Foreword

When the original text of this book arrived in 1990, it was quickly recognized as the definitive reference for programmers to learn network programming techniques. Since then, the art of computer networking has changed dramatically. All it takes is a look at the return address for comments from the original text ("uunet!hsi!netbook") to make this clear. (How many readers will even recognize this as an address in the UUCP dialup network that was commonplace in the 1980s?)

Today, UUCP networks are a rarity and new technologies such as wireless networks are becoming ubiquitous! With these changes, new network protocols and programming paradigms have been developed. But, programmers have lacked a good reference from which to learn the intricacies of these new techniques.

This book fills that void. Readers who have a dog-eared copy of the original book will want a new copy for the updated programming techniques and the substantial new material describing next-generation protocols such as IPv6. Everyone will want this book because it provides a great mix of practical experience, historical perspective, and a depth of understanding that only comes from being intimately involved in the field.

I've already enjoyed and learned from reading this book, and surely you will, too.

Sam Leffler