This book is essential reading for anyone wanting to protect Internet-connected computers from unauthorized access. Coverage includes TCP/IP, setting up firewalls, testing and maintaining firewalls, and much more.

In the beginning, there were router access lists…

Then the next firewalls evolved into application proxies. The best definition of a firewall in its simplest form is by Steven Bellovin a co-author of Firewalls and Internet Security: Repeling the Wily Hacker. In this book Steven wrote "Firewalls are barriers between us and them for arbitrary values of 'them'."

With firewalls becoming a chokepoint of the network, they define what is to be trusted and what is not. The untrusted elements range from the standard hackers, spammers, and crackers, to a Human Resources department of an organization deeming the rest of the company "untrusted", to even the conventional chokepoint of a company trusting only itself, and not deeming the Internet "trustworthy or safe". Today firewalls have evolved into more than just a simple chokepoint. Firewalls include all sorts of different solutions: hardware, software, intrusion detection, desktop solutions, and so forth. As technology has evolved, the number of options that users have to choose from has increased exponentially. The Best Damn Firewall Book Period provides readers with a guide to the most popular firewall technology implementations.