PPP

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Book reviews for "PPP" sorted by average review score:

PPP Design and Debugging

Published in Paperback by Addison-Wesley Pub Co (19 December, 1997)

Author: James D. Carlson

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Average review score:

PPP explained and more..

During my first job right out of grad school, I needed to debug PPP a lot on cisco routers and it gave me a good understanding of the subject.

Cisco's web site has enough info on debuggin PPP and this books goes in conjuction with it along with the relevant RFCs. I didnt find any other book addressing the debugging issues addressed in this book.

This book truly shows what an elegant protocol PPP is.

James is also an active contributor on the PPP news group and could be great help if you have questions!

good, but not for real life troubleshooting

This is a good book for understanding ppp and all the relevant things. Howerver, if you are looking for troubleshooting PPP connections, find something else.

for developers and modifiers: as good as it gets

I agree with all the previous reviewers:alex levin, feisal siddiqi, frank kastenholz, patrick klos, maguire. Additionaly I value the section with samples of ppp traces with comments. This is a book written by a developer with the ability to generalize and present his opinion, which is not allways affirmative of the RFC.

Using & Managing PPP

Published in Paperback by O'Reilly & Associates (March, 1999)

Author: Andrew Sun

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Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) plays a big role in modern networks, from the Internet on down. It's the most popular way of sending and receiving datagrams across a serial connection--typically a telephone line. In Using and Managing PPP, Andrew Sun reveals the details of this widely used networking technology.

Sun starts with an overview of how PPP fits into the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) networking model and then details the operation of RS-232 (Recommended Standard 232) connections and modems. He describes the anatomy of a PPP link, explaining how a connection gets established and how the protocol breaks data into frames for transport--with particular attention to how TCP/IP packets move across a PPP connection.

Using and Managing PPP also attacks PPP from a practical perspective, conveying information about how to set up and use the protocol on several popular platforms. It provides specific instructions for setting up PPP under Solaris, Linux, Windows 3.x, Windows 98, and both versions of Windows NT 4 for both dial-in and dial-out applications.

Even Sun acknowledges that those planning to implement PPP in software ought to consult the IEEE documents that define it, though this book lacks sufficient low-level detail for that kind of work. However, Using and Managing PPP serves the purposes of administrators and others interested in getting the most out of PPP from a network-management perspective. --David Wall

Average review score:

Decent book on PPP.

I don't think I would go as far as to say this was the definitive work on PPP, however, it did do a good job in explaining PPP and the world in which it lives. Being a beginner, I was looking for more instruction on how to install and manage PPP on my Linux box. It barely fit that need. If you want a good reference book, then by all means, buy it. But if you are going for a deep tutorial, then look elsewhere.

Very good for beginners looking for the overall picture

This is a very good book for beginners wanting to understand the technology behind the title PPP. It provides a step by step approach to the world of PPP, introducing the reader even to the OSI 7 layer model in two pages. I liked reading this book, and I liked the comparison between the implementations of PPP on different platforms (Linux, SUN, Windows 95/98/NT). But I do not think it is a complete reference book, therefore administrators should be aware.

A must have for network admins

When most people think of PPP, they just think of antiquated modem connections, but PPP is capable of much more. PPP can also be used as T1 lines and other such high speed connections.

This book is definitely intended for the network admins who are running (or hope to run) some sort of PPP-related service. The book explains how PPP connections work, from PPP packet header information to network and routing setups as well as debugging them. The information is very detailed and comprehensive, and well-written.

A user who just wants to setup a modem connection from home will probably find this book is not for them though. The topics covered focus more on using the PPP protocol in a network setting, rather than just a home computer. However, the chapter on setting up a dial-out modem does show a home-user how to setup a modem connection on several operating systems, and answers questions that even modem "veterans" like me have. :)

In closing, this book is well-suited for network admins, but regular users should find a book more suited for home use. However, I think this book has something for everyone interested in PPP.

PPP Design, Implementation, and Debugging (2nd Edition)

Published in Paperback by Addison-Wesley Pub Co (15 January, 2001)

Authors: James D. Carlson and James Carlson

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This is not a good book for understanding PPP

This book is just a little more than a piecing together of the RFC's. Comparing with Richard Stevens' book about TCP/IP protocols, this book can be scaled to only one star. I gave this book two stars only because this is the only book I can find about PPP.

"The" PPP Book

PPP Design is a great technical reference for anyone who has to deal with ppp on an intimate level. I picked up this book while I was writing an embedded PPP implementation. The information contained in the book is complete, precise and if you need to implement PPP, this book is a must! On the down side I did not find the CD-ROM very useful, but the book is a definite five stars.

PPP and L2TP: Remote Access Communications

Published in Textbook Binding by Prentice Hall PTR (15 October, 1999)

Author: Uyless Black

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Security may be the single biggest impediment to the truly distributed workforce, in which telecommuters and remote consultants can collaborate on equal terms with those on a local area network (LAN). Virtual private networks (VPNs), underpinned by robust and secure PPP and L2TP connections, are emerging as a solution. In PPP and L2TP: Remote Access Communications, Uyless Black (perhaps best known for his Voice Over IP), explains both connectivity solutions in terms that are a bit academic but clearly less so than the raw protocol specifications to which he makes frequent reference. You'll appreciate his approach if you're a step removed from the technicalities of L2TP and PPP (perhaps as a salesperson or manager), or if you're a network programmer looking for an introduction that will allow you to approach further research intelligently.

The most valuable parts of Black's book are those in which he describes the "conversations" that occur between network nodes. Using lots of prose and plenty of state diagrams, flow charts, and packet diagrams, the author makes it clear which node sends what signals, when and why, and how those signals affect the condition of the system as a whole. Though Black's explanations are in depth, you may want to supplement this book with others that provide more details about specific remote connectivity technologies. PPP Design and Debugging is the definitive work on its subject, while L2TP: Implementation and Operation has a lot of useful things to say about that emerging standard. IP Sec is worth studying too. --David Wall

Topics covered: PPP, Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP), and their applications to distributed networking; explores the signals that make up the data link layer in depth to show how PPP establishes and controls connections with its Link Control Protocol (LCP) and Network Control Protocol (NCP); PPP security and Multilink Protocol (MP); and L2TP coverage includes information on the protocol's relationships with the IP Secure standard and physical networks of various kinds (including frame relay and Mobile PPP).

Average review score:

Not a good book

You would be better off reading the standard RFCs 1661 and 2661.It is ok for an overview.

Good books for overview people

This book is a good one for people who need to be able to speak about PPP, MP, and L2TP and understand where they fit into products they sell or support.

The section on ppp is not as good as the Carlson book, so if you can have just one book on ppp - this is not it.

The chapter dedicated to l2tp was good, but not as good as the Shea book. More than a rehash of the standards documents, it occasionally enlarges on some implications of the standards that may not be immediately obvious.

I could not understand at all why the bits on arp, ip, tcp, and so on were included. I would have dearly loved a more in depth discussion radius as it relates to MP and L2TP.

Again, not a bad book, but lacking the focus and detail I look for.

The SLIP/PPP Connection: The Essential Guide to Graphical Internet Access

Published in Paperback by John Wiley & Sons (15 May, 1995)

Authors: Paul Gilster and Paul Glister

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Good in its time but the Internet has moved on!

I read this book when it first came out and it was very helpful at the time. But now it is more like a history book on the beginnings on the publics recognition of the value of the Internet and how to use it at the time( which was the mid-90s ). So much has changed that I would hate for any newbie to buy this book as a guide to the present day Internet. There are many good current and useful books out there. In my opinion one of the best is "The Whole Internet-The Next Generation" from O'Reilly.