The Whole Internet: The Next Generation (Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog)

Explains how to deal with everyday problems on the Internet such as unsolicited e-mail and security alerts, and tells how to take advantage of new services on the Web, like buying and selling goods, trading stock, and playing games. Others areas covered include downloading and installing files, creating Web pages, banking, and esoteric and emerging technologies. A 60-page resource catalog describes a wide range of sites, plus celebrities' favorite sites. There is also a section on commercial and financial resources. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

For a snapshot of something that is mutating as quickly as the Internet, The Whole Internet: The Next Generation exhibits remarkable comprehensiveness and accuracy. It's a good panoramic shot of Web sites, Usenet newsgroups, e-mail, mailing lists, chat software, electronic commerce, and the communities that have begun to emerge around all of these.

This is the book to buy if you have a handle on certain aspects of the Internet experience--e-mail and Web surfing, for example--but want to learn what else the global network has to offer--say, Web banking or mailing-list management. The authors clearly have seen a thing or two online and are able to share their experiences entertainingly and with clarity. However, they commit the mistake of misidentifying an Amazon.com book review as a publisher's synopsis of a book.

Aside from that transgression, The Whole Internet presents detailed information on much of the Internet. In most cases, coverage explains what something (online stock trading, free homepage sites, whatever) is all about and then provides you with enough how-to information to let you start exploring on your own. Coverage ranges from the super-basic (how to surf) to the fairly complex (sharing an Internet connection among several home computers on a network). Along the way, readers get insight into buying, selling, meeting, relating, and doing most everything else on the Internet. While other books explain the first steps into the Internet community with more graphics, this one will remain useful to the newcomer long after he or she has become comfortable using the Internet. --David Wall

Topics covered: Basic Internet connectivity, Internet software, mailing lists, newsgroups, netiquette, personal information security, shopping, auctions, games, basic Web publishing with HTML, and advanced home connectivity with local area networking.