Computer Networks

What Hacker News says

1. pulFeb 2026
   Oh thanks!

   Depends on how you prefer to learn, but here are a few suggestions.

   I've heard good things about the Computer Networks book by Tanenbaum and Wetherall, but I haven't read it myself. Very broad and comprehensive. The most hardcore way would be to make reading RFCs your hobby. It can be tough to get through, but if you regularly take half an hour to do it, you'll learn so much. I've recently started a course at https://classes.pracnet.net/, which is good too.

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2. syndicatedjellyNov 2024
   Sure, I've been doing a lot of full-stack web development lately, and I found that reading chapters from the textbook "Computer Networks" by Andrew Tenenbaum as a primary source to be far more enlightening about how networks operate, than reading any of the hottest frameworks documentation on how they work under-the-hood. Corporate documentation tends to be more about giving off the vibe of competence, as opposed to being actually informative. They want to make it look like their tool/framework is easy to learn by offering false senses of understanding, instead of the deep understanding provided by textbooks. There are exceptions, but they seem to be growing more and more rare. Compare man pages for old CLI tools versus documentation for frameworks like Next.JS, which tends to gloss over important implementation details that might make you a better overall developer (instead of a framework wrangler).

   On the side, I'm trying to enhance my knowledge on embedded systems as well, and picked up the book "Making Embedded System" by Elecia White. I have learned so much in just the first few chapters, even though I worked on an embedded software project for a full year recently. This has served me well, because previously my understanding of embedded systems was more of at the level of an Arduino, rather than an embedded developer. Arduino is fantastic for getting your feet wet, but it does hide away a lot of slightly complicated details (that are not actually that hard to learn with a little effort).

   I would basically say, always prefer lengthy and somewhat dry textbooks over superficial and meme-heavy blog posts (or worse, YouTube videos). Learn the subject as if you only have one shot in your career to learn it, and have to learn a permanent representation of the subject that can last decades. Entertaining corporate docs, blog posts and videos are like a sugar-heavy diet for the mind, you'll feel energized at first, but eventually become sick from lack of deep understanding of anything

   In a twist of irony, here is a blog post that explains this idea reasonably well - https://archive.ph/XSPRr

   Here's a canonical blog post (again, the irony) on why understanding subjects deeply is important - https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/11/11/the-law-of-leaky-a...

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3. cpachAug 2024
   Related threads with recs:

   Ask HN: Good book to learn modern networking? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38918418 - Jan 2024

   Ask HN: Best Books for Modern Computer Networks - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39501933 - Feb 2024

   Ask HN: What is a good book to learn about the network stack? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18506651 - Nov 2018

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4. alex_suzukiJun 2024
   His book “Computer Networks” was one of my favourites in my CompSci study days. Many years later I gave lectures on Distributed Systems at a business school and based the material on the book. Still feels relevant, even today.
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5. thr0waway001Jun 2024
   Man, his Computer Networks books were dense but they had a lot of good stuff in them. They also had really good and fun looking covers.
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6. ghostpepperJan 2024
   You could do worse than Computer Networks by Tanenbaum
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