A round trip through Global Networks, Life in Cyberspace, and Everything...
by Adam Gaffin with Joerg Heitkoetter
This is *Texinfo* edition 1.02 of `bdgtti.texi' as of 27 September 1993.
Created by Joerg Heitkoetter on August 27, 1993.
The *Texinfo* edition originated from plain ASCII text file
`/pub/EFF/papers/big-dummys-guide.txt'
on The Electronic Frontier Foundation's server `ftp.eff.org'.
Copyright (c) 1993 EFF, The Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Published by The Electronic Frontier Foundation
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Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this publication
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except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved
by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
* Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet *
*********************************
A round trip through Global Networks, Life in Cyberspace, and Everything...
by Adam Gaffin with Joerg Heitkoetter
Copyright (c) 1993 EFF, The Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Published by The Electronic Frontier Foundation
1001 G Street, N.W., Suite 950 East
Washington, DC 20001, USA
Phone: (202) 347-5400. FAX: (202) 393-5509. Internet:
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
**************************
Version 2, June 1991
Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
Ðreamblå
========
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Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
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Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 19YY NAME OF AUTHOR
Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details
type `show w'. This is free software, and you are welcome
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for details.
The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the
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You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
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necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright
interest in the program `Gnomovision'
(which makes passes at compilers) written
by James Hacker.
SIGNATURE OF TY COON, 1 April 1989
Ty Coon, President of Vice
This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may
consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General Public
License instead of this License.
Welcoìå
*******
*Welcome to the Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet.*
The genesis of the Big Dummy's Guide was a few informal conversations,
which included MITCH KAPOR of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and
STEVE CISLER of Apple Computer, Inc. in June of 1991. With the support of
Apple Computer, EFF hired a writer (ADAM GAFFIN) and actually took on the
project in September of 1991.
The idea was to write a guide to the Internet for folks who had little or
no experience with network communications. We intended to post this Guide to
"the Net" in ASCII and HyperCard formats and to give it away on disk, as well
as have a print edition available for a nominal charge. With the
consolidation of our offices to Washington, DC, we were able to put the Guide
on a fast track. You're looking at the realization of our dreams - version
one of the Guide. At the time I'm writing this, we're still fishing around
for a book publisher, so the hard-copy version has not yet been printed.
We're hoping to update this Guide on a regular basis, so please feel free to
send us your comments and corrections.
EFF would like to thank the folks at Apple, especially Steve Cisler of the
Apple Library, for their support of our efforts to bring this Guide to you.
We hope it helps you open up a whole new world, where new friends and
experiences are sure to be yours.
Enjoy!
Shari Steele
Director of Legal Services and Community Outreach
Electronic Frontier Foundation
July 15, 1993
August 27, 1993
*G'day, folks!*
I came across this guide while reading "EFFector Online Volume 5 No. 15,
8/20/1993" (A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, ISSN
1062-9424), that is available via `comp.org.eff.news' and immediately decided
to get my hands on it. After browsing through the raw ASCII text file, I
thought that such a useful thing, should have a more beautiful "face" (and
fewer "bugs").
As Shari points out, the EFF is still "fishing for a publisher." In other
words, it's far from being clear when this guide will be available as hard
copy, unless you want to print out the "buggy" ASCII file. Thus, I started
over to make the bulk a *Texinfo* document, loosely modelled after BRENDAN
KEHOE's "Zen and the Art of the Internet", originally written for Widener
University's, Computer Science Department, and later published as:
Kehoe, B.P. (1992) "Zen and the Art of the Internet: A Beginner's Guide
to the Internet." 2nd Edition (July). Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs,
NJ. 112 pages. The 1st Edition, (February, 2nd) is still available via
anonymous ftp from `ftp.cs.widener.edu' and many other Internet archives.
It was the first comprehensive book on the Internet available. (Despite
the "traditional" postings in `news.announce.newusers' originated by
ex-Net.god GENE SPAFFORD of Purdue University and the
`news.answers' archive maintained by Net.demi-god JANATHAN I. KAMES
of MIT).
Situation has changed dramatically, since. More and more books get into
the stores, and hopefully facilitate the life of "newbies" on the Net. Just
to mention two IMHO excellent examples:
Krol, E. (1992) "The Whole Internet: Catalog & User's Guide." O'Reilly &
Associates, Inc., Sebastopol, CA. 376 pages.
LaQuey, T. and Ryer, J.C. (1992) "The Internet Companion: A Beginner's
Guide to Global Networking." Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Reading, MA.
208 pages.
But, "the Net" in its present form would have never been evolved without
the hundreds of un-paid voluntary efforts (de facto Internet still *is* run
on a voluntary basis), so here are *my* two cents: The output of several
night-shift editing sessions.
"The BIG DUMMY'S GUIDE TO THE INTERNET is now available at your local
laser printer..."
See ya on the Net!
p.s.: Although this guide is almost complete, and I really, really,
honestly, don't have the time to go over it once again, feel free to report
"bugs", or any inconsistencies you find. Drop me "more quotes," further
additions, requests for moral support, or "whatever-you-want"... Just an
e-mail away.
p.p.s.: I'd like to say a BIG "thank you" to SHARI STEELE, for her
immediate excitement on this project. ADAM GAFFIN, who generously accepted my
changes to his initial ASCII version. HOWARD RHEINGOLD, who let me include
his article, now serving as superb afterword of long-year first hand
experience in cyberspace (and yes, I mentioned your new book, Howard `;-)').
And, Last not least, thanks to BRUCE STERLING, who also "gave away" an
article for free.
Again, BERND RAICHLE courtesy of the
University of Stuttgart, provided TeXpertize, when TeXpertize was badly
needed (see file `specials.texi' for your enlightment). BTW: Over the past 2
years, we've been doing some such projects, although we haven't met F2F, yet.
This is one of the effects of the Net. (It thus should be termed
"Net.effect".)
Additional thanks to BRENDAN KEHOE for the *Texinfo*
release of "Zen", from which I borrowed this and that. FYI: Brendan works on
the 3rd editition of his book, and might be able to release the 2nd to the
Net, depending on Prentice-Hall's legal attorneys.
September 22, 1993
*G'day, folks! II*
Some more nights have passed, and "GNU Info" format is fully supported,
now. You can use either Emacs in INFO mode, or just GNU's `info' browser
(also available as `xinfo' for the X window system): type `info -f
bdgtti-1.02.info' and read "Dummy's" online in hypertextual fashion.
But since edition 1.01, "Dummy's" not only features an "Info" version. It
also comes with HTML support, i.e. the HyperText Markup Language format, that
is used by the World-Wide Web project (*note World-Wide Web: Gophers. for
some more ideas on this). The `bdgtti-1.02*.html' files can thus be browsed
using the WWW tools: from within `xmosaic', e.g. load `bdgtti-1.02_toc.html',
and there you go!
Finally, some more folks have helped along the way.
Many, thanks to LIONEL CONS courtesy of CERN, who
immediately updated his `texi2html' to make it work for this project. (Note
that you need `perl' to run this program.)
INGO DRESSLER courtesy of EUnet Deutschland, reserved
a place on `ftp.germany.eu.net' to distribute the European A4 paper edition
of this guide. See under `/pub/books/big-dummys-guide' using traditional
FTP, or use The Web at: `ftp://ftp.
germany.eu.net/pub/books/big-dummys-guide'. This will be the default server
for the European editions.
"The BIG DUMMY'S GUIDE TO THE INTERNET is now available in a variety of
easily convertible formats, *and* at your local laser printer..."
Enjoy the trip!
Joerg Heitkoetter
Systems Analysis Research Group, LSXI
Department of Computer Science
University of Dortmund, Germany
27 September 1993
*"It's kind of fun to do the impossible."*
-- Walt Disney
*"If I have seen farther than others,
it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants."*
-- Sir Isaac Newton
*"A work of art is never finished, only abandoned."*
-- Anonymous
Forward
*******
By *Mitchell Kapor*
Co-founder, Electronic Frontier Foundation.
New communities are being built today. You cannot see them, except on a
computer screen. You cannot visit them, except through your keyboard. Their
highways are wires and optical fibers; their language a series of ones and
zeroes.
Yet these communities of cyberspace are as real and vibrant as any you
could find on a globe or in an atlas. Those are real people on the other
sides of those monitors. And freed from physical limitations, these people
are developing new types of cohesive and effective communities - ones which
are defined more by common interest and purpose than by an accident of
geography, ones on which what really counts is what you say and think and
feel, not how you look or talk or how old you are.
The oldest of these communities is that of the scientists, which actually
predates computers. Scientists have long seen themselves as an international
community, where ideas were more important than national origin. It is not
surprising that the scientists were the first to adopt the new electronic
media as their principal means of day-to-day communication.
I look forward to a day in which everybody, not just scientists, can enjoy
similar benefits of a global community.
But how exactly does community grow out of a computer network? It does so
because the network enables new forms of communication.
The most obvious example of these new digital communications media is
electronic mail, but there are many others. We should begin to think of
mailing lists, newsgroups, file and document archives, etc. as just the first
generation of new forms of information and communications media. The digital
media of computer networks, by virtue of their design and the enabling
technology upon which they ride, are fundamentally different from the now
dominant mass media of television, radio, newspapers and magazines. Digital
communications media are inherently capable of being more interactive, more
participatory, more egalitarian, more decentralized, and less hierarchical.
As such, the types of social relations and communities which can be built
on these media share these characteristics. Computer networks encourage the
active participation of individuals rather than the passive non-participation
induced by television narcosis.
In mass media, the vast majority of participants are passive recipients of
information. In digital communications media, the vast majority of
participants are active creators of information as well as recipients. This
type of symmetry has previously only been found in media like the telephone.
But while the telephone is almost entirely a medium for private one-to-one
communication, computer network applications such as electronic mailing
lists, conferences, and bulletin boards, serve as a medium of group or
"many-to-many" communication.
The new forums atop computer networks are the great levelers and reducers
of organizational hierarchy. Each user has, at least in theory, access to
every other user, and an equal chance to be heard. Some U.S. high-tech
companies, such as Microsoft and Borland, already use this to good advantage:
their CEO's - BILL GATES and PHILIPPE KAHN - are directly accessible to all
employees via electronic mail. This creates a sense that the voice of the
individual employee really matters. More generally, when corporate
communication is facilitated by electronic mail, decision-making processes
can be far more inclusive and participatory.
Computer networks do not require tightly centralized administrative
control. In fact, decentralization is necessary to enable rapid growth of
the network itself. Tight controls strangle growth. This decentralization
promotes inclusiveness, for it lowers barriers to entry for new parties
wishing to join the network.
Given these characteristics, networks hold tremendous potential to enrich
our collective cultural, political, and social lives and enhance democratic
values everywhere.
And the Internet, and the UUCP and related networks connected to it,
represents an outstanding example of a computer network with these qualities.
It is an open network of networks, not a single unitary network, but an
ensemble of interconnected systems which operate on the basis of multiple
implementations of accepted, non-proprietary protocols, standards and
interfaces.
One of its important characteristics is that new networks, host systems,
and users may readily join the network - the network is open to all.
The openness (in all senses) of the Internet reflects, I believe, the
sensibilities and values of its architects. Had the Internet somehow been
developed outside the world of research and education, it's less likely to
have had such an open architecture. Future generations will be indebted to
this community for the wisdom of building these types of open systems.
Still, the fundamental qualities of the Net, such as its decentralization,
also pose problems. How can full connectivity be maintained in the face of
an ever-expanding number of connected networks, for example? What of
software bugs that bring down computers, or human crackers who try to do the
same? But these problems can and will be solved.
Digital media can be the basis of new forms of political discourse, in
which citizens form and express their views on the important public issues of
the day. There is more than one possible vision of such electronic democracy,
however. Let's look at some examples of the potential power, and problems, of
the new digital media.
The idea of something called an "electronic town meeting" received
considerable attention in 1992 with ROSS PEROT's presidential campaign (or,
at least, its first incarnation).
Perot's original vision, from 20 or so years ago, was that viewers would
watch a debate on television and fill out punch cards which would be mailed
in and collated. Now we could do it with 800 telephone numbers.
In the current atmosphere of disaffection, alienation and cynicism,
anything that promotes greater citizen involvement seems a good idea. People
are turned off by politicians in general - witness the original surge of
support for Perot as outsider who would go in and clean up the mess - and the
idea of going right to the people is appealing,
What's wrong with this picture? The individual viewer is a passive
recipient of the views of experts. The only action taken by the citizen is
in expressing a preference for one of three pre-constructed alternatives.
While this might be occasionally useful, it's unsophisticated and falls far
short of the real potential of electronic democracy. We've been reduced to
forming our judgments on the basis of mass media's portrayal of the
personality and character of the candidates.
All this is in contrast to robust political debates already found on
various on-line computer systems, from CompuServe to Usenet. Through these
new media, the issues of the day, ranging from national security in the
post-Cold War era to comparative national health care systems, are fiercely
discussed in a wide variety of bulletin boards, conferences, and newsgroups.
What I see in online debate are multiple active participants, not just
experts, representing every point of view, in discussions that unfold over
extended periods of time. What this shows is that, far from being alienated
and disaffected from the political process, people like to talk and discuss -
and take action - if they have the opportunity to do so. Mass media don't
permit that. But these new media are more akin to a gathering around the
cracker barrel at the general store - only extended over hundreds, thousands
of miles, in cyberspace, rather than in one physical location.
Recent years have shown the potential power of these new media. We have
also seen several examples of where talk translated into action.
In 1987, the Federal Communications Commission proposed changing the way
certain online providers paid for access to local phone service. Online,
this quickly became known as the "modem tax" and generated a storm of
protest. The FCC withdrew the idea, but not quickly enough: the "modem tax"
has penetrated so deeply into the crevices of the Net that it has taken up a
permanent and ghostly residence as a kind of virtual or cognitive virus,
which periodically causes a re-infection of the systems and its users. FCC
commissioners continue to receive substantial mail on this even though the
original issue is long dead; in fact, it has generated more mail than any
other issue in the history of the FCC.
More recently, JIM MANZI, chairman of Lotus Development Corp., received
more than 30,000 e-mail messages when the company was getting ready to sell a
database containing records on tens of millions of Americans. The flood of
electronic complaints about the threat to privacy helped force the company to
abandon the project. Issues of narrow but vital interest to the online
community give a hint of the organizing power of the Net.
In August, 1991, the managers of a Soviet computer network known as Relcom
stayed online during an abortive coup, relaying eyewitness accounts and news
of actions against the coup to the West and to the rest of Russia.
And many public interest non-profit organizations and special interest
groups already use bulletin boards heavily as a means of communicating among
their members and organizing political activity.
But all is not perfect online. The quality of discourse is often very
low. Discussion is often trivial and boring and bereft of persuasive reason.
Discourse often sinks to the level of "flaming," of personal attacks,
instead of substantive discussion. Flaming. Those with the most time to
spend often wind up dominating the debate - a triumph of quantity of time
available over quality of content.
It seems like no place for serious discussion. Information overload is
also a problem. There is simply far too much to read to keep up with. It is
all without organization. How can this be addressed?
Recent innovations in the design of software used to connect people to the
Net and the process of online discussion itself reveal some hope.
Flaming is universal, but different systems handle it in different ways.
Both the technology and cultural norms matter.
On Usenet, for instance, most news reader applications support a feature
known as a "killfile," which allows an individual to screen out postings by a
particular user or on a particular subject. It is also sometimes referred to
as "the bozo filter." This spares the user who is sufficiently sophisticated
from further flamage, but it does nothing to stop the problem at its source.
Censorship would be one solution. But what else can be done without
resorting to unacceptably heavy-handed tactics of censorship? There is a
great tradition of respect for free speech on these systems, and to censor
public postings or even ban a poster for annoying or offensive content is
properly seen as unacceptable, in my opinion.
Some systems use cultural norms, rather than software, to deal with flame
wars. These online communities have developed practices which rely more on a
shared, internalized sense of appropriate behavior than on censorship, for
instance. The WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link) is a relatively small
online conferencing system based in the San Francisco Bay area. On the WELL,
individuals who get into a fight are encouraged to move the discussion out of
the public conference and into e-mail. The encouragement is provided not
only by the host of the conference, but also by the users. It is part of the
culture, not part of the technology.
WELL hosts are volunteers who facilitate the discussion of a particular
subject. While they have the power to censor individual postings, the power
is very rarely used and only as a last resort, as it has been found that
dispute resolution by talking it out among the parties is a superior method
of problem solving in the long run.
It is not an accident that the WELL has a uniquely high quality of
conversation. Nor is it coincidental that it developed as a small and
originally isolated community (now on the Net) which gave it a chance to
develop its own norms or that key management of the system came from "The
Farm," a large, successful commune of the 1960's and 1970's led by STEPHEN
GASKIN.
We still know very little about the facilitation of online conversations.
It is a subject well worth further formal study and experimentation.
Some problems have to do with the unrefined and immature format and
structure of the discussion medium itself. The undifferentiated stream of
new messages marching along in 80 columns of ASCII text creates a kind of
hypnotic trance. Compare this with the typical multiplicity of type fonts,
varied layouts, images, and pictures of the printed page.
New media take time to develop and to be shaped. Reading text on a
terminal reminds me of looking at the Gutenberg Bible. The modern book took a
century to develop after the invention of printing with movable type and the
first Western printed books. ALDUS MANUTIUS and the inventions of modern
typefaces, pagination, the table of contents, the index, all of which gave
the book its modern form, came later, were done by different people, and were
of a different order than the invention of printing with movable type itself.
The new electronic media are undergoing a similar evolution.
Key inventions are occurring slowly, for example, development of software
tools that will allow the dissemination of audio and video across the Net.
This type of software has usually been sone so far by volunteers who have
given away the results. It's a great thing, but it's not sufficient, given
how hard it is to develop robust software. Innovation in the application
space will also be driven by entrepreneurs and independent software vendors
at such point as they perceive a business opportunity to create such products
(it would be nice if creators did it for art's sake but this seems unlikely).
There are some requirements to provide incentives to attract additional
software development. This requires a competitive free market in network
services at all levels to serve the expanding user demand for network
services. It requires a technologically mature network able to support these
services.
And there must be a user population, current or prospective, interested in
paying for better applications - and not just the current base of technically
sophisticated users and students, though they will absolutely benefit.
There are multiple classes of new application opportunities. E-mail is
overloaded because there aren't readily available alternatives yet. New and
different kinds of tools are needed for collaborative work. Computer
conferencing, as it evolves, may be sufficient for discussion and debate.
But by itself, it cannot really support collaborative work, in the sense of
readily enabling a group to make decisions efficiently, represent and track
the status of its work process. Trying to run an organization via e-mail
mailing list is very different than trying to have a discussion.
Computer networks can only fully realize their potential as innovative
communications media in an environment which encourages free and open
expression.
In some countries, legal principles of free speech protect freedom of
expression in traditional media such as the printed word. But once
communication moves to new digital media and across crosses international
borders, such legal protections fall away. As JOHN PERRY BARLOW, the
co-founder of EFF puts it: "In Cyberspace, the First Amendment is a local
ordinance." There is no international legal authority which protects free
expression on trans-national networks. Article 19 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights calls for the protection of free expression in
all media, but the declaration falls far short of being binding.
And if we're to take seriously the idea of the electronic online forum, we
have to deal with the access issue. if the only people with access to the
medium are well-educated, affluent, techno-literate elite, it won't be
sufficiently inclusive to represent all points of view.
We also need, fundamentally, a better infrastructure (the highway system
for information). As we move from the high-speed Internet to the even more
powerful National Research and Education Network, we need to look at how to
bring the power of these new media into the homes of everybody who might want
it. Addressing this "last mile" problem (phone networks are now largely
digitized, fiber-optic systems, except for the mile between your home and the
nearest switching station) should be a priority.
Computer networks will eventually become ubiquitous around the world. We
should therefore be concerned with the impact on society that they have, the
opportunities to improve society, and the dangers that they pose.
Fundamentally, we are optimists who believe in the potential of networks to
enhance democratic values of openness, diversity, and innovation.
Because the medium is so new, it is important now to develop policies at
the national and international level that help achieve the potential of
computer networks for society as a whole. By the time television was
recognized as a vast wasteland it was already too late to change. There is a
rare opportunity to develop policies in advance of a technologically and
economically mature system which would be hard to change.
*"As a net is made up of a series of ties, so everything in
this world is connected by a series of ties. If anyone thinks
that the mesh of a net is an independent, isolated thing, he is
mistaken. It is called a net because it is made up of a series
of interconnected meshes, and each mesh has its place and
responsibility in relation to other meshes."*
- Buddha
Ðrefañå
*******
By *Adam Gaffin*
Senior Reporter, Middlesex News, Framingham, Mass.
This book will help you join the global village known as Cyberspace or the
Net. Millions of people around the world already spend parts of their lives
in this land without frontiers. With this book, you will be able to use the
Net to:
* Stay in touch with friends, relatives and colleagues around the world,
at a fraction of the cost of phone calls or even air mail.
* Discuss everything from archaeology to zoology with people from around
the world.
* Tap into hundreds of information databases and libraries worldwide.
* Retrieve any of thousands of documents, journals, books and computer
programs.
* Stay up to date with wire-service news and sports, and government
weather reports.
* Play live, "real time" games with dozens of other people at once.
And you will have become the newest member of this ever growing community.
If you stay and contribute, the Net will be richer for it - and so will you.
But it will take a sense of adventure, a willingness to learn and an
ability to take a deep breath every once in awhile.
Visiting the Net today is a lot like journeying to a foreign country. You
know there are many things to see and do, but everything at first will seem
so, well, foreign.
When you first arrive, you won't be able to read the street signs. You'll
get lost. If you're unlucky, you may even run into some natives who'd just
as soon you went back to where you came from. If this weren't enough, the
entire country is constantly under construction; every day, it seems like
there's something new for you to figure out.
Here's where you take a deep breath. Fortunately, most of the natives are
actually friendly. In fact, the Net actually has a rich tradition of helping
out visitors and newcomers. With few written guides for ordinary people, the
Net has grown in large part one person at a time - if somebody helps you
learn your way around, it's almost expected you'll repay the favor some day
by helping somebody else.
So when you connect, don't be afraid to ask for help. You'll be surprised
at how many people will try to direct you around. And that leads to another
fundamental thing to remember:
You can't break the Net!
As you travel the Net, your computer may freeze, your screen may erupt
into a mass of gibberish. You may think you've just disabled a
million-dollar computer somewhere - or even your own personal computer.
Sooner or later, this feeling happens to everyone - and likely more than
once. But the Net and your computer are hardier than you think, so relax.
You can no more break the Net than you can the phone system. You are always
in the driver's seat. If something goes wrong, try again. If nothing at all
happens, you can always disconnect. If worse comes to worse, you can turn
off your computer. Then take a deep breath. And dial right back in. Leave a
note for the person who runs the computer to which you've connected to ask
for advice. Try it again. Persistence pays.
First links
===========
In the 1960s, researchers began experimenting with linking computers to
each other and to people through telephone hook-ups, using funds from the U.S
Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA).
ARPA wanted to see if computers in different locations could be linked
using a new technology known as packet switching, which had the promise of
letting several users share just one communications line. Previous computer
networking efforts had required a line between each computer on the network,
sort of like a train track on which only one train can travel at a time. The
packet system allowed for creation of a data highway, in which large numbers
of vehicles could essentially share the same lane. Each packet was given the
computer equivalent of a map and a time stamp, so that it could be sent to
the right destination, where it would then be reassembled into a message the
computer or a human could use.
This system allowed computers to share data and the researchers to
exchange electronic mail, or e-mail. In itself, e-mail was something of a
revolution, offering the ability to send detailed letters at the speed of a
phone call.
As this system, known as ARPANet, grew, some enterprising college students
(and one in high school) developed a way to use it to conduct online
conferences. These started as science-oriented discussions, but they soon
branched out into virtually every other field, as people realized the power
of being able to "talk" to hundreds, or even thousands, of people around the
country.
In the 1970s, ARPA helped support the development of rules, or protocols,
for transferring data between different types of computer networks. These
"internet" (from "internetworking") protocols made it possible to develop the
worldwide Net we have today.
By the close of the 1970s, links developed between ARPANet and
counterparts in other countries. The world was now tied together in a
computer web.
In the 1980s, this network of networks, which became known collectively as
the Internet, expanded at a phenomenal rate. Hundreds, then thousands, of
colleges, research companies and government agencies began to connect their
computers to this worldwide Net. Some enterprising hobbyists and companies
unwilling to pay the high costs of Internet access (or unable to meet
stringent government regulations for access) learned how to link their own
systems to the Internet, even if "only" for e-mail and conferences. Some of
these systems began offering access to the public. Now anybody with a
computer and modem - and persistence - could tap into the world.
In the 1990s, the Net grows at exponential rates. Some estimates are that
the volume of messages transferred through the Net grows 20 percent a month.
In response, government and other users have tried in recent years to expand
the Net itself. Once, the main Net "backbone" in the U.S. moved data at 1.5
million bits per second. That proved too slow for the ever increasing
amounts of data being sent over it, and in recent years the maximum speed was
increased to 45 million bits per second. Even before the Net was able to
reach that speed, however, Net experts were already figuring out ways to pump
data at speeds of up to 2 billion bits per second - fast enough to send the
entire Encyclopedia Britannica across the country in just one or two seconds.
Íow it works
============
The worldwide Net is actually a complex web of smaller regional networks.
To understand it, picture a modern road network of trans-continental
superhighways connecting large cities. From these large cities come smaller
freeways and parkways to link together small towns, whose residents travel on
slower, narrow residential ways.
The Net superhighway is the high-speed Internet. Connected to this are
computers that user a particular system of transferring data at high speeds.
In the U.S., the major Internet "backbone" theoretically can move data at
rates of 45 million bits per second (compare this to the average home modem,
which has a top speed of roughly 2400 bits per second). This internetworking
"protocol" lets network users connect to computers around the world.
Connected to the backbone computers are smaller networks serving
particular geographic regions, which generally move data at speeds around 1.5
million bits per second.
Feeding off these in turn are even smaller networks or individual
computers.
Nobody really knows how many computers and networks actually make up this
Net. Some estimates say there are now as many as 5,000 networks connecting
nearly 2 million computers and more than 15 million people around the world.
Whatever the actual numbers, however, it is clear they are only increasing.
There is no one central computer or even group of computers running the
Internet - its resources are to be found among thousands of individual
computers. This is both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness.
The approach means it is virtually impossible for the entire Net to crash at
once - even if one computer shuts down, the rest of the network stays up.
But thousands of connected computers can also make it difficult to navigate
the Net and find what you want. It is only recently that Net users have
begun to develop the sorts of navigational tools and "maps" that will let
neophytes get around without getting lost.
The vast number of computers and links between them ensure that the
network as a whole will likely never crash and means that network users have
ready access to vast amounts of information. But because resources are split
among so many different sites, finding that information can prove to be a
difficult task - especially because each computer might have its own unique
set of commands for bringing up that information.
While the Internet was growing, parallel networks developed. Large
commercial services such as CompuServe and GEnie began to offer network
services to individuals. Phone companies developed their own electronic-mail
services. Some universities started their own international network.
Hobbyists began networks such as Fidonet for MS-DOS computers and UUCP for
Unix machines.
Today, almost all of these parallel networks are becoming connected. It
is now possible to send electronic mail from CompuServe to MCIMail, from
Internet to Fidonet, from Bitnet to CompuServe. In some cases, users of one
network can now even participate in some of the public conferences of another.
But the Net is more than just a technological marvel. It is human
communication at its most fundamental level. The pace may be a little
quicker when the messages race around the world in a few seconds, but it's
not much different from a large and interesting party. You'll see things in
cyberspace that will make you laugh; you'll see things that will anger you.
You'll read silly little snippets and new ideas that make you think. You'll
make new friends and meet people you wish would just go away.
Major network providers continue to work on ways to make it easier for
users of one network to communicate with those of another. Work is underway
on a system for providing a universal "white pages" in which you could look
up somebody's electronic-mail address, for example. This connectivity trend
will likely speed up in coming years as users begin to demand seamless
network access, much as telephone users can now dial almost anywhere in the
world without worrying about how many phone companies actually have to
connect their calls.
And as it becomes easier to use, more and more people will join this
worldwide community we call the Net. Being connected to the Net takes more
than just reading conferences and logging messages to your computer; it takes
asking and answering questions, exchanging opinions - getting involved.
If you chose to go forward, to use and contribute, you will become a
"citizen of Cyberspace." If you're reading these words for the first time,
this may seem like an amusing but unlikely notion - that one could "inhaibit"
a place without physical space. But put a mark beside these words. Join the
Net and actively participate for a year. Then re-read this passage. It will
no longer seem so strange to be a "citizen of Cyberspace." It will seem like
the most natural thing in the world.
Àcknowledgments
===============
The following people, whether they know it or not, helped put this
together. My thanks, especially to Nancy!
Rhonda Chapman, Jim Cocks, Tom Czarnik, Christopher Davis, David DeSimone,
Jeanne deVoto, Phil Eschallier, Nico Garcia, Joe Granrose, Joe Ilacqua,
Jonathan Kamens, Peter Kaminski, Thomas A. Kreeger, Leanne Phillips, Nancy
Reynolds, Helen Trillian Rose, Barry Shein, Jennifer "Moira" Smith, Gerard
van der Leun, Scott Yanoff.
FYI:
====
Steven Levy, "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution", (Anchor
Press/Doubleday, 1984). describes the early culture and ethos that ultimately
resulted in the Internet and Usenet.
John Quarterman, "The Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems
Worldwide" (Digital Press, 1990) is an exhaustive look at computer networks
and how they connect with each other.
"FYI on Where to Start - A Bibliography of Internetworking Information",
by Tracy LaQuey, Joyce K. Reynolds, Karen Roubicek, Mary Stahl and Aileen
Yuan (August, 1990), is an excellent list of articles, books, newsletters and
other sources of information about the Internet. It's available via ftp from
`nic.ddn.mil' in the `rfc' directory as `rfc1175.txt' (*note FTP::. for
information on getting documents through FTP).
Another Glitch in the Call
------ ----- - -- ---
We don't need no indirection
We don't need no flow control
No data typing or declarations
Did you leave the lists alone?
Hey! Hacker! Leave those lists alone!
Chorus: All in all, it's just a pure-LISP function call.
All in all, it's just a pure-LISP function call.
-- Anonymous Lisp Guru
"Sung to the tune of `Another Brick in the Wall' by Pink Floyd"
* Setting up, Getting connected, Jacking in... *
********************************************
Setting èð
==========
Connecting to the Net depends on where you are. If you're a college
student or work at a company with its own Net connections, chances are you
can gain access simply by asking your organization's computing center or
data-processing department - they will then give you instructions on how to
connect your already networked computer to the Internet.
Otherwise, you'll need four things: a computer, telecommunications
software, a modem and a phone line to connect to the modem.
The phone line can be your existing voice line - just remember that if you
have any extensions, you (and everybody else in the house or office) won't be
able to use them for voice calls while connected to the Net.
A modem is a sort of translator between computers and the phone system.
It's needed because computers and the phone system process and transmit data,
or information, in two different, and incompatible ways. Computers "talk"
digitally; that is, they store and process information as a series of
discrete numbers. The phone network relies on analog signals, which on an
oscilloscope would look like a series of waves. When your computer is ready
to transmit data to another computer over a phone line, your modem converts
the computer numbers into these waves (which sound like a lot of screeching)
- it "modulates" them. In turn, when information waves come into your modem,
it converts them into numbers your computer can process, by "demodulating"
them.
Increasingly, computers come with modems already installed. If yours
didn't, you'll have to decide what speed modem to get. Modem speeds are
judged in "baud rate" or bits per second. One baud means the modem can
transfer roughly one bit per second; the greater the baud rate, the more
quickly a modem can send and receive information. A letter or character is
made up of eight bits.
You can now buy a 2400-baud modem for well under $70 - and most now come
with the ability to handle fax messages as well. For $200 and up, you can
buy a modem that can transfer data at 9600 baud (and often even faster, when
using special compression techniques). If you think you might be using the
Net to transfer large numbers of files, a faster modem is always worth the
price. It will dramatically reduce the amount of time your modem or computer
is tied up transferring files and, if you are paying for Net access by the
hour, save you quite a bit in online charges.
Like the computer to which it attaches, a modem is useless without
software to tell it how to work. Most modems today come with easy-to-install
software. Try the program out. If you find it difficult to use or
understand, consider a trip to the local software store to find a better
program. You can spend several hundred dollars on a communications program,
but unless you have very specialized needs, this will be a waste of money, as
there are a host of excellent programs available for around $100 or sometimes
even less. Among the basic features you want to look for are a choice of
different "protocols" (more on them in a bit) for transferring files to and
from the Net and the ability to write "script" or "command" files that let
you automate such steps as logging into a host system.
When you buy a modem and the software, ask the dealer how to install and
use them. Try out the software if you can. If the dealer can't help you,
find another dealer. You'll not only save yourself a lot of frustration,
you'll also have practiced the second Net Commandment: *"Ask. People Know."*
To fully take advantage of the Net, you must spend a few minutes going
over the manuals or documentation that comes with your software. There are a
few things you should pay special attention to: uploading and downloading;
screen capturing (sometimes called "screen dumping"); logging; how to change
protocols; and terminal emulation. It is also essential to know how to
convert a file created with your word processing program into "ASCII" or
"text" format, which will let you share your thoughts with others across the
Net.
Uploading is the process of sending a file from your computer to a system
on the Net. Downloading is retrieving a file from somewhere on the Net to
your computer. In general, things in cyberspace go "up" to the Net and "down"
to you.
Chances are your software will come with a choice of several "protocols"
to use for these transfers. These protocols are systems designed to ensure
that line noise or static does not cause errors that could ruin whatever
information you are trying to transfer. Essentially, when using a protocol,
you are transferring a file in a series of pieces. After each piece is sent
or received, your computer and the Net system compare it. If the two pieces
don't match exactly, they transfer it again, until they agree that the
information they both have is identical. If, after several tries, the
information just doesn't make it across, you'll either get an error message
or your screen will freeze. In that case, try it again. If, after five
tries, you are still stymied, something is wrong with a) the file; b) the
telephone line; c) the system you're connected to; or d) you own computer.
From time to time, you will likely see messages on the Net that you want
to save for later viewing - a recipe, a particularly witty remark, something
you want to write your Congressman about, whatever. This is where screen
capturing and logging come in.
When you tell your communications software to capture a screen, it opens a
file in your computer (usually in the same directory or folder used by the
software) and "dumps" an image of whatever happens to be on your screen at
the time.
Logging works a bit differently. When you issue a logging command, you
tell the software to open a file (again, usually in the same directory or
folder as used by the software) and then give it a name. Then, until you turn
off the logging command, everything that scrolls on your screen is copied
into that file, sort of like recording on video tape. This is useful for
capturing long documents that scroll for several pages - using screen
capture, you would have to repeat the same command for each new screen.
Terminal emulation is a way for your computer to mimic, or emulate, the
way other computers put information on the screen and accept commands from a
keyboard. In general, most systems on the Net use a system called VT100.
Fortunately, almost all communications programs now on the market support
this system as well - make sure yours does.
You'll also have to know about protocols. There are several different
ways for computers to transmit characters. Fortunately, there are only two
protocols that you're likely to run across: 8-1-N (which stands for "8 bits,
1 stop bit, no parity" - yikes!) and 7-1-E (7 bits, 1 stop bit, even parity).
In general, Unix-based systems use 7-1-E, while MS-DOS-based systems use
8-1-N. What if you don't know what kind of system you're connecting to? Try
one of the settings. If you get what looks like gobbledygook when you
connect, you may need the other setting. If so, you can either change the
setting while connected, and then hit enter, or hang up and try again with
the other setting. It's also possible your modem and the modem at the other
end can't agree on the right baud rate. If changing the protocols doesn't
work, try using another baud rate (but no faster than the one listed for your
modem). Again, remember, you can't break anything.! If something looks
wrong, it probably is wrong. Change your settings and try again. Nothing is
learned without trial, error and effort. Those are the basics. Now onto the
Net!
Jacking iï
==========
Once, only people who studied or worked at an institution directly tied to
the Net could connect to the world. Today, though, an ever-growing number of
"public-access" systems provide access for everybody. These systems can now
be found in several states, and there are a couple of sites that can provide
access across the country.
There are two basic kinds of these host systems. The more common one is
known as a UUCP site (UUCP being a common way to transfer information among
computers using the Unix operating system) and offers access to international
electronic mail and conferences.
However, recent years have seen the growth of more powerful sites that let
you tap into the full power of the Net. These Internet sites not only give
you access to electronic mail and conferences but to such services as
databases, libraries and huge file and program collections around the world.
They are also fast - as soon as you finish writing a message, it gets zapped
out to its destination.
Some sites are run by for-profit companies; others by non-profit
organizations. Some of these public-access, or host, systems, are free of
charge. Others charge a monthly or yearly fee for unlimited access. And a
few charge by the hour.
But cost should be only one consideration in choosing a host system. Most
systems let you look around before you sign up. What is the range of their
services? How easy is it to use? What kind of support or help can you get
from the system administrators?
The last two questions are particularly important because some systems
provide no user interface at all; when you connect, you are dumped right into
the Unix operating system. If you're already familiar with Unix, or you want
to learn how to use it, these systems offer phenomenal power - in addition to
Net access, most also let you tap into the power of Unix to do everything
from compiling your own programs to playing online games.
But if you don't want to have to learn Unix, there are other public-access
systems that work through menus (just like the ones in restaurants; you are
shown a list of choices and then you make your selection of what you want),
or which provide a "user interface" that is easier to figure out than the
ever cryptic Unix.
If you don't want or need access to the full range of Internet services, a
UUCP site makes good financial sense. They tend to charge less than
commercial Internet providers, although their messages may not go out as
quickly.
Some systems also have their own unique local services, which can range
from extensive conferences to large file libraries.
Fortunately, almost all public-access systems let you look around for
awhile before you have to decide whether to sign up. Systems that charge for
access will usually let you sign up online with a credit card. Some also let
you set up a billing system. *Note Telnet:: for a list of public-access
Internet sites.
Dialing iï
==========
When you have your communications program dial one of these host systems,
one of two things will happen when you connect. You'll either see a lot of
gibberish on your screen, or you'll be asked to log in. If you see
gibberish, chances are you have to change your software's parameters (to
7-1-E or 8-1-N as the case may be). Hang up, make the change and then dial
in again.
When you've connected, chances are you'll see something like this:
Welcome to THE WORLD
Public Access UNIX for the '90s
Login as 'new' if you do not have an account
login:
That last line is a prompt asking you to do something. Since this is your
first call, type
new
and hit enter. Often, when you're asked to type something by a host
system, you'll be told what to type in quotation marks (for example, the
`new' above). Don't include the quotation marks. Repeat: Don't include the
quotation marks.
What you see next depends on the system, but will generally consist of
information about its costs and services (you might want to turn on your
communication software's logging function, to save this information). You'll
likely be asked if you want to establish an account now or just look around
the system.
You'll also likely be asked for your "user name." This is not your full
name, but a one-word name you want to use while online. It can be any
combination of letters or numbers, all in lower case. Many people use their
first initial and last name (for example, "jdoe"); their first name and the
first letter of their last name (for example, "johnd"); or their initials
("jxd"). Others use a nickname. You might want to think about this for a
second, because this user name will become part of your electronic-mail
address (see chapter 3 for more on that). The one exception are the various
Free-Net systems, all of which assign you a user name consisting of an
arbitrary sequence of letters and numbers.
You are now on the Net. Look around the system. See if there are any
help files for you to read. If it's a menu-based host system, chose
different options just to see what happens. Remember: you can't break
anything. The more you play, the more comfortable you'll be.
Ðublic-Access Internet Sites
============================
What follows is a list of public-access Internet sites, which are computer
systems that offer access to the Net. All offer international e-mail and
Usenet (international conferences). In addition, they offer:
FTP
File-transfer protocol - access to scores of file libraries (everything
from computer software to historical documents to song lyrics). You'll
be able to transfer these files from the Net to your own computer.
Telnet
Access to databases, computerized library card catalogs, weather reports
and other information services, as well as live, online games that let
you compete with players from around the world.
Additional services that may be offered include:
WAIS
Wide-area Information Server; a program that can search dozens of
databases in one search.
Gopher
A program that gives you easy access to dozens of other online databases
and services by making selections on a menu. You'll also be able to use
these to copy text files and some programs to your mailbox.
IRC
Internet Relay Chat, a CB simulator that lets you have live keyboard
chats with people around the world.
Clarinet
News, sports, feature stories and columns from Universal Press
International; Newsbytes computer news.
However, even on systems that do not provide these services directly, you
will be able to use a number of them through telnet (*note Telnet::. for more
information on telnet). Systems marked "Unix" dump you right into Unix
(a.k.a. "DOS with a college degree"). In most cases, this means you can also
use the host system's various Unix functions. The other systems use menus,
which are generally much easier for beginners to navigate - they are just
like menus in restaurants, in which you decide what you want from a list of
options. Any unique features of a given system are noted. Some of these
systems require you to use parameters of 7-1-E, so if you get gibberish when
you connect, try that. Most let you look around for awhile before you have to
sign up.
Several of these sites are available nationwide through national data
networks such as the CompuServe Packet Network and PC-Pursuit.
Please note that all listed charges are subject to change.
Alberta
-------
Edmonton. PUCNet Computer Connections, (403) 484-5640. Unix. Log on as:
guest. Charges: $20 a month for 20 hours of connect time, plus $5 an hour
for access to ftp and telnet; $10 sign-up fee. Voice help: (403) 448-1901.
California
----------
Berkeley. Holonet. For free trial, modem number is (510) 704-1058.
Boardwatch online news, USA Today. For information or local numbers, call
number below. Charges: $60 a year for local access, $2 an hour during offpeak
hours. Voice help: (510) 704-0160.
Cupertino. Portal. Both Unix and menus. (408) 725-0561, 725-1724 or
(408) 973-8091. Charges: $19.95 set-up fee, $19.95 a month. Voice help:
(408) 973-9111.
Encinitas. Cyber Station, (619) 634-1376. Unix. Log on as: guest.
Charges: $20 a month for one hour a day; $10 setup fee.
Irvine. Dial N' CERF. See under San Diego.
Los Angeles. Dial N' CERF. See under San Diego.
Oakland. Dial N' CERF. See under San Diego.
San Diego. Dial N' CERF USA, run by the California Education and Research
Federation. Provides local dial-up numbers in San Diego, Los Angeles, Oakland
and Irvine. For more information, call voice (800) 876-CERF or (619)
534-5087. Charges: $20 a month plus $10 an hour, with a one-time
installation fee of $50.
San Jose. Netcom, (510) 865-9004 or 426-6860; (408) 241-9760; (415)
424-0131, up to 9600 baud. Unix. Maintains archives of Usenet postings. Log
on as: guest. New users get a written guide to using Netcom and the Net in
general. However, access to Net services beyond Usenet requires signature on
a written "Network Agreement Form." Charges: $15 start-up fee and then $17.50
a month for unlimited use if you agree to automatic billing of your
credit-card account (otherwise $19.50 a month for a monthly invoice). Voice
help: (408) 554-UNIX.
San Jose. A2i, (408) 293-9010. Unix. Log on as: guest. Charges: $20 a
month; $45 for three months; $72 for six months.
Sausalito. The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (WELL), (415) 332-6106, up to
2400 baud. Uses moderately difficult Picospan software, which is sort of a
cross between Unix and a menu system. New users get a written manual. More
than 200 WELL-only conferences. Log on as: newuser. Charges: $15 a month
plus $2 an hour. Access through the nationwide CompuServe Packet Network
available for another $4.50 an hour. Voice help: (415) 332-4335. Recorded
message about the system's current status: (800) 326-8354 (continental U.S.
only).
Colorado
--------
Colorado Springs. CNS, (719) 570-1700. Local calendar listings and ski
and stock reports. USA Today. Users can chose between menus or Unix. Log on
as: new. Charges: $1 an hour (minimum fee of $10 a month); one-time $35
set-up fee. Voice help: (719) 579-9120.
Golden. Colorado SuperNet. Unix. E-mail to fax service. Available only
to Colorado residents. Local dial-in numbers currently available in Ft.
Collins, Denver/Boulder and Colorado Springs. For dial-in numbers, call the
number below. Charges: $2 an hour ($1 an hour between midnight and 6 a.m.);
one-time $20 sign-up fee. Voice help: 303-273-3471.
Illinois
--------
Chicago. MCSNet, (312) 248-0900. Unix. Charges: $25/month or $65 for
three months of unlimited access; $30 for three months of access at 15 hours
a month. Voice help: (312) 248-UNIX.
Peoria. Peoria Free-Net, (309) 674-1100. Similar to Cleveland Free-Net
(see Ohio, below). Users can "link" to the larger Cleveland system for
access to Usenet and other services. There are also Peoria Free-Net
public-access terminals in numerous area libraries, other government
buildings and senior-citizen centers. Contact the number below for specific
locations. Full access (including access to e-mail) requires completion of a
written application. Charges: None. Voice help: (309) 677-2544.
Maryland
--------
Baltimore. Express Access, (410) 220-0462 or (301) 220-0462. Unix. Log
on as: new. Charges: $15 a month or $150 a year for e-mail and Usenet; $25 a
month or $250 a year for complete Internet services (FTP, telnet, IRC, etc.).
This allows unlimited use between 3 a.m. and 3 p.m. and one hour between 3
p.m. and 3 a.m. Access to Usenet, e-mail and Unix shell only is $15 a
month/$150 a year. Voice help: (301) 220-2020.
Massachusetts
-------------
Brookline. The World, (617) 739-9753. Unix, but with a large number of
understandable online help files. Huge collection of MS-DOS files, "Online
Book Initiative" collection of electronic books, poetry and other text files.
Charges: $5 a month plus $2 an hour or $20 for 20 hours a month. Available
nationwide through the CompuServe Packet Network for another $5.60 an hour.
Voice help: (617) 739-0202.
Lynn. North Shore Access, (617) 593-5774. Unix. Log on as: guest.
Charges: $10 for a month for 10 hours; $1 an hour after that. Voice help:
(617) 593-3110.
Worcester. NovaLink, (508) 754-4009. Unix. Log on as: info. Charges:
$12.95 sign-up (includes first two hours); $9.95 a month (includes five
daytime hours), $1.80 an hour after that. Voice help: (800) 274-2814.
Michigan
--------
Ann Arbor. MSEN. Contact number below for dial-in number. Unix.
Charges: $5 a month and $2 an hour, or $20 a month for 20 hours. Voice help:
(313) 741-1120.
Ann Arbor. Michnet. Unix. Has local dial-in numbers in several Michigan
numbers. For local numbers, call voice number below. Charges: $35 a month
plus one-time $40 sign-up fee. Additional network fees for access through
non-Michnet numbers. Voice help: (313) 764-9430.
New Hampshire
-------------
MV Communications, Inc. For local dial-up numbers call voice line below.
Unix. Charges: $5 a month mininum plus variable hourly rates depending on
services used. Voice help: (603) 429-2223.
New York
--------
New York. Echo, (212) 989-8411. Unix and conferencing. Log on as:
newuser. Local conferences. Charges: $19.95 ($13.75 students and seniors).
Voice help: (212) 255-3839.
New York. MindVox, (212) 988-5030. Log on as: guest. Local conferences.
Charges: $15 a month; $10 set-up fee for non-credit card accounts. Voice
help: (212) 988-5987.
New York. Panix, (212) 787-3100. Unix or menus. Log on as: newuser.
Charges: $10 a month or $100 a year; one-time $40 fee. Voice help: (212)
877-4854.
North Carolina
--------------
Charlotte. Vnet Internet Access, (704) 347-8839. Unix. Log on as: new.
Charges: $25 a month or $259 a year. Voice help: (704) 374-0779.
Triangle Research Park. Rock Concert Net. Call number below for modem
number. Unix. Charges: $30 a month; one-time $50 sign-up fee. Voice help:
(919) 248-1999.
Ohio
----
Cleveland. Cleveland Free-Net, (216) 368-3888. IRC. USA Today, Ohio and
US Supreme Court decisions, historical documents, many local conferences.
Full access (including access to e-mail) requires completion of a written
application. Charges: None. Voice help: (216) 368-8737.
Cincinnati. Tri-State Free-Net, (513) 579-1990. Similar to Cleveland
Free-Net. Full access (including access to e-mail) requires completion of a
written application. Charges: None.
Cleveland. Wariat, (216) 481-9436 (2400 baud); (216) 481-9425 (higher
speeds). Unix, menus. Charges: $35 a month or $200 for six months; $20
sign-up fee. Voice help: (216) 481-9428.
Lorain. Lorain County Free-Net, (216) 277-2359 or 366-9753. Similar to
Cleveland Free-Net. Users can "link" to the larger Cleveland system for
additional services. Full access (including access to e-mail) requires
completion of a written application. Charges: None. Voice help: (216)
366-4200.
Medina. Medina Free-Net, (216) 723-6732, 225-6732 or 335-6732. Users can
"link" to the larger Cleveland Free-Net for additional services. Full access
(including access to e-mail) requires completion of a written application.
Charges: None.
Youngstown. Youngstown Free-Net, (216) 742-3072. Users can "link" to the
Cleveland system for services not found locally. Full access (including
access to e-mail) requires completion of a written application. Charges:
None.
Ontario
-------
Toronto. UUNorth. Call voice number below for local dial-in numbers.
Unix. Charges: $25 for 20 hours a month of offpeak use. Voice help: (416)
225-8649.
Oregon
------
Beaverton. Techbook, (503) 220-0636 (2400 baud); (503) 220-1016 (higher
speeds). Unix. Charges: $10 a month for 30 hours of "basic" Internet access
or $90 a year; $15 a month for 30 hours of "deluxe" access or $150 a year.
$10 sign-up fee for monthly accounts.
Portland. Agora, (503) 293-1772 (2400 baud), (503) 293-2059 (9600 baud).
Unix. Log on as: apply Charges: $6 a month for one hour per day.
Beaverton. Techbook, (503) 220-0636. Charges: $90 a year.
Pennsylvania
------------
Pittsburgh. Telerama, (412) 481-5302. Unix. Charges: $6 for 10 hours a
month, 60 cents for each additional hour.
Quebec
------
Montreal. Communications Accessibles Montreal, (514) 281-5601. Unix.
Charges: $25 a month. Voice help: (514) 923-2102.
Rhode Island
------------
East Greenwich. IDS World Network, (401) 884-9002. In addition to
Usenet, has conferences from the Fidonet and RIME networks. Supports QMAIL
offline reader, which lets you read and respond to messages while not online.
Charges: $10 a month; $50 for six months; $100 for a year.
Virginia
--------
Norfolk. Wyvern Technologies, (804) 627-1828 (Norfolk); (804-0662
(Peninsula). Unix. Charges: $15 a month or $144 a year; $10 sign-up fee.
Voice help: (804) 622-4289.
Washington, DC
--------------
The Meta Network. Call voice number below for local dial-in numbers.
Caucus conferencing, menus. Charges: $20 a month plus $15 sign-up fee.
Voice help: (703) 243-6622.
See also: listing under Baltimore, MD for Express Access.
Washington State
----------------
Seattle. Eskimo North, (206) 367-3837 (2400 baud), (206) 362-6731
(9600/14.4K baud). Charges: $10 a month or $96 a year. Voice help: (206)
367-7457.
Seattle. Halcyon, (206) 382-6245. Users can choose between menus and
Unix. Log on as: bbs. Charges: $10 a month for Usenet and e-mail; $15 a
month or $150 a year for these and other Internet services (FTP, IRC, telnet,
etc.). Voice help: (206) 426-9298
Àny Alternatives?
=================
If you don't live in a city with a public-access site, you'll still be
able to connect to the Net. Several of these services offer access through
national data networks such as the CompuServe Packet Network and PC-Pursuit,
which have dozens, even hundreds of local dial-in numbers across the country.
These include Holonet in Berkeley, Calf., Portal in Cupertino, Calf., the
WELL in Sausalito, Calf., Dial 'N CERF in San Diego, Calf., the World in
Brookline, Mass., and Michnet in Ann Arbor, Mich. Dial 'N CERF offers access
through an 800 number. Expect to pay from $2 to $12 an hour to use these
networks, above each provider's basic charges. The exact amount depends on
the network, time of day and type of modem you use. For more information,
contact the above services.
Two other providers deliver Net access to users across the country:
Delphi, based in Cambridge, Mass., is a consumer-oriented network much
like CompuServe or America On-Line - only it now offers subscribers access to
Internet services.
Charges: $3 a month for Internet access, in addition to standard charges.
These are $10 a month for four hours of off-peak (non-working hours) access a
month and $4 an hour for each additional hour or $20 for 20 hours of access a
month and $1.80 an hour for each additional hour. For more information, call
(800) 695-4005.
PSI, based in Reston, Va., provides nationwide access to Internet services
through scores of local dial-in numbers to owners of IBM and compatible
computers. PSILink. which includes access to e-mail, Usenet and ftp, costs
$29 a month, plus a one-time $19 registration fee. Special software is
required, but is available free from PSI. PSI's Global Dialup Service
provides access to telnet for $39 a month plus a one-time $39 set-up fee.
For more information, call (800) 82PSI82 or (703) 620-6651.
Òhings that can go wrong:
=========================
* Your computer connects with a public-access site and get gibberish on
your screen. If you are using parameters of 8-1-N, try 7-1-e (or
vice-versa). If that doesn't work, try another modem speed.
* You have your computer dial a public-access site, but nothing happens.
Check the phone number you typed in. If correct, turn on your modem's
speaker (on Hayes-compatible modems, you can usually do this by typing
ATM1 in your communications software's "terminal mode." If the phone
just rings and rings, the public-access site could be down for
maintenance or do to a crash or some other problem. If you get a
"connect" message, but nothing else, try hitting enter or escape a
couple of times.
* You try to log in, but after you type your password, nothing happens, or
you get a "timed out" message followed by a disconnect. Re-dial the
number and try it again.
* Always remember, if you have a problem that just doesn't go away, ask!
Ask your system administrator, ask a friend, but ask. Somebody will
know what to do.
FYI:
====
PETER KAMINSKI maintains a list of systems that provide public access to
Internet services. It's availble on the network itself, which obviously does
you little good if you currently have no access, but which can prove
invaluable should you move or want to find a new system. Look for his
"PDIAL" file in the `alt.bbs.lists' or `news.answers' newsgroups in Usenet
(for information on accessing Usenet, *note Global Watering Hole::.).
*"Ah! Dear Watson, now we enter the mystic room of wizardry,
where even the most brilliant of all logic minds might fail."*
-- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
*"Welcome to the Pleasure Dome!"*
-- Frankie goes to Hollywood
* Electronic Mail *
***************
Electronic mail, or e-mail, is your personal connection to the world of
the Net.
Every one of the millions of people around the world who use the Net have
their own e-mail address. A growing number of "gateways" tie more and more
people to the Net every day. When you logged onto the host system you are
now using, it automatically generated an address for you, as well.
The basic concepts behind e-mail parallel those of regular mail. You send
mail to people at their particular addresses. In turn, they write to you at
your e-mailbox address. You can subscribe to the electronic equivalent of
magazines and newspapers. There is even electronic junk mail.
E-mail has two distinct advantages over regular mail. The most obvious is
speed. Instead of several days, your message can reach the other side of the
world in hours or even minutes (depending on where you drop off your mail and
the state of the connections between there and your recipient). The other
advantage is that once you master the basics, you'll be able to use e-mail to
access databases and file libraries. You'll see how to do this later, along
with learning how to transfer program and data files through e-mail.
E-mail also has advantages over the telephone. You send your message when
it's convenient for you. Your recipient responds at his convenience. No
more telephone tag. And while a phone call across the country or around the
world can quickly result in huge phone bills, e-mail lets you exchange vast
amounts of mail for only a few pennies - even if the other person is in New
Zealand.
E-mail is your connection to help - your Net lifeline. The Net can
sometimes seem a frustrating place! No matter how hard you try, no matter
where you look, you just might not be able to find the answer to whatever is
causing you problems. But when you know how to use e-mail, help is often just
a few keystrokes away: ask your system administrator or a friend for help in
an e-mail message.
The quickest way to start learning e-mail is to send yourself a message.
Most public-access sites actually have several different types of mail
systems, all of which let you both send and receive mail. We'll start with
the simplest one, known, appropriately enough, as "mail," and then look at a
couple of other interfaces. At your host system's command prompt, type this:
mail username
where username is the name you gave yourself when you first logged on.
Hit enter. The computer might respond with
subject:
Type
test
or, actually, anything at all (but you'll have to hit enter before you get
to the end of the screen). Hit enter.
The cursor will drop down a line. You can now begin writing the actual
message. Type a sentence, again, anything at all. And here's where you hit
your first Unix frustration, one that will bug you repeatedly: you have to
hit enter before you get to the very end of the line. Just like typewriters,
many Unix programs have no word-wrapping.
When done with your message, hit return. Now hit control-D (the control
and the D keys at the same time). This is a Unix command that tells the
computer you're done writing and that it should close your "envelope" and
mail it off (you could also hit enter once and then, on a blank line, type a
period at the beginning of the line and hit enter again).
You've just sent your first e-mail message. And because you're sending
mail to yourself, rather than to someone somewhere else on the Net, your
message has already arrived, as we'll see in a moment.
If you had wanted, you could have even written your message on your own
computer and then uploaded it into this electronic "envelope." There are a
couple of good reasons to do this with long or involved messages. One is
that once you hit enter at the end of a line in "mail" you can't readily fix
any mistakes on that line (unless you use some special commands to call up a
Unix text processor. Also, if you are paying for access by the hour,
uploading a prepared message can save you money. Remember to save the
document in ASCII or text format. Uploading a document you've created in a
word processor that uses special formatting commands (which these days means
many programs) will cause strange effects.
When you get that blank line after the subject line, upload the message
using the ASCII protocol. Or you can copy and paste the text, if your
software allows that. When done, hit control-D as above.
Now you have mail waiting for you. Normally, when you log on, your
public-access site will tell you whether you have new mail waiting. To open
your mailbox and see your waiting mail, type
mail
and hit enter.
When the host system sees "mail" without a name after it, it knows you
want to look in your mailbox rather than send a message. Your screen, on a
plain-vanilla Unix system will display:
Mail version SMI 4.0 Mon Apr 24 18:34:15 PDT 1989 Type ? for help.
``/usr/spool/mail/adamg'': 1 message 1 new 1 unread
>N 1 adamg Sun Mar 22 20:04 12/290 test
Ignore the first line; it's just computerese of value only to the people
who run your system. You can type a question mark and hit return, but unless
you're familiar with Unix, most of what you'll see won't make much sense at
this point.
The second line tells you the directory on the host system where your mail
messages are put. This is your "home directory." It's a good name to
remember. Later, when you start transferring files across the Net, this is
where they will usually wind up, or from where you'll send them. The second
line also tells you how many messages are in your mailbox, how many have come
in since the last time you looked and how many messages you haven't read yet.
It's the third line that is of real interest - it tells you who the
message is from, when it arrived, how many lines and characters it takes up,
and what the subject is. The "N" means it is a new message - it arrived
after the last time you looked in your mailbox. Hit enter. And there's your
message - only now it's a lot longer than what you wrote!
Message 1:
From adamg Mar 22 20:04:55 1992
Received: by eff.org id AA28949
(5.65c/IDA-1.4.4/pen-ident for adamg); Sun, 22 Mar 1992 20:04:55 -0400
(ident-sender: adamg@eff.org)
Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1992 21:34:55 -0400
From: Adam Gaffin
Message-Id: <199204270134.AA28949@eff.org>
To: adamg
Subject: test
Status: R
This is only a test!
Whoa! What is all that stuff? It's your message with a postmark gone mad.
Just as the postal service puts its marks on every piece of mail it handles,
so do Net postal systems. Only it's called a "header" instead of a postmark.
Each system that handles or routes your mail puts its stamp on it. Since
many messages go through a number of systems on their way to you, you will
often get messages with headers that seem to go on forever. Among other
things, a header will tell you exactly when a message was sent and received
(even the difference between your local time and GMT - as at the end of line 4
above).
If this had been a long message, it would just keep scrolling across and
down your screen - unless the people who run your public-access site have set
it up to pause every 24 lines. One way to deal with a message that doesn't
stop is to use your telecommunication software's logging or text-buffer
function. Start it before you hit the number of the message you want to see.
Your computer will ask you what you want to call the file you're about to
create. After you name the file and hit enter, type the number of the message
you want to see and hit enter. When the message finishes scrolling, turn off
the text-buffer function, and the message is now saved in your computer.
This way, you can read the message while not connected to the Net (which can
save you money if you're paying by the hour) and write a reply offline.
But in the meantime, now what? You can respond to the message, delete it
or save it. To respond, type a lower-case "r" and hit enter. You'll get
something like this:
To: adamg
Subject: Re: test
Note that this time, you don't have to enter a username. The computer
takes it from the message you're replying to and automatically addresses your
message to its sender. The computer also automatically inserts a subject
line, by adding "Re:" to the original subject. From here, it's just like
writing a new message. But say you change your mind and decide not to reply
after all. How do you get out of the message? Hit control-C once. You'll get
this:
(Interrupt -- one more to kill letter)
If you hit control-C once more, the message will disappear and you'll get
back to your mail's command line.
Now, if you type a lower-case "d" and then hit enter, you'll delete the
original message. Type a lower-case "q" to exit your mailbox.
If you type a "q" without first hitting "d", your message is transferred
to a file called mbox. This file is where all read, but un-deleted messages
go. If you want to leave it in your mailbox for now, type a lower-case "x"
and hit enter. This gets you out of mail without making any changes.
The mbox file works a lot like your mailbox. To access it, type
mail -f mbox
at your host system's command line and hit enter.
You'll get a menu identical to the one in your mailbox from which you can
read these old messages, delete them or respond to them. It's probably a
good idea to clear out your mailbox and mbox file from time to time, if only
to keep them uncluttered.
Are there any drawbacks to e-mail? There are a few. One is that people
seem more willing to fly off the handle electronically than in person, or
over the phone. Maybe it's because it's so easy to hit R and reply to a
message without pausing and reflecting a moment. That's why we have smileys!
There's no online equivalent yet of a return receipt: chances are your
message got to where it's going, but there's no absolute way for you to know
for sure unless you get a reply from the other person. Also, because
computers are quite literal, you have to be very careful when addressing a
message. Misplace a period or a single letter in the address, and your
message could come back to you, undelivered.
So now you're ready to send e-mail to other people on the Net. Of course,
you need somebody's address to send them mail. How do you get it?
Alas, the simplest answer is not what you'd call the most elegant: you
call them up on the phone or write them a letter on paper and ask them.
Residents of the electronic frontier are only beginning to develop the
equivalent of phone books, and the ones that exist today are far from
complete (still, later on, we'll show you how to use some of these
directories).
Eventually, you'll start corresponding with people, which means you'll
want to know how to address mail to them. It's vital to know how to do this,
because the smallest mistake - using a comma when you should have used a
period, for instance, can bounce the message back to you, undelivered. In
this sense, Net addresses are like phone numbers: one wrong digit and you get
the wrong person. Fortunately, most net addresses now adhere to a relatively
easy-to-understand system.
Earlier, you sent yourself a mail message using just your user-name. This
was sort of like making a local phone call - you didn't have to dial a 1 or
an area code. This also works for mail to anybody else who has an account on
the same system as you.
Sending mail outside of your system, though, will require the use of the
Net equivalent of area codes, called "domains." A basic Net address will look
something like this:
tomg@world.std.com
Tomg is somebody's user ID, and he is at (hence the @ sign) a site or
"domain" known as std.com. Large organizations often have more than one
computer linked to the Internet; in this case, the name of the particular
machine is world (you will quickly notice that, like boat owners, Internet
computer owners always name their machines).
Domains tell you the name of the organization that runs a given e-mail
site and what kind of site it is or, if it's not in the U.S., what country
it's located in. Large organizations may have more than one computer or
gateway tied to the Internet, so you'll often see a two-part domain name; and
sometimes even three- or four-part domain names.
In general, American addresses end in an organizational suffix, such as
".edu," which means the site is at a college or university. Other American
suffixes include:
`.com'
for businesses
`.org'
for non-profit organizations
`.gov'
`.mil'
for government and military agencies
`.net'
for companies or organizations that run large networks.
Sites in the rest of the world tend to use a two-letter code that
represents their country. Most make sense, such as `.ca' for Canadian sites,
but there are a couple of seemingly odd ones, at least if you don't know the
ISO 3166 standard international abbreviations. (*note Country Codes::. for a
list of the rest of the world.) E.g., swiss sites end in `.ch' (Confederatio
Helvetica), German sites end in `.de' (DEutschland), while South African ones
end in `.za' (ZuidAfricaans is the language spoken in this country, derived
from Dutch). Some smaller U.S. sites are beginning to follow this
international convention (such as `unixland.natick.ma.us').
You'll notice that the above addresses are all in lower-case. Unlike
almost everything else having anything at all to do with Unix, Most Net
mailing systems don't care about case, so you can capitalize names if you
want, but you generally don't have to. Alas, there are a few exceptions -
some public-access sites do allow for capital letters in user names. When in
doubt, ask the person you want to write to, or let her send you a message
first (recall how a person's e-mail address is usually found on the top of
her message).
The domain name, the part of the address after the @ sign, never has to be
capitalized.
It's all a fairly simple system that works very well, except, again, it's
vital to get the address exactly right - just as you have to dial a phone
number exactly right. Send a message to `tomg@unm.edu' (which is the
University of New Mexico) when you meant to send it to `tomg@umn.edu' (the
University of Minnesota), and your letter will either bounce back to you
undelivered, or go to the wrong person.
If your message is bounced back to you as undeliverable, you'll get an
ominous looking-message from MAILER-DAEMON (actually a rather benign Unix
program that exists to handle mail), with an evil-looking header followed by
the text of your message. Sometimes, you can tell what went wrong by looking
at the first few lines of the bounced message. Besides an incorrect address,
it's possible your host system does not have the other site in the "map" it
maintains of other host systems. Or you could be trying to send mail to
another network, such as Bitnet or CompuServe, that has special addressing
requirements.
Sometimes, figuring all this out can prove highly frustrating. But
remember the prime Net commandment: Ask. Send a message to your system
administrator. He or she might be able to help decipher the problem.
There is one kind of address that may give your host system particular
problems. There are two main ways that Unix systems exchange mail. One is
known as UUCP and started out with a different addressing system than the
rest of the Net. Most UUCP systems have since switched over to the standard
Net addressing system, but a few traditional sites still cling to their
original type, which tends to have lots of exclamation points in it, like
this:
uunet!somesite!othersite!mybuddy
The problem for many host sites is that exclamation points (also known as
"bangs") now mean something special in the more common systems or "shells"
used to operate many Unix computers. This means that addressing mail to such
a site (or even responding to a message you received from one) could confuse
the poor computer to no end and your message never gets sent out. If that
happens, try putting "forward" backslashes in front of each exclamation
point, so that you get an address that looks like this:
uunet\!somesite\!othersite\!mybuddy
Note that this means you may not be able to respond to such a message by
typing a lower-case `r' - you may get an error message and you'll have to
create a brand-new message.
If you want to get a taste of what's possible through e-mail, start an
e-mail message to
almanac@oes.orst.edu
Leave the "subject:" line blank. As a message, write this:
send quote
Or, if you're feeling a little down, write this instead:
send moral-support
In either case, you will get back a message within a few seconds to a few
hours (depending on the state of your host system's Internet connection). If
you simply asked for a quote, you'll get back a fortune-cookie-like saying.
If you asked for moral support, you'll also get back a fortune-cookie-like
saying, only supposedly more uplifting.
This particular "mail server" is run by Oregon State University. Its main
purpose is actually to provide a way to distribute agricultural information
via e-mail. If you'd like to find out how to use the server's full range of
services, send a message to the above address with this line in it:
send help
You'll quickly get back a lengthy document detailing just what's available
and how to get it.
The "mail" program is actually a very powerful one and a Netwide standard,
at least on Unix computers. But it can be hard to figure out - you can type
a question mark to get a list of commands, but these may be of limited use
unless you're already familiar with Unix. Fortunately, there are a couple of
other mail programs that are easier to use.
ÅLÌ
===
Elm is a combination mailbox and letter-writing system that uses menus to
help you navigate through mail. Most Unix-based host systems now have it
online. To use it, type
elm
and hit enter. You'll get a menu of your waiting mail, along with a list
of commands you can execute, that will look something like this:
Mailbox is '/usr/spool/mail/adamg' with 38 messages [ELM 2.3 PL11]
1 Sep 1 Christopher Davis (13) here's another message.
2 Sep 1 Christopher Davis (91) This is a message from Eudora
3 Aug 31 Rita Marie Rouvali (161) First Internet Hunt !!! (fwd)
4 Aug 31 Peter Scott/Manage (69) New File University of Londo
5 Aug 30 Peter Scott/Manage (64) New File X.500 service at A
6 Aug 30 Peter Scott/Manage (39) New File DATAPAC Informatio
7 Aug 28 Peter Scott/Manage (67) Proposed Usenet group for HYTELNET n
8 Aug 28 Peter Scott/Manage (56) New File JANET Public Acces
9 Aug 26 Helen Trillian Ros (15) Tuesday
10 Aug 26 Peter Scott/Manage (151) Update Oxford University OU
You can use any of the following commands by pressing the first character;
d)elete or u)ndelete mail, m)ail a message, r)eply or f)orward mail, q)uit
To read a message, press . j = move down, k = move up, ? = help
Each line shows the date you received the message, who sent it, how many
lines long the message is, and the message's subject.
If you are using VT100 emulation, you can move up and down the menu with
your up and down arrow keys. Otherwise, type the line number of the message
you want to read or delete and hit enter.
When you read a message, it pauses every 24 lines, instead of scrolling
until it's done. Hit the space bar to read the next page. You can type a
lower-case "r" to reply or a lower-case "q" or "i" to get back to the menu
(the I stands for "index").
At the main menu, hitting a lower-case "m" followed by enter will let you
start a message. To delete a message, type a lower-case "d". You can do
this while reading the message. Or, if you are in the menu, move the cursor
to the message's line and then hit D.
When you're done with Elm, type a lower-case "q". The program will ask if
you really want to delete the messages you marked. Then, it will ask you if
you want to move any messages you've read but haven't marked for deletion to
a "received" file. For now, hit your n key.
Elm has a major disadvantage for the beginner. The default text editor it
generally calls up when you hit your "r" or "m" key is often a program called
emacs. Unixoids swear by emacs, but everybody else almost always finds it
impossible. Unfortunately, you can't always get away from it (or vi, another
text editor often found on Unix systems), so later on we'll talk about some
basic commands that will keep you from going totally nuts.
ÐINÅ
====
Pine is based on elm but includes a number of improvements that make it an
ideal mail system for beginners. Like elm, pine starts you with a menu. It
also has an "address book" feature that is handy for people with long or
complex e-mail addresses. Hitting A at the main menu puts you in the address
book, where you can type in the person's first name (or nickname) followed by
her address. Then, when you want to send that person a message, you only have
to type in her first name or nickname, and pine automatically inserts her
actual address. The address book also lets you set up a mailing list. This
feature allows you to send the same message to a number of people at once.
What really sets pine apart is its built-in text editor, which looks and
feels a lot more like word-processing programs available for MS-DOS and
Macintosh users. Not only does it have word wrap (a revolutionary concept if
ever there was one, it also has a rwspell-checker and a search command. Best
of all, all of the commands you need are listed in a two-line mini-menu at
the bottom of each screen. The commands look like this:
^W Where is
The little caret is a synonym for the key marked "control" on your
keyboard. To find where a particular word is in your document, you'd hit
your control key and your W key at the same time, which would bring up a
prompt asking you for the word to look for.
Some of pine's commands are a tad peculiar (control-V for "page down" for
example), which comes from being based on a variant of emacs (which is
utterly peculiar). But again, all of the commands you need are listed on
that two-line mini-menu, so it shouldn't take you more than a couple of
seconds to find the right one.
To use pine, type
pine
at the command line and hit enter. It's a relatively new program, so many
systems do not yet have it online. But it's so easy to use, you should
probably send e-mail to your system administrator urging him to get it!
Smileys
=======
When you're involved in an online discussion, you can't see the smiles or
shrugs that the other person might make in a live conversation to show he's
only kidding. But online, there's no body language. So what you might think
is funny, somebody else might take as an insult. To try to keep such
misunderstandings from erupting into bitter disputes, we have smileys. Tilt
your head to the left and look at the following sideways. `:-)'. Or simply
`:)'. This is your basic "smiley." Use it to indicate people should not take
that comment you just made as seriously as they might otherwise. You make a
smiley by typing a colon, a hyphen and a right parenthetical bracket. Some
people prefer using the word "grin," usually in this form:
Sometimes, though, you'll see it as *grin* or even just for short.
Some other smileys include:
`;-)'
Wink;
`:-('
Frown;
`:-O'
Surprise;
`8-)'
Wearing glasses;
`=|:-)='
Abe Lincoln.
OK, so maybe the last two are a little bogus `:-)'.
Seven UNIX Commands you can't live without:
===========================================
If you connect to the Net through a Unix system, eventually you'll have to
come to terms with Unix. For better or worse, most Unix systems do NOT
shield you from their inner workings - if you want to copy a Usenet posting
to a file, for example, you'll have to use some Unix commands if you ever
want to do anything with that file.
Like MS-DOS, Unix is an operating system - it tells the computer how to do
things. Now while Unix may have a reputation as being even more complex than
MS-DOS, in most cases, a few basic, and simple, commands should be all you'll
ever need.
If your own computer uses MS-DOS or PC-DOS, the basic concepts will seem
very familiar - but watch out for the cd command, which works differently
enough from the similarly named DOS command that it will drive you crazy.
Also, unlike MS-DOS, Unix is case sensitive - if you type commands or
directory names in the wrong case, you'll get an error message.
If you're used to working on a Mac, you'll have to remember that Unix
stores files in "directories" rather than "folders." Unix directories are
organized like branches on a tree. At the bottom is the "root" directory,
with sub-directories branching off that (and sub-directories in turn can have
sub-directories). The Mac equivalent of a Unix sub-directory is a folder
within another folder.
`cat'
Equivalent to the MS-DOS "type" command. To pause a file every screen,
type `cat file |more', better: `more file', where "file" is the name of
the file you want to see. Hitting control-C will stop the display. You
can also use `cat' for writing or uploading text files to your name or
home directory (similar to the MS-DOS `copy con:' command). If you type
`cat >test' you start a file called "test." You can either write
something simple (no editing once you've finished a line and you have to
hit return at the end of each line) or upload something into that file
using your communications software's ASCII protocol). To close the
file, hit control-D.
`cd'
The "change directory" command. To change from your present directory
to another, type `cd directory' and hit enter. Unlike MS-DOS, which uses
a \ to denote sub-directories (for example: procomm\text), Unix uses a /
(for example: procomm/text). So to change from your present directory
to the procomm/text sub-directory, you would type `cd procomm/text' and
then hit enter. As in MS-DOS, you do not need the first backslash if the
subdirectory comes off the directory you're already in. To move back up
a directory tree, you would type `cd ..' followed by enter. Note the
space between the `cd' and the two periods - this is where MS-DOS users
will really go nuts.
`cp'
Copies a file. The syntax is `cp file1 file2' which would copy file1 to
file2 (or overwrite file2 with file1).
`ls'
This command, when followed by enter, tells you what's in the directory,
similar to the DOS `dir' command, except in alphabetical order.
`ls |more'
will stop the listing every 24 lines - handy if there are a lot of
things in the directory. The basic ls command does not list "hidden"
files, such as the `.login' file that controls how your system interacts
with Unix. To see these files, type `ls -a' or `ls -a |more'
`ls -l' will tell you the size of each file in bytes and tell you when
each was created or modified.
`mv'
Similar to the MS-DOS rename command. In fact, `mv file1 file2' will
rename file1 as file2, The command can also be used to move files
between directories.
`mv file1 News' would move file1 to your News directory.
`rm'
Deletes a file. Type `rm filename' and hit enter (but beware: when you
hit enter, it's gone for good).
Wildcards
---------
When searching for, copying or deleting files, you can use "wildcards" if
you are not sure of the file's exact name.
ls man*
would find the following files:
manual, manual.txt, man-o-man.
Use a question mark when you're sure about all but one or two characters.
For example,
ls man?
would find a file called mane, but not one called manual.
Å-Mail to other Networks
========================
There are a number of computer networks that are not directly tied to the
Net, but to which you can still send e-mail messages. Here's a list of some
of the larger networks, how to send mail to them and how their users can send
mail to you:
America Online
--------------
Remove any spaces from a user's name and append `@aol.com', to get
user@aol.com
America Online users who want to send mail to you need only put your Net
address in the "to:" field before composing a message.
ATTMail
-------
Address your message to . From ATTMail, a user would
send mail to you in this form:
internet!domain!user
So if your address were , your correspondent would
send a message to you at
internet!world.std.com!adamg
Bitnet
------
Users of Bitnet (and NetNorth in Canada and EARN in Europe) often have
addresses in this form: . If you're lucky, all you'll have to
do to mail to that address is add "bitnet" at the end, to get
. Sometimes, however, mail to such an address will
bounce back to you, because Bitnet addresses do not always translate well
into an Internet form. If this happens, you can send mail through one of two
Internet/Bitnet gateways. First, change the `@' in the address to a `%', so
that you get . Then add either `@vm.marist.edu' or
`@cunyvm.cuny.edu', so that, with the above example, you would get
or
Bitnet users have it a little easier: They can usually send mail directly
to your e-mail address without fooling around with it at all. So send them
your address and they should be OK.
CompuServe
----------
CompuServe users have numerical addresses in this form: `73727,545'. To
send mail to a CompuServe user, change the comma to a period and add
`@compuserve.com'; for example: <73727.545@compuserve.com>.
If you know CompuServe users who want to send you mail, tell them to GO
MAIL and create a mail message. In the address area, instead of typing in a
CompuServe number, have them type your address in this form:
>INTERNET:YourID@YourAddress.
For example, `>INTERNET:adamg@world.std.com'. Note that both the `>' and
the `:' are required.
Delphi
------
To send mail to a Delphi user, the form is .
Fidonet
-------
To send mail to somebody who uses a Fidonet BBS, you need the name they
use to log onto that system and its "node number." Fidonet node numbers or
addresses consist of three numbers, in this form: `1:322/190'. The first
number tells which of three broad geographic zones the BBS is in (1
represents the U.S. and Canada, 2 Europe and Israel, 3 Pacific Asia, 4 South
America). The second number represents the BBS's network, while the final
number is the BBS's "FidoNode" number in that network. If your correspondent
only gives you two numbers (for example, `322/190'), it means the system is
in zone 1.
Now comes the tricky part. You have to reverse the numbers and add to them
the letters `f', `n' and `z' (which stand for "FidoNode," "network," and
"zone'). For example, the address above would become
f190.n322.
Now add `fidonet.org' at the end, to get `f190.n322. z1.fidonet.org'. Then
add `First Name.LastName@', to get
FirstName.LastName@f190.n322.z1.fidonet.org.
Note the period between the first and last names. Whew!
The reverse process is totally different. First, the person has to have
access to his or her BBS's "net mail" area and know the Fidonet address of
his or her local Fidonet/UUCP gateway (often their system operator will know
it). Your Fidonet correspondent should address a net-mail message to UUCP
(not your name) in the "to:" field. In the node-number field, they should
type in the node number of the Fidonet/UUCP gateway (if the gateway system is
in the same regional network as their system, they need only type the last
number, for example, `390' instead of `322/390'). Then, the first line of
the message has to be your Internet address, followed by a blank line. After
that, the person can write the message and send it.
Because of the way Fidonet moves mail, it could take a day or two for a
message to be delivered in either direction. Also, because many Fidonet
systems are run as hobbies, it is considered good form to ask the gateway
sysop's permission if you intend to pass large amounts of mail back and
forth. Messages of a commercial nature are strictly forbidden (even if it's
something the other person asked for). Also, consider it very likely that
somebody other than the recipient will read your messages.
GEnie
-----
To send mail to a GEnie user, add `@genie.geis.com' to the end of their
GEnie user name, for example: . Unlike users of other
networks, however, GEnie users can receive mail from Internet only if they
pay an extra monthly charge.
MCIMail
-------
To send mail to somebody with an MCIMail account, add `@mcimail.com' to
the end of their name or numerical address. For example:
555-1212@mcimail.com
or
jsmith@mcimail.com
Note that if there is more than one MCIMail subscriber with that name, you
will get a mail message back from MCI giving you their names and numerical
addresses. You'll then have to figure out which one you want and re-send the
message.
From MCI, a user would type: *Your Name* `(EMS)' at the "To:" prompt. At
the EMS prompt, he or she would type `internet' followed by your Net address
at the "Mbx:" prompt.
Peacenet
--------
To send mail to a Peacenet user, use this form:
username@igc.org
Peacenet subscribers can use your regular address to send you mail.
Prodigy
-------
. Note that Prodigy users must pay extra for Internet
e-mail.
When things go wrong:
=====================
* You send a message but get back an ominous looking message from
MAILER-DAEMON containing up to several dozen lines of computerese
followed by your message. Somewhere in those lines you can often find a
clue to what went wrong. You might have made a mistake in spelling the
e-mail address. The site to which you're sending mail might have been
down for maintenance or a problem. You may have used the wrong
"translation" for mail to a non-Internet network.
* You call up your host system's text editor to write a message or reply
to one and can't seem to get out. If it's emacs, try control-X,
control-C (in other words, hit your control key and your X key at the
same time, followed by control and C). If worse comes to worse, you can
hang up.
* In Elm, you accidentally hit the D key for a message you want to save.
Type the number of the message, hit enter and then U, which will
"un-delete" the message. This works only before you exit Elm; once you
quit, the message is gone.
* You try to upload an ASCII message you've written on your own computer
into a message you're preparing in Elm or Pine and you get a lot of left
brackets, capital Ms, Ks and Ls and some funny-looking characters.
Believe it or not, your message will actually wind up looking fine; all
that garbage is temporary and reflects the problems some Unix text
processors have with ASCII uploads. But it will take much longer for
your upload to finish. One way to deal with this is to call up the
simple mail program, which will not produce any weird characters when you
upload a text file into a message. Another way (which is better if your
prepared message is a response to somebody's mail), is to create a text
file on your host system with cat, for example,
cat >file
and then upload your text into that. Then, in Elm or Pine, you can
insert the message with a simple command (control-r in Pine, for
example); only this time you won't see all that extraneous stuff.
FYI:
====
SCOTT YANOFF posts a very long list of existing cross-connections of
almost any sub-nets to "newsgroups" (*note Global Watering Hole::. for an
explanation of this term) `comp.mail', `comp.answers', and `news.answers'.
Just to mention a few: AppleLink, BIX, GreeNet, MausNet, SprintMail, etc.
Get your hands on the `inter-network-guide', that's kept on `rtfm.mit.edu' in
directory `pub/usenet/comp.mail'. *Note Advanced E-mail:: or *Note FTP:: to
find out how to access this Internet treasure chest.
*"...and the first lesson is:
Never lose the alternative way out of sight."*
-- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
*"If all else fails, read the manual."*
-- PC Wizard
*"If all else fails, read the manual page."*
-- Unix Wizard
* Usenet: the Global Watering Hole *
********************************
Imagine a conversation carried out over a period of hours and days, as if
people were leaving messages and responses on a bulletin board. Or imagine
the electronic equivalent of
