Customer Reviews

Guide to Firewalls and Network Security: Intrusion Detection and VPNs

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1 star:		(7)

 

 

This book was required for a Computer Forensics related class. There are many errors, not just typographical, but in concepts and technical information. At times it is filled with a mind-numbing number of details, much of which will be obsolete by the time you read this. In other areas it skips over important concepts leaving you lost.

If you're hoping to learn more about network security you're better off looking elsewhere.

After browsing it twice, I finally put it down.

It's very introductive, simple and not well-written to a newbie.
It doesn't cover that much on Checkpoint...
The rest you can get it from the Internet.

This book is used as the text book for my college course. The examples are ridiculous, the exercises are nuts, and the definitions are strange. "This book is not intended to be read in sequence, from beginning to end." (from the book's introduction) Maybe the book isn't meant to be read at all. There is better information from O'Reilly and Cisco. Search for "firewall" on O'Reilly's site and you'll get better information than whats in this book and you'll save $75. Get "The Best Damn Firewall Book Period" instead of this, Amazon sells it for $37 and it gets 4 stars.

If I could put negative stars for this book I would.I am reading this book as a requirement for a network security course. This book by far has to be the most poorly written misleading book I've ever read. In the first chapter there is technically wrong information: The OSI reference model has a wrong layer numbered. I am surprised that colleges even bother to use it as a study guide\text book. The end of chapter questions are very misleading.

This book is riddled with numerous technical, practical, and editorial errors. For example, Table 1-1 page 14 lists OSI Layer 7 as the data link layer and OSI Layer 1 as the Application layer. Not only is this inaccurate, but it is a critical piece of incorrect information that would inevitably affect the quality of information presented in the rest of the book (since, well, EVERYTHING is based on the OSI model).

If you're looking for a primer on firewall technologies, this is NOT it.

Don't waste your money with this book. It is horrible. I can't believe my college uses this as a textbook. Information in the text was incorrect. Come on, it's not hard to put the OSI layer in the correct order. Even found a review question that didn't even have the correct answer as an available choice. I'd like to find an errata, but they don't seem to have one. Don't buy the book.

It is unreal how bad this book is. It states simple concepts incorrectly throughout. The terminology and presentation is simplistic at best. I am a Networking Professional and a Network Security student. I knew more before I read this book and was left a bit confused afterward. It even claims that IDS impact network traffic negatively and discusses proper placement to mitigate it. I refuse to trust the Pearson line of tech books again.