networking required reading. suggestions (scottmac, russ, all gurus)?

[fivepesos]

im looking for suggestions on sources of information that may help expand my understand of networking. i know a lot of the forum experts have tremendous amount of experience both pracical and theoretical, what have u used along the road?

firstly, im not looking for Networking for Dummies or intro courses. im looking for books/info written technically about a technical subject. i have CCNA and a pretty good concept of most major protocols, so i have a good foundation to work with. i have experience implementing most common uses of networking on linux and windows (learning bsd soon). i have 6 months experience as a junior network admin. and i know i NEED and more importantly DESIRE to learn more. ive been reading a lot of whitepapers on packetstorm and a lot of these are good. but ive exhausted them, and they are aimed more from the "reverse" end of computer security.

well what sites have helped u learn? what books on specific subjects would u recommend? what topic are most essential for a networking carrer.

topics i think i should learn about (although please recommend others):
routing protocols (dynamic protocols beyond basic RIP), BGP, IGRP, etc.
cryptography (beyond how to run SSH), public key, VPN
layer3 switching
current unix networking, kerbeos
cell-switched architecture, ATM maybe

its late, ive exhausted my brain, not the topics id like to cover. add anything youd recommend.

thanks for anything you guys can offer that will help me expand my understanding. i know i greatly respect many of your opinions and i always read your posts mos thoroughly.

 

[spidey07]

cisco press -
"routing IP"
"LAN switching"
"Internet Routing Architectures"
"OSPF Network Design Solutions"
"Large-Scale IP Network Solutions"
"Designing Campus Networks"

 

[Ender78]

Don't ignor layers 2 and 4. There seems to be a very big gap in the knowledge of many networkers in those layers.

Cisco has a very good resource library for this type of stuff. If you want some really fascinating reads, check out this link

ACM

What you will find here is a great resource of Research papers about many facets of networking.

 

[ScottMac]

Everything I know I learned from a Tom Clancy book......


Actually, I haven't had much reading time the last bunch o' months. The last thing I tried reading was the CCIE Prep book by Caslow. Seems to be a pretty good book, and good reference material for the shelf.

As an ABSOLUTE must-have, every tech library needs the "Internetworking with TCP/IP" series by Douglas E. Comer. Last I heard it's the bible (supplemented by newer RFCs) for TCP/IP. The best. Gotta have it.

...and of course no collection would be complete without the assorted O'Reilly books for BIND/DNS, PERL, etc.....

Here's a travel study tip though: While traveling & trying to read something like a CCIE prep....if someone askes if you're studying for the test, say "No, I'm checking the book for technical errors....." Then they go away.

Trying to read all that tech stuff makes my eyes all sleepy.....

Sorry I can't come up with anything more'n'at.

Good Luck

Scott

 

[Russ]

fivepesos,

I don't read books, I just come here and ask the real gurus.

Actually, I do like Encyclopedia of Networking (Sybex), though. If nothing else, it builds arm strength lifting it.

Russ, NCNE

 

[fivepesos]

good recommendations, ive liked Sybex CCNA books. so pretty much anything for cisco networking seems to be good. im definitely gonna check out Cisco Press, "Internetworking with TCP/IP" and some other Sybex books. thx a lot.