Big Dummy's Guide To The Internet
(C)1993, 1994 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation [EFF]
***************************************************************************** Copyright 1993, 1994 Electronic Frontier Foundation, all rights reserved. Redistribution, excerpting, republication, copying, archiving, and reposting are permitted, provided that the work is not sold for profit, that EFF contact information, copyright notice, and distribution information remains intact, and that the work is not qualitatively modified (translation, reformatting, and excerpting expressly permitted however - feel free to produce versions of the Guide for use with typesetting, hypertext, display, etc. applications, but please do not change the text other than to translate it to another language. Excerpts should be credited and follow standard fair use doctrine.) Electronic Frontier Foundation, 1001 G St. NW, Suite 950 E, Washington DC 20001 USA, +1 202 347 5400 (voice) 393 5509 (fax.) Basic info: info@eff.org; General and Guide related queries: ask@eff.org. *****************************************************************************
Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet, v.2.2
copyright Electronic Frontier Foundation 1993, 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword by Mitchell Kapor, co-founder, Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Preface by Adam Gaffin, senior writer, Network World.
Chapter 1: Setting up and jacking in 1.1 Ready, set… 1.2 Go! 1.3 Public-access Internet providers 1.4 If your town doesn't have direct access 1.5 Net origins 1.6 How it works 1.7 When things go wrong 1.8 FYI
Chapter 2: E-mail 2.1. The basics 2.2 Elm — a better way 2.3 Pine — even better than Elm 2.4 Smileys 2.5 Sending e-mail to other networks 2.6 Seven Unix commands you can't live without
Chapter 3: Usenet I 3.1 The global watering hole 3.2 Navigating Usenet with nn 3.3 nn commands 3.4 Using rn 3.5 rn commands 3.6 Essential newsgroups 3.7 Speaking up 3.8 Cross-posting
Chapter 4: Usenet II 4.1 Flame, blather and spew 4.2 Killfiles, the cure for what ails you 4.3 Some Usenet hints 4.4 The Brain-Tumor Boy, the modem tax and the chain letter 4.5 Big Sig 4.6 The First Amendment as local ordinance 4.7 Usenet history 4.8 When things go wrong 4.9 FYI
Chapter 5: Mailing lists and Bitnet 5.1 Internet mailing lists 5.2 Bitnet
Chapter 6: Telnet 6.1 Mining the Net 6.2 Library catalogs 6.3 Some interesting telnet sites 6.4 Telnet bulletin-board systems 6.5 Putting the finger on someone 6.6 Finding someone on the Net 6.7 When things go wrong 6.8 FYI
Chapter 7: FTP 7.1 Tons of files 7.2 Your friend archie 7.3 Getting the files 7.4 Odd letters — decoding file endings 7.5 The keyboard cabal 7.6 Some interesting ftp sites 7.7 ncftp — now you tell me! 7.8 Project Gutenberg — electronic books 7.9 When things go wrong 7.10 FYI
Chapter 8: Gophers, WAISs and the World-Wide Web 8.1 Gophers 8.2 Burrowing deeper 8.3 Gopher commands 8.4 Some interesting gophers 8.5 Wide-Area Information Servers 8.6 The World-Wide Web 8.7 Clients, or how to snare more on the Web 8.8 When things go wrong 8.9 FYI
Chapter 9: Advanced E-mail 9.1 The file's in the mail 9.2 Receiving files 9.3 Sending files to non-Internet sites 9.4 Getting ftp files via e-mail 9.5 The all knowing Oracle
Chapter 10: News of the world 10.1 Clarinet: UPI, Dave Barry and Dilbert 10.2 Reuters 10.3 USA Today 10.4 National Public Radio 10.5 The World Today: From Belarus to Brazil 10.6 E-mailing news organizations 10.7 FYI
Chapter 11: IRC, MUDs and other things that are more fun than they sound 11.1 Talk 11.2 Internet Relay Chat 11.3 IRC commands 11.4 IRC in times of crisis 11.5 MUDs 11.6 Go, go, go (and chess, too)! 11.7 The other side of the coin 11.8 FYI
Chapter 12: Education and the Net 12.1 The Net in the Classroom 12.2 Some specific resources for students and teachers 12.3 Usenet and Bitnet in the classroom
Chapter 13: Business on the Net 13.1 Setting up shop 13.2 FYI
Chapter 14: Conclusion — The end?
Appendix A: Lingo
Appendix B: Electronic Frontier Foundation Information
Foreword
By Mitchell Kapor,
Co-founder, Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Welcome to the World of the Internet
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is proud to have sponsored the production of the Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet. EFF is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., dedicated to ensuring that everyone has access to the newly emerging communications technologies vital to active participation in the events of our world. As more and more information is available online, new doors open up for those who have access to that information. Unfortunately, unless access is broadly encouraged, individuals can be disenfranchised and doors can close, as well. The Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet was written to help open some doors to the vast amounts of information available on the world's largest network, the Internet. The spark for the Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet was ignited in a few informal conversations that included myself and Steve Cisler of Apple Computer, Inc., in June of 1991. With the support of Apple Computer, EFF engaged Adam Gaffin to write the book and actually took on the project in September of 1991. The idea was to write a guide to the Internet for people 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. We have more than realized our goal. Individuals from as geographically far away as Germany, Italy, Canada, South Africa, Japan, Scotland, Norway, and Antarctica have all sent electronic mail to say that they downloaded the Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet. The guide is now available in a wide array of formats, including ACSCII text, HyperCard, World Wide Web, PostScript and AmigaGuide. And the guide will be published in a printed format by MIT Press in June of 1994. EFF would like to thank author Adam Gaffin for doing a terrific job of explaining the Net in such a nonthreatening way. We'd also 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 invite you to join with EFF in our fight to ensure that equal access to the networks and free speech are protected in newly emerging technologies. We are a membership organization, and through donations like yours, we can continue to sponsor important projects to make communications easier. Information about the Electronic Frontier Foundation and some of the work that we do can be found at the end of this book. We hope that the Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet helps you learn about whole new worlds, where new friends and experiences are sure to be yours. Enjoy!
Mitch Kapor
Chairman of the Board
Electronic Frontier Foundation
mkapor@eff.org
For comments, questions, or requests regarding EFF or the Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet, send a note to ask@eff.org.
Preface
By Adam Gaffin,
Senior Writer, Network World, Framingham, Mass.
Welcome to the Internet! You're about to start a journey through a unique land without frontiers, a place that is everywhere at once — even though it exists physically only as a series of electrical impulses. You'll be joining a growing community of millions of people around the world who use this global resource on a daily basis. With this book, you will be able to use the Internet 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 in
several different languages.
= Tap into thousands 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
with official weather reports.
= Play live, "real time" games with dozens of other people at once.
Connecting to "the Net" today, takes something of 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. There are so 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 locals 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. Fortunately, most of the locals are actually friendly. In fact, the Net actually has a rich tradition of helping out visitors and newcomers. Until very recently, there were few written guides for ordinary people, and the Net grew largely through an "oral" tradition in which the old- timers helped the newcomers. So when you connect, don't be afraid to ask for help. You'll be surprised at how many people will lend a hand! Without such folks, in fact, this guide would not be possible. My thanks to all the people who have written with suggestion, additions and corrections since the Big Dummy's Guide first appeared on the Internet in 1993. Special thanks go to my loving wife Nancy. I would also like to thank the following people, who, whether they know it or not, provided particular help. Rhonda Chapman, Jim Cocks, Tom Czarnik, Christopher Davis, David DeSimone, Jeanne deVoto, Phil Eschallier, Nico Garcia, Joe Granrose, Joerg Heitkoetter, Joe Ilacqua, Jonathan Kamens, Peter Kaminski, Thomas A. Kreeger, Stanton McCandlish, Leanne Phillips, Nancy Reynolds, Helen Trillian Rose, Barry Shein, Jennifer "Moira" Smith, Gerard van der Leun and Scott Yanoff. If you have any suggestions or comments on how to make this guide better, I'd love to hear them. You can reach me via e-mail at adamg@world.std.com.
Boston, Mass., February, 1994.
Chapter 1: SETTING UP AND JACKING IN
1.1 READY, SET …
The world is just a phone call away. With a computer and modem, you'll be able to connect to the Internet, the world's largest computer network (and if you're lucky, you won't even need the modem; many colleges and companies now give their students or employees direct access to the Internet). 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 you are 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 "bps rate" or bits per second. One bps means the modem can transfer roughly one bit per second; the greater the bps 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-bps modem for well under $60 — and most now come with the ability to handle fax messages as well. At prices that now start around $150, you can buy a modem that can transfer data at 14,400 bps (and often even faster, 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, will 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 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 prime Internet directive: "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 come "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) your 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 videotape. 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 bps rate. If changing the protocols doesn't work, try using another bps rate (but no faster than the one listed for your modem). Don't worry, 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. There are the basics. Now on to the Net!
1.2 GO!
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. 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. But cost should be only one consideration in choosing a host system, especially if you live in an area with more than one provider. Most systems let you look around before you sign up. What is the range of each of their services? How easy is each to use? What kind of support or help can you get from the system administrators? The last two questions are particularly important because many 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.
1.3 PUBLIC-ACCESS INTERNET PROVIDERS
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, 'new'). 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 2 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, choose different options just to see what happens. Remember: You can't break anything. The more you play, the more comfortable you'll be. 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 hundreds 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.
However, even on systems that do not provide these services directly, you will be able to use a number of them through telnet (see Chapter 6). In the list that follows, systems that let you access services through menus are noted; otherwise assume that when you connect, you'll be dumped right into Unix (a.k.a. MS-DOS with a college degree). Several of these sites are available nationwide through national data networks such as the CompuServe Packet Network and SprintNet. Please note that all listed charges are subject to change. Many sites require new or prospective users to log on a particular way on their first call; this list provides the name you'll use in such cases.
ALABAMA
Huntsville. Nuance. Call voice number for modem number. $35 setup; $25 a month. Voice: (205) 533-4296.
ALASKA
Anchorage. University of Alaska Southeast, Tundra Services, (907) 789-1314; has local dial-in service in several other cities. $20 a month. Voice: (907) 465-6453.
ALBERTA
Edmonton. PUCNet Computer Connections, (403) 484-5640. Log on as: guest. $10 setup fee; $25 for 20 hours a month plus $6.25 an hour for access to ftp and telnet. Voice: (403) 448-1901.
ARIZONA
Tucson. Data Basics, (602) 721-5887. $25 a month or $180 a year.
Voice: (602) 721-1988.
Phoenix/Tucson. Internet Direct, (602) 274-9600 (Phoenix); (602) 321-9600 (Tucson). Log on as: guest. $20 a month. Voice: (602) 274-0100 (Phoenix); (602) 324-0100 (Tucson).
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Victoria Victoria Free-Net, (604) 595-2300. Menus. Access to all features requires completion of a written form. Users can "link" to other Free-Net systems in Canada and the United States. Free. Log on as: guest Voice: (604) 389-6026.
CALIFORNIA
Berkeley. Holonet. Menus. For free trial, modem number is (510) 704-1058. For information or local numbers, call the voice number. $60 a year for local access, $2 an hour during offpeak hours. Voice: (510) 704-0160.
Cupertino. Portal. Both Unix and menus. (408) 725-0561 (2400 bps); (408) 973-8091 (9600/14,400 bps). $19.95 setup fee, $19.95 a month. Voice: (408) 973-9111.
Irvine. Dial N' CERF. See under San Diego.
Los Angeles/Orange County. Kaiwan Public Access Internet, (714) 539-5726; (310) 527-7358. $15 signup; $11 a month (credit card). Voice: (714) 638-2139.
Los Angeles. Dial N' CERF. See under San Diego.
Oakland. Dial N' CERF. See under San Diego.
Pasadena. Dial N' CERF See under San Diego.
Palo Alto. Institute for Global Communications., (415) 322-0284. Unix. Local conferences on environmental/peace issues. Log on as: new. $10 a month and $3 an hour after first hour. Voice: (415) 442-0220.
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, Pasadena and Irvine. For more information, call voice (800) 876-CERF or (619) 534-5087. $50 setup fee; $20 a month plus $5 an hour ($3 on weekends). Voice: (800) 876-2373.
San Diego. CTS Network Services, (619) 637-3660. Log on as: help. $15 set-up fee, monthly fee of $10 to $23 depending on services used. Voice: (619) 637-3637.
San Diego. Cyberspace Station, (619) 634-1376. Unix. Log on as:
guest. Charges: $10 sign-up fee; $15 a month or $60 for six months.
San Francisco. Pathways, call voice number for number. Menus. $25
setup fee; $8 a month and $3 an hour. Voice: (415) 346-4188.
San Jose. Netcom, (510) 865-9004 or 426-6610; (408) 241-9760; (415) 424-0131, up to 9600 bps. Unix. Maintains archives of Usenet postings. Log on as: guest. $15 startup 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: (408) 554-UNIX.
San Jose. A2i, (408) 293-9010. Log on as: guest. $20 a month; $45 for three months; $72 for six months.
Sausalito. The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (WELL), (415) 332- 6106. 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. $15 a month plus $2 an hour. Access through the nationwide CompuServe Packet Network available for another $4.50 an hour. Voice: (415) 332-4335. Recorded message about the system's current status: (800) 326-8354 (continental U.S. only).
COLORADO
Colorado Springs/Denver. CNS, (719) 570-1700 (Colorado Springs); (303) 758-2656 (Denver). Local calendar listings and ski and stock reports. Users can choose between menus or Unix. Log on as: new. $35 setup fee; $2.75 an hour (minimum fee of $10 a month). Voice: (719) 592- 1240.
Colorado Springs. Old Colorado City Communications, (719) 632- 4111. Log on as: newuser. $25 a month. Voice: (719) 632-4848.
Denver. Denver Free-Net, (303) 270-4865. Menus. Access to all services requires completion of a written form. Users can "link" to other Free-Net systems across the country. Free. Log on as: guest.
Golden. Colorado SuperNet. E-mail to fax service. Available only to Colorado residents. Local dial-in numbers available in several Colorado cities. For dial-in numbers, call the number below. $3 an hour ($1 an hour between midnight and 6 a.m.); one-time $20 sign-up fee. Voice: (303) 273-3471.
DELAWARE
Middletown. Systems Solutions, (302) 378-1881. $20 setup fee; $25 a month for full Internet access. Voice: (800) 331-1386
FLORIDA
Talahassee. Talahassee Free-Net, (904) 488-5056. Menus. Full access requires completion of a registration form. Can "link" to other Free-Net systems around the country. Voice: (904) 488-5056.
GEORGIA
Atlanta. Netcom, (303) 758-0101. See under Los Angeles,
California, for information on rates.
ILLINOIS
Champaign. Prarienet Free-Net, (217) 255-9000. Menus. Log on as: visitor. Free for Illinois residents; $25 a year for others. Voice: (217) 244-1962.
Chicago. MCSNet, (312) 248-0900. $25/month or $65 for three months of unlimited access; $30 for three months of access at 15 hours a month. Voice: (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. Free. Voice: (309) 677-2544.
MARYLAND
Baltimore. Express Access, (410) 766-1855; (301) 220-0462; (714) 377-9784. Log on as: new. $20 setup fee; $25 a month or $250 a year. Voice: (800 969-9090.
Baltimore. Clarknet, (410) 730-9786; (410) 995-0271; (301) 596- 1626; (301) 854-0446. Log on as: guest. $23 a month, $126 for six months or $228 a year. Voice: (410) 730-9765.
MASSACHUSETTS
Bedford. The Internet Access Company, (617) 275-0331. To log on, follow on-line prompts. $20 setup fee; $19.50 a month. Voice: (617) 275-2221.
Brookline. The World, (617) 739-9753. "Online Book Initiative" collection of electronic books, poetry and other text files. Log on as: new. $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: (617) 739-0202.
Lynn. North Shore Access, (617) 593-4557. Log on as: new. $10 for 10 hours a month; $1 an hour after that. Voice: (617) 593-3110.
Worcester. NovaLink, (508) 754-4009. Log on as: info. $12.95 sign-up (includes first two hours); $9.95 a month (includes five daytime hours), $1.80 an hour after that. Voice: (800) 274-2814.
MICHIGAN
Ann Arbor. MSEN. Call voice number for dial-in number. Unix.
Charges: $20 setup; $20 a month. Voice: (313) 998-4562.
Ann Arbor. Michnet. Has local dial-in numbers in several Michigan numbers. For local numbers, call voice number below. $35 a month plus one-time $40 sign-up fee. Additional network fees for access through non-Michnet numbers. Voice: (313) 764-9430.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Manchester. MV Communications, Inc. For local dial-up numbers call voice line below. $5 a month mininum plus variable hourly rates depending on services used. Voice: (603) 429-2223.
NEW JERSEY
New Brunswick. Digital Express, (908) 937-9481. Log on as: new. $20 setup fee; $25 a month or $250 a year. Voice: (800) 969-9090.
NEW YORK
New York. Panix, (212) 787-3100. Unix or menus. Log on as: newuser. $40 setup fee; $19 a month or $208 a year. Voice: (212) 877- 4854.
New York. Echo, (212) 989-8411. Unix, but with local conferencing software. Log on as: newuser. $19.95 ($13.75 students and seniors) a month. Voice: (212) 255-3839.
New York. MindVox, (212) 989-4141. Local conferences. Log on as: guest. $10 setup fee for non-credit-card accounts; $15 a month. Voice: (212) 989-2418.
New York. Pipeline, (212) 267-8606 (9600 bps and higher); (212) 267-7341 (2400 bps). Offers graphical interface for Windows for $90. Log on as: guest. $20 a month and $2 an hour after first 20 hours or $35 a month unlimited hours. Voice: (212) 267-3636.
New York. Maestro, (212) 240-9700. Log on as: newuser. $12 a month or $140 a year. Voice: (212) 240-9600.
NORTH CAROLINA
Charlotte. Vnet Internet Access, (704) 347-8839; (919) 406-1544.
Log on as: new. $25 a month. Voice: (704) 374-0779.
Triangle Research Park. Rock Concert Net. Call number below for local modem numbers in various North Carolina cities. $30 a month; one- time $50 sign-up fee. Voice: (919) 248-1999.
OHIO
Cleveland. Cleveland Free-Net, (216) 368-3888. Ohio and US Supreme Court decisions, historical documents, many local conferences. Full access (including access to e-mail) requires completion of a written application. Free. Voice: (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. Free.
Cleveland. Wariat, (216) 481-9436. Unix or menus. $20 setup fee;
$35 a month. Voice: (216) 481-9428.
Dayton. Freelance Systems Programming, (513) 258-7745. $20 setup
fee; $1 an hour. Voice: (513) 254-7246.
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. Free.
Voice: (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. Free.
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. Free.
ONTARIO
Ottawa. National Capital FreeNet, (613) 780-3733 or (613) 564-3600. Free, but requires completion of a written form for access to all services.
Toronto. UUNorth. Call voice number below for local dial-in numbers. $20 startup fee; $25 for 20 hours a month of offpeak use. Voice: (416) 225-8649.
Toronto. Internex Online, (416) 363-3783. Both Unix and menus. $40 a year for one hour a day. Voice: (416) 363-8676.
OREGON
Portland. Agora, (503) 293-1772 (2400 bps), (503) 293-2059 (9600 bps or higher). Log on as: apply. $6 a month for one hour per day.
Portland. Teleport, (503) 220-0636 (2400 bps); (503) 220-1016 (9600 and higher). Log on as: new. $10 a month for one hour per day. Voice: (503) 223-4245.
PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh. Telerama, (412) 481-5302. $6 for 10 hours a month, 60 cents for each additional hour. Voice: (412) 481-3505.
QUEBEC
Montreal. Communications Accessibles Montreal, (514) 931-7178 (9600 bps); (514) 931-2333 (2400 bps). $25 a month. Voice: (514) 931-0749.
RHODE ISLAND
East Greenwich. IDS World Network, (401) 884-9002. In addition to Usenet, has conferences from the Fidonet and RIME networks. $10 a month; $50 for six months; $100 for a year.
Providence/Seekonk. Anomaly, (401) 331-3706. $125 for six months or $200 a year. Educational rate of $75 for six months or $125 a year. Voice: (401) 273-4669.
TEXAS
Austin. RealTime Communications, (512) 459-4391. Log on as: new. $75 a year. Voice: (512) 451-0046.
Dallas. Texas Metronet, (214) 705-2901; (817) 261-1127. Log on as: info or signup. $10 to $35 setup fee, depending on service; $10 to $45 a month, depending on service. Voice: (214) 705-2900 or (817) 543-8756.
Houston. The Black Box, (713) 480-2686. $21.65 a month. Voice: (713) 480-2684.
VIRGINIA
Norfolk/Peninsula. Wyvern Technologies, (804) 627-1828 (Norfolk); (804) 886-0662 (Peninsula). $10 startup fee; $15 a month or $144 a year. Voice: (804) 622-4289.
WASHINGTON, DC
The Meta Network. Call voice number below for local dial-in numbers. Caucus conferencing, menus. $15 setup fee; $20 a month. Voice: (703) 243-6622.
CapAccess, (202), 784-1523. Log on as guest with a password of visitor. A Free-Net system (see under Cleveland, Ohio, for information). Free. Voice: (202) 994-4245.
See also: listing under Baltimore, MD for Express Access and
Clarknet.
WASHINGTON STATE
Seattle. Halcyon, (206) 382-6245. Users can choose between menus and Unix. Log on as: new. $10 setup fee; $60 a quarter or $200 a year. Voice: (206) 955-1050.
Seattle. Eskimo North, (206) 367-3837 (all speeds), (206) 362-6731 (9600/14.4K bps). $10 a month or $96 a year. Voice: (206) 367-7457.
UNITED KINGDOM
London. Demon Internet Systems, 44 (0)81 343 4848. 12.50 setup fee; 10 a month or 132.50 a year. Voice: 44 (0)81 349 0063
1.4 IF YOUR TOWN HAS NO DIRECT ACCESS
If you don't live in an area with a public-access site, you'll still be able to connect to the Net. Several services offer access through national data networks such as the CompuServe Packet Network and SprintNet, 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. Four 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 Online — only it now offers subscribers access to Internet services. Delphi 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. BIX (the Byte Information Exchange) offers FTP, Telnet and e-mail access to the Internet as part of their basic service. Owned by the same company as Delphi, it also offers 20 hours of access a month for $20. For more information, call (800) 695-4775. 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. NovX Systems Integration, based in Seattle, Washington, offers full Internet access through an 800 number reachable across the United States. There is a $24.95 setup fee, in addition to a monthly fee of $19.95 and a $10.5 hourly charge. For more information, call (206) 447-0800.
1.5 NET ORIGINS
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. This technology, in which data meant for another location is broken up into little pieces, each with its own "forwarding address" had the promise of letting several users share just one communications line. Just as important, from ARPA's viewpoint, was that this allowed for creation of networks that could automatically route data around downed circuits or computers. ARPA's goal was not the creation of today's international computer-using community, but development of a data network that could survive a nuclear attack. Previous computer networking efforts had required a line between each computer on the network, sort of like a one-track train route. 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 recognized 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 that links all sorts of computers across national boundaries. 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 continues to grow 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 56,000 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 1.5 million and then 45 million bits per second. Even before the Net was able to reach that latter 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. Another major change has been the development of commercial services that provide internetworking services at speeds comparable to those of the government system. In fact, by mid-1994, the U.S. government will remove itself from any day-to-day control over the workings of the Net, as regional and national providers continue to expand.
1.6 HOW 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 use 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 9,600 to 14,400 bits per second). 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. Unlike with commercial networks such as CompuServe or Prodigy, there is no one central computer or 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. The design also reduces the costs for an individual or organization to get onto the network. But thousands of connected computers can also make it difficult to navigate the Net and find what you want — especially as different computers may have different commands for plumbing their resources. 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. 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. 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 today, the links grow ever closer between the Internet and such commercial networks as CompuServe and Prodigy, whose users can now exchange electronic mail with their Internet friends. Some commercial providers, such as Delphi and America Online, are working to bring their subscribers direct access to Internet services. 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 choose 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 "inhabit" 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. 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. 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. Stay and contribute. The Net will be richer for it — and so will you.
1.7 WHEN THINGS 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 due 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.
1.8 FYI
The Net grows so fast that even the best guide to its resources would be somewhat outdated the day it was printed. At the end of each chapter, however, you'll find FYI pointers to places on the Net where you can go for more information or to keep updated on new resources and services. 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, see Chapter 3). Steven Levy's book, "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's "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. You'll find numerous documents about the Internet, its history and its resources in the pub/Net_info directory on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's FTP server (see chapter 7 to decipher this).
Chapter 2: E-MAIL
2.1 THE BASICS
Electronic mail, or e-mail, is your personal connection to the world of the Net. All of the millions of people around the world who use the Net have their own e-mail addresses. 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-mail address. You can subscribe to the electronic equivalent of magazines and newspapers. You might even get 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, minutes or even seconds (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 recipients respond at their 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: you can 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:
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 (although there are ways to get some Unix text processors, such as emacs, to word-wrap). 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
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 Sat Jan 15 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, which again, is not something you'll likely need to know. 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 Jan 15 20:04:55 1994
Received: by eff.org id AA28949
(5.65c/IDA-1.4.4/pen-ident for adamg); Sat, 15 Jan 1994 20:04:55 -0400
(ident-sender: adamg@eff.org)
Date: Sat, 15 Jan 1994 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 Greenwich Mean Time — 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. 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 lowercase 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 user name. 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 lowercase d and then hit enter, you'll delete the original message. Type a lowercase 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 lowercase 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 (see section 2.4)! 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. 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, in Chapter 6, 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 in Internetese, a "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 and .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. Swiss sites end in .ch, while South African ones end in .za. Some U.S. sites have followed this international convention (such as well.sf.ca.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 generally don't have to worry about capitalizing e-mail addresses. 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 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 lowercase 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 its 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. Feeling opinionated? Want to give the President of the United States a piece of your mind? Send a message to president@whitehouse.gov. Or if the vice president will do, write vice-president@whitehouse.gov. 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.
2.2 ELM — A BETTER WAY
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
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
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 lowercase 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 lowercase 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. If you want to save a message to your own computer, hit s, either within the message or with your cursor on the message entry in the elm menu. A filename will pop up. If you do not like it, type a new name (you won't have to backspace). Hit enter, and the message will be saved with that file name in your "home directory" on your host system. After you exit elm, you can now download it (ask your system administrator for specifics on how to download — and upload — such files).
2.3 PINE — AN EVEN BETTER WAY
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 spell-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 some systems may 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!
2.4 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
Some other smileys include:
;-) Wink;
:-( Frown;
:-O Surprise;
8-) Wearing glasses;
=|:-)= Abe Lincoln.
OK, so maybe the last two are a little bogus :-).
2.5 SENDING E-MAIL TO OTHER NETWORKS
There are a number of computer networks that are not directly part of the Net, but which are now connected through "gateways" that allow the passing of e-mail. 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 user@attmail.com.
From ATTMail, a user would send mail to you in this form:
internet!domain!user
So if your address were nancyr@world.std.com, your correspondent would send a message to you at
internet!world.std.com!nancyr
Bitnet
Users of Bitnet (and NetNorth in Canada and EARN in Europe) often have addresses in this form: IZZY@INDVMS. If you're lucky, all you'll have to do to mail to that address is add "bitnet" at the end, to get izzy@indvms.bitnet. 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 username%site.bitnet. Then add either @vm.marist.edu or @cunyvm.cuny.edu, so that, with the above example, you would get izzy%indyvms.bitnet@vm.marist.edu or izzy%indvyvms.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu 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. Note that some CompuServe users must pay extra to receive mail from the Internet. 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 username@delphi.com.
Fidonet
To send mail to people using 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 several 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.z1.
Now add "fidonet.org'' at the end, to get f190.n322.z1.fidonet.org. Then add "FirstName.LastName@', to get
FirstName.LastName@f190.n322.z1.fidonet.org
Note the period between the first and last names. Also, some countries now have their own Fidonet "backbone" systems, which might affect addressing. For example, were the above address in Germany, you would end it with "fido.de" instead of "fidonet.org." 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.com" to the end of the GEnie user name, for example: walt@genie.com.
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
UserID@prodigy.com. Note that Prodigy users must pay extra for
Internet e-mail.
2.6 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
where "file" is the name of the file you want to see. Hitting control-C will stop the display. Alternately, you could type
more file
to achieve the same result. 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: \stuff\text), Unix uses a / (for example: /stuff/text). So to change from your present directory to the stuff/text sub-directory, you would type
cd stuff/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.