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Tim Hemel, NL.Linux.org

The text below is the English translation of a Dutch review by Tim Hemel of NL.Linux.org.

The number of Linux books vs. the number of FreeBSD books is about the same is the number of distributions of both operating systems. So I was very curious about the contents of this book, even though I thought I knew most everything there was to know about FreeBSD.

This book covers the use of FreeBSD in the typical office environment, that is, on a server that works with Windows machines and Cisco routers. You won't find descriptions of network protocols, the implementation of the BSD TCP/IP stack or how you use the tun0 device here. You will learn about the setup and maintenance of services like DHCP, DNS, mail, samba and printers.

The book is 401 pages and a CD with FreeBSD 4.2-RELEASE. The author, Ted Mittelstaedt, is a person with UNIX experience, if you read the description on the back of the book. You also notice it when you read the book.

One of the first things that stands out when you start reading the book is the non-hostile attitude toward Windows which you see so often in other books. The author has oriented the book first and foremost toward the peaceful coexistence of FreeBSD and Windows, no questions asked. This makes the book perhaps more attractive to MS-brainwashed people.

Even though the book is targeted toward beginning FreeBSD admins, it contains enough technical information to make it interesting for the more experienced sysadmin, especially one without Windows knowledge.

The first three chapters are required reading, the others can be read in any order. Here we learn about how UNIX works, especially FreeBSD of course. The differences between Windows and other operating systems are covered as well as TCP/IP networking and all its services. FreeBSD installation is especially thoroughly covered.

These sound at first like basic topics and somebody who's already got FreeBSD installed and running will be tempted to skip these chapters and jump immediately to the others. This isn't a good idea, because you'll miss a bunch of handy tips and information hidden between the lines. That's sometimes annoying: for example, after reading chapter 1 about suitable hardware and buying a machine, you see more hardware tips two chapters later.

Chapter 4 covers FreeBSD system maintenance, with a short introduction to sysadminning. Very concise but even if you have another sysadmin book it's still useful to study the FreeBSD dialect. Immediately afterwards in chapter 5 we connect to the Internet. A discussion of ISP's, firewalls, routers, NAT and proxy servers. Again pretty short but enough to get you started. Because Cisco routers are used on many LANs there's a detour about configuring a Cisco box every so often.

The book contains some thorough examples explaining a particular configuration, step by step. Some of these so-called "exhibits" are trivially simple but some are fairly tough, especially for the beginning administrator. This demonstrates that the book is strongly aimed toward practical use, and that getting a program working is more important than knowing how it works.

Chapter 6 is about webserving, a very short introduction about getting Apache and extensions running. The next chapter is more interesting, about Samba fileserving. This chapter is even worth it for experienced UNIX admins if they know little about Windows. About half the chapter is about the varying Windows implementations of NetBIOS. But then that's the kind of thing you see when Microsoft wants their SMB implementation to work as little as possible with Samba. Not too smart, since you get the impression that SMB is a big mess and that Microsoft doesn't know what the really want (maybe that's true).

It's also nice that the book explains what you have to install on your Windows machines to get the machine working well with FreeBSD. This will save you an MCSE certification and prevents serious brain damage.

Chapter 8, about printing, really just talks about LPR. Not very interesting since most common way to print with Windows over a network is with Samba anyway. This last part is also discussed, but if for whatever reason you don't want to / can't run SMB it's good to know that there are LPR clients for Windows.

About the thickest chapter in the book, chapter 9, is on e-mail. MS Internet Mail is compared with SMTP. POP, IMAP, MIME, LDAP, etc. are also covered. Since the author has written large parts of the FAQs on www.sendmail.net, this chapter has it pretty much together. There are little scraps of sendmail configuration here and there. You don't have to use sendmail of course, but that's not covered in this book.

Some basic knowledge is assumed; it's nice to know what a kernel is. You actually need an installed FreeBSD system at your disposal while reading this book since it covers the basics pretty briefly. Some Windows knowledge will also be useful. I was expecting to be able to jump immediately to one of the last chapters, as a fairly experienced sysadmin. I immediately saw the terms BDC and PDC which were explained in the beginning (I didn't know... I don't use Windows).

The last chapter is about FreeBSD advocacy. While the author is reasonably neutral with respect to other OS's in the beginning of the book, now he turns into a FreeBSD evangelist. This chapter explains why FreeBSD is better than other OS's and why the BSD license is "more free" than the GPL. This is all explained in an open-minded manner. A history lesson helps explain why open source works so much better than closed source, simply because the hardware and software development has always been open source. In comparison with OSS, the Microsoft antitrust trial is briefly mentioned. This last chapter gives you a lot of good arguments for the umpteenth discussion over open source vs. closed source or Unix vs. Windows.

Conclusion: You really have to look at this book as a guide, not as a reference. There's a lot here but almost all of the valuable information is hidden in the text. The information is practical and immediately usable in the situation the book is designed for: office networks with Windows and Ciscos and FreeBSD as a server. After reading the entire book you'll definitely be a beginning aspiring guru. The beard will come by itself (at least for the male readers).

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© Copyright 2000-2003 Ted Mittelstaedt. All rights reserved.