I was interested in how Internet core and application protocols work. Found a positive review of this book in amazon.co.uk and decided to give it a try.
After reading Part 1: Core TCP/IP protocols, I was disappointed. I felt I have wasted my time for almost nothing. The book does not go into enough detail to explain protocol internals and when it tries to do so, it fails to be complete. When presenting packet formats (and presenting their diagrams) authors do not describe every field with just enough details for the reader to understand its purpose and usage. For readers who do not care about details but only want to see the big picture, the book fails to be consistent. It does not emphasize enough the two most important protocols TCP and IP, giving them the same "priority" as network interfaces and routing protocols. While the later may be of big importance to network administrators, the former are much more important to applications and systems programmers.
I do not know if other parts of this book are any better - I could not find any justification to continue to read it after Part 1. The next book I took, "Internet Core Protocols: The Definitive Guide" by Eric Hall, while having its own shortcomings (relatively small), was much better at explaining the inners and usage of Internet core protocols.

I was interested in how Internet core and application protocols work. Found a positive review of this book in amazon.co.uk and decided to give it a try.
After reading Part 1: Core TCP/IP protocols, I was disappointed. I felt I have wasted my time for almost nothing. The book does not go into enough detail to explain protocol internals and when it tries to do so, it fails to be complete. When presenting packet formats (and presenting their diagrams) authors do not describe every field with just enough details for the reader to understand its purpose and usage. For readers who do not care about details but only want to see the big picture, the book fails to be consistent. It does not emphasize enough the two most important protocols TCP and IP, giving them the same "priority" as network interfaces and routing protocols. While the later may be of big importance to network administrators, the former are much more important to applications and systems programmers.
I do not know if other parts of this book are any better - I could not find any justification to continue to read it after Part 1. The next book I took, "Internet Core Protocols: The Definitive Guide" by Eric Hall, while having its own shortcomings (relatively small), was much better at explaining the inners and usage of Internet core protocols.