Please stop clicking on the monkey: a Q&A on home networking security

Home Networking Simplified,, shown in Figure A, is a new book from Cisco Press by authors Jim Doherty and Neil Anderson. In this Q&A session, Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz talks networking, Internet, and security with the "Home Networking" authors.

Please introduce yourselves and help us understand your background. Tell us anything you think our readers might find interesting about you.

Jim Doherty is currently the director of Strategic Marketing with Symbol Technologies. Prior to joining Symbol, Jim worked at Cisco Systems, where he led marketing campaigns for IP Telephony, and routing and switching. Over the past several years, he has taught professionals in both academic and industry settings on a broad range of topics, including networking, electric circuits, statistics, and wireless communication methods. Jim is the co-author of Cisco Networking Simplified and wrote the Study Notes section of the Cisco CCNA Exam #640-607 Flash Card Practice Kit. Jim holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from N.C. State University and an MBA from Duke University. Jim also served in the United States Marine Corps, where he earned the rank of Sergeant, before leaving to pursue an education.

Neil Anderson is a manager in Enterprise Systems Engineering at Cisco Systems. Neil has 20 years of diverse telecom experience, including public telephone systems, mobile telephone systems, IP networks, wireless networking, and home networks. Neil has held roles in Research & Development, Systems Engineering, and Technical Marketing. At Cisco Systems, Neil has worked with Virtual Private Network (VPN), Voice over IP (VoIP), and wireless LAN (WLAN) technologies, focusing on network architectures for enterprise and small business customers. Neil holds a bachelor's degree in computer science.

Tell us about your book

Well, both of us end up helping a lot of family and friends with their home networking. We got the idea for the book when we asked ourselves: why is this stuff so hard for most people? It doesn't have to be hard, and can be kind of fun...when stuff works.

The book, Home Networking Simplified attempts to cut through all the options out there and focus on what will work. We explain how the technology works at high detail level, giving readers an understanding of the terms so they can talk to the people at their favorite electronics store, or at least not be baffled/bullied by the computer geek in their lives.