This all-encompassing book / CD-ROM are filled with thousands of explanations and analyses of core and cutting-edge networking and telecommunications topics from Abilene to QoS to ZAWS. Updated to include coverage of all the latest technologies including Cisco, Microsoft, Nortel Networks, 3COM, and more.

Extensive cross-referencing throughout helps you understand the relationship among the technologies. This is a must-have resource for every network professional. The book also includes a guide to the Internet engineering documents.

Detailed coverage of ASP (Application Service Provider) Bluetooth Cryptography Distributed Computer Networks Embedded Systems Hacking and Hackers InfiniBand Java Linux Load Balancing Mobile Computing NAS (Network Attached Storage) Network Processors Optical Networks Outsourcing PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) QoS (Quality of Service) SAN (Storage Area Network) Switching Fabrics Transaction Processing UNIX Webcasting XML.

The CD-ROM includes complete, fully searchable version of the book with thousands of hyperlinks to related topics in the book External hyperlinks to author-selected Web sites for further information Illustrations of complex networking topics.

I haven't found any other book like this and is by far the best reference I could find about networks.

FinancialNeeds.com

I picked this volume up at TechEd 2001. The competition with other books in this category brought the race down to "McGraw-Hill's Encyclopedia of Networking & Telecommunications" winning by one length over the "Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking".
Tom Sheldon provided the most well-grounded and well-rounded information to fulfill the title of an "encyclopedia of networking" compared to Mitch Tulloch's very good but more Microsofted (I think microsoft as a verb can now come into play) approach to the subject and its fields.
Sheldon's book contains a greater variety of entries and their corresponding information (i.e. terms/acronyms like "NSA" & "PKI") instead of a namebrand focused presentation. I would like to see a "Special Characters" index category like Tulloch's book has, but this is not as necessary when using the search capability of the book's CD edition (which is included and loaded with hyperlinks to outside information sources).
I highly recommend Tom Sheldon's book. It's useful, it's layout and design is easy on the eyes, and I'm glad to have it at my desk (when I'm able to return it there after tracking down who last borrowed it).

Extraordinary! Tom Sheldon again raised the bar with his latest edition of the Encyclopedia of Networking and Telecommunications. The Encyclopedia of Networking and Telecommunications is the gold standard by which all other MIS/IT reference books must measure up to. Besides having an edition at work and home, I have the full text on my laptop via the CD-ROM. The CD-ROM has over 5,000 URLs. The CD-ROM and URLs alone are worth the book's price. After 19 years in the MIS/IT industry, I have yet to find a comparable resource or reference book.

Jay Riccitelli
Senior Manager
Computer Sciences Corp.

Do not wish to use too many words. I can just say that this book was of great help to me. Though dabbling with PHP, I learnt a lot from the book, since it has dealt with lot of basic knowledge of databases. Was just the right one for a student like me who had very little knowledge of the databases. Kudos to the authors!!

I just got a copy of this book last week, and this was exactly the content that i was in search of - Getting upto speed with PHP and databases, to build robust database driven web applications.
Infact, this book manages to provide solutions to the large number of problems that newbie PHP programmers post on sites like phpbeginners.com,php.net and phpbuilder.
The approach to presenting a database agnostic solution, through the use of the most recommended PEAR::DB abstraction layer (i even found documentation about PEAR::DB, that i had spent ages figuring out for myself) sets this book in a class of its own.
The typos and grammar stand out at places, but who cares when you have gotten what you wanted.
I highly recommend this book to the BEGINNING/NEWBIE PHP Programmer.

This book aims to teach the skills necessary to develop any size web application with PHP, backed by a database. They start off with the now de facto PHP introduction and then jump head first into database fundamentals. Nearly half of this book is devoted to teaching database layout, design, and use. This is long over due in the PHP community. Too many PHP developers are creating database enabled applications that have absolutely no prior experience with databases! This book covers everything from elementary topics, such as table creation, selects, inserts, and deletes, to advanced database usage with joins, stored procedures, triggers, and cursors. While they did cover indexing, I feel that it was a bit lacking and could have used a more in depth exploration.

One pleasant surprise was that no one particular database is favored; in fact use of the database abstraction layer in PEAR is encouraged for code portability. I am encouraged by the use of PEAR in this book, as it can only help to bring the community together in its use and promote PEAR as a standard of sorts. The PEAR database abstraction layer is picked apart so that you may understand exactly how it works and be that much more efficient with using it.

At the end of this book, it offers two chapters dedicated to designing and implementing applications using a native XML database. The first of the two chapters concentrates on the fundamentals of native XML databases; what they are and how they work. The second chapter then presents a case study using Xindice.

I found this book to be very thorough and well put together. Cheers to Wrox for another fine book!

I read this book awile back during a vacation and couldn't put it down. I only read no-fiction books and this one was the best I'd ever read. I've never felt compelled to review a book before, but his one was worth it. It was very well written, informative as well as inspirational. It made me want to go work at Ideo. Well worth your time.

Thanks Tom! We're just starting a new technology business and we're wanting and needing to create the sort of culture that you have at Ideo. Our industry is dynamic, so if we're not dynamic then we will not succeed. For us that means innovate - deliver true value to our customers - learn - innovate - deliver more value to our customers, in a continuous cycle. You have given us some practical ideas about how we can ingrain innovation into our culture as we grow. Thanks.

When I say "Photographer's Bible" it is not just a catchy title for this review, I believe it is truly "The Book". The sacred book doesn't have pictures, right?, well this one also have none, it treasures the soul and thoughts of some of the most important and famous photographers of the XX century. A good photography book about a famous photographer is easy to find, we all know the images from many of them, but what do they think about life and this hard profession, I just found it on this must-have masterpiece.

When I say "Photographer's Bible" it is not just a catchy title for this review, I believe it is truly "The Book". The sacred book doesn't have pictures, right?, well this one also have none, it treasures the soul and thoughts of some of the most important and famous photographers of the XX century. A good photography book about a famous photographer is easy to find, we all know the images from many of them, but what do they think about life and this hard profession, I just found it on this must-have masterpiece.

This is an excellent college level text.I particularly like the detailed "real world" drafting problems for the students. Also it has a very good apppendix. It is comprehensive enough that we use it in three different courses here at Vincennes University.

I have had this book in my drafting library for some time now. I am always using it and recommending it. The book is laid out so that you can go from beginning drafting up through advanced. It not only says what the standards are, but walks you through drafting technology so that you understand why they are like they are. I believe that anyone that is going to be doing drafting should have this in their library.

This is a very good, highly readable history of James J. Hill, his family and his numerous successful business adventures, and the Great Northern Railway in particular.

Of the four major biographies of James J. Hill, this one is the best and most detailed. If it has a fault, it is that it is too detailed for many readers. But for those interested in the financial history of the Great Northern Railway and the personal history of its builder, this is the classic.

Martin had full access to the James J. Hill papers, now open to the public. Pyle's 1917 biography was also based on those papers, but Pyle was an employee of Hill's and tried to whitewash the truth, which actually made Hill look worse than he was. Holbrook's brief bio was based mainly on Pyle and rumor. Malone's 1996 book on Hill is to Martin's what Holbrook's was to Pyle's--a good intro but not as detailed as Martin's.

This book is loaded with technical information for the dratsman and designer. A must have for anyone who is in the mechanical technology field.

This text was the basic drafting manual that I used during my technical education; its use did not end with school, however, since I refer to it frequently in my occupation. It tells everything that needs to be explained and described in the general drawing problems that might be encountered in industrial practice. It contains excellent descriptions and illustrations for: Drawing Threads, Fasteners & Springs Geometric Constructions Clear, Concise instructions in using Drafting Instruments, (before the time of Computer Aided Drafting & Desing, in any case). An Excellent overview of the Industrial Design & Development Process, (which I wish my supervisors would read). Sectional Drawing. This book is to drafting what Machinery's Handbook, of the Industrial Press, is to the metal working industries. There are a variety of Drafting Textbooks available, but none are incrementally better, let alone drasticaly better.

Collaboratively researched, compiled, and edited by academicians and historians Frederick M. Biggs, Thomas D. Hill, Paul E. Szarmach and E. Gordon Whatley, with the assistance of Deborah A. Oosterhouse, Sources Of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture is the first volume of a series of scholarly examinations of Anglo-Saxon literary culture. This is an extensive, comprehensive, scholarly, bibliographical enriched reference that surveys and analyses the archaic literary sources provided by and concerning the Abbo of Fleury, the Abbo of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, and the Acta Sanctorum in minute, painstaking detail. Enhanced with an informative Foreword by Paul E. Szarmach, an Introduction by Thomas D. Hill, an invaluable "Guide For Readers" by Frederick M. Biggs, as well as an extensive, sixty-one page Bibliography, Sources Of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture is a seminal and core addition to academic Anglo-Saxon Literature and European History reference collections.

This book was very interesting and suspenseful. It takes you right along, so that you feel involved. I live in Phoenix and some of the action took place in familiar settings. The way some philanthropic organizations can front for illeagle money laundering was a revelation to me. A well written book. Good reading.

After vacationing in Phoenix the places were described just as I had seen them, except for all the action. I have missed several dinners and hours of sleep over this book. I simply could not put it down! The size of the type was especially appealing, making it even easier to read. The 'flow' of the book is very good. A couple of times I thought I had a part figured out but soon discovered I was totally wrong. I hope the author writes a lot more. He's like another John Grisham!!!

This book is fast paced and exciting with likable characters. The author draws you in and never lets go. You're left wanting....MORE!

The author put a lot of beautiful art in the book. He also had the writing in the middle of the page so you can read it easily. This a book for kids who love horses. It tells how the horse is frightened at first but then later she has a foal and gets closer to the people who own her.

I'm a college student now, and I first read this book years ago in elementary school. I think it's always going to stick out in my mind as one of those classics that I'll never really outgrow. I recommend it to anyone wanting a good story.

I'm in high school now, and among the thousands of books I consider my favorites, this ranks highly. A children's book it may be called, but if you open up your heart and memories, its story and illustrations (beautiful!!) will stay with you forever.