Rating: 
Summary: This book is OUTDATED.
Review: The author generously uses the methods deprecated in Jdk1.1 with a liberal assumption that Jdk1.0.2 is here to stay for a while. The best part is the book was published a while after Jdk1.1 was released. The publishers (O'Reilly) might consider changing the cover picture to a 'dinosaur'.
Rating: 
Summary: Examples don't work and explanations are poor.
Review: The introduction to the book is good, but that's where the quality ends.The examples do not compile ( currently code examples on O'Reilly site are unreachable ), so they are useless as quick and dirty sample pieces of code, that can be built upon. My major problem was that I could never understand what he was actually trying to do, so it was very hard to fix the examples. For example, an example gets the IP address for a www site. It also works for an IP on the local net. But this is not mentioned, and I would love to know why it works. Also since we are comparing host names, it would be nice to know how to determine if a host name is your localhost. This is never shown. The basic problem is that it is a Java 1.0 book that was never really updated to 1.1. This is obvious because of the amount spent discussing V1.0 issues that don't apply to V1.1. I will probably struggle with it for a bit more, and then move to something else. I feel that I could have learnt as much just by reading the class definitions.
Rating: 
Summary: In-depth API coverage
Review: The value of this book is in the depth of the coverage it gives to every topic. As opposed to the usual code fragments glued together with the necessary minimum of expository text, this book takes it's time to explain topics in detail. It's clear that in it's third revision the author has learned how to teach the Java network APIs.
Topics covered include both client and server code with sockets and UDP, non-blocking I/O, and protocol and content handlers, as well as many others. This is very in-depth, very well written with effective use of graphics. And better yet you will learn about the protocols themselves as well as the APIs.
This is an outstanding book, easily the best book, on the Java network APIs.
Rating:
Summary: Up to date, complete and thorough
Review: This book covers all the important things to know about network programming in JDK1.3 and Java2. The content and quality is how you expect it from O'Reilly books: thorough, complete, practical with clear examples, and with a good theoretic foundation. The first three chapters provide theory about basic network and web concept and explains what you can do with Java networking. A lo of very interesting things, and that motivated me to read further. Chapter 4 and 5 are about Java I/O and threads and might be redundant for Java programmers, who already know basic Java stuff. But those chapters are necessary to understand the examples in all the following chapters. Chapter 6-19 deal with all the various networking topics and Java classes that deal with URL's, Internet addresses, sockets and datagrams, protocol and content handlers, RMI and JavaMail. The organization of these last chapters is topical; in most of the times you can understand a chapter without reading the previous ones, just pick out the one that you are interested in. (Interesting chapter about parsing HTML with JEditorPane, Swing has some unexpected applications!) I think the author gave a complete and thorough coverage of all the necessary topics. The author does not stray from its topics, is sometimes a bit dry in his explanations, and gives some important side information, e.g. about security aspects of the different Java versions in regards to RMI. Take in mind that this is the second edition from August 2000, updated to Java2, with some 200 or more extra pages, and we can use this book for the next couple of years.
Rating:
Summary: A classic O'Reilly publication - great content and pitch
Review: This book follows in the great tradition of excellence from the O'Reilly stable; as well as having great content, it's very *readable* - and has plenty of examples. Filled a gap in my quest for knowledge perfectly.
Rating: 
Summary: This is a great book.
Review: This book is a bit dated (it's pushing 2 old years now), but not outdated. By that I mean that the basics it covers are still the basics you need, even if the relevant protocols and technologies are constantly expanding. The prose is clear, concise, and instructive. All of the examples are complete (albeit short) working programs. I haven't tried them all, but I have yet to have one fail. This includes running under JDK versions 1.1.3, 1.1.5, 1.1.6, 1.1.7, and 1.2. If an updated version is ever published, I will buy it, too.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent up-to-date book
Review: This book is currently the only one covering the new features of Java 2 and JDK 1.3 network programming, including very useful information on HTML display and parsing. It is very helpful to me as one who is new to Java but finds tutorials boring.
Rating:
Summary: Poor book to purchase, very out of date
Review: This book is extremely out of date, and has been superceded by the excellent Java Network Programming Second Edition, by Merlin Hughes, and published by Manning. The author of this book, posted in an earlier review "However the cover of the Manning book has a big fish, and looks suspiciously like an O'Reilly book. Don't be fooled. The real O'Reilly book has a gyroscope on the cover.". I'd have to say to potential readers not to be fooled - buy the original (and now updated) Java Network Programming 2nd Ed.
Rating:
Summary: SOLID NETWORK PROGRAMMING INTRODUCTION
Review: This book is pretty complete as far as covering the fundamentals of java network programming is concerned.However, it provides not much more information than what the first edition covered.Most of the chapters seem the same, and some have been re arranged.Manning's book covers more topics,but this book gives better explanation of the concepts like RMI etc.Overall, a good addition to the shelf,but if you already have the first edition of this book, might want to consider Manning's book instead.
Rating:
Summary: Thorough and understandable
Review: This book is useful from both the level of explaining fundamental networking concepts and as a reference. Appropriate for intermediate programmers and up. Clear language. Covers early 1.1 material.
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