Reddit mentions: The best tcp-ip books

What OS? Linux, of course. When TPB order everything locked down, you don't want to be caught using a Microsoft OS. -- What distribution? The easy path is Ubuntu, with the Cinnamon UI, or LinuxMint 13, when issued (May 2012).

What IDE? There's lots to choose from. My favorite is "geany".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geany

For TCP/IP protocol tutorial. Recently updated by Wright:
Stevens, "TCP/IP Illustrated", 3-volume set.

http://www.amazon.com/TCP-IP-Illustrated-Volume-Set/dp/0201776316

On human interface guidelines relevant to programming:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_interface_guidelines

For GNOME 2, see:

http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/stable/

To develop Linux applications:

You are right. You MUST know how to program in C. When others tell you that object oriented programming is the thing, know that you can do object oriented programming in C. Avoid interpreted languages (Python, Java, and others) as a first programming language. Interpreted languages teach bad habits and hid too much of what's going on from you such that debugging becomes difficult to impossible.

However, if all you intend is "casual programming", the Python will do, if you must. It's just not the best choice first a first language if your intent is to become a "professional programmer". I use Python myself; It works for what I need to do quick and dirty.

Definitive, but for experienced programmers:

http://www.amazon.com/C-Programming-Language-2nd-Edition/dp/0131103628/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335197606&sr=1-1

As a tutorial for someone learning a first programming language and how to program from zero:

Perry, "Absolute Beginner's Guide to C", 2ed.
-- I have not read the book, but the ToC looks reasonable for a beginner.

http://www.amazon.com/Absolute-Beginners-Guide-2nd-Edition/dp/0672305100/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335197606&sr=1-6

OK, you don't want a full CS curriculum, but some topics in discrete mathematics are mandatory. ... Ack! Having looked over the offerings at Amazon, I believe that Epp, "Discrete Mathematics with Applications" may be the best of the lot, but at $187, it is hard to recommend without knowing your intent and interest. The reason I suggest this title is that it looks focused on application to computer science topics. It covers a number of topics that are NOT covered in many of the other titles, enough so that should you use other texts you will have spent more than the $187 that this title includes. JMHO.

http://www.amazon.com/Discrete-Mathematics-Applications-Susanna-Epp/dp/0495391328/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335199316&sr=1-1

See also: Sedgwick, "Algorithms" -- You'll probably need it sooner than later.

http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-4th-Edition-Robert-Sedgewick/dp/032157351X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335200153&sr=1-1

Remember that Linux OS? You are going to need some programming tools, right? If you intend to write GUI applications based on the GTK+ toolkit, then install the package "glade" or "glade-gtk". Installing a glade package will suck in over 100 other packages essential to building a GTK based GUI application. Specifying glade to the package manager is just easier that finding and installing all the other necessary parts by hand.

If you are going to do command line based UI programs, then package "build-essentials" should be adequate.

There are some other things to read:

On how to organize, grow and maintain a Linux software development project: Fogel, "Producing Open Source Software"

http://producingoss.com/

You can read it online here, but buy the book too to help support Fogel. He's gotta eat too.

On the culture of writing Open Source Software:

Raymond, "The Cathedral and the Bazaar"

http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/

Linux programming is not like Windows programming.
Read and study ESR's TAOP.

Raymond, "The Art of Unix Programming"

http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/

You can read it online, free. However, buy a hardcopy too. Raymond has to eat too.

Now to get really technical. What interface do you write to?

Kerrick, "The Linux Programming Interface: A Linux and UNIX System Programming Handbook"

http://www.amazon.com/The-Linux-Programming-Interface-Handbook/dp/1593272200/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335201257&sr=1-1#reader_1593272200

Beginning to focus on GNU style programming:

GNU Coding Standards

https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/

GNU Coding Standards is more than how to and how much to indent a line or how to set braces. You will get into the topic of Make and Autotools. Make is a program to build complex softare and Autotools is about how to build a package for distribution, the package that any Unix flavor can use; it is not focused on any specific distribution. See also: "configure and make"

Enough! There's more, but I have too much time in this already for today.

[edit: typos]

I come from a similar background, but now I live almost completely in the networking domain. If you’re interested in learning about the various technologies from the perspective of a non-operator expert, I recommend TCP/IP Illustrated: The Protocols.

If you want to learn how to route packets from the perspective of a (albeit senior) network administrator, I recommend Routing TCP/IP Volume 1 and Routing TCP/IP Volume 2.

Beyond the excellent and thorough descriptions of the various technologies (with context), they also provide direct references to the RFCs and white papers wherein the technologies were first published. Using these three texts as a starting point, you can delve as deep as your interest carries you. I believe all three books are available through Safari Books.

If you learn best through video and verbal instruction, I recommend INE. It’s pricy but worth it.

Again, not entirely my wheelhouse, but time definitely helps.

Curiosity is also critical. The guys I know who are really good software guys are always tinkering with things because they see something like Amazon Echo's home automation and think "I wonder if I could do that with some Arduino's and a Pi". They never seem to really finish the home projects, but they pick up enough of a new skill/language/protocol set that they've leveled up just a bit. Good programmers always seem to be dicking with something inconsequential that they get to 60% functional before they chase the next "Hunh. That's neat. I bet I could..." thing.

Don't just learn the hot new skill. Learn how the stuff underneath it works. As a network guy, I've met dozens of coders who didn't understand the first thing about how networks work or the OSI model. These are then they guys shouting at me in a meeting because they chose to use CIFS as their backup mechanism for boxes deployed in California and Dubai, and their backups never seem to complete. This is the first book in a trilogy that will teach you more than you ever wanted to know.

The Design of the UNIX Operating System

• It's an old book but is really a must read for anyone getting into unix systems administration.
  
  Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment
  
  Unix Network Programming, Volume 1: The Sockets Networking API
  
  Sams Teach Yourself C for Linux Programming in 21 Days
  
  
• That last one isn't as much of a must read as it is just a great book for learning basic C.
  
  edit: These aren't books but are GREAT online guides for sed and awk given by IBM
  Common threads: Awk by example
  Common threads: Sed by example
  
  edit 2: Left this set of books out because I figured it had to have been posted already, i was wrong
  TCP/IP Illustrated
  
• Couldn't find a link to the complete set which are all good, but volume 1 is by for the most important.

Not all of these are in our core training/ required knowledge, or related to our day to day functions as a university A/V department, but They are all available to my team for knowledge building and professional development. Additionally , and our job ladder includes Infocomm certifications, so the library is a little biased towards infocomm resources at the moment.
Books I use are

• [Master Handbook of Acoustics](
  http://www.amazon.com/Master-Handbook-Acoustics-Alton-Everest/dp/0071603328)
  
• CTS exam guide
  
• sound reinforcement handbook
  
• a/v best practices
  
• Sound system engineering
  
• show networks and control systems
  
• television production handbook
  
• tcp/ip illustrated vols 1-3
  
• PMBOK
  
• network wiring
  
• entertainment electricity
  
• sys admin
  
  just ordered digital video and hd
  based on a recommendation in r/videoengineering
  
  infocomm's audio and visual systems design, essentials of the av industry, av best practices, AV installation hand book
  
  
  white papers/ online training from extron, JBL, Dalite, surgeX, bluejeanscable, and others. (out of the office and do not have the exact list and links with me
  
  
  
  
  

I agree with other comments in that you need to give us more details on the project criteria. That said I'll shoot two things at you. Perhaps you can look at TCP, impact latency, packetloss, etc has on overall throughput. Then you can do a study of WAN optimization technologies and recommend a particular approach for small, medium, large networks? An excellent book to get you started is (TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols (2nd Edition))[http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321336313/]. The benefit here is you will get a deep understanding of the issues affecting network performance and things we can do to improve.

If you're on more of the computer science/programming spectrum, you can look at creating an automation framework for network configuration and changes. Every network change has the same basic steps:

1. Backup the configurations of any affected devices.
   
2. Run a series of checks against the state of the network (ping, traceroute, show commands) and compare it to known expected values.
   
3. Execute the network change (in the case of Cisco, order matters).
   
4. Re-run a series of checks against the state of the network and compare to outputs captured in step 2.
   
5. Save all configuration.
   
   In shops that don't have network automation, it seems that the most common root cause of incidents is human error. Either the procedure is theoretically flawed or the change itself was implemented incorrectly. Network automation can help with the latter. The features and functions of your framework is up to you. The benefit here is you get familiar with programmatically interfacing with network equipment using ssh, api's or snmp.
   

I as well went to school for Network Engineering and am working Entry-Level networking now. These are the books that have helped me so far.

Network Warrior

Network+

CCNA Library

TCP/IP Illustrated

I've read a few others, but these were my favorite ones. The Network+ book helped me obtain my Network+ Cert, then the CCNA Library helped me obtain my CCENT and CCNA. Great Books!

I would only recommend that Netowork+ book though if you plan on getting into Cisco stuff because the author is a Cisco guy and tends to start rambling about Cisco technologies that you will learn for the CCNA.

You don't need the mumbo jumbo (but if you are genuinely interested, google or https://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Protocols-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321336313/ref=sr_1_2)

Let's see what we can learn from the part you pasted.

The first few lines are just setting up the TCP connection. Kind of like two people saying, "hello, nice to meet you."

192.168.2.1.80 -> 192.168.2.15.41580

192.168.2.15.41580 -> 192.168.2.1.80

IE: 192.168.2.15 port 41580 is talking to 192.168.2.1 port 80

A bit later we see:

HTTP: GET top_conn.xml HTTP/1.1

So the client (192.168.2.15) is asking for http://192.168.2.1/top_conn.xml

The server replies:

HTTP: HTTP/1.0 200 Ok

Meaning the resource is available, and I presume the payload contains the data.

What we have learned:

1. The client (192.168.2.15) can successfully send packets to the server (192.168.2.1)
   
2. The server (192.168.2.1) can successfully send packets to the client (192.168.2.15)
   
3. The web server is running on port 80
   
4. The web server successfully responded to a web request from the client.
   
   Now you need to try connecting from outside your firewall via the port-forward.
   
   First, you want to see packets successfully reaching the server from outside. If you don't see those, obviously nothing will work; there's something wrong with your firewall port-forwarding rule.
   
   Second, you want to see packets successfully returned by the server. If you don't see those, something is wrong with the server.
   
   Third, on the client (outside the firewall) you want to see the returned packets from the server. If you don't see those, your firewall is preventing packets from leaving your LAN (yes, firewalls can filter packets in only one direction, or any number of ways. It's their job, after all.)
   
   Fourth, if packets are moving through your firewall in both directions successfully, but you still don't see the webpage you expect, it's probably something with your web server.
   
   Hope this helps :D

I would also like to take the time to plug a few resources, if I may, that have greatly assisted me throughout my career.

1. Of course, Cisco Press. Wendell Odom especially.
   
2. Non-Cisco Press, Todd Lamlle's CCNA book is great!
   
3. CBT Nuggets!! Jeremy Cioara and Keith Barker.
   
4. Tech Exams Forums!! For answers to your questions regarding certification, study material, etc, from a variety of vendor certs. Or, to just read motivating success stories!!
   
5. Internetworking Experts (INE!) That link should direct you to their free CCNA video course. If that doesn't work for you, simply register an account with them and search for the CCNA video course.
   
6. Thomas Limoncelli's The Practice of Systems and Network Administration
   
7. Gary A Donahue's Network Warrior
   
8. Jeff Doyle's CCIE Professional Development Routing TCP/IP Vol. 1 or 2
   
9. Douglas E. Comer's Internetworking with TCP/IP
   
10. GNS3!! Free Cisco Router and ASA Emulation!! Just make sure you have access to Cisco IOS software!
    
11. Andrew S. Tanenbaum's Computer Networks.
    
12. Jeremy Stretch and PacketLife!! Also, Jeremy's network Cheat Sheets!
    
13. Firewall.cx!!
    
14. Cisco's Command Lookup Tool! Requires login, but nonetheless, a great resource for your Cisco engineers when you just NEED to know how the hell a particular command works.
    
15. Priscilla Oppenheimer's Top-Down Network Design
    
16. I've heard the folks at /r/networking are pretty legit.

If you really want in-depth knowledge, I would go with TCP/IP Illustrated. It has recently been updated and pretty much covers the gamut of all things networking.

If that looks a little too daunting, you can go with a CCENT book (Lammle and Odom tend to be the best writers, IMO). It does cover Cisco products, but the concepts in it are primarily vendor neutral. Hope that helps.

Interconnections: Bridges, Routers, Switches, and Internetworking Protocols (2nd Edition)

Internetworking with TCP/IP Volume 1 (5th Edition)

TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols (2nd Edition)

are the three 'vendor neutral' books that are recommended by INE as resources for all CCIE tracts.



Cisco CCIE book list contains the following:

Other Publications

Cisco Documentation

Configuring IPv6 for Cisco IOS (Edgar Parenti, Jr., Eric Knnip, Brian Browne, Syngress, ISBN# 1928994849)

Interconnections: Bridges & Routers, Second Edition (Perlman, Addison Wesley, ISBN# 0201634481)

"Internetworking Technology Overview" Available through Cisco Store under doc # DOC-785777

Internetworking with TCP/IP, Vol.1: Principles, Protocols, and Architecture (4th Edition)
(Comer, Prentice Hall, ISBN# 0130183806)

IPv6: Theory, Protocol, and Practice, 2nd Edition (Pete Loshin, Morgan Kaufmann, ISBN# 1558608109)

LAN Protocol Handbook (Miller, M&T Press, ISBN# 1558510990 )
Routing In the Internet (2nd Edition) (Huitema, Prentice Hall, ISBN# 0130226475)

TCP/IP Illustrated: Volumes 1, 2, and 3 (Stevens/Wright, Addison Wesley, ISBN# 0201633469, 020163354X, 0201634953)



edit1:
I own the first three and recommend them for vendor neutral network engineering books, with Perlman's book being the best switching book I've personally ever read.


edit2:
also I find wikipedia articles on computer related topics to be top shelf. I would recommend many of the references and papers referenced in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_theory
article.

That depends on the book. Books on frameworks or specific languages are rarely useful -- I find that online reference manuals are the best for that.

However, books like TCP/IP Illustrated, The Art of Multiprocessor Programming, Compilers: Principles, techniques, and tools, An Introduction to Algorithms and similar tend to age pretty well, and I still find myself pulling them out and referring to them quite often.

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.

Here are a couple books I have. The author of the first one was a teacher of mine a while back. She really knows her stuff. That book in particular is good for explaining all the protocols involved and how the packets are put together.

http://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Protocols-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321336313/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382132562&sr=1-1&keywords=tcp+ip+illustrated


This second book is more general networking stuff. Still some really good reference material.

http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Network-Modern-Kaufmann-Networking/dp/0123745411/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382132562&sr=1-7&keywords=tcp+ip+illustrated

And for operating system basics, this is a good all-rounder:

http://www.amazon.com/Operating-Concepts-Seventh-Abraham-Silberschatz/dp/0471694665/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382132818&sr=1-4&keywords=operating+system+concepts

And for *nix because it is important and nobody thinks about it:

http://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0131480057/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382132917&sr=1-1&keywords=Linux+System+administration

CCNA gets you the basics, but it includes a lot of stuff that's not really useful from your perspective (WAN stuff, cabling details, etc.)

If you want to get stuck in, you might be better off understanding the protocols. This book is a great resource for that. Everything you ever wanted to know about ARP, DNS, routing and TCP (probably way more than you ever wanted to know about TCP).

I would recommend this book. It was just recently updated and is an excellent source for many of the fundamentals for networking.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321336313/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details

This book is always a good place to start if your serious about being knowledgeable about networks http://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Protocols-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321336313/

Then there is this book. Even if you take only a couple hours to review the key sections you want learn about, you will look amazing. http://www.amazon.com/Wireshark-Network-Analysis-Second-Certified/dp/1893939944/

even if they don't ask casually mention which books you've been reading. While it may seem a little expensive to buy these books, it will pay back in dividends for future jobs

TCP is a connection (edited to remove /less) protocol an application throws its data to the buffers it doesn't care about where it goes from there thats the routers job which will use any virtual circuit sucessfully negotiated by SEQ and ACK with the destination host buffers using the routers best path at that moment. In fact more than one route is often used simultaneously between hosts during a data download the robustness of TCP is why it is so sucessful. Latency can be caused by congestion, delays, packet loss, browser and application malware/bugs, even users pausing at the mouse.

A ping or traceroute tests for the connection the advantage of packet analysis is it can provide clues about the latency on your side or at the destination host so worth the effort to inspect packets. On this link Hansang Bae demonstrates special techniques using Wireshark to extract information about latency from packet traces. https://www.youtube.com/user/hansangb/videos Also this site is an introduction to tcp http://www.firewall.cx/networking-topics/protocols/tcp.html futher reference is from wikipedia or TCP Illustrated http://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Volume-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321336313/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_z

Until you understand what a packet is and how it is constructed, wireshark isn't going to be of much use to you. A good resource for this is https://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Protocols-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321336313/ref=dp_ob_title_bk To effectively get just what you need, you should also understand BPF: https://biot.com/capstats/bpf.html

I liked Steven's TCP/IP Illustrated Vol 1 (Addison-Wesley). It does a great job of breaking down exactly how the core protocols work at a very low level.

https://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Protocols-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321336313

Yes, yes there is.

TCP/IP Illustrated:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0321336313/

I think I learned from TCP illustrated protocols

It's a long read but it does pretty much cover everything

Best advice I can give the OP is to read TCP/IP Illustrated. It filled in a lot of gaps of knowledge not picked up in vendor certs.

Some books are excellent permanent references.

TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols (2nd Edition)

End-to-End QoS Network Design: Quality of Service for Rich-Media & Cloud Networks (2nd Edition)

Other books, as you point out are useful, but perhaps only for shorter periods of time...

Some very good books on networking basics:

Computer Networks

TCP/IP Illustrated

I'm a first-year CS student and I just started reading TCP/IP for Dummies. Depending on the book's level of accuracy, I think it would be a good introduction for answering these kinds of questions.

For howto stuff or newer topics, definitely. I have several fullsize bookcases that I almost haven't touched in over five years.

The only exception would be my copies of TCP/IP Illustrated by Stevens which I recently referred to in tracking down improper (and rarely encountered) behavior in Linux's network stack.

No question, W. Richard Stevens' books on the protocols and the implementation were the definitive works.

I haven't gone back to them recently to see how they've aged, but much of what I know about TCP/IP, I learned from those books. (I was tasked with switching over the internal communications on a large telecom system from a proprietary protocol to TCP/IP - again, I'm talking about the communications between boards in the system, not outside to switching centers and COs.)

Unfortunately, Vol. 3 pre-dated HTTPS (and SSL in general), too bad, I'm sure if he were still alive, Stevens would have done that topic justice.

I recommend Stevens' oeuvre starting with TCP/IP Illustrated (for the concepts) and UNIX Network Programming (for the C-level programming details):

https://www.amazon.com/Unix-Network-Programming-Sockets-Networking/dp/0131411551

https://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Protocols-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321336313

Also, Beej's Guide to Network Programming (background and C-level programming details): http://beej.us/guide/bgnet/output/html/multipage/index.html

If you're doing web work, you might be interested in High Performance Browser Networking: https://hpbn.co/

TCP/IP Illustrated will cover some of it, but you might want to read the networking chapter(s) of a sysadmin book. I don't have a ready reference.

These don't cover load-balancing or CDN, although the other textbooks mentioned in the thread probably don't either, at least not in detail.

It's very complicated.

Read: http://www.amazon.com/Internetworking-TCP-Volume-One-Edition/dp/013608530X

The author was one of the people involved with the creation of the internet.

Networking

• The TCP/IP Guide: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Internet Protocols Reference
  
  
• TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols, 2nd Edition

Recommended reading:
https://www.amazon.ca/TCP-Illustrated-Protocols-Addison-Wesley-Professional-ebook/dp/B00666M52S/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Digesting these 3 books on TCP/IP should give you a solid foundation.

I used to take things apart as a kid; VCRs, RC cars, TVs, PCs, etc.. just to see how they worked. Went to school for 2.5 years learning programming (C++, Java, HTML (if you can call that programming)), hated that and the personalities (I;m introverted but programmers / devs are next level introverts). Transferred to a music track at another school and finished with my BA. Got a job in music, but missed IT so I applied for a business analyst role at the same company - worked with devs doing light SQL work and end users assisting in the deployment of an internal CRM. Moved on from there to an internal IT spot, then after that an MSP - another MSP, which is what I'm doing now.

Got experience in VMware (and VDI), a bit of Azure, lots of onsite support and have done work for high profile clients, celebrities, CEOs, etc.. basically do what you need to do to get the job done. I'm constantly learning, the next stuff I want to learn is networking - as in high level network - using the TCP/IP Guide (https://www.amazon.com/TCP-Guide-Comprehensive-Illustrated-Protocols/dp/159327047X/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=tcpip+guide&qid=1573236473&s=books&sr=1-3) and Internetworking (https://www.amazon.com/Internetworking-TCP-IP-One-6th/dp/013608530X)

Also need a lot of Linux experience since VMware and Cisco products are based off that. Start with the fundamentals and go from there.

I fucking love what I do. I have an A+ cert from years ago, but haven't bother with anything since. I do a lot of work for hedge funds now so it's more who you know than what you know - I'd like to get a cert in the future but don't really have the time. If you have any questions or want me to take a glance at your resume just send me a message and I'll shoot over my email.

And full disclosure, IT has a lot of bullshit you need to deal with, if you can't handle that or deal with it the correct way (read: just deal with it) then you're gonna have a bad time - shit will break, things will fail, backups will take huge dumps, but you just have to have the mindset that you can fix it or know where and how to find the answer (vendor support tickets are your best friend - specific to Cisco TAC. lol)

Internetworking with TCP/IP by Comer. Three volumes, but volume I is sufficient for what you want.

http://www.amazon.com/Internetworking-TCP-Volume-One-Edition/dp/013608530X

https://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Protocols-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321336313

Overkill, but you'll want to know this IRL anyway. Esp if you ever have to explain a wireshark to a dev/server guy/guns pointed at 10 paces meeting with vendor

The Practice of System and Network Administration, Second Edition

UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook - 4th Edition

[TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols - 2nd Edition] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0321336313/)

These should be part of every ops department's library, if not already in your own personal one.

Douglas Comer.

https://www.amazon.com/Internetworking-TCP-IP-One-6th/dp/013608530X

Check out the following books:

TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols: The Protocols v. 1 (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0321336313/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_HsfhDb3TC15DK

By Gary A. Donahue Network Warrior (2nd Edition) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00NBJPIV8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ltfhDbJCDDXG7

the bible

http://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Protocols-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321336313/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1324241286&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Volume-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321336313/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=16S5KZS7PFK44WNBSQ8T

http://www.amazon.com/Unix-Network-Programming-Volume-Networking/dp/0131411551

Have a look around at Stevens' other books and see if you can find something that suits.

Also, the second edition of this classic book is coming out on November http://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Protocols-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321336313

Stevens. Along with the Douglass Comer book it’s considered the de-facto standard of networking texts.

Stevens:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCP/IP_Illustrated

Comer:
https://www.amazon.com/Internetworking-TCP-IP-One-6th/dp/013608530X

That depends on how much detail you want to get into.

This one isn't the best, but it has a wizard...

If you aren't planning to actually certify or anything I'd just try to find the shortest book possible on networking. If you are an engineer and are not planning to become a network expert most of the books out there will attempt to prep you for a test with more depth than you need.

Pick up a copy of TCP/IP Illustrated. Required reading for any Network Engineer who takes themselves seriously -

http://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Volume-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321336313/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405969361&sr=8-1&keywords=tcp+illustrated+volume+1

Things you should download:

• Metasploitable VM (intentionally vulnerable Linux)
  
• Kali Linux (lots of tools including Aircrack and Metasploit already installed)
  
• "TCP/IP Illustrated"

Networking is networking. There's no difference who does it.

​

Regardless, this is a timeless book: https://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Protocols-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321336313

>The TCP/IP Guide: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Internet Protocols Reference.

Alone makes the tier worth it unless one goes dead tree for TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1 and 2.

Unfortunately, you really need to understand the fundamentals to understand a wireshark capture. What you asked is kind of like saying, "I tried to read this book that's only available in French, but I didn't understand it. Is there a step-by-step guide to reading this book?"

The solution: learn the language. Then the meaning of what you're trying to read becomes clear, not because someone explained it to you, but because you understand the language well enough to grasp the meaning.

http://amzn.com/0470450606

EDIT: Adding on to say, why don't you describe the symptoms rather than saying you think it's a DNS issue? My most frustrating service calls are when a customer tells me it's obviously due to Issue A because Google said so, when my research shows that Issue A is a symptom of a completely different problem that you won't find on Google because it's so rare and conflicts with the symptoms of Issue A. This makes me understand why doctors are sad when patients walk in saying they think they have some disorder because <<symptoms>>, when in fact those symptoms can be common to hundreds of unrelated disorders.