Subject: n-1-4-073.01 Book Reviews by A.M. Rutkowski (amr@sprint.com) Books on internetworking and the Internet seem to have finally achieved a real mass market appeal. In the Washington DC area, a local bookstore is actually using advertisements on a popular local radio station to sell the Internet Companion. (Of course, the book's foreward by now Vice President Gore has great appeal in a political centric environment like Washington.) A few months ago at Interop, the bookseller's fair resembled Macy's Department Store the day after Christmas with tens of thousands of books disappearing in 72 hours. Ed Kroll's Whole Earth Internet is apparently now in it's third printing in the space of three months. Clearly the Internet world is approaching mass public appeal, and the continuing diverse assortment of good books should maintain that dynamic. In contrast to several popular entry-level Internet books reviewed in the previous issue of ISOC News, the following ones are more technical and specialized in nature. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Internet System Handbook by Daniel C. Lynch & Marshall T. Rose. Publisher Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., Reading Mass., USA tel: +1 617 944 3700, tel: 800 447 2226 (USA), Email: <74230.3622@compuserve.com>. Published October 1992. 822 pages; hardcover. Price: US$ XX.00 This is THE definitive technical treatise on the Internet system and its technologies. Dan Lynch was one of the original "Internet gang." Several years ago he realized the enormous commercial potential of internetworking technologies and created the innovative Interop tradeshow-seminars that now rank among the largest in the entire telecommunication industry. At a special author's party for this book at the October 1992 Interop, Dan in a short speech filled with reveries, told how he as a young engineering student always admired the classic handbooks in the communications field; and that now that internetworking technologies have become mature and pervasive, he felt obliged to put together the classic Internet handbook. He did so by teaming with co-editor Rose - one of the most prolific and innovative young geniuses in the information industry - and calling upon what Dan calls 23 close friends who created the internetworking technology world. Each person prepared a chapter of the handbook based on his or her particular expertise. The book is divided into four basic parts: Introduction, Technologies, Infrastructure and Directions. appropriately enough, Dan begins the handbook with a brief chapter on "how it all began." Perhaps because these are the people who literally created internetworking and the Internet, most of the chapters are very comprehensive and clear. Numerous references appear at the end of most chapters, and the Handbook itself ends with a very extensive annotated bibliography. Between the beginning and the end is the most complete collection of technical and operational overview of the Internet found anywhere. Despite its relatively expansive scope, however, the Handbook remains fairly focussed on general "nuts and bolts" and provides little information on how individuals and organizations of all kinds are using internetworking technologies or the Internet, beyond Charles Catlett's chapter on evolution and future directions. Perhaps this could be the stuff of an additional handbook. Nonetheless, Dan's stated purpose of helping people understand the Internet as "a living and evolving system" to allow them to become a part of that evolutionary process, is admirably met by this Handbook. It is destined to remain the the definitive handbook in the field. --------------------------------------------------------------- TCP/IP Network Administration by Craig Hunt. Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 103 Morris Street, Suite A, Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA, Tel: +1 707 829 0515, tel: 800 998 9938 (USA) fax: +1 707 829 0104, email: . Published August 1992. 493 pages; paperback. Price US$ Part of an extensive suite of new O'Reilly books on internetworking technologies, Craig Hunt's TCP/IP Network Administration is probably the best single Unix TCP/IP system administrator's handbook in print. It is a literal "how to do it" that takes you through the basics, then walks step-by-step through getting addresses, registering names, configuring kernels and interfaces, configuring routing, DNS, network applications, mail, troubleshooting, and network security. Hunt even describes variances among different Unix systems. This book is a "must" for anyone setting up or running a Unix- based TCP/IP network. --------------------------------------------------------------- DNS and Bind in a Nutshell by Paul Albitz & Cricket Liu. Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. Published Oct 1992. 408 pages; paperback. Price US$ Another O'Reilly book for the TCP/IP system administrator, this one focusses in great detail on one particular critical network service - the Domain Name System - and its implementation on Unix systems using the Berkeley Internet Name Domain code. It provides everything an administrator would need to know about running an Internet domain. The Nutshell begins with a "how does it work?" followed by "where do I start?" and then proceeds through BIND setup, EMail MX records, configuring hosts, maintenance and growth of domains, debugging and troubleshooting. If you are setting up an Internet domain, don't proceed without this book. ------------------------------------------------------------ MH & xmh by Jerry Peek. Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. Published Sept 1992. 718 pages; paperback. Price US$ The Rand Corp. Mail Handler is one of the most popular front ends for Unix-based mail systems; which is also implemented in X-windows as xmh. They are both in the public domain and have been tweeked to perfection by such legends as Marshall T. Rose. If you are running a Unix system, MH or xmh are definitely good choices for a number of reasons - especially power and flexibility. And, if you use MH or xmh, Peek's book provides innumerable valuable insights into easily extracting all that power and flexibility. The book provides copious detail and examples for using every feature (including the undocumented ones), together with many sample scripts to provide such valuable capabilities as automatically sorting incoming mail into different reading folders by subject matter - including getting rid of junk mail. The last feature alone is definitely worth the price of the book. ------------------------------------------------------------ The Law of Electronic Commerce, EDI, Fax and E-Mail: technology, proof and liability by Benjamin Wright <73457.2362@compuserve.com>. publisher: Little, Brown and Company, tel: +1 617 227 0730, tel: 800 331 1664 (U.S.), fax: +1 617 859 0629. Publication: 1991. 464 pages + current supplement; hard cover. Price: $95 The legal community lags years behind internetworking technology and its implementation - which is probably good. On the other hand, as internets and supported applications become material in legal disputes, a body of law will emerge. This has already occurred with respect to EDI, fax, EFT, videotext, and EMail, and this is what Wright's book is about. Although a bit pricy, it does include a current supplement. In typical legal treatise fashion, the author also provides copious citations to judicial decisions or statutory provisions. This legal research alone justifies the price. The primary purpose of this book is to give readers a feel for what is significant in business settings as to risk, proof, required record keeping and controls, industry codes and liability. In business and legal settings, these are critically important considerations. There are also little nuggets tucked into this book that should provide food for thought for those interested in future legal issues. For example, Wright includes a section on "internetworking and remote plaintiffs." Rather than providing definitive answers, you are walked though various alternative analogies and legal analyses, and even provided useful insights on desired evolutionary directions of the law. Another section deals with issues on the EDI horizon. While I don't expect the next IETF to start a legal issues working group, it is probably wise to consider whether it wouldn't be advantageous for a knowledgeable intra-Internet community begin dealing with these issues. It's obvious that a nascent body of internetworking is already emerging.