Job & Edu

How the Internet Works (8th Edition)

From Que

Author : Preston Gralla
Binding : Paperback
DeweyDecimalNumber : 004.678
EAN : 9780789736260
Edition : 8
ISBN : 0789736268
Label : Que
Manufacturer : Que
NumberOfPages : 432
ProductTypeName : ABIS_BOOK
PublicationDate : 2006-12-01
Publisher : Que
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Customer Reviews

Rating:
Summary: Beware of this seller
Comment: I did not receive the book and the seller did not reply to my e- mail either
Rating:
Summary: Just about "The Way Things Work"
Comment: This is really the definitive visual primer.
Not technical, but clear and concise.
Every edition has seen some refinement, and older editions actually age fairly well.

For deeper comprehension, muddle through some RFCs.
For more concise visuals, try visibone.
For everything else, look no further.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect for anyone
Comment: This is the best book to learn about the meanings of the internet and its history. It was very easy to understand. If you are taking any computor courses this is a must. No matter what level of learning you are at this will teach you what you need to know.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to rate - it depends on the audience
Comment: Obviously if you are just learning about the Internet, your first choice is not going to be Tanenbaum's classic "Computer Networks". Likewise, if you are a network security professional, this book won't help you either. This book is basically a picture book with very easy to swallow pieces of accessible text between pictures. It is meant to acquaint the complete novice with the basics of the Internet. By basics I mean defining terms, what it means to connect to the Internet, and interacting with the Internet without getting your identity stolen. The illustrations are quite enlightening to beginners, but don't expect detailed instructions on how to accomplish tasks of any complexity. If you are looking for that kind of beginner's book I recommend "The Internet: The Missing Manual" by Biersdorfer, published by O'Reilly and Associates. If you have a friend or relative who is completely new to computers who just wants to know about the Internet, this will do. If they want to interact with the Internet in any meaningful way, get the Missing Manual book. I was generous and gave this book three stars because I'm not really sure it's fair to downgrade a book because I think it is too simple. That might have been its intent.
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Helpful
Comment: I've been involved in writing web pages, setting up web/mail/ftp servers for about a dozen years. I was working on a problem with a fellow and had to admit that there was a point I didn't understand. He reached up and pulled down this book and opened it to the section on security - Part 9 : Protecting Yourself on the Internet. Here in a very few pages the Governments Carnivore (FBI) and Echelon (NSA) programs were discussed. There wasn't much on the details, but it explains what the Government is doing to monitor and track e-mails. Carnivore has, of course, been shut down.

Each item being discussed only gets a page or two, and those pages are mostly illustration. But this makes it easy to understand. If you want to know more then you can go to more advanced books, or of course search the web. [Wikipedia has an entry -- Carnivore (FBI)]

On the whole a surprising amount of information. It's aimed mostly at beginners, but there are some things here that I believe most professionals would find interesting.