Policy Routing Using Linux

Rating:
Summary: Better than nothing.
Review: As of December 2001, I don't know of any other books which ostensibly cover the topic of policy routing for Linux. Since I think this book does provide some real value about the topic, I guess that makes it the best book available right now, and so I think this is pretty much a "must have" book for anyone who wants to get all the information they can.

Some things I expected to get from this book were: clear detailed explanations of the "ip", "tc", and "iptables" commands, some explanations of the "netlink"/"rtnetlink" interfaces, clear explanations of the concepts and data structures those things are addressing, explanations of the various queueing disciplines available and when are the best times to use each them, explanations of how to troubleshoot and debug problems caused by all these things; and lots of clear and thorough diagrams, since to me that is a critical part of explaining any networking/routing topic.

In my opinion the book pretty much provided none of those things. However, it did present some buzzwords in appropriate contexts, and provided some information about the kinds of things which can be done with respect to policy routing with Linux and what is generally meant by "policy routing", and it provided some useful opinions and insight into various issues.

I think the book provides some value as perhaps an "introduction to policy routing concepts and Linux for network administrators". Also, I guess in a perfect world it would go without saying that the author is clueful about the topic of the book, but nowadays that does not seem to be a prerequisite to writing a book like this. I think this author _is_ clueful about this topic.

Rating:
Summary: Better than nothing.
Review: As of December 2001, I don't know of any other books which ostensibly cover the topic of policy routing for Linux. Since I think this book does provide some real value about the topic, I guess that makes it the best book available right now, and so I think this is pretty much a "must have" book for anyone who wants to get all the information they can.

Some things I expected to get from this book were: clear detailed explanations of the "ip", "tc", and "iptables" commands, some explanations of the "netlink"/"rtnetlink" interfaces, clear explanations of the concepts and data structures those things are addressing, explanations of the various queueing disciplines available and when are the best times to use each them, explanations of how to troubleshoot and debug problems caused by all these things; and lots of clear and thorough diagrams, since to me that is a critical part of explaining any networking/routing topic.

In my opinion the book pretty much provided none of those things. However, it did present some buzzwords in appropriate contexts, and provided some information about the kinds of things which can be done with respect to policy routing with Linux and what is generally meant by "policy routing", and it provided some useful opinions and insight into various issues.

I think the book provides some value as perhaps an "introduction to policy routing concepts and Linux for network administrators". Also, I guess in a perfect world it would go without saying that the author is clueful about the topic of the book, but nowadays that does not seem to be a prerequisite to writing a book like this. I think this author _is_ clueful about this topic.

Rating:
Summary: Useless, if iproute2 had had decent documentation.
Review: I was very excited about the book in the beginning. One of the reasons was that iproute2 package (for advance routing with Linux) does not have decent document with it. After the bla-bla of the first chapter with some technical error here and there I realised that this was not going to be a fun reading. I enjoyed chapter 4 which is the manuals for the "ip" utility. BTW, Matthew, what is your point with Example 6.2--Loopback Dummy P110? I read it three times and couldn't figure out what you wanted to say. Of course that the routing will not work if you set up a wrong route! In general, if he'd cut the bla-bla throughout the text and provided "right to the point" and "complete" information, this book had earned 5 stars from me. I'm very happy that he was not the author of 'TCP/IP illustrated' series.

Rating:
Summary: great reference, good examples
Review: I've been looking for a book on this topic for quite some time. Not only does Mr Marsh explain things well, he as great examples throughout the book. Also has a good writing style, the book is very readable.

Rating:
Summary: finally a practical guide to linux routing
Review: I've been playing with the linux routing and the ip utility for a couple of years now, and about a year ago i remember sending Matthew a question about it as I saw him answer a question on one of the mailing lists about it. He answered my question, which no one else had been able to do, and I FINALLY got everything working. When I saw he had a book out, I immediately bought one and read it. One of the simple examples in chapter five was almost the exact same problem I had asked him about, dealing with loopback. (I'd like to think this was in there because of me ;-)) Even better, in chapter six, he showed me how to do multiple connections, which was a question I was thinking about asking him anyway as I just got a DSL in addition to my cable modem. This is an AWESOME book, and I think I'll learn a lot more cool tricks from it. Highly recommended for anyone doing linux.