Rating: 
Summary: Worthless
Review: Half an hour spent researching web sites after typing "hacking" into a good search engine will get you far more info than the overpriced outdated stuff in this book. Who in the world still uses shell accounts when you can download Linux or FreeBSD for free? This is some horribly outdated stuff. PLUS, and listen here, about 85% of this books contents can be found in text-file format at various hacking tutorial archives on the internet.
Rating: 
Summary: Loved It
Review: I loved this book. It has a lot of valuable info for newbies.The book was informative and funny.
Rating:
Summary: It's a good book!
Review: I have been always interested in "hacking". I surf the hackers'website and brought some books like Hacking Exposed(2nd Edition), Maximum security,Firewall & Network security..just to name a few but I always end up blurr coz alots of thing I don't know. After reading this book, I find myself needing to reread all the book on hacking(I brought earlier) to get a better/clear understanding. She deserves at least 4 stars although it is for newbies. I learn so much and now I am reading her next book(Uberhacker!). That's what I got from reading this book so I don't care what other will grade her. I beginning to shift my windows OS to linux,get registered 2 shell account and plunged myself into C programming althought I like VB.It is a stepping stone toward hacking..LEGALLY..of course!
Rating:
Summary: The Happy Hacker
Review: I have not actually read the book itself, but, to my knowledge, "hacking" (the process of breaking into someone else's computer files...) is considered an illegal activity in the U.S. and Canada... Just a thought, before you go and read the book...
Rating:
Summary: Good to start a fire
Review: This is one of the worst books I have ever had the mis-pleasure of reading. What a waste of money. However, the book was useful for one thing, when I needed paper to start a fire on Christmas, it came in quite handy. So in one instance I was able to start a nice fire and also rid the world of one more of these books.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny, gentle, moralistic - it serves its purpose.
Review: This is a most unusual book, in that it's written in the tone and spirit of computer books from the mid-70's hobbyist days. To those who take offense that it's not some kind of flaming-skull testosterone rant, just go away. You've probably OCR'd the book and converted it to Acrobat by now. I'm giving it 5 stars because it's useful and entertaining, and presents a viewpoint almost never seen in this macho arena. Someone has to teach the old-school basics, and I'm glad it's Carolyn.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money or time on this one!
Review: I am sure Carolyn P. Meinel is happily pocketing the money from the revenues of her exorbitantly priced book. Not to mention her facking positive reviews to promote this book. The joke is that this is the 3rd edition of the book. Wake up people. Read something more instructing. I even over rated this book by giving it 1 star... my 2c
Rating:
Summary: don't waste your money and time on this one
Review: Basically this book has nothing to offer to it's reader. I am sure Carolyn P. Meinel is happily pocketing the money from the revenues of her exorbitantly priced book. I even over rated this book by giving it 1 star... my 2c
Rating:
Summary: The chapter titles are a bit misleading
Review: Each of the chapter names leads you to believe that the depth of the chapter goes far past the understanding of a newbie. The price of the book also leads you to believe that the contents are more technical than they are. The two good reviews I have read only bash the bad reviewers, and say that the book is aimed at newbies. Without these customer reviews, having only chapter names and 'The book the FBI loves to hate' to go on, I would buy this book NOT as a newbie. But there is nothing new here. If you surf web pages for just a couple of hours, you will get more than you will out of this book. It really wouldn't be a bad book if I was not so upset about overpaying for it, and then waiting 4 weeks to get it, and then realizing that the technical name of each chapter is an effort to hide its simplicity. If you are a stone newbie, and are too lazy to run around on the net digging (try typing 'port scanner' or 'hack' at a search engine), then this book WOULD be for you if not so over-priced. One more thing: I noticed that of the two good reviews I read, one came from someone that spelled cyberspace; siberspase, and another came from someone at antionline which is a website closely tied to Carolyn Meinel. Thinks she's trying to keep the reviews even?
Rating: 
Summary: Lite reading at best
Review: The book's price is misleading. The price leads you to believe that you will actually gleen something from the chapters within. How could someone possibly ask for, and get 30+ dollars for a paperback book with no value? Well, Carolyn Meinel pulls it off. If you already know about shell accounts and how hard to get, and mostly worthless they are nowadays, then you do not need this book. If you know what a mail header is, then you do not need this book. If you know that you can try to telnet into any open port on a server, then you do not need this book. Meinel rarely explains how to protect yourself from these 'hacks', which would be ok if she ever explained one of the 'hacks' fully (or at all). This book is not about hacking, and should be called 'Hacking for dummies' (If you don't understand what an oxymoron that title would be, then this book may be for you). This book is of absolutely no value to the security professional. In it's stead, I would recommend 'Hacking Exposed' by McClure, Scambray, and Kurtz. I gave the book a second star because there is some humorous reading near the back. Although, I don't believe it was written by Meinel. And if you can get through her personal 'hacking poem', let me know, I have yet to meet someone with that much intestinal fortitude. In short, if you are intrigued by someone that calls people 'haxors', or considers changing logo.sys in windows 'hacking', someone that gloats about the many 'hacker wars' she has been involved in (endlessly droning on about how great she was, or how she used so much self-restraint, but never telling you, the reader, what happened.), then this book MAY be for you. But I must say, I was not heart broken when my 2 year old son threw this one in the toilet.
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