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Getting into
networking or starting an IT career is always confusing in that there
are so many paths to take and skills to develop. For those of you new to
this new industry, you will most certainly latch on to a book that becomes
your networking bible. For me, that bible was a Microsoft internal
document entitled: Microsoft Networking Architecture – Windows NT level.
This manual was extremely technical and used to train the Product
Support Services teams worldwide. This book detailed the OSI model as
well as Microsoft’s Network Architecture and covered the physical layer
in detail all the way up to the Microsoft communication APIs. As
informative as that book was, it is
now severely outdated and not structured to be a good reference manual.
Today’s technologist needs something more modern and preferably in
hardback since these books tend to stay current much longer than
application-specific or operating system-specific books.
 Microsoft
Press has recently released a new book authored by Mitch and Ingrid
Tulloch, called Microsoft’s Encyclopedia of Networking, second edition.
This book instantly replaced the
eight-year incumbent mentioned earlier and
has found a permanent home in my
office. I have never done a book review before, but I felt it was
necessary to spend a few minutes to write one in order to help our
readers find the jewel within the huge stack of mediocre
technical books available today. Whether you are new to the industry, a
seasoned veteran, a project manager, a
technical editor or writer, a developer, trainer or manager, you need
this book. The reason is very simple, the Microsoft Encyclopedia of
Networking, second edition contains everything. Not only are networking
terms covered in this book, but development languages, hardware,
platforms, standards, disaster recovery components and essentially every
reference you will ever need for the industry has been documented and
alphabetically sorted in this book. One of the things that impressed me
the most about this book is that the descriptions are not Webster-like.
In fact if you look up “shared folder permissions” you will find 3 pages
and six diagrams that provide not only a definition, but a practical
guide for application as well. For example; what permissions are more
restrictive, how the permission changes are applied for several
different operating systems ranging from Windows 98 and ME to Windows XP
and .NET Server, default permissions, application of permissions to
groups and even the implications of an NTFS partition.
The part that earned
my respect as a seasoned consultant was the inclusion of wireless
networking terms and standards. Recently, I have been involved in
several writing projects and need to know a little about everything in
order to provide my readers with peripheral information about a
particular subject. Not only was I able to find information on the
802.11 standard, but the Tullocks’ also included information on the
variants including the 802.11b, 802.11a and 802.15 standards. In fact,
there are nearly twenty pages of wireless protocol and support
information. In addition, subjects such as Direct Sequence Spread
Spectrum (DSSS) is covered and explained as is frequency hopping and
spread spectrum. I certainly did not plan on finding those examples,
diagrams and explanations. I found the same level of detail when I
needed to search for information on public key cryptography. A detailed
description of the different types of keys is provided as is the
components that make up the environment and cross-references to
certificate authorities, encryption, SSL and digital certificates
including X.509 information. There is enough information on PKI that any
reader could not only understand but know enough to be able to identify
components and talk intelligently on the subject.
Another important
aspect of networking that I did not expect to see is the networking
commands and tools. For example, all the TCP/IP commands such as tracert,
ping, route, rcp, rexec and tftp are defined and explained. UNIX
commands are also defined and explained as are Windows 2000, XP and .NET
Server commands. Detailed NET commands for Windows networking are also
described and explained from NET ACCOUNTS to NET VIEW. For the most
part, the commands that received the most attention in this book are
Microsoft networking related, but considerable energy was spent in
defining and explaining commands from other networking operating systems
including UNIX. In addition, information about Apache and Linux is
included as are many pages on NetWare and NDS subjects.
Aside from the many
topics that I did not expect to see in the book, the topics that should
be included in a networking encyclopedia are all there and in great
detail. Just about every hardware element from cables and how to build a
cross-over cable to fiber-optic, fibre channel, hubs switches and even
routing protocols are covered and explained so that the reader can
quickly see the benefits and drawbacks of each technology. It would
almost seem that an entire section was dedicated to subnetting as page
after page is used to explain and detail how and why subnetting is used
and implemented. Many tables are provided to explain the relation
between the mask and the number of subnets and hosts. The novice should
immediately understand the implications of subnetting while the
die-hards will refer to the section as a reference. To summarize,
Microsoft’s newest networking book, entitled Microsoft Encyclopedia of
Networking, second edition has what most of us need in respect to a
reference book. Since other terms are included such as development
applications, platforms, system commands and standards, this book
contains most of the definitions the MCSE, project manager, support
personnel, technical writer or manager needs in order to get a quick
concise understanding of information systems terminology. The price of
this book is very reasonable and actually a good deal if you consider
how long you will use the book. I have gone through countless Windows
and BackOffice books, but this is my first networking replacement in
over five years! The ISBN of this book is 0-7356-1378-8 if you want to
price it from your favorite book vendor.
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