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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
Good introduction to networking for a beginner. I just HATED the corny jokes scattered throughout.
I am a CCNA certified networking technician, but this was still a good book to learn new things.
Would recommend.
I seem to get at least a few things from every book, no matter what my knowledge level!
4.2/5
Would recommend.
I seem to get at least a few things from every book, no matter what my knowledge level!
4.2/5
I'm not the target audience, so I'll say that upfront, but I still found it filled with lame jokes (would the target audience even *get* jokes about pocket protectors?) and irrelevant info that distracts the reader from the actual important stuff. It could also do with some revisions, because much of this is extremely out of date.
That said, I did manage to glean a few tiny nuggets to fill in a couple of gaps in my knowledge, and for a complete beginner it does at least raise the issues of things like network security (physical and virtual), backups and basic troubleshooting.
It lost points for not specifying that you should always test the backups *before* they're needed. And there were other areas that weren't covered properly (even for a For Dummies book). I suspect it was because they tried to cover too much and ended up skimming over important details. If you're reading a For Dummies book you shouldn't be running a mailserver and therefore the very short section on spam and blacklists should've been left out in favor of more attention to testing backup and restore procedures.
As a closing point, how about page counts for different types of server operating systems? Windows Server: 28, Netware: 21, Linux: 17. I suspect most new users would need *more* pages on Linux because they're less likely to be familiar with it, but at least it got more than the 6 pages devoted to networking Macs.
I'm fairly sure it wasn't worth the time I spent, even though I'm a fast reader.
In short, if you're a beginner and want to know more, you can start here, but please, PLEASE don't make this the only book you read on networking if you're planning on installing or maintaining anything more than a very, very basic home network (let's say 2 computers, an internet connection and a printer). Use this one to figure out the specific questions and problems you have, and then go find books with real, current and detailed information.
That said, I did manage to glean a few tiny nuggets to fill in a couple of gaps in my knowledge, and for a complete beginner it does at least raise the issues of things like network security (physical and virtual), backups and basic troubleshooting.
It lost points for not specifying that you should always test the backups *before* they're needed. And there were other areas that weren't covered properly (even for a For Dummies book). I suspect it was because they tried to cover too much and ended up skimming over important details. If you're reading a For Dummies book you shouldn't be running a mailserver and therefore the very short section on spam and blacklists should've been left out in favor of more attention to testing backup and restore procedures.
As a closing point, how about page counts for different types of server operating systems? Windows Server: 28, Netware: 21, Linux: 17. I suspect most new users would need *more* pages on Linux because they're less likely to be familiar with it, but at least it got more than the 6 pages devoted to networking Macs.
I'm fairly sure it wasn't worth the time I spent, even though I'm a fast reader.
In short, if you're a beginner and want to know more, you can start here, but please, PLEASE don't make this the only book you read on networking if you're planning on installing or maintaining anything more than a very, very basic home network (let's say 2 computers, an internet connection and a printer). Use this one to figure out the specific questions and problems you have, and then go find books with real, current and detailed information.