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Book Review

Jeff Wright

The Whole Internet Users Guide & Catalog
by Ed Krol
O'Reilly & Associates: Sebastopol, CA. 1992.

Prior to the recent flood of books on networking and electronic communications, the major source of "how to" information for users daring to set sail on the Internet was Ed Krol's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Internet (RFC 118). Krol's new book-- The Whole Internet-is much more than an improved version of Hitchhiker's Guide; it is a major new offering, and one this reviewer considers the best available handbook for users of the Internet.

This book is for serious users of the Internet: individuals who need quick and concise answers to specific questions--How can I transfer multiple files using FTP?--more general questions about network use--How do I find someone's electronic address if I don't know the specific name of their host machine?--as well as contextual information that helps users with the big picture--Why isn't there is single unified Internet user's directory? This book describes a richness about the Internet beyond the syntax of using specific communications programs (though it does that as well), it is a valuable resource for those of us who are becoming increasingly reliant on the net.

The first four chapters of the book talk about the Internet itself, discussing what it is and how it works in terms that users (in contrast to network designers or administrators) can understand, and with a style that is genuinely conversational. The fact that Krol really cares about the Internet is reflected by the fact that he dedicates a whole chapter (Chapter 4) to issues of propriety in the use of the Internet: legal, political, ethical, and security issues. Most books relegate this material to appendices or do not address the issues at all.

Chapters 5 through 8 present the majority of the "how to" material contained in the book, with many examples and superb descriptions of network use. For most readers, these chapters will be the most heavily used and re-used, particularly for those of us who use the more powerful network utilities only infrequently.

For new or less experienced users Chapters 10 through 14 open up a world of network resources that most casual users don't even know exist but which are available to everyone through internetworking. Krol provides excellent descriptions and protocols for use of such things as network news, Archie, Gopher (telnet and ftp), various whitepages servers, indexed directories and searching indexed databases, the hypertext World-Wide Web, WAIS, and much more. Guidance on dealing with problems, both hardware and software, is provided in Chapter 15. This chapter is thankfully not too technical for those of us who are more interested in resolving than understanding network communication problems.

Finally (well, not really finally), Krol provides a summary chapter (well, not really a chapter) titled Resources on the Internet, which presents a sort of "style guide" to using all of the resources presented in the previous chapters; this is extremely valuable for users wishing to expand their use of the net more effectively. Krol's discussion concludes with a delightful collection of network resources reminiscent The Whole Earth Catalog from which this book borrowed its look-and-feel.

The two overriding premises of the network are:

• individualism is honored and fostered
• the network is good and must be protected

                     Ed Krol
                     The Whole Internet

_

                      The Whole Internet

     CHAPTER 1 - What is this book about?
     CHAPTER 2 - What is the Internet?
     CHAPTER 3 - How the Internet Works?
     CHAPTER 4 - What's Allowed on the Internet?
     CHAPTER 5 - Remote Login
     CHAPTER 6 - Moving Files: FTP
     CHAPTER 7 - Electronic Mail
     CHAPTER 8 - Network News
     CHAPTER 9 - Finding Software
     CHAPTER 10 - Finding Someone
     CHAPTER 11 - Tunneling through the Internet: GOPHER
     CHAPTER 12 - Searching Indexed Databases: WAIS
     CHAPTER 13 - Hypertest Spanning the Internet: WWW
     CHAPTER 14 - Other Applications
     CHAPTER 15 - Dealing with Problems

     Resources on the Internet

     Appendix A - Getting Connected to the Internet
     Appendix A - International Network Connectivity
     Appendix A - Acceptable Use
     Glossary
     Index
     ____

_____________________________________________ The Whole Internet is a joy to read (except for the misspelling of Purdue in one of the examples!) and I found no major deficiencies (I asked Ed if he had any regrets after finishing the book, and he said that he wished that he could have included a discussion of netfind, but that it wasn't robust enough at the time). If you want a book that is likely to be the handbook for users of the net for at least the next few years, this is the book for you.

Editor's note: This book is on reserve at the Siegesmund Library in the A. A. Potter Engineering Center; ask for it at the Circulation Desk.

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