By Mark Brett Independent Reviewer

Title: Network Security – A beginner’s Guide

Author: Eric Maiwald

Publisher: Osborne  Mc Graw-Hill

ISBN: 0-07-213324-4

Price £ 29.99

If you can have a specialist beginners guide, this would be it. Network security is a dark art to most people but a basic understanding can be gained fairly quickly, issues around addressing schemes, subnet masking, firewalls and routers are all covered.

The practical diagrams build into useable models which can be implemented. The technology and the issues are clearly explained, the blueprints section could save a lot of money on setting up a secure environment in a small company. The platform specific sections cover Unix, NT and Windows 2000.

Finally the section on process gives a project plan that can be adapted for your own project. Definitely a useful introduction to a complex subject.