Books such as White-Hat Security Arsenal are relatively easy to review because they have a clear message that is well presented, and they have a well-defined readership. This book is one of the others.

It is subtitled 'A Comprehensive Guide to Network Security' which leaves me wondering who it is for. It certainly goes into much detail at times, including warning you not to look at the ends of fibre-optic cable because the light is sufficiently intense to damage your eyes permanently. Now anyone who needs to know such details should already be reasonably competent in network management.

Unfortunately, this book seems to cover all the topics the author can think of at levels that are probably largely indicative of what experience has taught him to expect. Personally, I would like to have seen this book issued as several shorter books with more clearly targeted readerships. As it is, the person needing a simple guide will be overwhelmed by some of the detail, while the experienced reader will find much of the content too simple but be in danger of missing significant information when skimming through.

My feeling is that this book suffers from the 'one size fits all' problem. If you manage a network, particularly a mixed network with both Unix boxes and NT ones, I would be very happy to pass this book on to you for a proper, in depth, review.