Summary:
This authoritative guide is a great tool for beginning network administrators, covering basic terminology, router and switch fundamentals, and explanations of more advanced configuration concepts and procedures.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Why Use This Book?

Learning about the market leader

Using a . . .For Dummies reference

Using This Book

Part I: Networking Basics

Part II: Network Operations

Part III: Cisco Networking

Part IV: Managing a Cisco Network

Part V: LANs and WANs

Part VI: The Part of Tens

Part VII: Appendixes

Icons Used in This Book

Feedback

Part I: Networking Basics

Chapter 1: Networking No Longer Means Passing Out Your Business Card

Hardware, Software, and the Magic

Stringing along with the cable

Workstations and nodes

Starting at the Beginning

Building Networks at Home and Away

Keeping it local

Taking it wide

Please Accept My Topologies

Riding the bus

Won't you wear my ring around your net?

I want to see stars!

Mixed topologies

Applying LAN Technologies

Working with an Ethernet network

Ring around the token ring network

FDDI is a double-ring ceremony

Chapter 2: The ISO OSI and Other Weird Groups of Letters

OSI: The Supermodel of Networking

Betting on the lucky 7

A model of efficiency

Five reasons a layered model is used

Down one side and up the other

First, the Hard Stuff

Getting physical

A bridge over troubled layers

Routing over the internetwork

Transport me to the gateway

And Now for the Soft Stuff

Listing the Functions of Layer 2

Connecting on the LLC sublayer

Communicating on the MAC sublayer

Controlling access to the network

Segmenting a network for fun and profit

Following the Protocol Rules

Ain't it suite?

Network protocols

Transport protocols

Application protocols

How TCP/IP stacks up

Chapter 3: Putting the Network Together

Sharing and Sharing Alike

Understanding Network Politics

Hello, I'll be your server

Maxing out on network workstations

Building up peer-to-peer relationships

You can never be too thin, be too rich, or have too many clients

Gilster's Law of Network Cost Estimation

Dealing with Security Issues

Who's the peer-to-peer network's gatekeeper?

Providing security on server-based networks

Is It a LAN or a WAN, Man?

Hardware, Software, and Other Doo-Dads

The hard parts of networking

Stringing it all together

Routers, bridges, and hubs! Oh my!

Connecting to the network with a NIC

Operating Systems of the Network Kind

Chapter 4: Network Media: A Primer

The Fascinating World of Cables

The big three of cabling

The technical stuff about cables

Coaxial Cables through Thick and Thin

What's this 10Base stuff?

Does this cable make me look fat?

The thinner side of things

The Twisted Pair

Unshielded is not unheralded

Leading a shielded life

You Need Your Fiber

The Ethernet Cable Standards

A Word about Wireless Networks

The technical stuff about wireless networks

How a wireless LAN works

Getting Some Backbone (And Segments)

Part II: Network Operations

Chapter 5: Transporting Data: TCP/IP, Datagrams, Packets, and Frames

How Suite It Is

Stacking up the TCP/IP protocols

Applying the application protocols

Moving Packets and Datagrams

Controlling the transmission

Socketing it to me

Connecting ways

Making a three-way handshake

Checking for errors and closing the window

Staying connected

Getting noticed in all the well-known ports

Formatting the TCP segment

Flying Fast with UDP

Transmitting on the Network Layer

Letting you see some IP

Sending notes with ICMP

Unraveling the Mysterious World of Encapsulation

Chapter 6: Working With Those Weird Numbers

Feeling Ambivalent about Binary Numbers

Assigning power to the places

Turning numbers on a