Acknowledgments

It is my pleasure to be involved in writing another Cisco Press book. Technical writing, for me, is great fun, although writing large books is hard work. The good folks at Cisco Press provided a wealth of help during the writing process. In particular, I’m very grateful to have worked with my friends Brett Bartow and Chris Cleveland yet again. They are amazing at what they do, and I’m very appreciative! I’m also grateful to Mandie Frank for managing many of the production pieces for the final product.

I would like to acknowledge the hard work and good perspective of the technical reviewers for this edition: Greg Abelar and Mark Macumber. I respect these two fellows’ abilities very much, and I’m glad they agreed to wade through the book with me.

Several people have gone out of their way to help me, whether they realize it or not. Hopefully I have listed them all here.

Mark Macumber remains a valuable resource and friend on many fronts. Surely he cringes when he sees the word “favor” in the subject line of my emails!

I would also like to thank the many people on the ASA 8.0 beta team who have offered me their help and knowledge: Madhusudan Challa, Pete Davis, Matt Greene, Iqlas Ottamalika, Jeff Parker, Priyan Pathirana, Dan Qu, Nelson Rodrigues, Nancy Schmitt, Vincent Shan, Andy Teng, Mark Terrel, and Nagaraj Varadharajan.

Several people involved in the FWSM 3.2 development have been very patient and helpful, even though I arrived too late to get in on the beta program: Anne Dalecki Greene, Munawar Hossain, and Reza Saadat.

Two TAC engineers who have helped answer my questions along the way should also be acknowledged: Kureli Sankar and Kevin Tremblay.

Finally, revising this book has been an unusually difficult project for me. As always, God has given me encouragement and endurance at just the right times. I have come to appreciate the little signs that Kara makes and sticks up around the house. Two signs in particular have been right on the mark:

“Out of Time”

and

“Be Thankful”