Broadly, Network Know-How: An Essential Guide for the Accidental Admin covers what exactly a network is and the hardware involved, planning and installing a network, and connecting devices to it. The 17 chapters that make up this book can be broken into the first four that explain what a network is and some of the physical parts that make up a network. The next four chapters cover designing a network and the actual process of building the network and finally the rest of the book covers how to use your network and add various devices, including game consoles, to it.

The first chapter starts with a bit on how “a network will improve your life”, which covers how a network can make your computers more efficient by connecting them together to share resources. I liked the plausible introduction about the user who never though they’d need a network, then somehow they find themselves having to run one as more computers enter the household. The next three chapters gives a bit of background on both the theory of how networks are organized as well as the hardware that is used to build the actual physical parts of the network.

The next section, starting with chapter five takes the theory and helps you design a network, including wireless networks. There is chapter six that has a lot of practical tips on how to lay out the wiring for a network so that it’s both safe and organized- something I haven’t seen covered too much in books on computer networks that usually leave the physical details out. WiFi networks are covered here, also some common-sense security tips that, if done properly can cut out a lot of casual snoopers.

After showing how to set-up file servers in chapter nine, the rest of the book covers how to connect various devices to the network. Network Know-How covers networking on Windows (XP and Vista), MacOS X and Linux (KDE, Gnome). Security is covered in several parts of the book and is given its own chapter: 13 (coincidentally?), as well. Page 153 has an interesting list of passwords to avoid (including many I didn’t know people used- like Fox Mulder’s password from the X-Files TV series.

Author John Ross has previously written two books on wireless networks, and “It’s never done that before”, the kind of tech. book I’d buy based on the title alone- and yes, it is a book on Windows troubleshooting. It feels like there is a lot of experience behind this book too; sometimes you read a book and you get the feeling the author just learned what they’re writing about quite recently; you don’t get that feeling with this book. The layout of this book might be simple, and the writing can be a bit dense but there’s plenty of screen-shots and back and white photos showing what network parts look like to keep the book readable. I liked that they start right with the hardware and have a couple of tips about the physical task of setting up a network, something that is often left out of the discussion of network set-up.