REVIEW: USENET - NETNEWS FOR EVERYBODY by Jenny A Fristrup  Prentice-Hall 1994

"Participate in the Social Life of the Internet" prolaims the cover of this
volume devoted entirely to USENET. It is a fine book for the beginner who
wants to learn as much about USENET and its newsgroups.  The first 38
pages are an excellent quick tutorial that explains in simplistic terms
how it works, who uses it and some of the uses you may find for it.  Also
included is an overview of USENET and a section on basic terms, conventions
and a close look at a "typical" newsgroup.  There are some basic instructions
on using some of the more popular newsreader programs like RN, TRN and TIN.

Part Two is a detailed listing of newsgroups that occupies over 200 pages
of listings, categorized with explanations of that the various groups are
about.  Frankly, this section would be of interest only to someone who has
no USENET access or just got it.  This listing is readily available, complete
with explanations, from numerous Net sources, and this would be more accurate
and up-to-date than any printed book could ever hope to be.  To be fair, 
the author has included the Alt newsgroups and other hierarchies such as
Clari, Bit and even Relcom.  

Finally, there's a brief chapter on gaining USENET access and other
information that is also readily available directly from the Net such as 
hard copy prints of several key articles from news.announce.newusers.  I 
guess there's some reason for having these articles, FAQs and so forth
available in printed form, mainly for libraries to make these essential
articles about USENET accessible to readers without Net access, but for
most of us with who can read the latest versions of these electronically
at any time, it appears that book would have limited appeal.

 


%T      USENET - NETNEWS FOR EVERYBODY
%A      Jenny A Fristrup
%I      Prentice-Hall
%C      Englewood Cliffs New Jersey
%D      1994
%O      $24.95
%G      ISBN: 0-13-123167-7 
%P      396pp, paperbound
%K      Usenet, NetNews


(C) 1995
Michael Crestohl
Nahant Massachusetts  USA
mc@shore.net

DISCLAIMER:  I have no interest, financial or otherwise, in the success or 
failure of the book or materials reviewed herewith, nor have I received any 
compensation (other than a review copy requested by me) from anyone who has.  
All opinions expressed are strictly my own.

Other Internet and Aviation book/software reviews by me can be obtained 
by anonymous FTP from:  x2ftp.oulu.fi in the /pub/books/crestohl directory.