BKSUCINT.RVW 941007 "Success with Internet", Wyatt, 1994, 1-884133-01-0, U$29.95/C$38.95 dci@cscns.com %A Allen L. Wyatt %C 2821 High Sail Court, Las Vegas, NV 89117 %C 22 Worchester Road, Rexdale, Ontario M9W 9Z9 %D 1994 %G 1-884133-01-0 %I Jamsa Press/Wiley %O U$29.95/C$38.95 800-263-1590 800-567-4797 fax: 800-565-6802 %P 429 %S Success With ... %T "Success with Internet" While not demonstrating any significant "feel" for the Internet, this is a workmanlike and solid book as an introduction to the net. Something of a UNIX bias is evident (as well as access through Delphi), but this is quite reasonable given the majority of small Internet providers springing up. An introductory chapter gives some background, history, and a brief discussion of access options. The following three chapters, however, bog down in a supposed discussion of accessing the Internet via UNIX, MS-DOS and Macintosh computers. In reality, these chapters talk about connecting a modem to the respective systems. Much material is repeated, and for those who have already set up a modem, the content is irrelevant. Unfortunately, for those who never have installed a modem, the material is not sufficient. The brief overview of UNIX commands in chapter two is probably helpful since a very large number of hosts on the Internet use UNIX, and an understanding of the commands can be useful. Chapter five is the first real Internet material and chooses "finger" and "ping' as the two initial explorations. An unusual choice, but probably quite effective. This does provide immediate feedback and a sense that the net does work. Unfortunately, these comments may not be available to all users on all systems. The remaining chapters cover the usual tools. Two very interesting appendices list samples of telnet and ftp sites. The book also contains a "Navigating the Internet" pocket reference (not to be confused with the Gibbs and Smith book of the same name). This pamphlet does contain some helpful material, but also a lot of dross. For example, a substantial fraction of the booklet is taken up with descriptions of sending Internet mail from the various commercial services. While not outstanding, this work should be successful at teaching new users. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKSUCINT.RVW 941007 ====================== DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" 0-387-94311-0/3-540-94311-0