Linux Routers: A Primer For Network Administrators

Tony Mancill

1 Your Thinking + This book = Accomplishment/Satisfaction
This is the most practical book I have seen (without the word "Practical" in the title). I am a student who wants to setup a network in my dorm room. Here is what I did:

My PCs are in the school network, only one of which is known to the school servers. By reading chap 1-3, I activated ip_forwarding feature of kernel( >= 2.2.x->the book came out around this time). Doesn't work. I think about the situation. My PCs(in my network) see the outside servers but school servers don't see me. Answer: ip_masquerading->open up the packets of PCs inside the network, replacing the address with my router address(which outsiders know) and send them out. Perfect! I love linux. Ip_masquerading is explained in chap4 or Erbium->extranet router. All of these accomplish by reading about 100 pages.
The following chapters deal with WAN routers(I can't tell you practical aspect since I don't have WAN but I will one day).
This line is for beginners: so you feel worry about not understanding about networks?->chap 1-2 explains about all necessary basics to set up the router such as ip subnets/address, how to load/compile driver into the kernel, etc.
For those who are looking for WAN, here is a quote from the book: "I have been a longtime user of Sangoma cards, and enjoyed working with them so much that I took over the Debian package of their driver utility software(called wanpipe)."->pg 130.

To see whether it suits your needs, here are the chapters:
1)Routing Building Blocks

2)Ip, Ethernet, and Telephony Basics
3)Silicon-Lan Router
4)Erbium-Extranet Router
5)Zinc-Frame Relay Router
6)Oxygen-Internet Router
7)Californium-Satellite Office Router
8)Hafnium-Internet Services Router

Note: this book doesn't describe the installation (you are not reading this if you don't know installation).

This book/Mr. Mancill took me/my confidence in linux to the next level.

2 The Bible
Hands on, good book for network admins.
Linux is an excelent router and this book shows why.
I recommend this book for anyone interested in networking.
It exposes a lot of the myths and secrets of networking in a very readable fashion.
My #1 most useful book.

3 The Networking Book
Excellent introduction. Topics well covered. Explanations straightforward. Logical. If you need a generic router book this is it. Highly recommended.

4 Exceptional
This book guided me from an almost nil knowledge level on linux routers to very competent. The spectrum of covered topics is fantastic and I also found the appendix extremely useful. Tony has an easy writing style to follow and I look forward to an advanced book on linux routing?

5 An excellent basis for a series of lab exercises
An excellent book on using Linix to build routers. It provides a very through description of how to use ipchains in conjunction with forwarding, masquarading, accounting, etc.

The book is organized around chapters which describe how to build: a LAN router,an extranet router, a frame relay router, an internet router, a satellite office router, and an internet services router.

The book would make an excellent basis for a series of lab exercises.

Another excellent feature is appendix C, which describes how one can use VMware to experiment with virtual network configurations.

Students (and instructors) should be aware that there are some minor typos in the text and diagrams - for example figure C.1 has two subnets labelled "A", the righthand one should be "B".

6 An outstanding book.
I have searched far and wide for a concise book like this. Mancill has clear explanations and detail enough to get a configuration that works. There are bounuses like a good appendix that will walk the newbie (like me) through building his own kernel. How-to's and Man pages are fine, but this book is much easier to read and provided just enough hand holding.

7 Excellent book
I bought this book just as a curious reader who found the subject interesting and since that day this book follows me everywhere and has generated a great deal of enthusiasm in me to learn more about this subject.Staring from the routing 101 basics to wan configs this book has increased my understanding by a couple of notches.One of the best books I have read in a long long time.

8 Excellent tutorial
This is a must have book for Unix System administrators working with routers. Tony has written a book that is easy to understand, very concise and explains many advantages to using Linux-based routers. His understanding of network administration is extremely impressive and he conveys that in an interesting manner. Definitely worth the investment!