The Accidental Administrator: Cisco ASA Security Appliance: A Step-by-Step Configuration Guide Paperback – August 3, 2010

I've had the book for a short while and have had a chance to do a pretty good read through. I must say it is very well put together. It is primarily, in my opinion, a strong resource for someone who needs to manage an ASA appliance quickly.It's cuts through the extensive logic and provides clear line-by-line CLI and ASDM instruction to accomplish high-level milestones.One important note is, it is written for software version 8.3, I've got 9.2, so I've had to navigate the slight changes between the version. Otherwise, it's a must have for someone who is eager to learn Cisco's ASA appliances in an efficient manner.----On another note, I had a technical issue while working through one of the labs, site-to-site VPN, where I was honestly stumped. So stumped that around 10:00 PM last night, I emailed the author asking for guidance. To my surprise, within 15-minutes I had a reply from the author providing some clarity into my issue.Now that is what I call someone who cares about his readers and genuinely wants to help people who are hungry to learn. Kudos to Don for going the extra mile and reaching out to the user community.

Nice book

This is a great resource for those new to the ASA platform or do not admin one frequently enough to remember all the commands. You may not find much value in this book if you are relatively experienced in Cisco ASA. The examples are straight forward for core functions of ASAs, but do not go far in terms of options within those examples. If you are looking for a "How do I setup this (basic) function" book, this is the one you want. On the down side, It doesn't have anything regarding IPS, Botnet filters, certificates, dynamic routing functions or any other advanced features.Overall, an excellent value for beginners and the occasional admin.

The author achieves his goal of helping to set up a Cisco ASA firewall, but does not do a very good job of educating the reader. The book is replete with examples in the form "accomplish this by executing the following CLI (command line interface) steps", but rarely explains what each step does, nor how the odd syntax works. Because he often tells you to execute commands with no explanation as to what each command does, you learn little and cannot extend the example to other situations.I don't want to be too hard on this book, but a five star rating is WAY over the top for this one. It is a small book, worth the relatively high price only if you only need to get your firewall going, and don't feel the need to understand what you are doing as you set it up.

This book is great for someone who is comfortable with networking but isn't looking to be a network engineer. It allowed me to get my ASA 5505 up and running with a good ruleset and voip phones in less than a day.I wouldn't recommend this book for studying for the CCNA or anything, but that's not what I bought it for. Four out of Five because some of the explanations assume a bit more knowledge than I had about IOS and I ended up needing to supplement with google from time to time.

I have an ASA 5505 and this was the only book I have found that doesn't bore you to death with superfluous text, and drills right into the commands you need to get going. It is not for advanced Network engineers and I think that wasn't the target audience.Bottom line the book is great and Don Crawley answered my questions through their Facebook page promptly.A year ago I didn’t know a lot about Cisco ASAs, and today I have two 5520s and a 5515 on our network.At the time I had my CCNA and was looking for that stepping stone to the next level, and I believe I found it with this book.

I have extensive knowledge of the Catalyst Series Switch's and IOS routers, but needed a book to get to the point quickly for some ASA projects I was working on. With Don's book I was able to successfully build a configuration, backup and restore the ASA's software and configs, build a point-to-point VPN and an Anyconnect VPN for a client, and set up a transparent firewall, which was new to me. I like the fact that it's more of a cookbook with recipes for configuring the ASA than an in-depth, 800-page monster. I have a very busy and successful IT consulting practice and I'm very happy with this book.

I first came across Don's Sound Training videos while tracking down the answer to a Cisco Switch issue I was having. Then, again when configuring a number of Cisco ASA's and found that he wrote a book about it. This Book is great if you want to get something working first and study up on how it works later. If you want to read a 1000 page book from Cisco Press and get certified, good for you. If you want your ASA to work in about 10-20 minutes, buy Don's book.

Okay but a little amateur in the self publishing. The font seems to be larger to fill more space. IMO use the Cisco Docs from the website and save a few pounds.

A good practical book on the ASA. Accompanies the videos posted online.

This a great book that covers all the basics, and even some not very basics.Definitely recommend for anyone getting acquainted with Cisco ASA.

Excellent book, great buy. Explained very clearly. Reccomend to anyone starting out or looking to refresh ASA knowledge. Good Value

Expected something more complex and explained. It's just a list off examples of configurations. Need to buy another one. Not recommended for a professional ASA administration