Date: Sun, 22 May 1994 22:24:22 MDT From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "The Internet Navigator" by Gilster BKINTNAV.RVW 940211 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 22 Worchester Road Rexdale, Ontario M9W 9Z9 800-263-1590 or 605 Third Avenue New York, NY 10158-0012 USA 800-263-1590 212-850-6630 Fax: 212-850-6799 jdemarra@wiley.com aponnamm@jwiley.com "The Internet Navigator", Gilster, 1993, 0-471-59782-1 73537.656@compuserve.com gilster@rock.concert.net pag@world.std.com This book is an embarrassment to me. I *think* that it's very good -- but I am at a bit of a loss as to why. By and large, this is an Internet guide like other Internet guides. A bit of an introduction and some history, then coverage of the major applications (email, ftp, telnet) and the more esoteric ones (gopher, WAIS, World Wide Web). Right from the front cover, though, Gilster avoids the "whole Internet" bias of so many guides and aligns himself with the dial-up user. There is, in fact, a whole chapter devoted to the use of email to access Internet resources; particularly useful to those on commercial online services, business "mail only" connections or Fidonet. It is, of course, very much easier to point out the flaws. Although Gilster explains "why UNIX," there is a heavy emphasis on the specific commands of mail, trn, elm and other UNIX specific programs. (In the chapter on email access to resources, Gilster switches to Compuserve: oddly appropriate, but no less limited.) While the explanation of LISTSERV is complete and helpful, the sin of sending administrative messages to the list, rather than the LISTSERV, is not emphasized. Even in the opinion chapter, a discussion of the future of the newspaper lauds Clarinet for providing syndicated material, apparently unaware that Clarinet is strictly a reseller, and is providing for no development of editorial content. In spite of minor shortcomings, however, this book has a very comfortable feel to it. The material is clear and well-written, with little attempt at the sarcasm or barbed wit of some other beginner materials. One positive factor may be the grouping of functional items together, so that archie, for example, is covered in the chapter on ftp. There is only one icon; a very helpful little ship which points out Internet accessible resources for the item under discussion. The resource guides included are not extravagantly large, and are of variable quality. The directory of Internet resources is very useful for the beginner: not exhaustive, but of high quality in terms of what *is* covered. The bibliography is more exhaustive than useful, with Gibson's fictional "Neuromancer" next to Quarterman's quite technical, "The Matrix." Overall, I highly recommend this for the beginner to the Internet. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKINTNAV.RVW 940211. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca Research into rslade@cue.bc.ca User p1@CyberStore.ca Security Canada V7K 2G6