Jan-Piet Mens

OpenVPN by Markus Feilner is a comprehensive reference of the excellent OpenVPN software. The book's subtitle, Building and Integrating Virtual Private Networks does it justice.

In 11 Chapters, the author introduces VPN and VPN security, shows you how to install OpenVPN on a number of different platforms (incl. Linux, MacOSX and Windows), and runs the reader through configuring OpenVPN as a server and/or as a client.

Securing OpenVPN with X.509 Certificates is well covered, including creating certificates with some special (GUI) tools. The OpenVPN configurations are well covered and the book closes with a chapter on Advanced configuration (tunnels, scripting, authentication, etc.) and Troubleshooting.

All in all, the book is for advanced users. The introduction is a bit quick for a novice.

The book lacks diagrams of what the author is showing us when he builds tunnels and discusses possibilities. Without a great deal of imagination (or experience), it is hard to follow without network diagrams.

Apart from that, I recommend the book to anybody who has to set up OpenVPN, and it is good that Feilner shows very clearly what you do if yo are on Windows XP.