Welcome to Linux for Networking Professionals! If you've ever wondered how to reduce the cost of hosts and services that support your network, you've come to the right place. Or if you're considering how to start securing network services such as DNS, DHCP, or RADIUS, we can help you on that path as well.

If there's a service that helps you support your network, we've tried to cover how to get it up and running with a basic configuration, as well as helping you to start securing that service. Along the way, we've tried to help you pick a Linux distribution, show you how to use Linux for troubleshooting, and introduce you to a few services that you maybe didn't know that you needed.

Hopefully, the journey we take in this book helps you add new services to your network, and maybe helps you understand your network a bit better along the way!

Who this book is for

This book is meant for anyone tasked with administering network infrastructure of almost any kind. If you are interested in the nuts and bolts of how things work in your network, this book is for you! You'll also find our discussion interesting if you are often left wondering how you will deliver the various services on your network that your organization needs, but might not have the budget to pay for commercial products. We'll cover how each of the Linux services we discuss works, as well as how you might configure them in a typical environment.

Finally, if you are concerned with how attackers view your network assets, you'll find lots to interest you! We discuss how attackers and malware commonly attack various services on your network, and how to defend those services.

Since our focus in this book is on Linux, you'll find that the budget for both deploying and defending the services we cover is measured more in your enthusiasm and time for learning new and interesting things, rather than in dollars and cents!