Customer Rating:  
Summary: not enough concept explanation, too much other minor detail
Comment: Important are not explained in depth enough. ex; attack objects, Deep inspection. It spends more time explain how to setup a certain thing than why this needs to be done or under what circumstance this need to be done.
I thought Juniper own documentation sometimes provide more useful concept than the book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Better off waiting for a Second Edition...
Comment: I read a lot of books, and while I don't review all of them, I am often compelled to write a review when a book stands out, either for it's clear leadership and technical distinction in the marketplace, or for it's extreme lack thereof. In this case, I was compelled to write the review based on the latter.
Seeing as this is the only Netscreen book on the market, I had high expectations for it. When one looks at the credentials of the numerous authors, it reads like a veritable list of leaders in the Security industry. As such, I was rather excited when I picked up this book. As I began reading this book, I quickly realized that it was not going to meet my expectations. Clearly this book was rushed to market, another sign that the primary concern of many publishers is not in producing quality, but rather quantity. This book suffers from many of the same problems I see with other books on the market with multiple contributing authors, which is that the voice isn't consistent throughout the book. Some chapters have diagrams, screen shots, or CLI commands outlining various procedural steps, whereas these details are noticeably absent in others.
In addition, this book is littered with many errors throughout, both typographical as well as technical. In some cases, as other reviewers point out, sentences simply stop abruptly mid-sentence. The text often refers to diagrams which don't even exist. There are numerous references to find additional information in other chapters which are non-existent.
With regards to technical content, the authors certainly could have added more detail, especially considering the number of authors who contributed to this text. For example, the chapter on Routing does a good job of telling the reader how to enable BGP, but provides no details on how to actually configure a BGP neighbor. Another example is URL filtering which is discussed in the chapter on Attack Detection and Defense. While the authors do a good job of describing the various modes to support URL filtering (redirect vs. integrated), there is no explanation of how redirection actually takes place and no diagrams to provide for comprehensive understanding of the subject matter.
I can't blame the authors entirely for the many flaws in this book, as any decent technical editor should have been able to spot many of these errors prior to publication. One wonders whether the technical editors even read the book as many of the errors are so blatant that it's inconceivable that so many managed to slip through. I'm disappointed in Syngress for publishing a book with so many errors, and this has definitely led me to believe that Syngress does not want to maintain a leadership position of publishing technical content of the highest magnitude, but rather they are only concerned with being the first to market with a particular product.
I will give this book 2 stars in that it is indeed a noble attempt at covering a wide array of topics, as well as for being the only book in the industry which covers this subject matter. I suggest that the authors should examine the possibility of releasing a second edition which may fix these blatant errors, as well as hiring some decent technical editors.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fit for Purpose
Comment: If you wish to employ a Juniper/Netscreen Firewall out of the box tyhen this is the book to buy. Together with Junipers own documentation it will form a good basis for studying for certification. I can't quite understand what Mr Uphill Gardener found wrong with this book as it does do what it sets out to do and achieves its aims. His review seems as substantial as the rest of his reviews (?) check them out.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Comment: This book provides in-depth explanation of firewall fundamentals, principles, concepts and instruction. Comparable to a $3,000 instruction class. It speaks to the novice and advanced reader. Money well spent.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Falls Short of the Mark...
Comment: This book has several serious shortcomings. There are numerous spelling and grammatical errors, and sentences sometimes just end abruptly right in mid-sentence. The typography is uneven with run-together letters and spaces breaking words into pieces. The writing style is often choppy and hard to follow. In short, this book has the appearance of a first draft that has not had the benefit of editing. The editors were really asleep on the job to let this one slip through.
Aside from all of the issues mentioned above, the real problem with this book is that it doesn't have any examples. Sure, it has examples for each configuration command, but so does the vendor documentation, and this just appears to be a rehash of that information. What are completely missing are detailed examples describing how to configure a Netscreen firewall in a real-world environment. I would like to have seen comprehensive examples of configurations for remote office, small office, and enterprise environments that include setting up VPNs, DMZs, and other complex tasks.
Bottom line: this book is riddled with mistakes that should never have gotten past the editors and falls far short of the mark when it comes to providing real-world configuration examples. It's no better than a poorly done rehash of the vendor documentation available free on Juniper's website.
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