Everywhere you turn -- newspapers, magazines, broadcast media, even eavesdropping at the local coffee shop -- the news is inescapable: The nation is hooking up to the Internet. Business people who see the opportunity to publicize their products; educators reaching out to rural communities; scientific researchers who collaborate long-distance; consulting groups, church groups: Everybody's getting wired.

But getting your organization connected to the Internet is not as simple as calling the phone company for a telephone line. You have to learn about telecommunications technologies such as frame relay and ISDN, the differences among networking hardware options, and internal networking issues. You need to figure out not only which Internet service provider is best for you, but which services you really need. You'll be faced with a series of technical decisions concerning network security, routing management, and email gateways. And, you'll want to know what's the best free software out there for rounding out your investment.

Getting Connected: The Internet at 56K and Up, a comprehensive guide to dealing with these issues, explains in detail everything you need to know to make informed decisions. And it does much more. Once you've set up your Internet connection, it helps you to troubleshoot problems and introduces you to an array of Internet services, such as the World Wide Web. Tackles issues for PC, Macintosh, and UNIX platforms.

This book:

• Gives you an overview of the Internet: how it's organized, ts demographics, and legal issues.
• Introduces telecommunications technologies (atm, isdn, dedicated lines, T1 and T3, to name a few) and networking hardware (routers, dsu/csu, modems, terminal servers).
• Discusses how to assess bandwidth requirements, select an Internet service provider, and pricing.
• Explains IP and routing protocols, and describes the Doman Name Service.
• Describes how to set up an email hub using POP to support desktop and remote clients. Also covers gateways to other email systems such as cc:Mail and MS Mail.
• Introduces you to the basic Internet services: World Wide Web, gopher, WAIS, Netnews, anonymous ftp.
• Shows you how to secure your network with a firewall.
• Helps you to support remote users via slip and ppp connections.