Connecting to the Internet: A Practical Guide About LAN-Internet Connectivity

Rating:
Summary: A great resource for the budding networking consultant...
Review: I was pleasantly surprised by the content and format of this book, having quickly bought it after a few minutes perusal. This is an excellent primer covering most relevant design and security issues relevant to getting a network interconnected/Internetted. The most salient point about this book is that it is one of the true consultant-friendly offerings I have seen and provides terrific overview of necessary issues for bona-fide consulting gigs, particularly with issues of design, security, laying an infrastructure from scratch, and the sort of qualitative design questions you will expected to answer from companies seeking someone who really knows their stuff. By no means is it thoroughly comprehensive, and that's not the point. Use this for a launching point, then utilize in tandem with other offerings such as Chris Brenton's books ("Mastering Network Security," "Multiprotocol Network Design"). Also, this book is NOT for the day-to-day sys admin/contractor/tech in an enterprise environment with extensive infrastructure already in place performing routine maintenance. On a final note, if you're one of the few and brave setting up shop and venturing out as an independent (despite the overwhelming aggregation of the networking services market towards the big corporate/ultra-airhead cattle-call contract/temporary agencies the past several years), you'll want this in your briefcase for additional armor...

Rating:
Summary: A great resource for the budding networking consultant...
Review: The content combines issues of sys-admin and basic technology issues of network design, security, VPN, and management and presents them in one coherent book.

Rating:
Summary: You Won't put this book very far away
Review: This is an excellent book with allot of detail. Every page is full of valuable information and a great resource. It is worth reading this book at least twice. It also covers some tcp/ip issues as well as routers issues that were a little fuzzy in the past.

Rating:
Summary: You Won't put this book very far away
Review: This is an excellent book with allot of detail. Every page is full of valuable information and a great resource. It is worth reading this book at least twice. It also covers some tcp/ip issues as well as routers issues that were a little fuzzy in the past.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book!
Review: Very pragmatic and focused. Ward has done an excellent job covering the important aspects of successfully connecting to the Internet.