January 2005

The Rearview Mirror: Internetworking with TCP/IP

January 2005

Reviewed by Peter H. Salus

Internetworking with TCP/IP: Principles, Protocols, and Architecture
Douglas E. Comer
Prentice-Hall, 1988
ISBN 0134701542 [3rd ed: 0132169878; 4th ed.: 0130183806]
382 pages [4th ed.: 750 pages]

Dan Lynch once said that "Comer's volume 1 drastically changed the course of networking history." Looking back over 15 years, that wasn't mere rhetoric. RFC 753 (March 1979) describes the "Internet Message Protocol." RFC 760 (January 1980) describes the "DOD Standard Internet Protocol."

Hang onto those years. Padlipsky's still brilliantly acerbic Elements of Networking Style had appeared in 1985, but it feinted, slashed, and eviscerated — it didn't really instruct. The 1980 Protocol Manual (RFC 766, obsoleted by 774 [October 1, 1980]), merely refers to 760. So Comer's volume was really important. And it still is.

It's now 16 years old. It's double the size. And it's now indispensible. (Yes, I know, there's the Stevens set. But the four volumes of Comer and the three volumes of Stevens aren't competitors — they are complementary to one another. But that's for a different sort of article.)

Comer covers every aspect of TCP/IP usage you might think of in a manner that is both easily understood and rigorous. Any understanding of TCP/IP — and I mean understanding, not usage — must be founded in what Comer teaches. Once you've read Comer's work, you can move on to the complexities of the RFCs, other protocols, and specifics of networking.