Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1992 09:01:30 MST >From: Dan Lester Subject: File 7--Krol's Whole Internet User's Guide (Review #3) A number of guides to the Internet have been published recently, and others have been announced for the near future. As of this writing there is a new, undisputed champion that is available at a reasonable price. Yesterday FedEx delivered our copy of Ed Krol's _The Whole Internet User's Guide & Catalog_ direct from the publisher, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. This latest publication in their renowned Nutshell Handbook series is worth every penny of the $24.95 list price. The ISBN is 1-56592-025-2. O'Reilly can be reached at 103 Morris St, Ste. A, Sebastopol, CA 95472, or 800-998-9938. Many are familiar with the Nutshell Handbooks that O'Reilly has published, mostly for the Unix and X Window environments. This book is a high quality paperback of 376 pages that is printed on acid-free paper (not that it will need to last that long, considering the rate of change of the Internet). Those not familiar with O'Reilly's publications will be familiar with Krol's RFC 1118, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Internet," which this new book updates and obsoletes. To indicate how comprehensive and current the book is, I'll take the liberty of listing the chapter titles: 1. What is this book about? 2. What is the Internet? 3. How the Internet works. 4. What's allowed on the Internet? 5. Remote login. 6. Moving files: FTP 7. Electronic mail 8. Network News 9. Finding software [all about Archie] 10. Finding someone 11. Tunneling through the Internet: Gopher 12. Searching Indexed databases: WAIS 13. Hypertext spanning the Internet: WWW 14. Other applications [fax, chatting, games, etc.] 15. Dealing with problems [error msgs, dealing with operations folks, etc.] There are also appendices covering resources on the nets, how to get connected, international connectivity, acceptable use, and other matters. The glossary is adequate, but does not try to compare to the _The New Hacker's Dictionary_. The index is very good. In conclusion, I recommend this very highly. Although there are many other competing works out there, this one covers almost everything anyone could want to know, is well written for both the novice and the experienced user, and is available now at a very reasonable price. All who are reading this review should have a copy on their desk, and a copy in their public, academic, or special library for reference by other potential users. Obligatory disclaimer: I do not know the author and have no business or other connections with the author or publisher. I'm just a very happy consumer. ------------------------------ Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253