Customer Reviews

Guide to Virtual Private Networks

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This book is very brief and provides little detailed information of IPSec. While the content is technically correct, much of the technology is not included, or breezed over. And what is explained is not as in-depth as I was expecting. An example is that Phase 1 Agressive Mode was not even mentioned! Remote access concepts consume three pages and remote user support is the fastest growing aspect of VPNs right now (that will change, of course). This book is pure academia in that the authors are obviously familiar with the IBM solutions and with the IPSec RFCs, but that's where it stops. This book contains little insight and reflects the RFCs verbatum. Examples of deployment concepts were limited and gave the impression that the authors had little experience implementing VPNs. This is not to say that the book contains incorrect information, but resemble a "perfect world" atmosphere. While the standards provide a means to build the designs in the book, many vendor implementations do not support them, as of yet. I am writing this poor review because it came highly recommended by a VPN developer. Ironically, compared to many books on IPSec, this one still provides ample detail in easy to read verbiage that should please any technical novice. Anyone who is experienced with VPNs and wants to advance themselves with the technology, this book is a good start, but there is much, much more than meets the eye when reading this book.

This is a technically rich book for understanding VPN architectures. If you are interested in packet structures, tunnel options, negotiation processes, design considerations, and VPN algorithms, this is a good book for you. Although the non-technical audience might be put off by the technical depth, a systems engineer will be delighted. If you want to know how IKE is negotiated - and where to put your firewalls - buy this book. If you want to know more about the business advantages of VPNs, plus good technical information, look up Dave Kosiur's Building and Managing Virtual Private Networks.

The book gave decent technical detail but did not flow well - too choppy for me. Also, the book was very IBM centric. It should have been titled - Excerpts of Virtual Private Networking and IBM Sales Guide.