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Networking Explained, by Michael A. Gallo and William M. Hancock, is a well-written and authoritative book on the lower half of the network stack. It is also a book slightly marred by an indiscreet excess of TCP-centricity.
Gallo and Hancock, both Ph.D.’s and both accomplished in real-world applications of networking, have laid out Networking Explained in catechismic format. Topics are introduced every few paragraphs by a question, often stated humorously as if by an impertinent college student. Gallo is an associate professor at Florida Institute of Technology, which might explain the authors' chosen literary device. It's a device that might easily have grown tedious if handled carelessly, but in this volume it possesses a ring of authenticity.
The book's stated goal is to cover the first three layers of the OSI stack. The presentation is pleasingly rich in breadth and in detail. Gallo and Hancock strive for balance. To this end, they optimize for detail while compromising somewhat on breadth by focusing on the TCP/IP protocol.
Networking Explained starts from the bottom up. The basic concepts of networking, down to cards and cables (which even the high-level software developer must know to grasp network behavior), the bit movement in data link protocols, and the standards for the physical and link layers of the OSI stack, are treated excellently. Ethernet, Token Ring, ATM, Frame Relay, SMDS, FDDI, and ISDN all have their own chapters.
As we reach the third layer of the OSI stack, TCP/IP is the only network protocol described in any detail. Both the current IPv4 and the coming IPv6 are addressed. (Readers desiring a book about TCP/IP alone should see TCP/IP reviewed elsewhere on the ERCB.) LANs and WANs are also described.
A somewhat rushed chapter on network security closes the main text. The checklists for administrators, which they provide, will point to avenues of continuing study for the reader. Brief appendices follow the main text, along with an excellent glossary and, hallelujah in this day of rush-to-press, something resembling an adequate bibliography.
Minor faults that can be pointed out are more errors of omission than commission. For instance, the book examines MAC addresses in depth but leaves the impression that MAC addresses are invariably fixed by the vendor; MAC addresses can sometimes be configured onsite using firmware tools.
My only disappointment with Networking Explained is a missed opportunity to tie up for the reader the relation of TCP/IP to the other most successful, most similar computer networking protocols, SNA and DECNET. The authors steer close to achieving this pedagogic synthesis, then veer off the road into a ditch.
The technoliterary road smash occurs in Chapter Two, "Network Topologies, Architecture, and the OSI Model," in sections 33 and 34. In 33, Gallo and Hancock mention various network architectures such as SNA and DNA, in conjunction with the OSI model. 34 is introduced by the question, "I'm familiar with all three. In fact, I've even heard SNA called some disparaging things as a joke by some people. Tell me, what's the big deal with OSI?"
The response is a curt and airy discussion of standards evolution as a prelude to expounding OSI only in conjunction with TCP/IP. Alternatively, the authors could have rounded out their readers' knowledge by stating simply that DECNET, SNA, and OSI represented the computer industry's grasp of networking in their generation; that their models still have tremendous influence on all networking; and that DECNET and SNA have possessed for decades critical features that TCP/IP only acquires when IPv6 is adopted, such as class-of-service and encryption support at the protocol layer.
Even Homer nods. Overall, Networking Explained is a pleasant and satisfying introduction to networking applicable to a broad range of technical readers. I wouldn't go so far as the backcover blurbs, however, and recommend it to nontechnical professionals, due to that same richness of detail that makes this book a good technical read.
-- Jack Woehr
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