The book is technically well written. BUT...it's about as dry as burnt toast. And the author insists on using non-standard phrases like "contention domain" to describe "collision domains". How about writing a book in plain English? This book has useful information, but the author seems to put too much energy into writing in a style that says "Hey, look at me! I'm so smart that I can make even simple concepts sound confusing!". Keep it on your shelf as a reference. You might need to take it out and blow the dust off of it every few months.

Sheesh, half a chapter and it is lights out! Just kidding. The book is very good, but like one other reviewer said, it could be half as thick and still have the same info in it. Alot of reviewing and repeating of stuff already talked about (I guess redundancy is not all that bad). But it is not light reading- very dry writing that is at times tedious to read. But the subject is well covered and gives a good background into the principles of routing and IP.

This is a great book. Mr. Sportack provides his readers with a fluent overview of network engineering as it relates to WAN technology. He breaks his book down into four well organized and well developed sections.

The first section discusses the essance of LAN funtionality. He talks about the OSI model, data, IP addressing, scalibility, growth constraints and resolutions for those constraints.

Then he dedicates several chapters to WANs. He talks about how they communicate and he gives a fantastic overview of WAN protocols that use Circuit, Packet, and Cell switching technologies as well as an indepth sectin on media.

The third section covers the routing protocols. Why? So you can design your routed network and choose the best protocols based on your network needs and the protocols performance benifits and constraints.

The fourth section covers engineering a Network. He discusses topoligies, protocols, and blended systems.

The graphics and style of this book are indicitave of a great communicator. Before I read this book I could confuse anybody I talked to about networking, now I can communicate these complex issues on a more down to earth level. Mr. Sportack should be highly commended for this book.

This is a great book. Mr. Sportack provides his readers with a fluent overview of network engineering as it relates to WAN technology. He breaks his book down into four well organized and well developed sections.

The first section discusses the essance of LAN funtionality. He talks about the OSI model, data, IP addressing, scalibility, growth constraints and resolutions for those constraints.

Then he dedicates several chapters to WANs. He talks about how they communicate and he gives a fantastic overview of WAN protocols that use Circuit, Packet, and Cell switching technologies as well as an indepth sectin on media.

The third section covers the routing protocols. Why? So you can design your routed network and choose the best protocols based on your network needs and the protocols performance benifits and constraints.

The fourth section covers engineering a Network. He discusses topoligies, protocols, and blended systems.

The graphics and style of this book are indicitave of a great communicator. Before I read this book I could confuse anybody I talked to about networking, now I can communicate these complex issues on a more down to earth level. Mr. Sportack should be highly commended for this book.

This book is the definitive introduction to routing in networks using IP. It explains the various transmission technologies, routing protocols, and routed protocols (IPv4, IPv6). After reading this book you feel the need for buying more Cisco books and you'll not have problems with doing so because you already know the basics of IP routing.