I'm starting a B-tec course in IT and I'm struggling to understand the networking parts. I tried in the library but all of the books in there were a little to advanced for me (Used a lot of specialised terms and I didn't know what it all meant and without any explanation of the terms, either.).
I'd really like to know if anyone can recommend some books for me to study from. It would really help me with my course.
Ty.
~pipnina
Tanenbaum’s Computer Networks was used for my undergraduate Computer Networking class. It was also one of the three books used for my Computer Networking class in grad school.
I cannot say I would recommend it. It’s dense, very academic and really more geared towards network programming. It will teach you networking fundamentals and concepts. But I think Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach, by Kurose and Ross, is a better book.
Data Communications and Networking, by Forouzan, is probably the easiest to read and understand. It is a bit of a departure from how computer networking is typically taught, but his simplified approach makes networking concepts much easier to understand. This is the one I would start with.
I cannot believe how expensive these books are. It is highway robbery, and I thought textbooks were expensive back when I was in college. Not that I condone this, but it may be possible for a PDF version of any of these books to magically appeared on your hard drive, from say something like Usenet or torrent.
http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Networks-5th-Andrew-Tanenbaum/dp/0132126958/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411514111&sr=1-1&keywords=computer+networks&tag=donations09-20
http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Networking-Top-Down-Approach-Edition/dp/0132856204?tag=donations09-20
http://www.amazon.com/Data-Communications-Networking-Behrouz-Forouzan/dp/0073376221/ref=sr_1_26?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411515921&sr=1-26&keywords=computer+networking&tag=donations09-20
Not sure on any books. but Google up network layer 1. then go to layer 2. do this entitle layer 3 and you will get your head around it.
Basic terms:
-Layer 1 (physical layer) its the cables and media that links every thing.
-Layer 2 (mac address) the devices at the ends of layer 1 links. (switches)
-layer 3 (IP address) stick with layer 4 tell you under stand it then jump to IPv6
the thing about layer 3 is the non routable ip address used for most corporate/internal networks
every thing above layer 3 is mostly handled by an OS.
Edit: I call layer 3 IP address but its really the protocol level. Who uses anything but IP now a day?
Always go back to basics
CompTIA Network+. And you can usually find it at a Barnes and Noble or Books A Million.