Simple, clear explanations walk you through every technology

Detailed explanations walk you through the technology.

The Internet has changed the world... and, with everything from blogs to podcasts, Internet phones to video, it’s still changing the world. Now, it’s easy to understand how it all works! This book’s big, brilliant, full-color illustrations and clear explanations make it all incredibly simple!

DISCOVER HOW THE INTERNET REALLY WORKS... IT’S AMAZINGLY EASY!

This new edition has been completely updated for today’s hottest Internet technologies, Web connections, hardware, communications and entertainment services, and much more!

•    See how the Internet can deliver any kind of information, anywhere: web pages, email, music, video, phone calls, and more!

•    Understand the most exciting new Internet technologies, from blogs and podcasting to wikis and BitTorrent

•    Discover how your connection to the Internet works... wireless, cable modem, DSL, even cellphones

•    Go behind the scenes with today’s most sophisticated websites, applications, and services

•    Protect yourself from the latest Internet dangers, including phishing, web surveillance, and wireless hacking 

Preston Gralla is the award-winning author of more than 30 books, including How the Internet Works, Complete Idiot’s Guide to Internet Privacy and Security, Complete Idiot’s Guide to Protecting Your Child Online, and How Wireless Works. He has written

frequently about security issues, computer technology, the Internet, and has been a columnist for many magazines, websites

and newspapers.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 35 Ratings

Hard to rate - it depends on the audience - 2007-01-15
Reviewer Rating:
Obviously if you are just learning about the Internet, your first choice is not going to be Tanenbaum's classic "Computer Networks". Likewise, if you are a network security professional, this book won't help you either. This book is basically a picture book with very easy to swallow pieces of accessible text between pictures. It is meant to acquaint the complete novice with the basics of the Internet. By basics I mean defining terms, what it means to connect to the Internet, and interacting with the Internet without getting your identity stolen. The illustrations are quite enlightening to beginners, but don't expect detailed instructions on how to accomplish tasks of any complexity. If you are looking for that kind of beginner's book I recommend "The Internet: The Missing Manual" by Biersdorfer, published by O'Reilly and Associates. If you have a friend or relative who is completely new to computers who just wants to know about the Internet, this will do. If they want to interact with the Internet in any meaningful way, get the Missing Manual book. I was generous and gave this book three stars because I'm not really sure it's fair to downgrade a book because I think it is too simple. That might have been its intent.

Surprisingly Helpful - 2007-01-15
Reviewer Rating:
I've been involved in writing web pages, setting up web/mail/ftp servers for about a dozen years. I was working on a problem with a fellow and had to admit that there was a point I didn't understand. He reached up and pulled down this book and opened it to the section on security - Part 9 : Protecting Yourself on the Internet. Here in a very few pages the Governments Carnivore (FBI) and Echelon (NSA) programs were discussed. There wasn't much on the details, but it explains what the Government is doing to monitor and track e-mails. Carnivore has, of course, been shut down.

Each item being discussed only gets a page or two, and those pages are mostly illustration. But this makes it easy to understand. If you want to know more then you can go to more advanced books, or of course search the web. [Wikipedia has an entry -- Carnivore (FBI)]

On the whole a surprising amount of information. It's aimed mostly at beginners, but there are some things here that I believe most professionals would find interesting.

buy something else. this has dated and wrong info, riddled with errors, worse than useless - 2009-09-07
Reviewer Rating:
The idea behind this book and series is great. I wish it delivered. The book as published is the quality of a first draft of a high school project.Why do I say this?
1. The information is out of date by 6+ years from the 2007 publishing date. Six years out of date in the internet world is ancient history.
2. Every page has glaring errors that should have been caught in editing--steps completely out of order, text not matching header or repeating on the same page, pictures not the ones that go with the text.
3. Text on the page is inconsistent between steps like there are 4-5 writers per page that never read the others' work.
4. The text within the boxes veer between vague and wrong. A reader with knowledge on the subject can also tell where the writer is not competent on a subject and therefore the writer explains extremely vaguely in order to gloss over his/her lack of competence on even the most basic explanation of the subject.
5. The pictures are cartoons not related to the things that the text is describing at all but, rather, fanciful decorations that don't add anything conceptually or of interest to the text. I wish they would stop playing with Adobe Illustrator and improve the quality of the illustrations' content--make them informative or, at least entertaining.

Whoever is responsible for this book's quality should lose his or her job. I hope someone else makes a ninth version but scraps anything from the eighth version completely.

Just about "The Way Things Work" - 2009-06-10
Reviewer Rating:
This is really the definitive visual primer.
Not technical, but clear and concise.
Every edition has seen some refinement, and older editions actually age fairly well.

For deeper comprehension, muddle through some RFCs.
For more concise visuals, try visibone.
For everything else, look no further.

Perfect for anyone - 2008-11-23
Reviewer Rating:
This is the best book to learn about the meanings of the internet and its history. It was very easy to understand. If you are taking any computor courses this is a must. No matter what level of learning you are at this will teach you what you need to know.

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Internet/Online

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Internet/Online > Introduction/Overview