Mastering?network Security

Technical books tend to bore me to death but I managed to worked my way through this one. The author didn't write it in typical egghead-ese that one might see with any book focused on a such a complex arena of computing. I learned quite a few concepts with this one. I purchased the book primarily based on the ratings here and want to thank the other reviewers. They were right on with their reviews. This one is a must-read if you're even remotely interested in network security.

Mr. Brenton does a good job of giving the uninitiated a good starting point in network security. The majority of his examples are NT-based (which is good because the majority of the people reading this are going to be NT-centric as well) but he also gives some excellent insight into NetWare and UNIX/LINUX as well. Although I was looking for something a bit more advanced, I thought that this book was an excellent book to begin the long road of network security with.

Excellent book for people who wish to get a good introductory course to Network Security. I found it a valuable resourse for understaning major fundamental concepts. It is definately NOT oriented for people experienced in security, so the word MASTERING is not suitable. In every other aspect I found Mr Brenton an excellent writer who is impossible not to understant the topics he covers (if you know a bit of networking that is). Good job Mr Brenton...

This is a very cool book. The first couple of chapters contain a lot of ammunition that can be used to justify extra $$$ for securing your environment. The book then gets into how all the pieces of a network fit together. I thought this was a little odd for a security book but found it much easier to follow the later material than I have with other books. The author lays down a great foundation so that its much easier to follow the higher end stuff like locking down a particular operating system and why certain steps are important. This book is definitely one to keep handy long after its been read!

After reading the author's long list of covered subject matter, I really expected this to be mostly a theory book. While the book does include theory (I think I finally understand passive and active FTP and how they work), I was really surprised at how much hands on material the book has. For example there is step by step instructions on how to setup and use the included IDS and firewall software. I would say the instructions are even better than the product manuals! This type of step by step instruction continues as the author walks you through creating Cisco access lists, VPNs and even securing different operating systems. This is a great book for someone like me who does not consider themselves to be a "security guru" but still needs to lock down their network.