Customer Reviews

Building a Strategic Extranet

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The author treats issues such as setting up a CA, authenticating browsers, choosing encryption algorithms and securing the https server well. It's very HTTP focused, and barely touches on how to get from the EDI way of doing things to the extranet way, but it's easily the best book on the topic I've seen. He has an unfortunate tendency to get off topic, for example delving into how to choose a browser, why tcp/ip is insecure, etc., but overall the book is well written.

Dr. Pfaffenberger has taken a broad approach to design of an extranet. He obviously has some experience with a nonprofit consortium working on the subject.

The discussion of the business issues involved with extranets is not the greatest. Although there is good work with management challenge and organizational buy-in issues, the same issues exist for any new IT initiative so the information is nothing new.

The technical side is approached as a simple Microsoft vs. Netscape model. This is simply nowhere near the truth. The browser is not the extranet, rather it is simply what a user uses to view the data. The next 5 years will bring many new products and services. Other existing products discussed are referred to as proprietary when they are actually not.

One very good area is the section on security. He has done a good job breaking down all the issues there.

Not enough is dedicated to potential uses of an extranet. Suggestions on ways your business c! ould use an extranet would be great. Although there are a few, there are not enough.

Spend your money elsewhere

The book is well-written and, even three years later, much of the discussion is valuable reference. Of course, the information on specific products is dated. However, the material on security/encryption schemes and authentication is first rate and clear. The guidance on extranet design approaches is still valid. This book should be in second edition by now. If it is, buy the 2nd edition new. As a used book, the security and authentication parts are worth a discounted price.

I don't need to be guided through browser selection, Netscape v. IIS, or a re-hashing of the OSI model. The core of this book, IMHO, is found in chapters 9-13. If you're willing to spend the money for a 400 page reference with 100 pages of solid material, then it's worth buying.