The AS/400 PC Support product is designed to permit PCs connected to an AS/400 system to have workstation capabilities. Enhanced file, print, and communication services are available to PC users connected to the AS/400 PC Support system. This book is intended to assist PC users connected to AS/400 systems by explaining the features and benefits of AS/400 PC Support. All three authors and the illustrator are IBM employees, although the book is not an IBM publication. The authors are familiar with the product, having worked with it professionally before writing this book.

AS/400 PC Support is available for both the DOS environment and the OS/2 environment. Only the DOS system for OS/400 Release 3.0 is addressed here. The two versions have many similarities, however, and OS/2 users may find this book helpful.

The book is well organized. After an introduction, four major areas address file serving, print serving, display emulation and utilities, and communications serving. In addition, the appendices provide supporting material, including relevant IBM manuals and a list of acronyms used in the text. Each of the four areas is further partitioned into topics. Part2, concerned with file serving, has chapters on shared folders, the transfer function, and distributed data management for the IBM PC. Part 3, “Print Serving,” discusses printer emulation and defining the virtual printer. Part 4, “Display Emulation and Utilities,” looks at workstation function, the 5250 session manager, the PC Support organizer, and message function. Part 5, “Communications Serving,” examines the router, how to submit remote commands, the interface between the workstation and application programs, and memory management. This organization permits the reader to use the book as a reference tool while working with AS/400 PC Support. The index is also good and would permit a user to look things up as needed. The illustrations and tables are useful.

The reader should be familiar with IBM terms to derive the most benefit from this book. Previous experience configuring equipment would also be helpful. An experienced IBM product user who wants to get going on an AS/400 system would be the ideal audience for this book. The wide range of features discussed in this text could be overwhelming for a reader looking through the book without a specific goal in mind. For the AS/400 PC Support novice with some tasks to accomplish, however, this illustrated, detailed text could quickly supplant a mountain of manuals as the one invaluable reference to have.