Path: news.uh.edu!barrett From: markus@core.de (Markus Illenseer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: REVIEW: Connect your Amiga! book Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.networking,comp.sys.amiga.datacomm Date: 17 Nov 1994 16:02:56 GMT Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 373 Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Distribution: world Message-ID: <3afurg$ebm@masala.cc.uh.edu> Reply-To: markus@core.de (Markus Illenseer) NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu Keywords: book, networking, modem, datacomm, commercial Originator: barrett@karazm.math.uh.edu PRODUCT NAME 'Connect your Amiga!' - A book and guide to Amiga networking. BRIEF DESCRIPTION A guide to the networking capabilities of the Amiga. This book written by Dale Larson, former Software Engineer at the networking group of Commodore, is an expedition into the cyberspace and the world at the other end of your network hardware. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Dale L. Larson, Intangible Assets Manufacturing Address: 828 Ormond Avenue Drexel Hill, PA 19026-2604 USA Telephone: (610) 853-4406 Fax: (610) 853-3733 E-mail: info@iam.com DISTRIBUTION The book should be available through any good book store. The ISBN number is 1-885876-02-5. Direct ordering from IAM is possible. In Germany the book is made available by: Hirsch&Wolf OHG Mittelstrasse 33 56564 Neuwied GERMANY Telephone: (02631) 8399 0 Fax: (02631) 8399 31 You can get the book in UK from: Almathera Systems Southerton House Boundary Business Court 92-94 Church Road Mitcham, Surrey CR4 3TD ENGLAND Telephone: (081) 687 0040 Fax: (081) 687 0490 email: almathera@cix.compulink.co.uk In Australia, contact: Matt Christou 20 Clotilde St Mt Lawley Perth, Western Australia Australia, 6050 Telephone: (09) 271 0624 email: australia@iam.com In Italy, the book is available from: Claudio Dosio Piazzale Montesquieu, 28D/7 00137 Roma Telephone: 06/82 39 80 LIST PRICE $24.95 (US). Hirsch&Wolf is selling the book for about DM 50.- in Germany. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE Eyeglasses if required, and good light. SOFTWARE The book requires profound knowledge of the English language. OCR software built-in in your brain. COPY PROTECTION None. Copying is easy but not encouraged though. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING No machine used. The author of this review tested the book himself. INSTALLATION Installs fairly easily on my bookshelf. Fits nicely in my hands whilst reading. ABOUT THIS REVIEW Ahem. You might see that the comp.sys.amiga.reviews Template for hardware and software reviews does not fit book reviews quite as well. :-) So, where to go? Let's start with a brief section about the author of the reviewed book. AUTHOR Dale Larson is a former Commodore employee. He worked a long time in the networking group and was responsible for several networking products for the Amiga. Furthermore, he designed the network layer standard SANA-II for the Amiga. Together with the networking group at Commodore, he also developed Envoy - one standard Amiga network software. Dale now works at Intangible Assets Manufacturing (IAM). His profound knowledge of networks, especially on the Amiga, is summarized in his book. THE INTENDED AUDIENCE The book is intended for beginning and intermediate users of networks in general and the Amiga in particular. It is also written for intermediate users of networks to give them more knowledge about the stuff they are using. There are many people who read the Net all the time and still don't understand what they are using and how TCP/IP, SLIP and PPP actually do work, for example. The book is for them, too. After sending an initial version of this review to Dale - asking him to check for obvious and hidden errors - we both agreed that I should state that I have decent knowledge of networks in general and of course on the Amiga. I do not declare myself an expert, though Dale supposed me to be one, but I am clearly not the guy the book was written for. Due to my participation on the international networks and personal interest in networking in general, only a few topics about specific software or backgrounds over related networks were new to me. THE BOOK I bought the book because the name 'Dale Larson' was known to me and I wanted to read about the perspectives of a Commodore insider. Alas, I must say that my hopes were only partially satisfied by this book. The book is a a short but precise expedition into the Amiga's networking possibilities. The main topic is connecting your Amiga with world-wide networks and the Internet, with BBSes, with local networks, and much more. It shows you how to connect your machine with modem to BBSes. It describes terminal programs, some of the features of BBSes, e-mail, file areas, online chats, and hints on uploading and downloading files. A chapter about LANs (Local Area Networks) tells you about basic physical connections, the required software to communicate over this hardware, and gives a small overview about internets and the used applications such as telnet, ftp and WWW. The book does not go into detail about how to set up a local network. It does, however, show you the possibilities, offer overviews of hardware and software, and give hints and tips about further references to be read if you are interested. A full and detailed chapter is dedicated to Amiga telecommunication software. This is more than a simple enumeration of available applications, as it also shows the enormous variety of the software for the Amiga. Starts with terminal emulators, goes over Fax software to network games and ends with modems. Next chapter is devoted to Amiga LANs - network hardware available for the Amiga. This includes ethernet adaptors as well as parallel port connections. The subsequent chapters are more and more complicated and detailed and gives introductions to the network software available. This of course includes AS225R2, AmiTCP and Oxxi Novell software and the Envoy system. Very good is the chapter about security and privacy using networks on your Amiga - the Amiga clearly is not a multi-user machine, and hence information about security is really important. Up to this point in the book, I must say that I had learned no new information; however, the next chapters were of value even to me. They contain information you otherwise would have to ask on networks or wouldn't even realize existed at all. Lists about vendors for Amiga computers and related third party stuff are made available, as well as lists about specific mailing lists on Internet and Usenet. Every chapter is well edited and researched. Only few of them miss the professionality required to be serious - sometimes I got the impression that either Dale has a dark and sparking humour or is not informed at all. For example who is 'Olag Brothel' he supposed to be the author of Term? [MODERATOR'S NOTE: The correct name is Olaf Barthel. - Dan] And why does he announce the A4066 to be available when no one ever saw or reported the board actually running? Also he claims that the Austrian authors of TrapFax are German; may he fall into the TrapDoor. :-) Dale Larson responded to these comments with: o "I think a spell-checker got carried away on poor Olaf's name, that or my fingers were really numb that night. Either way, my proofreaders didn't know him, so didn't catch it. It'll be corrected in the next printing along with other typos and such. I've already offered Olaf my apologies for the serious mistake. o [...] I have an A4066 here and I know other people who have ordered and received one. o [...] The address of the authors provided in the manual looked German to me, I didn't realize that it was forwarded to Austria (or maybe it says AUSTRIA in letters too big for me to read. :-)" I wonder what his spell-checker is called? Maybe "Wrong-O-Saurus" rather than thesaurus? :-) Dale's humour comes up to daylight every now and then. The entire Glossary is full of jokes. One of the best is the definition of 'Terminator' which I believe I must give you before I start with the conclusions: "Terminator: -- Usually an electronic device place at the ends of an electronic bus. [...] A T-1000 Terminator is used to eliminate carbon-based network problems (i.e. Mark Barrett)." DOCUMENTATION No documentation available. Major drawback. :-) LIKES I like the way Dale describes available network software applications for the Amiga. Not that he states that they exist, but he gives a short overview of the product and tells you his opinion about it. This should of course not be a recommendation but sure is a help to choose between the available packages. The language throughout used is easy to understand. The whole book is readable either like a novel - takes you 2 hours if you are good - or as sort of dictionary to get hints about specific problems. The way he shows a typical network session or modem session is very good and helps you to get the idea about how to communicate and deal with the resources you are about to use. Personally, I found a nice source at the end of the book in the chapter about mailing lists, vendors and recommended books. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS I still have a strange feeling about the contents of this book. It is clearly directed to the networking beginner. I myself have no further use for the book other than recommending it to beginners and intermediate users. But then again, I am not the typical reader of this book. Most of the chapters are vague and do not really explain the stuff in detail. Sometimes Dale rather describes how NOT to do something instead of clearly writing how to do it. Dale's comment on this: "It was a struggle to write. I would have liked to have explained Life, the Universe and Everything. [...] And they still ask -- all the time -- 'how do I install SLIP?' I think it is fair to say that anyone who asks that question would get a lot out of my book." I am not happy at all with the chapter 'Questions and Answers'. This is a bad joke. Questions like 'How do I connect my two Amigas?' are answered with 'Have money - get ethernet. Have no money - use floppy disks.' And the important answer about how to connect your Amiga with the world of PC begins with: 'Use Sneakernet [disks]' - in a book about networking. I suggest to Dale to rewrite this chapter completely and give more detailed hints - even beginners cannot be satisfied with the current version. The chapter about Envoy made me wonder if Dale supports piracy of Envoy because it duplicates the Envoy documentation. The chapter is a copy of (his own) guide to Envoy and shows how to set up server and client. Fortunately though he does not give any hint how to set up the network itself. This chapter clearly is used as hidden advertisement for Envoy available at IAM. Dale told me that the book is sold together with Envoy at IAM and other places. He does NOT encourage piracy of Envoy. The entire chapter about SANA-II does not satisfy my needs, but I must admit that the chapter gives a good entry for intermediate users into the world of low-level network device drivers in general. Big suggestion: write a new book Dale! One which gives valuable hints about programming Envoy, TCP/IP, SANA-II. How to set up networks from the beginning on. Make it interesting for professionals, and make it usable for everyday and special problems. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS I have read and seen several other similar books. None of them is really intended for the Amiga user, so this book is probably a valuable resource for Amiga-only users. The other books I've read do not cover all the topics Dale is writing about in his book, but those books do offer more depth and background. Remember though, that there is almost no other book available for Amiga networking, this makes comparison quite a hard task. BUGS I have found several minor typos (the glossary is not well edited) and know of some real errors, but they are probably not Dale's fault. VENDOR SUPPORT Does a book require vendor support? Actually Dale is offering quite a good support to reader of his book via email, on Usenet and phone (careful, IAM wants money when you phone them). At least he gave good support to me. :-) WARRANTY The distributor gave me no warranty. I am not supposed to burn the book. :-) CONCLUSIONS I have mixed feelings about the book - nonetheless, I can recommend it to beginners and intermediate user of Amiga networks. Even the readers of c.s.a.reviews are probably a good audience for this book! I rate the book with 4 stars out of 5. The last star can be achieved rewriting some parts of the book and by doing a major rewrite of the chapter 'Questions and Answers'. COPYRIGHT NOTICE This review represents my honest opinion. Your mileage may vary - tell me about it! If you use this review in any way - re-publishing for example, the author requests at least a copy of the used media. Special thanks to disk magazine 'Amiga Gadget' who did so in the past. Copyright 1994 Markus Illenseer. All rights reserved. You can contact the author at: Markus Illenseer Kurt Schumacherstr. 16 33615 Bielefeld GERMANY markus@core.de -- Markus Illenseer --- Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Anonymous ftp site: math.uh.edu, in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews