Computing Internet Books

Game programmers receive an in-depth, advanced guide to getting the most out of the Torque Game Engine, and comes from a long-time Torque programmer and trainer who knows his stuff. Discussions and descriptions of the components of the program teach how to make better games - and even how to modify the engine and source code itself. Computer libraries strong in gaming will know of Torque - and will value this important guide.

This book grate start torque game engine programming. I like it. If you want to learn deeply Torque Game Engine you should buy this book.

Great reference manual, easy to read, great examples. I use this as a reference book for quick settings changes and deployments. I highly recommend this book.

I was totally new to ISA and came to know about this book from the ISAServer forum.

It not only gives in-sight into the inner workings of the product but also speaks about the philosophy and history behind the creation of this versatile tool.

Understanding, Installing and Configuring ISA is just a piece of cake with this book

Tom Shinder is the recognized non-Microsoft ISA expert. He wrote the seminal (if only) book on ISA 2000 and now has written on ISA 2004. He also runs a companion website.

A good 200+ pages is devoted to marketing rehash and comparison of competing products. While there is some discussion of relevant concepts, most of this would be better served as website content. The competition changes rapidly enough that any such information in print quickly becomes obsolete. This book is supposed to be about configuring ISA 2004, not in-depth reviews of the product space.

The book's presentation quality is poor. Type is uneven in places, page numbers are cut off, and there are spelling errors. The organization is deficient as well. I continually lost my way and had to flip back to the TOC (which at 22 pages is too large to be of much use), Preface, and chapter intros to recapture the author's chain of thoughts. For example, Shinder describes Chapter 4's objective as preparing the infrastructure before installing ISA 2004, yet the chapter is filled with multiple ISA installation/configuration screen prints and instructions. He also describes how the various ISA clients react with particular network configuration, yet he does not introduce the concepts of clients until a later chapter.

The book is redundant in its presentations, as a chapter will begin with an overview of a series of concept, discuss the configuration of each concept, then discuss the various installation and configuration items for each concept, rather than describing the entirety of each concept one by one. There are occasions where he neglects to give context, such that advice seems contradictory. The typical "quick install" section is hidden about 500 pages into the book, and there's duplicate versions.

Despite the previous criticisms, the content of the book is informational and friendly to those new to the product, giving step by step instructions. When one considers the book along with the companion website and the author's personal commitment to assist and provide advice - as well as the lack of other books on the subject - "Configuring ISA Server 2004" gets a high rating. I will be looking for the 2006 update.

Don't be fooled guys, even with the articles being available online you wont find such a complete explanation posted into the isa server's resource site. This guy writes ISA documentation for MS, so there you go, he is da man when it comes to the product and has been dealing with it since the beginning, ISA 2006 is still in RC and he already wrote a couple of articles regarding how to configure new features. Definitely, a must have if you are an ISA Admin or consultant looking for some information and advice to do the right setup for the given network.

Since the early ISA Server 2000 days, author Tom Shinder has been the undisputed king of the ISA Server world. (Small world, isn't it.) His great expertise is complimented by a nice professional writing style that can be understood by any serious system administrator. If ISA is a big part of your responsibilities, you will want to have this book.

However, if you just want to get ISA Server 2004 up and running for the first time, this 1,024-page book is too much. If you are sitting there with the CD in hand and want to be up and running in three or four hours, be aware that the first 300 pages are devoted to a discussion of new features and a lengthy defense and comparison of ISA to the lower-end firewall appliances (non-PC hardware with firmware). This was very interesting reading for me (with four years managing ISA on a small network with ten servers and twenty workstations), but it may be too much too soon if firewalls are not high on your list of interesting things.

I searched hard for other ISA books and bought "ISA Server Unleashed" as well. "Unleashed" is 552 pages and quickly gets to installation and then configuration, exactly what you may want to get up and running quickly. In addition to "Unleashed," there seem to be just two other books that may serve for installation guides. The first is Shinder's "How to Cheat at Installing ISA Server 2004" (according to another reviewer, a "just the facts" version of the larger book reviewed here). Lastly, there is the "Administrator's Pocket Consultant." (I have read only reviews for the "Cheat" and "Consultant" books.)

Don't misunderstand, Shinder covers just about everything before he is done; and if you want your ISA expert's badge, you need to have this big book. I'll use "Unleashed" during installation and use Shinder's book for guidance on best practices.

If your finances suggest just one book, do this big Shinder book if you have prior ISA experience. Otherwise check out the small number of other offerings. And don't forget to search for ISA Server and Shinder on the web. You'll find a website with many long articles by Shinder.

By the way, I share Shinder's view that ISA is a great product. My ISA 200 installation has run robustly for four years; but I was looking to offload to ISA some of the spam filtering burden that now rests on an Exchange Server plus GFI installation and decided to move up to the latest ISA version at the same time.

The content in this book is a little dated. For a current book on Web Services check out either the Wiley book (Developing Java Web Services) or my favorite Java Web Services Architecture.

I bought this, hoping to be able to use it on a web services project I'm doing.

I find it's completely out of date. Both Sun's JWSDP and Apache Axis have moved on since this was written, and you'll get better information from their websites than you'll get from this book.

Don't bother with it.

Not that dated, you will get the background that is behind all the hype and you will get some hands on. Not a first choice but it is a solid review and a book I still keep on my desk. Get this and of course one of the newer titles. The new ones may be hyping something that isn't going to happen, at least with this one you will find most of the topics still are the cornerstones of web services. There is gold in them there hills, and those hills are strewn with books discarded too soon as old. Many explain things very well and offer knowledge. Nice book.

I wish I could recommend a better introduction to Java Web Services. David Chappell usually does a good job at explaining new technologies in simplified form; however, he falls short with this one. It comes very close to being a step-by-step, build-up tutorial but falls short. If you already know SOAP, perhaps coming from the .NET world and you just need to make the right connections in the Java world, then this would be a good book for you. However, if you don't know SOAP and you're looking for a thorough understanding of what's going on under the covers before you move on to advanced APIs, then this is not your best bet. Actually, I'm not sure what is. I started writing such a tutorial myself but got distracted by other projects. However, this book is solidly average, nothing necessary wrong with that, and if you can find it at a good discount it's a decent buy.

This book covers the topic of web services, primarily from a Java perspective. It assumes a familiarity with Java and XML so as to be able to follow the code examples. The chapters are as follows: Welcome To Web Services, Inside The Composite Computing Model, SOAP: The Cornerstone Of Interoperability, SOAP-RPC, SOAP-Faults, and Misunderstandings, Web Services Description Language, UDDI: Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration, JAX-RPC and JAXM, J2EE and Web Services, Web Services Interoperability, and Web Services Security.

Review
If you read the chapter headings and say "What does THAT mean?", then you probably have a reasonability good idea as to whether this book is for you. As stated in the preface, this is not a "For Dummies" treatment of web services. While it covers all the different technologies that make up web services, it does it at a pretty high level of detail with a lot of code samples in Java.

The good thing here is that many of the examples are given using the Apache Tomcat server as the mechanism for processing the request. This is great in that you can download that software for free from the Apache site. This book doesn't go into detail as to how Tomcat is set up and configured, however. You need to work through that on your own. Once you get to that point, you can use Tomcat to play with the examples that are used throughout the book. While they can look complex and intimidating, you can learn a lot from them.

As a Notes/Domino developer, I learned a lot by reading the book. Am I ready to start developing web services? Not hardly. But I do understand more of the concepts behind how they work. Since web services often use servlets to process requests, Notes/Domino 5 doesn't fit the traditional picture of the technology. But since web services usually involve SOAP XML statements sent to a server, there's no reason you couldn't program a web service in Domino as a web agent that runs when a user submits a web page or runs a URL that activates a server agent. The processing is done and then returned to the client as an XML page. Once you read and digest the basic concepts behind it all, it all starts to come together.

Conclusion
If you are a Notes/Domino developer who is trying to understand "web services", this book could be useful. The book gets progressively more complex and detailed, so you may find yourself skimming at the end. If you are to the point of being ready to run an implementation of a servlet and SOAP engine (like Tomcat), this book will help you get started with your understanding of web services.

The book presents security overview mostly in Cisco Networking Environment and is very well written without any serious flaws. I found just one minor, which might be considered as a technical reviewer's overlook (page 151, example 8-10). Also SNMP explanation in final chapter is quite formal and limited just to specifying a number of router configuration commands syntax. Authors don't tell anything about security issues associated with SNMP v1/v2 and how SNMP v3 addresses these. And SNMP case study does not shed a light on it as well. That is the reason I have reduced my rating of the book by one star. But the book is really well done and I even did read all the Appendix pages, which is a bit unusual with me.

Excellant book for and new comer to this complexed field in Network Security. For me thought having a few certs (CCNA, CCDA, CCSA, JNCIA, CWSP, CWNA) the book is too entry level. The parts in encryption/VPN just didn't teach me anything I didn't know before opening this book.

BUT please buy this book if you are a new comer to this field. I promise; you will learn alot from this text.

I picked up a copy of "Network Security Fundamentals" (ISBN 1587051672) by Gert De Laet and Gert Schauwers to add to my CCIE Security reading list. Network Security Fundamentals more or less picks up with Tom Thomas's "Network Security First-Step" (ISBN 1587200996). Whereas the Thomas book serves as an excellent introduction to securing your network, "Network Security Fundamentals" is an intermediate level network security book. It delves it more details not only network design essentials, but many other security topics such as Router Security, Firewalls, Intrusion Detection, VPNs, Remote Access, and Wireless.

I found the detailed coverage on Cryptography as well as securing Web Servers especially helpful and insightful. The book includes many device configuration examples, show commands, and debug outputs. I highly recommend this book to any Network Admin interested in securing his/her network as well as any potential CCIE Security candidates out there!

Mark Reyero
CCIE 12932

Ciscopress have released yet another jem of a book, really great read and easy to understand, the two authors known in the introduction as the Two Gert's do a splendid job of describing all the major security concerns you should be fully aware of, this book is highly recommnded and is authored by some very experienced engineers at Cisco -- you will not be dissappointed

Henry
Sydney Australia

First of all, let me state that this review is primarily in context of Cisco's 642-552 exam, since as of this writing, this is really the only book on their Recommended Reading for this particular exam. There are no Exam Certification series from Cisco for this specific exam, which is the foundation of their CCSP and Security Specialization certifications.

What is good about this title is coverage of security policy, vpn's, ids, firewalls, wireless, and PKI. Good introduction, and decent configuration examples. Certainly enough to get even a neophyte up and running.

So what is this title missing?

#1 SDM [Security Device Manager] configuration examples & exercises. Chances are if you're a newbie, you're going to be much more comfortable using the Browser-based GUI rather than the IOS Command Line. Additionally ALL the simulations for the 552 exam are based around SDM configuration. I would recommend you download SDM documentation from Cisco's website if you're planning on taking the 642-552 exam.

#2 There is inadequate coverage of common Layer 2 attacks, and the defense mechanisms to subvert them. For example, no explanation or examples are given on configuring Port Security which protects against MAC Spoofing, MAC Flooding, ARP Spoofing, and flooding the CAM table. And that is BASIC SWITCH SECURITY that is relatively easy to implement. Furthermore, there should also be discussions of IP Source Guard, VLAN Hopping, and Dynamic ARP Inspection. I HIGHLY recommend you search on Cisco's site about these features & configuring them.

#3 CBAC explanation is fairly unclear. Students will be confused by the fact that they named the ip inspect rules as "BLOCK" and "ALLOW" and associate each one w/ a traffic direction [ingress/egress respectively], when really these names do not accurately describe the behavior of CBAC

#4 Pg 174 "A software based firewall is only as secure as the operating system it relies on...Appliance based firewalls, such as NetScreen or PIX, do not have that vulnerability" ARE YOU KIDDING ME? IOS is still SOFTWARE. All...ALL...software can be exploited. See Hacking Cisco. Certainly it is harder, yes, but it is STILL susceptible application-layer attacks and buffer overflows.

I own this book for almost 2 years I also own many more and by far this is the best IPv6 book. It covers all the topics of IPv6 and does it in a clear but not to simplistic way.
It serves both as a tutorial and a reference manual. One of the great things about it is that it covers IPv6 configuration on all major platforms like Windows LINUX and many others.

I considered many different books about IPv6. It looks like I made the right choice. This book teaches both about IPv6 itself and how to implement it with different operating systems (Windows XP, Vista, Linux, FreeBSD, etc) using Cisco routers or Juniper routers. I am currently running a dual-stack on my home network (both IPv4 and IPv6) and hope to be fully prepared should I need to migrate a large business network to IPv6 in the near future.

Face it folks, IPv6 is coming. Windows Vista comes with it enabled, as well as a few tunneling technologies (such as ISATAP) to help the transition from IPv4.

This is a very comprehensive reference for IPv6. The author covers IPv6 from the basics to advanced topics like multicasting, anycasting, and mobility. The book even covers the application aspects of IPv6 and porting issues, as Marc has that background as well. I would recommend this book to anyone seeking a up-to-the-minutes overview of IPv6, and as a reference for anyone that will be working with the protocol over the years ahead.

Really useful IPv6 technical books are few and far between because the technology is so new and evolving rapidly so its hard for a book to keep up. Marc's new book is the most up to date and informative book available now. I've got a copy on my bookshelf and am already handing it to clients for reference about our IPv6 integration projects.

Amazon's date is wrong on this book. It was just published in Jan 2006, not in 2002.

Sylvia Hagen's book IPv6 Essentials is also excellent - I'm waiting for the 2nd edition to bring it up to date.

I have half a dozen books on IPv6 on my shelf and by far Migrating to IPv6 provides the most comprehensive view of IPv6 and related protocols in both breath and depth. The book is written in clear and concise manner so it is a perfect learning tool. Moreover, it also makes for a good reference book because each chapter in the book is self-contained.

Our team works on IPv6 transition and we liked Migrating to IPv6 so much that we order a book for each team member. This is a must have book if you are working in Networking.

This is a great book for those of you who know little or no c++. Builds a great understanding of basics. I'm about half way through and can't put the book down. Only thing I have to say negative about it, is in one exercise there was an error in the source. Other then that, I would highly recommend this book.

At first I was skeptical with the purple character on the front of the book that this would be a book that would make me feel childish, it didn't, it made me feel like a beginner and that this book would change that.

I was impressed, they really covered everything in a way that is easy to understand. Despite some typos, I was able to work around those because I had already known that those were typos, probably because I learned so well in the book to know that they were wrong.

I liked how they used a simple fraction program to explain objects and classes. It's as small as you can get, but you really understand how classes work without something confusing and at a level where most people do their classes. You basically build your knowledge after that.

Despite the minor errors in the book, I enjoyed reading this.

This is one of the best books to actually understand C++. I recomend it both to beginners and to more experienced programmers - lots of gotchas made clear. It doesn't go very deep, however, and after learning this book you should look for more advanced books to expand your knowledge.

This book gave some fairly detailed explanations of how stuff worked, and even got Visual C++ working for me (there are special procedures to follow).

However, he seems to assume you have more knowledge on programming than you really do. I bought this book when I was 14, and though I could copy stuff out of the book, I had no idea what the hell I was copying.

This book is ok if you know another language like BASIC or Perl, or anything else for that matter, but for a beginner who wants to learn, I'd recommend the Sam's series.

Another thing I saw that annoyed me is that it said how inferior C is to C++, and that you shouldn't bother learning c. I respectfully disagree, c is a powerful, and fairly simple language, that I feel is a great introductory language.

All in all, 3/5

I was putting off learning C++ because I though it would be too difficult to understand. I have been learning Python for the last few years so I understood the basic procedural and object oriented programming concepts, then I got this book.

This book clarifies things on a level that elementary school kids can understand. At least the first half, it gets a little heavy towards the end, but takes the time to list complete code examples then steps through descibing each line as clearly as is possible when dealing with something as complex as this.

This book never expects you to know anything about programming before you start. A lot of books will try to explain things using terms they expect you to already know, but every term mentioned in this book is completely explained in this book.

The only cheap shot I can take at this book is that I don't like the Compiler/Development Environment that comes on the CD, I much prefer www.bloodshed.net free Dev-C++, which is easy to install and works perfectly with all the examples in this book.

This is the best first programming book for anyone interested in C++ I've ever seen. Although C++ is a little more difficult to understand than Python, most of the concepts in the languages are the same.

Topics like GUI (mouse based graphic environment) programming are not covered, but after this book you will be ready to tackle that next. Especially if you plan on using a cross platform graphic library like wxWidgets.

If you read this book and fiund it too difficult, I suggest stepping down to Python, maybe get "Absolute Beginner's guide to Python" by Michael Dawson.

That book uses simple games as examples to learning programming, then you can get a wxPython book to learn graphic programming which uses the same library as wxWidgets in C++, so it is a good stepping stone if you want to come back to C++.

Nutshell review - Another great book by Ed Skoudis. Covers all the popular attack vectors and a variety of possible defence techniques. A solid book from which further study and investigation can be undertaken. Management people should read this too.

Counter Hack Reloaded (CHR) is an excellent book for someone looking for a broad overview of computer/network security written in a very clear, logical, and even enjoyable manner.

After CHR's Introductory chapter, the reader is given an overview on Networking, Linux/Unix, and Windows. These three chapters give the reader enough to be able to understand the subsequent chapters which deal with specific phases of an attack. These phases are, Reconnaissance, Scanning, Gaining Access (with different chapters for different methods of gaining access,) Maintaining Access, and Covering Tracks. Throughout these chapters, CHR introduces the reader to the tools used by attackers; how they work, where to get them, and how to defend yourself against them (often by using the tools themselves.) Finally, CHR "puts it all together" with different scenarios of attacks. The scenarios show how attackers use different phases of an attack, and different tools, to penetrate a network/system. Throughout this chapter CHR highlights the mistakes the victims make in their networks/systems to allow the attacks to succeed.

CHR is exceptionally well written, especially for a technical subject. Explanations of complex topics are clear, simple and even entertaining. I would even go so far to say that it is a joy to read.

Overall, CHR is about core concepts. It's about understanding how attacks occur, and understanding why they can succeed. Only then can you have any hope in understanding how to go about defending yourself.

I'm technically not finished reading this book yet and probably never will be until they update it again and still it will be a good reference manual for several years anyway. Skoudis and Liston do have a way of making complex issues seem to make sense. I thank them for writing it and thank Amazon for making it available to me.

It was an easy read, as far as the writing itself. It wasn't too dry, but in some places there was too much information all at once. I've only read the first 350 pages or so, but I can say for sure that Chapter 6 should have been cut into 2 or 3 chapters. The sheer ammount of material covered in those 100 pages or so was too much to be taken all at once.

Most of the tools in this book are widely used and known, but the reason that this book is so interesting is that it describes how you can defend yourself from attacks with such tools.

Therefore this is a very good reference book.

Good book, especially for someone living on the other side of the world... From European point of view, such privacy violations are something unbelievable. Garfinkel's book simply shows us the hazards of modern technology, and convinces us that our European privacy protecting laws are a good thing, despite sometimes being used to cover bribery or theft.
Sometimes `Database Nation' seemed so naïve, but to understand it, we must notice it was written few months before attack on WTC. Now we can see how governments are trying to know everything about everybody and the only reason for that is protecting us from terrorism. Nice idea, but Garfinkel has already predicted it - he wrote that a big terrorist attack would happen, even if we maximize security and privacy violations cannot stop really bad people.
As I wrote before - I have never been in the States, so sometimes I was reading this book as some kind of `weird guide to the USA'. Some of described pitfalls can be seen in Europe as well, but usually we do not expect our medical records to be seen by anybody... maybe because in most European countries medical insurance is run mainly by the government. And here is the point, where this book lacks some kind of perspective. What do you think is better: having your medical record sold, or die because funds of some emergency stations are so low, that only one ambulance in fifty-thousand-people-city is on duty? Is it better to protect privacy, or to highlight crooks? The highly illegal under Polish law so-called `Jachnicki list' was a list of people who cheated and deceived a lot of honest citizens. Giving detailed information including name, adress, birthdate and PESEL (unique number every Pole is assigned at birth) about those people, the creators have broken Personal Data Protection Act, and were forced by government officials to stop publishing that list. This is the other side of fighting for permanent privacy - and Garfinkel doesn't write anything about it...

Overall this is a good book, provided that you take it for what it is - an opinion piece. There are plenty of facts included in this book (many of which are out-of-date). However, the volume of facts does not support the volume of conclusions drawn by the author. For example:

Early on the author states that a failure to create a national database, instead of several independent ones as we have now, had lead to security issues and that the single national database would be better. He does not provide supporting material on WHY it would be better. There are other examples in the book that you can find for yourself.

Should you buy it? Maybe consider borrowing it, checking it out from the library, or getting a used one on eBay (mine will be there soon ;-)

As we embark on the 21st century, advances in technology endanger our privacy in ways never before imagined. Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century, by Simson Garfinkel is the compelling account of how invasive technologies will affect our lives in the coming years. It's a timely, far-reaching, entertaining, and thought-provoking look at the serious threats to privacy facing us today.

Garfinkel's book does cover a lot of familiar ground, making the issue of privacy more personal to the average person. For example, he describes how cell phone networks can be used to track preferences and physical movement. He also goes into significant detail about advanced identification technologies, including retina scans and DNA analysis, that can be used to identify and track individuals, but those technologies only serve as a lead-in to the issue Garfinkel seems to regard as the most serious: medical privacy.

Chapter 6 provides strong details of the Medical Information Bureau. The MIB collects medical information entered on insurance forms and into personal records and sells that information to companies that need to set insurance premiums for applicants. What gives the MIB the right to collect that information? Garfinkel reveals that patients give them that permission when they consent to receive treatment.

At the end of Database Nation, Garfinkel calls on our nation's leaders and government to establish an executive agency charged with enforcing existing privacy laws and acting as an ombudsman for individual privacy. The new medical privacy standards the White House offered in early 2000 go part of the way to solving some of the problems Garfinkel describes, but in all I believe his solution is far to weak to result in meaningful privacy reform, nor will it be able to keep up with the ever changing technology.

Database Nation continues the growing tradition of books that cast technology in its social context. And as a doctoral student in leadership and technology, I find it heartening to read a book that so thoroughly examines technology's role in society.

This is an older book, but one that I specifically requested after reading books like Myth of Homeland Security by Marcus Ranum and Beyond Fear by Bruce Schneier. While those books related directly to homeland or national security in the wake of the 9/11 attack this book predates the attack but describes an Orwellian society where Big Brother monitors everything and privacy is a facade.

When I was in high school I read George Orwell's 1984. It is a work of fiction, but in many ways present society and technology have surpassed Orwell's vision. Simson Garfinkel paints a chilling picture of the complete lack of privacy today because we have the technology to store and retrieve almost every transaction and occurrence that goes on in our lives.

When you make a cell phone call records are kept of the area you called from and the number you called. When you make a purchase with a credit card or ATM/Debit card you create a record of where you were at a specific time and date as well as what you purchased. Medical records tell a lot about a person and are not as protected as people believe. A recent Supreme Court decision essentially states that an ISP can legally intercept and view your email without violating wiretap laws. Common, everyday activities capture and store minute details about your life.

This book offers few solutions, but does an excellent job of describing the problem in a compelling way. Everyone should read this book to learn what a facade your privacy really is.

(...)

I have been reading books about privacy, notably from Australia where they first got worried about this, and am an admirer of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) based in Washington, D.C. so I can say with confidence that this book is not completely original, but I can also say that it is quite useful. The single best and most original book in this area that I am aware of with my own limitations, is Jeffrey Rothfeder's 1992 classic, Privacy for Sale: How Computerization Has Made Everyone's Private Life an Open Secret.

The author captured my immediate interest when he posited early on that it is capitalism, not totalitarianism, that is the really grave threat to privacy, and then goes on throughout the book to demonstrate how capitalist innovation--and capitalist retribution--can find so many more profitable uses for stolen or insufficiently protected personal information including information about one's precise movements, Internet access, payments, and so on.

I credit the author with providing us with a really SUPERB discussion of an expanded definition of privacy and why it matters for the future, to include how a lack of privacy stifles free speech and individual voting or engagement.

The book is of course timely with the recent revelation of widespread NSA access to telephone records and widespread domestic telephone interceptions without warrants. I am quite certain NSA has full access to all travel and credit card records, and relatively certain that NSA is also obtaining full access to all banking transactions both within and passing through the USA. Eventually, as the dollar collapses and foreigners realize their financial transactions are not private, I suspect that the NSA intrusions will lead directly to a substantial reduction in what people are willing to transfer via US channels, and in this way deprive the US of interest and assets.

The author merits credit for anticipating in 1999 that terrorism would one day be used to justify extensive intrusions against privacy.

Most interestingly, the author reveals, for the first time to my knowledge, that NSA is in the phone card business. All those phone cards that terrorists and criminals have been using evidently have tracking information, and the testimony in the McVeigh case that the author illuminates makes it certain that this source and method will dry up for NSA with those who really matter: literate terrorists and criminals who, like Bin Laden, understand the value of open sources of information and make it their business to follow the literature.

Although the author's information with respect to credit card errors is somewhat dated, it merits comment that in 1991 there were errors in fully 43% of the files of the three main credit bureaus and--this I did NOT know--even if one corrects errors with those three credit bureaus, the corrections do NOT pass down to the 187 independent industry or localized credit bureaus that have purchased the incorrrect data prior to correction. More recently the industry claims a 1% material error factor, but in my own experience, the credit bureaus are quick to post liens or claims, and not at all interested in posting lien cancellations or settlements.

The author spends quite a bit of time, very usefully, in focusing on the fact that identity theft occurs due to lax banking and postal procedures (I for one am very upset over the countless offers of credit I receive in the undefended mail, offers that can be "hijacked" by anyone cruising for such mail before I collect it), and then denouncing the fact that victims of identify theft do not have "standing" in the courts--it is treated as a banking issue.

The book concludes with several scares and big ideas. Car have computers that can communicate--the day is coming when cars will report their owners for speeding, and a husband driving a wife bleeding to death from a farm accident will not be able to override the computerized speed limit. The author concludes that technology is eliminating the expectation of privacy, but I am more concerned by his documentation that we are becoming slaves to computers programmed by morons in bureaucracies.

The author suggests that a major challenge is how to create self-healing systems and I am curious as to why he did not know of Eric Hughes anonymous banking encryption protocols, in which only the bank and the client can see their banking data, which is otherwise constantly encrypted.

The federal government is clearly avoiding accountability, not only with respect to data privacy, but with respect to being accountable for who knew what when. The White House and the Senate clearly knew in 1974-1979 that Peak Oil was upon us (see my review of Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy and also of Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil), and deliberate decisions were made to conceal the facts from the public in order to keep the bribes coming and the easy elections going. We wasted 30 years because of decisions that can now be judged to be treasonous and retrospectively impeachable.

The book has acceptable coverage of biometics, RFID, public video, and commercial space imagery. In the latter, the book has a mistake SPOT Image likes to take credit for many things, and they evidently claim credit for creating a C-130 portable ground receiving station. This is not true. Colonel "Snake" Clark in the office of the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, conceptualized and oversaw the development of that capability which made a major difference to air operations in Bosnia among other places, as it made possible near real time seasonally accurate wide area imagery feeds directly into the Air Force mission rehearsal systems.

To end on a positive note, I point to page 108 of the book, where the author discusses inexpensive discreet video surveillance systems that can be used to keep an eye on kids, cats, baby sitters, realtors showing one's home, and so on. Technology does have its uses for the individual, and I will end by saying that I found this book to be a very professional and useful overview of the implications of both digital technology, and the personal information that technology can capture, store, manipulate, share, and exploit.

This was my Book for networks while doing my undergrad. Very good book. Simple to follow and understand. I loved this topic so much, I went ahead and took more networking classes and finally got my CCNA too. Few stuff outdated. but, its a good start.

I am currently using this book for a class I am taking at the local University. Let me just begin by saying, if this were the 13th century one would choose the iron maiden over reading this book. If it were possible to rate this book with no stars I would.

I have to say without exaggeration that this is the absolutely worst textbook I have ever used in my college career. It has been an extreme rare occurrence that I have sold a textbook at the conclusion of a class; however, this time will be the exception. At least with $15.00 I can buy lunch. Lunch will be worth more than the amount of information contained within this book.

I get the impression the author is more concerned with showing me how intelligent he is rather than teaching me the concepts he plans to quiz me about later.

One example he asks a question at the end of Chapter 3 regarding CRC checking.

Fortunately, I already knew the answer to this question based on experience. Does Tanenbaum discuss this within the chapter? No, instead he provides you with three pages (Pages 196-200) of superfluous material, in which if you had no idea how CRC checking works you would walk away stumped as to what the correct answer is.

Perhaps this book should be renamed to "Computer Networks: Stump The Monkey Questions At The End."

I pity anyone who has this assigned as a required text. Hindsight being 20/20 I would have probably purchased Douglas Comer's book "Computer Networks and Internets" as a supplement to teach me what Tanenbaum should have taught me in the first place.

After enduring an entire semester with Tanenbaum's book, I have a good understanding why Linux became more popular than Minix.

I have not completed the reading as yet but from what I have found so far this is a very good tutorial on computer networks.
Even on the subjects I used to have good prior knowledge of I have learned a different perspective and interesting new details. The text is also marked with many humouristic comments, which make the reading even easier.
The issues are well explained and served in a way facilitating good comprehension.
The reason I do not give the book 5 stars is that I am still some way from completing my reading so I do not have the overall picture as yet. However, I am really looking forward to move on with this assignment.

Good visuals on encapsulation using a layered model. I particularly appreciate that many topics have a presentation for those having a superfluous understanding, as well as, for those having a mathematical bent toward learning (e.g. Fourier Analysis, State Diagrams, Exponential back off, etc).

The author does an excellent job in the hierarchical, broadcast, and multicast routing descriptions; which students can use in further network management analysis. From my experience, Network Management is a topic that many students fail to grasp effectively - largely because they are not adequately prepared in theory and lab experience before taking on graduate coursework. Many of the topics covered in the book are useful in other Computer Science or Information Technology classes.

The sections on IP Addressing are wonderful. The book introduces subnetting, CIDR, NAT in non-threatening fashion. If I were to pick one of the better presentation it would be - e-mail, MIME, Transport layer, and multimedia

Used in collaboration with a few other texts, this book is a must for your library.

Back in 1993, during my senior year at school, I had to learn computer networks. Back then, the only decent book available was Prof Tanenbaum's 2ed. I had found that book boring because it covered every possible networking algorithm and technique in the world without any references to real-world networks.

Recently, after spending 12 years working on various protocols and networking devices (from DSL modems to core routers), I realized that I had lost touch with the larger world of networking. I had no clue about WiMax, Content Networks, etc. So, I started looking around for a simple to read book that would give me good enough perspective on these new technologies. And I happen to find Tanenbaum's newest 4ed book on Computer Networks.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Prof Tanenbaum explains the concepts very well. He also throws in a piece of his mind here-n-there throughout the book. Almost all of his observations are hilarious. The book is huge, but, with all the funnies thrown in, it is easy to read and understand.

My only complaint would be that some of the material needs to be rearranged to better suit the evolving networking technology world. But, even as it is, the book is a great, easy read for one and all, whether you are a student of computer science, computer engineering, or a manager wanting to brush up on the latest technologies, you will find all the know-how here in this book.

I was required to use this book (2nd edition) for a class at American Sentinel University. The book is dated but still has useful information. It covers all major areas of networking briefly. I found the book to be a bit boring but I am sure it will be a decent reference book. Unless you have to buy this book for school I would recommend skipping it. I am giving this book three stars because it has useful information and lots of hands on activities. Two plus years ago it would be 4.5 stars. I really like the Thomson Course Technology books but this one is just too dated.

This book has been a big delusion. Of course it depends on what I was looking for.

The book teaches network concepts from the basis and it doesn't cover more advanced topics.
I already learnt many concepts presented in the book from internet tutorials or from other books (Tanenbaum). I think this book would have been useful to me two years ago. The only innovative chapter that tought me better how to "Design And Implement Networks" is "Lan/Wan/Lan Connection". Almost all other chapters are introductory explanations of existing protocols and technologies. I find the title misleading.

Well explained. A good book to start from but insufficient as a second read.

Great book and explains all elements of LAN and WANs fully. Good diagrams to illustrate network topography. Authors have done great work putting together such a great book. Highly recommended.

Although outdated in some areas (minimal) this book is great! We use it for our Networking Essentials class. One of the advantages of this book is that is is cross-platform. The terms apply to networks and technologies irrelevant of the vendor or operating system. The case studies and the projects provide a great opportunity for developing hands on experience in each of the chapters. I highly recommend this book since it complements very well the Cisco Academy Semesters 1-2 Book!!