From: mc@shore.net (Michael Crestohl) Subject: REVIEW: THE WHOLE INTERNET USER'S GUIDE & CATALOG, 2nd Edition Date: 15 Dec 1994 10:11:50 -0500 REVIEW: THE WHOLE INTERNET USER'S GUIDE & CATALOG, 2nd Edition Author: Ed Krol paper 543 pages $24.95 ISBN: 1-56592-063-5 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates Inc. 1994 When THE WHOLE INTERNET was published two years ago it was one of a very few "how-to" books on the Internet. At the time it was 376 pages long and was undoubtedly the "best" book on the subject. Well, since that time there have been a lot of books on the subject, particularly within the last year which saw such explosive growth in Internet use. Author Ed Krol and the editors at O'Reilly & Associates have not been resting on their laurels and have updated and expanded this classic user's guide with 167 pages of new material. THE WHOLE INTERNET covers all the basic tools and utilities that are used in navigating the Internet - TELNET, FTP, E-MAIL and USENET NEWS and news readers. It also fully covers Archie, Gopher, WAIS and the World-Wide Web in the same detail as it did in the first edition. The Second Edition makes THE WHOLE INTERNET more comprehensive than ever. Some of the additions include a look at MOSAIC (a powerful WWW browser), MIME (a multi-media mail extention) along with PINE which is a mail program that supports it and TIN a popular newsreader). Also covered are enhancements on some of the first generation tools: XARCHIE (a popular X-based ARCHIE/FTP client), VERONICA and JUGHEAD (new features of GOPHER) and SWAIS which is a line-oriented WAIS client. There's descriptions of three Internet resources: InterNIC, GNN, NETFIND and Almanac - what they are and, more important, what they're for. There's more on FTP mail servers and mailing list managers, including MAJORDOMO. Finally, the list of Internet service providers and the resource catalog are greatly expanded and updated. I most confess I'm biased towards this book - I bought it two years ago when it came out and learned a lot from it. Ed Krol lives with the tools and utilities he discusses and uses them daily. This book is for someone with some computer experience and knowledge. If you're a total newbie on the Net I would recommend a basic, beginner book such as some of titles I've reviewed here as a primer. But, once your feet are wet Ed Krol's book will provide a great source of information and reference. The 2nd edition is greatly expanded and the Internet Resource Catalog is big enough to keep you interested and surfing for years. If you already have the first edition of THE WHOLE INTERNET, Oreilly & Associates is offering a 25% discount if you want the second edition. Just contact them at their address or phone number as listed in your book. To sum up: If I could only have one Internet book THE WHOLE INTERNET USER'S GUIDE AND CATALOG, 2nd Ed. is the one I'd choose. No contest! (C) 1994 Michael Crestohl mc@shore.net