Customer Reviews

Linux Network Administrator's Guide

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I received the book this week, and truly I'm delighted with it. It's not a big book, and probably that's one of its main virtues: each chapter is very focused and manageable and, in a few hours (or minutes, depending on whom), matters can be applied with confidence. I liked especially those chapters concerning wireless networking and LDAP.
As it's based on the LDP (Linux Documentation Project), the subjects are accessible there (http://www.tldp.org). I'm one of those who still prefer an O'Reilly book :).

This book fits into the space between the general everything there is to know about Linux books (which give limited space to each subject) and highly specialized books that cover only one application such as Apache or sendmail. It's a niche book intended for people aministering a Linux network. It contains what you need to know to set up a network and keep it up.

This is the third printed edition of this book. This has given time for the original work to be expanded and rewritten to satisfy the needs of readers who down through the years have sent in questions on various subjects.

This book is based on the on-line Linux documentation but bound into a convenient book, cleaned up professional illustrations, better indexing. While it costs a bit, it is probably no more than the cost of the ink cartridge it would take to print it out.

I was very suspicious of this book, because I knew it was available online for download. I thought at first, why not just print it and read it. A friend of mine told me this is something completely different. And he was right. It was worth every penny (cent).

The book is a great introduction to Linux networking theory and practices. Although it's lightweight in size, it makes it up with easy to read high quality content. I think even some experienced sysadmins might find a lot of interesting information inside.

The guide is very well written, with nice and self explaining graphics.

A good education in how to use the Internet, in the context of a linux network. The authors provide a nice lucid explanation of DNS, as a globally distributed database that underpins the Internet. An entire chapter is allocated to this most crucial of ideas. The sort of thing you should have down pat.

Other network aspects are covered elsewhere in the book. Notably sendmail. The most important configuration ideas and settings are shown.

Though, for an edition printed in February 2005, the book only seems to refer to version 8.12 of sendmail. Whereas 8.13 has already been out for several months, and contains much enhanced Milter capabilities for fighting spam. But perhaps the discussion about 8.12 is simply due to the realities of how long it takes for a book to be published and printed.

A very topical chapter is offered last in the book. On wireless networks. It's a decent synopsis of a hugely popular occurrence. But given the rapid hardware upgrades in this field, and the still evolving wireless standards, you may want to seek out a more extensive text.

This is a good first book to purchase if you're getting into Linux Administration. It focuses more on common practices rather than configurations and how-to's. If you're looking to get an idea of how to build your environment (or make it better), this is a good book to start with, then purchase the specific manuals once you've decided on a course of action.

This is an excellent book to start with if you are considering setting up a Linux network for your home or small office. The intended audience is assumed to have some basic programming skills and understands the priority of network security. If you have never written a make file or know what make is, you might want to start with a more fundamental book; you will struggle understanding the concepts of this book. If you have never used UNIX or Linux, you will be quickly LOST!

It is important to realize that this book is a guide and not a reference. Each chapter covers a major system vital to the Linux operating system. Book(s) are written for each system, yet the author covers enough information to get you started and keep you from being dangerous.

The book also indoctrinates you to the procedures and mindsets of Linux. If a specific tool is not covered in this book, you will know how to search for it, read the configuration man pages, build it, and install it.

My background: Mixed Signal IC Design Engineer (20 years), C/C++, C#, Perl Literate. Converting from Win2K OS to Linux because of corporate directive. I have been a user of UNIX and Windows OS for 25 years, however, I never had to administer a network. I wanted to start up a Linux network at home to act as a Subversion server and a general file server.