From: karen@ora.com (Karen Lewis)
Newsgroups: comp.newprod
Subject: The Whole Internet - the O'Reilly & Assoc. guide to the Internet
Date: 25 Aug 92 15:53:36 GMT
Followup-To: poster
Organization: Motorola Computer Group, Schaumburg, IL


            The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog
                            By Ed Krol
                       O'Reilly and Associates


o 400 pages (approx); Will probably include a quickref
o $24.95; quantity discounts available
o ISBN 1-56592-025-2
o Available September 10, 1992  (available overseas in late October)
o Order from ORA directly (1-800-998-9938) or your local bookstore

"The Whole Internet" is a complete and comprehensive introduction to
the Internet for new users.  In the Nutshell tradition, it contains
"all you need to know" about the Internet to get started and to make
use of it.  The author, Ed Krol, has been around the Internet for
years, and is well-known as the author of RFC 1118, "The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Internet."  However, this book is more than an update of
the "Hitchhiker's Guide": it's a complete new work, aimed at readers who
are new to the Net; users who have been poking around the Net, but
haven't really figured out how to use it well; and even users who have
been around for a while, but want to read up on some of the newer
services that are available.

We started this project when we were asked to write a book that would
answer most of the questions that a new Internet user brings to a
network administrator.  The challenge was very frank: "If you've
succeeded, I can stick a note on my door telling users to buy this
book before bugging me with questions--and then only deal with real
problems."  We think we've succeeded.  If you're an administrator, you
can recommend this book, and watch your workload decline.  If you're a
new user, you can read this book and avoid dealing with your grumpy
admin.

Another of our goals was evangelistic: to generate interest among
people who are only vaguely familiar with the Internet.  We did this
by showing what the Network offers--most specifically, in the form of
a Resource Catalog that lists a broad range of the resources that are
out there, ranging from the Bryn Mawr Classical Reviews to Project
Hermes (law) to Not Just Cows (agriculture) and the University of
Stuttgart's wonderful online cookbook.  We chose to make this list as
broad and eclectic as possible.  It's not a list of free software
sources, for example; it's a list that anyone from a high-school
teacher to a theologian can pick up, glance at, and say "yes, that's
interesting; this Internet thing might be worthwhile."

Of course, this book offers everything that you'd expect in a book
about the Internet--a little history, how the net works, addressing,
and general background on what you're allowed to do.  We cover the
standard Internet services--telnet, ftp, mail, news, white-pages,
including "minor" applications like talk and chat.  We give advice on
what to do and what not to do: how electronic mail differs from postal
mail or a phone message, how to avoid poorly thought-out news postings
that can start seemingly endless flame wars.

But basic knowledge of the tools and etiquetter is only half the problem.
To a new user--or even to an old user--the Internet is
fairly confusing and disorganized.  Finding what you want can be like
searching for a needle in a haystack.  Not long ago, the only way to
find out about Internet resources was to keep you ear to the ground,
attend conferences, and talk to gurus.  Our Resource Catalog only
partly solves this problem: we've had to be selective, and new
resources are added daily.  Four new Internet applications--Archie,
the Gopher, WAIS, and the World-Wide Web (WWW)--provide the real
solution.  These four tools are like "reference librarians" that let
you find, with relatively little trouble, exactly what you want:

Archie  points you at files in FTP archives.  It's particularly useful
        for finding free software;
Gopher  is a general tool for accessing any Internet resource, via
        subject-oriented menus;
WAIS    is an extremely powerful tool for searching large libraries
        and collections, based on keywords;
WWW     organizes all of the Internet's resources in terms of a
        "hypertext" model.  You can move between resources by
        following "links."
To a new user, these are the tools that make the Internet worthwhile.
This is the only book we know of that covers all of these tools.

At $24.95, this book is a bargain!

CONTENTS:

1:  What Is This Book About?
2:  What is the Internet?
3:  How the Internet Works
4:  What's Allowed on the Internet
5:  Remote Login: Telnet
6:  Moving a File: FTP
7:  Electronic Mail
8:  Network News
9:  Finding Software: Archie
10: Finding Someone
11: Finding Anything: Gopher
12: Searching Libraries: WAIS
13: The World as Hypertext: WWW
14: Other Applications
15: Dealing with Problems
    Resources of the Internet
A:  Service Providers
B:  International Network Connectivity
C:  Acceptable Use
    INDEX

The Resource Catalog portion of the book will be available through the
Internet.  We haven't decided on actually how (anonymous FTP, WAIS
resource, hypertext?), so stay tuned for details.

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-- 
Karen Lewis  <karen@ora.com>
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.