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The Best Damn Firewall Book Period Review by Harold McFarland
If you only own one firewall book then own this one
While the title says firewall this book does not stop there but also includes an examination of intrusion detection systems. The authors provide very detailed information on specific systems and software such as Check Point NG VPN-1/Firewall, ISA Server, Cisco PIX Firewall, Nokia IP Series Appliances, Linux Firewall, Solaris Secure Router, and Snort. The section on troubleshooting common problems, disaster recovery and system monitoring is excellent and anyone who has spent hours trying to run down some minor problem will tell you it is worth the price of the book just for that piece alone. The book starts with a very good introductory section on information security in general and the history of it as well as the different types of firewalls, attacks, security policies, etc. They then move to firewall concepts, DMZ concepts, layout and design
The Intrusion Detection System part of the book looks at the various network, host-based, and distributed systems and the strengths and weaknesses of each. Although the authors cover many different tools and techniques they really shine in their detailed treatment of ipchains and iptables, as well as the use of utilities like netcat and SendIP
The book is organized into six sections with the first section providing theoretical and general knowledge about firewalls, intrusion detection and security. The second part examines Solaris and Linus Firewalls in detail and the third part looks at PIX Firewalls and the command line interface. The fourth section details the Check Point NG and Nokia IP Series Appliances. The fifth is ISA Server and section six deals with intrusion detection with Snort and its use in combination with a firewall.
This book is designed for the network administrator who needs to implement and oversee a security system and needs to know how to determine the best methods for their network and how to implement them. If you want a single volume that covers firewalls and IDS systems in detail there is no other single reference that even comes close to this one. Best Damn Firewall Book Period is highly recommended and the best single volume firewall book I've seen.