Charlie Scott | Paul Wolfe | Mike Erwin
1 Innacurate and old
I didn't check out the publication date of this book when I bought it (1998) so my dissapointment is partly my fault. It is, unsuprisingly, very outdated (anyone actually remember the altavista tunnel?). However, much of the info that remains, even general VPN fundamentals, are flawed and innacurate. This book will hinder you if you are trying to understand proper VPN network topologies.
2 Perfect
This book solved a lot of problems for me. While much of the product coverage no longer applies, the theory and practice of the VPN, as well as the basic need for such a technology gave me the information I needed to convince my upper management to use VPN's better.
3 Well.. Almost Useless
This book was a big disappointment. It does gloss over alot of the key VPN ideas, but there is not much substance. I've learned more from reading various tidbits off the internet.
Also, before you even consider using PPTP you should read the CounterPane cryptanalysis paper on PPTP.
http://www.counterpane.com/pptpv2-paper.html PPTP on windows NT is just not secure!
For a total newbie, this book might give them an idea of what to look for on the internet, but besides that I don't see too much value in this book.
I wouldn't buy it again, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that I liked.
4 Virtual Private Networks, 2nd Edition (O'Reilly Nutshell)
I'm new to the world of VPN. This book laid some ground work for me to start with. The other reviews consider this book as usless, but now after having read this book, I now have a basis to gauge other work by. After all, as another review stated, there is not much new material out there.
5 BAD book....O'Reilly! 2nd Edition!
I so agree with "This book is a blot on O'Reilly's reputation. The editor(s) must have been asleep". I have many O'Reilly books, and they all are good...but not this one. I trusted the O'Reilly's editors. So I ordered this book before it was published. I wish I had the chance to read the reviews....
6 Complete waste!
This book is not worth the paper it is written on. I expected more from an O'Reilly book. If you want to learn about VPN, go for a better selection!
7 waste of money
I bought this book on an impuse. I assumed that since it was an oreilly book it would have some decent technical content and perspective. But was I wrong, the book starts with a minimal overview of VPNs one could pick up on the web in 5 minutes, a bunch of screen captures of setting up windows NT's VPN, a short chapter on using ssh, and a chapter on altavista's tunelling product.. I would have expected at least balanced and comparable results between each approach but, for example, the ssh chapter goes into the end performance of that approach but this evaluation isn't present for windows nt. In short there is no technical detail in this book and the information that is there would be just as easily (and much less expensively) found on the web.
Boo hiss.
8 Not worth the price.
Until now, all O'Reilly books I've encountered have been worth their weight in gold. Not this one! The very slim book focuses on simple tunneling systems (mostly from host to host) and cannot give sound advice or knowledge to any serious attempts at VPNs. Perhaps individual users with NTs might find some interest in the book, but for a network administrator its a total waste of money. Spend a few minutes browsing it and you've seen the best of it.
9 A very poorly written book.
It is a waste of money and time to buy and to read this book. I mean the second edition. There is neither clear architecture concept nor technical detail. Many concept can be illustrated in a very simple drawings and the author will not do it. After I read other books I feel that the authors don't know what they are talking about.
10 Look for a better book
What was O'Reilly thinking!! This is the first time I wasted money on an O'Reilly book (and I have plenty). This book was a rush job. There are many inaccuracies, a lot seem to be the editors mistakes. The authors seem to have the practical experience, but it is not communicated in a clear manner. The chapters on PPTP, AltaVista and Cisco PIX were organized in a good way and were helpful. Overall, the diagrams are poor. Better graphics could have salvaged this book. I give it two stars because there are not that many books on the market.
11 Could have been a lot better - 2nd Edition soon?
Rather lightweight and banal. This book could have been a lot better; had the impression that it was rather rushed, perhaps in an attempt to catch the VPN/ NT wave. There are some technical inaccuracies which is just not on in an introductory book. The book just about saves itself with its "manual type" content.
12 Very poor.
I have to agree with the majority of comments. This book is a disgrace to O'reilly. It is technically incorrect in many areas, e.g. "A SYN flood is a 'killer ping'" ...uhm, no, it's not. There's _no_ way this, and many other errors should have got past the editors.
13 A good introduction to VPN
Although it was light on the current array of integrated solutions available for VPN, it was a pretty good introduction for the beginner sysadmin who might know noting about VPN's. The chapters about the Pix and the Altavista tunnel, were solid, although most of the beginning was somewhat light for an o'reilly. In a second edition I would like to see expanded how-to coverage of some of the hardware and software solutions that are out there now, as well as a comprehensive section on troubleshooting the problems that can occur with vpn.
14 Crap for newbies
I am badly suprised. I have 2-3 months VPN experience and know MUUUCH more than author of this "research". Waste of money, I will think before purchasing O'Reilly books in future
15 A solid solutions-based book
Wow. Someone is unhappy that O'Reilly publishes NT books. Though most of the solutions covered in the book did not apply to my company, it definitely presented the options in a clear, concise manner. We are investigating using a VPN for our NT/UNIX network, and the chapters on PPTP and the PIX were excellent. The overview chapters were helpful, though there could be more on software solutions other than the few presented.
16 A solid solutions-based book
Wow. Someone is unhappy that O'Reilly publishes NT books. Though most of the solutions covered in the book did not apply to my company, it definitely presented the options in a clear, concise manner. We are investigating using a VPN for our NT/UNIX network, and the chapters on PPTP and the PIX were excellent. The overview chapters were helpful, though there could be more on software solutions other than the few presented.
17 Worst technical book I've read in years
This book is a blot on O'Reilly's reputation. The editor(s) must have been asleep. It is disorganized and riddled with errors of grammar, fact and logic. The authors seem to be unclear on their audience as well as their facts. The book is insulting and derogatory of end users (without whom there would be no need for the technology discussed), implying among other things, that most technical problems with VPNs are the fault of dumb end users, and then going on to describe problems that are almost all a result of installation and setup errors by the "pros" in configuring routers, NT Server and/or the VPN server software or equipment. The discussion of the CISCO equipment contains 13 pages about firewalls and a sparce 3 about VPNs, which turn out to require additional equipment not mentioned earlier or in the cost estimates. After pages of "war stories" about security breaches and cracker dangers, the authors state at one point that the logs produced by the VPN software are mainly good to enliven boring network administrator's meetings. It is often unclear which of two alternatives is being discussed. Further examples could be quoted from almost any page of this mess. Save your money. O'Reilly should post the full text of this fiasco on their web site for free as an example of the kind of "technical" material they are NOT interested in publishing.
18 O'Reilly has succumbed to making $$$ versus making quality
I agree with all the statements made by the reader from Atlanta. Several of the things mentioned in the book indicate that it was written at least 9 to 12 months ago. Chapter 7 is so full of errors on IP address assignments that the text is very confusing when trying to follow along with the figures. Through out the book the text is not aligned with the figures and in one case the figure is outright in error. When looking at the back of the book to see what background the authors have, they should stick to driving tanks and management. They have definitively proven they can not constuct a nework and shouldn't. O'Reilly had a good reputation with its Unix books. A damn shame they have destroyed it with this window oriented book. Perhaps O'Reilly should give up on Windows books since they did not even do a perfuntionary Quality Audit of this one.
19 Waste of money!
I can't believe O'Reilly published this book. This book was published in March '98 and appears to be written at least 12-18 months ago. If you are looking to build a VPN using Alta Vista's or Cisco's product (older versions, of course) this book may be a good introduction for you. Otherwise, I would not recommend this book for anyone interested in learning about VPNs. You can find white papers that are better and more up-to-date on the Internet (and they're free). I wish I could get my money back for this one!
