Organization

Conceptually, this book is divided into three parts: fundamental concepts, tutorial, and reference. The first three chapters are a basic discussion of the TCP/IP protocols and services. This discussion provides the fundamental concepts necessary to understand the rest of the book. The remaining chapters provide a "how-to" tutorial. Chapter 4 Chapter 7 discuss how to plan a network installation and configure the basic software necessary to get a network running. Chapter 8 Chapter 11 discuss how to set up various important network services. Chapter 12 and Chapter 13 cover how to perform the ongoing tasks that are essential for a reliable network: security and troubleshooting. The book concludes with a series of appendixes that are technical references for important commands and programs.

This book contains the following chapters:

Chapter 1 gives the history of TCP/IP, a description of the protocol architecture, and a basic explanation of how the protocols function.

Chapter 2 describes addressing and how data passes through a network to reach the proper destination.

Chapter 3 discusses the relationship between clients and server systems and the various services that are central to the function of a modern internet.

Chapter 4 begins the discussion of network setup and configuration. This chapter discusses the preliminary configuration planning needed before you configure the systems on your network.

Chapter 5 describes how to configure TCP/IP in the Unix kernel, and how to configure the system to start the network services.

Chapter 6 tells you how to identify a network interface to the network software. This chapter provides examples of Ethernet and PPP interface configurations.

Chapter 7 describes how to set up routing so that systems on your network can communicate properly with other networks. It covers the static routing table, commonly used routing protocols, and gated, a package that provides the latest implementations of several routing protocols.

Chapter 8 describes how to administer the name server program that converts system names to Internet addresses.

Chapter 9 describes how to configure many common network servers. The chapter discusses the DHCP configuration server, the LPD print server, the POP and IMAP mail servers, the Network File System (NFS), the Samba file and print server, and the Network Information System (NIS).

Chapter 10 discusses how to configure sendmail, which is the daemon responsible for delivering electronic mail.

Chapter 11 describes how the Apache web server software is configured.

Chapter 12 discusses how to live on the Internet without excessive risk. This chapter covers the security threats introduced by the network, and describes the plans and preparations you can make to meet those threats.

Chapter 13 tells you what to do when something goes wrong. It describes the techniques and tools used to troubleshoot TCP/IP problems and gives examples of actual problems and their solutions.

Appendix A is a reference guide to the various programs used to configure a serial port for TCP/IP. The reference covers dip, pppd, and chat.

Appendix B is a reference guide to the configuration language of the gated routing package.

Appendix C is a reference guide to the Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) name server software.

Appendix D is a reference guide to the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Daemon (dhcpd).

Appendix E is a reference guide to sendmail syntax, options, and flags.

Appendix F lists the contents of the Apache configuration file discussed in Chapter 11.

Appendix G contains detailed protocol references taken directly from the RFCs that support the protocol troubleshooting examples in Chapter 13. This appendix explains how to obtain your own copies of the RFCs.