The Internet Navigator

COMPUTER BOOK REVIEW  

373 words

Title: The Internet Navigator; The Essential Guide 
to Network Exploration for the Individual Dial-up;  
Paul Gilster;  ISBN: 0-471-59782-1; (Paper/hard), 
495pages, $34.95

Reviewer: A. T. Connellan,"Paul Gilster will make 
your use of Internet understandable, and that is a 
giant step for mankind." 

An Internet Navigator Without Peer

For any exploration into the unknown, a compass 
is helpful, charts and maps are useful, but an 
experienced guide who knows the country is 
indispensable. Paul Gilster is familiar with every 
backroad, nook and cranny. As our Internet 
Navigator he is without peer. 

Currently, there are at least a dozen books in the 
stores on accessing the "information highway" via 
the Internet. Unfortunately some of them are 
unintelligible or labelled for "dummies", a term 
that frankly doesn't inspire me to buy.            

I am a middle-aged man of average intelligence 
and a keen interest. Advancing out onto the Internet 
is a fascinating journey of discovery using this 
wondrous new tool for knowledge expansion. I need 
help in negotiating the Internet, and if you are like me 
this book is a recommended read. 

The Internet can be thought of as a membrane 
surrounding the earth that anyone with computer, 
modem, and access can tap into to transparently 
transmit and receive, in nanoseconds, from anywhere 
in the world, with 15 million others.  

The author shows us that electronic mail or E-mail, 
which could be called easy mail, is a low-cost gateway 
to learn our way around the Internet. On page 184 he 
adds a final note of caution on how to tailor a lowest 
cost common sense approach to our use of the Internet. 
Using that information, my youngest daughter and I kept 
tabs on each other while she was away at university at 
a fraction of the cost of "snail mail." 

Most Bulletin Board and Host Services we will encounter 
use a form of the UNIX operating system. The author 
takes sufficient time and space to give us a comfortable 
understanding of the "how to" of the system to create 
a substitute, on-line teacher. 

There are well set out chapter notes, a Bibliography, 
an Appendix of Service Providers, and a mini-glossary 
incorporated in the index that is helpful. The text is 
"easy read," with plenty of explanatory figures. The 
result is that when you are ready for a solo orbit 
around the world on the Internet, it becomes an 
enlightening tour. 

Paul Gilster will make your use of Internet understandable, 
and that is a giant step for mankind.