Preface
The purpose of the preface is to tell you why you're here, reading this book. It's supposed to be witty and vital, and cement your interest in plowing through the rest of the text. Generally, for texts of this nature the preface is the most lively part of the whole thing. I'll try to avoid that sin as much as I can. But, I must tell you, the first six chapters till some pretty dry ground. So, bear with me.
This revision of the text, started in February of 2000, reorders the chapters to improve the logical flow and divisions of the presentation. I have added a new chapter covering ATM in detail. A number of other tweaks, corrections, and additions are present throughout the book.
Unlike many hypertext documents which are designed to be entered into from many different points, and navigated by hopping from one section to another, this is a very linear monograph. Its structure builds one chapter upon another in its presentation of networking. Chapter One -- the OSI Model is the footing upon which the rest of the text is built, without it you don't stand a chance of really understanding the rest of the book.
Given that dire pronunciation, hopefully what I'm building for you is a clear and comprehensible series of lessons in modern computer networking, and not a tower of Babel.
The text is organized into a series of HTML pages, one per chapter. Each has links at the bottom leading to the previous section, the table of contents, and on to the next section. As you can see below, the link to the next page takes you into the Appendix. This may seem like an odd way to begin a textbook. However, Appendix B contains a set of definitions to get you started in reading Chapter One. Even if you are fluent in the language of networking, I suggest that you read through Appendix B to get a feel for how that language is used here.
Good luck, and enjoy!
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[ TOC ]
[ Appendix B ] |
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1999, 2000 Shipman | Created 1-17-99 | Updated 2-4-00