Intranet Books

I have read many technical books and this is so far the best. I know my way around computers and the basics of programming and wanted to learn some more of ASP.NET. This book has been an excellent tutorial. Even the basics of object oriented programming and SQL are explained. Loved it.

There is one caveat. The book was written for Windows XP and IIS 6. If you are using Windows Vista and IIS 7 like me, be prepared to search for some stuff yourself. Do not worry though, some Googling will help you along the way.

i got into dot net when it first came out, when sample codes on how do things you take for granted were scarce or non existent. I was converting an ASP app to dot net. was ahead of my time, ran into too many mundane issues, cancelled my project after 5 months. Now I want to try ASP.NET for real.

I've found this book to be very helpful in connecting the dots. The samples are good enough . Highly recommend it.

The Book overall is good, but there are some mis-types in the code that, if you follow along, will screw you up. Its also vague about some things, but if you have some basic knowledge of visual studio and/or asp, it is a good reinforcement.

Examples, insights, and even code samples pack a reference for programmers working in C# and VB in an updated second edition to a popular step-by-step guide. Here's all the information you need to get up and running with ASP.NET, from how to build a first web site to applying the free code samples within to more advanced projects. It's a top pick programmers - especially newcomers to ASP.NET - won't want to be without.

I am an asp programmer. And I would like to transform myself into asp.net. after trying one title after another by reading the PDF files that I found on the net, I thought I found the right book ASP.NET 2.0 Unleashed from Stephen Walther. I bought the book and learned from it. But I got stuck somewhere after the basic controls. The author assumes that the reader is either intermediate or advanced level with the .NET programming skill. I am not at that level yet. Again I went back to find other PDF files and I found this one and I knew this was the perfect fit for me. I bought the book and I am very happy with this book. it teaches asp.net 2.0 from beginning level. It explains in details all the basic knowleges that an asp.net programmer needs to know. Then it moves on to ado.net. But all these are just basics only. not going too far into advanced level. One thing that I like is that I build the project while learning. There are minor wording error. If you don't know programming, then this is the problem. If you already know programming (VB,C#), then you can see the wording error and correct yourself.
If you are looking for a book that set you up from start with .NET, this one is the right one. If you already have the basic of asp.net and would like to get to the advanced level, then you may be disappointed.

This is a text to be used at New England Institute of Technology next quarter.

Required reading to anyone working online even though it is a couple of years old now the way it can be referenced across coloured sections to piece each project together is a real help.

It is too much to read it one go but if you take a problem to it and read again you can get more incite and solutions out.

Basically, this most valuable thing in this book is the extensive collection of patterns that anyone can use to create any website.
Follow this patterns guidelines and you will have an useful and usable website.
It's a "must" in any web designer's bookshelf.

While there are many books on the market that discuss patterns related to programming, architectural elements, etc., this is the first book I've seen that focuses on web patterns at the user interface level. The book is essentially an indexed, cross-referenced, best practices guide to building web pages that attract and keep customers. Or at least keep you from pissing them off. The authors have collected and summarized a great deal of HCI research (all listed in the resources section of the appendix) on web usability, so none of this stuff is made up--it's all based on time-proven, tested, and verified data about how people actually use the Internet (e.g., see Amazon, Yahoo!, Google, et. al.). A few of the patterns are no longer considered best practices, due to evolving standards (e.g., CSS) and increasing browser standards support. This is a very handy reference book, especially for an in-depth UI checklist.

The first part of the book is very valuable. The patterns described are on average rather shallow and don't touch on the real issues. For the 'novice' however this is a very relevant book to read. I do advice to deepen understanding by looking at actual websites to see how leaders have implemented the different patterns. Much more to learn there.

I browsed through this book at my local Borders store and it looked like it was going to offer all of the information I needed. Too bad the seller never shipped the book.

So, I got the 2nd edition of this book (which is out of date now) because I'm a cheap skate and I saw it on Amazon second hand for a rediculously low price (somewhere in the range of $1 - $2). For the most part, it was still pretty relevant. It was released just before Samba 3.0.x was rolled out (well, in that vicinity, anyway), and it does address some of the updates in the 'new' updated version. There were a couple of things that were no longer accurate, so I had to go online and find out how to do it with the latest version of Samba.

Setting up your Samba server is much easier than working with some other services in UNIX/Linux. This book does a good job getting you up and running quickly then showing you some more detailed settings and tweaks. It also shows you how to configure things on the Windows side for various versions (9x/Me/NT/2000/XP).

One of the coolest things is configuring roaming profiles for your various Windows accounts - these let you log into any computer with your username and password and it will load up your system settings (such as desktop background). If you only use Windows XP Home Edition, be warned that you really won't be able to enjoy that much functionality in the networked environment.

This is a very good guide. It brings together information scattered over the net and provides good a deep explanation for many topics that samba administrator need to know.

I was able to configure a samba server that met all my needs after reading only 4 chapters of this book.
I am not an expert but at no time at all did I feel like this book is outdated. Mine, 3rd edition, was focused on samba 3.0.22 -- correct release being 3.0.25.

'Using Samba' by Gerald Carter is the DEFINITIVE Samba reference for all Samaba users and administrators out there in the IT world. Now in its 3rd Edition, this gem of a book/tool takes you through all the necessary steps from setup, configuration, troubleshooting, you name it, it's in this book!! Written in a clear, concise manner, over 400 pages of information is contained within the following 12 chapters and 3 appendixes:

01. An Introduction to Samba
02. Installing Samba on a Unix System
03. Configuring Windows Clients
04. The Samba Configuration File
05. Accounts, Authentication, and Authorization
06. Advanced Disk Shares
07. Printing
08. Name Resolution and Network Browsing
09. Domain Controllers
10. Domain Member Servers
11. Unix Clients
12. Troubleshooting Samba
A. Samba Daemons and Commands
B. Downloading Samba with Subversion
C. Configure Options

There simply is no better book on the market for this niche topic. If you use a Windows/Linux environment you will need this book at some point. Save your time and pick this up TO-DAY!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Anyone who has been concerned or is currently concerned with the performance of networks, no matter how large, has had to deal with the TCP/IP protocol. It has its origins in the late 1960's, being invented essentially by government researchers and finally finding its first specification in 1979. This book is written for Unix systems administrators who must deal with the intricacies of TCP/IP but unfortunately does not suggest to them methods for improving TCP/IP performance. It is one thing to administer for convenience and ease in troubleshooting. It is quite another thing to administer for performance. For this reason, this reviewer only read the last chapter in the book, which deals with the troubleshooting of the TCP/IP implementation. A future edition would be greatly improved by detailed discussion of performance issues and how to administer for optimum performance.

The author does however give a fairly detailed discussion of troubleshooting in TCP/IP and give a few hints to assist the beginning sys/ad person. Many of these are readily apparent to those who are acquainted with the dynamics of TCP/IP, while others are based more on a commonsense understanding of how networks are configured. For example, the author advises checking to see if the trouble is unique to only one application or if it only occurs on one remote host versus all remote hosts. Problems that are application specific are to be distinguished from those that may require investigation into the actual network, the latter occurring when hosts are experiencing problems on only certain subnets.

It is interesting that the troubleshooting techniques and tools that are described in this chapter still require a great deal of human intervention, and therefore are dependent on the time restrictions of the network engineer or administrator. These tools include "built-in" investigative ones like `ipconfig', `ping', `traceroute', and `snoop'. Some of these tools unfortunately can also be used to disrupt a network, such as for example when `ping attacks' are used to flood a host with a barrage of ping packets. In addition, many of them can be used to hack into a particular host, or gain information for a successful intrusion into that host's networked computers. Many of them also can be used to gain information on the layers that are below the TCP layer, such as the `arp' command that allows one to analyze problems with translation between IP and Ethernet addresses.

It is not surprising to find discussions on network design in this chapter, and in these discussions one must go deeper into the lower OSI levels. And in these discussions, particularly in the one on how to subdivide an Ethernet in order to manage the network traffic on a particular segment, the author does indirectly discuss performance issues, although they are strictly speaking outside of the TCP/IP protocol, and its sometimes striking and unpredictable behavior on real networks. This complicated behavior of TCP/IP, and the severe financial impact that its maladies can cause for business and industry dictate that a much more sophisticated approach to troubleshooting TCP/IP be used. This approach would deploy a system that responds immediately to TCP problems, analyzes them, and takes correction (on its own if the risks are understood). In addition it would learn from experience, or "keep a historical record' in the words of the author, so as to be able to confront similar problems in the future more efficiently. Having such an autonomous real-time TCP/IP troubleshooter that is not bound by the long time scales characteristic of human intervention would be complex but definitely useful and a huge return on investment.

This book covers the in's and out's of TCP/IP with a Unix focus. Non-Unix users will find this book equally useful as the Unix user, in that it presents the information in a format that is easy to follow as well as comprehensive.

This book doesn't cater to the casual reader, instead it gives the facts required for administration of a TCP/IP based network. If you want to understand this topic, this is the book to use.

This coveres some aspects, and can be used to learn from--but doesn't cover all the aspects that you'll want to know. For a reference, it's pretty good too. It's a pretty decent book, though has a good mix of information that makes it a little better than average.

As with all of O'Reilly's books, this one is technically accurate and fundamentally sound.

It does not teach TCP/IP from a simplistic approach--telling you only what you need to know and leaving you begging for more. It lays a ground work based upon the actual theory of these protocols and how they were developed and the thinking that was involved in their creation.

From there, it takes you step by step through the layers of the protocols and presents everything that most people would need to know--even more than they would need to know.

Especially enlightening were the chapters on IPv6--the next generation of the IP protocol, and the chapter covering subnetting.

Overall, if you need the one book to explain TCP/IP and the "ins-and-outs" of these networking protocols, look no further.

This book has all you'll need.

Though this book is oriented to UNIX, I find it tremendously useful as a Windows administrator. Core concepts gleamed from this book has catapulted me greatly into my career, and allowed me to solve complex networking problems and avert major disasters.

I was introduced to this book for a UNIX Network Administration course, and from this I was able to really flesh out core TCP/IP concepts as well as play with services like DHCP and DNS, which are essential pieces for a Windows Active Directory environment. Using this book I was able to dabble with other services like NFS and SAMBA from a variety of systems ranging from Mac OS X to Solaris x86 to Linux to Windows XP...

I don't have any complaints, but rather some requests for future editions. I wish there was some coverage of IPSec and Kerberos in Chapter 12 "Network Security". I think Chapter 9 "Local Netowrk Services" could be expanded, as some topics are sparsely covered and there is no mention of printing technologies like IPP or CUPS. I do wish there was more coverage of the raw SMTP protocol and related technologies of POP, IMAP, and LDAP and maybe even mail servers like Exim and Postfix. However, don't touch that sendmail chapter (Chapter 10), as this coverage is so very excellent; other books go off on the deep end are far way too complex to get started.

This is one of my favorite security books from O'Reilly, primarily for the first four chapters which are dedicated to reverse engineering software. While there are a few texts out there that are dedicated to the subject and go into almost painful detail, this book is great for someone who is new to the skill. The other chapter that I was happy to see was chapter twenty-two which covers forensics and anti-forensics. While the coverage on anti-forensics was a bit light, it was great to actually see it included. I would be very interested to see (perhaps write?) a full book on this from O'Reilly sometime in the future, particularly given some of the attack methods on full disk encryption coming out of Princeton as of late.

Overall, a great tome on security with a good body of solid and applicable information. I'm hoping to see an updated edition.

This book is outstanding and an essential read for anyone doing web-based application development.

It is very eye-opening to the current state of web security.

Security Warrior has good overall coverage and plenty technical details for people like me who are interested in the technical details.

This book contains some okay level of steering, but that's about it. The technical accuracy I see exhibited here can only be rivaled by your grandma explaining Windows system internals. It doesn't end at just the author's confusion of C and C++ (classic "strcpy() and other C++ functions" babble); the very explanation of why a program crashes, or how an attack works, or how variables and buffers get created is flat wrong.

I had to stop reading this in the buffer overflow chapter. Highlights include the flawed interpretation of the error message from when bigmac() returned (it returned to non-mapped memory, the book says it read past the end of a string); the horrible explanation of how buffers work (buffers are not simple variables, and variables do not allocate multiple chunks of memory for themselves as explained); and the incorrect description of the return-to-text attack (returned to existing code, but the book says it's run code you injected onto the stack). After reading a stream of these such inaccuracies, I stopped looking for something that actually came out right.

The buffer overflow chapter can easily be replaced with Hacking: The Art of Exploitation. Read that instead. It's also got better networking and WEP attack explanations.

This book should be titled "General Security Buzzwords 101 For The High Level User." The information in it just misses the information that one would be looking for in a technical environment.

A must for any IT security/networking engineer. Great read, great price, informative yet entertaining.

Nutshell review - This is a great read. Very entertaining and informative. Will really open your eyes and make you think about unusual information security issues and attack vectors.

Zalewski brought up a number of interesting and very innovative security situations and possibilities. The statistical derivation of content based upon CPU utilization, is something I had never even considered... but at the same time it looks like it could be more work than someone would be willing to invest. The writing style is also slightly academic. A fair amount of time is spent giving background and information about a topic when those who may see the situation will probably already understand the history. I will have to admit that this was not a page turner, but I am very happy I bought this book. It was just a little difficult to get through at times.

The Global Network is not a battle ground. It is a play ground.

This book although it covers security issues is great insight into the mentality that the security geeks can have. For them the security of platforms and networks are faulted and the hackers task is to disclose that.

Silence on the Wire is not your typical security book detailing the
latest application exploits or generalized security trends and attack
prevention. Zalewski deals in the minutia. If you were to construct
a Bell Curve of security knowledge and concepts, you would need to
chop out a large portion of this graph and simply include the upper
threshold, in which Zalewski thrives on the seemingly unknown.

Zalewski takes a bottom-up approach. He dives right into the security
of hardware design, Random Number Generation, and how this can all add
up to information leakages otherwise known as security threats. If
you have ever typed on a keyboard, then you may be interested in
knowing what signature you are generating of yourself every time you
log into that remote SSH console. Perhaps you might also be
interested in the fact that simple mathematical operations, such as 2
* 100, could result in timing attacks against your algorithm, whereas
100 * 2 may not. Scary stuff.

Zalewski continues with seemingly innocuous attacks that can occur
before your IP packets ever leave the local network. It is unnerving
to find out just how easy (and cheap) it is to reconstruct data from
those blinking lights on your network equipment, or unsanitary
Ethernet frames. Have you ever given thought to how nice it was to
have virtual network auto-configuration on your switches? Well, so do
your foes.

Once your packets touch other nodes all across the Internet, that's
when the real fun begins. If you are already familiar with the OSI
Model and the TCP/IP suite, then your reading will hit a low point for
the next thirty pages or so. However, when you emerge from this sand
trap of common knowledge, most certainly provided to assist uninformed
readers, you are met with quite worthy knowledge detailing the ability
to accurately identify remote parties, who otherwise may wish to
remain anonymous. Your choice of Operating System and Web Browser may
help somewhat, but Zalewski shows how you can still be sniffed out
even across the sea of the Internet.

Zalewski concludes the book with a brief look at the entire Internet
as an aggregate system, and how subtleties of its inner-workings can
be exploited by those who understand them. It never once crossed my
mind to utilize carefully constructed packets for distributed
computing tasks acting as Boolean operations, but one of the final
topics regarding parasitic storage does appear quite attainable.
Zalewski's final chapter in the book leaves us with the lesson that
sometimes all you need to do to discover the minutia, is to open your
eyes.


* p. 127: Figure 9-6, regarding TCP options, is incorrect.
* p. 182/183: '6,4512' should read '64,512'.
* p. 198: 'user-racking' should read 'user-tracking'.
* p. 216: 'www.rogue-severs.com' should likely read 'www.rogue-servers.com'.
* p. 233: 'recover the information he when it bounces back' should
likely read 'recover the information when it bounces back'.

This book is amazing. It's big, but it needs to be. It comprehensively addresses all of the functional pieces of a website. It defines the problems, expands on the different solutions and offers alternatives and related problems to consider before deciding.

It provides extensive (color-coded) cross-references like a textbook, but does not use the fuddy-duddy language that is expected in textbooks. Easily understood explanations for the concepts fill the text and full color screen shots, illustration and diagrams are commonly included, helping to round out the ideas. It leaves little untouched or undefined.

This is a necessarily large book that should be required reading for anyone embarking into site design.

I bought the Design of Sites book about three months ago and have read about 250 pages of it so far. The book has full-color pages and is a great reference for design decisions. It covers topics for so many different types of web projects. It talks about design, usability, information architecture, and almost all aspects of the web. It isn't meant to be read cover-to-cover, but the amount of great ideas and design solutions it presents make it hard to only read it when you have an issue. Over 800 pages and a great appendix with sample usability evaluations and how to conduct online research will without question make you a better web designer/developer. I can't wait to finish reading it.

I am taking college courses for web design and I keep thinking to myself why they don't make this book a standard for the courses I am taking. This book is a wealth of information on any subject or problem that you might run into in designing a site for the client as well as the user. I may be quite selfish and want to keep the information about this book a secret, that is how good it is. I keep returning to the book over and over again to answer questions for my courses (that the required books) don't explain in detail. I think that says alot about this wonderful book. If you have any hesitations about buying it DON'T.

This book is geared for professional website firms creating sites for corporations. (much discussion about how to appeal to corporations, focus groups etc.) My aim was to create a site for my small business myself, so it did not appeal to me.
This book is broken into 115 pages of 'meat' discussing principles of web design and the balance of the 900 odd pages consists of templates of successful sites of various natures (one for personal sites, one for non-profits, another for e-commerce etc.) But there isn't much information on why the author thinks these sites are good! So I guess you are supposed to take the author's word for it that these templates are good, treat the book like an a-la-carte menu, and crib the template you want, which the book claims will save you time.
Instead, I wanted to gain an understanding of what makes a great website great, and it is not to be found this book. Worse, it reads like a 101 level college course in any subject, orienting the novice to basics using verbose and pedantic language. These days there are very few novices out there - even 14 year old kids have much experience with the web. So who is this book for? Anyway this is certainly not for 10 year old kids - very heavy reading suitable for college students, but not much substance. Instead I recommend the classic "Don't make me think" by Steven Krug.

This book tells me exactly what to do to design a website.

I'm a researcher in a government lab working on a large aeronautics and data mining research project. We'd like our work to be more open to the public, and I'm responsible for designing a website to engage the public in active collaboration. I've got less than a year, I have a small inexperienced team (me included), and I'm trying to teach them customer-centered methods as we go along. This book is like a godsend! It puts everything in one place! It gives me hope that I can actually pull this off!

Well, you can make a novel out of it.

Which is precisely what the folks at Syngress Publishing have done. The MO here is to gather a group of experts in the 'hacking' field. Then, have them each write a chapter that focuses in on their sub-area of expertise. Finally tie all the chapters together with an overriding thread, in this case an uber-geek villian looking to make a final score.

And it works quite well. If you are going to pull this off, then there is a balance between the techno-speak portions and the traditional elements of a novel (plot, characterization, etc). Granted, given this books target audience, it can pile on plenty of the technology and be just fine. But you can't igonre the story.

Most of the contributing authors are able to hold up the 'story' side as well as the 'tech' side. Some do not, and this is why I gave it 4 stars. In particular, one chapter so muddles the character motivations, plot lines, and timeline that the novel is not quite able to recover with a wholy satisfying ending.

I never expected Dickens, though. I did hope to broaden my knowledge of hacking - the hows and whys while being entertained. And 'How to own a continent' delivers the goods in a unique and fresh way. Kudos, and thanks.

Nice book, seemed with hacker's novel!!
Pretty good read for fun. :)

but the writing certainly isn't the best. They're a bunch of computer geeks writing about what they know best, and they make it entertaining as heck. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys computers.

How to Own a Continent is the first Stealing the Network book I have read and although it kept me on the edge of my seat I was displeased with the ending. The book uses real tools and real methods on how these "hacks" occur but the end just leaves you hanging with no closure. While reading the book you think there is no better book for hacking theory and what it takes to pull hard hacks. But this book does leave you with a little bit of a bad taste in your mouth. Forthe most part the book was great but the ending was lacking.

I read a lot of technical books and also a lot of spy books. This mashed both of my favorite types of books. The authors who are hackers themselves did a great job of creating a story. I would recommend, and have recommended this book to a lot of people.

This review is a comparison between the first and second edition. Other readers have properly described the book and you won't find anything different.

The book is still very concise (its strength) and to the point. The previous edition had some links (or many I'd say) that were not working, or simply do not exist anymore. In this sense it's a good update.

Probably the author had to decide between waiting more and revamp an important part of the book, or publish this edition with no major updates or changes.

The book is still a good companion so buy it if it's not in your library. But if you have it wait for a third edition when all major updates in major operating systems take place.

'Network Security Assessment: Know Your Network' is an absolute must buy for anyone that runs/admins a network and needs to know the tricks to keeping things safer in today's connected world. Warning right off the bat that this is a very niche market of reader and it's NOT NOT NOT for the regular developer or admin. This is heavy on the technical jargon and you better know all your acronyms like there is no tomorrow from TCP to IP to LDAP to xxx!!

From IIS to VPN to Databases and regular Windows usage there are tons of case studies and examples throughout that will help you plug leaks and keep the bad guys out. Here's a chapter overview:

01. Network Security Assessment Basics
02. Network Security Assessment Platform
03. Internet Host and Network Enumeration
04. IP Network Scanning
05. Assessing Remote Information Services
06. Assessing Web Servers
07. Assessing Web Applications
08. Assessing Remote Maintenance Services
09. Assessing Database Services
10. Assessing Windows Networking Services
11. Assessing Email Services
12. Assessing IP VPN Services
13. Assessing Unix RPC Services
14. Application-Level Risks
15. Running Nessus
16. Exploitation Frameworks

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Chris McNab's NETWORK SECURITY ASSESSMENT appears in its second updated edition to cover the protocols for testing network security - by trying to attack it internally. Tricks and tools professional security consultants use to identify and correct risks in Internet-based networks are revealed in chapters covering everything from Windows networking components and Unix RPC services on various platforms to application-level vulnerabilities. Any collection catering to programmers or network managers needs NETWORK SECURITY ASSESSMENT in its latest updated second edition.

explainsa variety of exploits and tells you how to harden your network. This book is very well researched and extremely well written and is reader friendly, as some security books leave the reader lost in techno babble, not this book however very easy reading it now sits on my desk as a ready reckoner.

This is one of the few books that I have come across that focuses mainly on the innards of security assessments. The services based security and counter measures are helpful for threat modeling. This book is really great for people in the security risk and threat analysis for a quantitative and qualitative validation. Good book to help in setting up corporate security policy model.

Other people have already provided a good chapter wise run-down so I will skip that here...

Buy this book :)

This is a pretty good book for someone learning Sharepoint Services 3.0. Unlike a lot of other similarly named books, this one is focused on developing basic sharepoint programming techniques, as opposed to configuration. I bought this book, since it is recommended by Microsoft for the 70-541 certification exam. However, this book does not specifically point out which areas of the book are needed for the cert and which isn't. For example: if you are prepping for the cert, skip the Ajax section - it is worthless. Other areas are good, though.

One improvement that could be made - a DVD (or an FTP link) for a Virtual Machine that has a properly configured Sharepoint setup. Alternatively, a step-by-step appendix which shows how to configure and install all the needed tools, similar to the beginning of Mastering Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (Mastering).

Overall, it's a good book for learning how to program against Sharepoint... IF you know how to set up your dev environment. Do NOT use it as your sole information source, if you are prepping for the 70-541 exam.

Hope this helps!

This book has been a lifesaver for me while doing WSS Development. It seems like every obstacle I've run into this book has gotten me out of it. I would like to find a companion CD - It seems like some of the examples are missing crucial pieces of information that would be solved by having the entire sample project. Also it can be difficult to know exactly where to put the snippets of code that are used in the book.

The lack of the CD is my only reason for giving it 4 stars instead of 5. Do not let that keep you from getting the book if you're doing WSS Dev.

This book covers all the basics and inner working you need to know about WSS. The code examples are also good. Great book if you are preparing for 70-541

I was very selective on picking out a book on SharePoint. I needed a crash course and this book provided it. I hired consultants to help me with my project and they noticed it on my desk and mentioned how helpful it was for them as well.

A decent overview; the book makes many comparisons to older versions of SharePoint Services which I was not interested in as I did not use the previous versions. That dimension of the book was a waste of time for me and just added confusion as it added a lot of additional terms and descriptions of approaches that are no longer relevant. If you are coming from what they refer to as Version 2 then these sections might be helpful.

The authors push their personal preference in design. I don't mind an author putting forth a preference but this author puts forth some things as the "right" solution that will make a seasoned programmer raise an eyebrow.