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Date: Friday, May 26, 1995 9:15am Electronic Mail
From: INTERNET: LISTSERV@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu Msg#: 103260
To: DigitalMaster
Re: Output of your job "ultra"
(N)ext, (P)revious, or (R)ead this message?
> GET INTERNET BY-EMAIL NETTRAIN F=MAIL
Summary of resource utilization
-------------------------------
CPU time: 0.176 sec Device I/O: 15
Overhead CPU: 0.050 sec Paging I/O: 21
CPU model: 3090 DASD model: 3380
Date: Friday, May 26, 1995 9:15am Electronic Mail
From: INTERNET: LISTSERV@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu Msg#: 103261
To: DigitalMaster
Re: File: "INTERNET BY-EMAIL"
(N)ext, (P)revious, or (R)ead this message?
+--------------------------------------------------+
| Accessing The Internet By E-Mail |
| Doctor Bob's Guide to Offline Internet Access |
| 4th Edition - March 1995 |
+--------------------------------------------------+
Copyright (c) 1994-95, "Doctor Bob" Rankin
All rights reserved. Permission is granted to make and distribute
verbatim copies of this document provided the copyright notice and
this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Feel free to
upload to your favorite BBS or Internet server!
How to Access Internet Services by E-mail
-----------------------------------------
If you don't have direct access to the Internet through your BBS
or online service, you're not alone. About half of the 150 countries
with Internet connections have only e-mail access to this world-wide
network of networks.
But if you think that sounds limiting, read on. You can access almost any
Internet resource using e-mail. Maybe you've heard of FTP, Gopher, Archie,
Veronica, Finger, Usenet, Whois, Netfind, WAIS, and the World-Wide Web but
thought they were out of your reach because you don't have a direct
connection.
Not so! You can use simple e-mail commands to do all of this and much
more on the Internet. And even if you do have full Internet access,
using e-mail services can save you time and money. If you can send a
note to an Internet address, you're in the game.
I encourage you to read this entire document first and then go back and
try out the techniques that are covered. This way, you will gain a
broader perspective of the information resources that are available, an
introduction to the tools you can work with, and the best methods for
finding the information you want.
Finding the Latest Version
--------------------------
This document is now available from several automated mail servers.
To get the latest edition, send e-mail to one of the addresses below.
To: listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu (for US/Canada/etc.)
Enter only this line in the BODY of the note:
GET INTERNET BY-EMAIL NETTRAIN F=MAIL
To: mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu (for Eastern US)
Enter only this line in the BODY of the note:
send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email
To: mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk (for UK/Europe/etc.)
Enter only this line in the BODY of the note:
send lis-iis e-access-inet.txt
You can also get the file by anonymous FTP at one of these sites:
Site: ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu
get NETTRAIN/INTERNET.BY-EMAIL
Site: rtfm.mit.edu
get pub/usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email
Site: mailbase.ac.uk
get pub/lists/lis-iis/files/e-access-inet.txt
Other Translations of This Document
-----------------------------------
Several readers have graciously volunteered to translate this text into
languages other than English. The list below shows the status of the
translation work that has been done or is in progress. You can obtain
any of the completed texts by sending e-mail with
Subject: send accmail.xx (where "xx" is as shown below)
To: BobRankin@mhv.net
- Danish (Complete - 4th Edition) Filename: accmail.dk
- Dutch (Complete - 3rd Edition) Filename: accmail.nl
- French (In progress) Filename: accmail.fr
- German (Complete - 3rd Edition) Filename: accmail.de
- Hebrew (In progress) Filename: accmail.il
- Hungarian (In progress) Filename: accmail.hu
- Indonesian (Complete 4th Edition) Filename: accmail.id
- Italian (In progress) Filename: accmail.it
- Japanese (In progress) Filename: accmail.jp
- Norwegian (Complete - 4th edition) Filename: accmail.no
- Portuguese (Complete - 2nd Edition) Filename: accmail.pt
- Romanian (Complete - 4th Edition) Filename: accmail.ro
- Russian (Complete - 4th Edition) Filename: accmail.su
- Spanish (In progress) Filename: accmail.sp
- Swedish (In progress) Filename: accmail.se
Please contact the author if you would like to assist in the translation
of this document into another language.
Acknowledgements
----------------
This document is continually expanding and improving as a result of the
daily flood of comments and questions received by the author. The following
individuals are hereby recognized for their contributions. (If I forgot
anyone, let me know and I'll gladly add you to the list.)
Roddy MacLeod - Engineering Faculty Librarian, Heriot Watt University
George McMurdo - Queen Margaret College
Jim Milles - NETTRAIN Moderator, Saint Louis University
Glee Willis - Engineering Librarian, University of Nevada
Sylvain Chamberland - Enthusiastic contributor
Alberto Barengols - Spanish translation
Vadim Fedorov - Russian translation
Stefan Greundel - German translation
Thorsten Bo Hansen - Danish translation
Roland Ljungkvist - Swedish translation
Isamar Maia - Portuguese translation
Vidar Sarvik - Norwegian translation
Jeene van der Hoef - Dutch translation
The DELRINA CORPORATION, makers of WinComm Pro, Internet Messenger and
other fine software products is also proud to be a corporate sponsor of
this effort.
A Short Aside... "What is the Internet?"
----------------------------------------
Many introductory texts on the Internet go into excruciating detail on
the history, composition and protocol of the Internet. If you were
looking for that you won't find it here, because this is a "how to"
lesson, not a history book.
When you buy a new car, they don't make you read "The Life and Times of
Henry Ford" before you can turn the top down and squeal off the lot.
And when you get a new computer, nobody forces you to read a text on
logic design before you fire up Leisure Suit Larry or WordPerfect.
So if you're the type that wants to short-circuit the preliminaries and
just dig in, you've come to the right place. I'm not going to bore you
with the gory details. Instead, I'll just offer up my Reader's Digest
condensed definition of the Internet, and encourage you to read more
about the Internet in one of the many fine Internet books and guides
listed in the "Suggested Reading" section. Some of them are even free
and accessible directly from the Internet!
Internet (noun) - A sprawling collection of computer networks that spans
the globe, connecting government, military, educational and commercial
institutions, as well as private citizens to a wide range of computer
services, resources, and information. A set of network conventions and
common tools are employed to give the appearance of a single large
network, even though the computers that are linked together use many
different hardware and software platforms.
The Rules of The Game
---------------------
This document is meant to be both tutorial and practical, so there are
lots of actual commands and internet addresses listed herein. You'll
notice that when these are included in the text they are indented by
several spaces for clarity. Don't include the leading spaces when you
try these commands on your own!
You'll also see things like "<file>" or "<name>" appearing in this
document. Think of these as place holders or variables which must
be replaced with an appropriate value. Do NOT include the quotes or
brackets in your value unless specifically directed to do so.
Most e-mail servers understand only a small set of commands and are
not very forgiving if you deviate from what they expect. So include
ONLY the specified commands in the Subject or body of your note, leaving
off any extraneous lines such as your signature, etc.
You should also ensure that you have one blank line between the note
headers and the body of your note. And do pay attention to upper/lower
case in directory and file names when using e-mail servers. It's almost
always important!
FTP BY E-MAIL
-------------
FTP stands for "file transfer protocol", and is a means of accessing
files that are stored on remote computer systems. In Internet lingo,
these remote computers are called "sites". Files at FTP sites are
typically stored in a tree-like set of directories (or nested folders
for Mac fans), each of which pertains to a different subject.
When visiting an FTP site using a "live" internet connection, one would
specify the name of the site, login with a userid & password, navigate
to the desired directory and select one or more files to be transferred
back to their local system.
Using FTP by e-mail is very similar, except that the desired site is
reached through a special "ftpmail server" which logs in to the remote
site and returns the requested files to you in response to a set of
commands in an e-mail message.
Using FTP by e-mail can be nice even for those with full Internet
access, because some popular FTP sites are heavily loaded and
interactive response can be very sluggish. So it makes sense not to
waste time and connect charges in these cases.
To use FTP by e-mail, you first need a list of FTP "sites" which are the
addresses of the remote computer systems that allow you to retrieve
files anonymously (without having a userid and password on that system).
There are some popular sites listed later in this guide, but you can get
a comprehensive list of hundreds of anonymous FTP sites by sending an
e-mail message to the internet address:
mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu
and include these lines in the BODY of the note.
send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/sitelist/part1
send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/sitelist/part2
... (lines omitted for brevity) ...
send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/sitelist/part18
You will then receive (by e-mail) 18 files which comprise the "FTP Site
List". Note that these files are each about 60K, so the whole lot will
total around a megabyte! This could place a strain on your system, so
first check around to see if the list is already available locally, or
consider requesting just the first few as a sampler before getting the
rest.
Another file you might want to get is "FTP Frequently Asked Questions"
which contains lots more info on using FTP services, so add this line to
your note as well:
send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/faq
After you receive the site list you'll see dozens of entries like this,
which tell you the site name, location and the kind of files that are
stored there.
Site : oak.oakland.edu
Country: USA
Organ : Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan
System : Unix
Comment: Primary Simtel Software Repository mirror
Files : BBS lists; ham radio; TCP/IP; Mac; modem protocol info;
MS-DOS; MS-Windows; PC Blue; PostScript; Simtel-20; Unix
If you find an interesting FTP site in the list, send e-mail to one of
these ftpmail servers:
ftpmail@census.gov (USA)
ftpmail@sunsite.unc.edu (USA)
bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu (USA)
bitftp@vm.gmd.de (Germany)
ftpmail@ftp.uni-stuttgart.de (Germany)
ftpmail@ftp.luth.se (Sweden)
ftpmail@doc.ic.ac.uk (UK)
ftpmail@cs.uow.edu.au (Australia)
It doesn't really matter which one you choose, but a server that is close
may respond quicker. In the body of the note, include these lines:
open <site>
dir
quit
This will return to you a list of the files stored in the root directory
at that site. See the figure below for an example of the output when
using "oak.oakland.edu" for the site name.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| -r--r--r-- 1 w8sdz OAK 1255 Nov 9 16:32 README |
| drwxr-xr-x 3 w8sdz OAK 8192 Feb 25 05:17 SimTel |
| d--x--x--x 3 root system 8192 Jan 19 20:26 bin |
| d--x--x--x 5 root system 8192 Dec 30 05:15 etc |
| drwxrwx--- 2 incoming OAK 8192 Feb 25 11:05 incoming |
| drwxr-xr-x 3 w8sdz OAK 8192 Jan 30 17:37 pub |
| drwxr-xr-x 2 jeff OAK 8192 Apr 17 1994 siteinfo |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
In your next e-mail message you can navigate to other directories by
inserting (for example)
chdir pub
before the "dir" command. (The "chdir" means "change directory" and "pub"
is a common directory name, usually a good place to start.) Once you
determine the name of a file you want to retrieve, use:
get <name of file>
in the following note instead of the "dir" command. If the file you
want to retrieve is plain text, this will suffice. If it's a binary
file (an executable program, compressed file, etc.) you'll need to
insert the command:
binary
in your note before the "get" command.
Tip: Many directories at FTP sites contain a file called 00-index.txt,
README, or something similarly named which gives a description of the
files found there. If you're just exploring and your "dir" reveals one
of these filenames, do a "get" on the file and save yourself some time.
OK, let's grab the text of The Magna Carta. Here's the message you send
to ftpmail@census.gov (or another ftpmail server):
open ftp.spies.com (The name of the FTP site)
chdir Gov/World (The directory where the file lives)
get magna.txt (Sign here please, John)
quit (Bring it on home)
Here are the commands you would send to to get a file from the Simtel
Software Repository that was mentioned earlier.
open oak.oakland.edu (The name of the FTP site)
chdir SimTel/msdos/disasm (The directory where the file lives)
binary (Because we're getting a ZIP file)
get bubble.zip (Sounds interesting, anyway...)
quit (We're outta here!)
Some other interesting FTP sites you may want to "visit" are listed below.
(Use these site names on the "open" command and the suggested directory
name on your "chdir" command, as in the previous examples.)
ocf.berkeley.edu Try: pub/Library for documents, Bible, lyrics, etc.
rtfm.mit.edu Try: pub/usenet/news.answers for USENET info
oak.oakland.edu Try: SimTel/msdos for a huge DOS software library
ftp.sura.net Try: pub/nic for Internet how-to documents
quartz.rutgers.edu Try: pub/humor for lots of humor files
gatekeeper.dec.com Try: pub/recipes for a cooking & recipe archive
Remember that you can't just send e-mail to ftpmail@<anysite>, rather you
send the "open <site>" command to one of the known ftpmail servers.
You should note that ftpmail servers tend to be quite busy so your reply
may not arrive for several minutes, hours, or days, depending on when
and where you send your request. Also, some large files may be split
into smaller pieces and returned to you as multiple messages.
If the file that is returned to you ends up looking something like what
you see below, (the word "begin" with a number and the filename on one
line, followed by a bunch of 61-character lines) it most likely is a
binary file that has been "uuencoded" by the sender. (This is required
in order to reliably transmit binary files on the Internet.)
begin 666 answer2.zip
M4$L#!`H`!@`.`/6H?18.$-Z$F@P```@?```,````5$5,25@S,34N5%A480I[
M!P8;!KL,2P,)!PL).PD'%@.(!@4.!P8%-@.6%PL*!@@*.P4.%00.%P4*.`4.
You'll need to scrounge up a version of the "uudecode" program for your
operating system (DOS, OS/2, Unix, Mac, etc.) in order to reconstruct the
file. Most likely you'll find a copy already at your site or in your
service provider's download library, but if not you can use the instructions
in the next section to find out how to search FTP sites for a copy.
One final point to consider... If your online service charges you to
store e-mail files that are sent to you and you plan to receive some
large files via FTP, it would be wise to handle your "inbasket"
expeditiously to avoid storage costs.
ARCHIE BY E-MAIL
----------------
Let's say you know the name of a file, but you have no idea at which FTP
site it might be lurking. Or maybe you're curious to know if files
matching a certain naming criteria are available via FTP. Archie is the
tool you can use to find out.
Archie servers can be thought of as a database of all the anonymous FTP
sites in the world, allowing you to find the site and/or name of a file
to be retrieved. And using Archie by e-mail can be convenient because
some Archie searches take a LONG time to complete, leaving you to tap
your toes in the meantime.
To use Archie by e-mail, simply send an e-mail message to one of the
following addresses:
archie@archie.rutgers.edu (USA)
archie@archie.sura.net (USA)
archie@archie.unl.edu (USA)
archie@archie.doc.ic.ac.uk (UK)
archie@archie.luth.se (Sweden)
archie@archie.kuis.kyoto-u.ac.jp (Japan)
To obtain detailed help for using Archie by mail, put the word
help
in the subject of the note and just send it off. You'll receive e-mail
explaining how to use archie services.
If you're the "just do it" type, then enter the command:
find <file>
where "<file>" is the name of the file to search for, in the BODY (not
the subject) of the note.
This will search for files that match your criteria exactly. If you
want to find files that contain your search criteria anywhere in their
name, insert the line
set search sub
before the "find" command. Some other useful archie commands you might
want to use are:
set maxhits 20 (limit output, default is 100 files)
set match_domain usa (restrict output to FTP sites in USA)
set output_format terse (return output in condensed form)
When you get the results from your Archie query, it will contain the
names of various sites at which the desired file is located. Use one of
these site names and the directory/filename listed for your next FTP
file retrieval request.
Now you've learned enough to locate that uudecode utility mentioned in
the last section. Let's send e-mail to archie@archie.rutgers.edu, and
include the following lines in the message:
set match_domain usa (restrict output to FTP sites in USA)
set search sub (looking for a substring match...)
find uudecode (must contain this string...)
Note: You'll be looking for the uudecode source code, not the executable
version, which would of course be a binary file and would arrive
uuencoded - a Catch 22! The output of your archie query will contain
lots of information like this:
Host ftp.clarkson.edu (128.153.4.2)
Last updated 06:31 9 Oct 1994
Location: /pub/simtel20-cdrom/msdos/starter
FILE -r-xr-xr-x 5572 bytes 21:00 11 Mar 1991 uudecode.bas
Location: /pub/simtel20-cdrom/msdos/starter
FILE -r-xr-xr-x 5349 bytes 20:00 17 Apr 1991 uudecode.c
Now you can use an ftpmail server to request "uudecode.bas" (if you have
BASIC available) or "uudecode.c" (if you have a C compiler) from the
ftp.clarkson.edu site.
It should be noted that the latest version of uudecode can be found at
the SimTel repository. Send e-mail to listserv@SimTel.coast.net,
including any or all of these commands in the BODY of the note, and the
requested files will be returned to you by e-mail.
get uudecode.bas
get uudecode.c
get uudecode.doc
GOPHER BY E-MAIL
----------------
Gopher is an excellent tool for exploring the Internet and is the best
way to find a resource if you know what you want, but not where to find
it. Gopher systems are menu-based, and provide a user-friendly front end
to Internet resources, searches and information retrieval.
Gopher knows where things are, thanks to the many volunteers who spend
time creating pointers to useful collections of 'Net resources. And
Gopher takes the rough edges off of the Internet by automating remote
logins, hiding the sometimes-cryptic command sequences, and offers
powerful search capabilities as well.
When visiting a Gopher site using a "live" Internet connection, one would
specify the name of the site, navigate through a series of hierarchical
menus to a desired resource, and then either read or transfer the
information back to their home system.
Using Gopher by e-mail is very similar, except that the desired site is
reached through a special "gophermail server" which gophers to the remote
site on your behalf and and returns the requested menu, submenu or file to
you in response to a set of commands in an e-mail message.
Although not every item on every menu will be accessible by "gophermail",
you'll still find plenty of interesting things using this technique.
Down to brass tacks... let's send e-mail to one of these addresses:
gophermail@calvin.edu (USA)
gopher@earn.net (France)
gopher@dsv.su.se (Sweden)
gomail@ncc.go.jp (Japan)
You can optionally specify the address of a known gopher site on the
Subject line to get the main menu for that site instead. Here are some
interesting gopher sites you may like to explore at your leisure.
cwis.usc.edu
gopher.micro.umn.edu
english-server.hss.cmu.edu
Let's be bold and skip the HELP stuff for now. Fire off a note to one of
the gophermail servers and specify
Subject: cwis.usc.edu
You'll get a message back from the server that looks something like
the text in the figure below.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Mail this file back to gopher with an X before the items you want. |
| |
| 1. About USCgopher/ |
| 2. How To Find Things on Gopher/ |
| 3. University Information/ |
| 4. Campus Life/ |
| 5. Computing Information/ |
| 6. Library and Research Information/ |
| 7. Health Sciences/ |
| 8. Research and Technology Centers/ |
| 9. Other Gophers & Info Resources/ |
| |
| You may edit the following numbers to set the maximum sizes after |
| which GopherMail should send output as multiple email messages: |
| |
| Split=27K bytes/message <- For text, bin, HQX messages |
| Menu=100 items/message <- For menus and query responses |
| # |
| Name=About USCgopher |
| Numb=1 |
| Type=1 |
| Port=70 |
| Path=1/About_USCgopher |
| Host=cwis.usc.edu |
| # ... (some lines deleted) ... |
| Name=Other Gophers and Information Resources |
| Numb=9 |
| Type=1 |
| Port=70 |
| Path=1/Other_Gophers_and_Information_Resources |
| Host=cwis.usc.edu |
| |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
To proceed to a selection on the returned menu just e-mail the whole text
of the note (from the menu downwards) back to the gopher server, placing
an "x" next to the items(s) you want to explore. You'll then receive the
next level of the gopher menu by e-mail. Some menu choices lead to other
menus, some lead to text files, and some lead to searches. In the example
above, let's select
x 9. Other Gophers & Info Resources
and mail the whole shebang right back at the gophermail server. You should
then get a menu with a number of interesting selections including "Gopher
Jewels". You'll find a LOT of good stuff along that path. The Gopher
Jewels project is probably the best organized collection of Internet
resources around.
If a menu item is labelled "Search" you can select that item with an "x"
and supply your search words in the Subject: of your reply. Note that
your search criteria can be a single word or a boolean expression such as:
document and (historic or government)
Each of the results (the "hits") of your search will be displayed as an
entry on yet another gopher menu!
Note: You needn't actually return the entire gopher menu and all the
routing info that follows it each time you reply to the gophermail server.
If you want to minimize the size of your query, you can strip out the
"menu" portion at the top and include only the portion below that pertains
to the menu selection you want.
Just remember that if you use this approach, you must specify "get all" on
the Subject line. (Exception: for searching, specify only the search
terms on the Subject line.) The example below is equivalent to selecting
"option 9" as we did earlier.
Split=0K bytes/message
Menu=0 items/message
#
Name=Other Gophers
Numb=9
Type=1
Port=70
Path=1/Other_Gophers_and_Information_Resources
Host=cwis.usc.edu
If this looks like nonsense to you, here's a human translation:
Connect to PORT 70 of the HOST (computer) at "cwis.usc.edu",
retrieve the sub-menu "Other Gophers", and send it to me in
ONE PIECE, regardless of its size.
Note: Sometimes gophermail requests return a blank menu or message. This
is most likely because the server failed to connect to the host from which
you were trying to get your information. Send your request again later
and it'll probably work.
VERONICA BY E-MAIL
------------------
Speaking of searches, this is a good time to mention Veronica. Just
as Archie provides a searchable index of FTP sites, Veronica provides
this function for "gopherspace". Veronica will ask you what you want to
look for (your search words) and then display another menu listing all
the gopher menu items that match your search. In typical gopher
fashion, you can then select one of these items and "go-pher it"!
To try Veronica by e-mail, retrieve the main menu from a gophermail server
using the method just described. Then try the choice labelled "Other
Gopher and Information Servers". This menu will have an entry for
Veronica.
You'll have to select one (or more) Veronica servers to handle your
query, specifying the search words in the Subject of your reply. Here's
another example of where using e-mail servers can save time and money.
Often the Veronica servers are very busy and tell you to "try again
later". So select 2 or 3 servers, and chances are one of them will be
able to handle your request the first time around.
A Gophermail Shortcut:
----------------------
The path to some resources, files or databases can be a bit tedious,
requiring several e-mail messages to the gophermail server. But here's
the good news... If you've done it once, you can re-use any of the
e-mail messages previously sent in, changing it to suit your current
needs. As an example, here's a clipping from the Veronica menu you would
get by following the previous instructions. You can send these lines to
any gophermail server to run a Veronica search.
Split=64K bytes/message <- For text, bin, HQX messages (0 = No split)
Menu=100 items/message <- For menus and query responses (0 = No split)
#
Name=Search GopherSpace by Title word(s) (via NYSERNet)
Type=7
Port=2347
Path=
Host=empire.nysernet.org
Specify the search words in the Subject line and see what turns up! You
can use boolean expressions in Veronica searches. For a guide to composing
Veronica searches, send these lines to a gophermail server:
Name=How to Compose Veronica Queries
Path=0/veronica/how-to-query-veronica
Host=veronica.scs.unr.edu
USENET BY E-MAIL
----------------
Usenet is a collection of over 5000 discussion groups on every topic
imaginable. In order to get a proper start and avoid embarrasing
yourself needlessly, you must read the Usenet new users intro document,
which can be obtained by sending e-mail to:
mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu
and include this line in the BODY of the note:
send usenet/news.answers/news-newusers-intro
To get a listing of Usenet newsgroups, add these commands to your note:
send usenet/news.answers/active-newsgroups/part1
send usenet/news.answers/active-newsgroups/part2
send usenet/news.answers/alt-hierarchies/part1
send usenet/news.answers/alt-hierarchies/part2
To get the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) file(s) for a given newsgroup,
try a command like this:
index usenet/<newsgroupname>
(Substitute dots for dashes if they appear in the newsgroup name.)
If any FAQ files are available, they will be listed in the returned info,
and you can request them with a command like:
send usenet/<newsgroupname>/<faqfilename>
Once you've handled the preliminaries, you'll need to know how to read
and contribute to Usenet newsgroups by e-mail. To read a newsgroup, you
can use the gophermail service discussed earlier in this guide.
To obtain a list of recent postings to a particular newsgroup, send the
following lines to one of the gophermail servers mentioned previously.
Specify "Subject: get all" and include only these lines in the message body.
(You must replace "<newsgroup>" below with the name of the Usenet
newsgroup you wish to access. eg: alt.answers, biz.comp.services,
news.newusers.questions, etc.)
------- begin gophermail message (do not include this line)
Name=<newsgroup>
Type=1
Port=4324
Path=nntp ls <newsgroup>
Host=pinchy.micro.umn.EDU
------- end gophermail message (do not include this line)
If this doesn't work, you can try another Host by specifying Port=4320
(instead of Port=4324) and substituting one of the lines below.
Host=phantom.bsu.edu
Host=teetot.acusd.edu
Host=infopub.uqam.ca
Host=gopher.ic.ac.uk
Host=info.mcc.ac.uk
Note that many of these sites carry only a limited range of newsgroups,
so you may have to try several before finding one which carries the
newsgroup you're looking for. When the newsgroup does not exist,
gophermail sends something like "'nntp ls <newsgroup>': path does not
exist". When a site does not accept outside requests, gophermail sends
something like "Sorry, we don't accept requests outside campus".
If successful, the gophermail server will send you a typical gopher menu
on which you may select the individual postings you wish to read.
Note: The gophermail query in this example is the greatly edited result of
many previous queries. I've pared it down to the bare essentials so
it can be tailored and reused.
If you decide to make a post of your own, mail the text of your post to:
group-name@cs.utexas.edu
group.name@news.demon.co.uk
group.name@charm.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
group.name@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca
group.name@nic.funet.fi
(For an updated list send e-mail to mg5n+remailers@andrew.cmu.edu)
For example, to post to news.newusers.questions, you might send your
message to either of:
news-newusers-questions@cs.utexas.edu
news.newusers.questions@news.demon.co.uk
Be sure to include an appropriate Subject: line, and include your real
name and e-mail address at the close of your note.
Another Usenet->E-mail Method!
------------------------------
See the section "World-Wide Web By E-Mail" for an even easier method of
retrieving Usenet posts by e-mail! This method is limited to the set of
newsgroups carried at the CERN server, but the selection seems to be
quite comprehensive.
A Defunct Usenet to E-mail Server
---------------------------------
Please note that "listserv@cc1.kuleuven.ac.be" is no longer
in service. Please do not send Usenet requests to this address.
WAIS SEARCHES BY E-MAIL
-----------------------
WAIS stands for Wide Area Information Service, and is a means of
searching a set of over 500 indexed databases. The range of topics is
too broad to mention, and besides, you'll soon learn how to get the
topic list for yourself.
I recommend that you send e-mail to "waismail@sunsite.unc.edu" with HELP
in the body of the note to get the full WAISmail user guide. But if you
can't wait, use the info below as a quickstart.
A list of WAIS databases (or "resources" as they like to be called) can be
obtained by sending e-mail to the waismail server with the line
search xxx xxx
in the body of the note. Look through the returned list for topics that
are of interest to you and use one of them in the next example.
OK, let's do an actual search. Send e-mail to:
waismail@sunsite.unc.edu
with the following commands in the note body:
maxres 10
search bush-speeches lips
This will tell WAISmail to search through the text of the "bush-speeches"
database and return a list of at most 10 documents containing "lips".
A successful search will return one or more "DOCid:" lines, which
identify the location of the matching documents. To retrieve the full
text of a matching document, send one of the returned "DOCid:" lines
(exactly as is) in the body of your next message to WAISmail.
(Note: The WAISmail server at "quake.think.com" is defunct. The server
listed above still had a few bugs as of this writing, so if it doesn't
work, try the WAIS via gophermail method described next.)
A list of WAIS databases can also be obtained by sending e-mail to
gophermail@calvin.edu with "Subject: get all" and these lines in the
message body:
Type=1
Name=WAIS Databases
Path=1/WAISes/Everything
Host=gopher-gw.micro.umn.edu
Port=70
Look through the returned list for topics that are of interest to you and
select one to search. Specify your search term(s) on the Subject line,
and clip out just the section of the returned gopher menu that corresponds
to your target database. For example:
Type=7+
Name=bush-speeches.src
Path=waissrc:/WAISes/Everything/bush-speeches
Host=gopher-gw.micro.umn.edu
Port=70
You will (hopefully) receive a gophermail menu in response listing the
matching "documents". To retrieve the full text of a matching document,
just make a selection from the returned gopher menu, and the referenced
file will be sent to you.
In my testing, WAIS by gophermail was not reliable. Often a blank menu
was returned but repeated attempts did eventually meet with success.
WORLD-WIDE WEB BY E-MAIL
------------------------
The World-Wide Web is touted as the future of Internet navigational
tools. It's a hypertext and multimedia system that lets you hop around
the Net, read documents, and access images & sounds linked to a source.
Have you ever heard someone say, "Wow, check out the cool stuff at
http://www.somewhere.com/blah.html" and wondered what the heck they
were talking about? Now you can retrieve WWW documents by e-mail
using the Agora WWW-mail server server in Switzerland.
All you need to know is the Uniform Resource Locator (or URL, that
long ugly string starting with "http:", "gopher:", or "ftp:") which
defines the address of the document, and you can retrieve it by sending
e-mail to:
agora@mail.w3.org
In the body of your note include one of these lines, replacing "<URL>"
with the actual URL specification.
send <URL>
This will send you back the document you requested, with a list of all
the documents referenced within, so that you may make further requests.
deep <URL>
Same as above, but it will also send you the documents referenced in
the URL you specified. (May result in a LOT of data coming your way!)
To try WWW by e-mail send the following commands to agora@mail.w3.org :
www
send http://info.cern.ch
You'll receive in due course the Agora help file and the "WWW Welcome
Page" from Cern which will include references to other Web documents
you'll want to explore.
Note: The URL you specify may contain only the following characters:
a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and these special characters /:._-+@%*()?~
As mentioned earlier, you can also get Usenet postings from the WWW
mail server. Here are some examples:
send news:comp.unix.aix (returns a list of recent postings)
deep news:comp.unix.aix (returns the list AND the postings,
this can be a LOT of data!)
There is another WWW-mail server whose address is:
webmail@curia.ucc.ie
This server requires commands in the form:
go <URL>
WWW SEARCH BY E-MAIL
--------------------
There's a lot of great stuff out on the Web, but how do you find it?
Well, just like Archie and Veronica help you search FTP and gopher sites,
there are several search engines that have been developed to search for
information on the Web. But until now, you had to have direct Internet
access to use them.
After a bit of research, I have found that it is possible to use several
WWW search mechanisms by e-mail. Here are some sample queries that you
can use to search via Lycos, WebCrawler and the CUI W3 Catalog. Any of
these lines can be sent to the agora@mail.w3.org address to perform a
search. If you're not interested in spam or frogs, then by all means
feel free to use your own search keywords.
For Lycos, append a dot to your keywords to force an exact match, or you
will get a substring search by default. Separate words with a "+" sign.
http://query1.lycos.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/pursuit?spam
http://query1.lycos.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/pursuit?spam.
http://query1.lycos.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/pursuit?frog.+dissection.
For WebCrawler searches you must separate words with a "+" sign.
All searches are exact, no trailing dot required.
http://webcrawler.cs.washington.edu/cgi-bin/WebQuery?spam
http://webcrawler.cs.washington.edu/cgi-bin/WebQuery?frog+dissection
For CUI W3 Catalog searches you must separate words with "%20" as below.
All searches are exact, no trailing dot required.
http://cuiwww.unige.ch/w3catalog?spam
http://cuiwww.unige.ch/w3catalog?frog%20dissection
MAILING LISTS
-------------
There are literally thousands of discussion groups that stay in touch
using e-mail based systems known as "mailing lists". People interested
in a topic "subscribe" to a "list" and then send and receive postings by
e-mail. For a good introduction to this topic, send e-mail to:
LISTSERV@vm1.nodak.edu
In the body of your note include only this command:
GET NEW-LIST WOUTERS
Finding a Mailing List
----------------------
To find out about mailing lists that are relevant to your interests,
send the following command to the same address given above.
LIST GLOBAL /keyword
(Of course you must replace "keyword" with an appropriate search word
such as Marketing, Education, etc.)
Another helpful document which details the commands used to subscribe,
unsubscribe and search mailing list archives can be had by sending to:
LISTSERV@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu
In the body of your note include only this command:
get mailser cmd nettrain f=mail
New in These Parts?
-------------------
If you're new to the Internet, I suggest you subscribe to the HELP-NET list
where you're likely to find answers to your questions. Send the command:
SUBSCRIBE HELP-NET <Firstname Lastname>
in the BODY of a note to LISTSERV@VM.TEMPLE.EDU, then e-mail your questions
to the list address:
HELP-NET@VM.TEMPLE.EDU
FINGER BY E-MAIL
----------------
"Finger" is a utility that returns information about another user.
Usually it's just boring stuff like last logon, etc., but sometimes
people put fun or useful information in their finger replies. To try
out finger, send e-mail with
Subject: FINGER jtchern@headcrash.berkeley.edu.
To: infobot@infomania.com
You'll receive some current sports standings! (The general form is
FINGER user@site.)
Just for kicks, try finger using a combination of gopher and WWW. Send
the command:
send gopher://<site>:79/0<user>
to the WWWmail server mentioned earlier.
"DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE" BY E-MAIL
--------------------------------
"WHOIS" is a service that queries a database of Internet names and
addresses. If you're looking for someone or you want to know where
a particular Internet site is located, send e-mail with
Subject: whois <name>
To: mailserv@internic.net
Try substituting "mit.edu" or the last name of someone you know in place
of "<name>" and see what comes back!
Another alternative name looker-upper is a database at MIT which keeps
tabs on everyone who has posted a message on Usenet. Send e-mail to
"mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu" and include this command ONLY in the BODY:
send usenet-addresses/<name>
Specify as much information as you can about the person (lastname,
firstname, userid, site, etc.) to limit the amount of information that
is returned to you. Here's a sample query to find the address of
someone you think may be at Harvard University:
send usenet-addresses/Jane Doe Harvard
NETFIND is another more powerful search engine that uses a person's name
and keywords describing a physical location to return a bunch of info
about the person (or persons) who fit the bill.
Let's say we want to find someone named Hardy at the University of
Colorado in Boulder. Our Netfind query will be addressed to
agora@mail.w3.org and will contain the only line:
gopher://ds.internic.net:4320/7netfind%20dblookup?hardy+boulder+colorado
Netfind works in two phases. First it displays a list of internet
domains that match your keywords, then it looks for the person in the
domain you select. Netfind by e-mail is very similar, in that you'll
receive a listing of matching domains from which you must make one or
more selections.
Each selection is numbered and there are corresponding "gopher://"
commands at the bottom of the listing. Let's pick the selection for
cs.colorado.edu computer science dept, university of colorado, boulder
which means that our next command to agora@mail.w3.org will be:
gopher://ds.internic.net:4320/0netfind%20netfind%20hardy%20cs.colorado.edu
If all goes well, you'll receive a list something like this:
full_name: HARDY, JOE (not a real person)
email: CrazyJoe@Colorado.EDU
phone: (303) 492-1234
address: Campus Box 777
department: COMPUTER SCIENCE
Note that if you know the person's domain name already, you can jump right
in with a query like the latter one above.
You can also try the "Four11 Online User Directory", a free directory of
users and their e-mail addresses. Send e-mail to info@four11.com for
details on how to search the Four11 directory.
ADDRESS/NAME SERVER INFO BY E-MAIL
----------------------------------
This is a little on the technical side, but anyway the Mail Name Server
(dns@grasp.insa-lyon.fr) offers some useful services by e-mail. Some of
the commands you can send in the BODY of your note are:
help (full details)
ip host.foo.bar (get host's addresses)
name ip# (get host name from address)
ns host.foo.bar (get host's name servers)
TELNET BY E-MAIL
-----------------
Sorry, it can't be done. Actually it CAN be done, but apparently nobody
has done it. I'd love to be proven wrong on this!
A FEW NET-GOODIES
-----------------
Here are some other interesting things you can do by e-mail. (Some of
them are accessible only by e-mail!)