Syntaxes and gateways are provided for sending mail from one system to others. Access information is given for those wishing to join or research a system, and the extensive references found at the end of each chapter will be useful for further investigation. Most descriptions are of wide area networks of at least national extent or of conferencing systems with national or international clienteles, but there are some selected examples of campus, metropolitan, provincial, and regional networks. Trademarks are listed after the appendixes. This is a random access book.
Few readers are likely to read it in page order from one end to the other.
Most will dip into it for information about topics of interest. Many companies and programs are mentioned and indexed, although such mention does not imply endorsement. For those who have wondered what computer networks and conferencing systems are used for, how they are constructed, or how they are interconnected, this book is the single most comprehensive source. Users may discover here more than they knew about their own systems and will be able to see what other systems are available, as well as ways to reach some of them. The book should also be useful as a secondary textbook in a course on network protocols, illustrating how protocols have actually been used to build networks.