text: The purpose of Nessus is to provide an Open Source Solution for network auditing on all Unix like systems.  This book not only details using Nessus but also comes with a CD containing the program, as well as Ethereal, Snort, and Newt (a port of the program to the Windows environment).
  
  What is a network assessment?  At its basic level it is an attempt to detect a live system and then identify the computing environment, services, applications, and vulnerabilities on that system.  Basically there are two types of assessment - internal and external.  An internal assessment is done over the local network and external is done from outside the LAN.  Nessus will do both types and the book details how to do either, or both of them.
  
  The authors do an excellent job of detailing installation, setup, and how to interpret the results of a scan as well as various factors that can affect the report.  One of the parts not to be missed is the discussion of not only the benefits but also the potential problems of scanning your system.  Some of the vulnerability types scanned for include buffer overflows, default passwords, backdoors, information leaks, and denial of service.
  
  The Nessus scripting language is covered in detail in Appendix A instead of the main portion of the book; a choice I appreciated very much as it allowed the flow of the book to not be interrupted by such a highly technical section.  With Open Source products there generally is no organized technical support phone number you can call of help.  So, the authors include information on how to get help via the Nessus User Community, mailing lists, and archives.
  
  Nessus Network Auditing is a highly recommended book for anyone interested in auditing their network to find potential problems before they become reality
  