Someone faced with the task of setting up a World Wide Web site would find this book useful. The main topics are Web server installation and management, HTML, the HTTP protocol, security, Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts, and Java.

For the benefit of those new to Web topics, the author starts off with brief introductions to the Internet, TCP/IP, Internet addresses, client/server systems, sockets, and URLs. There is an extensive listing of current Web browsers, and a general explanation of how they work. Following a chapter on HTTP 1.0, there is a lengthy section on Web servers. Complete and detailed setup procedures are given for the NCSA httpd and the CERN httpd, with shorter notes about Netscape servers and Apache.

HTML is covered in both quick and dirty and reference chapters. CGI scripts have a chapter of their own, including tips on security and debugging. There is much lore on Web utilities, with many pointers to various helper applications, HTML checkers and converters, and HTML editors. Finally, there are chapters on Java and JavaScript, and the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML).

My favorite thing about the book is the many examples. If you are looking for samples of HTML, CGI scripts, or server installation procedures, this is a good book for you. The examples start at square one and advance rapidly to the expert level. Another strong point is the constant attention to security, especially insecure aspects of Web servers, CGI scripts, and browsers. There are many practical tips for making it harder to breach security.

Appropriately enough, this book has its own Web page, http://inls.ucsd.edu/y/WWWBook/. The book is so full of pointers that the reader wishes for a hypertext version.

On the negative side are an unfamiliar typographical convention (use of the logical not sign for “no line break intended here”) and staleness. As Fisher often points out, the areas covered are in a state of rapid change, and this book was probably out of date soon after it was finished in December 1995. It does, however, serve the valuable purpose of bringing together in one place almost all the information needed by a Web server practitioner.