Networking

[patlajan]

OK good discussion guys. When I have a moment to look trough my options I will. I'm sure I can find these books cheap. I work for a netowrk security company now, and I wanna beef up so I can intimidate fellow cubicle residents with my knowledge. Altough the company prefers you learn things their way. AND I'm thinking of going to some sort of night/weekend classes for a computer engineering degree. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. It's gonna be 8:30 AM - 6PM work; 8PM - 11PM class. If they even have damn night classes.

Whatever ! In conclusion: thanks.

P.S. - What's the ISBN of that Tanenbaum book?

[anileve]

Same thing as 11b just a different name if you ask me (still in the 2.4Ghz) and it's even backward compatible with b ... it's all about 802.11a and the 5Ghz band now ... I'm still sticking to 11b since it's everywhere.

About "books", I personally can't stand them. I'd say if you really want to learn something, especially computer related, just search google and in a couple of hours you should pretty much know all there is to know

You are the only professor I know who hates books, very strange. You are right, who needs professors when you have Google. Now I know why half of your class was missing…they were busy googling.

[Sip]

I myself rarely learned anything in class ... there have only been a very few professors that have really made a lightbulb go on in my head ... one of them was my MS/PhD advisor. The rest just basically told me what was going to be on the test

Computer related things are best learned on one's own and most often by hands on exploration and tinkering. The subject is such that it's hard to teach someone using a book. Now computer "engineering" is a different matter as that is a serious science and doesn't change from the time the book is finished till it hits the shelves.

[anileve]

I myself rarely learned anything in class ... there have only been a very few professors that have really made a lightbulb go on in my head ...

Really? I am proud to say that it has been an opposite experience for me. I guess it all depends on the level of your intellect. I am mediocre, so anyone with a bit of a knowledge amuzes me.

[patlajan]

I myself rarely learned anything in class ... there have only been a very few professors that have really made a lightbulb go on in my head ... one of them was my MS/PhD advisor. The rest just basically told me what was going to be on the test

Computer related things are best learned on one's own and most often by hands on exploration and tinkering. The subject is such that it's hard to teach someone using a book. Now computer "engineering" is a different matter as that is a serious science and doesn't change from the time the book is finished till it hits the shelves.

Soldering microchips can also be a process of trial and error, but with bigger consequences

[anileve]

Soldering microchips can also be a process of trial and error, but with bigger consequences

I've never soldered, but I would imagine many burns on fingers. Would burning your fingers from cooking, cutting your hands from fiddling with hardware in a PC and breaking your nails from fixing copy machines be considered as a prerequisite for soldering? Perhaps playing piano is a better preparation since you must be delicate with your handwork.

[Sip]

Considering they can fit 100's if not 1000s of transistors in the space taken by the tip of the soldering iron, I'd say chances of really screwing things up is not negligible

[patlajan]

I've never soldered, but I would imagine many burns on fingers. Would burning your fingers from cooking, cutting your hands from fiddling with hardware in a PC and breaking your nails from fixing copy machines be considered as a prerequisite for soldering? Perhaps playing piano is a better preparation since you must be delicate with your handwork.

Burning yourself doesn't happen very often. Leaving the iron unattanded and burning the crap out of your work area is more common. Remember to wear eye protection. You never know when a piece of hot solder will fly off towards your head.

[patlajan]

"Computer Networks"[/b] by Tanenbaum which is now in 4th edition.

I'm reading this book and so far I like it very much. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Sip]

Let me know if you have any questions

Don't get to bogged down with chapter 2 (physical layer) ... it doesn't really start becoming "networking" until chapter 4 and 5 (data link, MAC, and network layers).