Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!chinacat!chip
From: chip@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Chip Rosenthal)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans
Subject: Re: TCP/IP and X.25 Books
Message-ID: <1395@chinacat.Unicom.COM>
Date: 12 Jul 90 23:56:15 GMT
References: <2397@mindlink.UUCP>
Organization: Unicom Systems Development, Austin, TX
Lines: 44

In article <2397@mindlink.UUCP> a1059@mindlink.UUCP (Tim Roy) writes:
>Could anyone recommend any books that deal with TCP/IP and X.25
>protocols.  Books that are general in nature and ones that deal with specific
>implementation details are needed.

For X.25, an extremely good overview is:

	X.25:  The PSN Connection
	Hewlett Packard P/N 5958-3402

It can be ordered from HP's direct marketing department at 800-538-8787
for $30.  The book is written so you can skip the detailed sections to
get an overview of X.25 works.  If you read the entire chapter, you'll
get into the various formats and fields and bits.  The book is a bit dated
(1985), but then again so is X.25.  I got a good chuckle out of the survey
of modem technology in the introduction.

For TCP/IP, the classic is Comer's book |Internetworking with TCP/IP|
printed by Prentice-Hall.

Another book, which just focuses upon the TCP/IP protocol standards is:

	Handbook of Computer-Communications Standards, Volume 3
	William Stallings
	Howard W. Sams & Company, 1987

This book has a chapter dedicated to each of the most widely use portions
of the DARPA Internet Protocol Suite:  Internet Protocol, Transmission
Control Protocol, File Transfer Protocol, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol,
and TELNET.  This one costs $35.  It's a very concise book.  It's the
first thing I read on TCP/IP protocols, and I feel I walked away with a
reasonable grasp of the basics.

Of course, if you want to get down and dirty, there are always the specs.
The CCITT X.25 recommendations can be purchased from places like Omnicom,
but they are very expensive.  Any good engineering library should have
these.  The TCP/IP specs, on the other hand, are documented in the Internet
Request for Comments, and you can get those for free.  A mail message to
"service@nic.ddn.mil" with a subject of "HELP" will tell you how.

-- 
Chip Rosenthal                            |  You aren't some icon carved out
chip@chinacat.Unicom.COM                  |  of soap, sent down here to clean
Unicom Systems Development, 512-482-8260  |  up my reputation.  -John Hiatt