The TCP/IP Guide -- Features






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Features

The TCP/IP Guide is the culmination of over 4,000 hours of organization, writing, illustration and editing effort. All this work has been dedicated to one purpose: providing you with a Guide that is clear, understandable and easy to read, so you can learn about TCP/IP effectively and enjoyably. The TCP/IP Guide includes numerous features that help it to achieve this goal. I have divided these features into two groups: those associated with the Guide's material and structure, and those related to its presentation and use.

The following are the most important content-related features of The TCP/IP Guide (some apply only to the electronic edition, not the print book):

Extensive Coverage: The TCP/IP Guide is over 1,600 pages in length, and covers dozens of different TCP/IP protocols and technologies. It includes far more details on key TCP/IP protocols than most comparable general resources.
User-Selectable Detail: Most of the sections of The TCP/IP Guide include both an overview topic that provides a high-level look at a protocol or concept, and a fully-detailed section for those who want to delve into the subject more deeply. This allows you to choose the level of detail you require. References are also provided to the defining standards for each protocol, if you want to read even more information.
Informative "Key Concept" Summaries: The TCP/IP Guide includes hundreds of "key concepts" summary paragraphs, which help you quickly understand the critical concepts in understanding TCP/IP. They are also useful for reviewing material you have previously studied.
Notes, Background and Related Information Inserts: Where appropriate, special "inserts" in the text call attention to tangential information, or make specific reference to recommended prerequisite or related information elsewhere in the Guide.
Hierarchical Organization: The TCP/IP Guide is organized using a hierarchical structure, rather than just having dozens of unrelated chapters listed in sequence. This allows you to see at a glance how the various components, concepts and protocols are categorized and how they relate to each other.
Complete Explanations: The TCP/IP Guide endeavors to not only describe the "what" of TCP/IP, but also the "how" and the "why". It anticipates common questions and concerns that someone learning the material might have, identifies potentially confusing concepts, and explains them completely.
High Understandability: Despite including a lot of detail, The TCP/IP Guide has been specifically written to be understandable. It does not assume that you are already a networking expert.
Excellent Readability: The TCP/IP Guide is written in a first-person, casual, friendly style to help prevent you from getting bored as you read it. You will feel more like a friend is explaining how TCP/IP works than a professor is lecturing to you.
Up-To-Date Material: The descriptions in the TCP/IP Guide are up to date, based on changes made to key technologies (including Internet Protocol version 6, IPv6) through the start of 2004.
High-Quality Illustrations: The TCP/IP includes over 300 high-quality, full-color diagrams. Most of these include a caption that allows you to quickly understand them without having to read the entire accompanying text.
Helpful Examples: To help make difficult material easier to understand, most discussions include examples to supplement the regular descriptions of technologies and concepts. Many of these are illustrated.
Tables For Data Presentation: The TCP/IP Guide includes over 300 tables to neatly present large amounts of data, and for other purposes such as exhibiting sample files and output.

These features enhance the presentation and usability of the electronic version of the Guide:

Electronic Distribution: The TCP/IP Guide has been designed from the start for electronic presentation and takes advantage of its many benefits. These include low cost, instant download (when purchasing over the Internet), portability, scalability, hyperlinking, searching and more.
Standard PDF Format: The TCP/IP Guide is distributed in standard PDF format, and can be used with Adobe Acrobat software version 5 or higher, available on virtually all computer platforms.
PDF Bookmark Table of Contents: The TCP/IP Guide uses PDF bookmarks to present its table of contents on the left side of the screen. This allows you to refer to the structure of the Guide at any time while you read the material, and jump to any topic at will.
Hyperlinked Table of Contents, List of Figures and List of Tables: All topics, figures and tables are listed near the front of the TCP/IP Guide and every entry is hyperlinked for your convenience.
Thousands of Cross-Topic Hyperlinks: In addition to the links mentioned just above, there are over 3,000 hyperlinks between topics. This allows you to quickly jump to the place where a concept or technology is defined when you see it used in a related discussion.
High-Speed Full-Text Search: The TCP/IP Guide comes with an electronic text index that lets you instantly find all occurrences of any word or phrase in the document, and jump from one reference to the next. More advanced search options are also available.