Intranet Books

"Comparing, Designing and Deploying VPNs" introduces various and the most popular VPN technologies, provides explanation on how to select the appropriate VPNs, as well as how to design and deploy them. The book shows each VPN technologies in details, their capabilities and configurations.

The book starts with defining what VPN is, explaining what various VPNs are available and their comparisons. The first chapter introduces a lot of acronyms such as VPWS, VPLS, L2TPv2/v3, AToM and others). It also provides a summary table of technical consideration for selecting each Site-to-Site VPN and Remote Access technologies and a flowchart of all VPN technologies. Both the tables and flowcharts are very useful for reference before progressing to the next chapters.

The book dedicates the next 6 chapters (about 500 pages!) explaining Site-to-Site VPNs starting from designing, deploying and configuring L2TPv3 based Layer 2 VPN, Any Transport over MPLS (AToM) based Layer 2 VPN, MPLS Layer 3 Site-to-Site VPN and Site-to-Site IPSecs VPN. It provides in-depth explanation on how each VPN operates, many elaborate configuration samples with explanation of each commands used, and some advanced designs and deployments.

The first 6 chapters also have the most typos. For instance, in a couple of page, the author refers to previous diagrams by providing the page number xx instead of the actual page number. However, all of these typos are minor and can be ignored.

The next 3 chapters focus on Remote Access VPNs. They cover the design and implementation of L2TPV2 and V3 remote access VPNS, IPSec remote access and finally SSL remote access (WebVPN). They provide several configuration examples on how to implement the remote access VPNs in several VPN gateways from IOS routers, VPN 3000 Series Concentrators, and the new Cisco ASA 5500 series appliance.

The book assumes that the readers already have an extensive knowledge of IGP routing protocols (RIP, EIGRP, ISIS, OSPF), Quality of Service (QoS) and especially BGP. Without knowing them, readers will find difficulties in understanding the examples given as the book uses them extensively. I recommend readers to read Jeff Doyle's "Routing TCP/IP Volume 1 Second Edition" and "Routing TCP/IP volume 2 as well to understand IGP and BGP routing protocols in-depth.

I liked this book a lot and certainly will recommend others to read this. I gave the book five out of five stars for its good explanations, configuration and examples. The book is very technical but well written and provides a lot of examples that can be well understood. Since this is a CiscoPress release book, all of the hardware design and configuration are based on Cisco equipments.

The book has helped me greatly in understanding the different flavors of VPNs available. The IPSec VPN and Remote Access VPN chapters alone are very useful for the VPN project I am currently involved with and they already justify the purchase of this book.

Mark Lewis, the author, is a CCIE who has real work experiences in Service Provider VPN technologies. I also recommend his other book "Troubleshooting Virtual Private Networks (VPN)".

You would think that a VPN should be a fairly simple thing. But of course it isn't. Over a surprisingly short time various companies, groups of companies, standards organizations and seemingly anyone who wants to can come up with a new set of initials to define something special. Just a few examples include: GRE. AToM, Q-in-Q, MPLS LSP, L2F, PPTP. And of course they all mean something that is just a little bit different. This book starts out defining all these and more.

The second part of the book covers site-to-site VPNs. This part has six chapters, and basically each chapter talks about designing and deploying different types of VPNs. The third part of the book is on Remote Access VPNs, covering situations like the telecommuting worker or the salesman out on the road.

This book is by Cisco press so, as you might expect, it concentrates on the use of Cisco equipment. This is not unreasonable as Cisco produces a lot of VPN equipment. Also as you would expect from a Cisco title, the information is complete and accurate. In this book it is also very well written in a language that can be understood. All in all, quite a good book

This is the best book that i have reader. I'm building an Intranet with the help of this book.Each chapter is very good.

I was assigned to setup an intranet for our retail outlet stores and "Corporate Intranet Development" got me off and running in no time. It was easy to read and had all the latest information I needed. The book would be perfect for large corporations, but also fit my needs for the retail market perfectly

The book is compulsory reading for everybody with an interest in groupware technologies. It covers most aspects of modern groupware systems and successfully addresses all important technical, organizational and commercial issues. The depth and the details are exceptional, the informative and extensive approach is thoroughly convincing and highly recommendable. Although the book is taking a slightly more commercial view, it seems Coleman does for the late nineties what Ronald Baecker did for the early nineties with his landmark collection "Groupware and CSCW".

This is one of the few practical and knowledgable books about groupware and collaboration that doesn't loose the reader in details about the technology. It gives readers a top notch education about all these group applications that are supposed to help us be more productive. Since so many of them are showing up in Netscape, Microsoft and other main-line business applications, it's great to have an easy-to-use and really right-on tool. My only complaint is that the book is so big, over 600 pages. There's just a lot of information in there, but the chapters are very well organized and focused. I highly recommend the book

This was an excellent technical jumpstart into using Web.PB and other PowerBuilder 6 internet development tools. Fortunately, Powerbuilder 7 is much richer (read better) for web development. But unfortunately this book only covers PB 6 techniques. I would still recommend it for folks needing to get PB6 to do web stuff. There are even fewer books out on PB7 and EAS.

I would also highly recommend "Distributed Application Development with PowerBuilder 6.0" by Michael J. Barlotta. (another Manning book).

This book covers every aspect of programming in PowerBuilder for the net. This is not a difficult subject, but it is complex. There are a lot of setup issues and there is a change in programming style from the traditional PowerBuilder. This book covers all of that in easy to understand style. It does so completely and in such a fashion as to make it easy to follow.

I would recommend this book to all PowerBuilder programmers, you never know when you are going to be faced with a PowerBuilder project that has to be on a net.

"The problem with groupware is that it's been very expensive and difficult to implement. With the introduction of cheap and easy-to-construct Intranets, that's no longer the case," begins Melanie Hills in her new book, "Intranets as Groupware." Intranets and groupware can help employees communicate more effectively, capture and share their knowledge, and learn and innovate.

Melanie Hills is an Internet technologies consultant for Fortune 500 companies, and a founder of consulting firm Knowledgies. In this material, she builds on her earlier book - "Intranet Business Strategies" - and goes beyond basic Intranet installation to address building groupware capabilities into Intranets. Case studies are drawn from Intranet implementations in AT&T, Texas Instruments (TI), J.C. Penney, and EDS.

The material is well-presented, and includes checklists for choosing Intranet products, implementing groupware, and appointing Intranet facilitation consultants. 11 chapters cover a wide range of issues including advantages and disadvantages of Intranets, groupware product reviews, implementation paths and challenges, and the impact of groupware on workflow.

Some of the first organisations to create internal Webs included Lockheed, Hughes and SAS Institute. According to some estimates from International Data Corporation, there may be 4.7 million Intranet servers in existence by the year 2000, and the revenues for collaborative software will reach $6.6 billion that year.

Factors leading to the necessity of Intranets include worldwide acceleration of user expectations due to globalisation and spread of the Internet, and increasing needs for improving internal communication and knowledge worker productivity. Intranets can be fast, easy and cheap to implement, scalable, and flexible; they can capture and share expertise, create new business opportunities, and help leverage Extranets for purposes like EDI.

Possible disadvantages of Intranets include the potential for chaos, security risks, management fears, business culture clash, information overload, wasted productivity, and hidden or unknown costs.

Intranets have already been successfully deployed in numerous companies. EDS has acquired the right to place the U.S. Patent Information Services database on its Intranet; it also provides its employees with a customised news report service called infoAlert via PointCast, and uses chat as part of its Global Communicators Network and IRC for a CIO weekly chat. Bell Atlantic's Intranet saves several hundred thousand dollars through consolidation and reduced printing. Silicon Graphics has reported savings in processing requisitions via its Intranet, Silicon Junction.

J.C. Penney's Intranet, jWeb, helps cut costs in communicating between its offices in 37 countries. AT&T uses its Intranet as a virtual meeting place. Booz Allen says its Intranet has helped leverage its intellectual capital by recording its expertise and providing contact information for its consultants. Some such case studies are also available online, as in "How Sun Saves Money, Improves Service Using Internet Technologies."

Some companies even obtain additional revenues on Intranet sites by letting vendors advertise to their employees.

Groupware products help create an organisation memory, and boost communication, coordination and collaboration. They include functions like calendaring, scheduling, voice conferencing, videoconferencing, electronic meeting systems, data whiteboards, discussion and live chat. Due to the impact of the Intranet, costs of groupware are coming down, and they are becoming increasingly Web-enabled.

According to Peter Sange, author of "The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation," the only sustainable competitive advantage comes from an organisation's ability to learn. This will require the use of trained personnel as "social systems analysts," according to Tom Davenport, author of "Process Innovation: Reengineering Work Through Information Technology" (in his piece called "Software as Socialware," published in "CIO" magazine).

A 50-page review covers groupware products like Lotus Notes and Domino, Microsoft Exchange and Outlook, Novell Groupwise, NetManage Chameleon, Oracle InterOffice, RadNet WebShare, Netscape Navigator and CoolTalk, Collabra, White Pine Enhanced Cu-SeeMe, Galacticomm Worldgroup Internet Server, Forefront RoundTable, Allaire Forums, and O'Reilly WebBoard.

Hills provides case studies of how such tools have actually helped collaboration for engineering product development, support human resources processes, conduct interviews and training across the Internet, manage financial reports, create document repositories, schedule team meetings, share resources like presentation materials, initiate trouble tickets, and provide version control for revised documents.

So how does a business figure out which tools - or suite of groupware - to choose? Hills provides a useful set of criteria for evaluation: the openness of the platform, its ease of use, basic and training costs, installation path, vendor support, ability to use it over the Internet, migration paths from other tools, and offline use.

Some proprietary groupware, such as Lotus Notes, requires "an army of highly trained programmers and systems administrators." Eric Hahn of Netscape strongly advocates the use of open standards, due to the "wonderful synergy when the same technology is used inside the corporation and on a planetary scale between corporations."

"Certainly the most talked-about advantage of Intranet groupware is the low cost," says Hills. Security is a concern for some Web-enabled products, though the situation should improve with developments like Secure Socket Layer. Some proprietary interfaces tend to be much richer in multimedia presentation and interactivity.

Four chapters cover actual implementation of Intranet groupware, and ways of calculating ROI (such as assessing the total costs of updating and reprinting manuals frequently for all employees in an organisation, and comparing this with the costs of setting up an Intranet and publishing the manuals online).

A good strategy for growing an Intranet is in much the same way as the Internet itself: a decentralised, grassroots, but sometimes chaotic manner. It helps if the CIO catches the vision of the Intranet and becomes the champion, says Hills. An outside consultant can help facilitate the process by identifying sources of information, forming an Intranet team, and helping them get focused. Infrastructure assistance from an ISP should be evaluated with respect to criteria like serving remote locations and mobile users, business service orientation, and points of presence.

Key points to remember include the need to build enthusiasm, create demos, address people issues and not just technical issues, use facilitators, and plan capacity ahead of demand.

Challenges lie in the dynamics of working in teams. "Groupware depends on sharing, which is an alien concept in most corporations today. The first step, long before you think about the technology, is to figure out how to get people to share all the things they've accumulated over the years and become so good at hoarding," Hills cautions. "You have to get people working together and cooperating before groupware will work."

This may be a problem in organisations where there is an entrenched hierarchy, lots of competition between employees, and lack of participatory discourse. "Successful implementations are usually bottom-up, grassroots efforts. It's most effective if groups want groupware," Hills observes. Successful Intranet groupware implementation gives employees the information they need, improves productivity, trust and creativity, and creates a flexible and adaptable organisation. "What differentiates a high-performing learning community from any corporate community is that the former has the 'knowledge ecology:' a dynamic and living web of computer-linked people with their experience, ideas, and expertise, that interact, feed and grow upon each other," according to George Por, author of "Corporate Knowledge Networks."

Future groupware developments include the increasing use of intelligent agents, Hills predicts. "Because of the effect of the learning curve, those who lag behind in adopting Intranet groupware and workflow may never catch up. Now's the time to start," Hills concludes.

In sum, "Intranet as Groupware" is a handy guide and reference for organisations evaluating the importance of Intranets and groupware; the checklists and case studies, along with the cited literature and online resources, round off the material perfectly. An online companion with updates and information about new products would have been a welcome addition.

With so much hype about intranets and groupware, it was amazing to find a book on these topics whose author: 1) writes from experience; 2) isn't a biased booster; and 3) balances technology issues with a first-rate understanding of the needs of people and organizations. If you want a hands-on, practical, step-by-step guide to understanding groupware and using an intranet to create it, I don't think you will be disappointed with this book. I recommend it highly and happily.

I have passed most of the CNE exams by studying another author, whose style I have come to hate. I continued to use him because I couldn't find anyone else. I was delighted to find this book. The text is easy to understand, with no extraneous material to get in the way of what the author is saying. The illustrations are especially good and make the concepts very clear. I would recommend this book to anyone studying for the CNA test or the CNE Administration tests.

Well, I purchased this book being rather hesitant at first about its contents. Could all my problems be solved using just one resource? So far, the answer is yes :) I haven't come across any problem which Moncur's "Administrator's Handbook for to Netware 4.11" can't help me fix. I only hope that more books of this calibre are written in the future on the subject of Novell Administration.

Practical Intranet Security is a clear and concise book that covers the range of today's authentication and authorization technologies. I was particularly impressed with the discussions on SESAME - this was the first book that makes the goals and design of SESAME clear. It also provides good introductory material on network security and cryptography. As an experienced professional, I have found the book useful to see how others have addressed problems in the development of security protocols.

I found the book to offer a great mix of practice "how to" type of advice for application level security integration. It is also to be commended on also explaining the concepts of what is to be achieved first.

This book is THE complete guide to building an intranet. Killer examples and techniques.

Very impressive compendium of Intranet information and the latest HTML techniques

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I was looking for this importent kind of books for a long time , but I did not find it in my country.

Pls Send this book to Saudi Arabia , we need it there.