The Internet Toolkit

Charles R. Crawford, formerly an associate professor of computer science
at York University, is a computer-programming consultant.

The first three chapters of The Internet Toolkit, which is aimed at new
users of the Net, describe the Net itself; the different types of
service providers; and some of the simpler, “lower echelon” tools
used to obtain or exchange information. Chapter 4 focuses on “higher
echelon” tools such as fax gates, which receive messages from the
Internet and send printed copies to local fax machines, and MUDs, which
allow users to engage in extended fantasy games with others on the Net.
Chapters 5, 6, and 7 deal with Internet services (including university
library catalogues), the Uncover utility (which allows keyword searches
of periodical literature from about 1991 to the present), and
connections to government and the media. The final chapter discusses
encryption, confidentiality, and censorship. Two appendixes list useful
Internet addresses; the index, which follows, is sparse.

McKie demonstrates a wide knowledge of the Internet, but at times gets
unnecessarily bogged down in detail. One listing of an Internet session,
occupying nearly four pages, consists mainly of file names, dates, and
properties. Instead of these details he should have expanded on the more
general ideas discussed in the first and last chapters, by including
specific examples of how he uses the Internet. These ideas and examples
would apply as much to the World Wide Web with its graphics and sound as
they do to the text-only Internet.