Book details of 'Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking, Second Edition'

Title	Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking, Second Edition
Author(s)	Mitch Tulloch and Ingrid Tull, Ingrid Tulloch, Mitch Tulloch
ISBN	0735613788
Language	English
Published	April 2002
Publisher	Microsoft Press

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The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking, Second Edition':

Reviewer amazon.com wrote:
The Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking has a great deal to offer its readers--it's thoroughly researched, well written, and carefully laid out. A more apt title would have been The Encyclopedia of Microsoft Networking, however, since Windows NT, Windows 2000, and additional Microsoft networking solutions are emphasized at the expense of other popular and robust technologies. If you run a Windows shop or just want a reference on hand while you prepare for a Microsoft networking certification test, you'll be pleased by the contents of this book. Author Mitch Tulloch has done a super job of defining (and, more importantly, explaining) hundreds of terms involving connecting computers to one another, sending signals across those connections, and performing useful work (such as database queries and electronic commerce transactions) with those signals. Entries tend to be long and thorough, often including examples or careful conceptual walk-throughs. The design team that organized this book deserves high praise too, because there are so many ways to find terms that are of interest to readers. (All the terms appear in a table of contents and an index, as well as in alphabetical order in the body of the encyclopedia.) There is also plenty of cross-referencing among terms. The prime weakness in this book isn't necessarily that it favors Microsoft products, but that it's sometimes actively hostile to competing technologies. Linux is defined as suffering from corporate "reluctance to use free software ... because there is no single company responsible for its development and support," making it suitable only for students who want to learn the Unix operating system. The first statement is a standard Microsoft argument against the adoption of Linux, although it contains some truth. The second statement reflects an error of omission: Linux is suited to such students but also to many other kinds of users. The book, not surprisingly, also lacks an entry for the Apache Web server. So if you're interested mainly in Microsoft products and don't care about these matters, this is a great book. --David Wall Topics covered: Computer networking, particularly as implemented under Microsoft operating systems, including Windows 9x, Windows NT 4, and Windows 2000. Physical media, protocols, applications, and whole business solutions that have to do with networking are explained in an alphabetically organized series of entries. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
As soon as I sent him the draft of my review of the first edition, Mitch asked me to hold off, as the second edition was in the works. He stated that he was addressing the issues I had identified, and that the second edition would have fixed them. His means of dealing with the problems are ... interesting. The scope of the encyclopedia is stated to cover networking concepts, the Internet, and Microsoft products. The primary audience is no longer limited to novices pursuing the MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) designation, although the Microsoft emphasis is still fairly clear. The Microsoft orientation and bias is not quite as explicit as it was in the first edition, but is still evident. The errors in dealing with the redirection (>) and pipe (|) symbols have been eliminated: the section on "Numbers and Symbols" no longer defines any symbols. "Access control" and "clustering" are stated to be "[a]ny technology" performing the respective functions, but, after a single initial sentence in this generic fashion, there are two pages that relate only to Microsoft products. Impersonation is still defined only in terms of assisting Windows client/server communication, which is startling in view of the importance of impersonation as a security exploit. Now, is it reasonable to complain about a Microsoft emphasis in what is, after all the *Microsoft* networking encyclopedia? Well, yes, when it gets in the way of real information. A number of entries have little apparent function. There are, for example, a number of listings for variant flavours of Ethernet, and these items seem to describe only different vendor products. In addition, there is a great deal of repetition, fluff, and padding in the writing. The text often says the same thing over again in a slightly different way, but this neither develops the topic, nor really assists the novice user in understanding complex subjects. Basic networking concepts are covered and, generally, the material is reasonable, if uninspired. However, a number of the fundamental ideas are covered in such a way that the newcomer will not gain a full understanding of the idea. In many cases it is difficult to say that the explanation is in error, but the abstraction could certainly have been presented in a better way. "Bursty" traffic, for example, is described in terms of transferring video files, and any self- respecting MPEG is going to be big enough to occupy a pipeline with less capacity than an OC-192 for longer than a mere "burst." While many entries are longer than the paragraph or two one might expect from a dictionary, the content doesn't deliver much more information. Frame relay, for example, is described in terms of packet switching, but the discussion of error checking, which differentiates the two technologies, is almost lost in the sales pitches for vendors of the service. As one has come to expect from a Microsoft product, security and privacy concerns are downplayed at every turn. The best possible construction is put on issues such as Authenticode and cookies. Again, while the descriptions are not necessarily erroneous, counter- examples are easily generated. A cookie, for example, cannot give out your email address, as the book says. Unless, that is, you have input your email address to a Website, and the site has stored the information in a cookie. This is a fairly common occurrence. The entry for virus is pretty appalling. The aren't quite as many errors as there were last time, but there isn't anything to help, either. Would this book help someone study for the MCSE? Probably. One of the major difficulties in writing the exam is clearing your mind of how things work in the real world, and sticking to the Microsoft terminological party line. Would it help anyone else? Possibly, but there are many other works more complete, readable, and reliable. The "Microsoft Press Computer Dictionary" (see reviews) is much better: a fairly solid reference over a wide range of issues. It is unlikely that anyone with more than a passing acquaintance with networking will find much of value in this encyclopedia. Certainly, with the wide variety of excellent and reliable communications dictionaries available one wonders at the need for this. For general networking there is Newton (see reviews), for authority there is Weik (see reviews), and for history and background there is Petersen (see reviews). copyright Robert M. Slade, 2001
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Book description:

Whether you're a system administrator, MCSA/MCSE certification candidate, or a CIO-here's definitive reference on the latest networking technologies and terminology. The superbly illustrated MICROSOFT ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NETWORKING, Second Edition, features thousands of entries-including many new entries and critical updates and revisions to the popular first edition. It offers expanded coverage of key Microsoft products and technologies, including Microsoft .NET, as well as the platforms and products of other major vendors such as Cisco, Sun, Novell, Oracle, and the Open Source Community. It's one of the most complete and accurate compendiums of networking topics available-and, with the entire encyclopedia on CD, one of the most useful!