Best tcp-ip books according to redditors
We found 60 Reddit comments discussing the best tcp-ip books. We ranked the 6 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 60 Reddit comments discussing the best tcp-ip books. We ranked the 6 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Networking
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
Some very good books on networking basics:
Computer Networks
TCP/IP Illustrated
I would also like to take the time to plug a few resources, if I may, that have greatly assisted me throughout my career.
DNS and BIND by Cricket Liu
Make very sure you only buy the hardcover version of this one, you're going to use it as a permanent reference forever & ever:
TCP/IP Illustrated, Vol 1: The Protocols
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]
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 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.
Things you should download:
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.
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&amp;qid=1573236473&amp;s=books&amp;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)
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 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
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
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 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.
http://www.amazon.com/Network-Warrior-Gary-Donahue/dp/1449387861
http://www.amazon.com/Wireshark-Network-Analysis-Second-Certified/dp/1893939944/
http://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Protocols-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321336313/
the bible
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.
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.
Yes, yes there is.
TCP/IP Illustrated:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0321336313/
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
http://www.amazon.com/Master-Handbook-Acoustics-Alton-Everest/dp/0071603328)
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 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.
Plenty of advice over at /r/ccna I recommend Chris Bryants bootcamp CCNA course at Udemy he's concise and doesn't use packet tracer just the console in full screen to focus on the practical use of IOS. Chris's ICND2 section has more detail on WAN protocols than the Lammle Study Guide book and reddits /r/ccna has tips on what to read or refer to. No need to buy equipment there are router labs online you can ssh into just google.
Network faults tend to be associated with buggy applications or misconfigured devices causing network congestion, delays and packet loss. A highly recommended book to understanding the tcp/ip protocols is TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols (2nd Edition by Kevin Fall and Richard Stevens) http://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Volume-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321336313/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_z.
A freebie from Bonaventure is this pdf http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Computer-Networking-Principles-Bonaventure-1-30-31-OTC1.pdf
For tcp/ip packet analysis learn from Hansang Bae he has advice from 20 years experience on how to correctly analyse and obtain clues from tcp handshakes,sequence numbers, acks and teardowns. For packet analysis he says if you don't take the time to learn the exchange of seq and ack you might as well be somewhere else flipping burgers. https://www.youtube.com/user/hansangb/videos
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.
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.
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:
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.
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
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.
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&amp;qid=1405969361&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=tcp+illustrated+volume+1
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.
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&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1382132562&amp;sr=1-1&amp;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&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1382132562&amp;sr=1-7&amp;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&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1382132818&amp;sr=1-4&amp;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&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1382132917&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=Linux+System+administration
Recommended reading:
https://www.amazon.ca/TCP-Illustrated-Protocols-Addison-Wesley-Professional-ebook/dp/B00666M52S/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=
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
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.
Douglas Comer.
https://www.amazon.com/Internetworking-TCP-IP-One-6th/dp/013608530X
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
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.
I'm home now and able to consult my networking bible. The flow control implementation in ethernet (802.3x) does not use sliding window. All it uses is special pause frames that include a type (pause being the only relevant type) and a value for hold-off time, indicating how long the receiving device should wait before sending more data.
There's all kinds of theoretical flow control mechanisms, sliding window being one of them. Any layer 2 protocol can incorporate any mechanism, but the most used layer 2 protocol is 802.3 (i.e. "ethernet") and the flow control mechanism chosen there is not sliding window.
So the next question is: what layer 2 protocol are you talking about? Ethernet? Token Ring? Fiber Channel?
http://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Volume-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321336313/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&amp;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.
Digesting these 3 books on TCP/IP should give you a solid foundation.
http://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Protocols-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321336313/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1324241286&amp;sr=8-2
I think I learned from TCP illustrated protocols
It's a long read but it does pretty much cover everything
>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.
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.
The Design of the UNIX Operating System
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
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
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
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 -&gt; 192.168.2.15.41580192.168.2.15.41580 -&gt; 192.168.2.1.80IE: 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/1.1So 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 OkMeaning the resource is available, and I presume the payload contains the data.
What we have learned:
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
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 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