,part ,a ,zen and the ,art of the ,internet ,copyright 7c7 #aiib ,brendan ,p4 ,kehoe ,permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this guide provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies4 ,permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this booklet under the conditions for verbatim copying1 provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one4 ,permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this booklet into another language1 under the above conditions for modified versions1 except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved by the author4 ,zen and the ,art of the ,internet ,a ,beginner's ,guide to the ,internet ,first ,edition ,january #aiib by ,brendan ,p4 ,kehoe ,this is revision #a4j of ,february #b1 #aiib4 ,copyright 7c7 #aiib ,brendan ,p4 ,kehoe ,the composition of this booklet was originally started because the ,computer ,science department at ,widener ,university was in desperate need of documentation describing the capabilities of this great new ,internet link we obtained4 ,it's since grown into an effort to acquaint the reader with much of what's currently available over the ,internet4 ,aimed at the novice user1 it attempts to remain operating system neutral---little information herein is specific to ,unix1 ,,vms1 or any other environment4 ,this booklet will1 hopefully1 be usable by nearly anyone4 ,a user's session is usually offset from the rest of the paragraph1 as such3 prompt command ,the results are usually displayed here4 ,the purpose of this booklet is two-fold3 first1 it's intended to serve as a reference piece1 which someone can easily grab on the fly and look something up4 ,also1 it forms a foundation from which people can explore the vast expanse of the ,internet4 ,zen and the ,art of the ,internet doesn't spend a significant amount of time on any one point2 rather1 it provides enough for people to learn the specifics of what his or her local system offers4 ,one warning is perhaps in order---this territory we are entering can become a fantastic time-sink4 ,hours can slip by1 people can come and go1 and you'll be locked into ,cyberspace4 ,remember to do your work6 ,with that1 ,i welcome you1 the new user1 to ,the ,net4 brendancs4widener4edu ,chester1 ,,pa ,acknowledgements ,certain sections in this booklet are not my original work---rather1 they are derived from documents that were available on the ,internet and already aptly stated their areas of concentration4 ,the chapter on ,usenet is1 in large part1 made up of what's posted monthly to news4announce4newusers1 with some editing and rewriting4 ,also1 the main section on archie was derived from whatis4archie by ,peter ,deutsch of the ,mc,gill ,university ,computing ,centre4 ,it's available via anonymous ,,ftp from archie4mcgill4ca4 ,much of what's in the telnet section came from an impressive introductory document put together by ,sura,net4 ,some definitions in the one are from an excellent glossary put together by ,colorado ,state ,university4 ,this guide would not be the same without the aid of many people on ,the ,net1 and the providers of resources that are already out there4 ,i'd like to thank the folks who gave this a read-through and returned some excellent comments1 suggestions1 and criticisms1 and those who provided much-needed information on the fly4 ,glee ,willis deserves particular mention for all of his work2 this guide would have been considerably less polished without his help4 ,andy ,blankenbiller rablankecrdec#g4;apgea4army4mil ,andy ,blankenbiller1 ,army at ,aberdeen bajancs4mcgill4ca ,alan ,emtage1 ,mc,gill ,university ,computer ,science ,department ,brian ,fitzgerald fitzmml#j4meche4rpi4edu ,brian ,fitzgerald1 ,rensselaer ,polytechnic ,institute ,john ,goetsch ccjghippo4ru4ac4za ,john ,goetsch1 ,rhodes ,university1 ,south ,africa composerchem4bu4edu ,jeff ,kellem1 ,boston ,university's ,chemistry ,department krauss,wmoravian4edu ,bill ,krauss1 ,moravian ,college ,steve ,lodin deaes6swlodiniuvax4cs4indiana4edu ,steve ,lodin1 ,delco ,electronics ,mike ,nesel neselelxsi4dfrf4nasa4gov ,mike ,nesel1 ,,nasa ,bob nevelncs4widener4edu ,bob ,neveln1 ,widener ,university ,computer ,science ,department wamapidunkin4cc4mcgill4ca 7,wanda ,pierce7 ,wanda ,pierce1 ,mc,gill ,university ,computing ,centre ,joshua4,r4,poulsoncyber4widener4edu ,joshua ,poulson1 ,widener ,university ,computing ,services de#eornl4gov ,dave ,sill1 ,oak ,ridge ,national ,laboratory bsmartbsmart4tti4com ,bob ,smart1 ,citi,corp_/,,tti emvmsen4com ,ed ,vielmetti1 ,vice ,president of ,,msen ,craig ,e4 ,ward cewvenera4isi4edu ,craig ,ward1 ,,usc_/,information ,sciences ,institute 7,,isi7 ,glee ,willis willisunssun4nevada4edu ,glee ,willis1 ,university of ,nevada1 ,reno ,charles ,yamasaki chiposhcomm4osha4gov ,chip ,yamasaki1 ,,osha ,network ,basics ,we are truly in an information society4 ,now more than ever1 moving vast amounts of information quickly across great distances is one of our most pressing needs4 ,from small one-person entrepreneurial efforts1 to the largest of corporations1 more and more professional people are discovering that the only way to be successful in the '#ijs and beyond is to realize that technology is advancing at a break-neck pace---and they must somehow keep up4 ,likewise1 researchers from all corners of the earth are finding that their work thrives in a networked environment4 ,immediate access to the work of colleagues and a virtual library of millions of volumes and thousands of papers affords them the ability to encorporate a body of knowledge heretofore unthinkable4 ,work groups can now conduct interactive conferences with each other1 paying no heed to physical location---the possibilities are endless4 ,you have at your fingertips the ability to talk in real-time with someone in ,japan1 send a #b1jjj-word short story to a group of people who will critique it for the sheer pleasure of doing so1 see if a ,macintosh sitting in a lab in ,canada is turned on1 and find out if someone happens to be sitting in front of their computer 7logged on7 in ,australia1 all inside of thirty minutes4 ,no airline 7or tardis1 for that matter7 could ever match that travel itinerary4 ,the largest problem people face when first using a network is grasping all that's available4 ,even seasoned users find themselves surprised when they discover a new service or feature that they'd never known even existed4 ,once acquainted with the terminology and sufficiently comfortable with making occasional mistakes1 the learning process will drastically speed up4 ,domains ,getting where you want to go can often be one of the more difficult aspects of using networks4 ,the variety of ways that places are named will probably leave a blank stare on your face at first4 ,don't fret2 there is a method to this apparent madness4 ,if someone were to ask for a home address1 they would probably expect a street1 apartment1 city1 state1 and zip code4 ,that's all the information the post office needs to deliver mail in a reasonably speedy fashion4 ,likewise1 computer addresses have a structure to them4 ,the general form is3 a person's email address on a computer3 usersomewhere4domain a computer's name3 somewhere4domain ,the user portion is usually the person's account name on the system1 though it doesn't have to be4 somewhere4domain tells you the name of a system or location1 and what kind of organization it is4 ,the trailing domain is often one of the following3 com ,usually a company or other commercial institution or organization1 like ,convex ,computers 7convex4com74 edu ,an educational institution1 e4g4 ,new ,york ,university1 named nyu4edu4 gov ,a government site2 for example1 ,,nasa is nasa4gov4 mil ,a military site1 like the ,air ,force 7af4mil74 net ,gateways and other administrative hosts for a network 7it does not mean all of the hosts in a network74 ,the ,matrix1 #aaa4 ,one such gateway is near4net4 org ,this is a domain reserved for private organizations1 who don't comfortably fit in the other classes of domains4 ,one example is the ,electronic ,frontier ,foundation named eff4org4 ,each country also has its own top-level domain4 ,for example1 the us domain includes each of the fifty states4 ,other countries represented with domains include3 au ,australia ca ,canada fr ,france uk ,the ,united ,kingdom4 ,these also have sub-domains of things like ac4uk for academic sites and co4uk for commercial ones4 ,,fqdn 7,fully ,qualified ,domain ,name7 ,the proper terminology for a site's domain name 7somewhere4domain above7 is its ,fully ,qualified ,domain ,name 7,,fqdn74 ,it is usually selected to give a clear indication of the site's organization or sponsoring agent4 ,for example1 the ,massachusetts ,institute of ,technology's ,,fqdn is mit4edu2 similarly1 ,apple ,computer's domain name is apple4com4 ,while such obvious names are usually the norm1 there are the occasional exceptions that are ambiguous enough to mislead---like vt4edu1 which on first impulse one might surmise is an educational institution of some sort in ,vermont2 not so4 ,it's actually the domain name for ,virginia ,tech4 ,in most cases it's relatively easy to glean the meaning of a domain name---such confusion is far from the norm4 ,internet ,numbers ,every single machine on the ,internet has a unique address1 ,at least one address1 possibly two or even three---but we won't go into that4 called its ,internet number or ,,ip ,address4 ,it's actually a #cb-;bit number1 but is most commonly represented as four numbers joined by periods 7471 like #adg4ca4bed4acj4 ,this is sometimes also called a dotted quad2 there are literally thousands of different possible dotted quads4 ,the ,a,r,p,anet 7the mother to today's ,internet7 originally only had the capacity to have up to #bef systems on it because of the way each system was addressed4 ,in the early eighties1 it became clear that things would fast outgrow such a small limit2 the #cb-;bit addressing method was born1 freeing thousands of host numbers4 ,each piece of an ,internet address 7like #aib7 is called an octet1 representing one of four sets of eight bits4 ,the first two or three pieces 7e4g4 #aib4ee4bci7 represent the network that a system is on1 called its subnet4 ,for example1 all of the computers for ,wesleyan ,university are in the subnet #abi4acc4 ,they can have numbers like #abi4acc4aj4aj1 #abi4acc4bcj4ai1 up to #fe thousand possible combinations 7possible computers74 ,,ip addresses and domain names aren't assigned arbitrarily---that would lead to unbelievable confusion4 ,an application must be filed with the ,network ,information ,center 7,,nic71 either electronically 7to hostmasternic4ddn4mil7 or via regular mail4 ,resolving ,names and ,numbers ,ok1 computers can be referred to by either their ,,fqdn or their ,internet address4 ,how can one user be expected to remember them all8 ,they aren't4 ,the ,internet is designed so that one can use either method4 ,since humans find it much more natural to deal with words than numbers in most cases1 the ,,fqdn for each host is mapped to its ,internet number4 ,each domain is served by a computer within that domain1 which provides all of the necessary information to go from a domain name to an ,,ip address1 and vice-versa4 ,for example1 when someone refers to foosun4bar4com1 the resolver knows that it should ask the system foovax4bar4com about systems in bar4com4 ,it asks what ,internet address foosun4bar4com has2 if the name foosun4bar4com really exists1 foovax will send back its number4 ,all of this magic happens behind the scenes4 ,rarely will a user have to remember the ,internet number of a site 7although often you'll catch yourself remembering an apparently obscure number1 simply because you've accessed the system frequently74 ,however1 you will remember a substantial number of ,f,q,d,ns4 ,it will eventually reach a point when you are able to make a reasonably accurate guess at what domain name a certain college1 university1 or company might have1 given just their name4 ,the ,networks ,internet ,the ,internet is a large network of networks4 ,there is no one network known as ,the ,internet2 rather1 regional nets like ,sura,net1 ,prep,net1 ,near,net1 et al41 are all inter-connected 7nay1 inter-networked7 together into one great living thing1 communicating at amazing speeds with the ,,tcp_/,,ip protocol4 ,all activity takes place in real-time4 ,,uucp ,the ,,uucp network is a loose association of systems all communicating with the ,,uucp protocol4 7,,uucp stands for ,unix-to-,unix ,copy ,program'47 ,it's based on two systems connecting to each other at specified intervals1 called polling1 and executing any work scheduled for either of them4 ,historically most ,,uucp was done with ,unix equipment1 although the software's since been implemented on other platforms 7e4g4 ,,vms74 ,for example1 the system oregano polls the system basil once every two hours4 ,if there's any mail waiting for oregano1 basil will send it at that time2 likewise1 oregano will at that time send any jobs waiting for basil4 ,,bitnet ,,bitnet 7the ,because ,it's ,time ,network7 is comprised of systems connected by point-to-point links1 all running the ,,nje protocol4 ,it's continued to grow1 but has found itself suffering at the hands of the falling costs of ,internet connections4 ,also1 a number of mail gateways are in place to reach users on other networks4 ,the ,physical ,connection ,the actual connections between the various networks take a variety of forms4 ,the most prevalent for ,internet links are #efk leased lines 7dedicated telephone lines carrying #efkilobit-per-second connections7 and ,t#a links 7special phone lines with #a,mbps connections74 ,also installed are ,t#c links1 acting as backbones between major locations to carry a massive #de,mbps load of traffic4 ,these links are paid for by each institution to a local carrier 7for example1 ,bell ,atlantic owns ,prep,net1 the main provider in ,pennsylvania74 ,also available are ,,slip connections1 which carry ,internet traffic 7packets7 over high-speed modems4 ,,uucp links are made with modems 7for the most part71 that run from #abjj baud all the way up to as high as #ch4d,kbps4 ,as was mentioned in ,the ,networks1 the connections are of the store-and-forward variety4 ,also in use are ,internet-based ,,uucp links 7as if things weren't already confusing enough674 ,the systems do their ,,uucp traffic over ,,tcp_/,,ip connections1 which give the ,,uucp-based network some blindingly fast hops1 resulting in better connectivity for the network as a whole4 ,,uucp connections first became popular in the #aigj's1 and have remained in wide-spread use ever since4 ,only with ,,uucp can ,joe ,smith correspond with someone across the country or around the world1 for the price of a local telephone call4 ,,bitnet links mostly take the form of #ifjj;bps modems connected from site to site4 ,often places have three or more links going2 the majority1 however1 look to upstream sites for their sole link to the network4 ,the ,glory and the ,nothing of a ,name ,byron1 ,churchill's ,grave ----------- ,electronic ,mail ,the desire to communicate is the essence of networking4 ,people have always wanted to correspond with each other in the fastest way possible1 short of normal conversation4 ,electronic mail 7or email7 is the most prevalent application of this in computer networking4 ,it allows people to write back and forth without having to spend much time worrying about how the message actually gets delivered4 ,as technology grows closer and closer to being a common part of daily life1 the need to understand the many ways it can be utilized and how it works1 at least to some level1 is vital4 part of daily life 7as has been evidenced by the ,,isdn effort1 the need to understand the many ways it can be utilized and how it works1 at least to some level1 is vital4 ,email ,addresses ,electronic mail is hinged around the concept of an address2 the section on ,networking ,basics made some reference to it while introducing domains4 ,your email address provides all of the information required to get a message to you from anywhere in the world4 ,an address doesn't necessarily have to go to a human being4 ,it could be an archive server1 ,see ,archive ,servers1 for a description4 a list of people1 or even someone's pocket pager4 ,these cases are the exception to the norm---mail to most addresses is read by human beings4 643 ,symbolic ,cacophony ,email addresses usually appear in one of two forms---using the ,internet format which contains 1 an at-sign1 or using the ,,uucp format which contains 61 an exclamation point1 also called a bang4 ,the latter of the two1 ,,uucp bang paths1 is more restrictive1 yet more clearly dictates how the mail will travel4 ,to reach ,jim ,morrison on the system south4america4org1 one would address the mail as jmsouth4america4org4 ,but if ,jim's account was on a ,,uucp site named brazil1 then his address would be brazil6jm4 ,if it's possible 7and one exists71 try to use the ,internet form of an address2 bang paths can fail if an intermediate site in the path happens to be down4 ,there is a growing trend for ,,uucp sites to register ,internet domain names1 to help alleviate the problem of path failures4 ,another symbol that enters the fray is ---it acts as an extra routing method4 ,for example1 if the ,,uucp site dream is connected to south4america4org1 but doesn't have an ,internet domain name of its own1 a user debbie on dream can be reached by writing to the address not smallexample6 debbiedreamsouth4america4org ,the form is significant4 ,this address says that the local system should first send the mail to south4america4org4 ,there the address debbiedream will turn into debbiedream1 which will hopefully be a valid address4 ,then south4america4org will handle getting the mail to the host dream1 where it will be delivered locally to debbie4 ,all of the intricacies of email addressing methods are fully covered in the book 633 ,a ,directory of ,electronic ,mail ,addressing and ,networks published by ,o',reilly and ,associates1 as part of their ,nutshell ,handbook series4 ,it is a must for any active email user4 ,write to nutsora4com for ordering information4 ,sending and ,receiving ,mail ,we'll make one quick diversion from being ,,os-neuter here1 to show you what it will look like to send and receive a mail message on a ,unix system4 ,check with your system administrator for specific instructions related to mail at your site4 ,a person sending the author mail would probably do something like this3 mail brendancs4widener4edu ,subject3 print job's stuck ,i typed print babe4gif' and it didn't work6 ,why88 ,the next time the author checked his mail1 he would see it listed in his mailbox as3 mail _/usr_/spool_/mail_/brendan3 #a messages #a new #a unread ,u #a joeuserfoo4widene ,tue ,may #e #bj3cf #bi_/ief print job's stuck 8 which gives information on the sender of the email1 when it was sent1 and the subject of the message4 ,he would probably use the reply command of ,unix mail to send this response3 8 r ,to3 joeuserfoo4widener4edu ,subject3 ,re3 print job's stuck ,you shouldn't print binary files like ,g,i,fs to a printer6 ,brendan ,try sending yourself mail a few times1 to get used to your system's mailer4 ,it'll save a lot of wasted aspirin for both you and your system administrator4 ,anatomy of a ,mail ,header ,an electronic mail message has a specific structure to it that's common across every type of computer system4 ,the standard is written down in ,,rfc-#hbb4 ,see also ,r,f,cs for more info on how to get copies of the various ,r,f,cs4 ,a sample would be3 ,from bushhq4mil ,sat ,may #be #ag3jf3ja #aiia ,received3 from hq4mil by house4gov with ,,smtp id ,,aa#baija 7#d4a_/,,smi for danhouse4gov72 ,sat1 #be ,may #ia #ag3je3ef -#jdjj ,date3 ,sat1 #be ,may #ia #ag3je3ef -#jdjj ,from3 ,the ,president bushhq4mil ,message-,id3 #iajebebaje4;,,aa#jffca;hq4mil ,to3 dansenate4gov ,subject3 ,meeting ,hi ,dan 44 we have a meeting at #i3cj a4m4 with the ,joint ,chiefs4 ,please don't oversleep this time4 ,the first line1 with ,from and the two lines for ,received3 are usually not very interesting4 ,they give the real address that the mail is coming from 7as opposed to the address you should reply to1 which may look much different71 and what places the mail went through to get to you4 ,over the ,internet1 there is always at least one ,received3 header and usually no more than four or five4 ,when a message is sent using ,,uucp1 one ,received3 header is added for each system that the mail passes through4 ,this can often result in more than a dozen ,received3 headers4 ,while they help with dissecting problems in mail delivery1 odds are the average user will never want to see them4 ,most mail programs will filter out this kind of cruft in a header4 ,the ,date3 header contains the date and time the message was sent4 ,likewise1 the good address 7as opposed to real address7 is laid out in the ,from3 header4 ,sometimes it won't include the full name of the person 7in this case ,the ,president71 and may look different1 but it should always contain an email address of some form4 ,the ,message-,,id3 of a message is intended mainly for tracing mail routing1 and is rarely of interest to normal users4 ,every ,message-,,id3 is guaranteed to be unique4 ,to3 lists the email address 7or addresses7 of the recipients of the message4 ,there may be a ,cc3 header1 listing additional addresses4 ,finally1 a brief subject for the message goes in the ,subject3 header4 ,the exact order of a message's headers may vary from system to system1 but it will always include these fundamental headers that are vital to proper delivery4 ,bounced ,mail ,when an email address is incorrect in some way 7the system's name is wrong1 the domain doesn't exist1 whatever71 the mail system will bounce the message back to the sender1 much the same way that the ,postal ,service does when you send a letter to a bad street address4 ,the message will include the reason for the bounce2 a common error is addressing mail to an account name that doesn't exist4 ,for example1 writing to ,lisa ,simpson at ,widener ,university's ,computer ,science department will fail1 because she doesn't have an account4 ,though if she asked1 we'd certainly give her one4 ,from3 ,mail ,delivery ,subsystem ,,mailer-,,daemon ,date3 ,sat1 #be ,may #ia #af3de3ad -#jdjj ,to3 mggracie4com ,cc3 ,postmastercs4widener4edu ,subject3 ,returned mail3 ,user unknown ----- ,transcript of session follows ----- ,while talking to cs4widener4edu3 ,,rcpt ,to3lsimpsoncs4widener4edu #eej lsimpsoncs4widener4edu444 ,user unknown #eej lsimpson444 ,user unknown ,as you can see1 a carbon copy of the message 7the ,cc3 header entry7 was sent to the postmaster of ,widener's ,,cs department4 ,the ,postmaster is responsible for maintaining a reliable mail system on his system4 ,usually postmasters at sites will attempt to aid you in getting your mail where it's supposed to go4 ,if a typing error was made1 then try re-sending the message4 ,if you're sure that the address is correct1 contact the postmaster of the site directly and ask him how to properly address it4 ,the message also includes the text of the mail1 so you don't have to retype everything you wrote4 ----- ,unsent message follows ----- ,received3 by cs4widener4edu id ,,aa#jfebh2 ,sat1 #be ,may #ia #af3de3ad -#jdjj ,date3 ,sat1 #be ,may #ia #af3de3ad -#jdjj ,from3 ,matt ,groening mggracie4com ,message-,id3 #iajebebjde4;,,aa#jfebh;gracie4com ,to3 lsimpsoncs4widener4edu ,subject3 ,scripting your future episodes ,reply-,to3 writing-groupgracie4com 4444 verbiage 444 ,the full text of the message is returned intact1 including any headers that were added4 ,this can be cut out with an editor and fed right back into the mail system with a proper address1 making redelivery a relatively painless process4 ,mailing ,lists ,people that share common interests are inclined to discuss their hobby or interest at every available opportunity4 ,one modern way to aid in this exchange of information is by using a mailing list---usually an email address that redistributes all mail sent to it back out to a list of addresses4 ,for example1 the ,sun ,managers mailing list 7of interest to people that administer computers manufactured by ,sun7 has the address sun-managerseecs4nwu4edu4 ,any mail sent to that address will explode out to each person named in a file maintained on a computer at ,northwestern ,university4 ,administrative tasks 7sometimes referred to as administrivia7 are often handled through other addresses1 typically with the suffix -request4 ,to continue the above1 a request to be added to or deleted from the ,sun ,managers list should be sent to sun-managers-requesteecs4nwu4edu4 ,when in doubt1 try to write to the -request version of a mailing list address first2 the other people on the list aren't interested in your desire to be added or deleted1 and can certainly do nothing to expedite your request4 ,often if the administrator of a list is busy 7remember1 this is all peripheral to real jobs and real work71 many users find it necessary to ask again and again1 often with harsher and harsher language1 to be removed from a list4 ,this does nothing more than waste traffic and bother everyone else receiving the messages4 ,if1 after a reasonable amount of time1 you still haven't succeeded to be removed from a mailing list1 write to the postmaster at that site and see if they can help4 ,exercise caution when replying to a message sent by a mailing list4 ,if you wish to respond to the author only1 make sure that the only address you're replying to is that person1 and not the entire list4 ,often messages of the sort ,yes1 ,i agree with you completely6 will appear on a list1 boring the daylights out of the other readers4 ,likewise1 if you explicitly do want to send the message to the whole list1 you'll save yourself some time by checking to make sure it's indeed headed to the whole list and not a single person4 ,a list of the currently available mailing lists is available in at least two places2 the first is in a file on ftp4nisc4sri4com called interest-groups under the netinfo_/ directory4 ,it's updated fairly regularly1 but is large 7presently around #gjj,k71 so only get it every once in a while4 ,the other list is maintained by ,gene ,spafford 7spafcs4purdue4edu71 and is posted in parts to the newsgroup news4lists semi-regularly4 7,usenet ,news1 for info on how to read that and other newsgroups47 ,listservs ,on ,,bitnet there's an automated system for maintaining discussion lists called the listserv4 ,rather than have an already harried and overworked human take care of additions and removals from a list1 a program performs these and other tasks by responding to a set of user-driven commands4 ,areas of interest are wide and varied---,,ethics-,l deals with ethics in computing1 while ,,adnd-,l has to do with a role-playing game4 ,a full list of the available ,,bitnet lists can be obtained by writing to ,,listserv,,bitnic4,,bitnet with a body containing the command list global ,however1 be sparing in your use of this---see if it's already on your system somewhere4 ,the reply is quite large4 ,the most fundamental command is subscribe4 ,it will tell the listserv to add the sender to a specific list4 ,the usage is subscribe foo-l ,your ,real ,name ,it will respond with a message either saying that you've been added to the list1 or that the request has been passed on to the system on which the list is actually maintained4 ,the mate to subscribe is1 naturally1 unsubscribe4 ,it will remove a given address from a ,,bitnet list4 ,it1 along with all other listserv commands1 can be abbreviated---subscribe as sub1 unsubscribe as unsub1 etc4 ,for a full list of the available listserv commands1 write to ,,listserv,,bitnic4,,bitnet1 giving it the command help4 ,as an aside1 there have been implementations of the listserv system for non-,,bitnet hosts 7more specifically1 ,unix systems74 ,one of the most complete is available on cs4bu4edu in the directory pub_/listserv4 ,i made this letter longer than usual because ,i lack the time to make it shorter4 ,pascal1 ,provincial ,letters ,,xvi -------------- ,anonymous ,,ftp ,,ftp 7,file ,transfer ,protocol7 is the primary method of transferring files over the ,internet4 ,on many systems1 it's also the name of the program that implements the protocol4 ,given proper permission1 it's possible to copy a file from a computer in ,south ,africa to one in ,los ,angeles at very fast speeds 7on the order of #e--aj,k per second74 ,this normally requires either a user id on both systems or a special configuration set up by the system administrator7s74 ,there is a good way around this restriction---the anonymous ,,ftp service4 ,it essentially will let anyone in the world have access to a certain area of disk space in a non-threatening way4 ,with this1 people can make files publicly available with little hassle4 ,some systems have dedicated entire disks or even entire computers to maintaining extensive archives of source code and information4 ,they include gatekeeper4dec4com 7,digital71 wuarchive4wustl4edu 7,washington ,university in ,saint ,louis71 and archive4cis4ohio-state4edu 7,the ,ohio ,state ,university74 ,the process involves the foreign user 7someone not on the system itself7 creating an ,,ftp connection and logging into the system as the user anonymous1 with an arbitrary password3 ,name 7foo4site4com3you73 anonymous ,password3 jmsouth4america4org ,custom and netiquette dictate that people respond to the ,password3 query with an email address so that the sites can track the level of ,,ftp usage1 if they desire4 7,addresses for information on email addresses74 ,the speed of the transfer depends on the speed of the underlying link4 ,a site that has a #ifjj;bps ,,slip connection will not get the same throughput as a system with a #efk leased line 7,the ,physical ,connection1 for more on what kinds of connections can exist in a network74 ,also1 the traffic of all other users on that link will affect performance4 ,if there are thirty people all ,f,t,ping from one site simultaneously1 the load on the system 7in addition to the network connection7 will degrade the overall throughput of the transfer4 ,,ftp ,etiquette ,lest we forget1 the ,internet is there for people to do work4 ,people using the network and the systems on it are doing so for a purpose1 whether it be research1 development1 whatever4 ,any heavy activity takes away from the overall performance of the network as a whole4 ,the effects of an ,,ftp connection on a site and its link can vary2 the general rule of thumb is that any extra traffic created detracts from the ability of that site's users to perform their tasks4 ,to help be considerate of this1 it's highly recommended that ,,ftp sessions be held only after normal business hours for that site1 preferably late at night4 ,the possible effects of a large transfer will be less destructive at #b a4m4 than #b p4m4 ,also1 remember that if it's past dinner time in ,maine1 it's still early afternoon in ,california---think in terms of the current time at the site that's being visited1 not of local time4 ,basic ,commands ,while there have been many extensions to the various ,,ftp clients out there1 there is a de facto standard set that everyone expects to work4 ,for more specific information1 read the manual for your specific ,,ftp program4 ,this section will only skim the bare minimum of commands needed to operate an ,,ftp session4 ,creating the ,connection ,the actual command to use ,,ftp will vary among operating systems2 for the sake of clarity1 we'll use ,,ftp here1 since it's the most general form4 ,there are two ways to connect to a system---using its hostname or its ,internet number4 ,using the hostname is usually preferred4 ,however1 some sites aren't able to resolve hostnames properly1 and have no alternative4 ,we'll assume you're able to use hostnames for simplicity's sake4 ,the form is ftp somewhere4domain ,domains for help with reading and using domain names 7in the example below1 somewhere4domain is ftp4uu4net74 ,you must first know the name of the system you want to connect to4 ,we'll use ftp4uu4net as an example4 ,on your system1 type3 ftp ftp4uu4net 7the actual syntax will vary depending on the type of system the connection's being made from74 ,it will pause momentarily then respond with the message ,connected to ftp4uu4net4 and an initial prompt will appear3 #bbj uunet ,,ftp server 7,version #e4ajj ,mon ,feb #aa #ag3ac3bh ,,est #aiia7 ready4 ,name 7ftp4uu4net3jm73 to which you should respond with anonymous3 #bbj uunet ,,ftp server 7,version #e4ajj ,mon ,feb #aa #ag3ac3bh ,,est #aiia7 ready4 ,name 7ftp4uu4net3jm73 anonymous ,the system will then prompt you for a password2 as noted previously1 a good response is your email address3 #cca ,guest login ok1 send ident as password4 ,password3 jmsouth4america4org #bcj ,guest login ok1 access restrictions apply4 ftp ,the password itself will not echo4 ,this is to protect a user's security when he or she is using a real account to ,,ftp files between machines4 ,once you reach the ftp prompt1 you know you're logged in and ready to go4 ,notice the ftp4uu4net3joe in the ,name3 prompt8 ,that's another clue that anonymous ,,ftp is special3 ,,ftp expects a normal user accounts to be used for transfers4 dir ,at the ftp prompt1 you can type a number of commands to perform various functions4 ,one example is dir---it will list the files in the current directory4 ,continuing the example from above3 ftp dir #bjj ,,port command successful4 #aej ,opening ,,ascii mode data connection for _/bin_/ls4 total #caaf drwxr-xr-x #b #g #ba #eab ,nov #ba #aihh 4forward -rw-rw-r-- #a #g #aa #j ,jun #bc #aihh 4hushlogin drwxrwxr-x #b #j #ba #eab ,jun #d #aiij ,census drwxrwxr-x #b #j #abj #eab ,jan #h #ji3cf ,clari,net 444 etc etc 444 -rw-rw-r-- #a #g #ad #dbcij ,may #bj #jb3bd newthisweek4,z 444 etc etc 444 -rw-rw-r-- #a #g #ad #bjahhhg ,may #ba #ja3ja uumap4tar4,z drwxrwxr-x #b #g #f #ajbd ,may #aa #aj3eh uunet-info #bbf ,transfer complete4 #edad bytes received in #a4a seconds 7#d4i ,kbytes_/s7 ftp ,the file newthisweek4,z was specifically included because we'll be using it later4 ,just for general information1 it happens to be a listing of all of the files added to ,,uunet's archives during the past week4 ,the directory shown is on a machine running the ,unix operating system---the dir command will produce different results on other operating systems 7e4g4 ,,tops1 ,,vms1 et al474 ,learning to recognize different formats will take some time4 ,after a few weeks of traversing the ,internet1 it proves easier to see1 for example1 how large a file is on an operating system you're otherwise not acquainted with4 ,with many ,,ftp implementations1 it's also possible to take the output of dir and put it into a file on the local system with ftp dir n99 outfilename the contents of which can then be read outside of the live ,,ftp connection2 this is particularly useful for systems with very long directories 7like ftp4uu4net74 ,the above example would put the names of every file that begins with an n into the local file outfilename4 cd ,at the beginning of an ,,ftp session1 the user is in a top-level directory4 ,most things are in directories below it 7e4g4 _/pub74 ,to change the current directory1 one uses the cd command4 ,to change to the directory pub1 for example1 one would type ftp cd pub which would elicit the response #bej ,,cwd command successful4 ,meaning the ,change ,working ,directory command 7cd7 worked properly4 ,moving up a directory is more system-specific---in ,unix use the command cd 441 and in ,,vms1 cd -4 get and put ,the actual transfer is performed with the get and put commands4 ,to get a file from the remote computer to the local system1 the command takes the form3 ftp get filename where filename is the file on the remote system4 ,again using ftp4uu4net as an example1 the file newthisweek4,z can be retrieved with ftp get newthisweek4,z #bjj ,,port command successful4 #aej ,opening ,,ascii mode data connection for newthisweek4,z 7#dbcij bytes74 #bbf ,transfer complete4 local3 newthisweek4,z remote3 newthisweek4,z #dbeec bytes received in #f4i seconds 7#f ,kbytes_/s7 ftp ,the section below on using binary mode instead of ,,ascii will describe why this particular choice will result in a corrupt and subsequently unusable file4 ,if1 for some reason1 you want to save a file under a different name 7e4g4 your system can only have #ad-;character filenames1 or can only have one dot in the name71 you can specify what the local filename should be by providing get with an additional argument ftp get newthisweek4,z uunet-new which will place the contents of the file newthisweek4,z in uunet-new on the local system4 ,the transfer works the other way1 too4 ,the put command will transfer a file from the local system to the remote system4 ,if the permissions are set up for an ,,ftp session to write to a remote directory1 a file can be sent with ftp put filename ,as with get1 put will take a third argument1 letting you specify a different name for the file on the remote system4 ,,ascii vs ,binary ,in the example above1 the file newthisweek4,z was transferred1 but supposedly not correctly4 ,the reason is this3 in a normal ,,ascii transfer 7the default71 certain characters are translated between systems1 to help make text files more readable4 ,however1 when binary files 7those containing non-,,ascii characters7 are transferred1 this translation should not take place4 ,one example is a binary program---a few changed characters can render it completely useless4 ,to avoid this problem1 it's possible to be in one of two modes---,,ascii or binary4 ,in binary mode1 the file isn't translated in any way4 ,what's on the remote system is precisely what's received4 ,the commands to go between the two modes are3 ftp ascii #bjj ,type set to ,a4 7,note the ,a1 which signifies ,,ascii mode47 ftp binary #bjj ,type set to ,i4 7,set to ,image format1 for pure binary transfers47 ,note that each command need only be done once to take effect2 if the user types binary1 all transfers in that session are done in binary mode 7that is1 unless ascii is typed later74 ,the transfer of newthisweek4,z will work if done as3 ftp binary #bjj ,type set to ,i4 ftp get newthisweek4,z #bjj ,,port command successful4 #aej ,opening ,,binary mode data connection for newthisweek4,z 7#dbcij bytes74 #bbf ,transfer complete4 local3 newthisweek4,z remote3 newthisweek4,z #dbcij bytes received in #g4b seconds 7#e4h ,kbytes_/s7 ,note3 ,the file size 7#dbcij7 is different from that done in ,,ascii mode 7#dbeec7 bytes2 and the number #dbcij matches the one in the listing of ,,uunet's top directory4 ,we can be relatively sure that we've received the file without any problems4 mget and mput ,the commands mget and mput allow for multiple file transfers using wildcards to get several files1 or a whole set of files at once1 rather than having to do it manually one by one4 ,for example1 to get all files that begin with the letter f1 one would type ftp mget f99 ,similarly1 to put all of the local files that end with 4c3 ftp mput 994c ,rather than reiterate what's been written a hundred times before1 consult a local manual for more information on wildcard matching 7every ,,dos manual1 for example1 has a section on it74 ,normally1 ,,ftp assumes a user wants to be prompted for every file in a mget or mput operation4 ,you'll often need to get a whole set of files and not have each of them confirmed---you know they're all right4 ,in that case1 use the prompt command to turn the queries off4 ftp prompt ,interactive mode off4 ,likewise1 to turn it back on1 the prompt command should simply be issued again4 ,joe ,granrose's ,list ,monthly1 ,joe ,granrose 7odinpilot4njin4net7 posts to ,usenet 7,usenet ,news7 an extensive list of sites offering anonymous ,,ftp service4 ,it's available in a number of ways3 ,the ,usenet groups comp4misc and comp4sources4wanted ,anonymous ,,ftp from pilot4njin4net #abh4f4g4ch1 in _/pub_/ftp-list4 ,write to odinpilot4njin4net with a ,subject3 line of listserv-request and a message body of send help4 ,please don't bother ,joe with your requests---the server will provide you with the list4 ,the archie ,server archie is always in lowercase ,a group of people at ,mc,gill ,university in ,canada got together and created a query system called archie4 ,it was originally formed to be a quick and easy way to scan the offerings of the many anonymous ,,ftp sites that are maintained around the world4 ,as time progressed1 archie grew to include other valuable services as well4 ,the archie service is accessible through an interactive telnet session1 email queries1 and command-line and ,x-window clients4 ,the email responses can be used along with ,f,t,pmail servers for those not on the ,internet4 7,,ftp-by-,mail ,servers1 for info on using ,f,t,pmail servers47 ,using archie ,today ,currently1 archie tracks the contents of over #hjj anonymous ,,ftp archive sites containing over a million files stored across the ,internet4 ,collectively1 these files represent well over #ej gigabytes of information1 with new entries being added daily4 ,the archie server automatically updates the listing information from each site about once a month4 ,this avoids constantly updating the databases1 which could waste network resources1 yet ensures that the information on each site's holdings is reasonably up to date4 ,to access archie interactively1 telnet to one of the existing servers4 ,see ,telnet1 for notes on using the telnet program4 ,they include archie4ans4net 7,new ,york1 ,,usa7 archie4rutgers4edu 7,new ,jersey1 ,,usa7 archie4sura4net 7,maryland1 ,,usa7 archie4unl4edu 7,nebraska1 ,,usa7 archie4mcgill4ca 7the first ,archie server1 in ,canada7 archie4funet4fi 7,finland7 archie4au 7,australia7 archie4doc4ic4ac4uk 7,great ,britain7 ,at the login3 prompt of one of the servers1 enter archie to log in4 ,a greeting will be displayed1 detailing information about ongoing work in the archie project2 the user will be left at a archie prompt1 at which he may enter commands4 ,using help will yield instructions on using the prog command to make queries1 set to control various aspects of the server's operation1 et al4 ,type quit at the prompt to leave archie4 ,typing the query prog vine4tar4,z will yield a list of the systems that offer the source to the ,x-windows program vine2 a piece of the information returned looks like3 ,host ftp4uu4net 7#acg4ci4a4i7 ,last updated #aj3cj #g ,jan #aiib ,location3 _/packages_/,x_/contrib ,,file rw-r--r-- #aeedh ,oct #h #bj3bi vine4tar4,z ,host nic4funet4fi 7#abh4bad4f4ajj7 ,last updated #je3jg #d ,jan #aiib ,location3 _/pub_/,x#aa_/;contrib ,,file rw-rw-r-- #aeedh ,nov #h #jc3be vine4tar4,z archie ,clients ,there are two main-stream archie clients1 one called 7naturally enough7 archie1 the other xarchie 7for ,x-,windows74 ,they query the archie databases and yield a list of systems that have the requested file7s7 available for anonymous ,,ftp1 without requiring an interactive session to the server4 ,for example1 to find the same information you tried with the server command prog1 you could type archie vine4tar4,z ,host athene4uni-paderborn4de ,location3 _/local_/,x#aa_/morecontrib ,,file -rw-r--r-- #ahhed ,nov #ae #aiij vine4tar4,z ,host emx4utexas4edu ,location3 _/pub_/mnt_/source_/games ,,file -rw-r--r-- #abjai ,may #g #aihh vine4tar4,z ,host export4lcs4mit4edu ,location3 _/contrib ,,file -rw-r--r-- #aeedh ,oct #i #jj3bi vine4tar4,z ,note that your system administrator may not have installed the archie clients yet2 the source is available on each of the archie servers1 in the directory archie_/clients4 ,using the ,x-windows client is much more intuitive---if it's installed1 just read its man page and give it a whirl4 ,it's essential for the networked desktop4 ,mailing archie ,users limited to email connectivity to the ,internet should send a message to the address archiearchie4mcgill4ca with the single word help in the body of the message4 ,an email message will be returned explaining how to use the email archie server1 along with the details of using ,f,t,pmail4 ,most of the commands offered by the telnet interface can be used with the mail server4 ,the whatis database ,in addition to offering access to anonymous ,,ftp listings1 archie also permits access to the whatis description database4 ,it includes the names and brief synopses for over #c1ejj public domain software packages1 datasets and informational documents located on the ,internet4 ,additional whatis databases are scheduled to be added in the future4 ,planned offerings include listings for the names and locations of online library catalog programs1 the names of publicly accessible electronic mailing lists1 compilations of ,frequently ,asked ,questions lists1 and archive sites for the most popular ,usenet newsgroups4 ,suggestions for additional descriptions or locations databases are welcomed and should be sent to the archie developers at archie-lcs4mcgill4ca4 ,was fur plundern6 7,what a place to plunder67 ,gebhard ,leberecht ,blucher ------ ,usenet ,news ,original from3 chipcount4tct4com 7,chip ,salzenberg7 ,most recent change3 #ai ,may #aiia by spafcs4purdue4edu 7,gene ,spafford7 ,the first thing to understand about ,usenet is that it is widely misunderstood4 ,every day on ,usenet the blind men and the elephant phenomenon appears1 in spades4 ,in the opinion of the author1 more flame wars 7rabid arguments7 arise because of a lack of understanding of the nature of ,usenet than from any other source4 ,and consider that such flame wars arise1 of necessity1 among people who are on ,usenet4 ,imagine1 then1 how poorly understood ,usenet must be by those outside6 ,no essay on the nature of ,usenet can ignore the erroneous impressions held by many ,usenet users4 ,therefore1 this section will treat falsehoods first4 ,keep reading for truth4 7,beauty1 alas1 is not relevant to ,usenet47 ,what ,usenet ,is ,usenet is the set of machines that exchange articles tagged with one or more universally-recognized labels1 called newsgroups 7or groups for short74 7,note that the term newsgroup is correct1 while area1 base1 board1 bboard1 conference1 round table1 ,,sig1 etc4 are incorrect4 ,if you want to be understood1 be accurate47 ,the ,diversity of ,usenet ,if the above definition of ,usenet sounds vague1 that's because it is4 ,it is almost impossible to generalize over all ,usenet sites in any non-trivial way4 ,usenet encompasses government agencies1 large universities1 high schools1 businesses of all sizes1 home computers of all descriptions1 etc4 ,every administrator controls his own site4 ,no one has any real control over any site but his own4 ,the administrator gets his power from the owner of the system he administers4 ,as long as the owner is happy with the job the administrator is doing1 he can do whatever he pleases1 up to and including cutting off ,usenet entirely4 ,c'est la vie4 ,what ,usenet ,is ,not ,usenet is not an organization4 ,usenet has no central authority4 ,in fact1 it has no central anything4 ,there is a vague notion of upstream and downstream related to the direction of high-volume news flow4 ,it follows that1 to the extent that upstream sites decide what traffic they will carry for their downstream neighbors1 that upstream sites have some influence on their neighbors4 ,but such influence is usually easy to circumvent1 and heavy-handed manipulation typically results in a backlash of resentment4 ,usenet is not a democracy4 ,a democracy can be loosely defined as government of the people1 by the people1 for the people4 ,however1 as explained above1 ,usenet is not an organization1 and only an organization can be run as a democracy4 ,even a democracy must be organized1 for if it lacks a means of enforcing the peoples' wishes1 then it may as well not exist4 ,some people wish that ,usenet were a democracy4 ,many people pretend that it is4 ,both groups are sadly deluded4 ,usenet is not fair4 ,after all1 who shall decide what's fair8 ,for that matter1 if someone is behaving unfairly1 who's going to stop him8 ,neither you nor ,i1 that's certain4 ,usenet is not a right4 ,some people misunderstand their local right of freedom of speech to mean that they have a legal right to use others' computers to say what they wish in whatever way they wish1 and the owners of said computers have no right to stop them4 ,those people are wrong4 ,freedom of speech also means freedom not to speak2 if ,i choose not to use my computer to aid your speech1 that is my right4 ,freedom of the press belongs to those who own one4 ,usenet is not a public utility4 ,some ,usenet sites are publicly funded or subsidized4 ,most of them1 by plain count1 are not4 ,there is no government monopoly on ,usenet1 and little or no control4 ,usenet is not a commercial network4 ,many ,usenet sites are academic or government organizations2 in fact1 ,usenet originated in academia4 ,therefore1 there is a ,usenet custom of keeping commercial traffic to a minimum4 ,if such commercial traffic is generally considered worth carrying1 then it may be grudgingly tolerated4 ,even so1 it is usually separated somehow from non-commercial traffic2 see comp4newprod4 ,usenet is not the ,internet4 ,the ,internet is a wide-ranging network1 parts of which are subsidized by various governments4 ,the ,internet carries many kinds of traffic2 ,usenet is only one of them4 ,and the ,internet is only one of the various networks carrying ,usenet traffic4 ,usenet is not a ,unix network1 nor even an ,,ascii network4 ,don't assume that everyone is using rn on a ,unix machine4 ,there are ,vaxen running ,,vms1 ,,ibm mainframes1 ,amigas1 and ,,ms-,,dos ,p,cs reading and posting to ,usenet4 ,and1 yes1 some of them use 7shudder7 ,,ebcdic4 ,ignore them if you like1 but they're out there4 ,usenet is not software4 ,there are dozens of software packages used at various sites to transport and read ,usenet articles4 ,so no one program or package can be called the ,usenet software4 ,software designed to support ,usenet traffic can be 7and is7 used for other kinds of communication1 usually without risk of mixing the two4 ,such private communication networks are typically kept distinct from ,usenet by the invention of newsgroup names different from the universally-recognized ones4 ,usenet is not a ,,uucp network4 ,,uucp is a protocol 7some might say protocol suite1 but that's a technical point7 for sending data over point-to-point connections1 typically using dialup modems4 ,usenet is only one of the various kinds of traffic carried via ,,uucp1 and ,,uucp is only one of the various transports carrying ,usenet traffic4 ,well1 enough negativity4 ,propagation of ,news ,in the old days1 when ,,uucp over long-distance dialup lines was the dominant means of article transmission1 a few well-connected sites had real influence in determining which newsgroups would be carried where4 ,those sites called themselves the backbone4 ,but things have changed4 ,nowadays1 even the smallest ,internet site has connectivity the likes of which the backbone admin of yesteryear could only dream4 ,in addition1 in the ,u4,s41 the advent of cheaper long-distance calls and high-speed modems has made long-distance ,usenet feeds thinkable for smaller companies4 ,there is only one pre-eminent ,,uucp transport site today in the ,u4,s41 namely ,,uunet4 ,but ,,uunet isn't a player in the propagation wars1 because it never refuses any traffic---it gets paid by the minute1 after all2 to refuse based on content would jeopardize its legal status as an enhanced service provider4 ,all of the above applies to the ,u4,s4 ,in ,europe1 different cost structures favored the creation of strictly controlled hierarchical organizations with central registries4 ,this is all very unlike the traditional mode of ,u4,s4 sites 7pick a name1 get the software1 get a feed1 you're on74 ,europe's benign monopolies1 long uncontested1 now face competition from looser organizations patterned after the ,u4,s4 model4 ,group ,creation ,as discussed above1 ,usenet is not a democracy4 ,nevertheless1 currently the most popular way to create a new newsgroup involves a vote to determine popular support for 7and opposition to7 a proposed newsgroup4 ,newsgroup ,creation1 for detailed instructions and guidelines on the process involved in making a newsgroup4 ,if you follow the guidelines1 it is probable that your group will be created and will be widely propagated4 ,however1 due to the nature of ,usenet1 there is no way for any user to enforce the results of a newsgroup vote 7or any other decision1 for that matter74 ,therefore1 for your new newsgroup to be propagated widely1 you must not only follow the letter of the guidelines2 you must also follow its spirit4 ,and you must not allow even a whiff of shady dealings or dirty tricks to mar the vote4 ,so1 you may ask3 ,how is a new user supposed to know anything about the spirit of the guidelines8 ,obviously1 she can't4 ,this fact leads inexorably to the following recommendation3 ,if you're a new user1 don't try to create a new newsgroup alone4 ,if you have a good newsgroup idea1 then read the news4groups newsgroup for a while 7six months1 at least7 to find out how things work4 ,if you're too impatient to wait six months1 then you really need to learn2 read news4groups for a year instead4 ,if you just can't wait1 find a ,usenet old hand to run the vote for you4 ,readers may think this advice unnecessarily strict4 ,ignore it at your peril4 ,it is embarrassing to speak before learning4 ,it is foolish to jump into a society you don't understand with your mouth open4 ,and it is futile to try to force your will on people who can tune you out with the press of a key4 ,if ,you're ,unhappy444 ,property rights being what they are1 there is no higher authority on ,usenet than the people who own the machines on which ,usenet traffic is carried4 ,if the owner of the machine you use says1 ,we will not carry alt4sex on this machine1 and you are not happy with that order1 you have no ,usenet recourse4 ,what can we outsiders do1 after all8 ,that doesn't mean you are without options4 ,depending on the nature of your site1 you may have some internal political recourse4 ,or you might find external pressure helpful4 ,or1 with a minimal investment1 you can get a feed of your own from somewhere else4 ,computers capable of taking ,usenet feeds are down in the #ejj range now1 ,unix-capable boxes are going for under #bjjj1 and there are at least two ,unix lookalikes in the #ajj price range4 ,no matter what1 appealing to ,usenet won't help4 ,even if those who read such an appeal regarding system administration are sympathetic to your cause1 they will almost certainly have even less influence at your site than you do4 ,by the same token1 if you don't like what some user at another site is doing1 only the administrator and_/or owner of that site have any authority to do anything about it4 ,persuade them that the user in question is a problem for them1 and they might do something 7if they feel like it74 ,if the user in question is the administrator or owner of the site from which he or she posts1 forget it2 you can't win4 ,arrange for your newsreading software to ignore articles from him or her if you can1 and chalk one up to experience4 ,the ,history of ,usenet 7,the ,a,b,cs7 ,in the beginning1 there were conversations1 and they were good4 ,then came ,usenet in #aigi1 shortly after the release of ,v#g ,unix with ,,uucp2 and it was better4 ,two ,duke ,university grad students in ,north ,carolina1 ,tom ,truscott and ,jim ,ellis1 thought of hooking computers together to exchange information with the ,unix community4 ,steve ,bellovin1 a grad student at the ,university of ,north ,carolina1 put together the first version of the news software using shell scripts and installed it on the first two sites3 unc and duke4 ,at the beginning of #aihj the network consisted of those two sites and phs 7another machine at ,duke71 and was described at the ,january #aihj ,usenix conference in ,boulder1 ,,co4 ,the ,usenix conferences are semi-annual meetings where members of the ,usenix ,association1 a group of ,unix enthusiasts1 meet and trade notes4 ,steve ,bellovin later rewrote the scripts into ,c programs1 but they were never released beyond unc and duke4 ,shortly thereafter1 ,steve ,daniel did another implementation in the ,c programming language for public distribution4 ,tom ,truscott made further modifications1 and this became the ,a news release4 ,in #aiha at the ,university of ,california at ,berkeley1 grad student ,mark ,horton and high school student ,matt ,glickman rewrote the news software to add functionality and to cope with the ever increasing volume of news---,a news was intended for only a few articles per group per day4 ,this rewrite was the ,b news version4 ,the first public release was version #b4a in #aihb2 all versions before #b4a were considered in beta test4 ,as ,the ,net grew1 the news software was expanded and modified4 ,the last version maintained and released primarily by ,mark was #b4aj4a4 ,rick ,adams1 then at the ,center for ,seismic ,studies1 took over coordination of the maintenance and enhancement of the news software with the #b4aj4b release in #aihd4 ,by this time1 the increasing volume of news was becoming a concern1 and the mechanism for moderated groups was added to the software at #b4aj4b4 ,moderated groups were inspired by ,,arpa mailing lists and experience with other bulletin board systems4 ,in late #aihf1 version #b4aa of news was released1 including a number of changes to support a new naming structure for newsgroups1 enhanced batching and compression1 enhanced ihave_/sendme control messages1 and other features4 ,the current release of news is #b4aa1 patchlevel #ai4 ,a new version of news1 becoming known as ,c news1 has been developed at the ,university of ,toronto by ,geoff ,collyer and ,henry ,spencer4 ,this version is a rewrite of the lowest levels of news to increase article processing speed1 decrease article expiration processing and improve the reliability of the news system through better locking1 etc4 ,the package was released to ,the ,net in the autumn of #aihg4 ,for more information1 see the paper ,news ,need ,not ,be ,slow1 published in the ,winter #aihg ,usenix ,technical ,conference proceedings4 ,usenet software has also been ported to a number of platforms1 from the ,amiga and ,,ibm ,p,cs all the way to minicomputers and mainframes4 ,hierarchies ,newsgroups are organized according to their specific areas of concentration4 ,since the groups are in a tree structure1 the various areas are called hierarchies4 ,there are seven major categories3 comp ,topics of interest to both computer professionals and hobbyists1 including topics in computer science1 software sources1 and information on hardware and software systems4 misc ,group addressing themes not easily classified into any of the other headings or which incorporate themes from multiple categories4 ,subjects include fitness1 job-hunting1 law1 and investments4 sci ,discussions marked by special knowledge relating to research in or application of the established sciences4 soc ,groups primarily addressing social issues and socializing4 ,included are discussions related to many different world cultures4 talk ,groups largely debate-oriented and tending to feature long discussions without resolution and without appreciable amounts of generally useful information4 news ,groups concerned with the news network1 group maintenance1 and software4 rec ,groups oriented towards hobbies and recreational activities ,these world newsgroups are 7usually7 circulated around the entire ,usenet---this implies world-wide distribution4 ,not all groups actually enjoy such wide distribution1 however4 ,the ,european ,usenet and ,eunet sites take only a selected subset of the more technical groups1 and controversial noise groups are often not carried by many sites in the ,u4,s4 and ,canada 7these groups are primarily under the talk and soc classifications74 ,many sites do not carry some or all of the comp4binaries groups because of the typically large size of the posts in them 7being actual executable programs74 ,also available are a number of alternative hierarchies3 alt ,true anarchy2 anything and everything can and does appear2 subjects include sex1 the ,simpsons1 and privacy4 gnu ,groups concentrating on interests and software with the ,,gnu ,project of the ,free ,software ,foundation4 ,for further info on what the ,,fsf is1 ,,fsf4 biz ,business-related groups4 ,moderated vs ,unmoderated ,some newsgroups insist that the discussion remain focused and on-target2 to serve this need1 moderated groups came to be4 ,all articles posted to a moderated group get mailed to the group's moderator4 ,he or she periodically 7hopefully sooner than later7 reviews the posts1 and then either posts them individually to ,usenet1 or posts a composite digest of the articles for the past day or two4 ,this is how many mailing list gateways work 7for example1 the ,risks ,digest74 news4groups news4announce4newgroups ,being a good net4citizen includes being involved in the continuing growth and evolution of the ,usenet system4 ,one part of this involvement includes following the discussion in the groups news4groups and the notes in news4announce4newgroups4 ,it is there that discussion goes on about the creation of new groups and destruction of inactive ones4 ,every person on ,usenet is allowed and encouraged to vote on the creation of a newsgroup4 ,how ,usenet ,works ,the transmission of ,usenet news is entirely cooperative4 ,feeds are generally provided out of good will and the desire to distribute news everywhere4 ,there are places which provide feeds for a fee 7e4g4 ,,uunet71 but for the large part no exchange of money is involved4 ,there are two major transport methods1 ,,uucp and ,,nntp4 ,the first is mainly modem-based and involves the normal charges for telephone calls4 ,the second1 ,,nntp1 is the primary method for distributing news over the ,internet4 ,with ,,uucp1 news is stored in batches on a site until the neighbor calls to receive the articles1 or the feed site happens to call4 ,a list of groups which the neighbor wishes to receive is maintained on the feed site4 ,the ,cnews system compresses its batches1 which can dramatically reduce the transmission time necessary for a relatively heavy newsfeed4 ,,nntp1 on the other hand1 offers a little more latitude with how news is sent4 ,the traditional store-and-forward method is1 of course1 available4 ,given the real-time nature of the ,internet1 though1 other methods have been devised4 ,programs now keep constant connections with their news neighbors1 sending news nearly instantaneously1 and can handle dozens of simultaneous feeds1 both incoming and outgoing4 ,the transmission of a ,usenet article is centered around the unique ,message-,,id3 header4 ,when an ,,nntp site offers an article to a neighbor1 it says it has that specific ,message ,,id4 ,if the neighbor finds it hasn't received the article yet1 it tells the feed to send it through2 this is repeated for each and every article that's waiting for the neighbor4 ,using unique ,i,ds helps prevent a system from receiving five copies of an article from each of its five news neighbors1 for example4 ,further information on how ,usenet works with relation to the various transports is available in the documentation for the ,cnews and ,,nntp packages1 as well as in ,,rfc-#ajcf1 the ,standard for ,interchange of ,,usenet ,messages and ,,rfc-#igg1 ,network ,news ,transfer ,protocol3 ,a ,proposed ,standard for the ,stream-,based ,transmission of ,news4 ,the ,r,f,cs do tend to be rather dry reading1 particularly to the new user4 ,mail ,gateways ,a natural progression is for ,usenet news and electronic mailing lists to somehow become merged---which they have1 in the form of news gateways4 ,many mailing lists are set up to reflect messages not only to the readership of the list1 but also into a newsgroup4 ,likewise1 posts to a newsgroup can be sent to the moderator of the mailing list1 or to the entire mailing list4 ,some examples of this in action are comp4risks 7the ,risks ,digest7 and comp4dcom4telecom 7the ,telecom ,digest74 ,this method of propagating mailing list traffic has helped solve the problem of a single message being delivered to a number of people at the same site---instead1 anyone can just subscribe to the group4 ,also1 mailing list maintenance is lowered substantially1 since the moderators don't have to be constantly removing and adding users to and from the list4 ,instead1 the people can read and not read the newsgroup at their leisure4 from ,dear ,emily ,postnews by ,brad ,templeton ,usenet ,netiquette ,there are many traditions with ,usenet1 not the least of which is dubbed netiquette---being polite and considerate of others4 ,if you follow a few basic guidelines1 you1 and everyone that reads your posts1 will be much happier in the long run4 ,signatures ,at the end of most articles is a small blurb called a person's signature4 ,in ,unix this file is named 4signature in the person's login directory---it will vary for other operating systems4 ,it exists to provide information about how to get in touch with the person posting the article1 including their email address1 phone number1 address1 or where they're located4 ,even so1 signatures have become the graffiti of computers4 ,people put song lyrics1 pictures1 philosophical quotes1 even advertisements in their 4sigs4 7,note1 however1 that advertising in your signature will more often than not get you flamed until you take it out47 ,four lines will suffice---more is just extra garbage for ,usenet sites to carry along with your article1 which is supposed to be the intended focus of the reader4 ,netiquette dictates limiting oneself to this quota of four---some people make signatures that are ten lines or even more1 including elaborate ,,ascii drawings of their hand-written signature or faces or even the space shuttle4 ,this is not cute1 and will bother people to no end4 ,similarly1 it's not necessary to include your signature---if you forget to append it to an article1 don't worry about it4 ,the article's just as good as it ever would be1 and contains everything you should want to say4 ,don't re-post the article just to include the signature4 ,posting ,personal ,messages ,if mail to a person doesn't make it through1 avoid posting the message to a newsgroup4 ,even if the likelihood of that person reading the group is very high1 all of the other people reading the articles don't give a whit what you have to say to ,jim ,morrison4 ,simply wait for the person to post again and double-check the address1 or get in touch with your system administrator and see if it's a problem with local email delivery4 ,it may also turn out that their site is down or is having problems1 in which case it's just necessary to wait until things return to normal before contacting ,jim4 ,posting ,mail ,in the interests of privacy1 it's considered extremely bad taste to post any email that someone may have sent1 unless they explicitly give you permission to redistribute it4 ,while the legal issues can be heavily debated1 most everyone agrees that email should be treated as anything one would receive via normal snailmail1 ,the slang for the normal land and air postal service4 1 with all of the assumed rights that are carried with it4 ,test ,messages ,many people1 particularly new users1 want to try out posting before actually taking part in discussions4 ,often the mechanics of getting messages out is the most difficult part of ,usenet4 ,to this end1 many1 many users find it necessary to post their tests to normal groups 7for example1 news4admin or comp4mail4misc74 ,this is considered a major netiquette faux pas in the ,usenet world4 ,there are a number of groups available1 called test groups1 that exist solely for the purpose of trying out a news system1 reader1 or even new signature4 ,they include alt4test gnu4gnusenet4test misc4test some of which will generate auto-magic replies to your posts to let you know they made it through4 ,there are certain denizens of ,usenet that frequent the test groups to help new users out4 ,they respond to the posts1 often including the article so the poster can see how it got to the person's site4 ,also1 many regional hierarchies have test groups1 like phl4test in ,philadelphia4 ,by all means1 experiment and test---just do it in its proper place4 ,famous ,people ,appearing ,every once in a while1 someone says that a celebrity is accessible through ,the ,net2 or1 even more entertaining1 an article is forged to appear to be coming from that celebrity4 ,one example is ,stephen ,spielberg---the rec4arts4movies readership was in an uproar for two weeks following a couple of posts supposedly made by ,mr4 ,spielberg4 7,some detective work revealed it to be a hoax47 ,there are a few well-known people that are acquainted with ,usenet and computers in general---but the overwhelming majority are just normal people4 ,one should act with skepticism whenever a notable personality is seen in a newsgroup4 ,summaries ,authors of articles occasionally say that readers should reply by mail and they'll summarize4 ,accordingly1 readers should do just that---reply via mail4 ,responding with a followup article to such an article defeats the intention of the author4 ,she1 in a few days1 will post one article containing the highlights of the responses she received4 ,by following up to the whole group1 the author may not read what you have to say4 ,when creating a summary of the replies to a post1 try to make it as reader-friendly as possible4 ,avoid just putting all of the messages received into one big file4 ,rather1 take some time and edit the messages into a form that contains the essential information that other readers would be interested in4 ,also1 sometimes people will respond but request to remain anonymous 7one example is the employees of a corporation that feel the information's not proprietary1 but at the same time want to protect themselves from political backlash74 ,summaries should honor this request accordingly by listing the ,from3 address as anonymous or 7,address withheld by request74 ,quoting ,when following up to an article1 many newsreaders provide the facility to quote the original article with each line prefixed by 1 as in ,in article #abcb;foo4bar4com1 sharonfoo4bar4com wrote3 ,i agree1 ,i think that basketweaving's really catching on1 particularly in ,pennsylvania4 ,here's a list of every person in ,,pa that currently engages in it publicly3 line 444 etc 444 ,this is a severe example 7potentially a horribly long article71 but proves a point4 ,when you quote another person1 edit out whatever isn't directly applicable to your reply4 ,but not changing their words1 of course4 ,this gives the reader of the new article a better idea of what points you were addressing4 ,by including the entire article1 you'll only annoy those reading it4 ,also1 signatures in the original aren't necessary2 the readers already know who wrote it 7by the attribution74 ,avoid being tedious with responses---rather than pick apart an article1 address it in parts or as a whole4 ,addressing practically each and every word in an article only proves that the person responding has absolutely nothing better to do with his time4 ,if a war starts 7insults and personal comments get thrown back and forth71 take it into email---exchange email with the person you're arguing with4 ,no one enjoys watching people bicker incessantly4 ,crossposting ,the ,newsgroups3 line isn't limited to just one group---an article can be posted in a list of groups4 ,for instance1 the line ,newsgroups3 sci4space1comp4simulation posts the article to both the groups sci4space and comp4simulation4 ,it's usually safe to crosspost to up to three or four groups4 ,to list more than that is considered excessive noise4 ,it's also suggested that if an article is crossposted a ,followup-,to3 header be included4 ,it should name the group to which all additional discussion should be directed to4 ,for the above example a possible ,followup-,to3 would be ,followup-,to3 sci4space which would make all followups automatically be posted to just sci4space1 rather than both sci4space and comp4simulation4 ,if every response made with a newsreader's followup command should go to the person posting the article no matter what1 there's also a mechanism worked in to accommodate4 ,the ,followup-,to3 header should contain the single word poster3 ,followup-,to3 poster ,certain newsreaders will use this to sense that a reply should never be posted back onto ,the ,net4 ,this is often used with questions that will yield a summary of information later1 a vote1 or an advertisement4 ,recent ,news ,one should avoid posting recent events---sports scores1 a plane crash1 or whatever people will see on the evening news or read in the morning paper4 ,by the time the article has propagated across all of ,usenet1 the news value of the article will have become stale4 7,this is one case for the argument that ,usenet news is a misnomer4 ,note that the ,clarinet ,news service 7,clarinet7 offers news items in a ,usenet format as a precise alternative to the morning paper1 et4 al47 ,quality of ,postings ,how you write and present yourself in your articles is important4 ,if you have terrible spelling1 keep a dictionary near by4 ,if you have trouble with grammar and punctuation1 try to get a book on ,english grammar and composition 7found in many bookstores and at garage sales74 ,by all means pay attention to what you say---it makes you who you are on ,the ,net4 ,likewise1 try to be clear in what you ask4 ,ambiguous or vague questions often lead to no response at all1 leaving the poster discouraged4 ,give as much essential information as you feel is necessary to let people help you1 but keep it within limits4 ,for instance1 you should probably include the operating system of your computer in the post if it's needed1 but don't tell everybody what peripherals you have hanging off of it4 ,useful ,subjects ,the ,subject3 line of an article is what will first attract people to read it---if it's vague or doesn't describe what's contained within1 no one will read the article4 ,at the same time1 ,subject3 lines that're too wordy tend to be irritating4 ,for example3 ,good ,subject3 ,building ,emacs on a ,sun ,sparc under #d4a ,good ,subject3 ,tryin' to find ,waldo in ,,nj4 ,bad ,subject3 ,i can't get emacs to work 666 ,bad ,subject3 ,i'm desperately in search of the honorable ,mr4 ,waldo in the state of444 ,simply put1 try to think of what will best help the reader when he or she encounters your article in a newsreading session4 ,tone of ,voice ,since common computers can't portray the inflection or tone in a person's voice1 how articles are worded can directly affect the response to them4 ,if you say ,anybody using a ,vic-#bj should go buy themselves a life4 you'll definitely get some responses---telling you to take a leap4 ,rather than be inflammatory1 phrase your articles in a way that rationally expresses your opinion1 like ,what're the practical uses of a ,vic-#bj these days8 which presents yourself as a much more level-headed individual4 ,also1 what case 7upper or lower7 you use can indicate how you're trying to speak---netiquette dictates that if you ,,use ,,all ,,capital ,,letters1 people will think you're shouting4 ,write as you would in a normal letter to a friend1 following traditional rules of ,english 7or whatever language you happen to speak74 ,computer ,religion ,no matter what kind of computer a person is using1 theirs is always the best and most efficient of them all4 ,posting articles asking questions like ,what computer should ,i buy8 ,an ,atari ,,st or an ,amiga8 will lead only to fervent arguments over the merits and drawbacks of each brand4 ,don't even ask ,the ,net---go to a local user group1 or do some research of your own like reading some magazine reviews4 ,trying to say one computer is somehow better than another is a moot point4 ,the ,anatomy of an ,article ,frequently ,asked ,questions ,a number of groups include ,frequently ,asked ,question 7,,faq7 lists1 which give the answers to questions or points that have been raised time and time again in a newsgroup4 ,they're intended to help cut down on the redundant traffic in a group4 ,for example1 in the newsgroup alt4tv4simpsons1 one recurring question is ,did you notice that there's a different blackboard opening at the beginning of every ,simpsons episode8 ,as a result1 it's part of the ,,faq for that group4 ,usually1 ,,faq lists are posted at the beginning of each month1 and are set to expire one month later 7when1 supposedly1 the next ,,faq will be published74 ,nearly every ,,faq is also crossposted to news4answers1 which is used as a ,usenet repository for them4 ,the ,pit-,manager ,archive ,,mit1 with ,jonathan ,kamens1 has graciously dedicated a machine to the archiving and storage of the various periodic postings that are peppered throughout the various ,usenet groups4 ,to access them1 ,,ftp to the system pit-manager4mit4edu and look in the directory _/pub_/usenet4 ,be it true or false1 so it be news4 ,ben ,jonson1 ,news from the ,new ,world ----- ,telnet ,telnet is the main ,internet protocol for creating a connection with a remote machine4 ,it gives the user the opportunity to be on one computer system and do work on another1 which may be across the street or thousands of miles away4 ,where modems are limited1 in the majority1 by the quality of telephone lines and a single connection1 telnet provides a connection that's error-free and nearly always faster than the latest conventional modems4 ,using ,telnet ,as with ,,ftp 7,anonymous ,,ftp71 the actual command for negotiating a telnet connection varies from system to system4 ,the most common is telnet itself1 though4 ,it takes the form of3 telnet somewhere4domain ,to be safe1 we'll use your local system as a working example4 ,by now1 you hopefully know your site's domain name4 ,if not1 ask or try to figure it out4 ,you'll not get by without it4 ,to open the connection1 type telnet your4system4name ,if the system were wubba4cs4widener4edu1 for example1 the command would look like telnet wubba4cs4widener4edu ,the system will respond with something similar to ,trying #adg4ca4bed4iii444 ,connected to wubba4cs4widener4edu4 ,escape character is ''4 ,the escape character1 in this example 7,control-71 is the character that will let you go back to the local system to close the connection1 suspend it1 etc4 ,to close this connection1 the user would type 1 and respond to the telnet prompt with the command close4 ,local documentation should be checked for information on specific commands1 functions1 and escape character that can be used4 ,telnet ,ports ,many telnet clients also include a third option1 the port on which the connection should take place4 ,normally1 port #bc is the default telnet port2 the user never has to think about it4 ,but sometimes it's desirable to telnet to a different port on a system1 where there may be a service available1 or to aid in debugging a problem4 ,using telnet somewhere4domain port will connect the user to the given port on the system somewhere4domain4 ,many libraries use this port method to offer their facilities to the general ,internet community2 other services are also available4 ,for instance1 one would type telnet martini4eecs4umich4edu #cjjj to connect to the geographic server at the ,university of ,michigan 7,geographic ,server74 ,other such port connections follow the same usage4 ,publicly ,accessible ,libraries ,over the last several years1 most university libraries have switched from a manual 7card7 catalog system to computerized library catalogs4 ,the automated systems provide users with easily accessible and up-to-date information about the books available in these libraries4 ,this has been further improved upon with the advent of local area networks1 dialup modems1 and wide area networks4 ,now many of us can check on our local library's holdings or that of a library halfway around the world6 ,many1 many institutions of higher learning have made their library catalogs available for searching by anyone on the ,internet4 ,they include ,boston ,university1 the ,colorado ,alliance of ,research ,libraries 7,,carl71 and ,london ,university ,king's ,college4 ,to include a listing of some of the existing sites would not only be far too long for this document1 it would soon be out of date4 ,instead1 several lists are being maintained and are available either by mail or via ,,ftp4 ,also1 the ,internet ,resource ,guide 7,,irg7 also describes a few libraries that are accessible---,,irg for further information4 ,art ,st4 ,george and ,ron ,larsen are maintaining a list of ,internet-accessible libraries and databases often referred to as the ,st4 ,george directory4 ,it began with only library catalogs but has expanded to include sections on campus-wide information systems1 and even bulletin board systems that are not on the ,internet4 ,the library catalog sections are divided into those that are free1 those that charge1 and international 7i4e4 non-,u4,s47 catalogs2 they are arranged by state1 province1 or country within each section4 ,there is also a section giving dialup information for some of the library catalogs4 ,it's available for ,,ftp 7,anonymous ,,ftp7 on nic4cerf4net in the directory cerfnet_/cerfnetinfo_/librarycatalog4 ,the file internet-catalogs has a date suffix2 check for the most current date4 ,the information is updated periodically4 ,billy ,barron1 ,systems ,manager at the ,university of ,north ,texas1 produces a directory as an aid to his user community4 ,it complements the ,st4 ,george guide by providing a standard format for all systems which lists the ,internet address1 login instructions1 the system vendor1 and logoff information4 ,the arrangement is alphabetic by organization name4 ,it's available for ,,ftp on vaxb4acs4unt4edu in the subdirectory library as the file libraries4txt4 ,for announcements of new libraries being available and discussion on related topics1 consult the ,usenet newsgroup comp4internet4library 7,usenet ,news to learn how to read news74 ,bulletin ,board ,systems ,the ,cleveland ,freenet ,freenets are open-access1 free1 community computer systems4 ,one such system is the ,cleveland ,freenet1 sponsored by ,,cwru 7,case ,western ,reserve ,university74 ,anyone and everyone is welcome to join and take part in the exciting project---that of a ,national ,telecomputing ,public ,network1 where everyone benefits4 ,there's no charge for the registration process and no charge to use the system4 ,to register1 telnet to any one of freenet-in-a4cwru4edu freenet-in-b4cwru4edu freenet-in-c4cwru4edu ,after you're connected1 choose the entry on the menu that signifies you're a guest user4 ,another menu will follow2 select ,apply for an account1 and you'll be well on your way to being a ,free,net member4 ,you will need to fill out a form and send it to them through the ,postal ,service---your login id and password will be created in a few days4 ,at that point you're free to use the system as you wish4 ,they provide multi-user chat1 email1 ,usenet news1 and a variety of other things to keep you occupied for hours on end4 ,directories ,there are a few systems that are maintained to provide the ,internet community with access to lists of information---users1 organizations1 etc4 ,they range from fully dedicated computers with access to papers and research results1 to a system to find out about the faculty members of a university4 ,knowbot ,knowbot is a master directory that contains email address information from the ,,nic ,,whois database 7,whois71 the ,,psi ,white ,pages ,pilot ,project1 the ,,nysernet ,x4#ejj database and ,,mci ,mail4 ,most of these services are email registries themselves1 but ,knowbot provides a very comfortable way to access all of them in one place4 ,telnet to nri4reston4va4us on port #ahe4 ,white ,pages ,,psi maintains a directory of information on individuals4 ,it will list the person's name1 organization1 and email address if it is given4 ,telnet to wp4psi4net and log in as fred4 ,the ,white ,pages ,project also includes an interface to use ,xwindows remotely4 ,faculty and ,staff ,listings ,many universities offer access to information on current faculty and staff4 ,included are3 ,cornell ,telnet to cuinfo4cornell4edu on port #cjjj4 ,,nc ,state ,telnet to ccvax#a4;cc4ncsu4edu and log in as info4 ,rutgers ,telnet to hangout4rutgers4edu on port #ih4 ,u of ,maryland ,telnet to umail4umd4edu and log in as lookup4 ,,unc ,chapel ,hill ,telnet to info4acs4unc4edu and log in as info4 ,yale ,telnet to yalevm4ycc4yale4edu on port #cjj4 ,databases ,for information on database services1 ,commercial ,databases4 ,not all databases on the ,internet require payment for use1 though4 ,there do exist some1 largely research-driven databases1 which are publicly accessible4 ,new ones spring up regularly4 ,to find out more about the databases in this section1 contact the people directly responsible for them4 ,their areas of concentration and the software used to implement them are widely disparate1 and are probably beyond the author's expertise4 ,also1 don't forget to check with your local library---the reference librarian there can provide information on conventional resources1 and possibly even those available over the ,internet 7they are becoming more common74 ,colorado ,alliance of ,research ,libraries 7,,carl7 ,the ,colorado ,alliance of ,research ,libraries 7,,carl71 in association with ,,carl ,systems ,inc41 operates a public access catalog of services4 ,offered are a number of library databases1 including searches for government periodicals1 book reviews1 indices for current articles1 and access to to other library databases around the country4 ,other services are available to ,,carl members including an online encyclopedia4 ,telnet to pac4carl4org1 or write to helpcarl4org for more details4 ,p,e,npages ,p,e,npages is an agriculturally-oriented database administered by ,pennsylvania ,state ,university4 ,information entered into ,p,e,npages is provided by numerous sources including the ,pennsylvania ,dept4 of ,agriculture1 ,rutgers ,university1 and ,penn ,state4 ,easy-to-use menus guide users to information ranging from cattle and agricultural prices to current weather information1 from health information to agricultural news from around the nation4 ,a keyword search option also allows users to search the database for related information and articles4 ,the database is updated daily1 and a listing of most recent additions is displayed after login4 ,telnet to psupen4psu4edu and log in as the user ,,pnotpa4 ,clemson ,univ4 ,forestry ,agricultural ,network ,clemson maintains a database similar to ,p,e,npages in content1 but the information provided tends to be localized to the ,southeastern ,united ,states4 ,a menu-driven database offers queries involving the weather1 food1 family1 and human resources4 ,telnet to eureka4clemson4edu and log in as ,,public4 ,you need to be on a good ,,vt#ajj emulator 7or a real ,,vt terminal74 ,university of ,maryland ,info ,database ,the ,computer ,science department of the ,university of ,maryland maintains a repository of information on a wide variety of topics4 ,they wish to give a working example of how network technology can 7and should7 provide as much information as possible to those who use it4 ,telnet to info4umd4edu and log in as info4 ,the information contained in the database is accessible through a screen-oriented interface1 and everything therein is available via anonymous ,,ftp4 ,there is a mailing list used to discuss the ,,umd ,info ,database1 welcoming suggestions for new information1 comments on the interface the system provides1 and other related topics4 ,send mail to listservumdd4umd4edu with a body of subscribe ,,info-,l ,your ,full ,name ,listservs for more information on using the ,listserv system4 ,university of ,michigan ,weather ,underground ,the ,university of ,michigan's ,department of ,atmospheric1 ,oceanic1 ,space ,sciences maintains a database of weather and related information for the ,united ,states and ,canada4 ,available are current weather conditions and forecasts for cities in the ,u4,s41 a national weather summary1 ski conditions1 earthquake and hurricane updates1 and a listing of severe weather conditions4 ,telnet to madlab4sprl4umich4edu on port #cjjj to use the system4 ,geographic ,name ,server ,a geographic database listing information for cities in the ,united ,states and some international locations is maintained by ,merit1 ,inc4 ,the database is searchable by city name1 zip code1 etc4 ,it will respond with a lot of information3 the area code1 elevation1 time zone1 and longitude and latitude are included4 ,for example1 a query of #aijac yields #j ,chester #a #dbjde ,delaware #b ,,pa ,pennsylvania #c ,,us ,united ,states ,f #de ,populated place ,l #ci #ej #eh ,n #ge #ba #bb ,w ,p #degid ,e #bb ,z #aijac ,z #aijad ,z #aijae ,z #aijaf 44 ,to use the server1 telnet to martini4eecs4umich4edu on port #cjjj4 ,the command help will yield further instructions1 along with an explanation for each of the fields in a reponse4 ,,fedix---,minority ,scholarship ,information ,,fedix is an on-line information service that links the higher education community and the federal government to facilitate research1 education1 and services4 ,the system provides accurate and timely federal agency information to colleges1 universities1 and other research organizations4 ,there are no registration fees and no access charges for ,,fedix whatsoever4 ,,fedix offers the ,minority ,on-,line ,information ,service 7,,molis71 a database listing current information about ,black and ,hispanic colleges and universities4 ,daily information updates are made on federal education and research programs1 scholarships1 fellowships1 and grants1 available used research equipment1 and general information about ,,fedix itself4 ,to access the database1 telnet to fedix4fie4com and log in as fedix4 ,science ,technology ,information ,system ,the ,,stis is maintained by the ,national ,science ,foundation 7,,nsf71 and provides access to many ,,nsf publications4 ,the full text of publications can be searched online and copied from the system1 which can accommodate up to ten users at one time4 ,telnet to stis4nsf4gov and log in as public4 ,everything on the system is also available via anonymous ,,ftp4 ,for further information1 contact3 ,,stis1 ,office of ,information ,systems1 ,room #dja ,national ,science ,foundation #ahjj ,g4 ,street1 ,n4,w4 ,washington1 ,d4,c4 #bjeej stis-requestnsf4gov 7#bjb7 #ceg-gdib 7#bjb7 #ceg-gffc 7,fax7 ,ocean ,network ,information ,center ,the ,university of ,delaware ,college of ,marine ,studies offers access to an interactive database of research information covering all aspects of marine studies1 nicknamed ,,oceanic4 ,this includes the ,world ,oceanic ,circulation ,experiment 7,,woce7 information and program information1 research ship schedules and information1 and a ,who's ,who of email and mailing addresses for oceanic studies4 ,data from a variety of academic institutions based on research studies is also available4 ,telnet to delocn4udel4edu and log in as ,,info4 ,,nasa_/,,ipac ,extragalactic ,database 7,,ned7 ,the ,,nasa_/,,ipac ,extragalactic ,database 7,,ned7 is an ongoing project1 funded by ,,nasa1 to make data and literature on extragalactic objects available over computer networks4 ,,ned is an object-oriented database which contains extensive information for nearly #acb1jjj extragalactic objects taken from about major catalogs of galaxies1 quasars1 infrared and radio sources4 ,,ned provides positions1 names1 and other basic data 7e4g4 magnitude types1 sizes and redshifts as well as bibliographic references and abstracts74 ,searches can be done by name1 around a name1 and on an astronomical position4 ,,ned contains a tutorial which guides the user through the retrieval process4 ,telnet to ipac4caltech4edu and log in as ned4 ,u4,s4 ,naval ,observatory ,automated ,data ,service ,operated by the ,u4,s4 ,naval ,observatory in ,washington1 ,d4,c41 this automated data service provides database access to information ranging from current navigational satellite positioning1 astronomical data1 and software utilities4 ,a wide variety of databases can be searched and instructions for file transfer are given4 ,telnet to tycho4usno4navy4mil and log in as ads4 ,my consciousness suddenly switched locations1 for the first time in my life1 from the vicinity of my head and body to a point about twenty feet away from where ,i normally see the world4 ,howard ,rheingold1 ,virtual ,reality p#bee ----------------- ,various ,tools ,new and interesting ways to use the ,internet are being dreamed up every day4 ,as they gain wide-spread use1 some methods become near-standard 7or actual written standard7 tools for ,internet users to take advantage of4 ,a few are detailed here2 there are undoubtedly others1 and new ideas spring up all the time4 ,an active user of the ,internet will discover most of the more common ones in time4 ,usually1 these services are free4 ,commercial ,services for applications that are commercially available over the ,internet4 ,usenet is often used to announce a new service or capability on the ,internet4 ,in particular1 the groups comp4archives and comp4protocols4tcp-ip are good places to look4 ,information will drift into other areas as word spreads4 ,usenet ,news for information on reading news4 ,finger ,on many systems there exists the finger command1 which yield information about each user that's currently logged in4 ,this command also has extensions for use over the ,internet1 as well4 ,under normal circumstances1 the command is simply finger for a summary of who's logged into the local system1 or finger username for specific information about a user4 ,it's also possible to go one step further and go onto the network4 ,the general usage is finger hostname ,to see who's currently logged in at ,widener ,university1 for instance1 use finger cs4widener4edu cs4widener4edu ,login ,name ,,tty ,idle ,when ,where brendan ,brendan ,kehoe p#j ,fri #jb3ad tattoo4cs4widene sven ,sven ,heinicke p#a ,fri #jd3af xyplex#c4;cs4widen ,to find out about a certain user1 they can be fingered specifically 7and need not be logged in73 finger bartcs4widener4edu cs4widener4edu ,login name3 bart ,in real life3 ,bart ,simpson ,directory3 _/home_/springfield_/bart ,shell3 _/bin_/underachiever ,affiliation3 ,brother of ,lisa ,home ,system3 channel#bi4;fox4org ,last login ,thu ,may #bc #ab3ad 7,,edt7 on ttyp#f from channel#bi4;fox4org4 ,no unread mail ,project3 ,to become a fluff cartoon character4 ,plan3 ,don't have a cow1 man4 ,please realize that some sites are very security conscious1 and need to restrict the information about their systems and users available to the outside world4 ,to that end1 they often block finger requests from outside sites---so don't be surprised if fingering a computer or a user returns with ,connection refused4 ,internet ,relay ,chat ,the ,lamont ,view ,server ,system ,on lamont4ldgo4columbia4edu in pub_/gb4tar4,z4 ,ping ,the ping command allows the user to check if another system is currently up and running4 ,the general form of the command is ping system4 ,the usage will1 again1 vary4 ,for example1 ping cs4widener4edu will tell you if the main machine in ,widener ,university's ,computer ,science lab is currently online 7we certainly hope so674 ,many implementations of ping also include an option to let you see how fast a link is running 7to give you some idea of the load on the network74 ,for example3 ping -s cs4swarthmore4edu ,,ping cs4swarthmore4edu3 #ef data bytes #fd bytes from #acj4eh4fh4a3 icmpseq#j ttl#bea time#ff ms #fd bytes from #acj4eh4fh4a3 icmpseq#a ttl#bea time#de ms #fd bytes from #acj4eh4fh4a3 icmpseq#b ttl#bea time#df ms ,c --- cs4swarthmore4edu ping statistics --- #c packets transmitted1 #c packets received1 #j packet loss round-trip min_/avg_/max #de_/eb_/ff ms ,this case tells us that for cs4swarthmore4edu it takes about #df milliseconds for a packet to go from ,widener to ,swarthmore ,college and back again4 ,it also gives the average and worst-case speeds1 and any packet loss that may have occurred 7e4g4 because of network congestion74 ,while ping generally doesn't hurt network performance1 you shouldn't use it too often---usually once or twice will leave you relatively sure of the other system's state4 ,talk ,sometimes email is clumsy and difficult to manage when one really needs to have an interactive conversation4 ,the ,internet provides for that as well1 in the form of talk4 ,two users can literally see each other type across thousands of miles4 ,to talk with ,bart ,simpson at ,widener1 one would type talk bartcs4widener4edu which would cause a message similar to the following to be displayed on ,bart's terminal3 ,message from ,talk,daemoncs4widener4edu at #ba3de 444 talk3 connection requested by joeee4someplace4edu talk3 respond with3 talk joeee4someplace4edu ,bart would1 presumably1 respond by typing talk joeee4someplace4edu4 ,they could then chat about whatever they wished1 with instantaneous response time1 rather than the write-and-wait style of email4 ,to leave talk1 on many systems one would type ,ctrl-,c 7hold down the ,control key and press ,c74 ,check local documentation to be sure4 ,there are two different versions of talk in common use today4 ,the first1 dubbed old talk1 is supported by a set of ,unix systems 7most notably1 those currently sold by ,sun74 ,the second1 ntalk 7aka new talk71 is more of the standard4 ,if1 when attempting to talk with another user1 it responds with an error about protocol families1 odds are the incompatibilities between versions of talk is the culprit4 ,it's up to the system administrators of sites which use the old talk to install ntalk for their users4 ,wide ,area ,information ,servers 7,,wais7 ,the ,,whois ,database ,the main ,,whois database is run at the ,network ,information ,center 7,,nic74 ,the whois command will let you search a database of every registered domain 7e4g4 mit4edu7 and of registered users4 ,it's primarily used by system postmasters or listowners to find the ,points of ,contact for a site1 to let them know of a problem or contact them for one reason or another4 ,you can also find out their postal address4 ,for example3 whois mit4edu ,massachusetts ,institute of ,technology 7,,mit7 ,,mit4,,edu #ah4gb4b4a ,massachusetts ,institute of ,technology 7,,mit-,,dom7 ,,mit4,,edu ,note that there are two entries for mit4edu2 we'll go for the second4 whois mit-dom ,massachusetts ,institute of ,technology 7,,mit-,,dom7 ,cambridge1 ,,ma #jbaci ,domain ,name3 ,,mit4,,edu ,administrative ,contact1 ,technical ,contact1 ,zone ,contact3 ,schiller1 ,jeffrey ,i4 7,,jis7 ,,jis,,mit4,,edu 7#fag7 #bec-hdjj ,record last updated on #bb-;,jun-#hh4 ,domain servers in listed order3 ,,strawb4,,mit4,,edu #ah4ga4j4aea ,w#bj,,ns4,,mit4,,edu #ah4gj4j4afj ,,bitsy4,,mit4,,edu #ah4gb4j4c ,,lithium4,,lcs4,,mit4,,edu #ah4bf4j4aba ,to see this host record with registered users1 repeat the command with a star 7'99'7 before the name2 or1 use '' to show ,,just the registered users4 ,much better6 ,now this information 7sought1 possibly1 by a system administrator7 can be used to find out how to notify ,,mit of a security issue or problem with connectivity4 ,queries can be made for individuals as well2 the following would yield an entry for the author3 whois brendan ,kehoe1 ,brendan 7,,bk#ei7 brendancs4widener4edu ,widener ,university ,department of ,computer ,science ,kirkbride #bai ,p4,o4 ,box #hc ,widener ,university ,chester1 ,,pa #aijac 7#bae7_/dii-djaa ,record last updated on #jb-,may-#ia4 ,included is the author's name1 his handle 7a unique sequence of letters and numbers71 information on how to contact him1 and the last time the record was modified in any way4 ,anyone can register with the whois database4 ,people who are administrative or technical contacts for domains are registered automatically when their domain applications are processed4 ,for normal users1 one must simply fill out a form from the ,,nic4 ,,ftp to nic4ddn4mil and get the file netinfo_/user-template4txt4 ,the completed form should be mailed to registrarnic4ddn4mil4 ,other ,uses of ,,whois ,also1 many educational sites run ,,whois servers of their own1 to offer information about people who may be currently on the staff or attending the institution4 ,to specify a ,,whois server1 many implementations include some sort of option or qualifier---in ,,vms under ,multi,net1 it's _/,,host1 in ,unix -h4 ,to receive information about using the ,stanford server1 one might use the command whois -h stanford4edu help ,a large list of systems offering ,,whois services is being maintained by ,matt ,power of ,,mit 7mhpowerstan4mit4edu74 ,it is available via anonymous ,,ftp from sipb4mit4edu1 in the directory pub_/whois4 ,the file is named whois-servers4list4 ,the systems available include1 but are certainly not limited to1 ,syracuse ,university 7syr4edu71 ,new ,york ,university 7acfcluster4nyu4edu71 the ,university of ,california at ,san ,diego 7ucsd4edu71 and ,stanford ,university 7stanford4edu74 ,fingers were made before forks4 ,jonathan ,swift1 ,polite ,conversation ------- ,commercial ,services ,many services can be accessed through the ,internet4 ,as time progresses and more outlets for commercial activity appear1 once-restricted traffic 7by the ,n,s,fnet ,acceptable ,use ,policy7 may now flow freely4 ,now that there are other networks for that information to travel on1 businesses are making their move4 ,internet ,service ,providers ,providers 7,alter,net1 ,,psi1 etc7444 ,supercomputers ,the ,internet ,resource ,guide 7,,irg7 contains a chapter on computer time that's available for a fee4 ,rather than reproduce it here1 which would fast become out-of-date as well as triple the size of this guide1 it's suggested that the reader consult the ,,irg if such services are of interest4 ,electronic ,journals ,the ,association of ,research ,libraries 7,,arl7 publishes a hard-copy directory of electronic journals1 newsletters1 and scholarly discussion lists4 ,it is a compilation of entries for hundreds of sts1 dozens of journals and newsletters1 and a many other titles1 including newsletter-digests1 into one reference source4 ,each entry includes instructions on how to access the referenced publication or list4 ,the documents are available electronically by sending the commands get ejournl#a directry get ejournl#b directry to the server at ,,listserv,,ottawa4,,bitnet4 ,listservs for further instructions on using a listserv4 ,the directory1 along with a compilation by ,diane ,kovacs called ,directories of ,academic ,e-,mail ,conferences1 is available in print and on diskette 7,,dos ,word,perfect and ,mac,word7 from3 ,office of ,scientific ,academic ,publishing ,association of ,research ,libraries #aebg ,new ,hampshire ,avenue1 ,,nw ,washington1 ,,dc #bjjcf ,,arlhq,,umdc4,,bitnet 7#bjb7 #bcb--bdff 7#bjb7 #dfb--ghdi 7,fax7 ,the ,,arl is a not-for-profit organization representing over one hundred research libraries in the ,united ,states and ,canada4 ,the publication is available to ,,arl members for #aj and to non-members for #bj 7add #e postage per directory for foreign addresses74 ,orders of six or more copies will receive a #aj discount2 all orders must be prepaid and sent to the ,,arl4 ,commercial ,databases ,the ,american ,institute of ,physics maintains the ,physics ,information ,network4 ,it contains the bibliographic ,,spin and ,general ,physics ,advanced ,abstracts databases4 ,also available is access to bulletin boards and several searchable lists 7job notices1 announcements1 etc74 ,telnet to pinet4aip4org2 new users must log in as ,,new and give registration information4 ,some of the databases accessible through ,,wais 7,,wais7 are available for a fee4 ,clarinet ,news ,clarinet's an electronic publishing network service that provides professional news and information1 including live ,,upi wireservice news1 in the ,usenet file format4 ,clarinet lets you read an electronic newspaper right on the local system2 you can get timely industry news1 technology related wirestories1 syndicated columns and features1 financial information1 stock quotes and more4 ,clarinet's provided by using the ,usenet message interchange format1 and is available via ,,uucp and other delivery protocols1 including ,,nntp4 ,the main feature is ,clari,news1 an electronic newspaper1 gathered live from the wire services of ,united ,press ,international 7,,upi74 ,clari,news articles are distributed in #ajj newsgroups based on their subject matter1 and are keyworded for additional topics and the geographical location of the story4 ,clari,news includes headlines1 industry news1 box scores1 network ,,tv schedules1 and more4 ,the main products of ,clari,news are3 ,clari,news ,general1 the general newspaper with news1 sports1 and features1 averaging about #djj stories per day4 ,tech,wire1 special groups for stories on science1 technology1 and industry stories around them4 ,clari,news-,biz1 business and financial stories4 ,newsbytes1 a daily computer industry newsmagazine4 ,syndicated ,columns1 including ,dave ,barry 7humor7 and ,mike ,royko 7opinion74 ,full information on ,clari,net1 including subscription information1 is available from ,clarinet ,communications ,corp4 #abd ,king ,st4 ,north ,waterloo1 ,ontario ,n#b;,j #b,x#h infoclarinet4com 7#hjj7 ,,use-,,nets or with anonymous ,,ftp in the directory _/,clarinet on ftp4uu4net 7,anonymous ,,ftp74 ,needless to say1 ,aristotle did not envisage modern finance4 ,frederick ,copleston1 ,s4,j4 ,a ,history of ,philosophy3 ,vol #a ,greece ,rome ,part ,,ii1 p#ie --------- ,things ,you'll ,hear ,about ,there are certain things that you'll hear about shortly after you start actively using the ,internet4 ,most people assume that everyone's familiar with them1 and they require no additional explanation4 ,if only that were true6 ,this section addresses a few topics that are commonly encountered and asked about as a new user explores ,cyberspace4 ,some of them are directly related to how the networks are run today2 other points are simply interesting to read about4 ,the ,internet ,worm from a letter by ,severo ,m4 ,ornstein1 in ,,acm ,june #hi ,vol#cb ,no#f and the appeal notice ,on ,november #b1 #aihh1 ,robert ,morris1 ,jr41 a graduate student in ,computer ,science at ,cornell1 wrote an experimental1 self-replicating1 self-propagating program called a worm and injected it into the ,internet4 ,he chose to release it from ,,mit1 to disguise the fact that the worm came from ,cornell4 ,morris soon discovered that the program was replicating and reinfecting machines at a much faster rate than he had anticipated---there was a bug4 ,ultimately1 many machines at locations around the country either crashed or became catatonic4 ,when ,morris realized what was happening1 he contacted a friend at ,harvard to discuss a solution4 ,eventually1 they sent an anonymous message from ,harvard over the network1 instructing programmers how to kill the worm and prevent reinfection4 ,however1 because the network route was clogged1 this message did not get through until it was too late4 ,computers were affected at many sites1 including universities1 military sites1 and medical research facilities4 ,the estimated cost of dealing with the worm at each installation ranged from #bjj to more than #ec1jjj4 ,derived in part from a letter by ,severo ,m4 ,ornstein1 in the ,communications of the ,,acm1 ,vol #cb ,no #f1 ,june #aihi4 ,the program took advantage of a hole in the debug mode of the ,unix sendmail program1 which runs on a system and waits for other systems to connect to it and give it email1 and a hole in the finger daemon fingerd1 which serves finger requests 7,finger74 ,people at the ,university of ,california at ,berkeley and ,,mit had copies of the program and were actively disassembling it 7returning the program back into its source form7 to try to figure out how it worked4 ,teams of programmers worked non-stop to come up with at least a temporary fix1 to prevent the continued spread of the worm4 ,after about twelve hours1 the team at ,berkeley came up with steps that would help retard the spread of the virus4 ,another method was also discovered at ,purdue and widely published4 ,the information didn't get out as quickly as it could have1 however1 since so many sites had completely disconnected themselves from the network4 ,after a few days1 things slowly began to return to normalcy and everyone wanted to know who had done it all4 ,morris was later named in ,the ,new ,york ,times as the author 7though this hadn't yet been officially proven1 there was a substantial body of evidence pointing to ,morris74 ,robert ,t4 ,morris was convicted of violating the computer ,fraud and ,abuse ,act 7,title #ah71 and sentenced to three years of probation1 #djj hours of community service1 a fine of #aj1jej1 and the costs of his supervision4 ,his appeal1 filed in ,december1 #aiij1 was rejected the following ,march4 ,the ,cuckoo's ,egg ,first in an article entitled ,stalking the ,wily ,hacker1 and later in the book ,the ,cuckoo's ,egg1 ,clifford ,stoll detailed his experiences trying to track down someone breaking into a system at ,lawrence ,berkeley ,laboratory in ,california4 ,see the bibliography for full citations4 ,a #ge-;cent discrepancy in the ,lab's accounting records led ,stoll on a chase through ,california1 ,virginia1 and ,europe to end up in a small apartment in ,hannover1 ,west ,germany4 ,stoll dealt with many levels of bureaucracy and red tape1 and worked with the ,,fbi1 the ,,cia1 and the ,german ,bundespost trying to track his hacker down4 ,the experiences of ,stoll1 and particularly his message in speaking engagements1 have all pointed out the dire need for communication between parties on a network of networks4 ,the only way everyone can peacefully co-exist in ,cyberspace is by ensuring rapid recognition of any existing problems4 ,organizations ,the indomitable need for humans to congregate and share their common interests is also present in the computing world4 ,user groups exist around the world1 where people share ideas and experiences4 ,similarly1 there are organizations which are one step above user groups2 that is to say1 they exist to encourage or promote an idea or set of ideas1 rather than support a specific computer or application of computers4 ,the ,association for ,computing ,machinery ,the ,association for ,computing ,machinery 7the ,,acm7 was founded in #aidg1 immediately after ,eckert and ,mauchly unveiled one of the first electronic computers1 the ,,eniac1 in #aidf4 ,since then1 the ,,acm has grown by leaps and bounds1 becoming one of the leading educational and scientific societies in the computer industry4 ,the ,,acm's stated purposes are3 ,to advance the sciences and arts of information processing2 ,to promote the free interchange of information about the sciences and arts of information processing both among specialists and among the public2 ,to develop and maintain the integrity and competence of individuals engaged in the practices of the sciences and arts of information processing4 ,membership in the ,,acm has grown from seventy-eight in ,september1 #aidg1 to over #gg1jjj today4 ,there are local chapters around the world1 and many colleges and universities endorse student chapters4 ,lecturers frequent these meetings1 which tend to be one step above the normal user group gathering4 ,a large variety of published material is also available at discounted prices for members of the association4 ,the ,,acm has a number of ,special ,interest ,groups 7,s,i,gs7 that concentrate on a certain area of computing1 ranging from graphics to the ,ada programming language to security4 ,each of the ,s,i,gs also publishes its own newsletter4 ,there is a ,usenet group1 comp4org4acm1 for the discussion of ,,acm topics4 ,usenet ,news for more information on reading news4 ,for more information and a membership application1 write to3 ,assocation for ,computing ,machinery #aeae ,broadway ,new ,york ,city1 ,,ny #ajjcf ,,acmhelp,,acmvm4,,bitnet 7#bab7 #hfi-gddj ,computer ,professionals for ,social ,responsibility from their letter to prospective members ,the ,,cpsr is an alliance of computer professionals concentrating on certain areas of the impact of computer technology on society4 ,it traces its history to the fall of #aiha1 when several researchers in ,palo ,alto1 ,california1 organized a lunch meeting to discuss their shared concerns about the connection between computing and the nuclear arms race4 ,out of that meeting and the discussions which followed1 ,,cpsr was born1 and has been active ever since4 ,this section is part of the ,,cpsr's letter to prospective members4 ,the national ,,cpsr program focuses on the following project areas3 ,reliability and ,risk ,this area reflects on the concern that overreliance on computing technology can lead to unacceptable risks to society4 ,it includes1 but isn't limited to1 work in analyzing military systems such as ,,sdi4 ,civil ,liberties and ,privacy ,this project is concerned with such topics as the ,,fbi ,national ,crime ,information ,center1 the growing use of databases by both government and private industry1 the right of access to public information1 extension of ,first ,amendment rights to electronic communication1 and establishing legal protections for privacy of computerized information4 ,computers in the ,workplace ,the ,,cpsr ,workplace ,project has concentrated its attention on the design of software for the workplace1 and particularly on the philosophy of participatory design1 in which software designers work together with users to ensure that systems meet the actual needs of that workplace4 ,the #bast ,century ,project ,this is a coalition with other professional organizations working towards redirecting national research priorities from concentrating on military issues to anticipating and dealing with future problems as science and technology enter the next century4 ,for more information on the ,,cpsr1 contact them at3 ,computer ,professionals for ,social ,responsibility ,p4,o4 ,box #gag ,palo ,alto1 ,,ca #idcjb cpsrcsli4stanford4edu 7#dae7 #cbb--cggh 7#dae7 #cbb--cgih 7,fax7 ,the ,electronic ,frontier ,foundation ,the ,electronic ,frontier ,foundation 7,,eff7 was established to help civilize the electronic frontier---the ,cyberspacial medium becoming ever-present in today's society2 to make it truly useful and beneficial not just to a technical elite1 but to everyone2 and to do this in a way which is in keeping with the society's highest traditions of the free and open flow of information and communication4 ,this section was derived from eff4about1 available along with other material via anonymous ,,ftp from ftp4eff4org ,the mission of the ,,eff is to engage in and support educational activities which increase popular understanding of the opportunities and challenges posed by developments in computing and telecommunications2 to develop among policy-makers a better understanding of the issues underlying free and open telecommunications1 and support the creation of legal and structural approaches which will ease the assimilation of these new technologies by society2 to raise public awareness about civil liberties issues arising from the rapid advancement in the area of new computer-based communications media and1 where necessary1 support litigation in the public interest to preserve1 protect1 and extend ,first ,amendment rights within the realm of computing and telecommunications technology2 to encourage and support the development of new tools which will endow non-technical users with full and easy access to computer-based telecommunications2 ,the ,usenet newsgroups comp4org4eff4talk and comp4org4eff4news are dedicated to discussion concerning the ,,eff4 ,they also have mailing list counterparts for those that don't have access to ,usenet1 eff-talk-requesteff4org and eff-news-requesteff4org4 ,the first is an informal arena 7aka a normal newsgroup7 where anyone may voice his or her opinions4 ,the second1 comp4org4eff4news1 is a moderated area for regular postings from the ,,eff in the form of ,e,f,fector ,online4 ,to submit a posting for the ,e,f,fector ,online1 or to get general information about the ,,eff1 write to effeff4org4 ,there is also a wealth of information available via anonymous ,,ftp on ftp4eff4org4 ,the ,,eff can be contacted at ,the ,electronic ,frontier ,foundation1 ,inc4 #aee ,second ,st4 #a ,cambridge1 ,,ma #jbada effeff4org 7#fag7 #hfd-jffe 7#fag7 #hfd-jhff 7,fax7 ,the ,free ,software ,foundation ,the ,free ,software ,foundation was started by ,richard ,stallman 7creator of the popular ,,gnu ,emacs editor74 ,it is dedicated to eliminating restrictions on copying1 redistributing1 and modifying software4 ,the word free in their name does not refer to price2 it refers to freedom4 ,first1 the freedom to copy a program and redistribute it to your neighbors1 so that they can use it as well as you4 ,second1 the freedom to change a program1 so that you can control it instead of it controlling you2 for this1 the source code must be made available to you4 ,the ,foundation works to provide these freedoms by developing free compatible replacements for proprietary software4 ,specifically1 they are putting together a complete1 integrated software system called ,,gnu that is upward-compatible with ,unix4 ,as an aside1 the editor of the ,,gnu project1 emacs1 contains a built-in ,,lisp interpreter and a large part of its functionality is written in ,,lisp4 ,the name ,,gnu is itself recursive 7the mainstay of the ,,lisp language72 it stands for ,gnu's ,not ,unix4 ,when it is released1 everyone will be permitted to copy it and distribute it to others4 ,in addition1 it will be distributed with source code1 so you will be able to learn about operating systems by reading it1 to port it to your own machine1 and to exchange the changes with others4 ,for more information on the ,free ,software ,foundation and the status of the ,,gnu ,project1 or for a list of the current tasks that still need to be done1 write to gnuprep4ai4mit4edu4 ,the ,,ieee ,need ,,ieee444 ,the ,league for ,programming ,freedom ,the ,league for ,programming ,freedom is a grass-roots organization of professors1 students1 businessmen1 programmers and users dedicated to bringing back the freedom to write programs1 which they contend has been lost over the past number years4 ,the ,league is not opposed to the legal system that ,congress intended--copyright on individual programs4 ,their aim is to reverse the recent changes made by judges in response to special interests1 often explicitly rejecting the public interest principles of the ,constitution4 ,the ,league works to abolish the new monopolies by publishing articles1 talking with public officials1 boycotting egregious offenders1 and in the future may intervene in court cases4 ,on ,may #bd1 #aihi1 the ,league picketed ,lotus headquarters because of their lawsuits1 and then again on ,august #b1 #aiij4 ,these marches stimulated widespread media coverage for the issue4 ,they welcome suggestions for other activities1 as well as help in carrying them out4 ,for information on the ,league and how to join1 write to ,league for ,programming ,freedom #a ,kendall ,square #adc ,p4,o4 ,box #iaga ,cambridge1 ,,ma #jbaci leagueprep4ai4mit4edu ,networking ,initiatives ,research and development are two buzz words often heard when discussing the networking field---everything needs to go faster1 over longer distances1 for a lower cost4 ,to keep current1 one should read the various trade magazines and newspapers1 or frequent the networking-oriented newsgroups of ,usenet4 ,if possible1 attend trade shows and symposia like ,usenix1 ,interop1 et4 al4 ,,isdn ,,nren ,the ,national ,research and ,education ,network 7,,nren7 is a five-year project approved by ,congress in the ,fall of #aiia4 ,it's intended to create a national electronic super-highway4 ,the ,,nren will be #ej times faster than the fastest available networks 7at the time of this writing74 ,proponents of the ,,nren claim it will be possible to transfer the equivalent of the entire text of the ,encyclopedia ,britannica in one second4 ,further information1 including the original text of the bill presented by ,senator ,al ,gore 7,d--,,tn71 is available through anonymous ,,ftp to nis4nsf4net1 in the directory nsfnet4 ,in addition1 ,vint ,cerf wrote on the then-proposed ,,nren in ,,rfc-#aafg1 ,thoughts on the ,national ,research and ,education ,network4 ,r,f,cs for information on obtaining ,r,f,cs4 ,a mailing list1 nren-discussuu4psi4com1 is available for discussion of the ,,nren2 write to nren-discuss-requestuu4psi4com to be added4 ,to talk in publick1 to think in solitude1 to read and to hear1 to inquire1 and to answer inquiries1 is the business of a scholar4 ,samuel ,johnson ,chapter ,,viii ,the ,history of ,rasselas1 ,prince of ,abissinia ----- ,finding ,out ,more ,internet ,resource ,guide ,the ,,nsf ,network ,service ,center 7,,nnsc7 compiles and makes available an ,internet ,resource ,guide 7,,irg74 ,the goal of the guide is to increase the visibility of various ,internet resources that may help users do their work better4 ,while not yet an exhaustive list1 the guide is a useful compendium of many resources and can be a helpful reference for a new user4 ,resources listed are grouped by types into sections4 ,current sections include descriptions of online library catalogs1 data archives1 online white pages directory services1 networks1 network information centers1 and computational resources1 such as supercomputers4 ,each entry describes the resource1 identifies who can use the resource1 explains how to reach the local network via the ,internet1 and lists contacts for more information4 ,the list is distributed electronically by the ,,nnsc4 ,to receive a guide1 or to get on a mailing list that alerts you to when it is updated1 send a message to resource-guide-requestnnsc4nsf4net4 ,the current edition of the ,,irg is available via anonymous ,,ftp from nnsc4nsf4net1 in the directory _/resource-guide4 ,requests for ,comments ,the internal workings of the ,internet are defined by a set of documents called ,r,f,cs 7,request for ,comments74 ,the general process for creating an ,,rfc is for someone wanting something formalized to write a document describing the issue and mailing it to ,jon ,postel 7postelisi4edu74 ,he acts as a referee for the proposal4 ,it is then commented upon by all those wishing to take part in the discussion 7electronically1 of course74 ,it may go through multiple revisions4 ,should it be generally accepted as a good idea1 it will be assigned a number and filed with the ,r,f,cs4 ,the ,r,f,cs can be divided into five groups3 required1 suggested1 directional1 informational and obsolete4 ,required ,r,f,cs 7e4g41 ,,rfc-#gia1 ,the ,internet ,protocol7 must be implemented on any host connected to the ,internet4 ,suggested ,r,f,cs are generally implemented by network hosts4 ,lack of them does not preclude access to the ,internet1 but may impact its usability4 ,,rfc-#gic1 ,transmission ,control ,protocol1 is a must for those implementing ,,tcp4 ,directional ,r,f,cs were discussed and agreed to1 but their application has never come into wide use4 ,this may be due to the lack of wide need for the specific application 7,,rfc-#icg1 ,the ,post ,office ,protocol7 or that1 although technically superior1 ran against other pervasive approaches 7,,rfc-#hia1 ,hello74 ,it is suggested that1 should the facility be required by a particular site1 an implementation be done in accordance with the ,,rfc4 ,this ensures that1 should the idea be one whose time has come1 the implementation will be in accordance with some standard and will be generally usable4 ,informational ,r,f,cs contain factual information about the ,internet and its operation 7,,rfc-#iij1 ,assigned ,numbers74 ,there is also a subset of ,r,f,cs called ,f,y,is 7,for ,your ,information74 ,they are written in a language much more informal than that used in the other1 standard ,r,f,cs4 ,topics range from answers to common questions for new and experienced users to a suggested bibliography4 ,finally1 as the ,internet has grown and technology has changed1 some ,r,f,cs become unnecessary4 ,these obsolete ,r,f,cs cannot be ignored1 however4 ,frequently when a change is made to some ,,rfc that causes a new one to obsolete others1 the new ,,rfc only contains explanations and motivations for the change4 ,understanding the model on which the whole facility is based may involve reading the original and subsequent ,r,f,cs on the topic4 ,r,f,cs and ,f,y,is are available via ,,ftp from many sources1 including3 ,the nic4ddn4mil archive1 as _/rfc_/rfc-xxxx4txt1 where xxxx is the number of the ,,rfc4 from ftp4uu4net1 in the directory _/,,rfc4 ,they're also available through mail by writing to servicenic4ddn4mil1 with a ,subject3 line of send ,,rfc-xxxx4,,txt1 again with xxxx being the ,,rfc number4 ,knowledge is of two kinds4 ,we know a subject ourselves1 or we know where we can find information upon it4 ,samuel ,johnson ,letter to ,lord ,chesterfield ,february1 #agee a book of quotes said ,april #ah1 #agge 44 the book of ,johnson's works said it's #agee2 ,i'll go with the latter4 ------- ,conclusion ,this guide is far from complete---the ,internet changes on a daily 7if not hourly7 basis4 ,however1 this booklet should provide enough information to make the incredible breadth and complexity of the ,internet a mite less imposing4 ,coupled with some exploration and experimentation1 every user has the potential to be a competent net citizen1 using the facilities that are available to their fullest4 ,you1 the reader1 are strongly encouraged to suggest improvements to any part of this booklet4 ,if something was unclear1 left you with doubts1 or wasn't addressed1 it should be fixed4 ,if you find any problems1 inaccuracies1 spelling errors1 etc41 please report them to3 ,brendan ,kehoe ,department of ,computer ,science ,widener ,university ,chester1 ,,pa #aijac ,internet3 guide-bugscs4widener4edu ,,uucp3 4446widener6guide-bugs ,if you are interested in future updates to this guide 7aside from normal new editions71 discussion about information to be included or removed1 etc41 write to guide-requestcs4widener4edu to be placed on a mailing list for such things4 dots is actually 4 4 4 4' ,i've seed de first an de last dots ,i seed de beginnin1 en now ,i sees de endin4 ,william ,faulkner ,the ,sound ,the ,fury ,april #h1 #aibh -------- ,getting to ,other ,networks ,inter-connectivity has been and always will be one of the biggest goals in computer networking4 ,the ultimate desire is to make it so one person can contact anyone else no matter where they are4 ,a number of gateways between networks have been set up4 ,they include3 ,apple,link ,quantum ,services sells access to ,apple,link1 which is similar to ,quantum,link for ,commodore computers and ,p,c,link for ,,ibm ,p,cs and compatibles4 ,it also provides email access through the address userapplelink4apple4com4 ,a,t,t,mail ,,at,t sells a commercial email service called ,a,t,t,mail4 ,its users can be reached by writing to userattmail4com4 ,,bix ,users on ,,bix 7the ,byte ,information e,xchange7 can be reached through the ,,das gateway at usercibix4das4net4 ,compu,serve 7,,ci7 ,to reach a user on the commercial service ,compu,serve1 you must address the mail as xxxxx4xxxcompuserve4com1 with xxxxx4xxx being their ,compu,serve user ,,id4 ,normally ,compu,serve ids are represented as being separated by a comma 7like #gaiii1ada72 since most mailers don't react well to having commas in addresses1 it was changed to a period4 ,for the above address1 mail would be sent to #gaiii4ada;compuserve4com4 ,easy,net ,digital sells a service called ,easy,net2 users that subscribe to it can be reached with the addresses userhost4enet4dec4com or userhost4enetdecwrl4dec4com4 ,fido,net ,the ,fido,net computer network can be reached by using a special addressing method4 ,if ,john ,smith is on the node #a3b_/c4d on ,fido,net1 his or her email address would be john4smithp#d4;f#c4n#b4z#a4;fidonet4org 7notice how the numbers fall in place874 ,,mci ,mail ,,mci also sells email accounts 7similar to ,a,t,t,mail74 ,users can be reached with usermcimail4com4 ,peace,net ,users on the ,peace,net network can be reached by writing to userigc4org4 ,the ,well ,users on the service ,the ,well can be reached by writing to userwell4sf4ca4us4 ,the ,well is directly connected to the ,internet4 ,this table is far from complete4 ,in addition to sites not being listed1 some services are not 7nor do they plan to be7 accessible from the outside 7like ,prodigy72 others1 like ,g,enie1 are actively investigating the possibility of creating a gateway into their system4 ,for the latest information1 consult a list called the ,inter-,network ,mail ,guide4 ,it's available from a number of ,,ftp sites1 including ,,uunet2 ,anonymous ,,ftp1 for more information on getting a copy of it using anonymous ,,ftp4 ,retrieving ,files via ,email ,for those who have a connection to the ,internet1 but cannot ,,ftp1 there do exist a few alternatives to get those files you so desperately need4 ,when requesting files1 it's imperative that you keep in mind the size of your request---odds are the other people who may be using your link won't be too receptive to sudden bursts of really heavy traffic on their normally sedate connection4 ,archive ,servers ,an alternative to the currently well over-used ,f,t,pmail system is taking advantage of the many archive servers that are presently being maintained4 ,these are programs that receive email messages that contain commands1 and act on them4 ,for example1 sending an archive server the command help will usually yield1 in the form of a piece of email1 information on how to use the various commands that the server has available4 ,one such archive server is servicenic4ddn4mil4 ,maintained by the ,network ,information ,center 7,,nic7 in ,chantilly1 ,,va1 the server is set up to make all of the information at the ,,nic available for people who don't have access to ,,ftp4 ,this also includes the ,,whois service 7,whois74 ,some sample ,subject3 lines for queries to the ,,nic server are3 ,subject3 help ,describes available commands4 ,subject3 rfc #hbb ,sends a copy of ,,rfc-#hbb4 ,subject3 rfc index ,sends an index of the available ,r,f,cs4 ,subject3 netinfo domain-template4txt ,sends a domain application4 ,subject3 whois widener ,sends ,,whois information on widener'4 ,more information on using their archive server can be obtained by writing to their server address servicenic4ddn4mil with a ,subject3 of help4 ,there are different brands of archive server1 each with its own set of commands and services4 ,among them there often exists a common set of commands and services 7e4g4 index1 help1 etc74 ,be that as it may1 one should always consult the individual help for a specific server before assuming the syntax---#ajj,k surprises can be hard on a system4 ,,ftp-by-,mail ,servers ,some systems offer people the ability to receive files through a mock-,,ftp interface via email4 ,anonymous ,,ftp for a general overview of how to ,,ftp4 ,the effects of providing such a service varies1 although a rule of thumb is that it will probably use a substantial amount of the available resources on a system4 ,the original ,,ftp-by-,mail service1 ,,bitftp1 is available to ,,bitnet users from the ,princeton node ,,pucc4 ,it was once accessible to anyone1 but had to be closed out to non-,,bitnet users because of the heavy load on the system4 ,in response to this closure1 ,paul ,vixie designed and installed a system called ,f,t,pmail on one of ,digital's gateway computers1 decwrl4dec4com4 ,write to ftpmaildecwrl4dec4com with help in the body of the letter for instructions on its use4 ,the software is undergoing constant development2 once it reaches a stable state1 other sites will be encouraged to adopt it and provide the service also4 ,newsgroup ,creation ,everyone has the opportunity to make a ,call ,for ,votes on the ,usenet and attempt to create a newsgroup that he_/she feels would be of benefit to the general readership4 ,the rules governing newsgroup creation have evolved over the years into a generally accepted method4 ,they only govern the world groups2 they aren't applicable to regional or other alternative hierarchies4 ,discussion ,a discussion must first take place to address issues like the naming of the group1 where in the group tree it should go 7e4g4 rec4sports4koosh vs rec4games4koosh871 and whether or not it should be created in the first place4 ,the formal ,request ,for ,discussion 7,,rfd7 should be posted to news4announce4newgroups1 along with any other groups or mailing lists at all related to the proposed topic4 news4announce4newgroups is moderated4 ,you should place it first in the ,newsgroups3 header1 so that it will get mailed to the moderator only4 ,the article won't be immediately posted to the other newsgroups listed2 rather1 it will give you the opportunity to have the moderator correct any inconsistencies or mistakes in your ,,rfd4 ,he or she will take care of posting it to the newsgroups you indicated4 ,also the ,followup-,to3 header will be set so that the actual discussion takes place only in news4groups4 ,if a user has difficulty posting to a moderated group1 he or she may mail submissions intended for news4announce4newgroups to the address announce-newgroupsrpi4edu4 ,the final name and charter of the group1 and whether it will be moderated or unmoderated1 will be determined during the discussion period4 ,if it's to be moderated1 the discussion will also decide who the moderator will be4 ,if there's no general agreement on these points among those in favor of a new group at the end of #cj days1 the discussion will be taken into mail rather than continued posting to news4groups2 that way1 the proponents of the group can iron out their differences and come back with a proper proposal1 and make a new ,request ,for ,discussion4 ,voting ,after the discussion period 7which is mandatory71 if it's been determined that a new group really is desired1 a name and charter are agreed upon1 and it's been determined whether the group will be moderated 7and by whom71 a ,call ,for ,votes 7,,cfv7 should be posted to news4announce4newgroups1 along with any other groups that the original ,request ,for ,discussion was posted to4 ,the ,,cfv should be posted 7or mailed to the news4announce4newgroups moderator7 as soon as possible after the discussion ends 7to keep it fresh in everyone's mind74 ,the ,call for ,votes should include clear instructions on how to cast a vote4 ,it's important that it be clearly explained how to both vote for and against a group 7and be of equivalent difficulty or ease74 ,if it's easier for you or your administrator1 two separate addresses can be used to mail yes and no votes to1 providing that they're on the same machine4 ,regardless of the method1 everyone must have a very specific idea of how to get his_/her vote counted4 ,the voting period can last between #ba and #ca days1 no matter what the preliminary results of the vote are4 ,a vote can't be called off simply because #djj no votes have come in and only two yes votes4 ,the ,call for ,votes should include the exact date that the voting period will end---only those votes arriving on the vote-taker's machine before this date can be counted4 ,to keep awareness high1 the ,,cfv can be repeated during the vote1 provided that it gives the same clear1 unbiased instructions for casting a vote as the original2 it also has to be the same proposal as was first posted4 ,the charter can't change in mid-vote4 ,also1 votes that're posted don't count---only those that were mailed to the vote-taker can be tallied4 ,partial results should never be included2 only a statement of the specific proposal1 that a vote is in progress on it1 and how to cast a vote4 ,a mass acknowledgement 7,mass ,,ack or ,vote ,,ack7 is permitted2 however1 it must be presented in a way that gives no indication of which way a person voted4 ,one way to avoid this is to create one large list of everyone who's voted1 and sort it in alphabetical order4 ,it should not be two sorted lists 7of the yes and no votes1 respectively74 ,every vote is autonomous4 ,the votes for or against one group can't be transferred to another1 similar proposal4 ,a vote can only count for the exact proposal that it was a response to4 ,in particular1 a vote for or against a newsgroup under one name can't be counted as a vote for or against another group with a different name or charter1 a different moderated_/unmoderated status1 or1 if it's moderated1 a different moderator or set of moderators4 ,whew6 ,finally1 the vote has to be explicit2 they should be of the form ,i vote for the group foo4bar as proposed or ,i vote against the group foo4bar as proposed4 ,the wording doesn't have to be exact1 your intention just has to be clear4 ,the ,result of a ,vote ,at the end of the voting period1 the vote-taker has to post 7to news4announce4newgroups7 the tally and email addresses of the votes received4 ,again1 it can also be posted to any of the groups listed in the original ,,cfv4 ,the tally should make clear which way a person voted1 so the results can be verified if it proves necessary to do so4 ,after the vote result is posted to news4announce4newgroups1 there is a mandatory five-day waiting period4 ,this affords everyone the opportunity to correct any errors or inconsistencies in the voter list or the voting procedure4 ,creation of the ,group ,if1 after the waiting period1 there are no serious objections that might invalidate the vote1 the vote is put to the water test4 ,if there were #ajj more valid ,,yes_/create votes than ,,no_/don't create votes1 and at least two-thirds of the total number of votes are in favor of creation1 then a newgroup control message can be sent out 7often by the moderator of news4announce4newgroups74 ,if the #ajj-vote margin or the two-thirds percentage isn't met1 the group has failed and can't be created4 ,if the proposal failed1 all is not lost---after a six-month waiting period 7a cooling down71 a new ,request ,for ,discussion can be posted to news4groups1 and the whole process can start over again4 ,if after a couple of tries it becomes obvious that the group is not wanted or needed1 the vote-taker should humbly step back and accept the opinion of the majority4 7,as life goes1 so goes ,usenet47 -------- ,glossary ,this glossary is only a tiny subset of all of the various terms and other things that people regularly use on ,the ,net4 ,for a more complete 7and very entertaining7 reference1 it's suggested you get a copy of ,the ,new ,hacker's ,dictionary1 which is based on a ,,very large text file called the ,jargon ,file4 ,edited by ,eric ,raymond 7ericsnark4thyrsus4com71 it is available from the ,,mit ,press1 ,cambridge1 ,massachusetts1 #jbadb2 its ,,isbn number is #j-bfb-fhjfi-f4 ,also see ,,rfc-#abjh1 ,a ,glossary of ,networking ,terms4 3-7 ,this odd symbol is one of the ways a person can portray mood in the very flat medium of computers---by using smilies4 ,this is metacommunication'1 and there are literally hundreds of them1 from the obvious to the obscure4 ,this particular example expresses happiness4 ,don't see it8 ,tilt your head to the left #ij degrees4 ,smilies are also used to denote sarcasm4 ,network addresses are usually of two types3 the physical or hardware address of a network interface card2 for ethernet this #dh-;bit address might be #jbfj4h;,c#jj4gfff4 ,the hardware address is used to forward packets within a physical network4 ,fortunately1 network users do not have to be concerned about hardware addresses since they are automatically handled by the networking software4 ,the logical or ,internet address is used to facilitate moving data between physical networks4 ,the #cb-;bit ,internet address is made up of a network number1 a subnetwork number1 and a host number4 ,each host computer on the ,internet1 has a unique address4 ,for example1 all ,internet addresses at ,colorado ,state have a network number of #abi4hb1 a subnet number in the range of #a-bed1 and a host number in the range of #a-bed4 ,all ,internet hosts have a numeric address and an ,english-style name4 ,for example1 the ,internet address for ,,ucc's ,,cyber #hdj is #abi4hb4ajc4if2 its ,internet name is csugreen4,,ucc4,colo,state4,,edu4 address resolution ,conversion of an ,internet address to the corresponding physical address4 ,on an ethernet1 resolution requires broadcasting on the local area network4 administrivia ,administrative tasks1 most often related to the maintenance of mailing lists1 digests1 news gateways1 etc4 anonymous ,,ftp ,also known as anon ,,ftp2 a service provided to make files available to the general ,internet community---,anonymous ,,ftp4 ,,ansi ,the ,american ,national ,standards ,institute disseminates basic standards like ,,ascii1 and acts as the ,united ,states' delegate to the ,,iso4 ,standards can be ordered from ,,ansi by writing to the ,,ansi ,sales ,department1 #adcj ,broadway1 ,new ,york1 ,,ny #ajjah1 or by telephoning 7#bab7 #ced-ccjj4 archie ,a service which provides lookups for packages in a database of the offerings of countless of anonymous ,,ftp sites4 archie for a full description4 archive server ,an email-based file transfer facility offered by some systems4 ,,arpa 7,advanced ,research ,projects ,agency7 ,former name of ,,darpa1 the government agency that funded ,a,r,p,anet and later the ,,darpa ,internet4 ,a,r,p,anet ,a pioneering long haul network funded by ,,arpa4 ,it served as the basis for early networking research as well as a central backbone during the development of the ,internet4 ,the ,a,r,p,anet consisted of individual packet switching computers interconnected by leased lines4 ,the ,a,r,p,anet no longer exists as a singular entity4 asynchronous ,transmission by individual bytes1 not related to specific timing on the transmitting end4 auto-magic ,something which happens pseudo-automatically1 and is usually too complex to go into any further than to say it happens auto-magically4 backbone ,a high-speed connection within a network that connects shorter1 usually slower circuits4 ,also used in reference to a system that acts as a hub for activity 7although those are becoming much less prevalent now than they were ten years ago74 bandwidth ,the capacity of a medium to transmit a signal4 ,more informally1 the mythical size of ,the ,net1 and its ability to carry the files and messages of those that use it4 ,some view certain kinds of traffic 7,f,t,ping hundreds of graphics images1 for example7 as a waste of bandwidth and look down upon them4 ,,bitnet 7,because ,it's ,time ,network7 ,an ,,nje-based international educational network4 bounce ,the return of a piece of mail because of an error in its delivery4 btw ,an abbreviation for by the way4 ,,cfv 7,call ,for ,votes7 ,initiates the voting period for a ,usenet newsgroup4 ,at least one 7occasionally two or more7 email address is customarily included as a repository for the votes4 ,see ,newsgroup ,creation for a full description of the ,usenet voting process4 ,clari,news ,the fee-based ,usenet newsfeed available from ,clari,net ,communications4 client ,the user of a network service2 also used to describe a computer that relies upon another for some or all of its resources4 ,cyberspace ,a term coined by ,william ,gibson in his fantasy novel ,neuromancer to describe the world of computers1 and the society that gathers around them4 datagram ,the basic unit of information passed across the ,internet4 ,it contains a source and destination address along with data4 ,large messages are broken down into a sequence of ,,ip datagrams4 disassembling ,converting a binary program into human-readable machine language code4 ,,dns 7,domain ,name ,system7 ,the method used to convert ,internet names to their corresponding ,internet numbers4 domain ,a part of the naming hierarchy4 ,syntactically1 a domain name consists of a sequence of names or other words separated by dots4 dotted quad ,a set of four numbers connected with periods that make up an ,internet address2 for example1 #adg4ca4bed4acj4 email ,the vernacular abbreviation for electronic mail4 email address ,the ,,uucp or domain-based address that a user is referred to with4 ,for example1 the author's address is brendancs4widener4edu4 ethernet ,a #aj-million bit per second networking scheme originally developed by ,xerox ,corporation4 ,ethernet is widely used for ,l,a,ns because it can network a wide variety of computers1 it is not proprietary1 and components are widely available from many commercial sources4 ,,fddi 7,fiber ,distributed ,data ,interface7 ,an emerging standard for network technology based on fiber optics that has been established by ,,ansi4 ,,fddi specifies a #ajj-million bit per second data rate4 ,the access control mechanism uses token ring technology4 flame ,a piece of mail or a ,usenet posting which is violently argumentative4 ,,fqdn 7,fully ,qualified ,domain ,name7 ,the ,,fqdn is the full site name of a system1 rather than just its hostname4 ,for example1 the system lisa at ,widener ,university has a ,,fqdn of lisa4cs4widener4edu4 ,,ftp 7,file ,transfer ,protocol7 ,the ,internet standard high-level protocol for transferring files from one computer to another4 ,,fyi ,an abbreviation for the phrase for your information4 ,there is also a series of ,r,f,cs put out by the ,network ,information ,center called ,f,y,is2 they address common questions of new users and many other useful things4 ,r,f,cs for instructions on retrieving ,f,y,is4 gateway ,a special-purpose dedicated computer that attaches to two or more networks and routes packets from one network to the other4 ,in particular1 an ,internet gateway routes ,,ip datagrams among the networks it connects4 ,gateways route packets to other gateways until they can be delivered to the final destination directly across one physical network4 header ,the portion of a packet1 preceding the actual data1 containing source and destination addresses and error-checking fields4 ,also part of a message or news article4 hostname ,the name given to a machine4 7,see also ,,fqdn47 ,,imho 7,in ,my ,humble ,opinion7 ,this usually accompanies a statement that may bring about personal offense or strong disagreement4 ,internet ,a concatenation of many individual ,,tcp_/,,ip campus1 state1 regional1 and national networks 7such as ,n,s,fnet1 ,a,r,p,anet1 and ,milnet7 into one single logical network all sharing a common addressing scheme4 ,internet number ,the dotted-quad address used to specify a certain system4 ,the ,internet number for the site cs4widener4edu is #adg4ca4bed4acj4 ,a resolver is used to translate between hostnames and ,internet addresses4 interoperate ,the ability of multi-vendor computers to work together using a common set of protocols4 ,with interoperability1 ,p,cs1 ,macs1 ,suns1 ,dec ,v,a,xen1 ,,cdc ,cybers1 etc1 all work together allowing one host computer to communicate with and take advantage of the resources of another4 ,,iso 7,international ,organization for ,standardization7 ,coordinator of the main networking standards that are put into use today4 kernel ,the level of an operating system or networking system that contains the system-level commands or all of the functions hidden from the user4 ,in a ,unix system1 the kernel is a program that contains the device drivers1 the memory management routines1 the scheduler1 and system calls4 ,this program is always running while the system is operating4 ,,lan 7,local ,area ,network7 ,any physical network technology that operates at high speed over short distances 7up to a few thousand meters74 mail gateway ,a machine that connects to two or more electronic mail systems 7especially dissimilar mail systems on two different networks7 and transfers mail messages among them4 mailing list ,a possibly moderated discussion group1 distributed via email from a central computer maintaining the list of people involved in the discussion4 mail path ,a series of machine names used to direct electronic mail from one user to another4 medium ,the material used to support the transmission of data4 ,this can be copper wire1 coaxial cable1 optical fiber1 or electromagnetic wave 7as in microwave74 multiplex ,the division of a single transmission medium into multiple logical channels supporting many simultaneous sessions4 ,for example1 one network may have simultaneous ,,ftp1 telnet1 rlogin1 and ,,smtp connections1 all going at the same time4 net4citizen ,an inhabitant of ,cyberspace4 ,one usually tries to be a good net4citizen1 lest one be flamed4 netiquette ,a pun on etiquette2 proper behavior on ,the ,net4 ,usenet ,netiquette4 network ,a group of machines connected together so they can transmit information to one another4 ,there are two kinds of networks3 local networks and remote networks4 ,,nfs 7,network ,file ,system7 ,a method developed by ,sun ,microsystems to allow computers to share files across a network in a way that makes them appear as if they're local to the system4 ,,nic ,the ,network ,information ,center4 node ,a computer that is attached to a network2 also called a host4 ,n,s,fnet ,the national backbone network1 funded by the ,national ,science ,foundation and operated by the ,merit ,corporation1 used to interconnect regional 7mid-level7 networks such as ,west,net to one another4 packet ,the unit of data sent across a packet switching network4 ,the term is used loosely4 ,while some ,internet literature uses it to refer specifically to data sent across a physical network1 other literature views the ,internet as a packet switching network and describes ,,ip datagrams as packets4 polling ,connecting to another system to check for things like mail or news4 postmaster ,the person responsible for taking care of mail problems1 answering queries about users1 and other related work at a site4 protocols ,a formal description of message formats and the rules two computers must follow to exchange those messages4 ,protocols can describe low-level details of machine-to-machine interfaces 7e4g41 the order in which bits and bytes are sent across a wire7 or high-level exchanges between allocation programs 7e4g41 the way in which two programs transfer a file across the ,internet74 recursion ,the facility of a programming language to be able to call functions from within themselves4 resolve ,translate an ,internet name into its equivalent ,,ip address or other ,,dns information4 ,,rfd 7,request ,for ,discussion7 ,usually a two- to three-week period in which the particulars of newsgroup creation are battled out4 route ,the path that network traffic takes from its source to its destination4 router ,a dedicated computer 7or other device7 that sends packets from one place to another1 paying attention to the current state of the network4 ,,rtfm 7,read ,the ,fantastic ,manual74 ,this anacronym is often used when someone asks a simple or common question4 ,the word ,fantastic' is usually replaced with one much more vulgar4 ,,smtp 7,simple ,mail ,transfer ,protocol7 ,the ,internet standard protocol for transferring electronic mail messages from one computer to another4 ,,smtp specifies how two mail systems interact and the format of control messages they exchange to transfer mail4 server ,a computer that shares its resources1 such as printers and files1 with other computers on the network4 ,an example of this is a ,network ,file ,system 7,,nfs7 server which shares its disk space with other computers4 signal-to-noise ratio ,when used in reference to ,usenet activity1 signal-to-noise ratio describes the relation between amount of actual information in a discussion1 compared to their quantity4 ,more often than not1 there's substantial activity in a newsgroup1 but a very small number of those articles actually contain anything useful4 signature ,the small1 usually four-line message at the bottom of a piece of email or a ,usenet article4 ,in ,unix1 it's added by creating a file 44signature in the user's home directory4 ,large signatures are a no-no4 summarize ,to encapsulate a number of responses into one coherent1 usable message4 ,often done on controlled mailing lists or active newsgroups1 to help reduce bandwidth4 synchronous ,data communications in which transmissions are sent at a fixed rate1 with the sending and receiving devices synchronized4 ,,tcp_/,,ip 7,transmission ,control ,protocol_/,internet ,protocol7 ,a set of protocols1 resulting from ,,arpa efforts1 used by the ,internet to support services such as remote login 7telnet71 file transfer 7,,ftp7 and mail 7,,smtp74 telnet ,the ,internet standard protocol for remote terminal connection service4 ,telnet allows a user at one site to interact with a remote timesharing system at another site as if the user's terminal were connected directly to the remote computer4 terminal server ,a small1 specialized1 networked computer that connects many terminals to a ,,lan through one network connection4 ,any user on the network can then connect to various network hosts4 ,te,x ,a free typesetting system by ,donald ,knuth4 twisted pair ,cable made up of a pair of insulated copper wires wrapped around each other to cancel the effects of electrical noise4 ,,uucp 7,unix to ,unix ,copy ,program7 ,a store-and-forward system1 primarily for ,unix systems but currently supported on other platforms 7e4g4 ,,vms and personal computers74 ,,wan 7,wide-,area ,network7 ,a network spanning hundreds or thousands of miles4 workstation ,a networked personal computing device with more power than a standard ,,ibm ,,pc or ,macintosh4 ,typically1 a workstation has an operating system such as unix that is capable of running several tasks at the same time4 ,it has several megabytes of memory and a large1 high-resolution display4 ,examples are ,sun workstations and ,digital ,d,e,cstations4 worm ,a computer program which replicates itself4 ,the ,internet worm 7,the ,internet ,worm7 was perhaps the most famous2 it successfully 7and accidentally7 duplicated itself on systems across the ,internet4 wrt ,with respect to4 ,i hate definitions4 ,benjamin ,disraeli ,vivian ,grey1 bk i chap ii ------ ,bibliography ,what follows is a compendium of sources that have information that will be of use to anyone reading this guide4 ,most of them were used in the writing of the booklet1 while others are simply noted because they are a must for any good net4citizen's bookshelf4 ,books ,comer1 ,douglas ,e4 ,internetworking ,with ,,tcp_/,,ip1 #bnd ed41 #bv ,prentice ,hall ,englewood ,cliffs1 ,,nj #aiia ,davidson1 ,john ,an ,introduction to ,,tcp_/,,ip ,springer-,verlag ,berlin #aihh ,frey1 ,donnalyn1 and ,adams1 ,rick 633 ,a ,directory of ,electronic ,mail ,addressing and ,networks ,o',reilly and ,associates ,newton1 ,,ma #aihi ,gibson1 ,william ,neuromancer ,ace ,new ,york1 ,,ny #aihd ,la,quey1 ,tracy ,users' ,directory of ,computer ,networks ,digital ,press ,bedford1 ,,ma #aiij ,levy1 ,stephen ,hackers3 ,heroes of the ,computer ,revolution ,anchor ,press_/,doubleday ,garden ,city1 ,,ny #aihd ,partridge1 ,craig ,innovations in ,internetworking ,,artech ,house ,norwood1 ,,ma #aihh ,quarterman1 ,john ,s4 ,the ,matrix3 ,computer ,networks and ,conferencing ,systems ,worldwide ,digital ,press ,bedford1 ,,ma #aihi ,raymond1 ,eric 7ed7 ,the ,new ,hacker's ,dictionary ,,mit ,press ,cambridge1 ,,ma #aiia ,stoll1 ,clifford ,the ,cuckoo's ,egg ,doubleday ,new ,york #aihi ,tanenbaum1 ,andrew ,s4 ,computer ,networks1 #b;d ed ,prentice-,hall ,englewood ,cliffs1 ,,nj #aihh ,todinao1 ,grace ,using ,,uucp and ,,usenet3 ,a ,nutshell ,handbook ,o',reilly and ,associates ,newton1 ,,ma #aihf ,the ,waite ,group ,unix ,communications1 #bnd ed4 ,howard ,w4 ,sams ,company ,indianapolis #aiia ,periodicals ,papers magazine3 ,barlow1 ,j ,coming ,into ,the ,country ,communications of the ,,acm #cd3c #b ,march #aiia ,addresses ,cyberspace---,john ,barlow was a co-founder of the ,,eff4 proceedings3 ,collyer1 ,g41 and ,spencer1 ,h ,news ,need ,not ,be ,slow ,proceedings of the #aihg ,winter ,,usenix ,conference #aha--ij ,,usenix ,association1 ,berkeley1 ,,ca ,january #aihg magazine3 ,denning1 ,p ,the ,internet ,worm ,american ,scientist #abf--abh ,march--,april #aihi magazine3 ,the ,science of ,computing3 ,computer ,networks ,american ,scientist #abg--abi ,march--,april #aihe magazine3 ,frey1 ,d41 and ,adams1 ,r ,,usenet3 ,death by ,success8 ,,unix ,,review #ee--fj ,august #aihg magazine3 ,gifford1 ,w4 ,s ,,isdn ,user-,network ,interfaces ,,ieee ,journal on ,selected ,areas in ,communications #cdc--cdh ,may #aihf magazine3 ,ginsberg1 ,k ,getting from ,here to ,there ,,unix ,,review #de ,january #aihf magazine3 ,hiltz1 ,s4 ,r ,the ,human ,element in ,computerized ,conferencing ,systems ,computer ,networks #dba--dbh ,december #aigh proceedings3 ,horton1 ,m ,what is a ,domain8 ,proceedings of the ,summer #aihd ,,usenix ,conference #cfh--cgb ,,usenix ,association1 ,berkeley1 ,,ca ,june #aihd magazine3 ,jacobsen1 ,ole ,j ,information on ,,tcp_/,,ip ,conne,xions---,the ,interoperability ,report #ad--ae ,july #aihh magazine3 ,jennings1 ,d41 et al ,computer ,networking for ,scientists ,science #idc--iej #bh ,february #aihf paper3 ,markoff1 ,j ,author of computer virus' is son of ,u4,s4 electronic security expert4 ,new ,york ,times ,nov4 #e1 #aihh ,a#a paper3 ,computer snarl3 ,a back door' ajar4 ,new ,york ,times ,nov4 #g1 #aihh ,b#aj magazine3 ,mc,quillan1 ,j4 ,m41 and ,walden1 ,d4 ,c ,the ,,arpa ,network ,design ,decisions ,computer ,networks #bdc--bhi #aigg magazine3 ,ornstein1 ,s4 ,m ,a letter concerning the ,internet worm ,communications of the ,,acm #cb3f ,june #aihi proceedings3 ,partridge1 ,c ,mail ,routing ,using ,domain ,names3 ,an ,informal ,tour ,proceedings of the #aihf ,summer ,,usenix ,conference #cff--gf ,,usenix ,association1 ,berkeley1 ,,ca ,june #aihf magazine3 ,quarterman1 ,j ,etiquette and ,ethics ,conne,xions---,the ,interoperability ,report #ab--af ,march #aihi magazine3 ,notable ,computer ,networks ,communications of the ,,acm #bi3aj ,october #aihf ,this was the predecessor to ,the ,matrix4 magazine3 ,raeder1 ,a4 ,w41 and ,andrews1 ,k4 ,l ,searching ,library ,catalogs on the ,internet3 ,a ,survey ,database ,searcher #f #af--ca ,september #aiij proceedings3 ,seeley1 ,d ,a tour of the worm ,proceedings of the #aihi ,winter ,,usenix ,conference #bhg--cjd ,,usenix ,association1 ,berkeley1 ,,ca ,february #aihi magazine3 ,shulman1 ,g ,legal ,research on ,,usenet ,liability ,issues 2login3 ,the ,,usenix ,association ,newsletter #aa--ag ,december #aihd magazine3 ,smith1 ,k ,e-,mail to ,anywhere ,,pc ,world #bbj--bbc ,march #aihh magazine3 ,stoll1 ,c ,stalking the ,wily ,hacker ,communications of the ,,acm #ca3e #ad ,may #aihh ,this article grew into the book ,the ,cuckoo's ,egg4 proceedings3 ,taylor1 ,d ,the ,postman ,always ,rings ,twice3 ,electronic ,mail in a ,highly ,distributed ,environment ,proceedings of the #aihh ,winter ,,usenix ,conference #ade--aec ,,usenix ,association1 ,berkeley1 ,,ca ,december #aihh magazine3 ,u4,s4,gen'l ,accounting ,ofc ,computer ,security3 ,virus ,highlights ,need for ,improved ,internet ,management ,,gao_/,,imtec-#hi-eg1 #aihi ,addresses the ,internet worm4 ,and all else is literature4 ,paul ,verlaine ,the ,sun1 ,new ,york ,while he was city editor in #ahgc--ahij4 -- ,bill ,walther1 ,carleton ,university1 ,ottawa1 ,canada