[.ca] Building Linux Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) (ISBN 1578702666)

From Amazon.com:
A virtual private network (VPN) enables computers to access remote resources--like the mail store on another office's mail server--from a geographically remote location. Rather than access the files over a private (and expensive) wide area network (WAN) link, however, a VPN makes its data transmissions across the open Internet. The magic is in making the communications secure, a critical job that requires a tunneling protocol that implements encryption. Building Linux Virtual Private Networks shows you how to set up VPNs without spending a lot of money, and without compromising ease of use or security. Oleg Kolesnikov and Brian Hatch emphasize network-to-network connectivity--fixed links between sites--rather than network-to-client connections. They show you how to use Linux to build a secure system of permanent--yet virtual--data links. There's coverage, for example, of the PoPToP daemon for handling Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP), but there's no coverage of non-Linux clients with which to connect it. There's a nice balance of managerial information (useful for justifying a VPN, and a Linux one in particular, to your boss) and technical details in these pages. Each of the covered packages gets nice documentation, complete with listings of configuration files and explicit statements of console input and output. --David Wall Topics covered: Packages designed to enable VPNs between Linux gateways. Software oriented toward standard protocols (PPP-over-SSH, PPP-over-SSL, IPsec, and PPTP) as well as nonstandard ones (VTun, cIPe, and tinc). Lots of coverage goes to FreeS/WAN and ppp-mppe.

Step by step instructions that WORK!:
Building Linux VPNs is the first book I've bought in the last three years that has the right balance between theory and practice. The first two chapters let you know everything you need to know about VPNs and network topologies and 'gotcha's (where should the DNS server go? How should I route?) They get all this out of the way quickly. Many books that are dedicated to VPNs only talk about this part of the equation, and do so for hundreds of pages. Oleg and Brian get it all down so you can digest it in a sitting and have everything you need to know. The remaining chapters cover specific VPN protocols. I needed to support PPTP for the majority of my windows clients, and IPSec for my remote offices and more recent laptops that suppported it. I literally built these VPNs by reading and copying in text (yes, I could have got the code off the web page, but nothing is better than doing it yourself) as I went along. Not a single problem, it was smoother than smooth. I can't recommend this book enough. If you want a VPN on Linux (or other Unix for that matter) then this is the book for you.

If Linux VPNs are your problem, this book is the solution:
"Building Linux VPNs" (BLVPN) succeeds on multiple levels. It's lively, wise, practical, and thorough. With a minor exception, BLVPN is an unqualified triumph. One of the book's amazing features is its willingness to not rehash "common knowledge." In other words, BLVPN assumes people who read books on Linux VPNs know something about two subjects: (1) Linux and (2) networking. Therefore, BLVPN doesn't waste time teaching the reader how to use the command line, and it doesn't include yet another boring description of the OSI model. Instead, BLVPN launches straight into practical, operational instructions for creating virtual private networks. I would like to see other authors adopt this approach! Some of the book's key strengths include troubleshooting hints, clear diagrams, directory listings for key files, complete sample configuration scripts, and discussions of advantages and disadvantages of various VPN solutions. Furthermore, the text is supported by a web site with copies of the scripts available for download. Because each chapter is a self-contained unit for each VPN technology, readers can pick a solution and begin immediate implementation. No other VPN book delivers implementation-grade advice like this. My only regret was a failure to mention interoperability with BSD-based IPSec implementations. I would have loved to see a chapter on matching FreeS/WAN for Linux with KAME/racoon for FreeBSD. The authors should also consider describing how to configure Windows 2000/XP in IPSec tunnel mode to interoperate with IPSec on Linux and/or FreeBSD. Additionally, I believe I found typos in the figures on pages 168-9. I expect the book's web site errata page to publish a correction, if necessary. If you need to build host-host, host-network, or network-network VPNs using Linux (or really any open source platform), "Building Linux VPNs" is your book. I recommend "Virtual Private Networks" by Yuan and Strayer as a complementary volume for those needing additional material on VPN theory and protocol encapsulation.

I am so disapointed:
I don't know what is hapening with this people... I buy this book based in that reviews (all 5 stars) and when I open the book I am totaly disapointed. About the book: The examples is not complete and the text is confused. I do not recomend.

Clear and concise, a very well written book on Linux VPNs:
Building Linux Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) from New Rider is a must have book for anyone interested in the topic. Not only does it do a great job providing useful and current information for setting up common ssh/ppp, ssl/ppp, PPTP and IPSec configurations, it covers some more exotic VPN applications using VTun, cIPe and tinc. The book is very well organized and extremely readable for a person that is comfortable with networking and linux. The authors cover the design and implementations of the mentioned VPN technologies with ample diagrams and example configuration material. They, also, provide many pros and cons for each of the technologies. The authors did a great job of covering a large number of applications in a very clear and concise fashion.

A Must Have for your library:
I've been struggling with PPTP and FreeS/WAN for years now and the hardest task I now have to deal with is teaching others the intricate nature of VPN's, tunneling, masq'ing connections and linking private LANs together. This book has been an excellent resource to intruct others on how to administer our tangle of connections and taught me a few nifty tricks in the process.