Review: THE COMPLETE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO THE INTERNET,  Alpha Books 1994
Author: Peter Kent    paperback 388 pages     $19.95 US/$26.95 Canada
ISBN: 1-5676-414-0    includes 3-1/2" diskette

I guess it helps to have a sense of humor to appreciate the title, but
this basic entry-level book is a great way to go from no-nothing newbie
to Internaut capable of handling most Internet tasks and challanges.  

The author, Peter Kent, has done a fine job of imparting knowledge in a
somewhat entertaining fashion and this greatly helps the reader to
retain the often complicated information.  The book is aimed at
readers who have access to a UNIX-based access provider and this is 
probably the most common access today.  It is the basics!  Kent has
divided his book into five parts:

Part 1: Untangling the Wires and Getting It Running. This section is
devoted to discussions of the various types of access, finding a free
or almost free account, how to pick a provider if you have to pay, a
quick first-login tour, menus and shells and a bare-bones UNIX tutorial.

Part 2: An E-Mail Extravaganza.  The ins and outs of e-mail are covered
here.  Kent teaches how to use UNIX MAIL (the Mother of all mail programs)
addressing mail, e-mail gateways to other services and returned mail.
Also covered are advanced topics such as using aliases, mail reflectors,
sending and requesting files by e-mail and finding addresses using WHOIS
and FRED.

Part 3: Boldly Going Around the Internet.  Having learned the basic e-mail
skills, author Kent takes us on to USENET newsgroups, mailing lists,
LISTSERV and TELNET.

Part 4: Finding People, Finding Files.  New and useful skills are covered
here, such as using FTP, ARCHIE & Veronica, GOPHER, WAIS and the World-Wide 
Web. 

Part 5:  Wonderfully Useful Stuff.  Here we find a list of things to do and
places to visit, a list of service providers and freenets, WHOIS servers 
and a glossary of Internet terms delightfully titled "Speak like a Geek".

Also included is a 3-1/2" diskette containing some useful stuff - like
UUCODE.EXE (for sending files by e-mail), MAILGUID.EXE which is a text file
on how to address e-mail to various networks, a list of USENET newsgroups,
a list of publically accessible mailing lists, Scott Yanoff's list of
internet services and a lot more.  Kent recognizes the fact that most of 
these text files will be outdated by the time you see them, but he tells
us where to find the latest files on the Net.

I found Kent's book delightful to read through and I actually learned a
few things from it.  The chapters are short and to the point - information
in neat bite-sized chunks.  Despite the tongue-in-cheek title, the tone
is not insulting to the reader and its like having a friend teach you the
ropes.  Peter Kent has written a second book titled The Complete Idiot's
Next Step With the Internet and I plan on reviewing it soon.  

I liked this book - only wish I had it a few years back when I was learning
this stuff.  

(C) 1994
Michael Crestohl
mc@shore.net