| Interviewer:
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Please take a minute to
provide our readers with a brief introduction/background. |
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| Author: |
**not answered** |
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| Interviewer:
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Where are you from?
How--if at all--has your sense of place colored your writing? |
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| Author: |
I was born in
Brooklyn, NY and lived in the New York area until I went to college.
Living in the city of a ‘million’ stories provided me with a
diverse learning experience, which upon occasion I use to make my
technical writings more interesting. After college in Pennsylvania
and graduate school in New York I spent two years of active duty
with the Army, moving around quite a bit and being exposed to many
interesting situations. I stayed in the reserves for approximately
25 years and had many technical assignments that further enhanced my
background. Working for the government as a network manager for over
20 years provided me with the first hand knowledge of real world
situations which I use in my writings and when teaching graduate
school. Although it’s important to have style in technical
writing, to paraphrase a great general, there is no substitute for
experience. |
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| Interviewer:
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When and why did you begin
writing? When did you first consider yourself a writer? |
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| Author: |
I was working in the
Washington, DC area during the early 1970’s when I received a
‘call for papers’ brochure from the Jerusalem Conference on
Information Technology. At that time I was working for Honeywell
Information Systems as a technical specialist supporting time
sharing systems and had learned a lot about configuring internal
parameters to enhance system performance. Over a long weekend I
wrote a paper which to this day I remember my wife editing (she is
an English major) thru the early hours of the morning. To make a
long story short, the paper was peer reviewed and accepted and a few
months later we were in Jerusalem attending the conference. When we
returned to the States I was contacted by Harry Karp. Harry was then
working on a special edition of Electronics magazine covering data
communications. Harry was interested in a story on data
communications in Israel and flew down to DC to meet with me. I can
still remember Harry smoking a cigar, puffing away in a hotel room
and after reviewing my draft telling me: ‘kid, you got a lot to
say but the way you say it needs work. Let me show you how to
write.’ After several hours of his tutoring I felt like Audrey in
My Fair Lady – I think I got it! Harry went on to found Data
Communications magazine and worked with me for years, helping me
write a series of articles that formed the basis for my first book. |
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| Interviewer:
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Who or what has influenced
your writing, and in what way? What books have most influenced your
personal and professional life? |
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| Author: |
Obviously, Harry Karp,
the founding editor of Data Communications magazine had a great
influence upon my writing and was my mentor. |
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| Interviewer:
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What is the most romantic
book you've ever read? The scariest? The funniest? |
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| Author: |
Ok, so Eric Segal may
not be a Tom Wolf, however I still believe Love Story represents a
great romantic book. Concerning the scariest book, its actually a
compilation of short stories by Steven King. There was one story in
which a cloud forms over a town, emanating from a government
laboratory (of course) and the insects turn gigantic. I forget the
title of the story but after reading it I was tempted to run out and
buy bug spray. With a college age daughter I couldn’t pass on the
book ‘Dates from Hell.’I read it first and it was a winner. Our
daughter loved it. |
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| Interviewer:
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Who is the target audience
for your book? What should their level of technical knowledge be? |
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| Author: |
The primary audience
for Cisco Security Architecture are persons that work with Cisco
equipment. However, the book is also beneficial for network managers
and administrators that need to understand concepts related to
securing their network. When we wrote this book we targeted specific
security areas to explain using the newspaper reporters questions
– who, what, when, why, where and how. Thus, in covering those
questions we make it relatively easy for persons with different
technical backgrounds to gain from the information presented in the
book. Thus, only a very basic knowledge of routers is required to be
able to use this book. |
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| Interviewer:
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How is the book organized? |
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| Author: |
The first series of
chapters can be considered as a tutorial and reference to TCP/IP,
IPX and router operations. While more experienced persons will
probably skim or skip those chapters, we recognized that persons
maintaining communications equipment have diverse backgrounds and
such information could be a valuable reference. Thus, those chapters
enable a diverse readership to use the material presented in later
chapters that cover different types of access lists and the PIX. |
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| Interviewer:
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Tell us how your
background and experience enabled you to write about this topic? |
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| Author: |
My background in Cisco
equipment began during the early 1990s when I had to install and
configure a Cisco router. Being responsible for security I naturally
probed deeply into this topic and had the luxury of being able to
set up bench tests to work with a variety of equipment. As per my
earlier paraphrase, ‘there is no substitute for experience.’ |
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| Interviewer:
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What made you decide to
write this extensively on this topic? |
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| Author: |
I teach a graduate
school course called LAN Performance which includes one evening
devoted to covering Cisco access lists. Most of my graduate school
students are network engineers and would tell me how practical and
informative the information was and would call or email me with
queries concerning the application of access lists. Like a light
bulb illuminating this was a sign that a book on Cisco security was
a viable project. In addition, being able to relate my experience
and help others solve problems already solved made this a most
interesting project to present to McGraw Hill. |
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| Interviewer:
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Can your book be helpful
in preparing for Cisco certification? If so, for which
certifications or exams? |
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| Author: |
While it was not our
intention for this book to serve as a certification guide there is
no doubt that it provides information that can be extremely useful
in preparing to take a test. |
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| Interviewer:
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What other projects are
you planning? Will we see another book from you? If so when? |
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| Author: |
I expect you will see
a series of additional Cisco related books from McGraw Hill that
Kent Hundley, my co-author, and I will collaborate upon. I truly
enjoyed working with Kent and believe that both readers and
co-authors benefit when two persons share experiences. If things go
as expected we hope we can do another interview with you early next
year. |
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| Interviewer:
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What did you thinking of
the writing process? How long did it take you write your book? |
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| Author: |
Its always amazing to
see a manuscript turned into a book. Since this was a collaborative
effort we depended a lot on email which not only saved time but
certainly reduced Express Mail charges. From start to finish work on
the manuscript took about six months, which was not bad considering
we had to balance family life, travel plans, holidays among two
authors. |
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| Interviewer:
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Did you learn anything
from this project? If so what? |
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| Author: |
I always learn things
from writing. When you put pen to paper and attempt to explain a
concept many time you need to do additional research. Some times
your in the middle of a paragraph and ask yourself ‘will this
work?’ and its back to the lab to test the concept so you can
provide readers with information they may need. In doing such things
time becomes critical – no matter how much time you budget for a
chapter it always appears you need more. |
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| Interviewer:
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If you were asked what
about what is the best way to succeed in the field of networking
what would you say? |
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| Author: |
Networking is a
diverse field, so I’m not sure if there is one or even several all
encompassing answers to this question. Although knowledge and
experience are certainly keys to success, its also the manner or
method by which you present your knowledge and experience. Another
area that can pave the way to success is by taking the initiative,
finding potential problems before they effect the organization. Last
but not least, always try to learn something new each day. |
