNIX Network Programming works from the top on down (high-level API). This book also covers SLIP, Ethernet, ARP, and other protocols. If you have to implement your own TCP/IP stack, or only want to learn the guts of what SYN, FIN, ACK, and RST mean in your packet captures, then this is a well written book.This book does not describe BSD Sockets or any APIs. It really only covers the author's thin "API" which is really a kernel interface. That is why it's best as a low-level book, as I mentioned before UNIX Network Programming is the book you want if you need a high-level view of TCP/IP and networking in general.Perhaps the most important feature of this book is that it tries to take you from nothing to having a TCP/IP stack in the most direct route possible. It does not try to insert all possible optimization, and infact it recommends ignoring various TCP/IP features for your first pass because they are rarely used. (For example, It mentions that without additional handling, the implementation presented can only handle 4.3Gb of data transfer per connection. This is when the sequence number address space wraps around). I consider this a good thing, keeping it simple so you can get a workable system as quickly as possible is the best route. You can bog yourself down in the details after you get a rough draft working.I'd recommend this book as a text book for undergrad courses in TCP/IP and networking implementation, especially as a complement to any other low-level Operating Systems courses.

I have had this book for two days, and it is a pleasure to have working, compilable source code! The writing style is very clear, without being too terse, like so many technical books. It assumes that the reader has a certain degree of sophistication; The author knows his target audience well! This book may end up being one of those programmer's gems like W.R. Steven's APUE and TCP/IP Illustrated... series of books. The source code is a book unto itself, presenting well-written code (no overly-clever "tricks"; I appreciate that!) . Good Job, JPB, can't wait for other books that you may be writing

This is an invaluable text for anyone wishing to implement TCP/IP in an embedded system and would also be ideal as an undergraduate text for the practical aspects of Computer Networks & Communications. The first chapter gives a brief overview of networking hardware and software, SLIP over RS232 and Ethernet protocols, device drivers and timing as well as state machines and buffering considerations. The second chapter discusses the OSI model & demonstrates the fundamentals of a networking protocol with sample program fragments written in the `C' programming language. Chapters 3 through 7 give detailed coverage of the core networking protocols including ARP, IP and ICMP, UDP, TCP, Telnet and finally HTTP. These protocols are exercised, tested and explained with `C' sample code and explanations of test results. The sample code effectively forms a library of low level networking source code written in `C'. Chapters 8 through 11 demonstrate various working applications based on a PIC microcontroller - a real embedded system. The really nice thing about this book is the source code and utilities provided on the CD for virtually all `C' compilers including Microsoft VisualC++ 6.0, Borland and the FREE GNU C (+IDE). I have given this text a five star rating and would recommend it to embedded systems programmers needing to implement TCP/IP as well as undergraduate students studying networking.

This is an invaluable text for anyone wishing to implement TCP/IP in an embedded system and would also be ideal as an undergraduate text for the practical aspects of Computer Networks & Communications. The first chapter gives a brief overview of networking hardware and software, SLIP over RS232 and Ethernet protocols, device drivers and timing as well as state machines and buffering considerations. The second chapter discusses the OSI model & demonstrates the fundamentals of a networking protocol with sample program fragments written in the `C' programming language. Chapters 3 through 7 give detailed coverage of the core networking protocols including ARP, IP and ICMP, UDP, TCP, Telnet and finally HTTP. These protocols are exercised, tested and explained with `C' sample code and explanations of test results. The sample code effectively forms a library of low level networking source code written in `C'. Chapters 8 through 11 demonstrate various working applications based on a PIC microcontroller - a real embedded system. The really nice thing about this book is the source code and utilities provided on the CD for virtually all `C' compilers including Microsoft VisualC++ 6.0, Borland and the FREE GNU C (+IDE). I have given this text a five star rating and would recommend it to embedded systems programmers needing to implement TCP/IP as well as undergraduate students studying networking.