FreeRADIUS Beginner's Guide

[Alexander Clouter]

Ian Pilcher <arequipeno at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I'm a complete newbie to RADIUS, looking to make use of the features of
> my new "smart" switches and wireless access point to secure my home
> network, so the title certainly sounds right.
> 
> Has anyone had a look at this book yet?  If so, what are your thoughts?
> 
I am currently reviewing it and hopefully in the next few days will put 
up my thoughts on it:

http://www.digriz.org.uk/review-book-freeradius-beginners-guide

The author (Dirk van der Walt) lurks on this mailing list.

The content is generally rather good, and aside from a few typos, the 
book is let only on some relatively *minor* points:
 * use of vendor specifics (Mikrotik/Coova focus), this is 
	probably is related to the authors day-job :)
 * unfortunately short EAP section, ignoring session resumption and why 
	particular EAP methods meet particular needs
 * EAP tests done with JRadius and not eapol_test
 * rlm_filter coverage is a bit short (less than one page)
 * debugging/diagnosis is covered *far* too late in the book and then 
	generally not at all.  Missing are hints on how to make your 
	life easier as a sysadmin (liberal use of screen+tee, rlm_detail 
	and it would not have gone amiss a network monitoring probe 
	thing)

All trivially fixed in a revision two if such a thing comes about.  
Arguably though, and no doubt quite rightly, my points above probably 
would be better addressed by a FreeRADIUS *reference* book rather than a 
beginners guide...so I probably am being mean :)

The price is reasonable, and if you are a complete newbie, it will get 
you on your feet.  The book definitely does what it says on the tin and 
I would give it a 7 out of 10...

Cheers

-- 
Alexander Clouter
.amongst says: Dibble's First Law of Sociology:
                  	Some do, some don't.