This book is the suckiest suck that ever sucked. I've seen some poorly written computer books before, but this one tops them all. Apparently Prentice-Hall was in such a hurry to get this book to the presses that they neglected to assign an editor to clean it up. Half the time reading this book is like listening to your stereotypical Chinaman talk: all the nouns and verbs are there but the 'a's and the 'the's are not. And the illustrations are so poor and simplistic I wonder if the author got a five-year-old to do them.

This book was the textbook for a course I just finished called 'Multiple Networks and WANs' (this was the first time the course was taught and I assure you the teacher will be choosing a new book for the next time around -- she hated it, too.) I was kidding my classmates during the quarter that I thought the author had just sat down with a bunch of computer manuals looking for cool and unusual terms and devices, then writing a few sentences about them. Turns out I wasn't far off. Whilst going through the chapter on internetworking tools, the teacher had us get on the Internet and look for more information about some of the tools listed in the chapter -- netstat, nslookup, traceroute, ping. Several of us noticed that what we were reading on the Internet was word-for-word what was written in the chapter. The author thoroughly plaguerized RFC-1147! No telling how much more of the book was pirated from other authors.

I have seen all manner of computer books from good to bad to hopelessly out-of-date. This is the worst. You would think with a title like "Heterogeneous Internetworking" that this would cover some pretty hairy stuff, but I have seen the same information covered better and with more depth in beginner's guides to networking. If you ever see it in a bookstore, skim through it and be amazed at how simplistic and inane the illustrations are. A particularly profound one occurs on page 100. Picture if you will four little squares labeled R1, R2, R3, and R4 respectively. Lines connect the little squares. The caption: "A typical WAN topology." Wow! I have seen the light!! (And this is one of the more complex illustrations.)

The book is not worth it's price. Authors have not justified the content.Very poor presentation.

I had high hopes for this slim volume. It did not tell. It did not teach. It merely hinted at something. Not a good starting place. One would do better to pick up the Crystal Clarity edition of "Autobiography of a Yogi."

Not a good place to continue ones study or practice either. No real guidance in the journey from here to there. A quick read which was mostly disappointing.

Against some people being allowed near a keyboard. This book is the biggest waste of time I've ever seen. Harry might have been the star at IBM, but frankly, I wouldn't want to be the one working on his code. There is virtually nothing to be learned in this book. Maybe - just maybe - a general overview of some of the options out there, but that's about it. And if you're leanings are towards Java, forget it. This is an IBM/CORBA focused book. Get a life Harry. And stay the hell away from the keyboard!