Linux Network Administrator's Guide

Part of Linux's appeal is the unstructured and far-flung manner in which it grew. Self-styled hackers from many countries created it. Maintenance and support are distributed in a similar manner. And even its documentation -- from installation instructions through manual pages and full-length guides -- is the product of a volunteer effort, the Linux Documentation Project.

Networking is a fundamental part of Linux. As a stand-alone computer system it is impressive enough, but sooner or later you, the user, are going to want to send someone a file, mount a file system from another computer, read Usenet news, or search the World Wide Web. Whether you want a simple UUCP connection or a full LAN with NFS and NIS, you are going to have to build a network.

One of the most successful books to come from the Linux Documentation Project is the Linux Network Administrator's Guide by Olaf Kirch. It touches on all the essential networking software included with Linux, plus some hardware considerations. Topics include:

• Introduction to TCP/IP
• Configuring network and serial hardware
• Domain Name Service
• Serial line communications using SLIP and PPP
• NIS and NFS
• Taylor UUCP
• Administering electronic mail, including smail and Sendmail+IDA
• Administering Netnews, including C News, NNTP, and several news readers

Terry has 15 years professional experience in telecommunications and is currently engaged in network management research in the Telstra Research Laboratories. Terry lives in Sydney with his wife Maggie, and son Jack.

Olaf Kirch has a degree in Mathematics but turned his back on category theory and compact continuous lattices after booting his first Linux kernel some time in 92. He vividly recalls the joy of learning Unix by reading Linux kernel code.

Since that time, he has participated in various Linux projects, including writing large parts of its NFS implementation, and running the first Linux security mailing list with Jeff Uphoff in 95.

He currently works for Caldera Systems, where he is responsible for much of the network related stuff as well as security issues, and sometimes finds himself wondering whether he's dreaming or if all this is real.

In his spare time, he enjoys being with Maren and their daughter Jule. And in case you actually read the bio in the first edition of the Network Administrator's Guide, Olaf does have a driving license now.