TCP/IP Illustrated: The Implementation, Vol. 2

I bought this book shortly after finishing Volume 1. With volume 1, I found myself staying up late to read more, but volume 2 gets tiring after a while... it's literally a detailed analysis of every single line of networking code in the BSD 4.3 kernel. Although it's well worth the effort, I found myself reading no more than about 10 pages at a time (constantly flipping back, sometimes almost all the way to the beginning, to re-read something I hadn't quite absorbed the first time).Difficulty aside, this book alone will honestly make you a TCP/IP guru - now that I've read volumes 1 and 2, the networking administrators where I work come to me with questions about issues they can't resolve. I'm literally comfortable saying that there's nothing I don't know about TCP/IP, and that's not a statement I'd make lightly (feel free to test me). But more than that, I learned a *lot* about writing good, solid code... in learning the networking stack as a whole, I was able to understand some higher-level software engineering concepts that had previously eluded me.All in all, volume 1 is The Hobbit, and volume 2 is the Lord of the Rings - an oddysey not to be undertaken lightly, but from which you will emerge stronger and more powerful than ever before.

This book dives into the BSD 4.2 and later code with great detail. There are still systems out there (AIX, BSD, Sun, ...) based upon BSD code. And it might provide some insight into the Linux code but I would suspect not so much.It does provide an excellent base to understand what networking code should look like, why it is so complex, and how the developers for the 4.2 code solved the icky problems they faced.

I really did like the book. Its quiet technical, but very in-depth. Not really an 'average' reader material like "The Art of Computer Programming series".It sort of bridges the gap between weekend reading, and a manual. And trust me I've read a lot of technical manuals.

I bought this book because I was faced with having to port an application that uses BSD routing sockets and interface management ioctls to an operating system that doesn't support either of these features. The book contained enough information about these fairly obscure constructs that I was able to figure out what the mystery program was doing.

This THE text book on the subject of TCP/IP and general networking and should be in every network professionals toolkit. This is the starting point for those seeking to be network professionals.

I have the first volume and learned a lot from the book. Volume 2 was a logical addition to my digital library. Great books. Love reading them on my Kindle.

Book cover top corner was bit damaged. Rest the book is intact. Thanks.

Amazing material!

Questo è il secondo volume della serie TCP/IP Illustrated realizzata da Richard Stevens, uno dei padri fondatori del protocollo TCP/IP.Nel primo volume Stevens ci illustra con ampi esempi i vari protocolli che compongono la suite (ARP, IP, TCP, UDP) e dedica spazio ad alcuni programmi che servono a monitorare il corretto funzionamento della rete (viene dedicato un intero capitolo al funzionamento del programma traceroute)In questo secondo volume gli argomenti sono ripresi ma sono approfonditi ulteriormente. I capitoli dipanano le magie del TCP/IP attraverso l'analisi dettagliata del codice sorgente dello stack implementato nella distribuzione BSD 4.x. Per rendersi conto della validità e dell'esaustività dell'opera è sufficiente dare uno sguardo all'indice.Questo volume NON E' indirizzato a persone che non abbiano una preparazione più che buona della suite TCP/IP ma rimane comunque un volume che qualsiasi persona che voglia conoscere in modo approfondito questo protocollo deve avere nella sua libreria.Consigliato ad amministratori di rete avanzati, maniaci della sicurezza che vogliono conoscere i meandri più oscuri del protocollo e sviluppatori.Da parte di Amazon la consegna è avvenuta nei tempi indicati e la confezione era adatta alle esigenze.

It's not worth the price. I had the chance to compare it with the printed book. The Kindle version presents itself as the result of a half-hearted, probably automated conversion.Most typographic conventions from the printed book were disregarded. Some enumerations are indistinguishable from subheadings. Many indentations are lost. Most of the time it is an indistinguishable stream of continuous text, quotes and remarks and even numbers! (In the printed version, mono spaced numbers placed on the page margin are code references) In the middle of a section figures were inserted up to four pages ahead.And it lacks important content. The valuable references on the end-paper, the TCP state machine and key to the macro and function definitions have not made it into the Kindle version.Code samples and formulas are presented either in blurry, awfully low resolution scans or in proportional fonts with random line breaks. The table summarizing mbuf functions is of such low resolution that it really gets useless: the characters are not recognizable. The code sample in figure 28.1. is incomplete.

すでに日本語版が出ていますね。私が買ったのは、日本語版が出る2年ほど前だったのですが、TCP/IPの基礎から良くわかります。実装を踏まえると、その仕組みが明らかになりますので、いろいろな発想を出すために有効です。当たり前の話なのですが、Volume1の内容は押さえた上で読んでください。いきなりこれを読んでも、理解できません。また、BSDのスタックの説明ですから、Linuxのスタックは書いていませんし、BSDのスタックも初期の実装について述べているので、IPsecなどの実装部分は含んでいません。最新のスタックの詳細を知りたいとの目的には合致しません。ただ、基本部分は書いてありますので、最新スタックの理解のスピードは上がるとは思います。

This is a very useful book from a set of three.