Firewalls for Dummies (Paperback)

by Brian Komar (Author), Ronald Beekelaar (Author), Joern Wettern (Author) "If you want to find out about firewalls, you have bought the right book..." (more)
Key Phrases: static address mapping, application data portion, private network addressing, Any Any, Target Port Action, Source Port Target (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
With more and more small-office and home computers being left connected to the Internet at all times, the owners of those machines are being faced with problems that used to confront only big operations. The authors of Firewalls for Dummies spread the message: everyone with a cable modem, data satellite dish, or DSL connection needs a firewall now. Thankfully, though, these guys go beyond merely showing how to set up turnkey personal firewall products--too many Dummies books explain the obvious and the generally intuitive--and reveal how to set up the sorts of firewalls that protect sizable networks. By understanding these techniques, small operators can plan for growth and improve their level of protection. What's more, this book provides a serious explanation of corporate firewall products and techniques that's appropriate for people who build and maintain big systems.

The authors generally steer away from showing how to configure specific firewall products, though a few of the biggies--Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server, BlackICE, ZoneAlarm, and Check Point FireWall-1--get comparative overview coverage. Mostly, they favor more general firewall configuration strategies and techniques. These they explain with a lot of prose, a fair number of conceptual diagrams, and tables that sum up permission rules. This is a worthwhile read. --David Wall

Topics covered: Firewalls and the ways they can be deployed to prevent unauthorized access to computers and networks without interfering with the protected users' ability to get out to the Internet. A summary of networking fundamentals as they apply to firewalls is followed by coverage of network address translation (NAT), demilitarized zones (DMZs) as created by multiple or even single computers, and filtering policies.

Product Description
The fun and easy wayTM to setup the right firewall solution for your system!

Protect yourself from hackers!

Get savvy tips on using today's favorite firewall technologies

Protect yourself now — whether you have a home office or run an enterprise network
Hackers. Script kiddies. Disgruntled employees. A lot of people out there may want to invade your system and kick up some trouble. Firewalls can help protect you. But how do you select and set up the right firewall solution? Relax! This friendly guide shows you step by step how to lock out the bad guys.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 383 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies (August 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764508849
• ISBN-13: 978-0764508844
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,233,764 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great overview with lots of details, October 23, 2001

By	"lmcmc" (Oregon, USA) - See all my reviews

I don't really like the Dummies title, but I have found that Dummies books are very often written for people like me, who don't consider themselves Dummies at all. I was hoping that this one would be an easy-to-read introduction to firewalls that also provided some useful information. I was not disappointed.
Like other Dummies books, this one is very easy to approach, but it went far beyond that. I started reading this book because I wanted to get a good basic background in what firewalls are. The first few chapters did accomplish this. They also got me to think about quite a few computer security issues I had not even considered before. I especially liked that it helped me with setting up a personal firewall. At the same tiem I know that I can get back to the chapters on other, more powerful firewalls in the future. What surprised me about this book was the level of detail it went into in the chapters on how to configure a firewall for complex scenarios, such as VPN solutions. I actually also learned a lot about other, related computer security issues. Right now I don't need all of this information, but it is good to have a book that has information that I will fins useful in the months or even years to come. Many Dummies books are very approachable, and this one os no exception. However, I found that this one didn't stop at the basics. Rather, it went into topics should be useful even for someone who has to set up and configure a firewall in a medium-sized organization.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear, Economical, and Accesible Information on Firewalls, October 23, 2001

By	Martin Grasdal (Canada) - See all my reviews

The authors and the technical editor of this book have done a superb job of making the complex subject of firewalls accessible to a wide audience. Regardless of your level of experience, you will be able to take something of value away from this book, whether it is a basic understanding of firewalls or some deeper insights into the complexities of NAT, IPSec, VPNs, and Kerberos. From setting up a personal firewall, such as Zone Alarm, to setting up multiple industrial-strength firewalls involvings DMZs, you will find a lot of good information and advice.

The authors show a concern for crafting clear, economical, and easy-to-understand explanations of otherwise difficult concepts. Their experience as consultants and educators is obvious. You could buy more expensive and abstruse books on firewalls, but you probably won't enjoy them as much and you probably won't get as much out of them. The authors have done a great job.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Trully for Dummies, March 25, 2002

By	David Sudjiman (Jakarta, Indonesia) - See all my reviews

I like the 'for Dummies' editions since I was reading Internet for Dummies. It has a humble explanation to present things in very unique approach. Clear and easy to understand, just like telling you what a heaven look like in human language.

This book contains very basic information that might help to anyone who has no idea what a firewall is. Very good explanation!

Here are the Content that will show you about the prefect dummies explanation.

Part 1: Introducing Firewall Basics

Chapter 1: Why do you need a Firewall?
Chapter 2: IP Addressing and Other TCP/IP basics
Chapter 3: Understanding Firewall Basics
Chapter 4: Understanding Firewall Not-So-Basics
Chapter 5: "The Key Is Under the Mat" and Other Common Attacks

Part 2: Establishing Rules
Chapter 6: Developing Policies
Chapter 7: Establishing rules for Simple Protocols
Chapter 8: Designing Advanced Protocol Rules
Chapter 9: Configuring "Employees Only" and Other Specific Rules

Part 3: Designing Network Configuration
Chapter 10: Using Windows as a Firewall
Chapter 11: Configuring Personal Firewalls: Zone Alarm and BlackICE
Chapter 12: The Champ: check Point FireWall-1
Chapter 13: Choosing a Firewall That Meets Your Needs

Part 5: The Part of Tens
Chapter 14: Ten Tools You Can't Do Without
Chapter 15: Ten Web Sites to Visit

The reason I give 3 stars is just because this book does not a have a practical development on how a Firewall should be. There are many Firewalls types in the world and this one is just explain in Microsoft Windows based. Yes, This book is not for technical professionals, this book is made for IT managers without a necessity the whole nuts and bolts of a Firewalls.

I prefer this best as a starting reading and if you're done with this, try to look 'Building Internet Firewalls, SE', 'Linux Firewall', 'Linux Firewall, SE', Hacking Exposed series to tighten up your firewalls.