This book looks really promising. Just a small recommendation, you should give an option to the reader to download the book, if they give there email address. This would increase your newsletter size and hence, it can go long way.
Show HN: I'm writing a free book called Computer Networks from Scratch
101–110 of 138 posts
Re: Show HN: I'm writing a free book called Computer Networks from Scratch
#102The illustrations are really well done!
Re: Show HN: I'm writing a free book called Computer Networks from Scratch
#103I feel like walkie talkies are something all network engineers need to play with. Furthermore, remember that real world telephone and radio networks were in fact... Networks. (Called 'nets' in the radio world) Ethernet, and 802.11, are both based on the concept of a singular channel shared by many individuals. When Alice talks, she says 'I'm Alice calling Bob, can you hear me Over'. Alice is the source address. Bob i…
The book “CODE” uses exactly this pattern. It starts with two people talking to each other via cans connected with string, and works its way up to complex networks and processor architecture.
Re: Show HN: I'm writing a free book called Computer Networks from Scratch
#104If you're just starting in programming you may thing that Computer Networks falls into a nice to know category. At least I did as a freshman in CS. At a time I was more interested in gaining practical knowledge: popular programming languages, frameworks, OOP. In fact you can become a successful programmer without knowing much how networks work.
The reason why I recommend learning about Computer Networks from scratch is how fascinating the subject is. The way layers are implemented, their interactions, how the overall complexity is reduced by having layers of responsibility. This pattern can be seen in other areas as well: hardware -> operating system -> SDK -> programming language -> framework -> DSL. Ultimately from a Turing complete machine to seeing 200 FPS 3D FPS game with 150 other players on your screen.
Re: Show HN: I'm writing a free book called Computer Networks from Scratch
#105Why? There is so many books about networking.
Re: Show HN: I'm writing a free book called Computer Networks from Scratch
#106> The answers I get have taught me that most programmers don't have a basic understanding of how the internet works outside of their narrow specialty
Just yesterday I couldn't fall asleep because my stupid brain thought something like "What information would I need to fully grasp the topic 'programming'?". Since I am a visual thinker, I quickly started to draw a mind map in my head that basically started with the history (starting with Alan Turing), going through electrical engineering, went through different layers and finished in different programming languages. The languages alone branched out in a pattern so large that my head startet to hurt. It included different languages, concepts, architecture patterns and compilers. Each one of those steps is important and you will find people specialized in any of those which will tell you that their part is the most important.
I am a web developer myself and I try to learn and improve every day. But I also think to be really good you have to focus on a few specific parts of the process and not try to be an expert in everything there. That grew way too complex quite a while ago and trying to understand everything usually only makes you mediocre in everything but good at nothing in particular. If a web developer does not know the difference of a GET and a POST I would seriously suggest to evaluate their choice of profession. But for example the last time I've had to care about a subnet mask was 11 years ago and I would not ask anyone I recruit as a web dev to know anything about this topic. You have to draw a line somewhere. My bottom line in all this is that you should have at least a general understanding on the whole process, but you only need to be an expert in a few of them to be really good.
Re: Show HN: I'm writing a free book called Computer Networks from Scratch
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Ethernet, and 802.11 full duplex ethernet circuits (eg: a basic cheap 10Gbps 1310/LR carried over two $30 transceivers and a six foot fiber patch cable between two pieces of equipment) and a half-duplex TDD/CSMA regime like 802.11b/g/n/ac/ax are not the same thing. yes they both enable ethernet connectivity between devices on fabrics of things that can see and arp each other. the ethernet 10GbE might be shared by m…
You're right for sure. I probably should have clarified that when I said "Ethernet", I meant classic 10 Mbps Ethernet that today's kids probably don't know about. The Ethernet hub acted like a bus: anything one connection said was broadcast to _ALL_ other connections. Of course, today we have far faster point-to-point switches. But it helps to remember that the Ethernet-protocol was built in the days of old: half-dup…
Raises hand. I remember discovering promiscuous mode, and a stern talking to from our network engineers. It was obvious I didn't know what the hell I was doing, so I got a great tutorial about the differences between hubs and switches.
Re: Show HN: I'm writing a free book called Computer Networks from Scratch
#108I feel like walkie talkies are something all network engineers need to play with. Furthermore, remember that real world telephone and radio networks were in fact... Networks. (Called 'nets' in the radio world) Ethernet, and 802.11, are both based on the concept of a singular channel shared by many individuals. When Alice talks, she says 'I'm Alice calling Bob, can you hear me Over'. Alice is the source address. Bob i…
Many of us are amateur radio operators, which is basically walkie talkies. And furthermore, when we're all having a group discussing, it very much follows your last point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio_net
Re: Show HN: I'm writing a free book called Computer Networks from Scratch
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Ethernet, and 802.11 full duplex ethernet circuits (eg: a basic cheap 10Gbps 1310/LR carried over two $30 transceivers and a six foot fiber patch cable between two pieces of equipment) and a half-duplex TDD/CSMA regime like 802.11b/g/n/ac/ax are not the same thing. yes they both enable ethernet connectivity between devices on fabrics of things that can see and arp each other. the ethernet 10GbE might be shared by m…
You're right for sure. I probably should have clarified that when I said "Ethernet", I meant classic 10 Mbps Ethernet that today's kids probably don't know about. The Ethernet hub acted like a bus: anything one connection said was broadcast to _ALL_ other connections. Of course, today we have far faster point-to-point switches. But it helps to remember that the Ethernet-protocol was built in the days of old: half-dup…
Ahah. As opposed to token ring.
Re: Show HN: I'm writing a free book called Computer Networks from Scratch
#110I feel like walkie talkies are something all network engineers need to play with. Furthermore, remember that real world telephone and radio networks were in fact... Networks. (Called 'nets' in the radio world) Ethernet, and 802.11, are both based on the concept of a singular channel shared by many individuals. When Alice talks, she says 'I'm Alice calling Bob, can you hear me Over'. Alice is the source address. Bob i…
The book “CODE” uses exactly this pattern. It starts with two people talking to each other via cans connected with string, and works its way up to complex networks and processor architecture.
That sounds like an enjoyable read. Could you share the ISBN or link? Thanks