Customer Reviews

Configuring ISA Server 2000

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Been waiting for a long time for this one, but it turns out to be worth it. I really liked the background and design info in the first chapters, and how the book takes you all the way from basic security concepts to very specific scenarios on configuring and administering ISA.

Just about everything is covered, and what's really neat is that things are explained so a beginner can understand, but you've also got all these advanced configuration tips and tons of stuff that you definitely won't find in the Help files. You can tell these guys are writing from hands on experience and it shows!

I know it's not meant to be a study guide, but I found a lot of answers to my questions here while I was studying for the ISA test. The only complaint I've got was the long waiting period for the book to be published. I wish they wouldn't put a date it's supposed to be available and then not ever update that.

I also found out about isaserver.org from the book where Tom Shinder gives all sorts of support for ISA questions and that's a great resource.

Well i think this book explains everything there is to know about ISA server. Configuring an ISA was always pain in the neck though, i gotta admit though before i've finished this book, reconfiguring an ISA server took me much longer, now i do it within 2 hours. I like this book, though i think author could make it much shorter, i don't think some one actually cares where ISA server got from and the history of it's design, but again that's only my opinion. It has a DVD with it i think, i never went through it or anything, so i wouldn't know what's on it. This book can teach you how to make a proxy, a gateway and or a firewall out of ISA server. (That's what it's about though)

I bought this book because I've seen the great work Dr. Shinder has done on the Microsoft Public Newsgroups and at isaserver.org. I was not disappointed! He put in all the fine details about how services work and the step by steps actually explain what each option means and how it works. What I liked most was the "Undocumented Secrets" sections where he explains thngs like how not to assign the Firewall Client via Group Policy or your client machine will be stuck without a log on box for LONG time. I even tested this out to make sure it was true. I'm glad I read this in thebook, or I would have been sunk!

Another thing quite helpful in the book was the coverage of server publishing, especially FTP server publishing. I had no idea how tricky that could be!

If you are fighting with ISA Server like I have been, then you will like this book a lot. Its saved me a lot of hours of frustration.

I purchased this book because we required ISA Server setup in our organization. Our previous firewall was Checkpoint, but management wanted a new MS solution.

Virtually everything I needed to know was within this text. The documentation provided with the product was difficult to understand, but the book explained not only the theory, but the differences between how ISA Server is supposed to work, and how it works in practice. That is precisely the information I required.

The information is accurate and clearly explained. I am not sure what another reviewer meant by problems with quality of information. He said the book did not explain how to publish an ICMP server. The book clearly explains Server Publishing only works for the UDP and TCP protocols.

This is a most excellent book and I highly recommend to ISA Server Admins and others needing to implement ISA Server.

I don't usually write reviews of technical books that I read, but in this case I felt compelled to do so, because of how good this book really is (and also to counter the wildly inaccurate critique submitted by the reader from London). This is easily one of the best technical/security books I've ever read. Reading the book, you get the sense that Dr. Shinder knows more about ISA Server than even the folks at Microsoft who developed it. There was not a single thing that I looked for and did not find. And in most cases, the coverage was more detailied and exhaustive than what I expected. I appreciate it when an author actaully takes the time to research, test, and document very complicated scenarios the way this book does.

I had to deploy an ISA server and i had a week to get it up and running.
After looking around for the best text, i purchased this one.
Believe me it has everything you could ever want to learn about configuring an ISA server, and much much more!! I have never written an book review but i had to with this one.
The book takes some time to go through because it has so much information. It's quality information,not a bunch of bloated garbage. I am also using this book to finish off my MCSE. I compared it to a book my buddy is using, and this one blows it away. I am so glad i decided to go with this one because there have been so many times when i thought i was getting the right book and i ended up buying another 2 or 3 just to get all the info i needed.

What can I say. This book rocks. I was totally new to ISA. But not new to the Microsoft world. (I have MCSE). But where so many books fall over, is that they give you so much junk info when all you need is the facts. This book got straight to the point. I flick over the pages. Then the next day I went in and installed. I had my server running with exchange, intranet, and internet by the end of the day. I could spend another 2 days reading and be ready to sit my MCSE exam. This is the best tech book I have ever read in my life. well done --Hawk EYE--

I bought this book after having read the Shinders Windows 2000 TCP/IP book, and also several of their MCSE study guides, and I'm very glad I did. Anyone who has worked at all with ISA Server knows just how complex it really is. This book will make you truly understand all of these complexities. I'm not quite sure what the guy below who gave it only 3 stars is talking about.

I installed ISA on a Windows 2000 network in two days using this book and the Simmons MCSE as my primary references. I preferred this book to the Simmons MCSE book because it is was more readsble. (Simmons has a second ISA book that has received great Amazon reviews, and I am a big fan of many of his books.)

The book is printed on better than average paper, and 909 pages result in a volume that is thinner than the 655 pages in the Simmons MCSE book. The installable CD has the full text in several different formats including a fully searchable HTML format. The CD also includes a nice set of audio tutorials and access to a web site for further assistance.

I was forced to fall back on my Microsoft IP networking library to review of some basic IP networking concepts. One certainly wants to frequently use the [router print] command from the command prompt to check routing tables on any host or serer when trouble shooting the installation, and neither the Simmons of Shinder books covered basic IP routing in any detail. The Shinder book said right out that a companion IP networking book would be useful

A big hint. After you install ISA perfectly including the trivial setup of clients as SecureNAT clients (more complex client types readily available), you can't initially get anything through ISA, not even a simple web browser request to the Internet. Go to Chapter 8 and set up rules to allow Internet access. (Simmons covers this more concisely and perhaps better on page 127.)

This book is actually by two Shinders, Dr. Thomas Shinder and Debra Littlejohn Shinder, Toms' wife. When a real MD turns to software consulting as his full-time career you can be sure he really loves the stuff. The style of the book shows this. It is nicely written. The Shinders are authors of several other Windows 2000 books.

When buying this, I was in the position of having to learn it quickly so that I could hit the ground running with my new job.
This book certainly does this. Giving precise explanations of every aspect of isa server, included undocumented knowledge that is also very useful!
Every aspect is drilled in time and time again so that by the end, it cant fail to have stuck.
A must read for anyone wanting to know the nuts and bolts of ISA Server.