Cisco ASA, PIX, and FWSM Firewall Handbook, Second Edition, is a guide for the most commonly implemented features of the popular Cisco® firewall security solutions. Fully updated to cover the latest firewall releases, this book helps you to quickly and easily configure, integrate, and manage the entire suite of Cisco firewall products, including ASA, PIX®, and the Catalyst® Firewall Services Module (FWSM).

Organized by families of features, this book helps you get up to speed quickly and efficiently on topics such as file management, building connectivity, controlling access, firewall management, increasing availability with failover, load balancing, logging, and verifying operation.

Sections are marked by shaded tabs for quick reference, and information on each feature is presented in a concise format, with background, configuration, and example components.

Whether you are looking for an introduction to the latest ASA, PIX, and FWSM devices or a complete reference for making the most out of your Cisco firewall deployments, Cisco ASA, PIX, and FWSM Firewall Handbook, Second Edition, helps you achieve maximum protection of your network resources.

“Many books on network security and firewalls settle for a discussion focused primarily on concepts and theory. This book, however, goes well beyond these topics. It covers in tremendous detail the information every network and security administrator needs to know when configuring and managing market-leading firewall products from Cisco.”

–Jason Nolet, Vice President of Engineering, Security Technology Group, Cisco

David Hucaby, CCIE® No. 4594, is a lead network engineer for the University of Kentucky, where he works with health-care networks based on the Cisco Catalyst, ASA, FWSM, and VPN product lines. He was one of the beta reviewers of the ASA 8.0 operating system software.

• Learn about the various firewall models, user interfaces, feature sets, and configuration methods

• Understand how a Cisco firewall inspects traffic

• Configure firewall interfaces, routing, IP addressing services, and IP multicast support

• Maintain security contexts and flash and configuration files, manage users, and monitor firewalls with SNMP

• Authenticate, authorize, and maintain accounting records for firewall users

• Control access through the firewall by implementing transparent and routed firewall modes, address translation, and traffic shunning

• Define security policies that identify and act on various types of traffic with the Modular Policy Framework

• Increase firewall availability with firewall failover operation

• Understand how firewall load balancing works

• Generate firewall activity logs and learn how to analyze the contents of the log

• Verify firewall operation and connectivity and observe data passing through a firewall

• Configure Security Services Modules, such as the Content Security Control (CSC) module and the Advanced Inspection Processor (AIP) module

This security book is part of the Cisco Press® Networking Technology Series. Security titles from Cisco Press help networking professionals secure critical data and resources, prevent and mitigate network attacks, and build end-to-end self-defending networks.

Category: Networking: Security

Covers: Cisco ASA 8.0, PIX 6.3, and FWSM 3.2 version firewalls

$60.00 USA / $69.00 CAN

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 6 Ratings

Excellent reference manual covering most day to day admin tasks for the PIX and ASA - 2008-04-25
Reviewer Rating:
Cisco ASA, PIX, and FWSM Firewall Handbook
Second Edition
Author : David Hucaby
Publisher: Cisco Press
Reviewed by: Michael Cooter

Pros: Thorough, comprehensive, and in-depth
Cons: Not for ASA/PIX Novices, more suited for Firewall admins with solid experience. More of a reference than a book you would read cover to cover.

Chapter List: Chapter 1, "Firewall Overview", Chapter 2 "Configuration Fundamentals" Chapter 3 "Building Connectivity", Chapter 4 "Firewall Management", Chapter 5 "Managing Firewall Users", Chapter 6 "Controlling Access Through the Firewall", Chapter 7 "Inspecting Traffic", Chapter 8 "Increasing Firewall Availability with Failover, Chapter 9 "Firewall Load Balancing", Chapter 10 "Firewall Logging", Chapter 11 "Verifying Firewall Operation", Chapter 12 "ASA Modules", Appendix A, "Well-Known Protocol and Port Numbers, Appendix B "Security Applicance Logging Messages"

Book Review:

Cisco ASA, PIX and FWSM Firewall Handbook is a comprehensive and up-to-date reference manual that belongs on the shelf of anybody who manages a Cisco Firewall device. At nearly 870 pages, this is not a small book that you would want read cover to cover, but instead an excellent reference that you would use to learn more about a specific topic of ASA and PIX administration.

I am familiar with the author, David Hucaby from reading his CCNP Switching book, written in 2000. Hucaby has a very clear and insightful writing style and has the ability to take complex topics and break them down to a more understandable level for novices.

Chapters of interest to me were on Firewall Load Balancing , Traffic Inspection, also the on Failover.


Summary:

I highly recommend this book for any administrator who is responsible for an ASA or PIX. This book is not an great introduction to the topic, but would be better suited as a companion to "Securing Your Business with Cisco ASA and PIX Firewalls" by Greg Alebar.

Great book but doesn't cover VPN - 2009-04-09
Reviewer Rating:
Great ASA book, updated for version 8, covers PIX too and helped for exam study. Does not cover anything on VPN! (IPsec or Web) which is one of the major purposes for the ASA - users travelling, work at home, vendor access. Omar Santos' book covers VPN although it is for older version 7. Would have given 5 stars if not for the VPN omission. Edward Huang CCSP/CCDA

gerat book for network engineers getting into NETSEC worrld - 2008-06-13
Reviewer Rating:
I am a network engineer (mainly voice and data) and recently had to start gearing up for ASA's and FWSM's.
This is a great book for engineers who need to get familiar to the security suite and basic configurations.

I now need to start readying on security guide lines and procedures which this book helped with the foundation of.

great book, easy to read, very useful

Cisco ASA, PIX, and FWSM Firewall Handbook, 2nd Ed. - 2009-06-12
Reviewer Rating:
Great Cisco 642-524 exam preparation. Hucaby is god when it comes to Cisco adaptive security devices.

I guess VPN isn't important - 2009-05-19
Reviewer Rating:
I have th august 2006 edition and it does not even mention VPNS.

Not much use

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