<preface id="preface">

    <title>Preface</title>

    <para>

        Welcome to &TCPIUG;.

    </para>

    <para>

        This book describes you can use the telephone network to

        create a collaborative network using computers.

    </para>

    <para>

        To implement the configuration described in this book, you

        need two or more computers connected to the telephone network

        of your country by mean of modem devices. Optionally, you

        could use Ethernet devices (e.g., switches) to create local

        area networks (LANs) on both ends of each connection

        established over the telephone network for sharing information

        between them. For example, consider an infrastructure where

        you have one LAN for each province in your country and then,

        each of these LANs is connected one another to share

        information between them using the country's telephone

        network.  This infrastructure would be as expensive as a

        national telephone call would be (without counting the consume

        of electrical power required by computers, of course).

    </para>

    <para>

        To make the information of this book managable, it has been

        organized in the following parts:

    </para>

    <itemizedlist>

    <listitem>

    <para>

        <xref linkend="connectivity" /> describes how to configure

        server and client computers to transfer IP packages through

        the telephone network. This is the first step you need to

        setup in order to use the internet services described in 

        linkend="services" />.

    </para>

    </listitem>

    <listitem>

    <para>

        <xref linkend="services" /> describes how to configure server

        and client computers to exchange information using internet

        services over the telephone network. Once you complete this

        step, your collaborative network should be ready for

        production.

    </para>

    </listitem>

    <listitem>

    <para>

        <xref linkend="licenses" /> describes the lincense documents

        mentioned in this book.

    </para>

    </listitem>

    </itemizedlist>

    &preface-overview;

    &preface-docconvs;

    &preface-feedback;

</preface>