Computer networking

What Hacker News says

1. maqpJan 2026
   Top 5 will never cover the field. Here's my top 10

   * Brookshear and Brylow - Computer Science - An Overview

   * Forta - Teach yourself SQL in 10 minutes

   * Stallings - Computer Organization and Architecture

   * Stallings - Operating Systems - Internals and Design Principles

   * CLRS

   * Kurose, Ross - Computer Networking - A Top Down Approach

   * Sipser - Introduction to The Theory of Computation

   * Stallings, Brown - Computer Security - Principles and Practice

   * Aumasson - Serious Cryptography

   * Russell, Norvig - Artificial Intelligence - A Modern Approach

   And even this fails to cover programming languages. Python is the lingua franca of the field. Most past recommended books are getting outdated, but perhaps Matthes' Python Crash Course 3rd edition.

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2. rchiangJan 2026
   I'd make the argument that TCP/IP Illustrated Volume 1 covers the details of TCP/IP in a very "packet and fields" oriented way. Volume 2 goes into a lot of the "data structures and implementation" way. That makes for a very good supplemental reference, but makes for a less than ideal introductory textbook on the subject of computer networking.

   Kurose's book really does take the top-down approach from high level networking concepts through the application layer to the transport layer and downward. It provides just enough of the necessary details (here's a datagram with fields A and B) over a comprehensive list of all the details (here's every field, every field size, and a list of every field option).

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3. teleforceNov 2024
   I've also had Computer Networks, 1st Edition by Tanembaum as my textbook back in the days.

   Nowadays, you will be much better of with Computer Networking: A Top Down Approach by Kurose now in 8th edition:

   https://gaia.cs.umass.edu/kurose_ross/index.php

   There's also videos by Prof Kurose himself teaching from the book from Youtube, and additionally the ppt slides and exercises are available without registration unlike many textbooks.

   I think the book set a very high standard on how textbook should be written and presented (any subject not only computer networking).

   Fun facts, the 1st edition already logically and fundamentally separated forwarding and control planes for better understanding even before the modern software-defined networking (SDN) was proposed. The newer editions already have forwarding and control in separate chapters, nice.

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4. patch-nSep 2024
   I started out as a business analyst and technical product manager at a startup before transitioning to software engineer job family there and in my 2 subsequent roles over the past 6 years. It sounds like your management is especially supportive of you making this transition internally, which is going to be very helpful.

   I want to add a caveat that your manager and colleagues should be a resource for you when tackling projects at work, and not to hesitate to ask pragmatic questions about the project(s) you might pitch in on there. It's ok to not have all the fundamentals down, as long as you're working to be a net positive on the project(s).

   I went through some of the books listed in the teach yourself CS resource. https://teachyourselfcs.com/

   A subset of the resources listed there are probably the most pragmatic for the topics you asked, but you might discover that you're interested in other areas of CS as you slowly work through them. I think it's ok to nibble away at exercises while juggling your family and work obligations.

   * Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - SICP. If the book doesn't necessarily click right away, doing a subset of the Scheme exercises are still worthwhile.

   * Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective - CS:APP. Incredibly helpful knowledge about low-level programming.

   * Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach - You mentioned having a home lab, and more networking understanding will help contextualize some of your work.

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5. throwaway63467Mar 2024
   “Computer Networking: A Top down approach” by James Kurose.
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6. teleforceJan 2024
   For me Computer Networking: A Top Down Approach (CNTDA) by Kurose is still the best textbook out there to learn modern networking:

   https://gaia.cs.umass.edu/kurose_ross/index.php

   Starting with the 6th edition, it has separated control and forwarding planes for the network layer to reflect the increasing popularity of software-defined networking (SDN) i.e. evolution of hardware centric to software centric networking. The fact that even before 6th edition when the chapter on networking is still monolithic (combined chapter on control and forwarding), it has already mentioned about the separation concerns between the control and forwarding planes while other popular textbooks still not highlighting this important matter. In addition, unlike many textbooks you can download all the supporting materials slides, exercises, animation, etc, of the from the authors' public website and Prof. Kurose video lectures are also available in Youtube.

   My main wish lists for the next edition (9th) hopefully include Smart-NIC for modern approach to in-network computation and also the newly standardized segment routing for network layer QoS.

   If there's The Nobel Prize in Literature for textbook authors, the authors of this book should be more than deserving.

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