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From: resnick@cogsci.uiuc.edu (Pete Resnick)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.comm
Subject: Re: where can I learn more?
Message-ID: <1990Oct22.030932.2873@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 22 Oct 90 03:09:32 GMT
References: <13331@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> <70200002@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
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Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
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gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu writes:

>To get highly technical information on ARPAnet networking, you could
>try looking at the ARPANET RFC's (Requests for Comments).  They are
>stored on NIC computers (Network Information Centers) throughout the
>internet.  To access a NIC, type "telnet sri-nic.arpa".  (telnet
>192.67.67.20).

>The best thing to do would be to use the ftp command to retrieve an
>index of the RFC's.  There are over 1000 RFC's, but only about the
>last 100 of them are relevant.  Recently, a "hitchhiker's guide to the
>internet" RFC was written -- this might be a good place to start
>learning.

Blech! Ptew!

Now I know that Mr Gillies, in his great and infinite wisdom, thinks
that one should go right to the source. I must, however, recommend
against his recommendation. RFC's are nice if you need really specific
information and protocols specifications on a certain topic, they
are really a pain to walk through as an introduction to this stuff.
I would tend to avoid them.

A book which I think has a really good introduction to networking
and the like is Douglas Comer's *Internetworking with TCP/IP*. It
will introduce you to all of the terms you asked about and will
make you sound like you know just gobs when you are done with it.
:-)

Good luck.
pr
--
Pete Resnick             (...so what is a mojo, and why would one be rising?)
Graduate assistant - Philosophy Department, Gregory Hall, UIUC
System manager - Cognitive Science Group, Beckman Institute, UIUC
Internet/ARPAnet/EDUnet  : resnick@cogsci.uiuc.edu
BITNET (if no other way) : FREE0285@UIUCVMD