Introduction to Networking: How the Internet Works by Charles Severance

Introduction to Networking: How the Internet Works Reviews

• 
  Santi

  # 🚀 The book in 3 Sentences:
  
  1. The book discusses the TCP/IP layer model to explain the network, it's an implementation model, provides guidance for those who would build compatible hard/soft, in contraposition to the OSI model which is an abstract model that can be used to understand a wide range of network implementations.
  2. The model is broken down into a Link Layer, all of the engineering to move data to the first router; the Internetwork Protocol Layer, how data is routed across a series of hops to get to any destination, packets might get lost here; the Transport Layer, that compensates for any losses in the previous layers and retransmits data if necessary, also rearranges packets that arrive out of order, also controls the flow with the 'window size'; an optional Secure Transport Layer, which handles encryption/decryption of data and validation of certificates; and the Application Layer that can make use of the network connection with just a few lines of code, focusing only on the problems user want to solve and not worrying about the connection itself.
  3. I think that those looong two sentences sum it up well enough! 😆
  
  # 🎨 Impressions
  
  Amazing book to get started into networking and understand how the internet works. I know some of the technical details of networking but this book helped me tie up all of the concepts together and know how they form the big picture. This book requires none to little previous knowledge and it helps the reader feel much more comfortable with networking logic and terms.
  
  ## 🕵🏼‍♂️ How I Discovered It
  
  Last year I took the Python for Everybody course by Charles Severance as well where he mentioned this free book he wrote. I'm very happy I followed his recommendations and read this book.
  
  ## ❓ Who Should Read It?
  
  Someone curious about how the internet works (I feel like everyone thinks they know, at least I felt like this before, but after reading this book you might feel way more comfortable talking about networking and the internet). Or, also someone who is planning to dive deep into these concepts, as it's my case, and wants an easy-to-understand big picture before getting into the nitty-gritty details.
  
  # ☘️ How the Book Changed Me
  
  How my life/behavior/thoughts/ideas have changed as a result of reading the book.
  
  It got me really interested in networking because this book is simple enough to understand every topic covered, before I always felt frustrated at some point. I'll definitely dive deeper into the subject.
• 
  Toh

  This book is a simple introduction to how the internet works. I read this book in one sitting in around 3 hours so it is really a short but informative read. I decided to give it a go as I am currently working on the "Django for everybody" course created by the author, and always wanted to develop my knowledge on networking.
  
  I really like the logical flow in the way the book's material was presented. It starts with a bit of history about the internet and the challenge with communicating across large distances and across many devices (e.g. the need for telephone operators in the past). Then, it introduces the four-layer TCP/IP model (link, internetwork, transport and application layers), which was used by the internet engineers to decompose the formidable problem of developing the internet into discrete, digestible subproblems. Each of the subsequent 4 chapters then introduces a single layer of the TCP/IP model, emphasising the particular problem that it was designed to (or not to) solve. Finally, the book ends with a very brief discussion of internet security in the chapter on the secure sockets layer (SSL) / transport Layer security (TLS), followed by comparing and contrasting the alternative open systems interconnection (OSI) model with the TCP/IP model.
  
  Another great thing about the book is that there is a quiz at the end of each chapter, which you can do by clicking on the hyperlink provided in the text (
  http://www.net-intro.com/quiz/index.php).
  
  Finally, I found the author's writing to be very clear, and the use of a lot of intuitive metaphors as well as the careful introduction of networking jargons makes it easy to understand his ideas. A great read for anyone who wants to build a basic understanding of internet networking.
• 
  Anthony

  This is a great introduction to networking or a great refresher on networking if you've taken a networking course. The book is written in a balanced technical yet understandable manner. The book demonstrates this by introducing fundamental technical vocabulary and concepts (
  e.g.TCP/IP Model, OSI Model, NAT, DHCP, etc), so that you can reasonably dive into a more advanced networking textbook. At the same time, the author holds off on overwhelming you with technical jargon and details if it's not crucial to the understanding. For example instead of saying that a sending computer is waiting for an "ACK", it's simply worded as the sending computer is waiting for an acknowledgement. I also liked how the content was written in a relatable manner such as how it related routing / routing tables to traveling:"The further you are from your destination, the less you need to
  know the exact details of how to get there. When you are far
  away, all you need to know is how to get “closer” to your destination". "If you were on the train between the two large cities and you
  asked the conductor the exact location of your hotel in the small
  village, the conductor would not know. The conductor only knows
  how to get you closer to your destination, and while you are on
  the long-distance train that is all that matters." Another section that was very relatable was the section about security and how surfing the web via http at a coffee shop is insecure because a malignant person could easily intercept and read the plaintext messages. It's a good reminder why the web is adopting https everywhere. Finally, the book does a good job driving home certain ideas, by reiterating them in the end of chapter summaries and tying them back to concepts in other chapters. In retrospect, some crucial things that I accidentally glossed over were that most of the complexity of the internet is at the edges of the network (i.e. All four layers run in your computer where you run the client application(like a browser)) whereas components closer to the core like routers are less complex (i.e. need to only implement link and network layers) and that packets from layers at the top of the TCP/IP model are encapsulated in the packets of the layers beneath them as they travel hop to hop.
  
  An area that the book can improve on is having higher quality diagrams / illustrations. Additionally, the images weren't working on the kindle edition, so I had to cross reference the images on the pdf version of the book. A particular diagram that I think can be improved is the packet header diagram. Including things like MAC address and IP Address in the link and network header explicitly and visually showing how the packet changes as it travels up and down the tcp/ip model would really show how all the layers interconnected.
  
  Overall I thought this book was great. It's really impressive how the author was able to distill important concepts of networking in only 100 or so pages and kept the technical content easily digestible.
• 
  Giorgi Bazerashvili

  A great overview of how the Internet works. This book is concise, it should not be used as a reference guide to networking for sure, but gives a nice big picture understanding to those people who don't want to delve into the depths of the subject.
  
  I think this book is especially useful for those web developers who don't know much about networking and want to understand how their applications fit in the big picture of a whole global network.
  
  In short, if you want to know how the Internet works in a nutshell, what are the layers that our digital information goes through when we use Internet services, and what are the models that the architecture is based on, read it.
• 
  Aaron

  Excellent introduction to computer networking. It's everything you'd want in an introduction, covering the key ideas and terms without going into too much detail. For myself, I don't do networking professionally, but I have worked in IT for about a decade now. Even with a tech background there's a lot I don't know about networking or only know at an abstract level. So even with that background there were some new things I learned in this book, mostly just by simple, clear illustrations.
  
  For example, if you asked me how does your phone connect the local WiFi, I'd say, "Oh yeah, that's all defined in the IEEE 802.11 standards". And how exactly does that work here? "Magic." Honestly I had no idea how new devices automatically, but it's actually fairly straightforward (at least in principle). Stuff like that. Another is how two computers connecting over the Internet know how much data to send at a time (the window size). Basically they start out sending a small amount of data to see how that goes, then they increase the amount up to the limit they can send reliably. Even email. It's a little embarrassing to admit, but I'd never really thought about how emails works, considering that the person sending the email may not be online at the same time as the recipient. Where does it live in the meantime? How do you know it's sent? How do you retrieve it? All these years it was just magic.
  
  So this book gives you explanations for so much of that magic. And all of it written comfortably for a high school audience (or a tech-savvy middle school reader). Anything you don't understand can safely be skipped over, so don't think you need to read it end to end. The whole idea of the network stack is that each layer is essentially independent of all the others, so it helps to ready chapter 3 before chapter 4, but they're really about different things. Each chapter also has a glossary and short quiz to test yourself on terms and ideas.
  
  It's a five-star gem and I recommend to anyone interested in how the Internet works.
• 
  Sinan Cingöz

  I've decided to read the book while I'm learning Dr.Chuck's Python For Everybody course and I was on the network chapter.
  
  Initially I liked the book, the simplifications was quite easy to understand and to get a grasp on the idea of how network is created and improved over the years. But then I stuck between the specific terms and over simplified expressions of their inner workings. I've had a bit of a hard time understanding, since the writer knows the inner workings quite brilliantly but he only expressed them as simle activities of a human such as walking, going on a vacation, talking etc. I felt the need to look at a regulation or a scheme or a type of technical information regarding computer science and programming to truly grasp the idea told.
  
  I understand the book is aimed for college students maybe even elementary school but as someone who knows nothing about network I find the ideas in the book a bit stretched apart, hence they've become detached from the core idea. The examples and repetitions make the topics uninterested although at the introduction of the idea I find them quite thought provoking.
  
  Overall, it is a suggestible read for anyone since it is not heavy with technical information while teaching you the basics (but only the basics) of what a network is and how it works.
• 
  Derrick Nedzel

  A well written introduction to the engineering of the internet. I found it detailed enough to give a good understanding without being so detailed that I get lost. For me this was great review of networking and internet issues that I had forgotten about. I wasn’t a network administrator, but I spent years working with networked and internet based software products, this refreshed my memory on the basics of how apps work over the internet.
• 
  Peter Perhac

  The quizzes were a waste of paper and just fattened the thin book. First half was really great. Then it became very repetitive. Yet overall I think this book deserves 4 stars for it was so very well done. The first fifty pages I read like you would a real page turner. Beautiful introduction to how the internet works
• 
  Maria A

  A great book to start learning the ways in which networking happens. Previous knowledge of the subject is not required, but it would be advisable as there are one or two complex chapters that are time-consuming for the knowledge to be comprehended. To understand this book makes the journey through IT easier. 5 stars!
• 
  Pedro Duarte Medeiros

  Very good introduction of how networks and Internet work
  
  This is a very useful book for anyone who wants a concise and sound introduction to computer networks and the Internet. The author is very good at explaining the main ideas behind the operation of Internet without introducing details that could obscure the big picture.
• 
  Luke Gruber

  Intro books are my favorite. They’re easy to understand and at a basic level are very interesting. A new topic always is captivating.
  
  This book covers at a very high level how the internet works. How do we send/receive information, how it’s safe. It also covers a little history so you can see the advances in the internet and how it’s had to adapt!
• 
  Muralidhar Kurakula

  Nice introduction of network in a concise manner.
  
  Nice introduction of network in a concise manner. Love the style of narration and step by step approach of each layer of networking.
• 
  Randy Wressell

  Fantastic read.
  
  This book is a great introduction to modern computing and specifically networking. I have recommended it to several people as an approachable text for them to further their knowledge.
• 
  Piyush Arora

  Great Intro but Kindle missing Diagrams
  
  Easy to read and quite informative for a beginner. Packs knowledge in a friendly manner, ie, not dense. Pictures are missing from Kindle version. Ok since I got this book heavily discounted otherwise I would’ve been really upset!
• 
  Michael

  How the Internet Works
  
  Excellent summary of networking technology. Gives just the right amount of detail to de-mystify internet technology without going to the level of detail that would lose the average person. I loved it!
• 
  Rohit Roy

  This book can provide a great introduction to networking
  Anyone can get a proper concept of how the internet was built and is working. I think the best feature of this book is its simple language. The most recommended book if you are a beginner.
• 
  Erica |

  Clear and easy to understand introduction to how the internet works.
• 
  Leland William

  A breezy introduction to Networking concepts. Would recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning how this big ol' system of tubes works.
• 
  Md. Jamal Uddin

  Well organized and description book about IT & Networking for beginners.
• 
  Jose Maria landa

  Great overview on networks
  
  Easy read. Very nice.
  
  The author communicates complex ideas in a simple way. Overall, a great book everyone should read.
• 
  Diogo Ferreira

  You will get a reality check when you read this book. Even now I have finished this book I m mesmerized how the routers communicate with each other.