Downloadable Sample Chapter
Download - 253 KB -- Chapter 1, TCP/IP: The Official Protocol of the Internet!
Sample Pages
Download the sample pages (includes Chapter 3 and Index)
Table of Contents
I. INTRODUCTION AND ARCHITECTURE.
1. TCP/IP: The Official Protocol of the Internet!
What Is TCP/IP?
Finding TCP/IP's Roots.
Enabling the Internet's Success.
The Abilities and Limitations of TCP/IP.
TCP/IP's Top Five Critical Functions.
What It Can't Do.
Chapter Summary.
Chapter Review Questions.
2. What Has TCP/IP Done for Me Lately?
Business and Pleasure?
At Play.
At Work.
What's the Secret?
Open Standards.
Generalizing to See the Patterns.
The Need for Reliable Communications.
The Need for Timely Communications.
Chapter Summary.
Chapter Review Questions.
3. The Quest for Freedom of Choice.
Open or Closed?
The Case for Closed Technologies.
The Case for Open Technologies.
How Do You Not Keep a Secret?
Open Architectures Equals Open Standards.
Reference Models: Keeping Things Organized.
Speaking of Political Committees...
EIA/TIA.
IEEE.
IETF.
Layers of Layered Standards.
OSI Reference Model.
Using the OSI Reference Model.
What It Looks Like.
What It Really Does.
Gotcha!
Getting a Jump on Emerging Standards.
Using Open Standards to Create Proprietary Products.
Making Sense of the Chaos.
Chapter Summary.
Chapter Review Questions.
4. TCP/IP: The Networking Protocol That Changed the World.
The Official Protocol of the Internet.
Groups of Functions.
Inside the Tool Box.
Tools for Users.
Tools for Applications.
Tools for the Network.
The Big Picture.
Dissecting TCP/IP.
Process/Application Layer.
Host-to-Host Layer.
Internet Layer.
Network Access Layer.
Chapter Summary.
Chapter Review Questions.
II. PROTOCOLS: THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF TCP/IP.
5. Peeking Under the Covers.
Tools of the Trade.
TCP's Functional Requirements.
UDP.
IP.
A Closer Look at Port Numbers.
Well-Known Port Numbers.
Registered Port Numbers.
Private and Dynamic Port Numbers.
Chapter Summary.
Chapter Review Questions.
6. Pushing the Envelope.
The Life of a Packet.
Stage 1: Wrap It Up.
Stage 2: Pass It On.
Stage 3: Take It Away.
The Numbers Game.
Finding Your IP Address.
Decimal Numbers.
Binary Numbers.
The Architecture of an IP Address.
The Real Deal.
User-Friendly IP Addresses.
Learning to Count All Over Again.
Using IP Addresses.
How Can You Tell a Host Address from a Network Address?
Chapter Summary.
Chapter Review Questions.
7. More Fun with IP Addresses.
Subdivision: It's Not Just for Real Estate.
The Need to Subdivide.
Cut It Up!
Subnetting a Network.
Where's the Subnet Address?
Checking the Math.
Staring at the Bits.
Leaving Room for the Network.
The Benefits and Drawbacks of Subnetting.
Mystery Behind the Mask.
Decimal Masks.
Network Masks.
Subnet Masks.
Two Types of Subnets.
Chapter Summary.
Chapter Review Questions.
8. Guaranteed Delivery: Your Package Will Get Delivered...Eventually!
Reliability and Networking.
Communication Is the Key.
Six Little Flags, One Great Adventure.
Communicating in a Crowd.
Communicating in a Network.
Multitasking with TCP.
Chapter Summary.
Chapter Review Questions.
9. Best-Effort Delivery: It's Now or Never!
User Datagram Protocol.
What Do You Mean, Best Effort?
Yeah, but What's It Good For?
Video Varieties.
Sound Options.
It Gets a Little More Complicated.
UDP-In Action!
The View from the Source.
The View from the Destination.
UDP Port Numbers.
Chapter Summary.
Chapter Review Questions.
III. NETWORK SERVICES: MAKING YOUR NETWORK EASY TO USE.
10. Special Delivery for Special Messages.
ICMP: A Protocol for System Messages.
The Architecture.
Fields and Functions.
Types of Messages.
Using ICMP.
PING.
TRACEROUTE.
Chapter Summary.
Chapter Review Questions.
11. How Do I Get There from Here?
Routers Route!
What Is a Router?
What Does a Router Do?
How Does That Work?
Calculating Routes.
Measuring Distances.
Measuring Quality of the Connections.
Applying Rules.
Chapter Summary.
Chapter Review Questions.
IV. USER SERVICES: MAKING THE MOST USE OF YOUR NETWORK.
12. Connecting to TCP/IP Networks.
Anatomy of a Local-Area Network.
Wire-Based Networks.
Wireless Networks.
Configuring a Network Connection.
Laptop Versus Desktop Computers.
Connecting to a Wire-Based Network.
Connecting to a Wireless Network.
Chapter Summary.
Chapter Review Questions.
13. Smiling and Dialing.
What, Exactly, Is the Internet?
All ISPs Are Not Created Equal.
Picking an ISP.
Picking an Access Technology.
More Power!
What's the Catch?
What's the Story with Dial-Up Connections?
How Does It Work?
Dial-Up Today.
Configuring a Dial-Up Connection.
Tracking Down the Wizard.
Chapter Summary.
Chapter Review Questions.
14. Taking the Next Step.
Information, Please!
Checking Your Configuration.
Internet's Yellow Pages.
TCP/IP's Bugshooting Tools.
Map It Out.
Show Me the Numbers.
Tracking Down Problems Beyond Your Control.
Back to ping.
Tracing the Route.
Chapter Summary.
Chapter Review Questions.
V. APPENDIX.
Chapter Review Answers.
Glossary.
Index
Download - 190 KB -- Index
Praise For TCP/IP First-Step
TCP/IP First-Step
Reviewer Name: Steve Owen Scheiderer, Network Administrator
Reviewer Certifications: MCSE NT 4.0, CCNA
Mark Sportack has done a pretty good job presenting the world of TCP/IP to the beginner. Although the first part of Chapter 2 seems to rehash too much of Chapter 1, after that, the flow of most of the book more than makes up for it. He lays a good foundation from the perspective of whether timely or reliable communications are needed and what aspects of TCP/IP may be applied to the same. Good historical and practical insights are found throughout the text.
Unfortunately some of the figures in the book do not do the discussion justice. For example, figures 3-6 and 3-8. The reader may have to slow down the pace to understand the point that is being made. His "Making Sense of the Chaos" (p. 57) discussion was well taken, but it took too long to get to the point. Figure 4-1 would have made more sense if it had been paralleled with the OSI model. While Figure 7-1 was supposed to have the network address portion of each IP address underlined, it did not. Figure 7-3 would have made more sense if each interface on the Internet router had an IP address assigned. Figures 8-2 and 8-3 are confusing because the numbers 916 and 619 look like one might be a typo when discussing sequence of numbers.
Some of the discussion may be a bit advanced for the beginner, but may be a bonus review for the intermediate. Sportack's Chapter 5 discussion and "This isn't stuff you'll need every day," may tip off the reader to the more advanced topics that may be helpful but not readily absorbed by the beginner. While his treatment of binary numbers, IP addressing and related topics is well done, again, at times it seems some of the subnetting discussion is too advanced. Chapter 9 seems to be redundant. Chapter 12's discussion of coaxial cable failed to point out that cable TV and network coaxial are not interchangeable (different ohm ratings).
The closing chapters would probably be the most helpful to the beginner and perhaps should have been placed at the beginning of the book. But sometimes the best is saved for last. Despite some of the challenges sited above, I'd recommend this book to the beginning TCP/IP student.
TCP/IP First-Step
Reviewer Name: Samuel Bolanos, Cisco Networking Academy Program Instructor
This is my first experience with one of the books from the First-Step series and resulted in something that I will recommend to my students and to anybody who would like to begin to study networking technology.
The style of the book is almost narrative, therefore the complicated concepts about TCP/IP are explained in an easy way, using analogies whenever is possible. The main objective of the book is to present the TCP/IP protocol stack, the layers that form it, to describe the functions that are carried out by each layer, and to explain why they are necessary for the communication process, but the author doesn’t stop there, and the book also includes something about the origin and history of TCP/IP, the organizations that regulate and administer the development of networking technologies, routing and routing protocols, Ethernet and the Physical Layer; and tools for network troubleshooting.
Obviously the most extensive treatment is given to the most important protocols: TCP (Transport Control Protocol), UDP (User Datagram Protocol) and IP (Internet Protocol) and I consider this the most valuable section of the book, because the function of each protocol, the way it does that function and the description of the information contain by the headers added to the messages, all are explained using a language that facilitates understanding; and while talking about how the TCP/IP protocol stack works, at the same time the author is talking about how the whole network communication is achieved, therefore, by reading the book, the reader is simultaneously learning about TCP/IP and also about how computer networks work and the physical devices that conform them.
There are 2 chapters dedicated to the Windows XP configuration to connect a computer to a wired network, a wireless network, and through a modem using a dial-up connection. I consider these chapters out of place in this book, because if someone wants to know about this subject, I think she or he will go first to a book with the words "Windows XP" in its title, than to a book with the words "TCP/IP"; I think books on Windows XP do a good job regarding this subject, and for me it should have been enough to have said that it is necessary to configure the TCP/IP protocol on the operating system, but not to dedicate 2 chapters to show how to do it. Instead I would have preferred some mention of IPv6 (the new version of the IP protocol) or at least some warning about the future of IP and the implications of moving to the new version.
Anyway and without any doubt, this is a great book that fulfills its goal. Based on my experience as a Cisco Networking Academy Program Instructor, this is a book that I recommend very much to anybody that has just started to study networking technology or those who are studying for the CCNA certification. I enjoyed the reading and it only took me about 8 hours to read the entire book. I think that you will also enjoy it.