Learning may be hard; explaining is harder

The better you know a subject matter, the better you can explain it to others...

Well, this is only 50% of what's required: the other 50% is being good at explaining.

And that's the problem with this book: everything is terribly (badly) explained!

I'm in no position to discuss the author's prowess when it comes to mastering Networking, but filling a book with "reference manual" type of data (something you can find in many others books -and websites, for that matter!) doesn't prove it, either. At all.

As other reviews exposed, repetitions, copy-paste style, are common in this book; also common is the definition that its writing style brings to mind: gibberish.

Let's say it out loud: writing a book is no mean feat, and every book on any matter _has_ its share of shortcomings, be it important or just anecdotical. But, honestly, I haven't found much to salvage from this reading.

Reviewer and author Richard Bejtlich mentions this book in his review of "The TCP/IP Guide: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Internet Protocols Reference" by Charles Kozierok, as belonging to an intermediate-level class of recommended books; and he mentions, too, Kevin Burns' "TCP/IP Analysis and Troubleshooting Toolkit" as belonging to the expert-level class.

Well, I've found Kevin Burns' book faaaaaaaar more instructive, readable, etc, than this other; they're as opposite as night and day (well, let's be a bit less harsh: as dusk and dawn) (an enlightening dawn and an obscure dusk, that is).

Buy that one, forget this one.

Other Reviews

• An exemplary discussion of network and transport protocols
• Learning may be hard; explaining is harder
• Best book on the topic
• good book but too much repeated stuff