Linux, a Unix-compatible operating system that runs on personal computers and larger servers, is valued above all for its networking strengths. The Linux Network Administrator's Guide spells out all the information needed for joining a network, whether it's a simple UUCP connection or a full LAN with a Linux system serving as a firewall, an NFS or NIS file server, and a mail and news hub.This book, which is one of the most successful to come from the Linux Documentation Project and remains freely distributable under its license, touches on all the essential networking software included with the operating system, plus some hardware considerations. Fully updated, the book now covers firewalls, including the use of ipchains and iptables (netfilter), masquerading, and accounting. Other new topics include Novell (NCP/IPX) support and INN (news administration). Original material on serial connections, UUCP, routing and DNS, mail and News, SLIP and PPP, NFS, and NIS has been thoroughly updated. Kernel options reflect the 2.2 kernel. However, some topics covered in other books (notably Samba and web server administration) are not in this book.Topics include:
- Introduction to TCP/IP
- Configuring network and serial hardware
- Domain Name Service
- Serial line communications using SLIP and PPP
- NIS and NFS
- Taylor UUCP
- Administering electronic mail, including sendmail and Exim
- Administering Netnews, including INN and several news readers
- Firewalling using ipfwadm, ipchains, and iptables (netfilter)
- Masquerading and accounting
- IPX configuration for a Novell Netware network
The most complete (and important) product of the Linux Documentation Project is arguably the Network Administrator's Guide, usually called NAG. It's freely downloadable, distributable and saleable under the Gnu General Licence.
O'Reilly has worked with the authors to improve the quality and accessibility of the NAG for this book version. All the improvements have been fed back into the original, which means you can download this book for free. In practice, a printed version is so useful--and it costs so much more to produce an inferior print copy for yourself--that you'll want to buy it. But download the digital version to prove it.
Linux is primarily a networking operating system and supports a multitude of networking protocols as well as the near ubiquitous TCP/IP. The NAG tells you everything about TCP/IP, from how to set up networking cards to setting up and deploying DNS. It also goes into the depths of UUCP (the store and forward protocol), Novell's IPX and NCP, SLIP and PPP for dial up networking, firewalls, IP masquerading, routing, Sun's NIS, NFS, Sendmail and Exim for e-mail, NNTP for newsgroups and more besides. What it doesn't cover is interfacing with Windows on networks, which is a function of Samba. If this is what you need, buy O'Reilly's Using Samba as well.
The NAG is the definitive guide to Linux networking whether you're coming to it cold or have previous experience. --Steve Patient
