The Online World Part 38

SIMTEL20 Software Archives -------------------------- is a system maintained by the US Army Information System Command.

It contains public domain software, shareware, doc.u.mentation and mail archives under the following top-level headings: HZ100, INFO- IBMPC, MSDOS, PC-BLUE, ADA, ARCHIVES, CPM, CPMUG, PCNET, SIGM, STARS, UNIX-C, VHDL, ZSYS, MACINTOSH, MISC, and TOPS20.

All files are accessible by Anonymous FTP. For information, send a message to the address [email protected] with the command 'HELP' in the first line of your text.

SprintMail ---------- is a large, commercial vendor of email services. It has local nodes serving customers in 108 countries through its SprintNet network (1991).

Internet mail to the SprintMail user ident.i.ty 'T.Germain' can be sent to [email protected] .

For information, contact SprintMail, 12490 Sunrise Valley Dr., Reston, VA 22096, U.S.A.

SuperNET -------- is an international network for exchange of conferences and mail between SuperBBS bulletin board systems. Contact: SuperNet World Host through FidoNet at 2:203/310 (+46-300-41377) Lennart Odeberg.

TCN --- is a Dialcom network. Internet email to TCN is only possible if either the sender or recipient has registered with DASnet. The email address would be: [email protected] (where x.x.x is the TCN number).

Thunderball Cave ---------------- Norwegian bulletin board connected to RelayNet. Call +47-22- 299441 or +47-22-299442. Offers Usenet News and Internet mail.

Tocolo BBS ---------- Bulletin board for people with disabilities in j.a.pan, or with "shintaishougaisha," which is the j.a.panese term. Call: +81-3-205- 9315. 1200 bps, 8,N,1. Your communications system must be able to display j.a.panese characters to use the service.

TRI-P ----- International outdial service. Contact: INTEC America, Inc., 1270 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 2315, New York, NY 10020, U.S.A. In j.a.pan, contact Intec at 2-6-10 Sarugaku-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101.

Fax: +81-3-3292-2929.

TWICS BeeLINE ------------- English-language j.a.panese online service with PARTIc.i.p.ate, Caucus and Usenet netnews. Half the users are j.a.panese. Others connect from U.S.A., England, Canada, Germany, France, South Africa, and Scandinavia.

The NUA address is: 4406 20000524. Direct call to +81 3 3351 7905 (14,4KB/s), or +81-3-3351-8244 (9600 bps). At CONNECT, press ENTER a few times. Wait about a second between keystrokes to get to the registration prompt.

New users can sign on as GUEST for information. You can also write [email protected], or send mail to TWICS/IEC, 1-21 Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160, j.a.pAN.

Foreign users have free access (1992).

UMI/Data Courier ---------------- 620 South Street, Louisville, KY 40202, U.S.A.

Uninett ------- delivers networking services to Norwegian research and educational services.

Unison ------ North American conferencing service using PARTIc.i.p.ate software. NUA address: 031105130023000. Pa.s.sword: US$35.00. Monthly subscription: US$6.25. Non-prime time access: US$12.00/hour. Prime time access: US$19.00/hour. Enter SIGNUP when online the first time and follow the prompts. (1991)

UUCP ---- UUCP (UNIX to UNIX Copy) is a protocol, a set of files and a set of commands to copy files from one UNIX computer to another.

This copying procedure is the core of the UUCP network, a loose a.s.sociation of systems all communicating with the UUCP protocol.

UNIX computers can partic.i.p.ate in the UUCP network (using leased line or dial-up) through any other UNIX host. The network now also has many MS-DOS and other hosts, and consisted of 16,300 hosts in January 1993 (source: UUCP map) serving more than 489,000 users.

The UUCP network is based on two systems connecting to each other at specific intervals, and executing any work scheduled for either of them. For example, the system Oregano calls the system Basil once every two hours. If there's mail waiting for Oregano, Basil will send it at that time. Likewise, Oregano will at that time send any mail waiting for Basil.

There are databases with connectivity information (UUCP maps), and programs (pathalias) that will help you decide the correct routing of messages. However, many UUCP hosts are not registered in the UUCP map.

EUNET is a UUCP based network in Europe. JUNET is an equivalent network in j.a.pan. There are many gateway machines that exchange mail between UUCP and the Internet. Among these, UUNET.UU.NET is among the most frequently used.

Usenet ------ Usenet, Netnews, or just "News" are common terms for a large many-to-many conferencing (only) system distributed through UUCP, Internet, FidoNet, and BITNET.

This gra.s.sroots driven "network" has grown out of the global university and research domains. It is a service rather than a real network. It is not an organization, and has no central authority.

Usenet's newsgroups are carried by over 69,000 host computers in five continents, and has over 1,991,000 users (source: Brian Reid, 1993). Many of these hosts have access to the Internet. The European portion of Usenet is called EUNET (European Unix NET).

The local administrator of each individual node in the network decides what newsgroups to receive and make available to its users.

Few systems offer access to all of them.

NetNews is organized in groups of 'conferences'. Each of these cla.s.sifications is organized into groups and subgroups according to topic. As of June 1, 1993, there were 4500 newsgroups and 2500 regional newsgroups. Several sites are carrying over 2600 topics.

The groups distributed worldwide are divided into seven broad cla.s.sifications:

"comp" Topics of interest to both computer professionals and hobbyists, including topics in computer science, software source, and information on hardware and software systems.

"sci" Discussions marked by special and usually practical knowledge, relating to research in or application of the established sciences.

"misc" Groups addressing themes not easily cla.s.sified under any of the other headings or which incorporate themes from multiple categories.

"soc" Groups primarily addressing social issues and socializing.

"talk" Groups largely debate-oriented and tending to feature long discussions without resolution and without appreciable amounts of generally useful information.

"news" Groups concerned with the news network and software themselves.

"rec" Groups oriented towards hobbies and recreational activities.

Also available are many "alternative" hierarchies, like:

"alt" True anarchy; anything and everything can and does appear. Subjects include s.e.x, and privacy.

"biz" Business-related groups

"clari" Newsgroups gatewayed from commercial news services and other 'official' sources. (Requires payment of a fee and execution of a licence. More information by email to [email protected]).

Most Netnews hosts offer both global and local conferences. Many newsgroups can be read through bulletin boards, commercial online services, or through gateways from connected hosts (like from some BITNET hosts).

A full list of available groups and conferences are normally available from hosts offering Netnews, and on NETNEWS servers.

All users should subscribe to news.announce.important .

Vu/Text ------- 325 Chestnut St., Suite 1300, Philadelphia, PA 19106, U.S.A.

The Well -------- The Whole Earth Lectronic Link is a commercial online service based in Sausalito (U.S.A.). It has its own conferencing culture and is an interesting starting point for those wanting to "study" what makes the area around Silicon Valley so dynamic.

The Well has several hundred conferences, public and private, about 7,000 members, and is available in a variety of ways. The service has full Internet access, and can be reached by telnet to well.sf.ca.us (or 192.132.30.2).

Modem tel.: +1-415-332-6106 at 1200 bps or +1-415-332-7398 at 2400 bps. You can subscribe online. Rates: US$ 20/month plus US$ 2/hour (invoiced by the minute online - 1992).

ZiffNet ------- markets its services through CompuServe (ZiffNet and ZiffNet/Mac), Prodigy, and its own online service in the U.S.A. Their offerings include the Ziff Buyer's Market, the ZiffNet/Mac Buyer's Guide, Computer Database Plus, Magazine Database Plus, NewsBytes, and the Cobb Group Online.

Contact: Ziff Communications Company, 25 First Street, Cambridge, MA 02141, U.S.A. Tel.: +1-617-252-5000.

Appendix 2:

Short takes about how to get started ====================================

* a computer * modem and a communications program

You must have a computer ------------------------ It is not important what kind of computer you have, though you may find out that it is an advantage to have a popular one. The most common type of microcomputer today is called MS-DOS computers (or IBM PC compatibles or IBM clones).

Your computer should have enough memory for communication. This is seldom a problem. An MS-DOS computer with 256 KB RAM is enough when using popular programs like PROCOMM.

Your computer does not have to be very powerful and super fast, unless you want ultra fast transfers, use a slow communications program, or a complex system of script files. If this is the case, you'll know to appreciate speed and power.

You do not need a hard disk. Many do without. Not having one, however, means more work, and less room for storage of all the nice things that you may want to retrieve by modem.

Personally, I want as much hard disk s.p.a.ce as I can possibly get. When you have read the book, I guess you'll understand why.

Others may want to delay the purchase of a hard disk until they can spare the money. If you can afford it, however, do it! It is a decision that you'll never regret.

You must have a modem --------------------- Some computers are always connected to a network. If this is your situation, then you probably have what you need already. The rest of us need a modem.

A modem is a small piece of equipment that is translating the internal, electrical signals of the computer to sound codes. These codes can be sent over an ordinary telephone line. You may think of it as a type of Morse alphabet.

The recipient of data also needs a modem. In his case, the sound codes will have to be translated back into their original form as digital codes. When this is done, he can view text and pictures on the screen, and use the received data in other applications.

You can buy modems on an expansion card for installation in your computer, or in a separate box. Often, a modem has already been built into the computer, when you buy it.

Whether to buy an internal or an external modem is a question of needs: A portable computer with an internal modem is easier to bring on travels than an external modem with a modem cable and a power adapter.

An external modem can serve several computers. Some of them are so compact that they fit besides your toothbrush in the toilet bag.