Cisco IOS Access Lists takes a methodical approach to access lists and their capabilities, and is ideal for administrators of Cisco equipment who have configured access lists before but feel as if they're not taking full advantage of their capabilities (which, author Jeff Sedayao proves, extend well beyond security). Much of what Sedayao has written is of a "policy engineering" nature, is not strictly focused on Cisco's Internetwork Operating System (IOS), and has relevance to administrators of all sorts of access control equipment. There's emphasis on traffic minimization as well as security, as a section on using access lists to keep routing updates off stub networks exemplifies.
Like many books in the blue system-administration series, this one includes a lot of explanations of what each capability is for, and how each fits with other parts of the system. A lot of times, these sections include conceptual diagrams that show routes of communication and the desired access policies. Then come excerpts from real access lists (Sedayao focuses on IOS 10 and later) and, often, commentary on what the interesting lines of the lists are doing. It's a great way to teach people who have the ability and desire to experiment. Engineers, after all, typically like to learn by doing. --David Wall
Topics covered: The capabilities and limitations of access lists under the Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS) and other similar routing and access-control environments. Access policies (with emphasis on packet filtering), routing policies (via route filtering and route maps), and the details of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) pertaining to access lists are all covered.
Cisco routers are used widely both on the Internet and in corporate intranets. At the same time, the Cisco Internet Operating System (IOS) has grown to be very large and complex, and Cisco documentation fills several volumes. Cisco IOS Access Lists focuses on a critical aspect of the Cisco IOS--access lists. Access lists are central to the task of securing routers and networks, and administrators cannot implement access control policies or traffic routing policies without them. Access lists are used to specify both the targets of network policies and the policies themselves. They specify packet filtering for firewalls all over the Internet. Cisco IOS Access Lists covers three critical areas:
- Intranets. The book serves as an introduction and a reference for network engineers implementing routing policies within intranet networking.
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- Firewalls. The book is a supplement and companion reference to books such as Brent Chapman's Building Internet Firewalls. Packet filtering is an integral part of many firewall architectures, and Cisco IOS Access Lists describes common packet filtering tasks and provides a "bag of tricks" for firewall implementers.
- The Internet. This book is also a guide to the complicated world of route maps. Route maps are an arcane BGP construct necessary to make high level routing work on the Internet.
Cisco IOS Access Lists differs from other Cisco router titles in that it focuses on practical instructions for setting router access policies. The details of interfaces and routing protocol settings are not discussed.
