Review of Absolute Beginner's Guide to Personal Firewalls (Paperback)

This books leaves a mixed impression. First of all, although the book is called "for absolute beginners", it is not written as a book for housewives who never saw a computer before. It is interesting, informative, and the reader is assumed to be knowledgeable and capable of making informed decisions. In fact, one has to have a certain understanding of Windows (yes, it is not oriented towards Mac users) and TCP/IP to understand what the author is talking about. The author obviously has very extensive knowledge of internet security, and the book includes much of his practical knowldge. The negative side is that less than 1/3 of the book is generic and applicable to any firewall, i.e., discusses why home networks need to be protected, and where are the potential areas of vulnerability. The rest is step by step description of how to install and configure several commercial firewalls. Frankly, I do not understand who needs all these details since installation/setup guidelines are always included in the software manual which one gets in printed or electronic form together with the purchased program, whereas it is an obvious fact that any particular version of the program gets obsolete very quickly. I doubt that any of the descriptions of software from the book remains relevant two years after the book came out in 2001. I would rather prefer to see more generic (and less dependent on the software version) discussion of how to take advantage of the features present in most firewalls (blocking certain protocols, applications, IP addresses, etc.). All this said, this book is "beginner's guide" only because it does not get into too many details of what exactly firewalls do, and how they do it. However, those few items which are discussed are covered in significant depth and on a good professional level.

Product Description

The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Personal Firewalls is designed to provide simplified, yet thorough firewall information on the most prevalent personal firewall software applications available for the non expert firewall consumer.In addition, it offers information and links to Web sites that will help you test your security after your personal firewall is installed.

From the Back Cover
The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Personal Firewalls is designed to provide simplified, yet thorough firewall information on the most prevalent personal firewall software applications available for the non expert firewall consumer.In addition, it offers information and links to Web sites that will help you test your security after your personal firewall is installed.

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