BKIDTINT.RVW  941013
 
"The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Internet", Kent, 1994, 1-56761-414-0,
U$19.95/C$26.95
peterk@csn.org
%A   Peter Kent
%C   201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN   46290
%D   1994
%G   1-56761-414-0
%I   Alpha Books
%O   U$19.95/C$26.95 75141.2102@compuserve.com 75141.2104@compuserve.com
%P   388
%S   Complete Idiot's Guide ...
%T   "The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Internet"
 
I wish Peter Kent had picked another name for this book because it deserves
better.  (Yes, I *do* know that this is part of a series, and that publishers
get to pick titles.)
 
Part one is both a general introduction to the Internet, and a very solid
discussion of access methods and Internet providers.  There is also coverage of
modem and software configuration, and a brief overview of UNIX commands.  The
five chapters of part two deal with email.  Some errors start to creep in at
this point:  in the discussion of finding email addresses, the commands for the
MIT Usenet addresses mail server are said to go in the subject line (rather
than the message body) and the instructions for knowbot miss the "query"
command.  Parts three and four cover the remaining applications.  The
organization seems to loosen in this section, and there are additional errors
in commands.
 
The disk included with the book seems odd in some of the early references ("the
file NWSGROUP.TXT in the file NSWGROUP.EXE") until you realize that all but one
of the files are self-extracting compressed text files.  They are, in fact, a
very select and useful set of references and postings from the net.
 
The book contents do not deal with network applications in depth, but do aim at
a very consistent audience level.  The errors in command examples, while
unfortunate, are not necessarily fatal, since most services have some sort of
help feature.  I am not, personally, a great fan of "moron" books, but Kent's
work does deserve consideration as an introductory net guide, particularly for
those without other resources for finding and setting up access.
 
copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994   BKIDTINT.RVW  941013

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