ArpaNet Books

I came across this book while writing "The Encyclopedia of Networking." What a great resource. I was trying to write a historical outline by referring to the RFCs written during the early years of the Internet. What a task! This book puts it all into perspective. Salus has interviewed the people involved, including Cerf and many others, and in so doing, has made a major contribution to the Internet historical archives. Never mind that it is getting a little dated. Its a great read and kept me up past midnight.

I just finished reading "Where Wizards Stay up Late," another Internet history book. It is just as good and I actually felt a little nastalgia after reading the book, as if I were there myself. I highly recommend both books if you want to learn how all this technology developed. By the way, this book reads more like a novel. The Salus book reads more like a good rendering of the RFCs. But all these writers have done their job in interviewing the historical figures.

If you want to find out how things like the Internet, Usenet and other services we take for granted were developed, there's no better book than this one. Salus gives a detailed chronology of the Internet's history and development, with interviews of the people involved and numerous excerpts from RFCs and other documents. There's even details on how the alt.* hierarchy of Usenet newsgroups was born, with a debunking of the rumor that it stands for Anarchists, Lunatics and Terrorists. A terrific book.