Free book on bandwidth optimization using open source software

[Stephen Ronan]

FYI

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [meta] Free book on bandwidth optimization
From: Rob Flickenger <rob at nocat.net>

Hello, all--

It's official.  We've just released another free book, "How To
Accelerate Your Internet: A practical guide to Bandwidth Management
and Optimization using Open Source Software".

We hope it helps you unclog your Internet tubes.

Enjoy!

--Rob

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Trieste, Italy-- The BMO Book Sprint Team is pleased to announce the release of 
the new free book, "How To Accelerate Your Internet: A practical guide to 
Bandwidth Management and Optimization using Open Source Software".  The book 
was released in October 2006 under a Creative Commons license, and was written 
in an effort to help network architects understand and troubleshoot problems 
with managing Internet bandwidth, which often result in unnecessarily high 
operational costs in the developing world.

Network connections are very expensive in most parts of the world, and it is 
often costly and difficult to add additional network capacity.  Therefore, 
effective management and optimization of bandwidth is crucial.  Research and 
education benefit significantly from Internet resources, yet the majority of 
institutions take little or no action to manage their bandwidth usage.  This 
waste results in high operating costs, slow network connections, and frustrated 
network users.

The goal of the book is to provide practical information on how to gain the 
largest possible benefit from your connection to the Internet.  By prioritizing 
certain kinds of network activity, reducing the impact of spam and viruses, 
providing local content caching, and performing extensive monitoring and 
analysis of network usage, Internet consumption can be brought to manageable 
levels. This makes it possible to provide equitable access for all users, even 
when the available bandwidth is quite small.

But technical solutions only solve part of the problem.  In order to prioritize 
network traffic, an organization needs to have a clear idea of the intended 
purpose of the network connection, as well as insight into how the connection 
is being used.  The book addresses this complex topic by covering the three 
major components of effective bandwidth management:  Effective policy, 
extensive monitoring & analysis, and solid network implementation.  In 
addition, troubleshooting techniques, advanced performance tuning tips and 
tricks, and real-world case studies are also provided.

The Book Sprint began with online correspondence via email, which led to an 
initial face-to-face meeting of bandwidth management experts from around the 
world in May 2006.  Intense online collaboration followed over the next few 
months, which then culminated in the production of the 300 page printed book, 
as well as a PDF and HTML version.  The book was sponsored by the International 
Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (http://inasp.info/), 
and was produced in association with the Abdus Salam International Centre for 
Theoretical Physics (http://www.ictp.it/), Aidworld (http:// 
www.aidworld.org/), and Hacker Friendly LLC (http:// hackerfriendly.com/).  By 
releasing this work under a Creative Commons license, the Book Sprint Team 
hopes to disseminate it as widely as possible, bringing this information into 
the hands of people who need it most.

The book can be downloaded for free, or a printed copy may be purchased at the 
book's website: http://bwmo.net/

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