The Stand-Alone Guide To Networks
Confucius, he said, you cannot review a book without reading it from cover to cover. But, old Confucius, he lived back in the days before they conceived the Encyclopedia Brittanica. To mention just one class of books which is not meant to be read from cover to cover by an authoritative reviewer.
Another class of books meant exclusively for the `dipper is the trouble shooting manual. And the ultimate in slick trouble shooting manuals come under the Dummies brandname the series that trouble shoots everything from computers and their glitches and paradigms to sex and baby-sitting with a unique blend of humour and kiss as in keep it simple, stupid.
Each of the Dummies computer books is written by a specialist who assumes little or no previous knowledge on the part of a reluctant and wary user thoroughly confused by the explanations of nerds and geeks who think in binary code. Each conforms to the trademark pattern of highlighted tips and warnings, with attendant icons, cartoons and lists which are skippable unless specifically required.
The Dummies method may turn off the standard educationist but it is enormously popular and deservedly so, for it disseminates information in a format that is easily accessible and imposes little overload. Readers are not meant to read them from cover to cover, only to look at sections that possess immediate relevance for them.
The networking dummy is done by Doug Lowe who is a previous contributor to a score of dummy manuals and could therefore be considered a doyen of dunces. It divides into six parts The absolute basics, Build your own, The Dummies guide to network management, Cool things you can do with your own network, The part of tens (lists of ten network commandments, ten networking tricks with Windows etc) and References for real people.
One grouse Indian network virgins will have with this book is that it ignores the Unix platform with Dos emulation which is rather common in Indian offices. So, it will not give too many specific tips about a network your office is very likely to be using. It concentrates on Novell netware (common enough, but losing ground), Lantastic (rare) and Windows (increasingly popular).
However, it will teach you how to live with any network and the common problems and roadblocks that are endemic to all networks. More subtly (though subtle isnt really the Dummies style), it will enlighten you as to the uses and serious advantages of networks. It will also warn you about the commoner forms of network abuse, including anti-social habits such as jumping print queues and exchanging faulty hardware for another users without letting him know youve done it. In other words, it could double as a book of netiquette.
It also has useful information on how to pander to your network supervisors quirks and a couple of recommendations about setting up networks that ought to be read by every super. Most cogent here is the point that users on a network ought to be consulted as to their needs before you set up the network. Also, users on a running network may not know what they are doing, but dont treat them like idiots. Try to educate them instead.
The cool things you can do on your network include connecting to the internet and creating an intranet both extremely useful and fun things to do. Again, this is a section which imparts a lot of info without being overbearing or confusing. The references for real people unfortunately is restricted to Netware, Lantastic and windows commands. Which wont help Atex and Solaris/NFS pro people.
How useful would this be as a manual for network denizens? Despite the narrow range, I suspect it would be pretty useful even for people who have been using networks for a fair length of time. Most networkers dont really know, and hence, dont use a lot of the more useful features which any network possesses in greater or lesser degree. Almost all hit the panic button whenever basically trivial problems such as loose wire connections occur. This book would ensure that an enthusiastic network user hits the panic button only when necessary and will also clue the user into the special features and commands which his network super has never informed him about. It would also ensure he doesn t randomly delete everyone elses files. And the volume is reasonably priced.
This book would ensure that an enthusiastic network user hits the panic button only when necessary.