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Linux Books Media Software Book Reviews

Linux Network Administrator's Guide, 2nd Edition 121

Posted by timothy from the like-tinker-toys dept.
Dan Clough writes "I read this book to improve my knowledge of Linux networking, and in that regard it was a huge success! It was also an enjoyable and easy-to-read book. I am pretty much a Linux beginner, and know 'enough to be dangerous.' My existing home LAN consists of 5 machines: one running Mandrake Linux 9.1, one RedHat 9 (laptop), two Windows XP, and one Windows 98. These are connected to a commercial (Siemens Speedstream) router/switch and share internet access via a cable modem. All the computers can communicate with each other and share files, using Samba. The router also functions as a print-server for a laser printer, which the Linux machines print to via CUPS." Whether your network is bigger, smaller, or hypothetical, Dan's review (below) suggests that O'Reilly's Linux Network Administrator's Guide, 2nd Edition would be useful to have at hand as you build or troubleshoot. Read on for the rest.
Linux Network Administrator's Guide, 2nd Edition
author Olaf Kirch & Terry Dawson
pages 475
publisher O'Reilly
rating 8/10
reviewer Dan Clough
ISBN 1565924002
summary How to get your machines talking amongst themselves.

This book cleared up many questions I had, enabling my home network to run more efficiently and securely. For example, I learned about many options that can be adjusted in the kernel configuration to allow building a customized kernel which is optimized for your system and needs. This took me one step closer to being ready for my first attempt at compiling my own kernel. I also learned about and implemented some changes to my DNS configuration (improvements to /etc/hosts and /etc/resolv.conf), which resulted in faster name resolutions for web browsers and file managers. I found the information to be detailed enough so that I got what I needed, but not so overwhelming as to turn off my interest level. Another positive note was that the descriptions and examples given throughout the book are "distribution-neutral." I'm using Mandrake 9.1 and RedHat 9, and the configuration file instructions matched up perfectly with both filesystem structures. I believe they would also apply directly to other mainstream distributions, or be easily adapted to slightly different locations.

The book covers some history of networking, and explains the TCP/IP protocol in great detail. Issues covered include IP addressing/subnetting, name resolution, routing, kernel considerations, and drivers. The next several chapters discuss how to configure many kinds of networking hardware and software, such as ethernet, serial/SLIP/PPP, and NIS/NFS. There were great examples of the configuration files that require editing, with understandable explanations of why you were doing it. A make-believe small business is used as an example throughout the book, as they build and expand their corporate network and integrate with other branches of the company.

The next section covered how to set up a firewall/router, again with great example configuration files and scripts. This part went into just the right amount of detail, and included discussion on packet filtering, firewall testing, IP packet accounting, and NAT/masquerading. I'd say I got the most amount of useful knowledge from this section, and will refer to it many times again when I get around to building a router for the home LAN. I now feel that I have enough knowledge to replace my LAN's commercial router with an older computer I have laying around, running Linux with a customized iptables firewall. The IP/packet logging and accounting procedures I now understand will make me feel much more comfortable with what's going on in my network, and the security issues involving the internet interface.

There are several chapters dedicated to setting up and understanding various network services that you may with to install and administer. These include email server/client, UUCP/Usenet news, NNTP and INN, and DNS. There are excellent diagrams, tables, and examples throughout the book. If there was one area I would have liked to have seen addressed (maybe in the next edition?), it would be to have at least an introductory chapter addressing the use of Samba, as it is a common, easy method of integrating a Linux network with Windows computers. Overall I was very pleased with the book, and would recommend it to anyone interested in Linux networking. It has something for everyone, at all skill levels. The table of contents and index are excellent, and you can find exactly what you're looking for very quickly. Additionally, the book offers an excellent list of other reference books, websites, newsgroups, and user groups to assist with getting more in-depth information. I'd like to extend a "well done" to the authors, and to O'Reilly Publishing!

You can purchase the Linux Network Administrator's Guide, 2nd Edition from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page. Dan Clough suggests you visit the Pensacola Linux User's Group, too ;)
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Linux Network Administrator's Guide, 2nd Edition More

Linux Network Administrator's Guide, 2nd Edition

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  • Greetings from Junis (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 16, 2003 @11:34AM (#6213542)
    Hello, I just picked up a copy of this book. It was so good I immediately began digging for my other C-64s in order to try forming my own network in Linux.

    I have to say that setting things up was easy, and getting mplayer to run (and even exporting it to other C-64 terminals was a snap. My Baywatch SVCDs run *flawlessly*)

    Overall, I give this book 9 out of 10.

  • Disappointing Book (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I have never liked this book. It does a great job of telling me things I don't need to know.

    I wish I had only spent my money on Essential System Administration, 3rd edition (Frisch), rather than both.

  • Nice positive review... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AgTiger ( 458268 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @11:36AM (#6213552) Homepage
    But why do I feel like I just walked out of a showroom for this year's new cars?

    "He slimed me, Ray"...

    Seriously, c'mon, give me the negatives. There had to be some negatives. Nothing's perfect.

    • Re:Nice positive review... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SuperDuG ( 134989 ) <[be] [at] [eclec.tk]> on Monday June 16, 2003 @11:49AM (#6213705) Homepage Journal
      negatives?

      The reviewer didn't have the slightest grasp of how to setup a network or linux correctly in the first place. This may be seen as a troll or flaimbait, but it is in fact pretty honest. Anyone who doesn't know how to compile a kernel or setup a basic IP Table NAT really shouldn't be reviewing a book.

      The book was designed for the person who did the review, but that doesn't really give a good "REView". It simply says "yeah I read this and learned a whole lot from it". Someone seasoned in linux and networking might have been able to read more into the complexity of the IPTables and whether or not certain applications like Snort and TripWire were designed to also help out.

      Nope you didn't get that because the reviewer actually admitted that they knew absolutely nothing over the basics before they started reading the book, so you probably won't find anything "bad" from the reviewer because they don't know what they're looking for.

      • Re:Nice positive review... (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        This coming from the guy who suggests having linux box such as a BSD, Slackware or Debian to be used a firewall between his regular machines and the internet.

        While I understand what you were saying I find it odd that you even unconciously refer to a BSD as a linux machine.

        Just because the reviewer had little previous experience, that doesn't invalidate the experiances he did have. The guy wrote a review, not a athoratiative research paper.
        • As much as I try not to feed the trolls ...

          FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Slackware Linux, and Debian Linux all have the option of installing a base system that comes with a kernel, a shell, and few basic apps for expanding the system. By default this base install comes with no Dameons on and no ports opened. You are required to install and configure Server Type applications on your own and you know what's installed and serving because you personally installed them.

          This is a little different than Win* and

      • shouldn't be reviewing a book? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        So a novice has no business reviewing a book for novices?

        Good luck with that.

      • Re:Nice positive review... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by nursedave ( 634801 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @01:35PM (#6214824) Homepage Journal
        What an arrogant ass you are.

        That's the trouble with the Linux community, boys and germs; arrogance.

        You guys think that because you have spent unbelievable amounts of time sitting in front of a glowing CRT learning the intricate details of an OS, that anyone who doesn't want to do likewise is a lamer, loser, or whatever.

        Then, you piss and moan that Linux doesn't have more acceptability. Hey, I hate M$ as much as the next guy (see, I even used the $ instead of the S, to show what a great anti-M$ guy I am), but they have done something the Linux folks haven't: Released a product that my grandmother can sit down in front of, click a few things, and go. If I hand my mother an XP disk and a new computer and say, 'Install this,' she will first tell me to wash my hands, dinner is almost ready; then she will be able to sit down and do it. If I hand her a Mandrake disk, I guarantee, she will need to ask me a bunch of questions about the process, ones that you and I will roll our eyes at, but if you don't know something, you don't know it, and have to find out somehow.

        In short, I haven't read this book. But a beginner's guide reviewed by a beginner means a hell of a lot more to me than the same guide reviewed by someone who is so experienced that he has forgotten his first dull stare at the blinking login prompt.
        • Hey, I hate M$ as much as the next guy (see, I even used the $ instead of the S, to show what a great anti-M$ guy I am), but they have done something the Linux folks haven't: Released a product that my grandmother can sit down in front of, click a few things, and go. If I hand my mother an XP disk and a new computer and say, 'Install this,' she will first tell me to wash my hands, dinner is almost ready; then she will be able to sit down and do it.

          Bullshit. Unless your Grandma is a computer programmer o

          • I dislike MS's business practices, years of smoke and mirrors, FUD, and years of shitty OS's (always advertised with something like, "This one is IT!!"). I hate what I've seen them do to smaller companies, and I am very pissed that they are getting away with it.

            Having said that, I must grudgingly say that XP seems to, if not *work* better, then *install* better, then anything out there (I won't talk Mac, I'm clueless). I can't tell you what a sinking sensation in the gut it is for me to say MS has done s

        • Re:Nice positive review... (Score:1, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward

          You are both right.

          An expert cannot properly decide if the book will be useful to a beginner.

          A beginner cannot properly comment on what was missing, misleading or just plain wrong.

          Yes, this review was useful. No it doesn't have everything a perfect review would require.

          Such is life.

        • That's the trouble with the Linux community, boys and germs; arrogance.

          You guys think that because you have spent unbelievable amounts of time sitting in front of a glowing CRT learning the intricate details of an OS, that anyone who doesn't want to do likewise is a lamer, loser, or whatever."

          Arrogance is hardly confined to the Linux community. Ever talk to a sports car enthusiast? Or a boater? Or a surfer?. It's just human nature for people to try and one-up each other on these things. Even Window

          • This is a good point, but I think the Linux elitists cause the others to pale in comparison on the arrogance front. I've been involved in waaaay too many (expensive) hobbies, and have seen a person like that in each subculture. But for the most part these folks were very helpful to the newbie. I flew RC planes and then helis (I'm selling mine, if anyone's interested! ;)) and those guys were great; helping me to set up the system, radio, throttles, blade pitch, advising on good aftermarket stuff and what
        • In short, I haven't read this book.

          And you dare to speak up

          But a beginner's guide reviewed by a beginner means a hell of a lot more to me

          There is nothing worse than documentation full of inacurracies - that's why you should not rely on beginners review.
          And why you believe that is is a beginners guide?

        • At least not this time.

          I wouldn't necessarily disagree that there is too much arrogance in the Linux community (I'd argue the point, though) but this isn't an example.

          Reviewers are most valuable for people who are at about the same technical level as they are. So (as you seem to say), this untechy reviewer might be just what you need.

          But for others, a more technical examination would be more valuable, and my suspicion is that MOST Slashdot readers are more apt to fall onto the techy side of the curve.
      • "I have never liked this book. It does a great job of telling me things I don't need to know." serving your negative.....

      • I assume someone else has already mentioned this, but it seems much of what this book tells you you could find in "Running Linux" O'Reilly, which is a very good resource for the newbie.

    • Re:Nice positive review... (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      from the review I can say that these are the negatives:

      Too general (no Samba, very light on DNS, and nothing about anything terribly important [ie Squid])

      WEAK on DNS (who doesn't know about the "changes that make resolving hostnames faster"?)

      If it's easy enough for Mr. I run RH9 and Mandrake9 you know it isn't in depth enough to be considered a "Linux Administrators Guide vol. 2"

      Wow, helped with iptables and NAT/Masq. The HOWTOs are VERY thorough and easy to understand (nevermind the fact that they are

  • How about free content alternatives? (Score:5, Informative)

    by roc_machine ( 314714 ) * on Monday June 16, 2003 @11:37AM (#6213567) Journal
    It should be the running theme with Linux:

    Linux Network Administrators Guide 2nd ed [jamesthornton.com]

    O'Reilly Linux Command Reference [oreillynet.com]
  • 'enough to be dangerous.' My existing home LAN consists of 5 machines: one running Mandrake Linux 9.1, one RedHat 9 (laptop), two Windows XP, and one Windows 98.

    As far as "networking for linux", I wouldn't put any of those computers "online" without something else between them and the internet. Like a linux box running a BSD, Slackware, or Debian. The overhead and unneccessary packaging for those systems makes it an internet nightmare.

    You're right you know "enough to be dangerous" as in getting some w

    • How about putting an old box running smoothwall between the LAN and the internet? works well for me.......
    • So let's see, a RH box with all services (other than perhaps SSH if you're into getting home from the outside) shut down, and iptables set to basically drop everything...

      Yeah, that would suck, you're right. Every machine I have should be a part of someone else's DDoS attack by now if you were right. We should bow before your expertise.

      • Okay ...

        Leave your box online 24x7 with a default isntall of RedHat and do it on a common IP Block (like those of home broadband).

        Along with a Windows Machine.

        It's like having sex without a condom (something you'll never have to worry about) ... it's risky, but sometimes you end up okay ...

        I was meerly commenting that the reviewer had no idea whatsoever about what he was talking about. Which I was right, hell he even admitted he was an idiot.

        • hell he even admitted he was an idiot.

          From review:
          "I am pretty much a Linux beginner, and know 'enough to be dangerous.'"

          Admitting idiocy and ignorance are vastly diffent assertions.
        • Leave your box online 24x7 with a default isntall of RedHat and do it on a common IP Block (like those of home broadband).

          Along with a Windows Machine.

          And then try it like the Article author has it set up: with a SpeedStream firewall between your computers and the Internet, and then get back to us.

          Not perfect, but solves the most common issues.
    • As far as "networking for linux", I wouldn't put any of those computers "online" without something else between them and the internet. Like a linux box running a BSD, Slackware, or Debian. The overhead and unneccessary packaging for those systems makes it an internet nightmare


      Like a LINUX box running a BSD ?? I think packaging nightmare is the least of your concerns ;-)

    • Could you elaborate? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by stefanlasiewski ( 63134 ) * <slashdot AT stefanco DOT com> on Monday June 16, 2003 @12:33PM (#6214125) Homepage Journal
      Could you elaborate? What's so horrible about the packaging? If anything, his sytem is typical of a
      geek home network.

      What's so horrible about his setup?

      I wouldn't put any of those computers "online" without something else between them and the internet.

      Most "Speedstream Router/Switch" have NAT and a firewall to control access to IPs and ports. Hopefully he also keeps his sytems up to date and has updated anti-virus software running on his Windows boxes. Hopefully he uses tripwire.

      Like a linux box running a BSD, Slackware, or Debian.

      Many people would disagree with you here. Just installing Linux on a computer isn't some magic pill that will solve your firewall nightmare.

      Running a dedicated SlipStream router has many advantages over a linux router: It's simple, easy to maintain, and is (hopefully) effective out of the box.

      Running a firewall on top of a full fledged OS can add alot of overhead and unnecessary packaging, and can be very (human) error prone. For instance, his SlipStream box does not have CVS or CC installed, so there's no chance of a hacker compiling odd tools on his router.

      You're right you know "enough to be dangerous" as in getting some worm and unknowingly using your computer as the host of a DDoS attack.

      Your "You suck, you should use Linux"-solution isn't any better. How will your suggestion stop him from getting a worm or from DDOSing someone?
      • Think about this:

        Linux running windows.
        Linux running AIX.

        Linux running BSD is the same thing.
        That's why packaging is going to be the least of your problem and still a potential nightmare.

  • Beginners (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 16, 2003 @11:41AM (#6213606)
    Having read this book I can tell you that it is NOT really for beginners. You may want to try Essential System Administration [amazon.com], which is also by O'Reilly [ora.com].

  • Synopsis (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Here is the synopsis:

    1. Learn linux
    2. Fail to find job
    3. ????
    4. No profit
    5. Write a book about linux
    6. Profit!!

    • This reminded me of the South Park "Underpants Gnomes" episode. The gnomes first got underpants (step 1) and then profit (step 2). I believe some pieces were missing from their business plan.
      • Then they found that step 2 was IPO, never made it to step 3 (Profit), and.. oh damn I am getting South Park confused with a .Com.. :P

  • It's also available for free... (Score:5, Informative)

    by chjones ( 610558 ) <chjones&aleph0,com> on Monday June 16, 2003 @11:43AM (#6213633) Homepage Journal

    As part of O'Reilly's Open Books Project [oreilly.com], this book [oreilly.com] is also available (without the shiny binding) for free. You can also pickup PDF's and the like the Linux Documentation Project [tldp.org]'s guides section [tldp.org].

    • Re:It's also available for free... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      While I think it's great that many of these are for free online, many people (including myself) do not enjoy reading a book on screen. I guess sometimes you just can't beat an old-fashioned book...

    • And always was (Score:4, Informative)

      by andyo ( 109338 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @04:06PM (#6216621) Homepage Journal
      While I worked some on this O'Reilly's open book policy and am proud to see it growing, I also should admit for historical accuracy that the Linux Network Administrator's Guide started as an LDP project. I made a deal with Olaf Kirch, the first author: O'Reilly would put in a lot of editing and production work and donate it all back to the free version of the book, and in return we'd publish it. The license has changed over time, but the book started out open and has remained that way. Nevertheless, I and the rest of the company invested a lot of time and money into making it a strong, professional text.

  • Hopefully in the third edition they'll cover (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    relevant topics like 'Using Kerebos as an authentication model', 'Fun with LDAP', 'Throwing NIS out the window for a secure networking scheme', rewriting Ext3 and Reiser for network authenication support', or a myriad of other topics that are actually relevant today.
  • So, now you are ready to get off of that inflexible router and start using IPtables on linux for your firewall, right?
  • it's a great reference.

  • Bookpool (Score:4, Informative)

    by jherubin ( 165175 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @11:53AM (#6213738)
    Instead of the Barnes and Noble link...get it here for almost 40% less:

    Bookpool [bookpool.com]
  • Mandrake is a RPM based system as is redhat. I used to run mandrake, and used redhat rpms to install. I haven't run mandrake in a few years, but I imagine things haven't changed that much.
  • another good admin book is by Marcel Gagne...it covers the spectrum of Administration from a very interesting perspective, and it isnt a dry boring read. it was a pleasant surprise....

    Marcel's book [salmar.com]

  • Does anybody else (Score:3, Funny)

    by LittleLebowskiUrbanA ( 619114 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @12:07PM (#6213867) Homepage Journal
    Does anybody else buy a book w/ the best intentions and end up doing all of your research online?
    • All of the time. I have a good collection of networking and firewall books that a few quick Googles could have served me better.
    • I do alot of research online, but I can take my paper book and a highlighter to the cafe and learn more without the "internet procrastinator". Simple, easy, cheap, effective, can spill coffee on the book and it's still usable.

      Downside: No indexing. Can't grep the damn book.

      Laptop? Feh.
      • > Downside: No indexing. Can't grep the damn book.

        Well for OReilly books you can, sort of:
        http://safari.oreilly.com/

        Your point is taken on the 'books, highliter, no Internet luring you to procrastinate' ;) same thing here. Shelf full of OReilly's to use when necessary.

    • Absolutely... but then to my dismay, the online research about resource FOO invariably turns up this useful tidbit of knowledge: "if you need to configure access to resource FOO, contact your network administrator". WTF? I am the network administrator. (Sorta brings to mind a variation of an old koan... which comes first: the newbie, or the book to help him?)
    • Yes...

      Most computing books are disappointing in that matter.

      Last example was a few months ago:
      I thought I could start learning XSLT by buying a book...did that...ended up browsing the XSLT reference pages at www.zvon.org after 1 hour of boring reading.

      I now use XSLT in my every day life...
      (true! I intend to XML-ize the content of my fridge for easier retrieval of outdated junk food

  • i read this book too (Score:5, Informative)

    by pinpoint23 ( 323490 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @12:16PM (#6213949) Homepage
    I have this book as well, and do not share the reviewer's enthusiasm for it, on several points.

    1. It is old (2000, original edition is 1995) and vast sections of the book are completely useless.

    2. It is too concise. The sections on NAT and Firewall are vague, and i had to consult additonal resources just to figure out how to get it to work. I had the same problems with the DNS chapter and the NIS chapter. This book gives enough info to let you know what something is, but often not enough to serve as a useful reference. The authors encourge you to buy additional o'reilly books if you want to know more, which is annoying.

    3. Important stuff is missing. SSH? nothing. SAMBA? nothing. Entire chapters dedicated to obsolete technologies like PPP, SLIP, IPX, and UUCP? lots.

    4. This book did not need four chapters on how to setup a Usenet news server. What a waste!

    Although I was a newbie when I first read it, and learned a lot, i would recommend people look elsewhere. This book is simply too out-of-date. Half of it should be omitted, and the other half expanded so as to become usable.

    • Although I was a newbie when I first read it, and learned a lot, i would recommend people look elsewhere. This book is simply too out-of-date. Half of it should be omitted, and the other half expanded so as to become usable.

      That describes most hack computer books. The technology changes rapidly, and not everybody has the brainpower to keep up with it.

      I remember trying to learn Windows 3.0 programming from Petzold's famous book. I struggled for days to get through the chapter on memory management. I near

  • You use a commercial router at home!? Blasphemy! I demand you switch to an open source router!

    (I guess this isn't as funny as I initially thought since you can use open source SW for a router. But you still need to buy the HW!)

  • About the Authors (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Author Description

    Terry Dawson is an amateur radio operator and long time Linux enthusiast. He is the author of a number of network related HOWTO documents for the Linux Documentation Project and is an active participant in a number of other Linux projects.

    Terry has 15 years professional experience in telecommunications and is currently engaged in network management research in the Telstra Research Laboratories. Terry lives in Sydney with his wife Maggie, and son Jack.

    Olaf Kirch has a degree in Mathe

  • By all means build yourself a router (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 16, 2003 @12:21PM (#6213991)
    Just built one myself, and while challenging, was definealty worth the effort. I used New Riders Linux Firewalls and found it a great reference. Best part is once you have set up your router as you like, just burn the config scripts to cdrom and you will be able to make your own router out of most old junk computers and a minimal amount of spare time. Another great thing is that you can make it as mild, or wild as you want, nat, stateful packet inspection, dhcp, ssh, or whatever features you want.
  • almost every review of debian book mentioned the almighty apt-get in the book, and why didn't urpmi got mentioned.. am I too outdated (or they've switched to somewhere else, or it's too lame to teach, or as in the mySQL book, if they don't already know that they are not qualified enough to read this book?)

  • There are some negatives to this book... (Score:4, Informative)

    by cenonce ( 597067 ) <anthony_t@@@mac...com> on Monday June 16, 2003 @01:31PM (#6214773)
    I'd don't know my skill level with Linux and networking versus the reviewer, but I'd fall into the category of "just enough knowledge to be dangerous".

    Frankly, there are negatives to this book. A few examples I can think of off the top of my head (unfortunately, I don't have the book in front of me to refresh my memory) are:

    Generally, no matter what topic in the book, all you get is a simple walkthrough of the commands and minimal description of why you do them or what to do for an unusual set-up. Well, ok, I understand it is "survey type" book, but since all this stuff is readily available via man pages, How-Tos and newsgroups, why buy a 40 dollar book on it?

    For example, getting an ethernet adapter configured via the command line was easy to do, but hard to follow in the book as to why you use certain commands and flags and what things other than the simple example they are good for. I didn't get a great explanation as to theifconfig command and the route command. Also, it was difficult to understand how to configure two ethernet adapters on the same machine in order to set up a Linux firewall or DHCP server in place of a router.

    The section on DNS is a big waste of time. If you are going to delve into DNS, you might as well get O'Reilly's DNS & Bind and slog through that nightmare (not the book, setting up DNS). If all you are doing is setting up 5 machines behind a home router (my set-up is similar), then just use the /etc/hosts file and be done with it. Do you really need a DNS server for that? And if you REALLY need critical DNS, do you want to use a "survey book" to set-up the configuration! Please! The hosts file is about the extent this book should go with DNS as far as I'm concerned.

    I'd say the same for setting up a mail server... with all I hear about sendmail, why would I count on the simplistic outline in a general Linux networking book for configuring sendmail? Especially with the chance of screwing it up and having all hell break loose with the mail server and my network!

    It is not a worthless book. It does a good job of explaining how the internet works, how you set-up a machine to be on the internet and what general security issues are involved (i.e., enough for some clown like me to keep his network safe behind a home router or even behind linux router if you slog through setting that up).

    I won't pretend to be a professional IT guy. But I do like playing around with home networking using various services for fun, so when I buy a book like this, I'd like it to contain more than just simple examples and a rehash of readily available stuff from man pages and How-Tos.

    -Anthony
  • Of the more than 30 ORA books I have this is the worst; you'll get far more use out of TCP/IP Network Administration by Craig Hunt (with occasional reference to DNS and Bind for more detail). I'd avoid the O'Reilly book "Running Linux" too. These two books have nothing you can't get a better, more detailed and clearer version of from the web. I use the "Sed & Awk" book more than these two combined.

    TWW

  • Already reviewed by slashdot (Score:3, Informative)

    by yamla ( 136560 ) <chris@@@hypocrite...org> on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:14PM (#6217433)
    Hey! I already reviewed this book. [slashdot.org] Right here on slashdot. Almost three years ago.
  • in soviet russia, linux administers YOU!

  • Replace a router with a computer... or vice versa? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Sherloqq ( 577391 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @08:33AM (#6221895)
    I now feel that I have enough knowledge to replace my LAN's commercial router with an older computer I have laying around, running Linux with a customized iptables firewall.

    That's kinda funny. I just went the opposite direction a few weeks ago -- had an old P-200 as my firewall, but I sprung a whopping $9.99 for a D-Link router/firewall. Why? There are a few reasons. One less machine to maintain (I have enough machines already, thank you). One less machine drawing power (yeah, electricity is included in my rent for now, but one day I'll be out on my own, so I should start getting used to downsizing now). One less machine to drain the UPS when power goes out (ugh... you'd think Niagara Mohawk would have their act together after, what, a hundred years of being in the business?).

    The D-Link does everything I need it to, is stable, quiet, always on... having a dedicated computer was fun, but this is a better solution for me.

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