(Part 2) Best computer networks & apis books according to redditors
We found 709 Reddit comments discussing the best computer networks & apis books. We ranked the 217 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
23. Discrete-Time Signal Processing (3rd Edition) (Prentice-Hall Signal Processing Series)
5 mentions
In my opinion; every book in this bundle is a bag of shit.
Here's a list of reputable books, again in my opinion (All links are Non-Affiliate Links):
Web Hacking:
The Web Hackers Handbook (Link)
Infrastructure:
Network Security Assessment (Link)
Please Note: The examples in the book are dated (even though it's been updated to v3), but this book is the best for learning Infrastructure Testing Methodology.
General:
Hacking: The Art of Exploitation (Link)
Grey Hat Hacking (Link)
Linux:
Hacking Exposed: Linux (I don't have a link to a specific book as there are many editions / revisions for this book. Please read the reviews for the edition you want to purchase)
Metasploit:
I recommend the online course "Metaspliot Unleashed" (Link) as opposed to buying the book (Link).
Nmap:
The man pages. The book (Link) is a great reference and looks great on the bookshelf. The reality is, using Nmap is like baking a cake. There are too many variables involved in running the perfect portscan, every environment is different and as such will require tweaking to run efficiently.
Malware Analysis:
Practical Malware Analysis (Link)
The book is old, but the methodology is rock solid.
Programming / Scripting:
Python: Automate the Boring Stuff (Link)
Hope that helps.
Wait, wait, wait...this is too good. You think it's ridiculous that someone recommended a book from 7 years ago when the edition you recommended is from 10 years ago? Especially when the page you linked indicates there's an update?
N-1kyz, don't let Cranky's inability to encourage newcomer's to this profession dissuade you. Thomas Limoncelli is fairly well-respected, and a great resource. That said, if you're looking for hands-on "type X to get Y result", you'll probably need to look at books with vSphere in the title where VMWare is concerned. This looks like a decent-ish one: https://www.amazon.com/VMware-vSphere-Host-Resources-Deep/dp/1540873064/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500228935&sr=8-1&keywords=vsphere
Although I would recommend a Safari Books subscription for you as you will likely learn new terms and may want to jump around to a few different books to flesh out your early career.
Digital Forensic workbook is a great source for building foundational knowledge on many of the general computer forensic techniques. It covers info such as file system forensics, acquisition, software write blocking, registry analysis, email analysis, internet history analysis, recovering data in unallocated space, etc. Labs are included with the book so you can test the content learned against sample data.
Learning Malware Analysis Guides you through static analysis, dynamic analysis, using IDA pro, and other dismembers to determine the intent of malicious files.
Practical Malware Analysis
Wireshark Network Analysis
Normal person is relative. Ha! However, I can tell you Wireshark is my go to for troubleshooting complex application/network problems.
I highly recommend Laura Chappelle books. This is my favorite, well worth the cost. Wireshark Network Analysis (Second Edition): The Official Wireshark Certified Network Analyst Study Guide https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008G65O7O/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_sNcFyb8ZXZ6KS
If you want to pick up some Cryptography, The Code Book is a great intro.
Pragmatic Thinking and Learning is good for learning to learn.
The Pragmatic Programmer is good for project code planning and learning how to write code in a well thought out way.
Ethernet: The Definitive Guide is a good read if you want to get up to snuff on your networking, though it can be a bit dry at times.
> Are the books any good?
It's been years since I looked at them but they used to be mediocre.
Bonus Data! Microsoft Visual C# Step by Step (9th Edition) (Developer Reference) 9th Edition from Microsoft Press has 11 reviews averaging to 3.7 out of 5.
This search for C# on Amazon shows C# books ranked by average customer review. Some of them are too old. I don't know what to recommend.
I find it amusing, though, that C# 6.0 in a Nutshell is 1136 pages long. That's a BIG friggin' nutshell. :)
Here are a few books I recommend:
Blue Team Handbook
Defensive Security Handbook
The Practice of Network Security Monitoring
Crafting the Infosec Playbook
And don't forget the NIST Cyber Security Framework
Vendor neutral and probably the best/most frequently recommended book:
MPLS-Enabled Applications: Emerging Developments and New Technologies
Very good Cisco-centric MPLS book:
MPLS Fundamentals
The gold standard, or so I hear, for L2VPN (I believe it's Alcatel/Juniper heavy):
Designing and Implementing IP/MPLS-Based Ethernet Layer 2 VPN Services: An Advanced Guide for VPLS and VLL
For the overall picture (vSphere only), you can't go wrong with Scott Lowe's Mastering vSphere 5.
Epping and Denneman wrote a technical deepdive book on clustering which really gets into the nitty gritty.
And for storage, Mostafa Khalil wrote the bible.
Also, if you want to really dive into the virtualization arena, definitely check out the VMware community site. Follow people on twitter, join the live podcasts (community podcast and vBrownBags), etc... Listening to recorded podcasts is also a great way to learn.
Hint: It's plain text. Totally unencrypted. And there is no such thing as a telnet network. Telnet is a command line protocol used to control devices remotely. All it does is send ascii text back and forth. None of the protocols you listed were encrypted protocols. SSL (secure sockets layer) is used to encrypt other protocols (ie https) but it is not a communication protocol in and of its self.
You might want to do some reading on both networking protocols, and wireshark.
Start here:
Practical Packet Analysis, 3E: Using Wireshark to Solve Real-World Network Problems https://www.amazon.com/dp/1593278020/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_3amXAb1FZT4YJ
I'm the developer of Mirage Realms (www.miragerealms.com) which is an MMORPG written using LibGDX and I also had absolutely no idea wtf I was doing when I started.
I looked into Kryonet as another user has suggested but in the end found I wanted to know a lot more about networking so ended up just writing my own stack. The book that helped me was Java Network Programming https://www.amazon.co.uk/Network-Programming-Elliotte-Rusty-Harold/dp/1449357679 which I mainly used as a reference for TCP sockets and streams - if that's what you need.
The first steps are really figuring out if you are going TCP or UDP, and if you are going to have a hard split between client / server or not. An example of a hard client / server would be world of warcraft or counterstrike. An example of a soft server would be something like quake 2 where the host client is effectively the server.
There is also platform to consider, if you are going for a networked game on mobile phones you are going to have lag and are going to have to figure out ways of working around it via either interpolation or some other means. It's not all packet loss and internet speeds either, the radios in phones suck and you have some random milliseconds of delay just getting the incoming data from the radio depending on how it is currently power cycling, so if its really time critical you can forget the overheads of reflectively looking up packet handlers and such.
If you are just on the PC, life is easy and you can take serious liberties given how fast peoples machines and internet connections generally are these days.
TLDR;
Sounds dumb but figure out what you want before starting anything in terms of a basic architecture and network requirements. Learn the trade-offs between TCP and UDP. You can then focus your time on finding tutorials that fit those requirements i.e. googling "thread per connection TCP server socket" will give you much more to work with than googling "how to make a multiplayer game"!
Liam
I can highly recommend this book which I also read myself - https://www.amazon.com/Attacking-Network-Protocols-Analysis-Exploitation/dp/1593277504
In addition this blogpost a good friend of mine made: https://jhalon.github.io/reverse-engineering-protocols/
Network Warrior: Everything You Need to Know That Wasn't on the CCNA Exam Second Edition
Practical Packet Analysis, 3E: Using Wireshark to Solve Real-World Network Problems 3rd Edition
DNS and BIND (5th Edition)
here is my 2c
it is crucial that you understand subnet masking as it's like 70% of ipv4 networking and unfortunately the first thing you need to wrap your brain around as you will be working with VLSM in most networking labs/scenarios. download this pdf and just start plugging along..
Sormcontrol.net is a nice online tool to help with learning subnets.
once you finish that workbook and feel comfortable with variable length subnets, start working on these problems in your spare time and at your own pace. your goal should be to solve any single subnetting problem within 30 seconds.
now that you understand a bit of subnetting, you need to begin learning the OSI-model, focus mainly on the layers 1 (sending bits across a medium), 2 (mac address switching) ,3 (ip routing), and 4 (tcp, udp, and icmp ports). here are two of my favorite beginners books to networking.
Microsoft Windows Networking Essentials, &
Cisco Introduction to Networks V6
Once you've read those books you should be ready to learn routing and switching. Focus your attention here to static routing, dhcp, nat, basic ACLs, and to understanding switchports and vlan related things like trunking and routing on a stick.
Next book you want to read is going to be on dynamic routing and scaling networks for large environments.This is where you delve into dynamic routing protocols (RIP, EIGRP, OSPF) and redundancy/failover protocols such as spanning-tree, etherchannel, and HSRP.
This is a nice book to read along the way and to sort of tie all of the knowledge you've learned so far together into short succinct chapters.
Download GNS3 or Packet Tracer if you want to simulate networks and labs at your desktop. You can learn a lot about the concepts and protocols presented in the books by searching on youtube things like "GNS3 dhcp" or "Packet Tracer dhcp".
I don't know about CBT nuggets, but just focus on what I've linked you and if you are going to follow anything online, the topic of routing and switching is the way to go as it is fundamental. Study like you are trying to pass the CCENT exam and then study for the CCNA exam.
Check out chapter 7 of Discrete-Time Signal Processing by Oppenheim and Schafer. The whole book is great.
Well, one thing to consider is that DRS doesn't seek to "balance out the load." At least not at its core. It's main purpose is to ensure that all VMs are getting the resources they need and that there isn't a large disparity. Frank Denneman has a good write up, a little old, but still applicable. His Clustering Deepdive book is also an excellent resource on understanding DRS.
Edit: Another good read on DRS.
What are you studying?
First (In any order)
Unix
https://www.amazon.com/Sams-Teach-Yourself-Unix-Hours/dp/0672328143/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1525399317&sr=8-2&keywords=unix+in+24+hours
Networking
https://www.amazon.com/Network-Guide-Networks-Printed-Access/dp/1133608191/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1525399474&sr=1-2&keywords=network%2B+6th+edition
Focus in these areas in networking
The OSI Reference Model
Network Infrastructure Devices
Specialized Network Devices
Virtual Network Devices
IPv4 and IPv6 Addresses
Address Translation
Command-Line Tools
Network Security
Network Troubleshooting
UDP vs TCP
DNS
JAVA/Python Don't need to be a master, but experience is a plus.
Hackerrank.com
Some SQL experience.
Hackerrank
Basic terminology of the cloud.
http://whatiscloud.com/
Familiar yourself with JSON, and API technologies. Know the differences between nosql and sql.
After all that AWS
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_11?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=aws+offical+study+guide&sprefix=aws+offical%2Caps%2C199&crid=X9667J8H0Z1
If you are starting from nothing it may take 1 - 2 years. Take your time to learn, no hurry.
I know this isn't the answer you are looking for, but this book might be worth looking in to. I haven't received my copy yet, but so far it seems to have been getting quite good reviews from the VMWare community.
If you ask me, Andrew Tanenbaum books are AWESOME. Not cheap but this guy takes a good bottom to top approach, if you really want to understand networking down to the TCP/IP stack get this.
Computer Networks If I can offer you a shred of advice, understanding what is happening under the hood and the 'big picture' of network design becomes an easy concept.
On the flipside - here is a good Top Down approach to networking Computer Networking Top-Down
Best of luck with your studies!
how deep in the weeds do you want to get into OSPF? do you want to understand enough just to be able to troubleshoot and bring up a new router, or [re]design the entire network?
John Moy's book should still be the standard; he wrote the RFC.
If you want to actually design a network, I still love Russ White's Cisco Press book on Optimal Routing Design.
If you just want an overview, the Cisco OSPF design guide can give you the nomenclature. Though the examples are IOS, the principles carry over.
Along with /u/totallygeek recommendations, if you're going to deploy OSPF onto a network, I would add:
Personally, I would stay away from virtual links as your abstracting what should be physical links onto harder-to-troubleshoot virtual links. I would also keep the area IDs the same as the top level network. For instance, if I was using 172.16.0.0/16 as the supernet for a building, the OSPF area ID would also be 172.16.0.0/16, but that's just me. There is more than 1 way to build a good network and as long as you are consistent on a logical design, that's what matters.
I can suggest that you can read Foundations of Python Network Programming. (http://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Python-Network-Programming-comprehensive/dp/1430230037) It covers dozens of networking subjects...
The TCP/IP Guide - It's a little dated these days and barely touches IPv6, but it's a good, quick look at a lot of the glue services that you will eventually need to understand and troubleshoot: DNS, SNMP, NTP, etc.
TCP/IP Illustrated, VOL 1 - Here's where we get into the nitty gritty. This shows you what is happening in those packets that cross the wire. Invaluable if you go onto doing Performance Engineering functions later on, but still good.
NMAP Network Scanning - NMAP is a godsend if you don't have remote login rights but you need to see what's happening on the far end of the connection.
Wireshark Network Analysis - Most useful tool in your toolbox, IF you can use it, for proving the negative to your customers. At some point you're going to be faced with an angry mob in Dockers and Polos who want to know "WHY MY THING NOT WORK?". This is the book that will let you point to their box and go "Well, as soon as the far side sends a SYN/ACK your box sends a FIN and kills the connection."
Learning the bash shell - You're a network engineer, you're going to be using Linux boxes as jump boxes for the rest of your life. Shell scripting will let you write up handy little tools to make your life easier. Boss wants to blackhole China at the edge? Write a quick script to pull all of the CN netblocks from the free FTP server APNIC owns, chop it up in sed and AWK, throw a little regex in for seasoning and you're done. And when he comes back in 30 days for an updated list? Boom, it's done even faster.
The vendor specific books are nice, but I can't tell you how many network engineers I've run across who couldn't tell me how DNS worked or how a three way handshake worked or couldn't write a simple script in Bash to bang out 300 port configs in 30 seconds. There are a shit ton of paper CCIEs out there, but those books up there will make you stand out.
I am sure many people will add to this but what I find is the biggest gap is not having a good base of understanding of why all of this "Infrastructure" is needed.
There is so much content to learn and I am not even scratching the surface. There is much to learn and you are not alone.
Hands-on labs
https://labs.hol.vmware.com/HOL/catalogs/catalog/1212
Physical networking (My teacher)
https://www.pluralsight.com/authors/ross-bagurdes
Virtual Networking
https://www.amazon.com/Networking-VMware-Administrators-Press-Technology/dp/0133511081
Storage
https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-VMware-vSphere-Storage-Victor-ebook/dp/B00YSIL6HQ
vSAN
https://www.amazon.com/VMware-vSAN-6-7-Deep-Dive-ebook/dp/B07L8CNZ53
NSX
https://blogs.vmware.com/networkvirtualization/2018/10/nsx-vmworld-2018-europe-the-technical-geek-guide.html/
ESXi Deep dive
https://pages.rubrik.com/host-resources-deep-dive_request.html
vVols are making a comeback
https://blogs.vmware.com/virtualblocks/2019/07/25/vvols-vmworld-2019/
Project pacific
https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2019/09/project-pacific-at-tech-field-day-extra-at-vmworld-2019.html
Good mentions
https://storagehub.vmware.com/
https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/techpaper/virtual_networking_concepts.pdf
And any VMware feature you need a walkthrough
https://featurewalkthrough.vmware.com/
Edit: adding newest deep dive for Pacific https://cormachogan.com/2019/11/22/project-pacific-vmworld-2019-deep-dive-updates/
Computer networking top down approach. Very very good book, I can't praise it enough: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0136079679?pc_redir=T1
Absolutely love being a pentester and the cyber security industry. If you are willing to put in the time and study it can be very rewarding. CEH is a good step in the right direction and should open doors for you.
For entry level positions, pentesting is usually split into two areas, web application and internal/external infrastructure. It's good to have knowledge of both but it's worth choosing which area interests you the most. Personally, I specialise in web applications & API and there is a lot of online resources to help you. (As you have mentioned owasp top 10, I'll assume web apps is your interest)
The best way to learn a vulnerability and get a good understanding is to create vulnerable web pages (this also gives you something to take into an interview). I would suggest doing some basic LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, Mysql, PHP) - Don't let this put you off as it's actually pretty simple. If you can make a few vulnerable pages to display vulnerabilities, you will fly through entry level interviews.
it's really simple to do.. Here is a form that is vulnerable to cross-site scripting. (a few lines of php with some html)
---
<form method="POST" action="">
<p> <input type="text" name="xss"/></p>
<input type="submit">
<?php
$value = $_POST['xss'];
echo $value;
?>
Reading Material:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Web-Application-Hackers-Handbook-Exploiting/dp/1118026470
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Network-Security-Assessment-Know-Your/dp/149191095X
Practical learning
DVWA (Damn Vulnerable Web App) - Purposely vulnerable web pages to practice exploiting.
http://www.dvwa.co.uk/
Once you have a bit of experience have a look at hackthebox
https://www.hackthebox.eu/
Yep! Just hanging around to see if anything breaks, really. Reading up on Optimal Routing Design for fun in the meantime.
A quick google for "low level python network programming book" found this:
https://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Python-Network-Programming-comprehensive/dp/1430230037
I haven't read it, but at least one of the author (Brandon Rhodes) is known for giving good talks about Python. So i'd suggest you go with that.
This article is the most up to date information on the subject you are likely to find out in the blogs. It's written specific to vSphere 6.5, which is the most recent major version of vSphere as of this writing. Tons of other information out there is old and, while it may not be wrong, it might have bits and pieces that have changed since they were written.
If you really want a deep dive on the subject and more details than what everyone in this thread is providing, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of the Host Resources Deep Dive for vSphere 6.5 that takes these topics as far as you want to understand them. NUMA is covered extensively in the book (I read it a while back) and will give you so many performance tuning options that you'll wish you had enough time to test them all. :)
I think very poorly of the cyber security courses offered (except NUS) in Singapore, as the things they teach are not aligned with the industry practices - either outdated or just not practical enough.
Having said that, if you have the time, I would suggest taking the SIT degree instead of the diplomas (waste of time IMO) and hopefully it provides you the fundamentals (programming, network and system administration) and be exposed to some other topics in cybersecurity.
If you are doing a career switch, I suppose you want to get up to speed fast by focusing on the need to have knowledge as a baseline. I would suggest taking the time to go through these stuff in details, setup your labs and practice the stuff
Other wise, there are hands on courses and industry certifications that you can take online at your own pace and employers look out for such as:
There is no one path to becoming a good pentester. However from my observations, folks who tend to be more in demands (with or without certifications/formal educations) are those who can display the ability to learn stuff on their own. This is an industry of skills and continuous learning. For employers that pay top dollar and provide time for training, learning and research, they are looking for folks who can display those stuff through actions.
&#x200B;
Source: Pentester
Make a personal project. I made a game editor.
Read more books.
Java Swing:
https://www.amazon.com/Java-Swing-Second-James-Elliott/dp/0596004087
Java I/O:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0596527500/
Java Generics and Collections:
https://www.amazon.com/Java-Generics-Collections-Development-Process/dp/0596527756/
Java Concurrency:
https://www.amazon.com/Java-Threads-Understanding-Concurrent-Programming/dp/0596007825/
Java Network Programming:
https://www.amazon.com/Network-Programming-Elliotte-Rusty-Harold/dp/1449357679/
Java Web Services:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1449365116/
Java Database Programming:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1565926161/
Java Performance:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1449358454/
Intro to Design Patterns w/ Java:
https://www.amazon.com/Head-First-Design-Patterns-Brain-Friendly-ebook/dp/B00AA36RZY/
Design Patterns (not Java and very dry, but much more in depth):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_Patterns
If you read every O'Reilly book on Java and do two or three big projects (or ten small ones) with what you learn in each book, you will learn how to do anything with Java. Java can do anything any other language can, but it takes longer to get there. Once you get there - once you build it - it will run forever, provided it's built well.
Online resources.
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/swing/
https://www.javatpoint.com/java-swing
The javax.swing class:
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/javax/swing/package-summary.html
The Java API specification:
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/
Never took one of these, defer to someone else's advice:
https://www.udemy.com/java-swing-complete/
It takes a while to figure out how to effectively use google. Look up my posting history to see how to format posts. You may need to make a test class to simplify things or provide a simple (and obviously safe) thing that people can execute and debug, if they decide to help you.
You will spend a lot of time on the Java API spec, so make sure that you know how to read a method header and signature. You'll get used to it after a few weeks.
*
General advice.**
Debugging is the single most important thing you do. If you can't see what's going wrong, you won't fix it except via trial and error (which is frustrating and takes forever). Any time something goes wrong, either walk through it with a debugger or get print statements working. Getting print statements working is often a job in itself.
I spend more time debugging than I do programming, because when things are going right it's a breeze but when they aren't it takes ages.
Take up some other hobby that keeps you active.
When you're frustrated and nothing is working, do something else. Go for a walk, garden for a bit, cook something. Make sure you have a notepad or note-taking program on your phone so you can stop and take notes when the solution comes to you.
If nothing else is working, just screw around with things and make print statements to see what they do. That's how I learned everything.
Try to break everything.
Don't be afraid of embarassing yourself.
I got a lot of value out of this book. You'll need to understanding networking fairly well if you want to be a decent VMware engineer.
https://www.amazon.com/Networking-VMware-Administrators-Press-Technology/dp/0133511081
Chris Wahl has a great blog as well: http://wahlnetwork.com/
This book.
If you have the time, this textbook is the real deal: Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach
http://smile.amazon.com/Computer-Networking-Top-Down-Approach-5th/dp/0136079679/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1453149284&amp;sr=1-2&amp;keywords=computer+networking+a+top-down+approach
I actually started off watching networking and CCNA tutorials on Youtube, as well as some online guides. They do introduce some concepts, but for me, it was still difficult to grasp how everything was built and how they interact. I'd be able to spout off what the 7 layers of the OSI model are, the basic differences between TCP and UDP, and some other pieces of info. Yet, I didn't feel like I actually understood how networking worked. I felt like I was learning facts here and there, but not learning the fundamentals that tie everything together. Nothing made me go "Ohhh so that's how/why it works!"
Then I got this book. It really explains the concepts well. It felt almost too easy. It begins by explaining how the internet works, what are the different components, how it all came to be, and how they're all connected. It then handles each layer (it does talk about the OSI model, but the book is structured around TCP/IP) from top to bottom and goes into technical detail, along with some math, as well as providing real world examples.
Each concept usually has an accompanying analogy (during the first couple chapters), if that helps you learn. After the TCP/IP chapters, it goes into more specific topics like wireless, security, etc. The end of each chapter also has guided labs (like with Wireshark, for example) and problem sets.
I'd really recommend going through each chapter, taking notes, and doing the labs and problems if you want a solid foundation in how networking works. Having this sort of understanding, to me, really helped when studying CCNA material - which by then would just be learning the commands and configuration.
I liked
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1430230037?pc_redir=1405047805&amp;robot_redir=1
It's starts small and simple and builds on itself very well.
I would also encourage you to make another website with tornado or django. I really enjoy web dev in python and there are a lot of job opportunities in that popping up right now. You should also be using virtualenv. For data analysis you should def checkout Pandas and ipython. You can maybe even integrate your interests. For example make a script that scrapes a bunch of data from the web and displays it in cool graphs. I would also recommend getting a 5$ a month Linux server off for example digital ocean. Learn how to ssh and transfer files to it. You can start running some bots or website on it also.
Hope this helps good luck.
Attacking Network Protocols
http://www.amazon.com/Nagios-Network-Monitoring-Wolfgang-Barth/dp/1593271794/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1345369768&amp;sr=1-1-fkmr0&amp;keywords=Nagios%3A+System+and+Network+Monitoring+3rd
this one but it's probably outdated by now.
Kali Linux - An Ethical Hacker's Cookbook:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B075V9FZ1G/
Attacking Network Protocols:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/1593277504/
Hacked - Kali Linux....:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B0791WSRNZ/
https://www.amazon.com/Optimal-Routing-paperback-Networking-Technology/dp/1587142449/
I actually just started reading MPLS Fundamentals from Cisco Press. I'm several chapters in and so far I've found it to be clear, comprehensive, and very informative.
Some good books:
VMware vSphere Clustering Deepdive
Administering vSphere 5
VMware vSphere 5 Administration Instant Reference
Mastering VMware vSphere 5 as already mentioned - great book
Blogs:
www.yellow-bricks.com as someone else mentioned
http://vlp.vsphere-land.com/ <-- Link to list of more VMware blogs than you could ever possibly read
Other:
Follow virtualization guys on Twitter (@scott_lowe, @duncanYB, @rick_vmwaretips, @ChrisWahl, @FrankDenneman, etc, etc, etc.)
/r/vmware
VMware channel (#vmware) on Freenode
See if there's a local VMware Users Group that meets in your area. Lots of information/smart people to be found there. - www.vmug.com
Set up a home lab (can check out /r/homelab for information) and get some practical experience to go along with all of the reading that is in your future. :)
EDIT: Found a cool list of the top 10 virtualization Twitter accounts: http://vdestination.com/2010/09/23/top-10-virtualization-twitter-accounts/
When I did Network Programming last year I found most of the work and assessed material matched closely to what's in this book:https://www.amazon.com/Network-Programming-Elliotte-Rusty-Harold/dp/1449357679
Java Network Programming: author = Rusty Harold.
The tutorials were pretty much all lifted directly from this book.
Just following that will probably be enough to get you through.
Had a good lecturer when I did it though.
Wireshark do doo dododoDOOdoot wireshark
I'm glad you found your answer. For complete (very) documentation on Nagios I suggest this book. It's what got me really started.
Automate the Boring stuff with Python is a pretty good book that covers some basics of things and gets the creative juices flowing. They also have one for Powershell.
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The other book that I found really interesting was Practical Packet Analysis. It really opened my eyes to the power of wireshark.
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And enough can't be said for Phoenix Project. Really interesting read that explains it in a real world like scenario instead of just a White Paper of how to do stuff. Above all else...avoid being a Brent.
Links
www.dspguru.com
Videos
Oppenheimer's MIT Lectures
(http://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-6-008-digital-signal-processing-spring-2011/video-lectures/)
Digital Filters I through V (Hamming Learning to Learn on Youtube)
Monty's Presentations http://www.xiph.org/video/
Books
Schaum's Digital Signal Processing (<= Recommended It's good and cheap.)
http://www.amazon.com/Schaums-Outline-Digital-Processing-Edition/dp/0071635092
Signals and System Made Easy
http://www.amazon.com/Signals-Systems-Made-Ridiculously-Simple/dp/0964375214
ftp://ftp.cefetes.br/cursos/EngenhariaEletrica/Hans/Sinais%20e%20Sistemas/ZIZI%20Press%20-%20Signals%20and%20Systems%20Made%20Ridiculously%20Simple.pdf
Discrete Time Signal Processing
http://www.amazon.com/Discrete-Time-Signal-Processing-Edition-Prentice/dp/0131988425/
Discrete Time Signal Processing (Older version I used in school)
http://www.amazon.com/Discrete-Time-Signal-Processing-Edition-Prentice-Hall/dp/0137549202/
DSP using MATLAB
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Signal-Processing-Using-MATLAB/dp/1111427372/
Digital Signal Processing Prokais
(Similar to Oppenheimer book, but found it clearer in some instances from what I remember. )
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Signal-Processing-4th-Edition/dp/0131873741/
Books I've seen around
Understanding Digital Signal Processing
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Digital-Signal-Processing-Edition/dp/0137027419/
Scientist-Engineers-Digital-Signal-Processing
http://www.amazon.com/Scientist-Engineers-Digital-Signal-Processing/dp/0966017633/
http://www.dspguide.com
It kind of sounds like you'd be good just getting a textbook. I think any book will be fine since you mainly just want questions (and presumably answers), but try to find one that implements code in a language that you're comfortable with, or that you want to learn.
There are a lot of different "final year" DSP courses, but it sounds like you want something covering the fundamentals rather than anything too advanced. I started off with The Scientist & Engineer's Guide to Digital Signal Processing and then used Signals and Systems for my first undergraduate course, but we used it largely because he co-authored it. I would recommend scouring the web for some free books though. There are books like ThinkDSP popping up that seem pretty neat.
Edit: Oppenheim is always mentioned also.
Computer Networks - Andrew H Tanenbaum All you ever wanted to know and then some.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006Y1BKGC/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1
If you are serious about getting into networking then you need to read the following to start with:
TCP/IP fundamentals
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0201633469/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
Ethernet definitive guide
http://www.amazon.com/Ethernet-Definitive-Charles-E-Spurgeon/dp/1449361846/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1397246249&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=ethernet+the+definitive+guide
Then install GNS and create/break stuff.
Then get a CCNA under your belt, will take about 2 months of study after work to pass the exam.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1118749618/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
Having the CCNA under your belt should easily get you a foot in the door.
However to understand networking you will be spending your working life studying to stay current...
When I said "the network" I meant the physical network. The virtual port will be the secondary's assigned virtual port of course.
The hosts can be connected to the same or to different physical switches, but they'd be connected to the same logical networks/vlans. In either case, the physical switchs will eventually see a frame from the VM on a physical port it had not before. When this happens the switch will add the source MAC address of the VM to it's forwarding table indicating that "this MAC exists on port N". Future frames destined for the VM's MAC will now be sent to this new port.
There is a NIC Teaming policy for each vSwitch called "Notify Switches" related to this. If this policy is enabled the destination host will send out frames with the MAC of the incoming VM so that the physical switches know ahead of time to start sending frames destined for the VM's MAC to the new physical port. This way when the VM stops executing on the source host and starts executing on the destination host, there will be a much smaller number of packets that potentially don't make it to the VM. I'm not sure if this settings applies to FT fail over events, but it would be easy to test with the right equipment in a lab.
If you're interested in knowing more about networking from the perspective of a VMware administrator check out this book. It starts from the very basics of networking (first 6 chapters) and then goes from there to vSphere specific topics. Would probably be a good read for you.
THE book, 5th Edition
Computer Networks https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006Y1BKGC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_m8MxCb6JF63XC
Hmm I would suggest Introduction to Networks v6 Companion Guide or ICND1.
I learned at school but Cisco is the reference for networks, and getting CCNA is like having the common basis that every IT Network guy should know. Well, not exactly having the CCNA as a cert but knowing all the stuff they talk about.
Be careful though, ICND1+ICND2 = CCNA, so the 2^nd book isn't enough.
If by chance you know French, try this one. He is the reference for any beginner as he explains the concepts. Unfortunately I found no translation of it, only for his most recent books (which are more specific). And this website.
Good luck
Unsure if it meets your requirements exactly, but I liked this book:
Defensive Security Handbook
This book explains more than you ever want to know
https://www.amazon.com/Vmware-Vsphere-Host-Resources-Deep/dp/1540873064/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=vsphere+deep+dive&qid=1571948440&sr=8-1
Read this as your textbook:
https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Networks-Andrew-S-Tanenbaum-ebook/dp/B006Y1BKGC
Then start messing around with linux to be a novice sysadmin. Then play with wireshark. Then you are ready to start doing some of the Cisco training, start by reading some of the CCNA training material.
http://www.amazon.com/Network-Guide-Networks-Printed-Access/product-reviews/1133608191/ref=cm_cr_pr_btm_link_next_4?ie=UTF8&amp;pageNumber=4&amp;showViewpoints=0&amp;sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
This is a newer edition to the Network+ book that I have. It's nothing super in depth or technical, but what it does do is lay some foundations out for you to expound upon.
This book isn’t bad. I have an older version and thought it was really easy to follow along.
Microsoft has this as well.
Nagios is really easy to manage.. however, if you find yourself struggling with it, you should read at least the official documentation[1], or any of these books[2,3].. in fact, I encourage to read the books.
[1] http://nagios.sourceforge.net/docs/nagioscore/4/en/toc.html
[2] http://www.amazon.com/Nagios-Network-Monitoring-Wolfgang-Barth/dp/1593271794
[3] http://www.amazon.com/Building-Monitoring-Infrastructure-Nagios-Josephsen/dp/0132236931
TIL ZenOSS was a nicely packaged Cacti/Nagios. I've always gone with Nagios/Cacti combos I set up myself... before Zabbix. Still nice to know going forward. Thanks!
I also was given this book: Nagios: System and Network Monitoring and while we didn't go the Nagios route, it was very beneficial too.
I have to recommend Amanda Berlin and Lee Brotherston's book : https://www.amazon.com/Defensive-Security-Handbook-Practices-Infrastructure/dp/1491960388
Network + is probably best for an intro, but CCENT will provide you some basic networkig and get more advanced as you progress (networking in regards to cisco) . A good book for an introduction to networking would be this book. This was a great book to introducing me to networking (used it in my college class). I am currently reading this book as a prerequisite for cisco networking. This book is great to refresh what I know on networking, also it is great to teach you some basic cisco networking!
Java Network Programming (http://www.amazon.com/Network-Programming-Elliotte-Rusty-Harold/dp/1449357679/) is actually a very good book that introduces network programming in the Java language. Don't mind that it is focused on Java, the concepts it walks through can be found in almost any programming language (same shit, different name).
It talks about writing multithreaded applications, using UDP, TCP, etc. However, if you wonder how to incorporate physics simulations I would suggest you google for Gaffer On Games for his networking guide.
Check out Foundations of Python Network Programming
> This book will be of interest to python programmers who need to program networked applications using Python. From web application developers, to systems integrators, to system administrators—this book has everything you need to know.
>This book assumes that you know how to program in Python, but does not assume that you know anything about networking. If you have used something like a web browser before, and are vaguely aware that your computer talks to other computers in order to display web pages, then you should be ready to start reading this book.
What is your programming background? Do you have any experience in other languages/frameworks?
I haven't used the book you mentioned, but these have been pretty helpful (listed in order of brain-melting complexity):
If you are trying to shore up what you feel are knowledge gaps regarding networking - I am a fan of Chris Sanders practical packet analysis He has training that if fairly reasonable if you company does reimbursement His Site
Grab a book like TCP IP illustrated, which is very in depth, makes a great reference, and is vendor agnostic.
>I've played around with MPLS in lab environments, and got it working but only in its most basic form, and without truly understanding what's happening in the background.
mpls ipunder global and interfaces <-- MPLS EXPERTHere's a good PDF overview from NANOG titled "MPLS for Dummies."
I also enjoyed CBT Nuggets MPLS Fundamentals course.
Then this book -- MPLS Fundamentals -- is highly rated. (at least on Amazon)
And once you’ve finished that and you’re ready for the Masters class:
VMware vSphere 6.5 Host Resources Deep Dive
Also if you buy the OCG (Official Cert Guide), there are companion books that you can get also, the companion guides reference workbooks. The workbooks have labs and such written out that you can do in Packet Tracer / GNS3 / VIRL / Physical.
Here are Amazon links to all of the official Cisco books for CCENT (ICND-1):
I've always used Computer Networking A Top-Down Approach by Kurose and Ross. (it's also fairly easy to find a PDF of it). It's a good read for understanding the fundamentals and the bigger picture.
Purchase copies of both the Clustering Deep Dive and Host Resources Deep Dive books. You can also find digital copies from Rubrik for free at the following:
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https://pages.rubrik.com/host-resources-deep-dive_request.html
https://pages.rubrik.com/clustering-deep-dive-ebook.html
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If you're going to run vSAN there is also a vSAN Deep Dive book available.
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Additionally, pick up VMware vSphere 5.1 Clustering Deepdive. It applies to 5.5 as well. Definitely a good book.
Look at the SANS website. They have some downloadable Word docs with basic questions. Other Google searches for 'audit' checklists will bring up some others.
From the audits that I've been part of, you need to focus on these key areas:
Also, take a look at this book. It helped me get a security program started, from the ground up. https://www.amazon.com/Defensive-Security-Handbook-Practices-Infrastructure/dp/1491960388/ref=sr_1_15?keywords=building+a+network+security&qid=1566233244&s=gateway&sr=8-15
I know of some good text books that are pretty easy to read. The Oppenheim and Schafer are considered by a lot of my former profs to be the bible of DSP intro:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0131988425/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&amp;pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&amp;pf_rd_t=201&amp;pf_rd_i=0132146355&amp;pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;pf_rd_r=17WDV1JR8EA7P3D8W78A
It's pretty comprehensive, so if you're looking for something simpler, this is a pretty short and intuitive intro text (which was actually my first exposure to DSP!):
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Signal-Processing-Primer-Applications/dp/0805316841