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Ask HN: Book Recommendation about Networking

9 points by kureikain 6y ago

Hi, I want to understand more about networking, tcp/ip, dns protocol. thing about multi cast, nat traversal, how to implement my own toy network stack and the like, lan segmenting, vlan... Those concepts come up a lot in my work and I just google the hell out of it and connect the dot here and there to figure them out but I lacked a fundamental/core understanding... I want to fill that gaps in my knowledge by going to books instead of reading articles/blogs Any good book out there for this? Thanks.

ivars 6y ago
I'm absolutely with you on deepening knowledge from books rather than googling. Of course, no one book has it all, but one you might check out is - "TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols, 2nd Edition" from Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series. It's a great series, by the way, worth checking every book out.
jlgaddis 6y ago
Routing TCP/IP, Vols. 1 and 2 are basically the networking bible. You may not necessarily want to go that far into networking, though!
- runjake 6y ago
  This is the correct answer.
atsaloli 6y ago
I’ve heard good things about https://nostarch.com/tcpip.htm https://nostarch.com/tcpip.htm
brudgers 6y ago
Computer Networks, Tanenbaum is a standard introductory textbook that's gone through multiple editions over nearly thirty years. It might not be for you, but it's proably a good place to start figuring out what is for you because a lot of what you encounter will be paraphrasing parts of it or using it's abstractions. And because it's been used so heavily and printed so long, used older editions abound. Which are good enough to get started because TCP/IP and Ethernet and lots of other things are still mostly the same with new stuff layered on top.
scott31 6y ago
Not a book but PG's essays are great sources http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html Many of them touch on subjects like network effects on the startup scene
semicolonandson 6y ago
Very very worthwhile investment of your time. I dived into the topic two years ago using Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach (https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Networking-Top-Down-Approach-7th/dp/0133594149 https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Networking-Top-Down-Approach...) As someone with about ten years experience in web-dev, but no formal CS education, I found the difficulty level to be just right.
tjalfi 6y ago
Here are a couple recommendations. Interconnections - Radia Perlman. This is a good introduction to bridging and routing. Networking Algorithmics - George Varghese. This has a lot of interesting content about removing bottlenecks from network devices. I would appreciate recommendations for a newer book with similar content.
CloudNetworking 6y ago
I would recommend Ed Harmoush's materials in https://www.practicalnetworking.net/ https://www.practicalnetworking.net/

9 points by kureikain 6y ago

ivars 6y ago

I'm absolutely with you on deepening knowledge from books rather than googling. Of course, no one book has it all, but one you might check out is - "TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols, 2nd Edition" from Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series. It's a great series, by the way, worth checking every book out.

jlgaddis 6y ago

Routing TCP/IP, Vols. 1 and 2 are basically the networking bible. You may not necessarily want to go that far into networking, though!

runjake 6y ago
This is the correct answer.

atsaloli 6y ago

I’ve heard good things about https://nostarch.com/tcpip.htm https://nostarch.com/tcpip.htm

brudgers 6y ago

Computer Networks, Tanenbaum is a standard introductory textbook that's gone through multiple editions over nearly thirty years. It might not be for you, but it's proably a good place to start figuring out what is for you because a lot of what you encounter will be paraphrasing parts of it or using it's abstractions. And because it's been used so heavily and printed so long, used older editions abound. Which are good enough to get started because TCP/IP and Ethernet and lots of other things are still mostly the same with new stuff layered on top.

scott31 6y ago

Not a book but PG's essays are great sources http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html Many of them touch on subjects like network effects on the startup scene

semicolonandson 6y ago

Very very worthwhile investment of your time. I dived into the topic two years ago using Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach (https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Networking-Top-Down-Approach-7th/dp/0133594149 https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Networking-Top-Down-Approach...) As someone with about ten years experience in web-dev, but no formal CS education, I found the difficulty level to be just right.

tjalfi 6y ago

Here are a couple recommendations. Interconnections - Radia Perlman. This is a good introduction to bridging and routing. Networking Algorithmics - George Varghese. This has a lot of interesting content about removing bottlenecks from network devices. I would appreciate recommendations for a newer book with similar content.

CloudNetworking 6y ago

I would recommend Ed Harmoush's materials in https://www.practicalnetworking.net/ https://www.practicalnetworking.net/