Review of Metro Area Networking (McGraw-Hill Networking Professional) (Paperback)

Like Shepard's other tomes, this book does a great job of addressing the one area of today's public network that's not only a source of contention (pun intended), but also the area that's undergoing the most radical evolution in the early 21st century.

As someone who works for a major Bell company product managing a metro Ethernet product, I can tell you that Shepard examines the activity in this space perfectly. MANs are the hot area right now, as carriers cope with how to address the bottleneck that exists between legacy transport technologies (i.e. DS-n) and the near-infinite capacity of today's long-haul networks (thanks to DWDM). If you're looking for an understanding of how this area is being addressed, this is the right book. And Steve's usual conversational, not-too-technical writing style make it all the better.I strongly recommend this book.It's relevant !!

Product Description
Broadband in the Metro Area has proven to be telecom's one bright spot in 2001 - all the long haul backbone capacity in the world does you no good if you can't move your data through the Metro bottleneck. But service providers are wrestling with all manner of technology choices (SONET? DWDM? Ethernet? The coming 10Gig Ethernet?), and also face the challenge of easily and effectively accessing SANs and VPNs. Quality of service issues are crucial in recruiting and maintaining customers

Steven Shepard lays bare the tricks and traps awaiting service providers in the metro area space, detailing the technological challenges and opportunities in his trademark lucid, humorous prose.

From the Back Cover
GET SHEPARDED TO THE REAL DEAL ON MANs

Promising delivery of backbone-size bandwidth locally, where it's needed, the metro area glows with vast profit potential--and some of the most brazen hype and outrageously confusing counterclaims in communications. Now Steven Shepard puts things in focus. One of tech's top writers, Shepard brings you clarity, breadth, and depth of vision--and a winning wit--to make understanding metro area networking a pleasure.

You must read this book if--
* You intend to explorethe most potentially lucrative area of telecom
*Unlimited bandwidth appeals to you
* You work in communications management or technology but are not thoroughly versed in metro area networking
* It's your job to open the MAN bottleneck and let the bandwidth flow
* Robust recovery, ease of local routing, and features such as QoS (Quality of Service), OSS (Operations Support Systems), and MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) could be useful bottleneck-breakers
* Orders of magnitude increases in bandwidth on a given strand of fiber are desirable
* The question of which technologies are most likely to succeed in MANs falls into your need-to-know category

A roadmap to Sonet, DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing), Fibre Channel, InfiniBand, 10 Gb Ethernet, Bluetooth, and other technologies in the MAN would be a valuable commodity
* Knowing how VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) and SANs (Storage Area Networks) fit into Metro Area Networks sounds rewarding
* The words dynamic routing, bandwidth increase, and packet addressing send shivers down your spine
* You have a stake in business, and your business has a stake in the Internet
* Investing in businessescrucial to the future of the Internet makes your wallet pocket tingle

Metro Area Networks are going to be major telecom profit centers for years to come.If you are a networking professional--an investor or a manager--you must absorb this cutting edge insight into MANs today--and tomorrow.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Metro Area Networking (McGraw-Hill Networking Professional) (Paperback)

Review of Metro Area Networking (McGraw-Hill Networking Professional) (Paperback)

Like Shepard's other tomes, this book does a great job of addressing the one area of today's public network that's not only a source of contention (pun intended), but also the area that's undergoing the most radical evolution in the early 21st century.

As someone who works for a major Bell company product managing a metro Ethernet product, I can tell you that Shepard examines the activity in this space perfectly. MANs are the hot area right now, as carriers cope with how to address the bottleneck that exists between legacy transport technologies (i.e. DS-n) and the near-infinite capacity of today's long-haul networks (thanks to DWDM). If you're looking for an understanding of how this area is being addressed, this is the right book. And Steve's usual conversational, not-too-technical writing style make it all the better.I strongly recommend this book.It's relevant !!

Product Description
Broadband in the Metro Area has proven to be telecom's one bright spot in 2001 - all the long haul backbone capacity in the world does you no good if you can't move your data through the Metro bottleneck. But service providers are wrestling with all manner of technology choices (SONET? DWDM? Ethernet? The coming 10Gig Ethernet?), and also face the challenge of easily and effectively accessing SANs and VPNs. Quality of service issues are crucial in recruiting and maintaining customers

Steven Shepard lays bare the tricks and traps awaiting service providers in the metro area space, detailing the technological challenges and opportunities in his trademark lucid, humorous prose.

From the Back Cover
GET SHEPARDED TO THE REAL DEAL ON MANs

Promising delivery of backbone-size bandwidth locally, where it's needed, the metro area glows with vast profit potential--and some of the most brazen hype and outrageously confusing counterclaims in communications. Now Steven Shepard puts things in focus. One of tech's top writers, Shepard brings you clarity, breadth, and depth of vision--and a winning wit--to make understanding metro area networking a pleasure.

You must read this book if--
* You intend to explorethe most potentially lucrative area of telecom
*Unlimited bandwidth appeals to you
* You work in communications management or technology but are not thoroughly versed in metro area networking
* It's your job to open the MAN bottleneck and let the bandwidth flow
* Robust recovery, ease of local routing, and features such as QoS (Quality of Service), OSS (Operations Support Systems), and MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) could be useful bottleneck-breakers
* Orders of magnitude increases in bandwidth on a given strand of fiber are desirable
* The question of which technologies are most likely to succeed in MANs falls into your need-to-know category

A roadmap to Sonet, DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing), Fibre Channel, InfiniBand, 10 Gb Ethernet, Bluetooth, and other technologies in the MAN would be a valuable commodity
* Knowing how VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) and SANs (Storage Area Networks) fit into Metro Area Networks sounds rewarding
* The words dynamic routing, bandwidth increase, and packet addressing send shivers down your spine
* You have a stake in business, and your business has a stake in the Internet
* Investing in businessescrucial to the future of the Internet makes your wallet pocket tingle

Metro Area Networks are going to be major telecom profit centers for years to come.If you are a networking professional--an investor or a manager--you must absorb this cutting edge insight into MANs today--and tomorrow.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Metro Area Networking (McGraw-Hill Networking Professional) (Paperback)

Review of PC Magazine Wireless Solutions (Paperback)

The target reader seems to be a Win-XP user with a D-Link DI-624, who does not really want to learn much.If that is you, then this book may be fine for you.If you only want to run the wizards & menus & little else, great.I happen to use Win-XP on some machines, and have a D-Link DI-624 on one.But I actually was hoping to learn more, and this book disappointed me.I'm taking it back to Barnes & Noble.
The authors use acronyms(initials) but usually make you go to the index to find out what the initials stand for.Seldom is there an explanation of what it really means.Sometimes the acronyms/initials are not defined, and at least once, the initials were defined two ways at two points in the book (see MAC as medium access control on page 90 and media access control on page 123 & the index).
What I really disliked is the total omission of Linux, a bunch of the technologies & components involved in wireless, and a good explanation of the basics.This book omits way to much for me.The authors apparantly think readers do not need to understand wireless technology basics.I'm not looking for wireless network certification or employment, just good basic understanding and this book doesn't have it.It does have some good material for the newbie, and is not overly verbose, so 3 stars.

Product Description
Wireless is freedom. Wireless is now. And who better than PC Magazine to help you break free?

Wireless is more than cell phones. It's Web surfing from your deck, or tuning up your Xbox? to take on opponents on the opposite coast. But whatever wireless is, it isn't simple--or it wasn't, until these two guys made it so. Here's the straight scoop on setup, security, trouble-shooting, wireless capabilities, and a whole lot more. Plenty of books will tell you how to build a wireless network, but only this one offers proven solutions from PC Magazine.

No strings attached! Here's how to
* Share printers, files, Internet connections and more--all without wires
* Wirelessly connect your video, audio, and game consoles
* Connect and control wireless "smart home" devices
* Guard your Wi-Fi network against intruders withWEP and WPA encryption
* Surf from anywhere in your home or office
* Untether your employees for greater creativity and productivity
* Take your wireless world on the road
* Understand wireless standards and protocols
* Learn how to choose the right wireless equipment


A Taste of Honey

A honeypot litters the airwaves with simulated access points, inviting intruders to take advantage of the network but. . . offering them no-where to go. Instead of trying to hide your real AP. . . you put it out with fake APs, hiding (it) by giving the intruder too much to do.
-- From Chapter 8

From the Back Cover
Wireless is freedom. Wireless is now. And who better than PC Magazine to help you break free?

Wireless is more than cell phones. It's Web surfing from your deck, or tuning up your Xbox® to take on opponents on the opposite coast. But whatever wireless is, it isn't simple-or it wasn't, until these two guys made it so. Here's the straight scoop on setup, security, trouble-shooting, wireless capabilities, and a whole lot more. Plenty of books will tell you how to build a wireless network, but only this one offers proven solutions from PC Magazine.

No strings attached! Here's how to

• Share printers, files, Internet connections and more-all without wires
• Wirelessly connect your video, audio, and game consoles
• Connect and control wireless "smart home" devices
• Guard your Wi-Fi network against intruders withWEP and WPA encryption
• Surf from anywhere in your home or office
• Untether your employees for greater creativity and productivity
• Take your wireless world on the road
• Understand wireless standards and protocols
• Learn how to choose the right wireless equipment

A Taste of Honey

A honeypot litters the airwaves with simulated access points, inviting intruders to take advantage of the network but. . . offering them no-where to go. Instead of trying to hide your real AP. . . you put it out with fake APs, hiding (it) by giving the intruder too much to do.
- From Chapter 8

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Review of Managing NFS and NIS (Paperback)

Hello, My name is Mike Eisler, and I am one of the
co-authors of Managing NFS and NIS, Second Edition.
I'm writing this note to offer additional information
to potential readers.

At the time I submitted this note, most of the
customer reviews for this book referred to the first edition.
One of the reviews states that the book is focused on NFS
version 2 over UDP and the old style automounter.
Actually, you'll find the second edition of our book
is more modern. New topics in the second edition
include NFS version 3, NFS over TCP, modern autofs-based
automounters, Kerberos V5 authentication for NFS, NFS Access
Control Lists (ACLs), and client side fail over.

Another difference is that first edition of this book
used SunOS 4.x as a reference for examples. The second
edition uses Solaris 8.

The second edition provides information you won't find
in NFS product documentation, such as using tools like ethereal
to debug NFS problems. This book will give you the benefit of
insights from people who probably wrote some of the code for
your clients and servers. You may find (and I hope) that
it will save you the trouble reporting a problem to
your vendor's customer support line.

Thank you for considering our book.



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