Tcp/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols

"TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1 - The Protocols" by Richard Stevens is probably THE book which I reference most often of any I.T. book I have. I believe I am on my third or fourth dog-eared copy (either the book becomes too worn out from overuse or, I think, a mischievous co-worker permanently borrowed one copy). Any book where I have probably spent over $200 in buying, and rebuying must be worth it - and "TCP/IP Illustrated" is worth the money! I think you can get an idea of how great the book is from other reviews here. Rather than repeat the same raves, allow me to mention that it still amazes me, the amount of NEW books that are published that either cites, gives thanks or credits this book - Network Intrusion Detection, 3rd edition; The TAO of Network Security Monitoring; and Gray Hat Hacking are just three recent books which all mention "TCP/IP Illustrated" in their index. "TCP/IP Illustrated" is an excellent guide for any network or systems admin. Is the material presented in this book a little dated? - Yes. Can you probably find the same material on the web? - Yes. Do you want the ONE book where you can find your TCP/IP answers? - YES! You won't be disappointed with "TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1". I give this book 5 pings out of 5: !!!!!

TCP/IP is the most fundamental protocol that drives the whole of the internet. A deep understanding of them is necessary for any wannabe network administrator/programmer/analyst etc. Richard Stevens TCP/IP illustrated is one of the best books you can ever buy to understand not only TCP/IP but also other fundamental protocols like ARP, DHCP, SMTP etc. The word 'Illustrated' is significant, you actually see the protocols in action throughout this book. There are more pages devoted to examples rather than concepts, which is actually an excellent way to relate to the concepts. Richard Stevens doesnt just write something, and assume you understood him and believed him in blind faith. He actually shows you what you write and helps you become more analytical in the workings of the internet.This book is a bit old though, and with Richard Stevens dead, we might not see a revival of this book. It only covers TCP modification till Tahoe and Reno but chapter 24 gives you a more or less good idea about what the future will be like (in which we actually are, by the timeline of this book.)Overall, if you want to not only learn networks, but feel them, then buy this book.

Even though this book was published in 1994, it still serves as a useful reference and learning tool for the TCP/IP protocol. There are of course changes and additions that have been made to TCP/IP over the last 7 years such as IPv6, but one can still refer to this book as a good source of information about the dynamics of TCP/IP. There are exercises at the end of each chapter, so it can, and has been used as an effective textbook. In chapter 1, the author gives a brief overview of protocol layering, Internet addressing, and the domain name system. The encapsulation mechanisms for TCP and UDP are outlined as well as a discussion of the different implementations of TCP/IP. The Vegas implementation is not discussed since it was invented long after the date of publication of this book. Ethernet and the encapsulation provided by IEEE, SLIP, and PPP is discussed in the next chapter on the link layer, along with the loopback interface and MTU. Estimates are given of serial line throughput, setting the stage for later timing calculations. The IP protocol is the subject of chapter 3, the author stressing first the connectionless and unreliable nature of IP packet transfer. The IP datagram format is given in discussed, along with a detailed discussion of subnet addressing and subnet masks. The discussion of IP given here is of course very out of date with the advent of IPv6. Chapter 4 is an overview of ARP, and the author illustrates it effectively using an example of an FTP transfer and Telnet. This is followed by a treatment of RARP in the next chapter, with the limitations of this protocol briefly discussed. Although ARP is incorporated in all current implementations of TCP/IP (with the exception of IPv6), not all of these include RARP. The ICMP error handling protocol is discussed in the next chapter, with all the message types listed, and brief discussions given of timestamp and address mask requests. This is followed naturally by a discussion of the Ping program in chapter 7, which uses ICMP echo request and reply messages. The traceroute program, which finds which path IP packets follow from one to the other, is discussed in Chapter 8. An explicit example is given of how to use traceroute. Then in the next chapter, IP routing is discussed, along with an explicit example of a routing table. Again, the discussion is out-of-date, since in IPv6, the router discovery is replaced by a mandatory router solicitation and advertisement mechanism. Dynamic routing protocols are the subject of the next chapter, wherein the author discusses RIP, OSPF, BGP, and CIDR. The newer ones, such as IGRP, EIGRP, and MPLS, are of course not treated. UDP is then discussed in the next chapter, with examples given and IP fragmentation discussed, along with a brief overview of how UDP and ARP interact. This is followed in Chapter 12 by a discussion of broadcasting and multicasting, and the author outlines briefly the problems that rise when attempting to broadcast throu

I am responsible for a 50+ person intrusion detection mission, and I recommend this book to analysts after 6-12 months on the job. I do this because the serious folks have lasted that long, and they receive the most benefit from definitive works like Richard's wonderful volume. In the summer of 1999, this book brought my knowledge of TCP/IP from the memorization and recognition stages to the comprehension and application stages. While some material is far too deep in the weeds (SNMP, for example), the vast majority of the book caters to any intermediate student of TCP/IP and/or network based intrusion detection. I was lucky enough to exchange emails with Richard before he died on 1 Sep 99, and I grieved the loss to his family and to the Internet community. This book and his other volumes remain as testaments to his educational ability.

What a wonderful book by R. Stevens! I went from not knowing anything about TCP networking to knowing a great deal in only a few weeks. There is a whole lot of material and it may take several readings to grasp all of the concepts. Some of the examples are poor and subnetting should have been explored further (It is far more detailed than what is decribed in the text). However, there is far to many good things to bring this book down! It is, by far, the best TCP/IP book I have read!