BKDTCMDC.RVW 930825 CBM Books 101 Witmer Road PO Box 446 Horsham, PA 19044 215-957-4265 215-957-4287 Fax: 215-957-1050 76702.1565@compuserve.com books@propress.com "Data Communications & Networking Dictionary", Pardoe/Wenig, 1992, U$24.00 You can get data communications glossaries just about anywhere. Most makers of telecommunications equipment will give them out free. Quite a few communications related books will have a section of terminology in the appendices. These sources tend to reflect the emphasis of the book or company, and to be incomplete in other areas. Also, as the authors state in the preface, communications and networking is a rapidly expanding field, and terminology is growing apace. This book is quite recent and up to date (1992). It is also more complete than the freebies you will get from router manufacturers. Make no mistake, however: this *is* a glossary, *not* a dictionary. The entries, while many, are quite terse, and no attempt is made to look for origins, derivations or references. Sometimes the entries are simplified to the point of error. "Hamming code" is identified as error detection by redundant information: no mention is made of the fact that "redundant" bits must be deliberately encoded, and that the major purpose of Hamming code is error correction. To be fair, they are likely using redundant in the technical sense (which is included in the work). There are some definite gaps. The "Bell" modem standards are easy to find but the "V." standards are a bit more elusive. There is an entry under "V series recommendations", out of order in the "V" section, but no pointer to the actual listings. *They* are found in the "C" section--under CCITT. (So are the X series.) BITNET is listed but not Internet (although the IAB, ICMP and IP are there). This is not due to the normal "big blue" bias: DECnet is included as well. (So is Pathworks.) However, PROFS is included without any mention of, say, All-in-1. There is no entry under "notes". (There is no entry for "groupware".) There is also no entry under BBS, bulletin board or electronic bulletin board, and likewise no mention of Fidonet. By the same token there *is* an entry for CompuServe, but none for Prodigy, GEnie or others of that ilk. "Electronic mail" is listed, but not "email" (or "e-mail"). (After a while, this "spot the bias" game gets to be quite interesting. I haven't come to any final conclusion.) (Novell isn't there--but "NetWare" is.) If you don't have a data communications glossary, and need one, here's one. However, the price is a bit steep in relation to what you might get elsewhere. If you call up your friendly neighbourhood communications supplier and hint hard enough, they might give you one. On the other hand, if you *are* a communications supplier, and need promos ... copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKDTCMDC.RVW 930825 ====================== DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" (Oct. '94) Springer-Verlag