Customer Reviews

Firewalls for Dummies

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

 

 

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.

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.

I picked this up for a curiosity check for some people that are getting interested in the security world.

As with the Dummies line, this book is meant as an introduction to the concept of a firewall.

If you ever asked "What's a firewall" then this book is for you. If you are looking for specific configurations or what to do when you are under attack, you will not like this book.

I gave it high marks because it discusses many concepts such as caching, stateful inspection, load balancing, protocols, etc. However, it does not go heavily into the technical which could make a non-IT person go comatose.

There are some discussion of attacks such as Denial of Service, Trojans, etc. but they are rather basic in nature. Again not a book for the advanced.

There is a decent discussion on policies and a reasonable discussion on NAT, that should give the inexperienced a good idea of these areas.

There are some discussions on deployment which the book might have been trying to reach the corporate environment. However, the value maybe only for managers who would not be involved with the firewall or they simply could have been left out. The book mainly feels for the small networks and the home user and probably would not care about three pronged firewalls.

The chapter on Linux firewalls talking about iptables and ipchains felt like it was an addon due to the rise of Linux. Having said that; it still was a decent introduction. It just felt out of place.

The chapters on Zonealarm, BlackIce, Norton, ISA, and Checkpoint are useful to a degree. They do discuss the products and they go into setup. However, you will probably read the information parts but probably will end up skipping the configuration sections.

The last two chapters are useful as they give you websites for 10 tools(though a couple have changed) and sites to find information about Firewalls and security groups.

Overall, it's a decent book for the beginner. Avoidable for the professional.

The title "Firewalls for dummies" is misleading. No, it does not talk to the layperson, or even someone trying to setup a home firewall. Rather, it targets manager-types at companies that have basic tcp/ip experience. The first 150 pages or so doesn't even have any solid examples of allow/deny rules. There is another book called "internet security for dummies". This should have probably been that book, because the depth it goes into general security issues like antivirus, file attachements, mail security is much more general than firewalls. Plus I think I see a few errors in the book and am unable to locate an errata for it online. I wrote to the FirewallsForDummies[at]hotmail.com address thats mentioned in the book to ask the authors for errata info, and it bounced back as mailbox not available.

I would rate the book higher if the book were complete. The 2nd edition text is missing content from chapters 10 and 13; and chapters 11 and 12 are entirely missing. The missing text would be between pages 177 and 224. The publisher has mistakenly included the text from another Dummies title. A reader review from June 2008 appears to indicate no problems before this date. I purchased my text in September 2008. I have notified the publisher of the problem and done an internet search to determine if others have reported this problem. There is a url-link with the correct text but will not publish the link here because it may be a pirated copy online. Do your own search to find the corrections. I hope the publisher will provide the corrections on-line using the Dummies.com website.

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.

I would have titled this "And if you want to know about Space Exploration join the United Federation of Planets". The idea of any book is to impart information to the reader and this is what this book does. I certainly would not give this book first time out to Grandma and expect her to understand it but some reviewers really do believe that to read a Dummies Book you have to be a "Dummy" some people actually have an IQ above 100 and a jopb that does not involve serving food. For people with an interest, managers and technicals just starting out its a good cheap and informative read. 5 stars.

This is one of the poorest "For Dummies" books I have ever read (and I have several). The information, while technically accurate, is often times obtuse and full of geek speek, meaning you don't know what the author is talking about. It is also what we call CIPO (clear if previously understood).

The best chapter in the book, if there is one, talks about configuring Black Ice (my "personal" firewall of choice) and Zone Alarm. But I already knew how to do that, as Black Ice is very easy to install and set up.

If you are a commercial fire wall specialist, most of this material will be redundant to you. And if you are just a home user, then you will not understand much of it, as it is geared towards commercial fire wall installations, and all the heavy jargon that goes with that.

Fire wall technology, like virus technolgy, can only be learned on the job with those company experts like Black Ice or Norton. They are just not going to make this stuff easy for anyone, and no book learning is going to give you much of a clue here, including this book.

Sorry, that's just the way it is. You want to learn all about fire walls? Then go to work for Zone Alarm or Black Ice.