The Little Networking Book for MacIntosh/and Windows (Little Book Series) is for you if you want to set up a network of Macintoshes, PCs, or both, and want more than the essential procedural information. It presents everything you need to know about connecting machines, but distinguishes itself from the pack by including lots of background information and casual advice. The style is friendly and welcoming, and will appeal to anyone who's been intimidated by networking books in the past.

Once a solid foundation has been laid with an explanation of how to configure local-area networks (LANs) of PCs and Macs, the authors extend their coverage to include LANs involving both kinds of computers. They structure their description of heterogeneous networks around specific tasks--they explain printer sharing, file sharing and Internet sharing in this way. The explanation of sharing an Internet connection is particularly good. You'll find excellent sketches of all the hardware connections, as well as coverage of various gateway hardware and software.

The book discusses Windows networking under Windows 95 and 98, Mac networking under Mac OS, hubs, cabling, connectors and Internet links. The Mac sections focus on Mac OS 8.5, but Mac OS 8.5 and Mac OS 8.6 are almost identical and the authors include notes on various versions of Mac OS7. --David Wall, amazon.com