Little Network Book for Windows and Macintosh (Little Book Series)

The Little Networking Book is for you if you want to set up a network of Macintoshes, PCs, or both and want more than the essential procedural information. It presents everything you need to know about connecting machines but distinguishes itself from the pack by including lots of background information and casual advice. The style is friendly and welcoming, and it will appeal to anyone who's been intimidated by networking books in the past.

Once a solid foundation has been laid during an explanation of how to configure local area networks (LANs) for PCs and Macs, the authors extend their coverage to include LANs involving both kinds of computers. They structure their description of heterogeneous networks around specific tasks--explaining printer sharing, file sharing, and Internet sharing in this way. The explanation of sharing an Internet connection is particularly good. You'll find excellent sketches of all the hardware connections, as well as coverage of various gateway hardware and software.

The book discusses Windows networking under Windows 95 and 98, Mac networking under Mac OS, hubs, cabling, connectors, and Internet links. The Mac sections focus on Mac OS 8.5, but Mac OS 8.5 and Mac OS 8.6 are almost identical, and the authors include notes on various versions of Mac OS 7. --David Wall