The procedure of connecting to a remote computer, as an anonymous or guest user, to transfer files back to your computer. Usually, you are asked to logon using the identity "anonymous," and to use your email address as a password. (See FTP below for more information.)
Directory service for locating information throughout the Internet. Used to locate files on anonymous ftp archive sites, other online directories and resource listings.
Offers access to the "whatis" database of descriptions that include the name and a brief synopsis of the large number of public domain software, datasets and informational documents located on the Internet.
You can access Archie by email to one of these addresses:
archie@archie.au Australian server archie@archie.mcgill.ca Canada archie@archie.doc.ic.ac.uk England archie@archie.funet.fi Finland archie@archie.th-darmstadt.de Germany archie@archie.kuis.kyoto-u.ac.jp Japan archie@archie.sogang.ac.kr Korea archie@archie.nz New Zealand archie@archie.luth.se Sweden archie@archie.ncu.edu.tw Taiwan archie@archie.rutgers.edu U.S.A.
Put the word HELP in the body of your mail for instructions.
To access Archie by telnet, just turn the addresses above into telnet addresses, like in this example:
telnet://archie.funet.fi Finland
Archie is also available from the following Archie Web server page:
http://www-polisci.tamu.edu/lab/archie.htm
Email-based file transfer facility offered by some systems connected to the Internet. See Archie above.
Internet's data flows on high-speed lines called backbone lines. A high- speed line or series of connections that forms a major pathway within a network. The term is relative as a backbone in a small network will likely be much smaller than many non-backbone lines in a large network.
The amount of frequencies a device can handle. The amount of bandwidth a channel is capable of carrying tells you what kinds of communications can be carried on it. In computer-mediated communications, bandwidth is often used when talking about conference users' capacity for reading, digesting and responding to conference items.
is short for "roBot" in popular Internet language. Netters also use terms like IRC roBOTS, Software Agents, InfoBots, Intelligent Agents, World Wide Web Bots, Wanderers, and Spiders. You'll find a Bot FAQ file with many links to more information at http://www.botspot.com/faqs/. There's also interesting information at the UMBC's AgentWeb: http://www.cs.umbc.edu/agents/
A program that lets you view various Internet resources. Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer are popular browsers. Internet browsers let you follow World Wide Web hyperlinks.
For links to sites where you can retrieve most popular browser programs, click here: http://browserwatch.internet.com/browsers.html.
Software that gives your browser programs more power. Visit this page for a list of your options: http://www.tucows.com/.
Common Gateway Interface. Used by html writers to let a page communicate with other programs running on the server.
Video Conferencing over the Internet. Macintosh and Windows software plus extensive readme files are available at:
ftp://gated.cornell.edu/pub/CU-SeeMe/ http://CU-seeMe.cornell.edu/
A few lines of text that is part of an http transaction. When you retrieve data from a site using a cookie, the server transmits the cookie to your browser along with the rest of the html document requested. Your browser stores the text on your hard disk. When you later retrieve the same Web page, the cookie is transmitted back to the server. The latter may then send an updated cookie.
Mostly, cookies are means for a Web owner to gather information without bothering users, for example for retaining ordering information, tracking site navigation, and personalizing Web pages. For more information, see http://home.netscape.com/newsref/std/cookie_spec.html.
Entertaining data versions of music videos. Short graphic animations set to music that typically run for five or six minutes. Also known as Intros. See the Usenet newsgroup comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos, and try this pointer: http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/~smiley/nirvana/demos.html
See Mailing list.
Email addressing system used in networks such as Internet and BITNET. The Internet DNS consists of a hierarchical sequence of names, from the most specific to the most general (left to right), separated by dots, for example nic.ddn.mil.
Popular email system for Windows, MS-DOS and Macintosh computers. Free versions are available (from http://www.eudora.com/).
"Frequently Asked Questions" are information files about services on the Internet, and a wide range of other topics. Useful pointers to resources, and a fairly reliable source of answers that have been tested by real users.
FAQs can be found all over the Internet. Several Usenet newsgroups have one specific to their subjects. Some have several FAQs on different, pertinent subjects.
Browse Usenet's FAQs at http://mailserv.cc.kuleuven.ac.be/faq/faq.html and http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/, or retrieve them by email (see "WWW by email" in Chapter 12). You can search (and read) Usenet FAQS at
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/faqsearch.html http://faqfinder.cs.uchicago.edu/
Reference.COM (see Chapter 11) is an efficient way of keeping track of changes in important Usenet FAQs. For example, try the search term "australia/oz-net-faq" to keep track of the "Network Access in Australia FAQ."
A program that returns information about registered users on a host that is directly connected to the Internet via TCP/IP. You cannot use finger to find user addresses on BITNET or UUCP, or any other networks gatewayed to the TCP/IP Internet.
Useful before starting chats (known on the Internet as "talk"), to check your assumption of a person's email address, to learn more about a person, or to get other kinds of information.
For finger by email, send an 3mail to agora@dna.affrc.go.jp. Put the following command in the body of your mail:
send http://www.mit.edu:8001/finger?<user@site>
Replace <user@site> with your desired email address, as in
send http://www.mit.edu:8001/finger?presno@eunet.no
Finger is also being used as a general information system. For example, finger help@dir.su.oz.au for information about how to search some databases using finger. Databases include Archie, Internet, Newsgroups, and Postcodes (Australian Postcodes).
Finger to normg@halcyon.halcyon.com for weekly U.S. TV ratings according to the Nielsen rating system, and to solar@xi.uleth.ca for 24-hour solar x-ray flare activity reports.
A FAQ file: http://www.citilink.com/~kae/faq/resources/finger.html.
Method used by several organizations to protect users from the "unsecure" network, and disallow unwanted logins or file transfers from the Internet. An Internet site will be denied a connection if an attempt is made to login to the firewall server.
Users behind a firewall can get to servers on the Internet. They can use WWW, Gopher, FTP, and TELNET, but cannot supply resources through these protocols to people outside the company.
Check the Firewalls FAQ (http://www.bredex.de/EN/bredex/infos/start.html) for definitions, justifications, what firewalls can/cannot do, virus, and other interesting links.
A program for sending and receiving files to and from a remote computer to your local host. Lets you connect to many remote computers, as an anonymous or guest user, to transfer files back to your computer. Lets you list file directories on foreign systems, get or retrieve files. You cannot browse menus, send email, or search databases using FTP.
The easiest is to use ftp with a Web browser like Netscape. Just feed the browser the file's location, in a format like this:
ftp://ftp.eunet.no/pub/text/online.txt.Z
The codes after the "//" show first the host name, then the directory, and finally the file name of the desired file.
Some users type ftp at their system prompt, login on the remote system, and ask for the file they want to receive. It transfers to their local host machine. (For more on this, read under "Internet" in Appendix 1.) Finally, unless their computer is directly connected to the Internet, the retrieved file must be transferred from their host machine to their PC.
Where ftp or WWW is not available, you may also use FTPMAIL (chapter 12).
File Service Protocol.
"For Your Information." A subseries of RFCs that are not technical standards or descriptions of protocols that are available from http://www.rfc-editor.org and many other sources on the Internet.
Gopher is a tool for exploring the Internet and to find a resource if you know what you want, but not where to find it. Gopher systems are menu- based in a top-level subject-oriented way, and provide a user-friendly front end to Internet resources, searches and information retrieval.
Gopher gets information from certain locations on the Internet to which it is connected, and brings the information to your computer. It can get information via other Gophers at other locations connected to yet other hosts. The Telneting or file transfer protocols are transparent to the user.
To access gopher services, run a browser program. The browser reads documents, and can fetch documents and files from other sources. Some services let you fetch gopher information by electronic mail (see Gophermail below).
"Common Questions and Answers about the Internet Gopher" are posted to the Usenet newsgroups comp.infosystems.gopher, comp.answers, and news.answers every two weeks. (See FAQ above.)
The Online World handbook's support forum files are on the gopher address login.eunet.no (URL: gopher://home.eunet.no/11/1).
Pointers to Gopher sources may be given in this form:
Type=1 Name= United States GOVERNMENT Gophers Path=1/gopher.welcome/peg/GOPHERS/gov Host=peg.cwis.uci.edu Port=7000 URL: gopher://peg.cwis.uci.edu:7000/11/gopher.welcome/peg/GOPHERS/gov
If your browser cannot use this information directly, try to deduct the information from the URL line. In this example, it translates into 'gopher peg.cwis.uci.edu 7000' , select peg / gophers/ gov.
If the gopher command is not available on your system, then you may telnet to the gopher site, and login as 'gopher' or 'info'.
The gophers of the world, sorted by country, are at
URL: gopher://liberty.uc.wlu.edu/11/gophers/other
Also, see Veronica below.
To use Gopher by electronic mail. Messages containing menus and gopher link information are mailed you in response to your requests. You reply to these messages and show which menu items you want. Lets you use the Gopher without having a direct "live" Internet network connection.
Send a message to one of the following addresses for more information:
gophermail@cr-df.rnp.br (Brazil) gomail@ncc.go.jp (Japan) gopher@dsv.su.se (Sweden)
If you send a blank message, a help screen will be returned to you.
GopherMail's options include:
* Requesting the Gopher menu for a specific host name,
* Message splitting after a certain file size (for those with a size
limit on email messages),
* Re-using links to selected gopher menus by saving them in a local
"Bookmarks" file.
Binary and Sound Files are sent as uuencoded files.
To perform a search, select that menu item with an "x" and supply your search words in the Subject: of your next reply. Note that your search criteria can be a single word or a boolean expression such as:
computers and (macintosh or ms-dos)
An Internet document created with HTML (the HyperText Markup Language) often containing graphics, text, and hypertext links to other "pages."
A modular, applet-aware, extensible World-Wide Web browser written in the Java programming language.
The HyperText Markup Language is used to compose WWW pages. Sources for information (also, see "WWW" below):
HTML FAQ for beginners: http://www.cwru.edu/help/introHTML/toc.html
Intermediate HTML FAQ: http://www.cwru.edu/help/interHTML/toc.html
HTML standards: http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/
Compendium of HTML Elements:
http://www.netspot.city.unisa.edu.au/html/compendium/html.htm
Hypertext Transfer Protocol. Hypertext is text with pointers to other text. Thus, hypertext is a term used of linking related information.
Some information providers on the Internet run programs that will let you access hypertext. Examples: Lynx, Mosaic.
You use a special HTTP browser program to access the information. Examples: Netscape, Xmosaic.
Internet Mail Access Protocol. The up-and-coming Internet email server protocol, offer easier administration and more power than the old POP (Post Office Protocol). It let you remotely manipulate your mailbox on the mail host without having to retrieve it to your local PC first. You can access email stored on multiple hosts and in multiple folders on one host.
Top-level country codes derived from the International Standards Organization's international standard ISO 3166. For a current list, retrieve the International E-mail FAQ. It is regularly posted to the comp.mail.misc, comp.mail.uucp, news.newusers.questions, alt.internet.services, alt.answers, comp.answers, and news.answers newsgroups (see http://www.faqs.org/faqs/mail/country-codes/).
See IP Address
The Internet standard protocol that provides a common layer over dissimilar networks, used to move packets between host computers and through gateways if necessary.
TCP/IP packets are the basic units of communication across the Internet. The information they carry includes your system's IP address, the IP address of the server you're trying to contact, and data communicated (like the contents of a World Wide Web document). Routing information is added to the packets along the way.
For more information, see http://info.internet.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc/files/rfc791.txt.
Every machine on the Internet has a unique address, called its Internet number or IP address. Usually, this address is represented by four numbers joined by periods ('.'), like 129.133.10.10.
The first two or three pieces represent the network that the system is on, called its subnet. For example, all the computers for Wesleyan University in the U.S.A. are in the subnet 129.133, while the number in the previous paragraph represents a full address to one of the university's computers.
For technical background information, se http://www.eu.org/info.html (Technical information on the DNS links).
An organization that gives customers access to the Internet via the provider's computers and connections. (See Appendix 7.)
Internet Relay Chat is a multi-user, multi-channel chatting network. It allows people all over the world to talk to one another in real-time.
Each IRC user has a nickname they use. All communication with another user is either by nickname or by the channel that they or you are on. It requires that you use a service that has a direct connection to Internet.
A FAQ file, "IRC Frequently Asked Questions," is regularly posted to the alt.irc newsgroup. On the World Wide Web, the most comprehensive IRC help resource is at http://www.irchelp.org/.
Internet Talk Radio. For general information (a FAQ) about the Internet Multicasting Service radio programs, send email to info@radio.com.
A list of archive sites that make the Internet Talk Radio sound files accessible via anonymous FTP is irregularly posted to the following newsgroups: alt.internet.talk-radio, alt.radio.internet, alt.answers, news.answers.
To access Internet Talk Radio in World Wide Web (WWW):
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/radio/radio.html
Experimental directory services using intelligent computer programs that automate the search and gathering of data from distributed databases. The concept behind the Knowbot is that it is supposed to be a Knowledge Robot - - something that goes hunting for information on the Internet. Telnet to telnet://info.cnri.reston.va.us:185.
Free Unix operation system clone for 80386/80486 computers. The "Linux Documents Explained for Newbies" document is regularly posted to the comp.os.linux newsgroup. Check this file library for more:
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/
Start with the current version of the Linux FAQ.
An automated mailing list distribution system similar to the LISTSERV program (see below). To subscribe to a LISTPROC list, send an email containing the following type of command in the body of your mail
SUBSCRIBE <list name> Your name
An automated mailing list distribution system enabling online discussions of technical and nontechnical issues conducted by electronic mail throughout the Internet. The LISTSERV program was originally designed for the BITNET/EARN networks.
Usually, you subscribe to a LISTSERV mailing list by using the command
SUBSCRIBE <list name> <your name>
Example: If your name is Oleg Moskwa, and the list name is KIDLINK, send an email to the LISTSERV address above with the following command in the body of your text:
SUBSCRIBE KIDLINK Oleg Moskwa
Note: Some LISTSERVs will reply by sending you a request to confirm the subscription by replying with an OK and a unique number. After 48 hours (this can vary) the request is dropped, and the user will have to start over. While this may seem like a hassle, it is really in your interest. The confirmation system prevents others from subscribing you onto lists pretending to be you.
Usually, you can get off a LISTSERV mailing list by using the command SIGNOFF <list name>, as in
SIGNOFF KIDLINK
Important: All subscription commands must be sent to the LISTSERV address, and not to the mailing list itself. If you send it to the mailing list's address, the LISTSERV will forward your mail to all subscribers, and nothing may happen.
To temporarily turn off mail, use the command
SET <LISTNAME> NOMAIL
Other mailing list programs exist. Some are using the Unix readnews or rn facility. Others are called MajorDomo and LISTPROC. Commands differ. On some lists, you must use "UNSUBSCRIBE <LISTNAME>" rather than SIGNOFF.
Some may require that you ask for permission to join. A central moderator may review your contributions before mailing, or use them to compile a periodic "digest" for subscribers.
Example: To subscribe to non LISTSERV mailing lists you may have to send an email message to LIST-REQUEST@ADDRESS, where "list" is the name of the mailing list and "address" is the moderator's e-mail address, asking to be added to the list.
If you don't have a TCP/IP connection to an Internet provider, the easiest way to access the World Wide Web is through Lynx. This text-only based browser works on any VT100 (ASCII) emulating terminal program using full screen, arrow keys, highlighting, and can be found on almost any Internet host.
Set your communications software to vt-100, dial up, logon, and type "lynx" to see if it is available. If not, try telnet to ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu (telnet://ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu). At the login prompt, enter www and press return to access a Lynx browser. Online help is available. Note: You can not use this service to access a random Web address!
If Lynx is available on your local computer, just type "g" for go, and then type the URL of the document you want. Type "h" for help.
Even if you have a TCP/IP connection, you may find Lynx faster than most Windows-based browsers for some applications. It provides fast navigation of cross-linked hypertext documents (minus multimedia) over a low-speed dial-up connection. You can even use it with a 2,400 bits/s modem.
Newer versions of the program have extensive HTML 3.2 support, supports image-maps and frames. Retrieve it from http://lynx.browser.org/.
A program functioning like a LISTSERV. For more information about the Mailbase at Newcastle University (England), send email to MAILBASE@MAILBASE.AC.UK containing the following commands:
help (for a general help file) send mailbase user-guide (for a User Guide) lists (for a list of available forums)
This mailbase managed 403 mailing lists in July 1993.
A possibly moderated discussion group on the Internet, distributed via email from a central computer maintaining the list of people involved in the discussion.
Anyone can send a message to a single mailing list address. The message is "reflected" to everyone on the list of addresses. The members of that list can respond, and the responses are reflected, forming a discussion group.
Think of mailing lists as magazines - you subscribe and unsubscribe as your needs and interests change. For more information, including basic commands for subscriptions, and common software used to support the mailing lists, try http://www.webcom.com/impulse/list.html.
For a list of organizations prepared to host a mailing list for you, check http://www.catalog.com/vivian/mailing-list-providers.html
is another program that organizes mailing lists. Commands for subscribing and unsubscribing are similar to those used with a LISTSERV except that the name is not given at the end of the subscription line. Further, rather than sending e-mail to LISTSERV at the site that houses the list, send to majordomo@csn.org.
For a list of mailing lists served by this Majordomo server, send the command 'lists' in the body of your email message. Add the command 'help' on the next line for a short help file.
The Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions is a specification that offers a way to interchange text in languages with different character sets, and multi-media email among many different computer systems that use Internet mail standards.
MIME lets you create and read email messages containing these things:
MIME supports several pre-defined types of non-textual message contents, such as 8-bit 8000Hz-sampled mu-LAW audio, GIF image files, and PostScript programs. It also permits you to define your own types of message parts.
For details, check ftp://ftp.eunet.be/pub/documents/faq/mail/mime-faq/, http://info.internet.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc/files/rfc1341.txt, and the comp.mail.mime newsgroup.
Note: A MIME message received by someone on a host without MIME installed, may be encoded in a binary format (BASE64) and be impossible to read. If you have this problem, try the small free utility that is available through the TOW archive. Send GET TOW.MASTER (as explained in the preface of the book) for retrieval instructions and file name.
Term used about one or several hosts on the Internet that maintain a complete copy ("mirror") of selected contents from another host on the net.
gives point-and-click access to the World Wide Web over a SLIP or TCP/IP connection to the Internet. The system runs on X Windows, the Macintosh, and Microsoft Windows, and has integrated transparent access to other Internet services, ranging from FTP to WAIS to Gopher.
Mosaic can display hypertext and hypermedia documents in a variety of fonts and styles. It has support for sounds, movies, international characters,
See: Usenet.
Term used for online conferences on Usenet. See Appendix 1 for more.
Network Information Center. An organization that provides users with information about services provided by the Internet network.
Usenet netnews are being distributed globally through local servers, called NNTP servers. You should use a local server. if available, for higher speed. Reading programs, like WinVN and Netscape, require that you put the address of a NNTP server in the configuration file. Netscape example:
NNTP_Server=nntp-oslo.uninett.no
NNTP (Network News Transport Protocol) is an extension of the TCP/IP protocol that describes how newsgroup messages are transported between compatible servers.
Lists of free NNTP servers: http://home.eunet.no/~kjetilm/news.htm and http://www.krusty.net/usenet.shtml.
A program to test a network connection on the Internet. Used to check if a connection to another host is available, when your email seems not to reach a receiver.
Ping sends a message (an ICMP echo request packet) to a specified host, and waits for a response. It reports success or failure and statistics about its operation. It gives you the time taken for your packets to travel across the network too.
On the Internet, the person responsible for handling electronic mail problems, answering queries about users, and other related work at a site.
Internet's Post Office Protocol version 3.0. In the setup of your Internet mail client application, the IP address of the POP3 server is pointing at the host receiving our email.
Point-to-Point Protocol. A serial communications protocol for connecting to the Internet by direct or dial-up lines. PPP systems can receive and transfer files without having to use the intermediate host as a transfer and rest stop. It is generally considered to be superior to SLIP, because it features error detection, data compression, and other elements of communications protocols not included in SLIP.
A FAQ is posted to the comp.protocols.ppp, news.answers, and comp.answers on a weekly basis. A must for those interested in connecting to Internet via serial lines.
enables individual dial-up users of Unix "shell" accounts to use programs that ordinarily require a direct SLIP connection to the Internet. You can use applications like Mosaic and Eudora if your shell account is set up with pseudo-SLIP software.
There are several systems on the net. SLiRP is my favorite. Use FTP search (http://ftpsearch.ntnu.no/) to locate a copy of the program on the Internet, and to find out if it works on your host.
Software tool that supports transmissions of real-time, live or prerecorded audio. You can get satisfactory performance using a 14.400 bits/s modem. (Internet Talk Radio: http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/radio/radio.html. RealAudio: http://www.realaudio.com.) The client software is free.
You can hook up to the net, link to an Internet rock-n-roll station (like http://www.netradio.net/), set it to play, and then switch to your word processor for some real work while you listen. RadioTower Control Center (http://www.radiotower.com/) offers links to radio stations around the world.
The Internet's Request for Comments document series. Working notes of the Internet research and development community. A document in this series may be on essentially any topic related to computer communication, and may be anything from a meeting report to the specification of a standard.
Note: Once a document is assigned an RFC number and published that RFC is never revised or re-issued with the same number. There is never a question of having the most recent version of a particular RFC. It is therefore important to make sure you have the most recent RFC on a given topic!
You can retrieve most RFC texts at http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc.html, and search RFC documents at http://www.csl.sony.co.jp/rfc/index.html.
maintains a large collection of shareware, freeware and public domain programs for MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, and Windows 95. Simtel.Net can be accessed at http://www.simtel.net/simtel.net/
The collection is mirrored (regularly copied) to hosts around the world. Retrieving files from a mirror host may be faster than taking them from the host. For a current list of ftp mirror sites, retrieve this file http://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/00_info/mirrors.txt.
Simtel.Net files are available by email from ftpmail@wcarchive.cdrom.com. To receive instructions send mail to the server with help in the body of your message.
Consider subscribing to the MS-News-Digest (one-way) information service to receive announcements about new additions to their MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, and Windows 95 collections. Subscribe by email to listserv@Simtel.Net. Put "add MS-NEWS-DIGEST" in the body of your message.
Serial Line Internet Protocol. A method for connecting to the Internet. SLIP systems can receive and transfer IP packets over a serial link, such as a dial-up or private telephone line.
IP (the Internet Protocol) is the most important of the protocols on which the Internet is based. It allows a packet to traverse multiple networks on the way to its final destination.
There's a help file called
The "Personal Internet Access Using SLIP or PPP: How You Use It, How It Works" text is at http://www.warehouse.net/warehouse/slip-ppp.html. At http://ftp.io.com/pub/io/slip-ppp/linux/ppp-client-howto.txt, you'll find "PPP-Client MINI-HOWTO."
See "Pseudo-SLIP" above.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. The Internet standard protocol for transferring electronic mail messages from one computer to another. SMTP specifies how two mail systems interact and the format of control messages they exchange to transfer mail.
SMTP mail servers do not authenticate the users when sending mail. Therefore, you can use any SMTP relay host to have your mail sent.
A command on the Internet, which may remind of IRC, but is a single link between two parties only.
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. Communications protocols that internetwork dissimilar systems connected to the Internet. TCP/IP supports services such as remote login (telnet), file transfer (FTP), mail (SMTP and POP).
An old FAQ is available at:
http://www-iso8859-5.stack.net/pages/faqs/tcpip/tcpipfaq.html
You should also take a look at
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/internet/tcp-ip
A program on the Internet that allows you to execute commands on remote computers as though you were logged in locally. You can browse menus, read text files, use gopher services, and search online databases. Sometimes, you can join live, interactive games and chat with other callers. Usually, you cannot download files or list file directories.
To set up a telnet connection, you need to know the name of the computer site you want to access and have a valid user name and password for that site.
The site's name can be in words, like "VM1.NODAK.EDU," or a numeric address, like "134.129.111.1". Some services require that you connect to a specific "port" on the remote system. Enter the port number, if there is one, after the Internet address.
Some telnet sites allow for guest logins. Guest accounts typically are restricted to the types of actions they can perform during a session. Although your telnet session is actually running software directly on the site's telnet computer, you will be running a program that prevents you from accessing the general capabilities of that computer. Once you are connected to a telnet site, you will often see a menu-driven system which is under the control of the telnet site, and guides you through the actions you may perform at that site.
Note: If you get a return message saying that the host was unknown or unavailable, first check if your address syntax was correct. If it is, try later. Also, your telnet address may have changed.
Another common use of telnet is for users to be able to log into their computers from remote locations. In this case, users enter their own user names and passwords and, therefore, have the same user privileges they would have when logged in without using telnet.
Accessing commercial services like CompuServe via telnet gives you the convenience and time savings of not having to log off and on as you move from one host system to another. There is normally no real time cost advantage, unless your location is closer to an Internet node than any of these services' regular access point.
Telnet is not available to users who have email only access to the Internet.
A Universal Resource Locator is the address of any multimedia resource on the Internet. A sort of standardized description of the location of a given network resource, and the protocol used to access the resource.
A URL may point to a WWW page file (an HTML file), a GIF image, an MPEG movie, an AU sound file, a ftp file or directory of files, a gopher menu, a Usenet news group, a telnet port, and so on. URLs identify the type and location of network and local resources.
Many users with interactive connection to the Internet, use remote network resources through local programs. These programs are called local clients, and there are such programs for anonymous ftp, irc, Mosaic, WWW, and more.
The local clients programs often require a terse, machine readable resource addressing format, called "Universal Resource Locater" (URL). It is a draft standard for specifying an object on the Internet, such as a file or newsgroup.
Example using WWW: The URL format resource address is
http://home.eunet.no/~presno/index.html
This tells us:
the tool: http (see above) the host: login.eunet.no the path: /~presno/index.html
The first part of the URL, before the colon, specifies the access method. The part of the URL after the colon is interpreted specific to the access method. In general, two slashes after the colon show a machine name (machine:port is also valid).
A Gopher example: URL uses the following
gopher://nutmeg.ukc.ac.uk/archive/uunet/archive/doc/obi
/USG/Health.Care.Security.Plan/report/forward.txt
The URL tells us:
the tool: gopher
the host: nutmeg.ukc.ac.uk
the path: archive/uunet/archive/doc/obi/USG
/Health.Care.Security.Plan/report
the file: forward.txt
A ftp example, showing site, directory, and file name:
ftp://ftp.rpi.edu/pub/communications/internet-cmc.html
A telnet example:
telnet://database.carl.org/ The general format is: telnet://[<user>@]<host>[:port]
A newsgroup example:
news:alt.bbs
A file example, showing site, directory, and file name:
file://localhost/mysub/mypage.html
A global bulletin board, of sorts, in which millions of people exchange public information on every conceivable topic. For more information, see Appendix 1.
See Appendix 1.
A service on the Internet. Maintains an index of titles of gopher items, and provides keyword searches of those titles. The result of a search is a set of gopher-type data items, returned to the user as a gopher menu. The user can access any of these data items by selecting from the returned menu.
Example: gopher://nysernet.org/11/Search%20the%20Internet. Select Veronica alternatives from the list.
A FAQ is available at gopher://futique.scs.unr.edu/11/veronica, as well as the choice "Search ALL of Gopherspace (5000+ gophers) using Veronica."
Veronica is also available by email (using GopherMail. See above).
Virtual Memory System. A multiuser, multitasking, virtual memory operating system for the VAX series from Digital Equipment.
Internet VoiceChat is a program which allows live, two-way voice communication between two users over the Internet. Features such as caller screening, an answering machine, and caller history are all included in the software.
is a distributed text-searching system. It is a kind of indexed online search tool to locate items based on content - usually keyword text searches. It is a powerful tool for concurrent searches of large databases and/or newsgroups on the Internet. First, WAIS lets you search for relevant databases, and then for information within them.
If the Web and Gopher are like looking in the contents of a book to determine what chapters to read, then WAIS may be said to be like looking at a book's index to find a particular subject or topic to read about.
The information that you retrieve can be practically anything, from text to sound to images to whatever you can think up. The information can exist anywhere and on many different computer systems. The WAIS protocol is an extension of the ANSI Z39.50 information retrieval protocol. (WAIS is pronounced "ways")
Example: http://www.ub2.lu.se/auto_new/auto_39.html. This Web page lets you search several WAIS databases in Religion, Theology.
Examples: telnet://quake.think.com, and telnet://info.funet.fi. Another option is telnet://sunsite.unc.edu. Login as "swais."
WAIS can also be searched by mail. For instructions, send email to waismail@sunsite.unc.edu with the word 'help' in the body of your mail.
There is a WWW content router for WAIS at
URL: http://www-psrg.lcs.mit.edu/content-router.html
The content router provides query routing to over 500 WAIS servers (1994). It is based on content labels which are constructed from WAIS source and catalog files. The router also provides query refinement that helps a user formulate meaningful queries. When the user specifies a query term, the content router suggests other terms that are related to the query. When the relevant WAIS servers are chosen, the router searches them in parallel.
A FAQ about WAIS is posted monthly to the comp.infosystems.wais newsgroup.
allows uncapitalized Boolean searching with any combination of and/or/not, but no parenthesis. With freeWAIS, you _can_ search for "dogs and cats." It also adds truncation, using "*". This lets you easily search for plurals and root words, like "advertis*".
Usenet newsgroup: comp.infosystems.wais
Routers are the pathfinders of the Internet. Your stream of packets may pass through large numbers of routers before they reach their destination.
See Archie.
are also called Browser Message Boards. They are conference systems using Web technology. Users must visit a particular website for each web forum to read messages from others and post their own.
See http://bbs.augsburg.edu/~schwartz/ebbs.html for a list of BBS Sites on the Internet, including Web browser message boards. Several Web forums are indexed at Reference.COM.
An Internet program that lets users query a database of people and other Internet entities, such as domains, networks, and hosts, kept at the NIC (see above).
For example, Whois lets you scan through a registry of researchers in the network field to find an Internet address, if you have only the last name or part of it. It will give you the person's company name, address, phone number, and email address. It had around 70,000 listings in December 1992.
The Windows Socket standard. An application programming interface (API) designed to let Windows applications (such as a Web browser) run over a TCP/IP network.
Requires a direct connection to the Internet, or access to a SLIP, pseudo- SLIP, or PPP server. With Winsock, you can simultaneously run several applications that make use of the Internet.
There is a fine introduction to Winsock in the alt.winsock FAQ, available at http://www.well.com/user/nac/alt-winsock-faq.html. The Winsock Application FAQ can be retrieved by email to info@LCS.com, Subject: FAQ.
For more information, check out the newsgroup comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc and alt.winsock.
A global information service, much like Gopher, that provides top level access down to various documents, lists, databases, and services. This includes resources such as WAIS, FTP, and Gopher.
To access the Web, you run a browser program. The browser reads documents, and can fetch documents and files from other sources. For a comparative list of Graphics Web browsers, go to WWW Servers Comparison Chart page at http://webcompare.internet.com/. For DOS based Web browsers and tools, see http://www.fdisk.com/doslynx/.
The Scout Toolkit page (http://wwwscout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/toolkit/) helps users identify the network tools most appropriate for their needs. Netscape and Microsoft Explorer are not the only browser programs that will let you use WWW. Lynx is an attractive alternative for dial-up users (see above).
Web pages can be retrieved by electronic mail (Chapter 12). These services are mostly for retrieval of text. They generally cannot retrieve large files containing graphics, sound, or other types of binary files.
For comprehensive information about WWW, start with http://www.w3.org. A Word Wide Web Frequently Asked Questions file about WWW is available at http://sunsite.unc.edu/boutell/faq/wwwfaq.txt, while updates are posted to news.answers, comp.infosystems.gopher, comp.infosystems.wais and alt.hypertext.
Netcraft (at http://www.netcraft.com/Survey/) counts the number of hosts providing a Web service (http service) on computers connected to Internet. Here's some figures showing the growth:
Year Month # of Web sites 1995 August 18,957 1996 August 342,081 1997 August 1,269,800 1998 August 2,807,588
For a list of mailing lists and Usenet News groups related to WWW, visit http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ucs/WWW/WWW_mailing_lists.html.
The Virtual Library of WWW Development (http://www.stars.com/Vlib/) is a must for Web page developers. Topics span Authoring, Annotation, CGI, Database, Forms, HTML, HTML Editors, Imagemaps, Images and Icons, Java, MIME, Perl, SGML and CyberVR to Mail, News, Protocols, Security, and much more.
A collection pointers to tools, technical documentation, and standards, both current and under development, for World Wide Web and the Internet in general, is at http://www.mcs.com/~lunde/web/aboutwww.html
Run your web pages through Bobby (http://www.cast.org/bobby/), a free web-based service that will help you make web pages accessible to people with disabilities. It also finds HTML compatibility problems that prevent pages from displaying correctly on different web browsers.
Also, make sure you visit the Best Viewed with any Browser Campaign at http://server.berkeley.edu/~cdaveb/anybrowser.html.
You may want to start with the "Internet Services FAQ" (see FAQ above).
John December's Internet-tools list contains information about network tools and information resources like Archie, Gopher, Netfind, and WWW. At http://www.december.com/net/tools/
The Multilingual Internet Glossary Project (NETGLOS) have terminology definitions in Bahasa Indonesia, Brazilian, Dutch, German, Spanish, French, Hrvatski, Hebrew, Portuguese, Norwegian, Zhongwen, English, and some other languages. At http://wwli.com/translation/netglos/netglos.html.
"Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia" is a large technical reference to the protocols that run the net. (http://www.FreeSoft.org/CIE/index.htm).