By Ben Ezzell with Jim Blaney
San Francisco · Paris · Düsseldorf · Soest
Associate Publisher: Gary Masters
Contracts and Licensing Manager: Kristine Plachy
Acquisitions & Developmental Editor: Peter Kuhns
Editors: Marilyn Smith, LeeAnn Pickrell
Project Editors: Alison Moncrieff, Michael Tom
Technical Editor: Doug Langston
Book Designer: Catalin Dulfu
Graphic Illustrator: Andrew Benzie
Electronic Publishing Specialist: Cynthia Johnsen
Desktop Publisher: Kris Warrenburg
Production Coordinators: Katherine Cooley, Eryn L. Osterhaus
Production Assistants: Beth Moynihan, Rebecca Rider
Indexer: Matthew Spence
Companion CD: Molly Sharp and John D. Wright
Cover Designer: Design Site
Cover Illustrator/Photographer: Gregory MacNicol
Screen reproductions produced with Capture and Paint Shop Pro.
SYBEX is a registered trademark of SYBEX Inc.
Developer’s Handbook is a trademark of SYBEX Inc.
TRADEMARKS: SYBEX has attempted throughout this book to distinguish proprietary trademarks from descriptive terms by following the capitalization style used by the manufacturer.
The author and publisher have made their best efforts to prepare this book, and the content is based upon final release software whenever possible. Portions of the manuscript may be based upon pre-release versions supplied by software manufacturer(s). The author and the publisher make no representation or warranties of any kind with regard to the completeness or accuracy of the contents herein and accept no liability of any kind including but not limited to performance, merchantability, fitness for any particular purpose, or any losses or damages of any kind caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly from this book.
Copyright ©1998 SYBEX Inc., 1151 Marina Village Parkway, Alameda, CA 94501. World rights reserved. No part of this publication may be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or reproduced in any way, including but not limited to photocopy, photograph, magnetic or other record, without the prior agreement and written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Card Number: 98-84006
ISBN: 0-7821-2124-1
Manufactured in the United States of America
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Software License Agreement: Terms and Conditions
The media and/or any online materials accompanying this book that are available now or in the future contain programs and/or text files (the “Software”) to be used in connection with the book. SYBEX hereby grants to you a license to use the Software, subject to the terms that follow. Your purchase, acceptance, or use of the Software will constitute your acceptance of such terms.
The Software compilation is the property of SYBEX unless otherwise indicated and is protected by copyright to SYBEX or other copyright owner(s) as indicated in the media files (the “Owner(s)”). You are hereby granted a single-user license to use the Software for your personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, sell, distribute, publish, circulate, or commercially exploit the Software, or any portion thereof, without the written consent of SYBEX and the specific copyright owner(s) of any component software included on this media.
In the event that the Software or components include specific license requirements or end-user agreements, statements of condition, disclaimers, limitations or warranties (“End-User License”), those End-User Licenses supersede the terms and conditions herein as to that particular Software component. Your purchase, acceptance, or use of the Software will constitute your acceptance of such End-User Licenses.
By purchase, use or acceptance of the Software you further agree to comply with all export laws and regulations of the United States as such laws and regulations may exist from time to time.
Software Support
Components of the supplemental Software and any offers associated with them may be supported by the specific Owner(s) of that material but they are not supported by SYBEX. Information regarding any available support may be obtained from the Owner(s) using the information provided in the appropriate read.me files or listed elsewhere on the media.
Should the manufacturer(s) or other Owner(s) cease to offer support or decline to honor any offer, SYBEX bears no responsibility. This notice concerning support for the Software is provided for your information only. SYBEX is not the agent or principal of the Owner(s), and SYBEX is in no way responsible for providing any support for the Software, nor is it liable or responsible for any support provided, or not provided, by the Owner(s).
Warranty
SYBEX warrants the enclosed media to be free of physical defects for a period of ninety (90) days after purchase. The Software is not available from SYBEX in any other form or media than that enclosed herein or posted to www.sybex.com. If you discover a defect in the media during this warranty period, you may obtain a replacement of identical format at no charge by sending the defective media, postage prepaid, with proof of purchase to:
SYBEX Inc.
Customer Service Department
1151 Marina Village Parkway
Alameda, CA 94501
(510) 523-8233
Fax: (510) 523-2373
e-mail: info@sybex.com
WEB: HTTP://WWW.SYBEX.COM
After the 90-day period, you can obtain replacement media of identical format by sending us the defective disk, proof of purchase, and a check or money order for $10, payable to SYBEX.
Disclaimer
SYBEX makes no warranty or representation, either expressed or implied, with respect to the Software or its contents, quality, performance, merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose. In no event will SYBEX, its distributors, or dealers be liable to you or any other party for direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential, or other damages arising out of the use of or inability to use the Software or its contents even if advised of the possibility of such damage. In the event that the Software includes an online update feature, SYBEX further disclaims any obligation to provide this feature for any specific duration other than the initial posting.
The exclusion of implied warranties is not permitted by some states. Therefore, the above exclusion may not apply to you. This warranty provides you with specific legal rights; there may be other rights that you may have that vary from state to state. The pricing of the book with the Software by SYBEX reflects the allocation of risk and limitations on liability contained in this agreement of Terms and Conditions.
Shareware Distribution
This Software may contain various programs that are distributed as shareware. Copyright laws apply to both shareware and ordinary commercial software, and the copyright Owner(s) retains all rights. If you try a shareware program and continue using it, you are expected to register it. Individual programs differ on details of trial periods, registration, and payment. Please observe the requirements stated in appropriate files.
Copy Protection
The Software in whole or in part may or may not be copy-protected or encrypted. However, in all cases, reselling or redistributing these files without authorization is expressly forbidden except as specifically provided for by the Owner(s) therein.To the unsung heroes of the cyber-revolution
As anyone over 20 should be able to remember—save some who are oblivious (i.e., already brain-dead) even to an avalanche—computers have changed our world… and will continue to change our world.
For the most part, the changes are to the good, but they are also not without frustrations even for the experienced and generally expert power users. These frustrations simply go with the territory. The more complex computers become, the more potential for frustration exists.
Some years ago—at a time when those who had personal computers were not only the first on their block but often the first in their town or city—it was possible to know everything about the computer… from the details of how to troubleshoot a power regulator chip to how to rewrite the BIOS. At that time, computers held few secrets for the knowledgeable in either hardware or software. And it was even possible to know both and to know them thoroughly. But that was an earlier age—a simpler age in every respect.
Today very little is simple. Operating systems are multitasking; applications are built by teams, not individuals; and interactions—which didn’t exist in the past—are now the rule. No application stands alone, and complexity increases as the power of the number of interactions involved.
Which brings us to the unsung heroes of the cyber-revolution. They are only voices on a phone or sometimes in an e-mail note. But they are also our recourses of last resort. The faceless, unmet, but oh-so-essential tech support people who answer our calls for assistance with patience, with courtesy, and sometimes with stifled laughter. And, yes, even I occasionally must resort to such requests for assistance.
I applaud their patience and their courtesies… and, even more, their ready answers. Not that they are always right—these are mere mortals, not cyber-gods. But they are right more often than wrong and, even when wrong, are diligent in seeking the right response. They receive little credit and few thanks, yet we owe them much.
Therefore, I take this opportunity—publicly—to say thank you wholeheartedly and sincerely… and, hey, I’ll be calling, you hear?
Tip: If you would like to know a few of the things these unsung heroes put up with, visit http://www.techtales.com… where the truth is too funny to be anything else.Acknowledgments
As an author, my role in creating this book consists of expending blood, sweat, and tears to try to find, test, and explain those topics that will be most valuable to the reader. As such, I must admit to the sole responsibility for any errors found herein and confess fully to any shortcomings you may perceive in this book.
However, simply writing the book is only one part of the task of producing this volume. There are a number of other individuals who have participated in this effort.
To wit, Jim Blaney, my co-author, definitely deserves credit for his efforts in covering important topics, for which I personally lacked the experience or the opportunity to investigate and develop appropriate examples. Jim’s explanations of networking, cryptography, Internet, and security issues are valuable contributions, without which this volume would be lacking. He deserves and receives my sincere thanks for his participation.
Next, as always, a special thank you goes to Doug Langston, my tech editor, who has the valuable (however annoying) habit of raising questions that the author would probably prefer to dodge. Doug is a true Knight of the Royal Order of Nit.
Also a note of thanks to Marilyn Smith and Lee Ann Pickrell for their collective efforts at converting my pawky and sometimes disjointed prose into an intelligible and coherent whole. They are responsible in no small part for making this a readable and valuable book.
Mention also goes to Peter Kuhns for helping to put this project together in the first place and to Michael Tom (both at Sybex) for miscellaneous and often forgotten tasks. To both Peter and Michael, for their efforts in keeping a host of details out of my hair and letting me concentrate on writing, my very sincere thanks.
In addition, thanks are in order for a number of individuals whom I have not met and whose names I have not heard but whose efforts are obvious in the final product. Without their participation, you would be reading this—if at all—as a large stack of loose sheets of paper of uncertain organization. While every book is the responsibility of one person—the author—it is not the result of the efforts of a single person; preparing and publishing a book involves a host of individuals. To all of those involved, I thank you very much.
And last, to you the readers, my thanks for buying this volume, which I hope will prove valuable to you.
Ben Ezzell
And Ben, thanks to you for giving me the opportunity to work with you and to contribute to this book. Your expertise and sense of humor are noted and appreciated. I also thank Doug (for those reasons Ben mentions), Marilyn (for her speedy yet accurate editing), Peter, Michael, and the other folks at Sybex.
I also wish to thank my Mom and Dad, who gave me life, love, and an attraction to learning. Finally, I wish to thank my uncle, Duane Brummel, who helped me be a “ham,” and who first introduced me to the world of computing with his amazing home-built computers.
Jim Blaney