This practical, hands-on book/CD-ROM set walks readers through the many phases of distributed computing with Java. It explains topics such as client/server computing, asynchronous messaging, and how they relate to Java. As distributed computing and Java evolve, a new model for computing is emerging. More than a mere theoretical discussion, the book reinforces Java's capabilities by providing numerous code examples and demonstrating distributed applications using Java Remote Invocation (RMI) intelligent agents and JavaBeans.