[nycbug-talk] BSD books for admins

[michael]

On Sun, 7 Mar 2004 00:51:42 -0500
"Az" <cistalk at experiencedstudents.com> wrote:

> Hi all
> i wanted to buy some books for unix system administration ( multiuser
> access, MTA,firewalls, scripting,creating shares,workgroups  etc), is >
>  i am new in *nix's  world and  was using freebsd 5.1 in cli mode for 

Your question sounds broad, so I'll hit it with broad strokes.  

If there was ever a one-stop-shop for knowledge in freebsd it would be the FreeBSD Handbook.  In addistion to No Starch items you mentioned, I also liked The Complete FreeBSD, Fourth Edition by Greg Lehey.  Once you understand the OS and what comes with it you can branch out into application specific reading... when you pick the apps you want to run.  
Email for example; you mentioned system administration so, while reading technical white papers on internet mail protocols would really benefit you, a book on Postfix or Sendmail may be better to learn the app.

There are a lot of experts on the list that can better recommend reading on security and firewalls than I could.

Also keep in mind, your system came with a manual in the 'man pages'.  Believe it or not this is frequently the first place I turn when I want to learn.  Many would argue you should read those too.

Reading books is good for learning, I'm a reader.  But never underestimate the power of learning by doing and learning by making mistakes.

NOTE: I visited you website, if you want to contribute your 'lessons learned' to the NYCBUG Library, just let us know.
Michael

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