Acknowledgments

The process of creating a technical book requires a lot of hard work from a lot of people. I am always amazed at how much the various editing processes improve what I first submit as the text for a book. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank some of the people who have had a big hand in putting this book together.

For this book, I was fortunate to have a great team of technical editors. A handful of technical folks get the opportunity to read over the text and the figures, and make comments. Their primary job is to help make sure that the book is technically accurate, but the good ones also make sure that the topics flow well together and would make sense to the reader. While they all did the core job well, in particular, my buddy Paul Negron, also from Skyline Advanced Technology Services, edited the book, and did a particularly good and gracious job of pointing out when I should change the flow between topics. Scott Van de Houten gets the award for the best tech editor at finding my technical mistakes, while offering lots of good analogies that I added to the text. Blair Buchanan did a nice job keeping the text appropriate for audiences outside the United States. And Dr. Ron Kovac excelled at watching the tone, thinking hard about the audience for the book at each step, and really helping the overall flow of topics.

This book posed a unique challenge compared with previous books because it is intended for people who have no direct experience with networking. Dayna Isley, who worked as the development editor for the book, not only did an excellent job managing the entire book-writing process, but she also did a great job helping me find the right depth for the topics in the book. Dayna provided countless great suggestions on the approach and tone of the book.

Brett Bartow worked with me on this book from initial concept, including working through refining the First-Step Series goals as well as the goals for this book. As always, Brett did a great job dealing with the full life cycle of what it takes to get the book done right.

Typically, I'm directly involved with the development editor, executive editor, and the technical editors. However, lots of people work behind the scenesat least behind the scenes to meto help to make the book better. Karen Gill did the copyediting, cleaning up some of the wording and flow with a fresh set of eyes. Patrick Kanouse's production team gets involved in the details of how the book will look on paper, managing the process of getting the book laid out, ready for the printer, and finally into the warehouse. In particular, San Dee Phillips took care of the project-editing tasks, managing the book's progress from completed draft until it was ready for the printer. To the people who made the book come together, thanks very much.

On the personal side, I'd like to acknowledge my lovely wife's contributions to the writing process once again. She's always a steadying force when the writing process gets to me. Thanks again, Doll! Also, no set of acknowledgments of mine would be complete without saying thanks to Jesus Christ, savior, friend, brother, and provider.