Resources to get started with IPv4/IPv6 basics and development

Question

I'm looking for resources and book which one can use to get started with IPv4 and IPv6 network development. The most relevant book I've came up so far is "Unix Network Programming, Volume 1: The Sockets Networking API (3rd Edition)" which covers both protocols but apart from that I did not find very much.

The information I'm looking for is how both protocols work in detail, how IPv6 and its handling differs to IPv4 and how to use the APIs (Windows or *nix) to set up basic communication between applications across both protocols.

Is above mentioned book already the right starting point or are there other resources and books one can use to get started with this topic?

Answer 1

If you read only one network programming book, this is the one. Read Stevens often.

Answer 2

Douglas Comer
Apart from Programming, if you looking for TCP/IP (v4-6), and other stack related queries and design rationale, his books are the ultimate references. Ofcourse you can dig as much as you want, reading papers online. But from basic to intermediate level his books serves the best.
To start with read

Internetworking with TCP/IP Vol-1, 4e.

This is a must, if i may say. After that, you probably would like to look at the stack details then follow

Internetworking with TCP/IP Vol-2 (ANSCI and BSD)

For programming on *nix machine UNP by stevens, is unbeatable. Underlying concepts are almost same for unix/linux/windowx/mac/ -- mostly everything is based BSD designed Sockets. So i think UNP is best for programming. I think these three books shall solve your purpose. If you like collecting books, then you can add another one to you library by Stevens again

http://www.kohala.com/start/tcpipiv2.html

Some excellent video tutorials on networking, excellent resource

http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/Homepages/shivkuma/teaching/video_index.html

Answer 3

I have read several Comer and Stevens books, and they were all excellent. If you are going to stick to TCP/IP networking, you should gather stash of them (I got most of mine used or from giveaway stacks). Read a couple pages everyday. So many common "mysteries" are simply concepts that are missing from weaker texts.

That being said, I have only read two books on IPv6, which I would not recommend for programmers. However, I do recall that the lead developer for the networking stack of Mozilla/Geko (Necko), when I was at Netscape/AOL/mozilla.org had recommended "IPv6 Clearly Explained", by Loshin (as best I recall).

I took a quick look online, and appears that this person has written two books on IPv6, both are 5 stars.

I would caution you to pick the book carefully. For a while, I was shopping for an IPv6 book, and I found that many books are very thick, but potentially unhelpful.