Cisco IOS Access Lists takes a methodical approach to access lists and their capabilities. It is ideal for administrators of Cisco equipment who have configured access lists before but feel as if they're not taking full advantage of their capabilities (which, author Jeff Sedayao proves, extend well beyond security). Much of what Sedayao has written is of a "policy engineering" nature, is not strictly focused on Cisco's Internetwork Operating System (IOS), and has relevance to administrators of all sorts of access control equipment. There's emphasis on traffic minimisation as well as security, as a section on using access lists to keep routing updates off stub networks exemplifies.

Like many books in the blue system-administration series, this one includes a lot of explanations of what each capability is for, and how each fits with other parts of the system. Often, these sections include conceptual diagrams that show routes of communication and the desired access policies. Then come excerpts from real access lists (Sedayao focuses on IOS 10 and later) and commentary on what the interesting lines of the lists are doing. It's a great way to teach people who have the ability and desire to experiment. Engineers, after all, typically like to learn by doing. --David Wall

Topics covered: the capabilities and limitations of access lists under the Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS) and other similar routing and access-control environments. Access policies (with emphasis on packet filtering), routing policies (via route filtering and route maps), and the details of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) pertaining to access lists are all covered.