Networking: A Beginner's Guide, Third Edition - Paperback

There's a chapter in Networking: A Beginner's Guide called "Network Servers: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know but Were Afraid to Ask." The chapter title encapsulates this book's raison d'être. It's a compendium of network engineers' essential knowledge, the stuff you really need to have a handle on to build, operate, and grow local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs). Author Bruce Hallberg lays down a lot of conceptual material and then takes a three-pronged approach to implementation specifics. For Novell NetWare 5, Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, and Linux 2.2.x (particularly in its Red Hat Linux 6.1 form), the reader will find specific directions for setting up and running a particular kind of network infrastructure. One might wish for more information on setting up services (such as Samba under Linux, which isn't covered), but you'll likely want to buy at least one other book dedicated to the operating system you choose, and that book should cover services in detail.

This book derives a lot of its value from the fact that Hallberg isn't shy about sharing his opinions. For example, he comes out against managing your own modem farm (and in favor of access via the open Internet) in most situations, citing the considerable nuisance aspect of such work and the appeal of Internet Service Provider (ISPs) technical support resources. The procedural information in this book is strong as well, but most readers will especially like the general wisdom the author shares. His approach to administration decisions is to describe his thought process, in which he identifies the relevant issues, weighs the importance of each, and investigates the suitability of competing solutions to the problem. He also uses sidebars to great effect, answering small but important questions ("What's a thread?") concisely and accurately. --David Wall

Topics covered: Networking for newcomers to network administration, with emphasis on hardware, cabling, topologies, protocols, directory services, and remote access. Operations of clients and servers are detailed. Platform-specific information on Novell NetWare 5, Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, and Red Hat Linux 6.1 is also included.