In Hands-on Internet, David Sachs and Henry Stair observe that “the Internet…has become a worldwide electronic superhighway for everyone. Magazines…declare that millions of people are on the Internet, but they don’t tell YOU how to get there and you can’t find a map.”

Each of the books in this comparative review attempts to provide its readers with a map. The map that is right for you will depend on where you are coming from. Home users configuring their personal computers for dialup access will need modems and terminal emulation packages on their map; if they are interested in file transfer, or live in a remote area, they may also need uucp packages.

Librarians or researchers will probably be accessing the Internet through an existing local area network at their place of employment. They do not need to know anything about modems, but must have a comprehensive list of currently available resource centers on their map.

An information systems manager charged with providing effective Internet access to his or her company’s employees will need to see domain-name-system details and software sources for multimedia mail handlers on his or her map.

Maps have another attribute that is pertinent in this context, and that is their useful lifetime. Some of the roadways that appeared on maps published a year ago are no longer there. So it is with some of the information resources found on the Internet a year ago. None of the books reviewed here has a solution to that problem.

Marine, Kirkpatrick, Neou, and Ward

Written by “Internet specialists at SRI,” this book is intended for beginning and intermediate users of the Internet. It starts with “Introduction to the Internet” (including a list of major networks like Bitnet and Usenet), and moves in chapter 2 to “How to Join the Internet,” where dialup email, dialup Internet protocol (IP), and network IP connections are described.

Some typical costs associated with these connection arrangements are provided in chapter 3. Cost is an important consideration for most Internet users, and not many authors bother to provide even ballpark figures in this regard.

Chapters 4 and 6 contain comprehensive lists of US and other service providers. Chapter 9 illustrates the use of some common applications. Among these are electronic mail, Internet news, and file acquisition using the file transfer protocol (ftp). Readers will also learn how the telnet protocol can be used to establish sessions with other hosts, and how archie and gopher servers on such hosts can be accessed to browse file directories and databases. Those who have wondered what WWW and WAIS mean will learn that they are acronyms for WorldWideWeb and wide area information server, respectively.

The other chapters and the appendices contain information that is both interesting and useful, such as lists of Internet organizations. A valuable bibliography and an acronym list complete the book.

Sachs and Stair

The PC user who wishes to get connected to the Internet is the target audience for this book. The authors declare that all the reader needs is a PC and a modem. It does not really matter about the modem, since a discount voucher for a Hayes modem is included in the book (along with vouchers for CERFnet, HoloNet, and World service provider access).

What makes the book especially good in terms of value for its intended readers is its inclusion of a Telix Lite communications software package executable on any DOS-based PC. This package is easily installed, up-to-date (version 1.21, April 1993), and has a good range of features, including dialing directories, multiple download protocols, multiple emulations, and script language.

An equivalent package such as ProComm Plus would cost about the same as this book, and would not include the Internet tutorial material found here.

A short preface describing dialup and LAN connections is followed by a chapter on logging in and using simple commands. Subsequent chapters lead the reader through sessions with mail, news, Usenet contributions, and mailing lists.

Chapters 6, 7, and 8 deal, respectively, with telnet, ftp, and finding things (covering archie, gopher, WAIS, and WWW). The book ends with a “Quick Reference” guide, a short bibliography, and an appendix on Telix Lite installation.

Gardner

Gardner offers an instruction book for installation and use of the uucp diskette from MKS (which comes inside its back cover) together with a one-month (three-hour) subscription to uunet and a couple of other discount vouchers. Its subtitle describes its content: email, Netnews, and file transfer with uucp. That is about all this book covers, but it is covered exceedingly well.

The reader is introduced to the Internet in chapter 1, which has some concise paragraphs on its history, protocols, addressing schemes, and some of its service providers. Subsequent chapters then guide the reader through uucp installation and configuration, electronic mail usage (using the MKS mailx command), and uucp file transfers (using uuencode via ftpmail). The section on file transfer would have been more complete if some description of the email archie facilities had been included.

Chapter 5 is devoted to Usenet news, and begins with a short section explaining that MKS news software is not included on the diskette that comes with the book, but can be obtained directly from MKS at no cost. Some cautions about selection of news items, responses, and (most important) cost are given.

Chapter 6 suggests other places where uucp can be applied; among these are retail stores (for transmission of daily sales figures) and companies that employ traveling sales representatives (for acquisition of current quotations and submission of orders). The book ends with a set of uucp reference pages and a glossary.

If you are a small-office or home user, and your telephone company or Internet service provider charges you on an hourly basis, then you should be using uucp. If you are also a DOS user, then this book is for you.

Kehoe

The third edition of this quaintly titled book is intended for “computing novices and experienced researchers.” It will not tell its readers much about Zen, nor will it tell them how to get themselves connected to the Internet. If you are the sort of person who enjoys reading about how things are done, however, then you may be fascinated by some of its content. Where else could you find out about the drink vending machine that was connected to the Internet, or learn that a “tardis” is a device that appeared in the “Doctor Who” television series?

The early chapters are entitled “Network Basics” (domain names and connection alternatives), “Electronic Mail,” and “Anonymous FTP.” The last of these contains some useful information about interactive ftp and archie commands; even the mail interface to archie gets a mention.

Subsequent chapters are about news, telnet, tools (WAIS, gopher, and so on) and commercial services (BIX, CompuServe, and the like). The appendices include some useful information on addressing mail to CompuServe, FidoNet, and other networks. The book ends with a glossary and a bibliography.

Krol

Krol is assistant director for network information services at the University of Illinois in Urbana; he is thus eminently qualified to write this second edition of the Nutshell series guide on using the Internet.

The preface promises something for every category of user, and this book’s breadth of coverage is comprehensive. But it will not really tell readers how to actually connect to the Internet; another Nutshell book [1] does that.

Readers will learn how the Internet works (chapter 3 covers addressing schemes, domain names, and so on); how to log in via telnet (chapter 5); and how to move files using interactive ftp commands (chapter 6).

Good general coverage of electronic mail is provided in chapter 7, with some details about using standard mail commands, sending mail to other networks, and using ftpmail and bitftp servers for non-interactive file retrieval. Objects other than plain text (such as images, audio recordings, and movies) can be mailed electronically if they are encoded in accordance with a specification known as the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME). The pine mailer is covered briefly as an example of a MIME-compliant mailer.

Chapter 8 is about network news and uses nn as an example of a newsreader. Chapters 9 and 10 are about finding files (using archie) and finding people, respectively; both interactive and non-interactive procedures are illustrated.

Subsequent chapters deal with more advanced interactive finders such as gopher, WAIS, and WWW. There is a short chapter on applications such as facsimile gateways, and the book ends with some appendices on available resources (including everything from aeronautics to weather maps) and service providers.

Rose

One of a series of books Rose has written on networking, this book is about the “mechanisms and techniques used to provide electronic mail in a special community called the Internet.” It is intended “to serve both as a graduate-level text and also as a professional reference.”

The book begins with the Message Handling System (MHS) model, then moves to Internet protocols and Backus-Naur form (BNF) grammar descriptions. Chapter 2 describes in some detail the mechanics of the domain name system, the whois protocol, and the finger protocol.

Chapters 3 and 4 deal with message formats and mail transport (with particular reference in the latter to the simple mail transfer protocol, SMTP). Chapter 5 is about mailbox services, and chapter 6 provides comprehensive coverage of multimedia mail.

The last two chapters deal with privacy-enhanced mail and mail gateways. There are appendices describing where documentation and MIME software can be found, a glossary, and a bibliography.

Veljkov and Hartnell

If your job(s) or your studies require you to access a tightly defined set of Internet capabilities, you may not want to buy a book that tells you everything about the Internet. You might consider instead buying one of these “Pocket Guides” that addresses your precise needs.

Similarly, if you teach various groups of students about the Internet, you might buy the entire set (available at a considerable discount on the sum of the individual costs), then recommend an appropriate volume for students in each of your classes. As might be expected, some duplication of material occurs from volume to volume.

Volume 1 illustrates telnet operations with examples of connecting to an electronic library system (CARL), and extracting information from the Federal Information Exchange (FEDEX).

Volume 2 shows how the interactive ftp commands can be used to list the contents of directories on other hosts, and to transfer both binary and text files to or from such hosts. Brief details of common filename extensions and compression formats are included.

Volume 3, entitled “Using and Navigating the Internet,” is actually about news groups and news reading (using rn as an example), and includes examples on saving and responding to news articles. It does not cover news system administration.

Volume 4, “The Internet E-mail System,” is probably of use to more people than the other books in this set. It includes details of both interactive and non-interactive finger and whois usage, so that readers can ascertain the addresses of potential correspondents. Readers are also shown how to address mail items to subscribers using FidoNet, CompuServe, and other service providers. The final chapter contains a sample UNIX mail session.

“Basic Internet Utilities” is the title of volume 5, and my guess is that it would come in second in the popularity stakes. The archie utility for locating files on other hosts is described in some detail, and there are chapters illustrating its use in interactive, email, and local-client modes. Other chapters are on using gopher servers for viewing and obtaining files, and on using the WAIS service for accessing traditional databases. The final chapter deals briefly with WorldWideWeb.

If you have to establish an Internet connection for yourself or your organization, volume 6, “Terminal Connections,” can help. It begins with some remarks about suitable IBM and Macintosh configurations, then illustrates (too briefly) Ethernet, Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP), Point-to-point Protocol (PPP), and asynchronous dialup connections. The book also lists some addresses for service providers and software sources.

Comparison

The coverage of each of the books is compared in Table 1. Items not listed (such as basic mail capabilities) are found in all of the books.

The books covered in this review are among the best currently available on using the Internet. They will satisfy the needs of readers in a variety of categories, as indicated in Table 2. All of the books are well bound, competitively priced, and reasonably free of typographical errors.

I have been an Internet user for some time, and am able to access its electronic mail, news, and non-interactive file transfer capabilities at a reasonable cost, using a range of dumb terminals, PCs, and UNIX machines. I found some of the material in Rose’s book especially appropriate to my needs, and now have some MIME software installed on my machines. However, most of those reading this review would find their own interests better served by one of the other books summarized in this review.

If you have any interest in using the Internet, you should use tables 1 and 2 to select the book that best suits your needs. Having read that book, you may then find that your needs have changed, and you can return to the tables to make another selection.