Screaming Penguin

My latest foray and review is that of the world of VPNs. This book review covers Building and Managing Virtual Private Networks by Dave Kosiur, Wiley Press 1998. This book is well written and is an overall excellent reference to the many VPN technolgies that currently abound. Standards are just beginning to take shape as new RFCs are adopted so this category will likely change and more updated information will be available, but for now this is about the best book on the current status around anywhere. The book covers basics to intermediate technology and is more of an overview than an in-depth technical discussion, but it does get into items such as packet headers, encryption algorithms and protocols. The book also contains sections on less thought about but just as important details such as security policies and contigencies, not neccessarily tech details but monumental to a successful security scheme just the same. Overall, this is a great book, I would recommend it to experienced technical professionals as a reference and novices as an introduction alike. It is capable of being beneficial to a wide audience. RATING: 4.0 Penguin Aftros (out of a possible 5.2) on our scale.