Big Dummy's Guide To The Internet Part 21

You can leave the "subject:" line blank. As your message, type

query name

for the simplest type of search. If you want details on more complex searches, add another line:

man

Another way to search is via the Usenet name server. This is a system at MIT that keeps track of the e-mail addresses of everybody who posts a Usenet message that appears at MIT. It works by e-mail. Send a message to

[email protected]

Leave the "subject:" line blank. As your message, write

send usenet-addresses/lastname

where "lastname" is the last name of the person you're looking for.

6.7 WHEN THINGS GO WRONG

* Nothing happens when you try to connect to a telnet site.

The site could be down for maintenance or problems.

* You get a "host unavailable" message. The telnet site is down for some reason.

Try again later.

* You get a "host unknown" message.

Check your spelling of the site name.

* You type in a pa.s.sword on a telnet site that requires one, and you get a "login incorrect" message.

Try logging in again. If you get the message again, hit your control and ] keys at the same time to disengage and return to your host system.

* You can't seem to disconnect from a telnet site.

Use control-] to disengage and return to your host system.

6.8 FYI

The Usenet newsgroups alt.internet.services and alt.bbs.internet can provide pointers to new telnet systems. Scott Yanoff periodically posts his "Updated Internet Services List" in the former. The alt.bbs.internet newsgroup is also where you'll find Aydin Edguer's compendium of FAQs related to Internet bulletin-board systems.

Peter Scott, who maintains the Hytelnet database, runs a mailing list about new telnet services and changes in existing ones.

To get on the list, send him a note at [email protected]

Gleason Sackman maintains another mailing list dedicated to new Internet services and news about the new uses to which the Net is being put. To subscribe, send a message to [email protected] Leave the "subject:" line blank, and as your message, write: Sub net-happenings Your Name.

Chapter 7: FTP

7.1 TONS OF FILES

Hundreds of systems connected to Internet have file libraries, or archives, accessible to the public. Much of this consists of free or low- cost shareware programs for virtually every make of computer. If you want a different communications program for your IBM, or feel like playing a new game on your Amiga, you'll be able to get it from the Net.

But there are also libraries of doc.u.ments as well. If you want a copy of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, you can find it on the Net. Copies of historical doc.u.ments, from the Magna Carta to the Declaration of Independence are also yours for the asking, along with a translation of a telegram from Lenin ordering the execution of rebellious peasants. You can also find song lyrics, poems, even summaries of every "Lost in s.p.a.ce" episode ever made. You can also find extensive files detailing everything you could ever possibly want to know about the Net itself. First you'll see how to get these files; then we'll show you where they're kept.

The commonest way to get these files is through the file transfer protocol, or ftp. As with telnet, not all systems that connect to the Net have access to ftp. However, if your system is one of these, you'll be able to get many of these files through e-mail (see the next chapter).

Starting ftp is as easy as using telnet. At your host system's command line, type

ftp site.name

and hit enter, where "site.name" is the address of the ftp site you want to reach. One major difference between telnet and ftp is that it is considered bad form to connect to most ftp sites during their business hours (generally 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time). This is because transferring files across the network takes up considerable computing power, which during the day is likely to be needed for whatever the computer's main function is. There are some ftp sites that are accessible to the public 24 hours a day, though. You'll find these noted in the list of ftp sites in section 7.6

7.2 YOUR FRIEND ARCHIE

How do you find a file you want, though?

Until a few years ago, this could be quite the pain -- there was no master directory to tell you where a given file might be stored on the Net. Who'd want to slog through hundreds of file libraries looking for something?

Alan Emtage, Bill Heelan and Peter Deutsch, students at McGill University in Montreal, asked the same question. Unlike the weather, though, they did something about it.

They created a database system, called archie, that would periodically call up file libraries and basically find out what they had available. In turn, anybody could dial into archie, type in a file name, and see where on the Net it was available. Archie currently catalogs close to 1,000 file libraries around the world.

Today, there are three ways to ask archie to find a file for you: through telnet, "client" Archie program on your own host system or e- mail. All three methods let you type in a full or partial file name and will tell you where on the Net it's stored.

If you have access to telnet, you can telnet to one of the following addresses: archie.mcgill.ca; archie.sura.net; archie.unl.edu; archie.ans.net; or archie.rutgers.edu. If asked for a log-in name, type

archie

and hit enter.

When you connect, the key command is prog, which you use in this form:

prog filename

followed by enter, where "filename" is the program or file you're looking for. If you're unsure of a file's complete name, try typing in part of the name. For example, "PKZIP" will work as well as "PKZIP204.EXE." The system does not support DOS or Unix wildcards.

If you ask archie to look for "PKZIP*," it will tell you it couldn't find anything by that name. One thing to keep in mind is that a file is not necessarily the same as a program -- it could also be a doc.u.ment.

This means you can use archie to search for, say, everything online related to the Beetles, as well as computer programs and graphics files.

A number of Net sites now have their own archie programs that take your request for information and pa.s.s it onto the nearest archie database -- ask your system administrator if she has it online. These "client" programs seem to provide information a lot more quickly than the actual archie itself! If it is available, at your host system's command line, type

archie -s filename

where filename is the program or doc.u.ment you're looking for, and hit enter. The -s tells the program to ignore case in a file name and lets you search for partial matches. You might actually want to type it this way:

archie -s filename|more

which will stop the output every screen (handy if there are many sites that carry the file you want). Or you could open a file on your computer with your text-logging function.

The third way, for people without access to either of the above, is e- mail.

Send a message to [email protected] You can leave the subject line blank. Inside the message, type

prog filename

where filename is the file you're looking for. You can ask archie to look up several programs by putting their names on the same "prog" line, like this:

prog file1 file2 file3

Within a few hours, archie will write back with a list of the appropriate sites.

In all three cases, if there is a system that has your file, you'll get a response that looks something like this: