BKINMSSG.RVW   981011

"Internet Messaging", Marshall T. Rose/David Strom, 1998,
0-13-978610-4, U$44.95/C$63.00
%A   Marshall T. Rose
%A   David Strom david@strom.com
%C   One Lake St., Upper Saddle River, NJ   07458
%D   1998
%G   0-13-978610-4
%I   Prentice Hall
%O   U$44.95/C$63.00 +1-201-236-7139 fax: +1-201-236-7131
%P   307 p.
%T   "Internet Messaging: From the Desktop to the Enterprise"

Email is pretty amazing.  When I reviewed the first book I received on
email I was disappointed because it dealt strictly with internal email
for companies.  When I received the first book on Internet email I was
disappointed because it was a simplistic and limited look at this
powerful tool.  Rose and Strom have gone slightly beyond the naive
user, but I am still waiting for a really solid book on the subject.

Chapter one notes that although email is extraordinarily useful it is
increasingly subject to annoyances and management problems that make
it less effective than it might otherwise be.  The material in the
book is said to be based on twelve common problems, divided, two to a
chapter, into a matrix of three activities (receiving, sending, and
general) and two levels (desktop and enterprise).  There is a big list
of things that the book is not, although it is said to be directed at
the corporate and business email user.

Chapter two looks at the problems of handling large volumes of mail,
and also at the diagnosing of error messages.  Large numbers of
messages may arise for both legitimate (mailing list) and illegitimate
(spam) sources.  The options for handling it are presented for MS
Outlook Express 4.01, Netscape Messenger 4.04, Eudora 4.0, cc:Mail
8.1, WinCIM 3.02, and AOL's 3.0 mailer.  The information on error
messages contains a good deal of useful information, and explains
headers very thoroughly.  While the stated content of chapter three is
the creation of mailing lists and integration with other applications,
only the first of these seems to be addressed.  Again, mailing list
functions are described for a set of mailers (and the failure to
include Pegasus is very noticeable at this point).  The "integration"
seems to relate only to the creation of attachments, and the MIME
(Multipurpose Internet Message Extensions) standard.  Identity and
confidentiality do have some commonality in chapter four.  As well as
options for multiple mail identities and certificate signing, there is
a brief discussion of PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) as offered by Network
Associates and S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Messaging
Extensions).

Most of chapter five is dedicated to means to get at your mail when
you are not at your normal desk.  The material covers a lot of ground,
including some aspects of the new IMAP (Interactive Message Access
Protocol) standard.  The use of email for customer service is a minor
add-on.  Chapter six looks at LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access
Protocol) and some commercial email to fax and pager services.  I was
rather surprised at the number of available search and gateway
functions that were not mentioned.  Problems with attachments and
Internet compatibility of various gateways is reviewed in chapter
seven.  While some quite important pieces of advice are relayed other
significant bits are left out, and I was not real thrilled with the
recommendations on virus protection.

Chapter eight closes off without really saying anything except that
email is going to change as time goes on.

This book does provide the email user with some handy information and
suggestions that aren't necessarily widely known and can help make
email a more useful tool.  There is an abundance of material that can
help the user with a year or two of experience under his or her belt. 
The specificity to the six programs dealt with does limit the
advantage somewhat, although users of other systems can take hints
from the content in the text to direct their own explorations.

But I'm still waiting for the Internet email book.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998   BKINMSSG.RVW   981011