Until now, the only real guide to the protocols has been the Internet RFCs--and they're hardly what you want to be reading late at night when your network is down. There just hasn't been a good book on the fundamentals of IP networking aimed at network administrators. "I'm sure that whoever reads this book will be as impressed as I was, not just at the insights, but at the level of depth and usefulness. Among the glut of technology books, this is one that truly stands out. Every network manager needs this book," says Fritz Nelson, Editor-In-Chief of Network Computing Magazine.

"The original concept behind this book came from a series of technology primers that I was writing for a magazine, which generated a significant amount of mail from the readers," says Hall. "The existing material in the market was geared more towards programmers and developers than for users (my readership), so I decided to pursue it. O'Reilly's brand name recognition made them a natural choice, and thankfully they agreed to publish the book."

Internet Core Protocols: The Definitive Guide provides thorough coverage of the fundamental protocols in the TCP/IP suite: IP, TCP, UDP, ICMP, ARP (in its many variations), and IGMP. It includes many packet captures, showing you what to look for and how to interpret all the fields. It has been brought up-to-date with the latest developments in real-world IP networking.

The CD-ROM included with the book contains Shomiti's "Surveyor Lite," a packet analyzer that runs on Win32 systems, plus the original RFCs, should you need them for reference. Shomiti Systems President and CEO Bill Shaw: "We have always prided ourselves on being able to provide today's network administrators with the high performance analysis tools they need to solve their network problems. We were very happy that Eric Hall and O'Reilly chose our software for this purpose."

"Shomiti's software was chosen because it offered an extremely powerful and highly mobile analysis platform," adds Hall. "The quality and quantity of the protocol decodes, the powerful alarms and triggers, the ability to edit and generate packets and the availability of a variety of hardware options were all key factors in my decision. Shomiti's software plus the original RFCs, should you need them for reference, give you everything you need to troubleshoot your network."

Online Resources

• Chapter 2, The Internet Protocol, is available free online.

• More information about the book, including Table of Contents, index, author bio, and samples.

• Cover graphic in jpeg format.