I think this was Computer Networks by Andrew S. Tanenbaum.
Pages are sequenced packets. Rip up the book, blow it in the breeze across the fence. Neighbor looks for pages upto some timeout, and then requests retransmission of missing pages -- is that what you recall? Sender has to have additional copies of the book to rip up for rexmit... that was left as an exercise for the reader :-) -- //Shrikumar PS: Prof Tanenbaum is also credit with other gems such as "do not underestimate the bandwidth of a horse carriage rattling down the carriage way", and "The best thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from" ---Original Message--- > From: Ilissa Miller via NANOG <[email protected]> > Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2025 17:25:59 -0400 > To: North American Network Operators Group <[email protected]> > Cc: Ilissa Miller <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: Back in 80s I read a book ... > > Did you mean this one? > > *Looking Over the Fence at Networks: A Neighbor???s View of Networking > Research* (2001) by the National Research Council. > > On Wed, Oct 22, 2025 at 5:23???PM Jonathan Black via NANOG < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > ... that used an analogy of 2 neighbors communicating over a fence to > > explain how TCP works. I'd love to get my hands on a copy of that book. > > Does anyone else remember that book or the analogy? > > > > Jonathan Black > > Executive Director, NANOG > > [email protected] | +1 613 612 2019 (mobile) | www.nanog.org > > ASN 19230 > > _______________________________________________ > > NANOG mailing list > > > > https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/UDP22TZFTSGGJR5KW4DUSW5EUPU65VRB/ > > > > > -- > *Ilissa Miller* > *CEO, iMiller Public Relations <http://www.imillerpr.com>* > *Host of the NEDAS Live! Podcast <https://www.nedas.com/nedas-live/>- Where > Wireline & Wireless Meet* > *Nomad Futurist Partner, Ambassador, Advocate - Donate here > <https://nomadfuturist.org/partners/>* > Subscribe <https://datacenterpost.com/subscribe/> or Contribute > <https://datacenterpost.com/contribute/> to Data Center POST > <http://www.datacenterpost.com> > Email: [email protected] > Cell: 1.917.743.0931 > _______________________________________________ > NANOG mailing list > https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/QLG3H4PR43IAUVRVCG3CQSRZJWMEZ6KG/ _______________________________________________ NANOG mailing list https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/WC5WRN47GVUG6XI7ZKRDXKKQWADNWXF5/
