BKHBKLAN.RVW   970408

"Handbook of Local Area Networks", John P. Slone ed., 1995,
0-7913-2416-8
%E   John P. Slone
%C   823 Debra St, Livermore, CA   94550
%D   1995
%G   0-7913-2416-8
%I   Auerbach Publications
%O   510-455-9493 212-971-5000 800-950-1216 auerbach@wgl.com
%P   360
%T   "Handbook of Local Area Networks: 1995-96 Yearbook"

I was disappointed in the first few chapters.  The topics were
important, but the content was quite simplistic, and didn't even
address the level of knowledge that managers would need to have. 
Slone's own article on the World Wide Web started to change my
opinion: it was a good, basic backgrounder, although not really
addressing the newest technology.

The individual articles vary greatly in quality and usefulness.  None
are really very technical, although the best are technically informed. 
The primary audience appears to be technical or telecommunications
management, rather than staff.

Ordering and division of the individual pieces is not very clear.  The
two Frame Relay articles are in separate sections.  (One is not much
more than you would get in a standard sales seminar; the other is an
excellent guide to choosing frame relay in comparison with other
technologies.)

In total, there is something here for pretty much everyone.  Article
topics include hubs, 100M bit ethernet, Internet connectivity, frame
relay, remote access, the Web, CORBA (Common Object Request Broker
Architecture), desktop operating systems, servers, wiring,
client/server, conferencing, hierarchical storage management, LAN
analysis, and remote monitoring.  As an overview of some of these
technologies, it can be valuable, although there can also be a lot of
wasted ink.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1997   BKHBKLAN.RVW   970408