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The Object-Orientation attribute indicates to what extent the author(s) of the respective book used Java the way it is meant to be used: in an object-oriented way. Good Java books, whatever their focus, enforce good object-oriented practices. Inferior books use Java as if it were C or Pascal; that is, in a procedural way. Networking applications are very good candidate applications that benefit from being designed and implemented using object-orientation, so a good Java network programming book requires a strong emphasis on object-oriented analysis, design, and programming (OOA, OOD, and OOP).

The TCP/IP attribute indicates to what extent the book gives you a thorough TCP/IP primer. Personally, I would expect such a primer in any Java networking book; yet none of the books in this review dwell much on the internals of TCP/IP. But don't let this particular oversight worry you; the whole point of Internet programming using Java is that the API lifts you to such heights of abstraction that much of the IP, UDP, and TCP protocol details disappear. If you're like me, and you still want to know how the Internet works "under the hood," then you should invest in the classic (and excellent) TCP/IP bible TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1 - The Protocols by W. Richard Stevens (Addison-Wesley).

The Multithreading attribute indicates to what extent the book uses and/or explains multithreading. Multithreading is a key ingredient in any non-trivial networking applications (especially for server-side programs).

The Streams attribute indicates to what extent the book uses and/or explains Java's java.io classes. Making heavy use of stream classes in networking applications can simplify a design and make it more flexible.