Dameon Welch-Abernathy earned fame among
administrators of FireWall-1 for his thorough and highly detailed Web site
about Check Point's flagship security product. The site should remain on
those administrators' hot lists, but they'll want to absorb the copious
knowledge in Welch-Abernathy's Essential Check Point FireWall-1
before delving into his late-breaking online material. This book is
fantastic. It's by far the best book about FireWall-1, exceeding in
quality even Check Point's own manuals for administrators of its product.
This is the book you need to have on hand as you learn to use
what's widely regarded as the best firewall software on the market. The
author, known on his site as PhoneBoy, explains FireWall-1 with clarity,
depth, and eminent practicality.
Welch-Abernathy's presentation style is characterized by conciseness;
practically every word and illustration he's included advances his goal of
explaining how to administer the software. Once in a while, he'll go so
far as to declare something self-explanatory and therefore not document
it. This is risky--it's hard to predict what a given reader will find
intuitive--but he's done this sparingly. The author's coverage of virtual
private networks (VPNs) is particularly praiseworthy. By following his
lead, you'll be able to bring up secure links among sites, and understand
why the system works. Whether you're reading cover-to-cover in order to
learn as much as possible, or using the index to locate the
problem-solving trick you need, this book ranks among the best. --David
Wall
Topics covered: Check Point FireWall-1 for administrators,
including those administrators with responsibility for designing and
installing a firewall system. Rule design and implementation, logging, and
authentication get attention, and coverage of network address translation
(NAT) and virtual private networks (VPNs) is outstanding. There's coverage
of SecuRemote and Secure Client, too.