Business Services Industry

REVIEW: The Complete Idiots Guide to Internet UK

Internet Business News, Jan, 2000

The Internet is worldwide and it has so much information on it, yet so many books seem to think that the Internet starts and stops in America, with a bit of 'foreign information' inbetween.

This book sets out to look at things differently and presents a UK-centric focus. Looking at the differences between the World Wide Web and the Internet and how they came about as well as how to operate them in order to get the best possible results is handled in the form of a 'primer' and it works well as a handbook you can give to that 'Internet newbie' to help them on their way. As it has a UK-centric bias, it is also useful for those who want to get onto the Internet as there is information on ISPs and other UK-based services for them to advantage from.

Despite the amount of knowledge contained in it the book is very simple and very well explained, it is definitely a book that could be picked up and easily understood by anyone. This book has a brilliant glossary and very well done contents and index sections which allows you to find the information you need quickly. The actual layout of the book was impressive, it was well laid out with lots of tables and screen shots to give it variation and to try and keep the readers attention. Another good thing is the information boxs as they add useful information and add more interest to the text.

The actual information contained within this book is reasonably useful if explained a little patronizingly and it adds great insight into both using the net and how things were done before the invention of the Web and modern browsers.

This book's only real let down to me would probably be its biggest advantage to those it was aimed at, the non-IT literate, is that it is to simple, and in some places you often feel like it is patronizingly easy. An attached CD-ROM provides free Internet access with the ISP ic24 as well as an 'exclusive web directory' with around 1200 links.

CONCLUSION: I have to say if I was starting out on the net for the first time then I would invest in this book. A great aid for the newcomers and some useful information for those with that little bit more know-how.

Title:The Complete Idiots Guide to Internet UK (2000 edition) Author:Peter Kent and Rob Young Published (in English) by:Pearson Education Limited ISBN:0-13-086860-4 Price:GBP14.99 Reviewer:Rhys Walbyoff

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