Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet explains the technical problems inherent in communicating digital information from point to point. This approach is certainly theoretically - do not look here for instructions on configuring Windows 2000 or a Cisco router - but it's relevant to reality, and should help anyone who needs to understand networking as a programmer, systems architect, or even teacher administration. Treatment of the network layer, where routing occurs, is typical of the overall style. In discussing routing, authors James Kurose and Keith Ross explain (by way of a lot of clear, definition-packed text) what routing protocols need to be done: find the best route to the destination. Real life implementations of algorithms - including Internet Protocol (IPv4 and IPv6), and several popular IP routing protocols - help you to make the transition from pure theory to networking technologies Wall. - David Topics covered: The theory behind data networks, with thorough discussions on matters raised at each level (the application layer gets a lot of attention).