[techtalk] Re: Computer Books

[Telsa Gwynne]

On Wed, Dec 27, 2000 at 02:10:49PM -0800 or thereabouts, Raven ex Machina wrote:
> Heya --
> 
> Quoth Tesla:
> > "A decent book about networking" which would help me understand the
> > difference between TCP and UDP and why I should care, and how all
> > this stuff relates to my husband's firewall rules. ("Why can't I get
[snip] 
>      For the difference between TCP and UDP and how the protocols work,
> I just finished O'Reilly's "Internet Core Protocols".  It did a decent
> job of explaining how the TCP/IP suite works, but it won't let you know
> how this relates to the firewall rules -- it pretty much stops at layer
> 4 (and some 5) of the OSI model.  They're supposed to be releasing a
> companion volume on application-layer protocols in April.  That should
> explain how http, ftp, ntp, etc. work, port mapping, things like that. 
> I'm waiting impatiently for it.

Oh, lovely. Thanks a lot!

> > what approaches we like. Although the 1000-page book on Debian with
> > three useless pages on apt might well piss more than just me off, 
> 
>      Oooh.  The "Debian Linux Unleashed!" book?  I had that same
> problem with that one.  $40 and I've yet to find a useful answer in it

That sounds like it. Since you got it so fast, I'll assume it's not just
me and I'll fill in the gaps. My non-recommendation is "Debian GNU/Linux 
2.1 Unleashed", published by Sams. It gets a nice review on 
http://www.debian.org/distrib/books but I can't say I agree with that
review. One redeeming feature at the time was the CD -- and that's now
very out of date. :( For apt, it really does have a whole three pages.
I did not find a lot that seemed Debian-specific in it as a whole: 
flipping through, I am not finding much about the /etc/rc.x structure, 
for example, and that's commonly cited as something that differs between
distros.

Telsa