Book Review: Networking by Example, 1st Edition
Summary: excellent learning examples, interesting apps.
A few months ago I compared networking books at a bookstore with a generous collection of computer books. I have a background in PC hardware, introductory networking and an intermediate understanding of Linux, and I needed a book that was not specific to one operating system. Important components of my home network would be linux-based, but I also needed to include some windows 98, ME and 2000 services too.
The problem with many of the networking books out there is that they are geared to the networking specialist with an advanced knowledge of networking already, or they are dumb-ified for the home-user who would be connecting things with Windows 98. So you are faced with a choice between 1000 page tomes which go into more detail about netware, netbui or wiring than anyone would be interested in. Or you can choice a friendly book full of colorful Windows 98 screenshots (a perfect and actually informative example of that would be "Complete Idiot's Guide to Networking Your Home" by by Mark D. Thompson.).
It is surprising to see how few of the home networking books out there seemed to talk about Linux, although perhaps by the summer of 2001 that will have changed.
"Networking by Example" is a remarkable book because it gives equivalent functions by operating system, 98, NT, 2000 and Linux. It does not go into great depth into configuring services for Linux and Windows (like web servers, samba, etc), but it provides just enough detail for the reader to make sense of chapters from another linux book on apache or samba. This book is one of the rare books that covers both OS's and how to integrate them (the only other book being Unix and Windows 2000 Handbook: Planning, Integration, and Administration by Lonnie Harvel)
One of the most valuable things about the book is the space it devotes to choosing the right hardware and how choice of an operating system might affect your choices. Unfortunately, the book gave a shallow treatment of wireless technologies and somebody looking for wireless information might find better information elsewhere. Sometimes it recommends specific products (which is probably not a good idea, given how quickly models change), but the book gives very practical questions about things to look for when buying a router or cable equipment. The book provides a good number of black and white photographs and illustrations for installing things, and the book contained several chapters near the start that discussed PC-hardware. I skipped through these chapters, but others might find them helpful.
The book does a great job of discussing print sharing and file sharing in both Windows and Linux. It also spends a good bit of time talking about setting up DSL and cable modems, as well as advanced firewall and security topics.
In short: this book is an excellent introduction for the person setting up home networking. Because it is so clear and describes everything so well, it might even be helpful for the would-be networking administrator before he or she pursues more advanced topics. At the time I bought the book, Networking by Example was the ONLY home networking book that discussed Linux and Windows in the same book. By now there are probably others. It gives great advice on picking hardware and setting up linux services. It's only 430 pages, but I've gotten more out of it than books that are twice that size.
Addendum: Recently I posted a review of this very excellent book. I wanted to point out one bad thing about the book, which I guess had to do with timing. Red Hat 7.1 no longer includes linuxconf to do most of the linux configuration, so a lot of the examples do little good for those using Red Hat. (The authors used linux-mandrake, which I guess still uses linuxconf).
One frustration I have experienced with using this book is that it overlooks a description of the files accessible through the command line. Instead the book relies on linuxconf to illustrate. Of course, it's not the authors' fault that red hat no longer uses linuxconf, but that's the problem with explaining things in terms of a gui interface. It would have been nice to include more samples of config files (and commands to run) and less screenshots. I reluctantly conclude that this book wouldn't give enough information to do linux network configuration, although it gives an excellent overview.
