TCP/IP and Related Protocols (The McGraw-Hill series on computer communications)

The ever-improving tools available to network engineers have helped hide the details of the TCP/IP protocol suite to some degree, but real gurus know that you have to understand the protocols at a low level to really see what's going on. TCP/IP: Architecture, Protocols, and Implementation with IPv6 and IP Security shows how, under the TCP/IP protocols, digital signals are assembled into packets and routed among network nodes.

To communicate this information, the author uses lots of block diagrams and bit listings. He also patiently walks through transactions, explaining how nodes communicate back and forth to establish connections. The miscellaneous elements of the TCP/IP stack--including Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), the Domain Name System (DNS), the mail protocols, and various others--get plenty of attention too (something that's welcome, as they're not well covered in most TCP/IP books).

This second edition includes bits of information on both IP version 6 (IPv6) and IP Secure (IPsec), but neither is discussed in much depth. If you want to read more about IPv6, check out IPv6: The Next Generation Internet Protocol. If security (perhaps for a virtual private network) interests you, IPsec has all the detail you could want about the IPsec improvements to the Internet protocol stack. --David Wall

Topics covered: The design and operational behavior of the data-communications protocols that underlie modern internetworking: The Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite. In explaining how TCP/IP works, the author explains the Domain Name System (DNS) and algorithms for routing data between IP addresses. New coverage details IP version 6 (IPv6) and the IP Secure (IPsec) standards.