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Best Old TCP/IP Books

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IBM Redbooks Routing Network
security		 DNS SMTP Microsoft
 TCP/IP		 Troubleshooting
IDS (Snort) DHCP OSPF IP6 BGP4 CCNA Certification Etc

TCP/IP is an old protocol invented in the previous century :-). And that means that older books are often cheaper and better then "paper pulp" that publishing houses dump on the unsuspecting masses ;-).

So, say, an introductory book published in 1998-2002 is often as good or better then books that are published in 2004-2005.   That way you can save some money without sacrificing quality of education. As one Amazon reader aptly said in his review of "IP Routing Protocols: RIP, OSPF, BGP, PNNI and Cisco Routing Protocols "

Save your money. Buy Radia Perlman's book "Interconnections, 2ed", John Stewart's book "BGPv4", and Ivan Pepelnjak's "EIGRP Network Design Solutions." Or simply buy Jeff Doyle's "Routing TCP/IP." Sure, the last couple are Cisco-centric, but they cover the protocol operations in detail. Doyle's, in particular, covers several protocols and is probably the best overall reference on all rouTING protocols only because he also covers EIGRP. My second choice would be Radia Perlman's, even though she does not cover the popular but proprietary EIGRP. The Mother of Spanning Tree Protocol has done a remarkable job not only on routing protocols, but also on the layer two operations of bridges and switches.

There are two major types of introductory books: TCP networking oriented and TCP/IP networks administration oriented (often Unix oriented, but several solid Windows books appeared recently). Several important noted to readers: 

No single TCP/IP related book that can satisfy all needs of Unix/Linux administrator or a serious student. You need at least three different books. So the most economical way is probably to get a the best introductory book in the area that is most important for you and a CD (Networking CD bookshelf is available from O'Reilly) for the other two.  For example if you buy O'Reilly CD at least you will have a useful reference on DNS and Sendmail. This CD is  overpriced and outdated so shop for a reasonable price. There are lot of online stores and auctions to shop around.

DNS now is covered in a separate page. Beware that O'Reilly DNS/Bind books are not for novices and generally are badly written and badly edited,  although each new edition is better that previous.

For the in-depth treatment  of the TCP/IP Protocol I think that a routing book might be a better deal. At least the authors really know TCP/IP level, even if they are weak on routing. May be IP Routing Primer  would be a better deal. For Cisco routers Cisco Routers for IP Routing Little Black Book is an excellent introduction.

Troubleshooting of TCP/IP is covered in several books. Some useful information can be found in TCP/IP : Network Administration (3-d edition) which is an open book (available from above mentioned  O'Reilly Networking CD 2.0). 

Good luck !

Dr. Nikolai Bezroukov

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Old News ;-)

Note: {Safari} means that the book is available in O'Reilly Safari electronic book collection.

{Safari} Linux Network Administrator's Guide, Third Edition

The Linux TCP/IP Stack- Networking for Embedded Systems (Networking Series)

Dave Mclain: 5.0 out of 5 stars very detailed under the hood type of book, July 26, 2004 By  (Fairfax, VA)

Mr. Herbert has disected the LINUX TCP/IP stack using the source code. In this book he presents what he has discovered. The book goes through a lot of the source code and has good explanations of what it does. It is better than a lot of LINUX books where only the source code is listed with few explanations.

The book also discusses the RFC's and how they are implemented in the stack. The source code for the LINUX TCP/IP stack is fairly large. The book does not cover all of it, but it does cover the main paths packets take through the stack. Having read the book, I found it easier to read the LINUX TCP/IP source code myself.

{Safari} Linux Routing By: Joe Brockmeier; Dee-Ann LeBlanc; Ron McCarty

It's an old book and it's a mixture of advanced and intro material.

{Safari} IP Routing

It does a fair job of explaining how the different routing protocols are implemented on Cisco routers.

{Safari} Understanding Linux Network Internals (9780596002558) Christian Benvenuti Books

*** TCP/IP Architecture, Design and Implementation in Linux (Practitioners) [Hardcover]

Overpriced and outdated...  
3.0 out of 5 stars Useful, though not as good as I hoped, January 30, 2009
By
Alexandre SIDORENKO (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
 
This review is from: TCP/IP Architecture, Design and Implementation in Linux (Practitioners) (Hardcover)
This book is useful if you want to better understand Linux _TCP_ internals (i.e. not just IP). There are several good books describing Linux networking internals for link-layer, IP, routing, neighbouring etc. - but no books of the same quality for TCP and UDP yet.

There are two main problems with the book:
- it is written for 2.4 kernels only (no 2.6)
- there is a huge number of typos, stylistic and grammatical errors

Even though the authors write in the preface: "The newest kernel version 2.6 does not have much variation as far as the TCP/IP stack is considered", this is only partially true. Most important algorithms are the same, but there were many new features; structures layout is rather different (they changed it several times even in 2.6 kernels).

For a description of Linux networking internals not related to TCP I would rather recommend "Understanding Linux Network Internals" by Christian Benvenuti.

The book provides nice descriptions of TCP algorithms - both generic and Linux-specific. For example, if you want to understand the management of synqueue/acceptqueue (what does it mean that connection is 'young'?), the book provides a very detailed and easy to understand description. The same is true for timers management, core processing and state machine.

The chapter about debugging is rather outdated - it describes LKCD/lcrash environment but all new kernels have kexec/kdump facility and 'crash' is the preferred debugger for those vmcores. Maybe 2.4 kernels and lkcd are still relevant for embedded Linux (2.4 has a smaller memory footprint), I am mainly interested in normal systems.

So this book is the best we have for Linux TCP internals at this moment. The authors promise to update the description for 2.6 kernels in the next edition. Hopefully typos/errors will be fixed either and then the book would be highly recommended.

Linux TCP/IP Network Administration

amazonmarketplace: Appropriate for experienced, intriguing for novice, July 13, 2002

If you need to know about IP routing on UNIX system, this is the book. This book is appropriate for experienced system administrator and intriguing for the novice. The author started on glimpse of TCP/IP, then continuing to UNIX commands and detail explainations that appropriate for routing and the commands. Although the book title mentioned "LINUX", this book is also applicable to any UNIX system (including BSD, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, Mac OS X). Any system administrator should not have trouble adjusting command to a more-specific UNIX system (if any).

If previous reviewer commented that this book could be useful for preparing CCIE exam, I could agree with that. But I think this book is more appropriate for preparing CCNA exam since the book's content is not "too advanced" (not sophisticated enough).

If you are not preparing for the exam, you still could learning a lot. From this book at least you could get ideas of how major protocols (like RIP, OSPF, and BGP) getting around on a network without having a vendor router (such as Cisco router) installed. You could also learn about NAT and firewalls.

If you think this book is "too easy", you might try the followings. For the ARP packets, have W. Richard Steven's "TCP/IP Illustrated Vol. 1: The Protocols". Need more info on firewalls? Try "Building Internet Firewalls" by Elizabeth Zwicky, "Linux Firewalls" by Robert Ziegler, and "Intrusion Signatures and Analysis" by Mark Cooper.

Feel not enough background? Get "Internetworking with TCP/IP Vol. 1: Principles, Protocols, and Architecture" by Douglas Comer for the TCP/IP part. For the system administration part, have "UNIX System Administration Handbook" by Evi Nemeth. In between? Try "TCP/IP Network Administration" by Craig Hunt.

Internet Core Protocols The Definitive Guide

Eric A. Hall