Building Linux and Openbsd Firewalls
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Spotlight Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 4.2Customer Rating: 5
Summary: Good intro book on firewalls and even networking in general.
Comment: This book is awesome. It assumes no prior networking experience and walks you through networking basics as well as basic security issues such as Denial of Service, spoofing, etc. Chapters with complete step-by-step installation instructions for both Linux and OpenBSD Unix are included, so it's very easy for any beginner to build a firewall for their home (or office) network.
Tell people that you've personally built your own firewall using OpenBSD and you'll be guaranteed an approving nod from even the cockiest alpha geek!
Customer Rating: 4
Summary: Very good intro to OpenBSD, Internet Security
Comment: A very good introduction to OpenBSD and Linux security issues. Assumes very little knowledge, so newbies will learn much, but not at the expense of more complex topics. Authors, IMHO, view OpenBSD as the platform of choice for running your firewall, but also give you a top to bottom installation/configuration guide for Linux as well. Funny asides and conversational tone make this book an easy read, for the most part, and much more readable than many other computer books I've read.
Customer Rating: 5
Summary: Good content, cool writing style
Comment: This is a great book for people who already know that they want to deploy a free open source firewall solution to secure their network. While somewhat dated (e.g. Linux: ipchains and not iptables, OpenBSD: ipf and not pf), the book gives detailed and comprehensive directions for buidling a firewall platform, deploying a firewall and event sheds some light on the security policy development and maintainance such as securing various network services.
The books covers basic security, continues on to choosing the "right OS" (providing an enlightening discussion on Linux vs OpenBSD) and getting the right hardware for the job, and then dives right into building stuff, complete with commands and "cut-and-paste" firewalls rules.
The last part introduces the reader to the basics of intrusion detection and system monitoring, both valuable parts of any firewall setup.
One of the great features of the book is the author's humorous style. I rolled on the floor laughing about "naked penguins" and "hairy sysadmins".
Overall, get the book if you are planning to build the open source firewall solution or even if you believe that security books can be fun to read.
Anton Chuvakin, Ph.D., GCIA ... is a Senior Security Analyst with a major information security company.