TCP IP

Description

• Copyright 1993
• Edition: 1st

• Book
• ISBN-10: 0-201-62765-5
• ISBN-13: 978-0-201-62765-7

Are you looking for useful information and advice on setting up and running a successful TCP/IP network? Using their considerable experience of teaching and implementing TCP/IP, the authors provide in this book a very practical perspective on how to install, configure and maintain a TCP/IP network, demonstrating how a TCP/IP system is built and maintained in practice.

In this book you will learn how to:

• Plan the choice of IP and subnetwork addresses to ensure the network is properly set up
• Configure a TCP/IP system and optimize its performance
• Successfully manage routers and routing protocols

Features of the book include:

• Practical examples demonstrating the operation of the TCP/IP protocol at all layers of the protocol model

• Coverage of Network File Systems and the Simple Network Management Protocol

• Fault-finding flowcharts for configuration and diagnostics

• Examples of protocol traces

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Sample Content

Preface

Society, its government and commerce depend on accurate, reliable and convenient ways of exchanging information between individuals and organizations and across national boundaries. In the late 1980s, the success of computers and their interconnecting networks (particularly the personal computer and the local area network) completely changed the speed, accuracy and convenience of all manner of information transfer. The standards collectively known as TCP/IP, first developed to allow exchange of information between computers in the US government, defense and university research communities, have appeared in attractive, useful and widely available products for general commercial computing. With the increasing interest in the use of TCP/IP for general commercial applications, there is a need to know what TCP/IP provides, how to exploit its functionality, and what management and technical difficulties will be encountered.

This book is about the practical problems of installing, configuring and maintaining information systems based on the TCP/IP set of standards, from initial installation to on-going maintenance.

For a system to be successful and to retain that success over a long time requires frequent revision of initial assumptions; system designers must take account not only of technical, but also of social and organizational problems they will encounter. Successful systems grow and develop. They are used in ways and for purposes that the initial design probably did not predict. Once convenient and reliable operation is achieved, the users abandon and then lose the older, less convenient alternatives. The new system becomes part of the corporate infrastructure and day-to-day life, its value increases and any changes in performance and availability can dramatically affect prosperity and well-being.

The planners and operators of any technology have responsibilities for its care and maintenance, if long-term viability is to be assured. In this book, we pass on our experience of designing, planning, installing and running large computer communications networks using TCP/IP, taking into account many of the factors that we have discovered can influence the short- and long-term success of computer networks.

Choosing Equipment

In a description of the practical issues, we will frequently point out that standards developers have included many features and facilities in the standards which are not yet generally implemented in available equipment. Equally, there are facilities in products which are not included in the standards. It is up to equipment users to recognize any gap between the potential of systems such as TCP/IP and the functionality of current products. In examining how improved systems would benefit their use of the technology, those with purchasing power can drive technology forward so that suppliers produce more advanced systems sooner. We will frequently emphasize the difference between the potential of the standards and recent practice.

How to use this book

The book is divided into three parts.

Part I describes the options and features of TCP/IP without discussing technology in detail. In particular, Part I is about the choices and decisions that must be made as any computer products which use TCP/IP for communications are introduced. It highlights key decisions which must be made early in the adoption of TCP/IP systems, if major upheaval and expense is to be avoided later. It shows how to make those decisions and discusses the essential practical steps to producing reliable and flexible systems that are convenient both for commercial users and for system and network managers. We follow the development, expansion and day-to-day operations of the system, and outline how to maintain the performance of a TCP/IP system as it grows and is integrated into a corporation's infrastructure.

Part I is about 'what and how' and 'why'. It is for those who are content (for the moment at least) to work on the premise, 'if I don't need to change it and it is unlikely to cause trouble later, I don't need a detailed technological understanding'. For those configuring and managing small unchanging TCP/IP networks, this information may be sufficient.

Part II describes the detailed technical standards behind TCP/IP systems, particularly where such technical detail leads to further choices which will influence the success of an installed system. Part II is about 'what else, why, what if , and what next'. It is intended for those who need to understand the detail of a protocol, the bits and bytes, in order to manage and maintain large and complex computer networks better. These are the people who may wish to take advantage of the most sophisticated features, who have a need to understand the 'why'. Equally, it is for those who seek knowledge out of technical interest.

Large networks often display problems and issues peculiar to their environment and configuration. Part II allows the more technically biased reader to determine the underlying limits of TCP/IP systems and to take action to ensure that systems, in particular, large systems, remain stable. It is concerned with tuning performance, achieving reliability, stability, and cost effectiveness through a detailed technical understanding which allows optimizing the foundations laid in Part I.

Part III is a collection of reference material and tables extracted from TCP/IP and local area network standards which can greatly simplify the configuration and management of TCP/IP systems.

Part I and Part II can be read in isolation, or in either order, according to interest and immediate need. Part III can be used as reference at any time. Part I will stand alone as a planning and implementation guide.

Acknowledgments

Many of the concepts, guidelines and drawings presented in this book were developed by the authors as part of their practical-based training activities on behalf of Integralis Ltd, Theale Reading, RG7 5AH, England. With the permission of the directors of Integralis, material has been included from the following Integralis training courses:

• Introduction to data communications technology

• Introduction to local area networks

• Practical TCP/IP

• Internetworking with bridges and routers

The authors wish to thank the directors of Integralis Ltd for their permission to include the material, for their support in its development and for their encouragement during the writing of this book.

That this book could be written in the first place is due to the foundations laid by V.A. Thomson and J.A. Robinson, who showed us the way.

It is also for researchers in the USA and worldwide who wrote informative and amusing, readable RFCs and showed that standardization does not have to read like OSI.

Kevin Washburn
Jim Evans
Theale, England
February 1993

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