Customer Reviews

Firewalls: A Complete Guide

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I do not recommend this book, at all. When reading it, you get the impression that the author spent a week or two researching the subject, and then went on to write this book to make some quick cash. It is full of errors and ambiguities. What's worse, in the section on cryptography, the author has shamelessly copied text from Bruce Schneier's "Applied Cryptography". Save your money.

I think that the author should have spent more time writing quality content. It appears the book was written in a hurry or/and without indepth knowledge of the subject. The author repeats himself needlessly again and again. The captions are non-intuitive and I could not understand after browsing through 75% of the book who is the real audience. The writer is very quick to form very biased and uneducated opinions regarding comparisons and his recommendations.

There is one 7-8 page Perl freeware source code repeated "twice" in the book! The author is too gullible regarding what vendors say and what university research says. I had to band my head against this thick book several times on very childish comments :)

All this makes me believe that the book was written without real industry experience.

I am very skeptical about MCGraw Hill books now. Perhaps I'll wait for something from Microsoft Press..

This book covers alot of detail. If you are looking for answers to setting up your firewall right away, don't read this book first. This book coveres to much information for the newbie admin. Although good, I felt like I was reading a puzzle. I felt like Marcus was speaking to someone who has a good understanding of network connectivity and security. This book does cover alot of good information. It's a good ref since there are not many updated firewall books on the market.

I think that the author should have spent more time writing quality content. It appears the book was written in a hurry or/and without indepth knowledge of the subject. The author repeats himself needlessly again and again. The captions are non-intuitive and I could not understand after browsing through 75% of the book who is the real audience. The writer is very quick to form very biased and uneducated opinions regarding comparisons and his recommendations.

There is one 7-8 page Perl freeware source code repeated "twice" in the book! The author is too gullible regarding what vendors say and what university research says. I had to band my head against this thick book several times on very childish comments :)

All this makes me believe that the book was written without real industry experience.

I am very skeptical about MCGraw Hill books now. Perhaps I'll wait for something from Microsoft Press..

This is a wonderful book. It is valuable to the newbie as well as an experinced internet security professional! Excellent coverage of popular firewalls, including setup and administration. An added bonus is that the author is a fellow Christian and was bold enough to tell us in the preface and akcnowledgements.