Sebastopol, CA--"Building and maintaining a network involves more than making sure that packets can flow between devices on the network," explains Jeff Sedayao in the preface to his just-released book, Cisco IOS Access Lists (O'Reilly, US $39.95). Sedayao launches into the challenges facing network administrators, including making sure that only the right people can access resources on the network, that the network will function even if parts fail or are configured incorrectly, and that company directives are enforced, such as using cheaper network paths whenever possible. "In short," Sedayao says, "while maintaining connectivity is important, you also need to implement security, robustness and business policies with your network."
Although Cisco routers are used extensively both on the Internet and in corporate intranets, the Cisco Internet Operating System (IOS) has grown to be very large and complex, and Cisco documentation fills several volumes. In his new book, Sedayao focuses on access lists--one particular aspect of the Cisco IOS--with regard to three critical areas: intranets, firewalls, and the Internet. Unlike other Cisco router titles, Cisco IOS Access Lists focuses on practical instructions for setting router access policies rather than the details of interfaces and routing protocol settings.
"It's unfortunate that the general policy mechanism for Cisco routers is known as an access list," Sedayao remarks. "The term 'access' connotes that access lists apply only to the area of security, while in fact access lists are used for a whole range of policies, not just for security concerns. I envision this book as a guide and reference for implementing network policies with access lists on Cisco routers."
Sedayao presents a way to think about access lists and network policy, describes how access lists are built, and gives examples of how to apply those access lists in different situations. Although Sedayao's focus is on Internet Protocol (IP), network administrators will be able to apply to many of the same techniques with other network protocols as well.
Cisco IOS Access Lists was written for network administrators and others who use Cisco routers to implement policies. It offers both experienced network administrators and those who are new to using Cisco routers a framework for thinking about network policies, and demonstrates how to use access lists to implement those policies.
About the Author:
Jeff Sedayao manages Intel's Internet gateways by determining policies on security, access, and usage. Prior to this position, he was a software engineer at Intel. He has a M.S. degree in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.S. in engineering from Princeton.
Online Resources:
Chapter 5, "Debugging Access Lists," is available free online.
More information about the book, including Table of Contents, index, author bio, and samples
A cover graphic in jpeg format.
Cisco IOS Access
Lists
By Jeff Sedayao
June 2001
ISBN 1-56592-385-5, 272 pages, $39.95 (US)
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1-800-998-9938
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