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Book review: Did I successfully teach myself TCP/IP in 24 hours?

By Cisco Subnet on Tue, 01/27/09 - 4:11pm.
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Back in October we set readers a challenge to learn TCP/IP in 24 hours. We launched a competition to pick two winners who would review the book Teach Yourself TCP/IP in 24 hours - 4th Edition, written by Joe Casad and published by Sams Publishing, part of Pearson Education. Two winners were selected: a sys/admin with a few years experience, and a complete TCP/IP novice.

The winners are Dan Boughton, a security consultant and systems engineer for a value-added reseller in Grand Rapids, Mich. who has worked in the computer industry for some 16 years, and Brandon Myers, an intern with Teen Mania Ministries in Garden Valley, Texas. Read on to find out whether they learned TCP/IP in 24 hours. (Listen to a podcast interview with the book's author [3:20].)

Review from Dan Boughton, the sys/admin

Like many, I acquired my technical knowledge through a variety of methods – attending formal or “official” training classes, independent research, self-study, and hands-on “figure it out” in the course of working on a system (i.e., use a search engine to describe the problem you’re facing and look for solutions),  As such, most of these methods can leave you learning pretty much just what you need to know to make something work; once you’re done you rarely have time to go back and read about the foundations, fundamentals and complete  knowledge of all related components. 

I consider myself to be fairly proficient with TCP/IP but I had never completed a formal study of TCP/IP.  So it was with great interest and enthusiasm that I asked to review the book from the point of view of a SysAdmin who already has a working knowledge and networking experience utilizing the protocols and tools. 

The book is laid out in a logical fashion, building upon concepts presented in earlier chapters (oops, they’re referred to as “hours”). Each section has an introduction to present the material that will be covered, and finishes with a summary of information presented, some Q&A, and definitions of terms presented within the hour. 

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The Cisco Subnet blog is written by Network World managing editor Jim Duffy and is the official blog of Network World's Cisco Subnet community. The Cisco Subnet site is managed by Online Community Editor Julie Bort. Cisco Subnet is the independent voice of Cisco customers and is your gateway to daily Cisco news, blogs, opinion, books, prize giveaways and more. Visit the Cisco Subnet home page daily and while you are there, subscribe to the Cisco Alert e-mail newsletter, which includes news and views generated by the Cisco Subnet community as well as Cisco-related stories on Network World and elsewhere on the Web.