| With the widespread use of wireless networking and the integration of VPN capabilities in most modern laptops, PDAs, and even cellular phones, there is a growing desire for encrypting more and more communications to prevent eavesdropping. Can you trust the coffee shop's wireless network? Is your neighbor snooping on your WiFi network? Or are your competitors perhaps engaged in industrial espionage? You might need to send confidential information to your office while on the road or on board a ship, or perhaps you just want to securely access your MP3s at home. IPsec is the industry standard for encrypted communication, and Openswan is the de facto IPsec implementation for Linux.
Whether you want to connect your home network with your laptop when on the road, or you need an industrial-size, military-strength VPN infrastructure for a very large organization, this book will assist you in setting up Openswan for those needs.
The book will take you through the process of designing, building, and configuring Openswan as your VPN gateway, covering these topics with the detail and depth of explanation you would expect from key members of the Openswan development team. You should note that Openswan is not restricted to only Linux clients, but can support all common operating systems such as Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Furthermore, we look at some common interoperability examples for third-party hardware, from vendors such as Cisco, Check Point, NetScreen, and others.
As official developers of the Openswan code, the authors give you the inside view on essential techniques. This book includes the latest developments and upcoming issues. With their experience in answering queries from users on the mailing lists since the creation of Openswan, and its predecessor FreeS/WAN, the authors are authority figures well known and respected by the community. They know the ins and outs of a wide range of setups, and also know the caveats and pitfalls that can obstruct successful Openswan deployment. |