                              SHAREWARE







                If you READ or use this book, then you

                    must pay the registration fee.







                        *********************

                        *  THE ONLINE WORLD *

                        *********************







                      Version 1.4 - March 1994

                 (Version 1.0 was released in Aug. 93)







                          By Odd de Presno

                    4815 Saltrod, Norway (Europe)

              Voice (registrations only): +47 370 31204

                 Internet mail: opresno@extern.uio.no

                     Data/BBS:      +47 370 31204 

                     FAX:           +47 370 27111

                    







PREFACE

=======

This is the ASCII online distribution of the Online World. It deals with 

practical aspects of using the rapidly growing global on-line information 

resource. 



The book is distributed in a form that is designed to be easily accessible 

with the maximum range of computers, printer types, and search programs. In 

this way, it is also compatible with most electronic reading devices for 

the blind. Many frills, such as fancy formatting, extraneous characters or 

tags, have been omitted to achieve this. 



The main subject of the book is what you can get out of the global online 

resource. 



Expect an outline, not a comprehensive list or directory of all available 

offerings. We will explore selected applications across network and service 

boundaries, to show how selected needs may be satisfied. 



In the process, it provides information about how to access a large number 

of specific offerings. 



Our applications range from entertainment and the bizarre to databases and 

special services for professionals and organizations. 



You are not expected to live in the United States or in Norway. Emphasis is 

on international offerings available through major services and networks 

like the Internet, BITNET, Usenet, FidoNet, CompuServe, Echo, Dialcom, Dow 

Jones/News Retrieval, MCI, NewsNet and UUCP. These services can be accessed 

from almost anywhere. 



Talking about the Internet, we still have to assume that many readers are 

unable to get full interactive access at an affordable price, and that they 

therefore only have access to these offerings by electronic mail. 



I wrote The Online World for anybody interested in knowing more about the 

"Global Village" of today, they be parents or youth, teachers, students, 

business people, social workers, psychologists, young, or old.



You can read the book like a novel, to get an idea of what is going on. It

can be used as a practical guide book to online databases and news sources, 

or as a book of reference. 



You do not have to be a computer expert or an experienced "onliner" to find 

it useful. 



While not a textbook on data communications, it contains much information 

to help novices get started. For an introduction to telecommunications, 

read appendix 2 and 3 before continuing with Chapter 1. 



Finally, one word of warning: New online offerings are born every day, 

while others are closing down. Chances are that most services in this book 

are still around when you read it, but the text certainly needs to be 

updated regularly. Therefore, all feedback is welcomed with thanks! 



Please tell me what you like, what you don't, and what you think I have 

missed -- or have gotten hopelessly wrong. Send by electronic mail to me at 

opresno@extern.uio.no . 



This book is not free

---------------------

The book is NOT public domain. It is copyrighted material, and may be 

distributed only pursuant to this license. 



You are granted a limited read and use license of the book to see if it is 

for you. Unregistered use other than to determine if the book meets your 

needs is a violation of this license and is forbidden. 



If you decide to read or use the book, you must register your copy. The 

rate (excluding shipping and handling) is 



     NOK 105.00           for payment by credit card 

                          (around US$ 15.00)

     US$ 20.00            for all other types of payment



Your contribution will support further research, and maintenance of the 

text. 



To stay current, you can also register for six updates per year. Details 

are given in appendix 9. 



Note: I do not receive any compensation from vendors of shareware disks. 

You must register your copy to have a legal license for use of the book 

beyond an evaluation period. 



Please give to others

---------------------

Permission is granted to reproduce and distribute the Online World book so 

long as: 



    (1)  No remuneration of any kind is received in exchange. 

         A distribution fee may be charged for the cost of a

         diskette, shipping and handling, as long as the total

         (per disk) does not exceed US$8.00.

    (2)  Distribution is without ANY modification to the contents 

         of all accompanying text files, including the copyright 

         notice and this license. All files in this package are to 

         be distributed together.

    (3)  No publication of the book or individual articles from the 

         book in print is permitted, in any language, without the 

         express written consent of the author. 



Any other use, including bundling of any of the book's chapters or 

appendixes for your own distribution, is prohibited without express, 

written permission in advance. 



If archiving this book for use on a BBS or in a library, please include all 

files. Use the name ONLINE14, as in ONLINE14.ZIP,  or ONLINE14.LZH. This 

will provide consistency for future updates. 



Information about where to get the latest version of the book can be 

retrieved from TOW, a mailing list set up to support the project. For 

information, send electronic mail to LISTSERV@vm1.nodak.edu 

(LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 on BITNET) containing the command:  GET TOW MASTER 



How to read the book

--------------------

You may read the book using any ASCII viewing or text searching program. My 

favorites are: 



    LIST       -  Shareware MS-DOS file viewing program,



    LOOKFOR    -  Shareware boolean text search program. 



Print versions of The Online World

----------------------------------

The Online World shareware book is not meant for any specific area of the 

world. Local versions will be printed and published in various countries 

through local partners. These versions of the book are be adapted to local 

conditions, and contain many local examples and references. 



The following local versions of the book is available:



    Norwegian

    ---------

    "Ut i verden fra egen skjerm," Norwegian text, Dataforlaget A/S, 

    1992. 220 pages. Phone: +47 22 63 61 62.  Fax: +47 22 63 60 09.

    Price: NOK 245.-.  ISBN: 82-90628-67-6.



Local language versions of the book are being published by partners in 

Germany: 



    German

    ------

    "ONLINE-world," by Dr. Karl Sarnow and Odd de Presno. Publisher: Verlag 

    Heintz Heise GmbH & Co KB, Helstorfer Strasse 7, D-3000 Hannover 61, 

    Germany. Fax: +49-511-53 52-129. 

    Email to Dr. Karl Sarnow: karl@dadoka.h.ni.schule.de .



Do you want to be a partner? 

----------------------------

If you are interested in becoming the co-author of a local language version 

of the book for your country, please write me at opresno@extern.uio.no to 

discuss the possibility. 





Saltrod (Norway), March 10, 1994



    Yours,



    Odd de Presno





-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The Online World book's text on paper, disk and in any other electronic 

form is (C) copyrighted 1994 by Odd de Presno. All rights reserved.  

-----------------------------------------------------------------------





INDEX

=====



PREFACE



-----------------------

PART 1: AN ONLINE WORLD

-----------------------

1. Going online will make me rich, right?

   Knowledge is Power. A larger personal network will give you a stronger

   punch. The value of information, and of having fun ... 



2. The online world

   The structure and content of the online offerings. About

   Bulletin Board systems, mailing lists, conferencing systems,

   and online databases. About packet data services, and network 

   services like FidoNet, i-Com, Infonet, Internet, and others. 

   A constantly changing environment.





3. How to use online services

   Short introduction. How to use menus, and how to navigate like 

   an expert. Tailoring online services to your interests and needs.



--------------------

PART 2: APPLICATIONS

--------------------

4. Hobbies, games, and fun

   About computer programs, online adventure games, threatening viruses,

   planning holidays and travel, collecting coins and stamps, genealogy, 

   music, shopping and other leisure activities.



5. Home, education, and work

   Tips for house owners, for those more concerned about money, about

   education and the exchange of knowledge, electronic conferences.

   Building a personal network. Job hunting by modem, and about

   working from home.



6. Your personal healthnet

   About support for diseases like AIDS, cancer, and kidney diseases.

   Forums for people with physical or mental disabilities, like

   hearing impairments, learning disabilities, vision impairment, 

   mobility problems.



7. Electronic mail, telex, and fax

   How to communicate globally at a ridiculously low cost, with

   notes about how to address electronic mail. 



8. Free expert assistance

   How to get free advice about your computer, software, profession,

   and many other things.



9. Your electronic daily news

   Read national and global news before getting it through the 

   traditional media. Get those interesting background facts. 

   Read special interest news that the media never bother to print.



10. Looking for a needle in a bottle of hay

    Searching databases. 'Clipping' news. How to locate interesting 

    books and articles. Monitoring the online offerings, and sources

    about sources. 



11. Getting an edge over your competitor 

    Using the networks to manage projects. Monitor competitors, 

    prospects, suppliers, markets, technologies, and trends in

    Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Central and South America,

    Europe, North America, and xUSSR.

    Marketing and sales by modem.



-----------------------

PART 3: WORKING SMARTER

-----------------------

12. Practical tips

    about how to get more out of your online time. 



13. Cheaper and better communications

    Using packet data services or competing data 

    transport services like Tymnet Outdial, Infonet,

    Internet, PC Pursuit, and others.



14. Keep what you find.

    Build your local personal database. Strategies for

    locating interesting information. What separates good

    from bad information.



15. You pay little for a lot!

    How to figure out costs. 



16. Automatic communication

    Get a lead on your competitors.

    Avoid duplication of effort.

    Reduce costs.

    Reduce boring repetitive work.

    No need to remember the "tricks" of communications anymore. 



17. Gazing into the future.

    Thoughts about things to come.



-----------------------------------------------

Appendices:

-----------------------------------------------

1. List of selected online services

2. How to get started

   About your personal computer, modem and

   communications program.

3. Your first online trip

   Typical pitfalls and simple solutions. 

   Down- and uploading.

4. Frequently used terms

5. Books and articles for further reading

6. Important Internet tools & pointers

7. List of services offering access to Internet

8. About the author

9. How to register

-----------------------------------------------





PART 1: AN ONLINE WORLD



Chapter 1: Going online will make me rich, right?

=================================================



The number of online services is enormous. Information is abundant, even 

overwhelming. At risk of drowning in that vast sea, anyone navigating the 

online world needs to know what is available, and how to find and use it. 



Getting there takes time, but the potential rewards are interesting: 



- Knowledge is power.

- The value of critical information is increasing, 

- A large personal network gives you a punch.



You will also discover that using the online resource can be quite fun and 

entertaining. After all, there's more to life than business and work.



Knowledge is Power

------------------

My wife has a rare and dangerous kidney disease. One day her doctor joined 

us on an online research session to look for experiences and advice in 

other countries. 



We sat down in my office in Norway. I turned on my personal computer and 

started a communications program. 



After some keystrokes, we could hear the attached modem dial the number of 

CompuServe, a North American information utility. (A modem is a piece of 

equipment that converts computer signals to and from sound codes, so that 

data can be sent by phone.) 



It took just a few seconds to make the connection. A greeting scrolled over 

our screen, followed by a menu of available choices. 



    For an introduction to practical telecommunications, check out 

    appendix 2 and 3. Appendix 1 lists major services mentioned in 

    this book. 



We selected "Health," and "Database for Rare diseases" from a new menu. 

Here, we found the address of a foundation for "cysts in kidneys," which is 

the name of her disease. My wife made contact. Since then, she has since 

received regular reports of research results and experiences gained in the 

field. 



We sent a request for help to an electronic forum for doctors. This 

resulted in several useful pointers. We searched a magazine database for 

medical articles containing the word "kidney." Paper copies of the most 

interesting finds arrived by mail a few days later. My wife gave them to 

her hospital doctor as background reading. 



Kenya Saikawa is paralyzed. He communicates with his PC and modem using 

light key strokes and Morse code. Online communications allows Kenya to be 

in regular contact with people outside the walls of his Tokyo hospital. 



We met online in a "Handicap Club" on a computer center called TWICS in 

Tokyo. He was there to exchange experiences with others with disabilities. 

I called in by modem from Norway. Geographical distance is no problem in 

the online world. 



CompuServe's Cancer Forum has a similar function. "It's a blessing that I 

can visit here 24 hours a day," one visitor said. "When I'm unable to sleep 

at night, I often sit down by the PC to read and write messages to others." 



The forum works like a family. The file library is full of information 

about cancer. Members can go in there and pick up whatever they want to 

read. 



Dave Hughes from Old Colorado Springs, Colorado in the United States has 

had a long career as a professional soldier. He has fought in places like 

the Yalue river in Korea and Vietnam's jungle. When he retired, he became a 

political online force. 



"I'm using the new tools of the individual mind to change the world," he 

says. Native American Indians are among those, who have benefited from 

Dave's energy and knowledge. He has helped them show their culture to the 

outside world in a graphical form. 



Vladimir Makarenkov from the Crimea in the Ukraine is manager in a company 

called VINKO. In early 1993, he distributed an offer of partnership with 

foreign companies through the E-EUROPE mailing list on BITNET/Internet. 

VINKO is into aluminium processing. He wrote: 



"From our own production we can offer some one metals and aniline dye for 

cotton, viscose, wool, silk, leather. We are interested in deliveries of 

chemical production (gamma acid, H-acid) and not quickly deteriorating 

foods (food concentrates, canned food etc)." 



George Pavlov is Planning and Reporting manager with an American computer 

manufacturer. Daily, he logs on to online services to monitor industry 

product announcements and daily news from several electronic sources. It 

helps him stay ahead of rapid technological developments. 



Semafor A/S in Arendal, Norway, produces modems and telecommunications 

equipment. They operate an electronic bulletin board for customers, users 

and prospects. Anybody can call in to get information about products and 

offerings. If in need of help, they can leave a message to Semafor A/S day 

and night. A response will be waiting for them, when they call back. 



Eduardo Salom heads Software Plus SA in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He 

discovered the online world in 1988, and uses it to find information that 

can help his company develop industrial applications. 



The Norwegian civil engineer Kai Oestreng regularly calls specialized 

online computer clubs to discuss his computational needs, fetch programs 

and monitor developments. 



Mary Lou Rebelo was born in southern Brazil. Today, she is married to a 

Japanese and lives in Tokyo. She teaches Portuguese and works as a 

translator. The modem enables her to keep in touch with others around the 

world, who are interested in Portuguese and Spanish language and culture. 



Sheena Macleod teaches in a primary school in Lusaka, Zambia. She 

integrates the online world in her teaching to motivate her students. Her 

classes are involved in international projects with schools all over the 

globe. 



In August 1991, the "Old Stalinists" made a coup d'etat in the Soviet 

Union. The news media were silenced, but they forgot the  country's many 

bulletin boards. Early one morning, a foreign caller picked up the 

following messages from a Moscow BBS: 





  From:    Valery Koulkov                         

  To:      All                                    Msg #560, 00:42am 

  20-Aug-91

  Subject: Moscow, August 19, 23:00



  Some news from the square news RSFSR white building, 23:00. Local 

  inhabitants are very welcome for the people guarding 'white 

  building', they carry food and some garments to the square. 

  Approx. 8 tanks stand by the house under the RSFSR flags! There is 

  an information that 'white house' is surrounded by the soldiers 

  from Vysshee Desantnoye uchilische from Ryazan. The people are not 

  so desperate than some hours ago. There are more and more people. 





  From:    Stas Stas                              

  To:      Alexey Zabrodin                        Msg #562, 02:53pm 

  20-Aug-91

  Subject: Russia In Agency news



  I have sent two files RIA4.txt & ria5.txt

  It's msgs of Russia Information Agency

  Spread it as much as you can!!!





  From:    Andrew Brown                           

  To:      All                                    Msg #563, 06:31pm 

  20-Aug-91

  Subject: What's happening?



  I am a journalist on the London Daily newspaper *The Independent*, 

  and I am trying to discover whether this technology, like fax 

  machines, is being used for independent communication now that the 

  censors have clamped down on everything else. 



  Can people describe what is happening, and what they see? 

  Something similar was done on Compuserve during the Gulf War, by 

  subscribers who where in Israel and were able to describe Scud 

  missile attacks without censorship. 



  Andrew Brown





  Select: 564

  From:    Valery Koulkov                         

  To:      All                                    Msg #564, 00:52am 

  21-Aug-91

  Subject: Moscow events



  There is shooting near the American embassy and RSFSR state 

  building. Informer said (by phone) that he saw several victims 

  (shot and killed under the tanks. there is fire near the RSFSR 

  building. Moscow, August 21, 1:15 am 



Telecommunications played a role in this historic event. While CNN 

televised the coup, it was not the images, but the words of men like 

Yeltsin that held sway for Russian citizens. 



Within hours of Yeltsin's statement in defiance of the coup leaders, 

handbills reproducing his statement papered the walls of the Moscow metro 

and Leningrad houses. 



Another one: On Friday, Feb. 26 1993 at 12:18 p.m., a bomb exploded in the 

World Trade Center in New York City, U.S.A. Four minutes later, the Dow 

Jones News Service flashed this headline: "NYC Fire Dept. Says Fire At 3 

World Trade Center". 



You can!

--------

Online communication is not just for the privileged or those with a special 

interest in computers. It is for you, me, everybody. 



There is much to learn in the "online land," and the medium is fascinating. 

It makes learning fun. You can learn about your hobbies, your profession, 

life in other countries, languages, other people's views about whatever, 

and more. Often, you will find reports about experiences and know-how that 

it is hard or impractical to get in other ways. 



Some go online to learn how to do things better. Teachers want to give 

their students a better and more motivating learning environment. 

Architects, engineers and companies want increased competitiveness and 

sales. They seek timely information about competitors, technologies and 

tools, partners and trends. 



You can take a Masters Degree in Business Administration while sitting in 

front of your computer at home. You can join online seminars arranged by 

local or foreign educational institutes. You can even study at night, when 

the rest of your family has calmed down. 



Some build their own educational programs supported by databases, online 

forums and associations of various kinds. 



You may feel helpless in hospital, or when visiting your doctor. Knowledge 

about your disease will make you better equipped to handle the situation. 



The online resource is just keystrokes away, and knowledge is power. 



To get this power, you must know what you can get from the online world. 

This book is filled with examples of what is available, and practical tips 

about how to use the many offerings. 



A large personal network gives strength

---------------------------------------

Most of us belong to one or several networks. They consist of persons that 

we can call on when we need help. Your network may be private, like your 

family. You may be member of associations, or part of a group of people 

with common interests within a company or organization. 



The modem allows you to be part of more personal networks than you can 

possibly cope with in the "real world." Besides, it's easier to develop 

personal networks in the online world. 



We have used words like "clubs" and "associations." By this we mean groups 

of people interested in helping You and in participating in what You happen 

to be interested in. That's what networking is all about.



Today's communications technology lets us participate in networks in other 

countries at a very low cost. Many describe it as being participation 

"beyond time and space." 



Write a message and send it to a person in your network. It arrives in 

his/her "mailbox" within minutes (sometimes seconds) and stays there until 

the recipient wants to read it. 



This built-in ability to send messages to other people's electronic 

mailboxes reduces the power that time and geographical distances have over 

our lives. 



A friend in a remote country gets out of bed nine hours after you, but keeps 

going well into what, for you, is the next morning. No problem. You can 

send letters when you're awake and receive replies when you're asleep. 



You can pick up and read your friend's messages the next day or when you 

feel like doing it. That is how two people as far apart as Arendal, Norway 

and Beijing, China could be involved in the development of this book. 



Sometimes "real time" discussions are important. Consider the following 

example. CompuServe has a Diabetes Forum. You can call there any time, day 

or night, seven days a week. Whenever you feel like it. You will always 

find someone to chat with who understands and shares your problems. 



Hours of real-time chatting may be expensive, but you are free to decide 

your level of involvement. If you think that $10 spent on a chat session is 

enough, then just stop there. 



What is the point?

-----------------

Thousands of commercial and noncommercial online services offer over 5,000 

online databases. These infobases are repositories of electronic 

information. They contain full-text and reference books, magazines, 

newspapers, radio and TV shows, reports, and more. 



In 1992, BiblioData (USA) found that around 4,000 titles (i.e., magazines, 

newspapers, etc.) were available online in full-text. You will find facts 

and figures about almost anything in the online world. 



The world has over 100,000 public bulletin board systems (1993). Most are 

small information centers, running on personal computers using a simple 

computer program and modems. People call in to read messages and 

information, retrieve free software, or just to have a good time. 



Most BBSes are free. Some charge a small annual fee. The largest board has 

213 telephone lines, seven gigabytes of storage for letters, conferences, 

computer programs, and more (1993). 



Mind you, 7 gigabytes is a lot. It is equivalent to more than 7,000,000,000 

characters, or a whopping 12,000 copies of this book! 



The entrepreneur sees the online world as a new, profitable playground. 

Many have made it their profession to search for information for others, 

and they earn a good living doing so. 



Others advertise and sell products and services by modem. Some set up their 

own services to sell knowledge and know-how, be it of aqua culture, wine 

production, marketing, or about the petroleum offshore market. 



In business, it pays to be one step ahead of the competition. Early warnings 

of customers' needs, competitors' moves, and emerging opportunities can be 

turned into fortunes. This can reduce potential losses and help develop 

businesses in more profitable directions. 



Turn this to your advantage. Build your own early warning system that 

monitors online information sources and networks. 



Have fun 

--------

The online world has an abundance of joke clubs, dramatic adventure games 

with multiple players, and large archives filled with computer game 

software. You can transfer these programs to your personal computer and be 

ready to play in minutes. 



Others may feel more entertained when things get "interesting." Surely, 

those calling Moscow in August 1991 for news about the coup must have had a 

strange sensation in the stomach. 



Some online users react quickly when dramatic events occur. They go online 

to read news directly from the wires, from Associated Press, TASS, Reuters, 

Xinhua Press, Kyodo News and others. 



Usually, online news comes directly to you from the journalists' keyboards. 

Often, you heard it here first. 



Others prefer to socialize. They meet in online "meeting places" to debate 

everything from Africa and the administration of kindergartens to poetry, 

LISP programming, and compressed video for multimedia applications. 



It has been claimed that increased use of online networking in a country 

can effect social changes within politics, economics, communication and 

science. It can support democratic tendencies, the transition to a market 

economy, the formation and support of businesses, the spreading of 

interpersonal and mass communication, the forging of invisible colleges 

among scientists, and breaking-up of traditional and closed information 

systems developed in some societies. 



The Star-Ledger (USA, 1/13/94 p. 41) wrote that with communications playing 

a greater role in economic development, experts are warning of the creation 

of a new technological underclass. They think that communities deprived of 

computers and telecommunications will end up in poverty. 



No matter whether your application is useful or just a pastime, online 

services queue up to help give your life a better content. 



Some people fear that language might be a problem, and in particular if 

English is not their first language. Don't worry. There are many other 

languages used in the online world. Besides, you are in the driver's seat. 

If something is hard to understand, just log off to study the difficult 

text. Take your time. Nobody is watching. 



Will you being member of the online world make you rich? Probably not. On 

the other hand, it certainly provides the means to help you achieve such a 

goal, no matter how you define the word "rich." 



Go for it!







Chapter 2: The online world

===========================



This chapter is about the structure and contents of the online world. You 

will read about Bulletin Board systems, discussion lists, conferencing 

systems, online databases, packet data services, and network services like 

FidoNet, i-Com, Infonet, and the Internet. 



From papyrus to bits and bytes

------------------------------

Around 1500 B.C., the world's first library was established in Tell el 

Amaran, Egypt. Eight hundred years later, the first public library opened 

in Athens, Greece. 



It took another two thousand years for the computer to be invented, and it 

was not until 1954 that the first online search service was launched by the 

Naval Ordinance Test Station, in Michigan (U.S.A.). 



MEDLARS, the first full-text database, came six years later. It was a 

bibliographic database containing references to medical literature. From 

now on, things started to roll faster: 



    1972: DIALOG (U.S.A.) opened their Educational Resources Information

          Center and National Technical Information Service databases for 

          online searching. (Appendix 1 contains information about the 

          major online services referred to in this book.) 



    1974: Dow Jones News/Retrieval (U.S.A.) launched a financial financial 

          information service for stock brokers. 



    1978: The first bulletin board was put into operation in Chicago. 



    1979: CompuServe (U.S.A.) launched a service for home users. 



    1993: Number of countries reachable by electronic mail through

          the Internet: around 137.



The online world was born in the United States. Little happened in the rest 

of the world until the late 1980s. American companies and users may still 

seem dominate, but they are no longer alone. 



Today, we can access tens of thousands of public databases. They are 

available from millions of online systems ("host computers") all over the 

world. 



With so many online services, and a large variety of access methods, it is 

difficult to find our way through the maze of offerings. Telecommunications 

has therefore often been presented as one of the more difficult things to 

learn to do on a computer. 



The good news is that it was never all that terribly difficult and its 

getting easier all the time. 



It may help to have a picture in your mind of the various parts of this 

"online world" before we embark on the applications.  The book therefore 

starts with an analogy. Think of it as a "map" of the online world. 



The structure and contents of the online world

----------------------------------------------

The online world can be visualized as a cake with multiple layers. The 

information sources are the bottom layer, and you, the user, the marzipan 

figure on the top. The online world contains the following tiers: 



   (1) Database producers and information providers

   (2) Online service companies

   (3) Gateways and networks

   (4) The service offerings 

   (5) The user interface

   (6) The data transport services

   (7) The User.



If you are a novice, it may seem complex at this time but none of the 

levels are difficult. It often helps to visualize what level you are 

dealing with at any given time.  Lets consider them in more detail. 



1. Database producers and information providers.

------------------------------------------------

I have a bulletin board system in Norway (at +47 370 31378). It runs on a 

small personal computer, and offers shareware and public domain software. 



Anybody can call this BBS and have programs transferred to their personal 

computers by modem (see appendix 2 for how to do this). 



When you call it to "download" (retrieve) a free program, don't expect to 

find one made by me. I don't write programs. All available programs have 

been written by others. 



When you call Data-Star in Switzerland, or CompuServe in the U.S. to read 

news, you may find some stories authored by these companies. Most of their 

news, however, has been written by others. 



The Associated Press, an American news agency, let online services like 

Dialog, CompuServe, Nexis and NewsNet 'resell' their news to their users. 



My BBS (the "Saltrod Horror Show"), Data-Star, Dialog, CompuServe, Nexis, 

and NewsNet are online services. We call those who have provided the news 

and information on these services for information providers or database 

producers. 



The information providers sell the right to distribute news. What you pay 

to an online service to read news may be imbedded in its standard access 

rates. Some services will ask you to pay a surcharge when reading news. 



CompuServe subscribers pay a membership fee of US$8.95 per month for 

unlimited use of a variety of services (Standard Pricing Plan, March 1994). 

The services in this options include The Associate Press Online News 

(Hourly News Summaries, Sports, Entertainment, Business, News, This Day In 

History), UK News Clips, and Deutsche Presse-Agentur Kurznachrichtendienst. 



CompuServe pays Associated Press part of what they earn whenever you read 

their news. There is no surcharge for reading AP news on this service. 



Others charge more. To read Mid-East Business Digest through NewsNet, you 

pay a surcharge of US$72.00 per hour at 2400 bps (1993). To scan newsletter 

headlines and conduct keyword searches you only pay a basic connect charge, 

which is US$90.00 per hour at this speed. The total cost for reading Mid-

East Business Digest amounts to US$162.00 per hour. 



CompuServe's database service, IQuest, lets you search NewsNet through a 

gateway to find and read the same articles. Here, reading will only set you 

back US$21.50/hour (provided the articles are among the first hits in your 

search. 1993). 



Information providers may have subcontractors. The Ziff-Davis' Computer 

Database Plus, a database with full-text articles from magazines like 

Datamation and Wall Street Computer Review, depends on them. 



Datamation pays journalists to write the articles. Ziff-Davis pays 

Datamation for the right to distribute the articles to CompuServe's 

subscribers. CompuServe pays Ziff-Davis part of what you pay when reading 

the text. 



Some information providers also distribute information through grassroots 

bulletin boards. The Newsbytes News Network, Boardwatch Magazine, and the 

USA Today newsletter services are two examples. 



The bottom line is that rates for reading the same article may differ 

considerably depending on what online service you are using. If you are a 

regular reader, shop around for the best price. 



2. Online services

------------------

The term "online services" refers to the services which are provided by 

computer systems, large or small, to owners of personal computers with 

modems. 



The services may include access to electronic mail, online shopping malls, 

discussion forums, hardware and software vendor support, access to 

libraries of programs and data, games and entertainment, financial data, 

stock market quotes, research capabilities, or simply access to other 

service providers as often is the case with many Internet hosts. 



You do not always need a phone and a modem to "log on." Some services can 

be accessed through leased phone lines, amateur radio, or other methods. 



Appendix 1 contains a list of major services mentioned in this book, with 

addresses, phone numbers, and a short description. 



CompuServe (U.S.A.), Twics (Japan), and Orbit (England) are commercial. 

They charge you for using their services. 



Some online services are priced like magazines and newspapers with a flat 

subscription rate for basic services. You can use this part of a service as 

much as you like within a given period. CompuServe, GEnie, BIX, America 

Online, Delphi, and many for-pay BBSes offer such pricing options. 



Other online services charge for 'connect time'. They have a rate per hour 

or minute. 



MCI Mail uses "no cure, no pay." You only pay to send or read mail. To 

check for unread letters in your mailbox is free. 



There are all kinds of creative pricing schemes. Some have different rates 

for access during the day, night and weekends. Others charge users living 

far away less, while others again charge the remote user more than ordinary 

subscribers. 



Still, most online services are free. This is particularly true for the 

over hundred thousand bulletin board systems of the world. The owners of 

these services often regard them as a hobby, a public service, a necessary 

marketing expense, or do it for other reasons. 



The cost of setting up and operating a BBS is low. Consequently, the BBS 

systems are as varied as the people who run them. Each BBS has its own 

character. 



My BBS is also free. I consider it an online appendix to this book and the 

articles I write. 



Some large, international service providers on the Internet, BITNET, and 

UUCP are free. They address research and educational institutions and are 

partly financed by public funds. 



Some users fear that using online services will increase their telephone 

costs dramatically, and especially when using services in other countries. 

This is often unjustified. Read in chapter 13 and 15 about how to keep your 

communications costs down. 



3. Gateways and networks

------------------------

CompuServe users select the Computer Database Plus from a menu. This 

prompts CompuServe to dial another service provider and lets you use this, 

as if you were still using CompuServe. You hardly notice the difference. 

You are using Computer Database Plus through a gateway. 



When you search the IQuest databases, you will get a similar welcome 

message: 



      One moment please...



      Connected to 19EASYN



            Welcome to IQuest



      (c) 1991 Telebase Systems, Inc.

         U.S. Patent No. 4,774,655



Through another gateway, CompuServe connects you to the online service 

Telebase Systems, Inc. Telebase lets you go through other gateways to 

search in databases located on services like BRS, MEDLINE and NewsNet. 



While searching, you may get progress reports like these: 



            Dialing BRS

            Connect BRS

            Scanning .... Please wait

            Dialing Medline

            Connect Medline

            Scanning .... Please wait



All the time, your modem is connected to CompuServe. You are mentally using 

CompuServe and not other online services. Technically, you are going 

through various gateways to reach the information libraries. You pay 

CompuServe for the privilege. They, in turn, pay a fee to the others. 



You can read The New York Times on Down Jones News/Retrieval through 

gateways from MCI Mail and GEnie. 



Accessing information through a gateway is often simpler than logging on to 

several online systems. Calling several systems often costs more, and it 

certainly takes more time. 



Users of BBSes connected to RelayNet or FidoNet can join in global 

discussions. Participants in other countries also call their favorite local 

systems. To the individual user, it looks as if they all use the same 

bulletin board system. 



The networks that tie these boards together regularly send new discussion 

items to the other participating boards. Write "This is not correct!" in a 

distributed conference on a Norwegian FidoNet BBS, and others may soon read 

your line on San Bernardino BBS in Colton (California), Wonderland Board in 

Macau or the HighTech BBS in Sidney (Australia). 



KIDLINK is a global project for children between 10 - 15 years of age. It 

allows kids to discuss through a system of electronic mail. 



Part of the dialog takes place by the children sending email to a recipient 

called KIDCAFE. A message to 'the cafe' goes through the international 

networks to a host computer in North Dakota (U.S.A.). There, a computer 

program called LISTSERV distributes copies of the message to names on an 

electronic address list. (Conferences administered by a LISTSERV are called 

'discussion lists'.) 



SciLink in Toronto is one recipient. Messages forwarded from North Dakota 

are made available for users there as entries in a 'local' conference 

called KIDCAFE. A user in Toronto can read a message, as if it had been 

entered locally. If she wants to reply, her answer is sent back to the 

LISTSERV for redistribution to the world. 



Western Michigan University (U.S.A.) is also a recipient. Here, another 

LISTSERV program is in charge of forwarding the mail to yet another list of 

(local) addresses. We call it a 'mail exploder'. 



This mailing exploder has been set up by local administrators to reduce 

costs as the individual user does not have to receive his own copies of 

messages all the way from North Dakota. One Michigan recipient may be a 

local area network which further spreads the messages. 



Actually, this is how the online world got started. Two systems were 

interconnected for exchange of electronic mail. Then, another system was 

added, and another, until it developed into a large network of computer 

systems. 



Some network systems are connected by leased telephone lines. Other 

networks, like FidoNet, depend mainly on dial-up using regular voice-grade 

telephone service. Each BBS dial regularly to other computers in the 

network to send or receive mail and files. They may do it once per day, 

twice per day, or whatever. 



Then someone got the idea of interconnecting networks. FidoNet was 

connected to the UUCP network, which was connected to the Internet, which 

in turn was connected to the Bergen By Byte BBS in Norway, CompuServe, 

SciLink, MCI Mail, and various local area networks for exchange of email 

and other offerings. 



Today, the online world is a global web of networks. The world is 'cabled'. 

You, I, and all the other modem users stand to benefit enormously. 



4. The services

---------------

The most popular online services are electronic mail, chat, file transfers, 

conferences and discussion forums, news, reading of online journals and 

grassroots publications, database searching, and entertainment. 



The online world contains an infinite number of niches, things that people 

are interested in and have fun doing. 



Electronic mail

---------------

is not just like paper mail. Email is faster, easier to edit and use in 

other applications. 



Your mail may be private, or public. It can be 'broadcasted' to many by a 

mailing list. The principle is the same on all systems. 



Typically, an email message is sent to your mailbox in the following form: 



    To:  Odd de Presno

    Subject: Happy Birthday

    Text: I wish you well on your birthday. -Ole



The sending mail system automatically adds your name (i.e., the sender's 

return email address), the creation date, and forwards it to the recipient. 

If the recipient's mailbox is on another system, the message is routed 

through one or several networks to reach its destination. 



When the message gets to the receiver's mail system, it is stored in her 

"mailbox" until she logs on and chooses to read it. Besides reading the 

message, she can print it, save it to a disk, forward it to someone else, 

or send a reply. 



Depending on the mail system, if the reply option is chosen, the address is 

automatically supplied from the original mail piece and you have the option 

of including all or parts of the original message.



Several email services offer forwarding to fax, telex or ordinary postal 

service delivery. Some offer forwarding to paging services. With these, 

when new mail arrives in your mailbox, a message with text like 'MAIL from 

opresno@extern.uio.no' will be displayed on your beeper's small screen. 



By the turn of the century, it probably will be difficult to tell the 

difference between fax messages and email. The services will automatically 

convert incoming faxes to computer-readable text and pictures, so that you 

can use them in word processing and other computer applications. 



Automatic language translation is another trend. You will soon be able to 

send a message in English, and have it automatically translated into 

Spanish for Spanish-reading recipients, or into other languages. Conference 

systems with automatic translation are already being used in Japan (English 

to/from Japanese). 



One day we may also have a global email address directory where you can 

ask, "What is the address of Nobuo Hasumi in Japan." and have it supplied.

This will be nice since email addresses are somewhat more volatile than

normal (snail mail) addresses.  Since they currently reside on many 

different networks and systems and the sharing of email between systems is

still fairly young, this has yet to be implemented.



'Chat'

------

Email has one important disadvantage. It may take time for it to be picked 

up and read by the recipient. The alternative is real-time conferencing, a 

form of direct keyboard-to-keyboard dialog between users. We call it 

'chat'. 



Most large systems let you chat with many users simultaneously. Even small 

bulletin boards usually have a chat feature. 



Chat is set up in several ways. On some systems, you see each character on 

the screen as it is entered by your dialog partners. Other systems send 

entries line by line, that is, whenever you press ENTER or RETURN. Here, it 

may be difficult to know whether the other person is waiting for you to 

type, or if he is actively entering new words. 



You will find regular chat conferences in CompuServe's forums. Often, they 

invite a person to give a keynote speech before opening 'the floor' for 

questions and answers. Many a famous person has been featured in such 

'meetings'. 



In May 1991, KIDLINK arranged a full-day chat between kids from all over 

the world. Line, a 12-year old Norwegian girl, started the day talking with 

Japanese kids at the Nishimachi and Kanto International School in Tokyo. 

When her computer was switched off late that night, she was having an 

intense exchange with children in North America. 



The chats took place on various online services and networks, including 

Internet Relay Chat (IRC), BITNET's Relay Chat, Cleveland Free-Net 

(U.S.A.), TWICS in Tokyo, the global network Tymnet, and the Education 

Forum on CompuServe. 



The discussions had no moderator. This made the encounters chaotic at 

times. The kids enjoyed it, though! One-line messages shot back and forth 

over the continents conveying intense simultaneous conversations, 

occasionally disrupted by exclamations and requests for technical help. 



Speed is a problem when chatting. It takes a lot of time as most users are 

slow typists. 



If an individual message spans more than one line, there is always a risk 

that it will be split up by lines coming from others. It takes practice to 

understand what goes on. 



Users of SciLink (Canada) use a method they call 'semi-sync chat'. The 

trick is to use ordinary batch-mode conferences for chatting. Instead of 

calling up, reading and sending mail and then log out, they stay online 

waiting for new messages to arrive. 



This approach allows the entry of multiple-line messages without the risk 

of them being broken up by other messages. The flow of the discussion is 

often better, and each person's entries easier to understand. 



File transfers

--------------

The availability of free software on bulletin boards brought the online 

world out of the closet. Today, you can also retrieve books and articles, 

technical reports, graphics pictures, files of digitized music, weather 

reports, and much more. 



Millions of files are transferred to and from the online services each day. 

File transfers typically represent over 75 percent of the bulletin boards' 

utilization time. Downloading free or inexpensive software is still the 

most popular service. 



In February 1994, users downloaded 105 megabytes' worth of public domain 

and shareware programs from of my BBS (which has only one phone line). 

Add to this the megabytes being downloaded from hundreds of thousands of 

other bulletin boards. The number is staggering. 



    If you want to download software, check out appendix 3 for

    additional information. 



Downloading is simple. Just dial an online service, order transfer of a 

given file, select a file transfer protocol (like XMODEM), and the file 

comes to you through the phone line. 



Services on the Internet offer file transfer through gateways using a 

command called FTP (File Transfer Protocol). It works like this: 



    Say your mailbox host is an Ultrix system with an interactive

    connection to the Internet. You access it using a dial-up modem. 

    Today, you dial up to download free programs from a large archive

    in the United States. 

        After having connected to the Ultrix system, you enter 

    'ftp OAK.Oakland.Edu' to connect to a computer in Michigan. 

        A few seconds later, the remote host asks for your logon 

    id. You enter 'anonymous', and supply your email address as

    the password. This gives you access. 

        You use the cd command (change directory) to navigate to

    the desired library catalog on the remote hard disk. You locate

    the desired file, and use a GET command to transfer the file

    to your personal file area on your local Ultrix system. 

        When done, you logout from the remote computer and are 

    returned to the Ultrix service. Finally, you transfer the file 

   from the Ultrix to your personal computer using traditional 

    methods (like XMODEM). 



This file transfer involve the use of 8-bit binary code. Some mail systems 

only use a 7-bit binary code. Being able to send Internet mail does not 

guarantee access to the ftp command. If ftp is unavailable, you may be able 

to have the file sent to you by email using a technique called UUENCODEing. 



In this case, the file is converted before transfer into a format that 

can be sent as ordinary mail (into a seven bits, even character code). 



When the file arrives in your mailbox, you 'read' it as an ordinary message 

and store the codes in a work file on your disk. Finally, you decode the 

file using a special utility program (often called UUDECODE). Read more 

about this in Chapter 12. 



Conferences and discussions

---------------------------

Online conferences have many things in common with traditional face-to-face 

conferences and discussions. The main difference is that the participants 

don't physically meet in the same room. They 'arrive' by modem and discuss 

using electronic messages. 



There are conferences about nearly every conceivable topic, from How to 

start your own company, Brainstorming, Architectural design, Investments, 

The Future of Education, to AIDS, The Baltic States, Psychology, and 

Cartoons. 



Instead of calling these discussions "online conferences," some services 

use terms like echos, discussion or mailing lists, clubs, newsgroups, round 

tables, SIGs (Special Interest Groups), and forums. They use other terms in 

an attempt to make their offerings more attractive and exclusive. 



Others refer to "conferences" by using the name of the software used to 

administer the discussions, like LISTSERV, PortaCom, News, Usenet, Caucus, 

or PARTIcipate. 



On the bottom line, we're still talking email. However, while private mail 

is usually read by one recipient only, 'conference mail' may be read by 

thousands of people from the whole world. 



All of them can talk and discuss SIMULTANEOUSLY. It is almost impossible 

for one single individual to dominate. The number of active participants 

can therefore be far larger than in 'face-to-face' conferences. 



The conferencing software automatically records all that is said. Every 

character. Each participant can decide what to read and when. He may even 

use the messages in other applications later on. Opinions and information 

can easily be selected and pasted into reports or new responses. 



Some conferences are public and open for anybody. Others are for a closed 

group (of registered) participants. 



Conferences are normally structured by topic and influenced by the 

participants' behavior. If the topic is limited, like in "The football 

match between Mexico and Uruguay," it may start with an introduction 

followed by comments, questions, and answers like pearls on a thread. After 

some time the conference is 'finished'. Other conferences go on 

indefinitely.



    The content and the quality of the discussion is what separates 

    one online conference from others.



How a conference develops, depends in part on the features of the software 

used by the online service. But this is much less important than the kind 

of people you meet there and their willingness to contribute. Still, let's 

take look at some differences in features.



Messages in the IBM Hardware Forum on CompuServe are divided into 11 

sections. Section 2 is called Printers' utilities. If you have problems 

with an old Epson FX-80 printer, send requests for help to "All" (=to 

everybody) and store it in this section. 



CompuServe's subscribers call in from all over the place to join the forum. 

Some are there to show off competence (read: to sell their expertise). 

Others visit to find solutions to a problem, or simply to mingle or learn. 



    A conference with many users increases your chances of meeting others 

    who are compatible and have relevant skills. As always, the quality of 

    the people is the first requirement of a good conference. 



On CompuServe, professional 'Sysops' (system operators) moderate the 

discussion. They get up to 15 percent of what you pay CompuServe for using 

their forums. To them, being a sysop is a profession. They expend 

considerable time trying to make the forum a lively and interesting place. 



The Printers/utilities section is not just about Epson FX-80. Its members 

have hundreds of different printers, each with their own set of user 

problems. Let's use this to explain differences between some conferencing 

systems. 



Each message in CompuServe's forums contains the sender's name (his local 

email address), subject, date, and the text itself. We call this the 

'bulletin board model'. Messages posted on Usenet, Internet and BITNET 

mailing lists, and most bulletin boards have a similar structure.



On CompuServe, systems, a message typically looks like this: 



   #: 24988 S10/Portable Desktops

       22-Jul-91  10:05:38

   Sb: #T5200 425meg HDD

   Fm: Gordon Norman 72356,370

   To: Menno Aartsen 72611,2066 (X)



   Menno-



   Can you share the HD specs on that 425'er...random access time, 

   transfer rate, MTBF, etc.? 



   Gordon



The problem with this message is that it may not be of interest to you. 

Each day, thousands of messages OUTSIDE your areas of interest are being 

posted. You do NOT want to read all these messages. 



The good news is that most services that use the bulletin board model allow 

selective reading of messages. You can select all messages containing a 

given word or text string in the subject title ('Sb:' above). You can read 

threads of messages from a given message number (replies, and replies to 

replies). You can read all messages to/from a given person, from a given 

message number, and from a given date. There are many options. 



The PARTIcipate conferencing software functions diametrically opposite to 

from CompuServe's forum software with its bulletin board style. PARTI is 

used on TWICS (Japan), and several systems in the United States. 



PARTI lets the user log on using an alias. For example, she can use the 

identity 'BATMAN'. You may never get to know the true name of the other 

person. On the other hand, this allows people to talk about controversial 

topics, with which they may not want to have their names associated. 



Anyone can start a conference. The conference can be public, private or a 

combination. Combination conferences allow public review of the messages in 

the conference, but restrict the number of people who can contribute to the 

discussion. 



To start a new conference, simply enter 'write'. PARTI will prompt you with 

"Enter the text of your note, then type .send or .open to transmit." You 

can enter the welcome text for your new conference, like I did in this 

example: 



    "This conference is based on a series of articles about 

    shareware and public domain programs for MSDOS computers, which 

    I wrote for publication in England.

    Since the editor cheated me and they never reached the printing 

    press, I've decided to make them available online instead of 

    letting them rot on my hard disk. Join to read, discuss or 

    (hopefully) enjoy! "

 

The conference was presented to the other users of TWICS like this: 



    "MSDOS TIPS" by ODD DE PRESNO, Feb. 23, 1990 at 11:57 about 

    GOOD PD AND SHAREWARE PROGRAMS (7 notes)



Few systems of the bulletin board model let users start new conferences at 

will. New topics must be stored in a given structure. The administrators 

(sysops) of the services manage the evolution of the 'conference room'. 

Periodically, old messages may be deleted to make room for new. 



On PARTI, all participants read all notes. Selective reading must be done 

in other ways (by searching conference contents). 



These two conferencing models seem to attract different types of 

discussions. PARTI has given birth to more discussions on topics like these 

(from PARTI on The Point, January 1992): 



  "HELLO BEEP" by THE SHADOW on Sept. 17, 1991 at 19:20, about 

  BEEP'S ADVENTURES IN JAPAN, AND THE LIKE (840 characters and 22 

  notes). 



  "MEMORIES" by LOU on Dec. 21, 1991 at 12:31, about .......I 

  REMEMBER WHEN...... (423 characters and 1 notes). 



  "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOTO" by PONDER on Jan. 2, 1992 at 14:34, about 

  AND I BET HE THOUGHT I FORGOT. (86 characters and 15 notes). 



  "PUERTO RICO" by PACKER on Jan. 18, 1992 at 20:47, about PARA 

  DISCUTIR ASUNTOS PUERTORIQUENA (166 characters and 9 notes). 



Systems using the bulletin board model rarely have conferences like 

"MEMORIES." In PARTI, one-note conferences are allowed to stay. In the 

bulletin board environment, they soon disappear. 



In larger PARTI conferences, the notes can be read like a book. Often, side 

discussions appear like 'branches' on a 'tree'. Join and read them, if you 

want to. Or just pass. 



The bulletin board model systems and PARTIcipate are at two extremes of the 

spectrum of conference systems. Toward the BBS model, there are systems 

like Usenet, FidoNet Echo, RBBS-PC, and PortaCom. Toward the PARTI side, 

there are systems like Caucus. 



On Norwegian bulletin boards the primary language is Norwegian. In France, 

expect French. Local systems usually depend on messages in the local 

language. 



Services catering to a larger geographical area may have a different 

policy. English is the most common language for international discussions. 

Spanish possibly number two. 



The global web of connections between computers enables us to discuss with 

people living in other parts of the world, as if they were living next 

door. 



Things Take Time!

-----------------

How long does it take a message to get from Hyougo in Japan to Saltrod in 

Norway? Or to Dominique Christian in Paris? 



Sometimes, mail travels from mailbox service to mailbox service in seconds. 

This is usually the case with messages from my mailbox in Norway to Dan 

Wheeler in Ohio (U.S.A.) and Mike Burleigh in London.



Messages that must go through many gateways may take more time. How long it 

takes, depends on the degree of automation in the mail systems involved, 

and how these systems have been connected to the global matrix of networks. 



Speed is high if the computers are interconnected with fixed, high-capacity 

lines. This is not so for mail from Oslo to Dominique in Paris. Although 

the distance is not great, mail is routed through a system in London and is 

forwarded only once a day through a dial-up connection. It usually takes at 

least one day to reach the destination. 



News

----

Most large news agencies have online counterparts. You can often read their 

news online before it appears in print. This is the case with news from 

sources like NTB, Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Kyodo News Report 

(Japan), Reuters, Xinhua English Language News Service (China) and TASS. 

Some news is only made available in electronic form. 



News may be read in several ways, depending on what online service you use: 



    * From a list of headlines. Enter a story's number to receive its full 

text. The news may be split up into groups, like Sports, International 

news, Business, and Entertainment. 



    * Some services let you hook directly into a news agency's 'feed line' 

to get news as it is being made available. At 11.02, 11.04, 11.15, etc. 



    * News may be 'clipped' and stored in your mailbox twenty-four hours a 

day, seven days a week. Clipping services search articles for occurrences 

of your personal keyword phrases while you're offline. In this way, you can 

monitor new products, companies, people, events, and countries, even when 

you're not online. 



NewsFlash is NewsNet's electronic clipping service, a powerful resource 

that lets you monitor NewsNet's newsletters for topics of interest. 



The Executive News Service on CompuServe let you search for words in story 

headlines, or in the first three lines of text. ENS searches through 8,000 

stories/day from the Washington Post, ITAR/TASS, Associated Press, Xinhua 

News Agency, United Press International, Reuters Financial News Wire, and 

others. 



Newspapers used to receive news through the wires before the online user. 

This built-in delay has now been removed on many services. Industry and 

professional news is usually available online long before it appears in 

print or even on television. 



Databases

---------

Some years ago, most databases were bibliographic. They just contained 

references to articles, books and other written or electronic sources of 

information. The typical search result looked like this: 



  0019201     02-88-68

    TRIMETHOPRIM-SULFAMETHOXAZOLE  in  CYST  Fluid  from  Autosomal  

    Dominant POLYCYSTIC KIDNEYS. 

    Elzinga L.W.; et al. W.M.  Bennett, Dept. of Med., Oregon Hlth. 

    Sci. Univ., 3101 Southwest Sam Jackson Park Rd., Portland, 

    OR 97201. 



  Kid. Int.   32:  884-888.  Dec.  1987



  Subfile:  Internal  Medicine;  Family Practice;  Nephrology;  

  Infectious Disease; Clinical Pharmacology; Highlights of General 

  Medicine 



You had to take the reference to a library to read a printed copy of the 

article. Some services did let you to order a copy while online, to be sent 

you by mail from a copying service. 



Full-text searching is now the rule. When you find an article of interest, 

you can have the full text displayed on your screen at once (often without 

accompanying pictures and tables, though). The search commands have also 

become simpler and more powerful. 



Just for fun

------------

Many online services focus on your leisure time. They offer reviews and 

news about movies, video, music, and sport. There are forums for stamp and 

coin collectors, travel maniacs, passionate cooks, wine tasters, and other 

special interest groups. Besides, many services are entertaining in 

themselves. 



Large, complex adventure games, where hundreds of users can play 

simultaneously, are popular choices. Some people sit glued to the computer 

screen for hours. 



Others prefer 'Chat', a keyboard-to-keyboard contact-phone type of 

simultaneous conversation between from two and up to hundreds of persons. 

It works like a combination of a social activity and a role-

playing/strategy/fantasy/skill-improving game. 



Shopping is the online equivalent of the traditional mail order business. 

The difference is that you can buy while browsing. Some commercial services 

distribute colorful catalogues to users to support sales. Some distribute 

pictures of the merchandise by modem. 



You can buy anything from racer fitness equipment and diamonds to cars. 

Enter your credit card number and the Chevrolet is yours. The online mail 

order business is becoming increasingly global. 



Level 5: The user interface

---------------------------

Part of the character of all online service providers is the way they 

interact with the user.  The term "user interface" refers to how the online 

service is presented to you, that is, in what form text, pictures and sound 

appear on your computer. 



Most online services offer the first three of these four levels. Some offer 

more: 



    1. Menus for novices. The user can select (navigate) by 

       pressing a figure or a letter.

    2. Short menus or lists of commands for the intermediate user.

       The user knows some about how the service works, and just 

       wants a short reminder to help navigate. 

    3. A short prompt (often just a character, like a "%"), which 

       tells the expert user where he is in the system right now.

       Those knowing the service inside out, don't need reminders 

       about what word or command to enter at this point. 

    4. Some services offer automatic access without any menus or 

       visible prompts at all. Everything happens in a two-way 

       stream of unintelligent data. The only menus that the user 

       sees, are those belonging to the program running on his 

       personal computer. 



Some services emphasize colors, graphics and sound. They may require that 

users have certain hardware or special add-on cards in their communications 

computer. Often, a special communications program is also needed. 



Other services use methods for presenting colors and graphics already built 

into their users' computers (and programs). 



Colors, graphics and sound are highly desirable in some applications, like 

online games and weather forecasts. But even where it is not important, 

there will always be many wanting it. 



To the professional on a fact-gathering mission, these features may give 

slower data transfer and problems when saving text to disk for later use. 

Therefore, some prefer ASCII text with no extras. 



Sports cars are nice, but for delivering furniture they're seldom any good. 

The same applies to user interfaces. No one is best for all applications. 



Level 6: The data transporters

------------------------------

When the host computer for an online service is far away, the user often 

faces the challenges of: 



    1. Noise on the line, which may result in unreadable text, 

       errors in the received material, or inability to  maintain

       a desired transmission speed level.

    2. Expensive long distance calls (especially if using a low-

       speed modem).



There are many alternatives to direct long distance calling. Some offers 

better quality data transfers and lower costs. 



The Internet is a global network serving hundreds of millions of mailboxes. 

It provides very cost-efficient mail exchange with private and public 

networks throughout the world. If your local mailbox computer is directly 

connected to the net, you can use it to connect (often for free) to remote 

service providers in other countries.



The regional packet data services used to be a popular option. In 

Scandinavia, the offerings of the local PTTs are called Datapak. Similar 

services are offered in most countries, often by a national telephone 

monopoly. 



Competitively priced alternatives exists in many countries. For example, 

Infonet, TRI-P, and i-Com has competed successfully with former monopolies 

for transport of data to and from North America. 



IXI is a packet data network operated by European Research centers. DASnet 

offers transport of mail between mail systems that have no direct 

connection with each others. (More about this in Chapter 13.) 



The packet data services, however, are quickly loosing ground to remote 

computing through the Internet and direct calls using cheap high-speed 

modems. 



Level 7: The user

-----------------

This is you, your computer and communications equipment. Turn the page to 

the next chapter and read about how to use the online services. 







Chapter 3: How to use the online services

=========================================



The user interface refers to what you get on your computer screen and how, 

when you call an online service. It includes menus and help screens, and 

various options to tailor the service to your personal preferences. 



Navigating by menus is simpler

------------------------------

Most online services have menus to make them easier for novices to use.  A 

typical menu looks like this: 



    R)ead messages

    Q)uick search available messages 

    W)rite messages

    C)omments to Sysop

    D)ownload programs

    ?) for help

    G)oodbye. This is enough!



Enter a letter (or ?) to select a function. Enter R to read messages. There 

is hardly any need to read the documentation to use this service. 



CompuServe greets European users with this menu: 





      CompuServe Europe         EUROPE



      COMPUSERVE EUROPE MAIN MENU



       1 About CompuServe

       2 What's New

       3 Member Assistance

       4 Electronic Mail

       5 Personal Computer Support

       6 Company Information

       7 Logon Instructions (Europe)

       8 CompuServe Information Service (U.S.)



Enter '8' to get another menu:



      CompuServe                   TOP



       1 Member Assistance (FREE)

       2 Find a Topic (FREE)

       3 Communications/Bulletin Bds.

       4 News/Weather/Sports

       5 Travel

       6 The Electronic MALL/Shopping

       7 Money Matters/Markets

       8 Entertainment/Games

       9 Hobbies/Lifestyles/Education

      10 Reference

      11 Computers/Technology

      12 Business/Other Interests



You can "go" to Associated Press' newswires or the section for home-

schooling in the Education Forum by entering numbers listed in menus. The 

service is like a tree with menus by every set of branches. 



A code in the upper right-hand corner of each screen tells you exactly 

where you are. The last menu has the code 'TOP' meaning that this menu is 

at the 'top of the tree'. 



By each CompuServe system prompt, the command GO followed by a destination 

code will take you directly to a desired location. Enter GO IBMHW to go 

directly to the IBM Hardware Forum. 



The GO command will save you time and money. Similar codes and commands are 

used on several other online services. 



On many systems, the first menu encountered when logging on is a list of 

announcements and new offerings. The following is from GEnie, General 

Electric's Consumer Information Service (U.S.A.): 



       GEnie Announcements (FREE)       



 1. July 1991 GEnie Billing Completed.  To review yours, type:....*BILL

 2. Hot Summer Nights continues to SIZZLE.........................*HSN

 3. NEW...Quality Product and Amazing Value in....................SOFTCLUB

 4. LAST CHANCE---Blue GEnie Sweatshirts..........................*ORDER

 5. Color hypermedia in Apple II world. HyperStudio RTC in........A2

 6. Meet the Product Manager, FREE RTC............................SFRT

 7. "Future of Online Gaming" RTC with GEnie Game Designers in....MPGRT

 8. A Revolutionary Credit Service - TRW CREDENTIALS..............TRWCREDIT

 9. 900 Numbers: Ripoff or Good Business Sense - RTC 8/11 9PM.....RADIO

10. Air Warrior Convention set for Sept.26-29. in Washington......AIR

11. SEARS Fall/Winter Catalog On-line NOW.........................SEARS

12. How to Sell your CRAFTS for Profit............................HOSB

13. Stellar Warrior Campaign starts with a FREE weekend...........WARRIOR

14. Followup Investment RTC with Mickey Friedman in...............REAL ESTATE

15. Federation II, the adult space fantasy........................FED



Enter #, <H>elp, or <CR> to continue?



At the 'Enter #' prompt, enter '7' to go directly to the "Future of Online 

Gaming" conference (RTC=Round Table Conference). Enter H for Help, or press 

RETURN to get to the systems' main menu. 



You can "go" to selected services by entering a videotext page number code 

or a number (selected from the menu). Type 'mail' to get to your mailbox, 

'backgammon' to play, or 'SEARS' to visit the online version of this North 

American shoppers' paradise. 



'Mail' has page number 200. Enter 'm 200' to go there directly. To go to 

NewsBytes' technical news reports by subject, select "5" from menu page 

number 316. 



GEnie even has a faster way. Like some other services, it let you stack 

commands. Instead of issuing one command, and then wait for the system to 

respond before issuing the next command, stacking allows you to put all 

commands on one line. The command "m 316;5" will take you directly to 

choice 5 from the menu on page 316 without displaying intermediate menus. 



Many online services use the same template. They have commands like GO 

SERVICE-NAME, JOIN SERVICE-NAME (or just J), DELTA SERVICE-NAME, or just 

the code or name of the offering as in 'mail' and 'sears' above. 



Entering H or ? (for help) usually give you assistance. Few services are 

fussy about whether you use lower or capital letters in commands. 



On some services, and especially if a selection requires just a letter or a 

number, you don't even have to press return to make it happen. This method 

is used on many bulletin boards. 



Some codes are standard. This is particularly the case with "?", H, or Help 

for more information. 



Test drive

----------

Several commercial systems let you try the service for free or at lower 

rates. You can check what's out there without paying for the exploratory 

connect time, and get some free training in how to use the service. 



CompuServe's Practice Forum (GO PRACTICE) does not carry any connect 

charges, but applicable communication surcharges are still in effect. They 

also have a free 'Guided Tour'. 



Free trials are particularly useful before a search in an expensive 

database. Use DialIndex on Dialog. Orbit has DBIN (The database Index), and 

Data-Star has CROS. They are master indexes to the databases on the system. 

First, select a general subject area, then enter your search terms. The 

systems will respond with lists of databases and hit counts. 



Note: You must go to the 'real' databases for results. You cannot retrieve 

actual information during a test drive. 



Selecting an expert level

-------------------------

Most services regard all new users as novices. The software designers 

assume that users don't want (or are unable) to read lengthy explanations. 

They think that most users prefer navigation by going from menu to menu. 



Commercial services may support this view for financial reasons, and 

especially when charging for access by the minute. (Some of them let you 

read their help screens for free, though.) 



Menus are important when browsing new offerings, or accessing services that 

we seldom use. Frequent users of a service, however, quickly learn how to 

do things. Menus may soon begin to annoy rather than please. Reading them 

costs money, and it slows our communications down. 



We do not need menus when accessing online services in fully automated 

mode. Your communications program remembers exactly what to do, and does 

all the typing for you. 



There is no point in paying extra for having menus. You'll not read them 

anyway. The objective is to access the service at maximum speed and the 

lowest possible cost. 



Most online services can be tailored to your personal needs and 

preferences. Many let you choose between: 



    * Full menus

    * Short menus

    * A prompt line with a list of the most often used 

      commands, 

    * a prompt character or word (see "prompt" in appendix 4

      for examples). Prompts can be used by automatic

      communication script files to trigger the next action.



If concerned about costs, note that you can use expert mode without being a 

true expert. Just print the menus, and keep them by your keyboard while 

moving around. 



Some users draw 'road maps' of the services to navigate more quickly. 

Others automate the process using automatic communications scripts. 



Tailoring your services

-----------------------

The need to tailor the online service's prompts and menus differs 

considerably from user to user, as they use all kinds of computers for 

communication. 



Some screens are large. Other screens can only display a few lines of text 

at a time. One user of my BBS even used a Hewlett Packard pocket calculator 

with a tiny, tiny screen. 



Many online services allow you to tailor the way information is sent to 

you. 



If you are satisfied with how things are, skip the next couple of pages and 

read from "Connecting the first time." If curious of your options, read on 

for a somewhat brief and technical overview. 



Besides a selection of various types of menus, you can usually also set the 

following preferences: 



    * What menu is to be the first, when you access the service?

    * The first menu is to be a tailored menu containing your

      favorite offerings, and nothing else.

    * Colors, graphics, or no colors/graphics. 

    * Preferred file transfer protocol (to avoid a question each 

      time you want to transfer a file).

    * Desired terminal emulator, like TTY, VT-100 or VT-52.

    * CAPITAL LETTERS or Mixed Case.

    * What ASCII character code to use for the DELETE function.

    * How many spaces to insert when expanding TABs in your mail.

    * Number of lines per screen (for example, 24 on an IBM PC, or 

      eight on a TRS-80 Model 100. Whether scrolling is to pause 

      after each screenful or not.)

    * Number of characters per line (for example, 80 lines on a PC, 

      or 40 on a TRS-80 Model 100.

    * If the linefeed character is to be sent or not.

    * If blank lines are to be sent.

    * Whether the service is to check when you log on to see if 

      you're using special software (as in 'Inquire for VIDTEX' on 

      CompuServe). 

    * The use of 'echo'. Is the service to return the characters 

      that you enter on your keyboard?

    * Use of delay when sending line feeds. (Useful if capturing 

      text to a dumb printing terminal. If text scrolls too fast 

      for the printer, you risk losing some of it.) 

    * Choice of prompt character, or prompt text string. This is

      useful when communicating by script files. On CompuServe, I 

      have asked the system to add the BackSpace character (ASCII 

      character number 8) to the end of all forum prompts. Since

      this character is rarely found in messages or other texts,

      I can safely let scripts depend on this prompt character for 

      unattended communication. 



Displaying information on the screen

------------------------------------

An 'A' is not an 'A' no matter what service you use. If you call Tocolo BBS 

in Japan (Tel.: +81-3-205-9315. 1200 bps, 8,N,1.) with a non-Japanese MS-

DOS computer, chances are that the welcome text will look like this: 



  *--------------------------------------------------------------*

  *  D0:[ BBS    (<^/9] 7.8)                                     *

  *   62>] =3     ---> 3  (@^2K.3 03-205-9315)                   *

  *   3]V3 <^6]   ---> 24 <^6] 6D^3 C=D A-3                      *

  *                    (Wed 9:00-17:00 J R]C I @R 5T=P C^=)      *

  *--------------------------------------------------------------*



You'll need a Japanese ROM (Read-Only Memory) in your computer, a special 

graphics program, or a Japanese language operating system  to have the 

Kanji characters displayed properly on your screen. 



The characters that you see on your computer's screen are based on a code. 

The computer finds the characters to display from a table built into your 

system's hardware or software. 



Most personal computers can be preset to use various tables depending on 

your needs. When communicating in English, you may want it to show Latin 

characters. When writing in Japanese, you may want it to display Kanji 

characters. 



Those writing in Norwegian, often want to use the special Scandinavian 

characters . If the first two of these Nordic characters read like 

the symbols for Yen and Cent, you're not set up for Scandinavian 

characters. If your system is set up correctly, they should look like an 

'o' and an 'O' overwritten by a '/'. 



The code telling your computer what to display, may also contain 

information about where to put characters and what colors to use. 



Thus, an online service may order your computer to display a given 

character in column 10 on line 2, and to print it in blinking red color. If 

you're not set up correctly, these codes may show as garbage on your screen 

rather than as a colorful character in a given position. 



If you call a service set to display text in VT-52 format, and your 

communications program is set accordingly, then you should be OK. VT-52 is 

a setup that makes a program or a service 'behave' like a DEC VT-52 

terminal. 



Being able to view VT-52 coded text on your screen, does not guarantee that 

you can capture this 'picture' to a file on your disk. Your communications 

program may need special features to do that. If these features are 

missing, you are in for a surprise. The text in your capture file may look 

like in this example (it came on a single, long line on my computer): 





--------------------------------------------------------------------

*H*J*Y"4   Innhold*Y%>                              *Y&4Emneoversikt       

1   Brukerprofil    6*Y)4Stikkord A-]       2   Bruker-          *Y*4                       

veiledning      7*Y,4Informasjons-                           *Y-

4leverand|rer A-]   3   Teledatanytt*Y.W    8*Y04Personlig indeks   

4*Y2H                    *Y34Meldingstjenesten  5   Avslutte        

9*Y64   ]pningsside *00#                     *Y 4TELEDATA            

880823-1538*Y74                               NTA01-00a*Y74     *Y74*Y74                                        

--------------------------------------------------------------------



The character '*' in this example refers to the ESCape character (ASCII 

number 27). ESC is used to tell your computer that what follows is a VT-52 

display command. 



The codes following the ESC say where text is to be printed on your screen 

(from line number x and column number y). 



If your communications program cannot save VT-52 coded text in a readable 

way, you'll need auxiliary programs to remove or convert the codes. Some 

communication programs let you take snapshots of the screen, and store the 

result in a file. This usually gives good results, but it may be a 

cumbersome approach. 



Prestel (British Telecom, England) belongs to a group of online services 

called videotex (or viewdata). Minitel (in France and the U.S.), and 

Prodigy (U.S.A.) are also in this group. They believe that beautiful color 

graphics, large characters, and menus give them a competitive advantage. 



CompuServe is often called a videotex service because of its emphasis on 

menus. However, most call it 'ASCII videotex' as it is not depending on 

special display formats. Their philosophy is that 'plain text' is required 

to attract many users across hardware platforms. 



The viewdata services use graphical display standards with names like 

Prestel, CEPT, Captain (Character and Pattern Telephone Access Information 

Network System, in Japan), Telidon (Canada), Minitel, Teletel (France), GIF 

(the Graphics Interchange Format), Viewdata, and NAPLPS (The North American 

Presentation Level Protocol Syntax). 



You often need special terminal machines to use some viewdata services. On 

other services, you must use special software plus an emulator card in your 

computer. 



Many MS-DOS based bulletin boards let you set access defaults to colors and 

graphics. Most of them use ANSI graphics in welcome texts and menus. Users 

must set their programs to ANSI (or ANSI BBS) to take advantage. 



Capture these welcome texts and menus to a file on your hard disk, and view 

them with an editor. They are filled with ANSI escape codes, and thus hard 

to read (and search). The good news is that conference and forum mail only 

rarely contains such codes. 



Many users routinely keep captured online information on their hard disks 

for later reference. If this is your intention, make sure that text is sent 

to you in plain ASCII, or TTY mode. 



    TTY sends one line at a time, and only uses the codes TAB, 

    BackSpace, Carriage Return and LineFeed during the transfer. 

    The rest is 'plain text'. 



Most online services offer TTY format. You can use the setting almost 

everywhere. Even the videotex service Prestel offers an option called 'TTY 

Teletype'. 



If 'TTY' or 'ASCII' is not on your online services' list of options, try 

'Others' or 'Other computers'. These settings usually identify your 

computer as unable to handle 'standard' colors, sound and graphics. 



Viewdata pages may provide "selling pictures," but the screens often have a 

low contents of information compared with TTY-based services. They are 

therefore not my favorite services for news in full-text. 



In other applications, like games, colorful graphics are a definite 

advantage. 



Connecting the first time

-------------------------

If you have unlimited financial resources, go ahead and call up services 

all over the world. Learning by doing is exciting. 



If resources are limited, start by reading user information manual. Or, go 

online to capture key menus and help texts. Print them out on paper for 

further study before going online again for a 'real' visit. 



I always hurry slowly during my first visits to a new online service. I 

call up, capture information about how to use it, and disconnect. It may 

take me days to study the material. My objective is to find what the 

service has to offer in order to plan how to use it most efficiently. 



The first important command to look up is the logoff command. There is 

nothing more frustrating than entering "bye" only to get an error message. 

If lost, try "quit", "exit", "logoff", "off" and "G", in the hope of 

finding the correct command. These are the most usual variations. You 

should also try HELP or "?". 



If you really can't figure out how to get off a system, just hang up on it. 

Be careful, though. Some systems will continue to charge for a period, even 

after you have disconnected by hanging up. 



One of the first things that I do, is set my options to expert status, 

though I am obviously an amateur at this stage. 



Often, I also start automating the process during my first visits. I write 

script files for automatic access and quick navigation to key offerings. 

Another good strategy is to look for automated offline readers or systems 

(see Chapter 16 for details). 



Others prefer paper and pencil. They write a list of required commands on a 

piece of paper, like this: 



    Call 0165

    At CONNECT:                   ENTER @SP ENTER

    At the NUI prompt:            Nxxxxxppppp-a170041

    At Enter 'dix' and <Enter>:   dix

    At -- More --:                ENTER

    At Your name:                 Odd de Presno

    At Password:                  hemmelig

    At What do you want to do:

    - when no unread mail         goodbye

    - when mail to read           ENTER



Put the list by your keyboard before calling the service. Follow it 

carefully. After a while you may remember the procedure, and can throw away 

your notes. 



    Good luck!







PART 2: APPLICATIONS





            "Imagination is more important than knowledge"

                             - Albert Einstein





This part of the book is the core of the matter. We want to give you an 

idea of what is out there. 



The bad news is that the online world has too much. We have been forced to 

make a selection. So, if there are important pointers that you feel has 

been left out, please drop me a line. Maybe it can be included in a future 

release of the book. 



While references to offerings with terms like "on CompuServe," and "on 

TWICS" may be easily understood, you may not be used to our terms referring 

to resources on the Internet. These include the following: 



    anonymous ftp

    gopher

    telnet

    RFC, FYI, FAQ

    archie



Do not despair. Explanation is given in appendix 6. You can also search the 

book for additional information.



Chapter 4: Hobby, games and fun

===============================



  * Programs, game and fun

    Online adventure games. The virus threat.

  * Hobbies. Holiday travels. Collecting stamps or coins.

    Roots, music, and online shopping.



Online services have one thing in common with newspapers, magazines and 

books. What they offer, varies from provider to provider. 



The next chapters will focus on the contents of the offerings. Appendix 1 

has details about how to access the major service providers. 



Small online services often have interesting offerings in specialized 

areas, and especially when they are based on local phenomena or events. 

They tend to be more personal. They often present their 'wares' in a local 

language, and offer very large collections of free software. 



The large online services have hundreds of thousands of users. The activity 

is often high. They usually attract interesting (and competent) 

participants to their conferences and forums, have more programs available 

for download and more news sources and databases to search. They generally 

give you a wider choice. 



We will focus on the large international services. These are available from 

anywhere without too much effort, and using them comes surprisingly cheap. 

Therefore, please remember that this book just covers the top of the 

iceberg. Cheaper services may be found elsewhere, and they may even be 

better tuned to your particular areas of interest. 



Locating game software

----------------------

The fastest, easiest and cheapest is to call an online service to download 

game programs. You'll find an overwhelming number of programs for all types 

of microcomputers. 



Many games are free. We call them "Public Domain" or "Freeware" programs. 

Others are distributed free. You do not have to pay to get them and try 

them out. If you want to use them, however, the copyright owner expects you 

to pay a fee. We call them "shareware" or "user supported" programs. 



When the game has been transferred to your personal computer, you can play 

without worries about communications costs, or the busy signal on your 

phone line. 



My favorite game is shareware. The name is Arachnid. It is an MS Windows 

solitaire game (patience) made by SP Services, P.O. Box 456, Southampton, 

SO9 7XG, England. The desired registration fee is UKP 15.00 (English 

pounds). You can download the program from my board as WINCARD.EXE. The 

file is 106 kilobytes large. 



WINCARD.EXE is a special distribution file, which contains three games and 

all supporting files. The EXE extension may fool you into thinking that it 

is a program, and in a way it is. The file is a self-extract file, meaning 

that you just enter "WINCARD" on an MS-DOS computer to extract the game 

files from the "package." 



Games are usually distributed in such distribution files. All files used by 

a game (or several games) is put into one file by special software, and 

compressed in size. This makes retrieval of programs easier and cheaper. 

You do not have to download many related files individually. The transfer 

takes less time. (Read about how to extract programs from distribution 

files in appendix 3). 



You will find some of the largest collections of games on the North 

American services CompuServe and EXEC-PC BBS. You will also find large 

collections on the Internet. 



  | TRICKLE is a large collection of public domain and shareware   |

  | programs for MS-DOS, CPM, and other computers. For information |

  | about how to use TRICKLE, send a message through Internet to   |

  |                                                                |

  |         LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU                                 |

  |                                                                |

  | In the TEXT of the message write                               |

  |                                                                |

  |         GET PDGET HELP                                         |

  |                                                                |

  | An information file will be sent to your electronic mailbox.   |

  | (Read the chapter about electronic mail, and about The SimTel  |

  | Software Repository in Appendix 6 more information.)           |

  |                                                                |

  | If TRICKLE is not enough, try Archie. It is the Internet       |

  | archive server listing service. The Archie database maintains  |

  | a list of roughly 1.5 million files containing 100 Giga-       |

  | bytes (that is, 100,000,000,000 bytes) of information          |

  | available from over 800 anonymous FTP archive sites.           |

  |     You can search this database by email to find where files  |

  | are located. Some Archie systems maintain a list of libraries  |

  | all over the world, while others concentrate on a more limited |

  | geographical area.                                             |

  |     Once Archie has told you where desired programs and files  |

  | are located, you can retrieve them by telnet, anonymous FTP,   |

  | of FTPmail. Read "File transfers through the Internet" in      |

  | chapter 12 for details.                                        |

  |     For information about using Archie, send mail to one of the|

  | following addresses (see appendix 6 for more options):         |

  |                                                                |

  |     archie@cs.mcgill.ca         (Canada)                       |

  |     archie@plaza.aarnet.edu.au  (Australia)                    |

  |                                                                |

  | Put the word HELP in the body of the mail                      |

  |                                                                |

  | Getting programs by email is a three-step process:             |

  | (1) Use Archie to find file names and where they are stored,   |

  | (2) Send a message to ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com to have them      |

  |     retrieved and forwarded to you by email, and               |

  | (3) Use a utility program to convert the file to a useful      |

  |     format. (See chapter 12.)                                  |

  |                                                                |

  | Check out JVArcServ for an Archie-alike service on FidoNet.    |

  |                                                                |

  | Also, check out the FAQ file PC GAMES, "Guide To The Gaming    |

  | World" (see FAQ in appendix 6).                                |



Chances are that online services in your area also have many programs to 

offer. Most free bulletin boards have more software than you'll ever get 

around to try. 



Usually, there is a natural specialization between boards. Those using the 

Unix operating system, have the largest number of programs for such 

machines. Those running on MS-DOS computers, have more programs for such 

computers. 



Some games are trite and bad. Others are brilliant. There are ladder games, 

games challenging your responses (racer car driving, flight control, war 

games, subsea games), electronic versions of traditional games like 

Backgammon, Yatzy, chess and bridge, educational games (geography, 

mathematics and history), puzzles, fractal programs (drawing beautiful 

pictures on your screen), psychological tests, text-based adventure games, 

and other strange and funny creations. Here is something for any taste or 

belief. 



If you want to get rich in a hurry, pick programs that increase chances of 

winning horse race bets, or other "real world" money winning games. 



If you're into beautiful girls, fill your hard disk with picture files in 

GIF, PCX or other graphics formats. (Sorry ladies, there are not many 

pictures of naked boys around.) You'll also find software that will display 

the pictures that you just retrieved. 



Keen users of the more popular games often want to swap tricks and discuss 

experiences: Super Nintendo players regularly meet on the SNES mailing list 

(on SNES@spcvxa.spc.edu). To join, send your subscription request to: SNES-

Request@spcvxa.spc.edu . 



For chess, try the Chess Discussion List (CHESS-L@GREARN.BITNET) unless 

Chinese Chess (on XIANGQI@INDYCMS.BITNET) is what you're looking for. To 

play or watch real-time chess with human opponents, telnet 

aragorn.andrew.cmu.edu 5000 (or 128.2.35.185 5000). Interactive access to 

the Internet is required. Type 'help' for help. 



CompuServe has a Chess forum (GO CHESSFORUM) with message sections called: 

Chess Basics, Theory & Analysis, News Wire, Hardware/Software, Casual 

Games, Electronic Knights, Oriental/Variants, Tourneys (Open), USCF Rated 

Games, Team Play, and Time Out. 



Usenet excels when it comes to games: 



  rec.gambling            Articles on games of chance & betting.

  rec.games.board         Discussion and hints on board games.

  rec.games.board.ce      The Cosmic Encounter board game.

  rec.games.bridge        Hobbyists interested in bridge.

  rec.games.chess         Chess & computer chess.

  rec.games.design        Discussion of game design related issues.

  rec.games.empire        Discussion and hints about Empire.

  rec.games.frp           Discussion about Role Playing games.

  rec.games.go            Discussion about Go.

  rec.games.hack          Discussion, hints, etc. about the Hack game.

  rec.games.misc          Games and computer games.

  rec.games.moria         Comments, hints, and info about the Moria game.

  rec.games.mud           Various aspects of multi-users computer games.

  rec.games.pbm           Discussion about Play by Mail games.

  rec.games.pinball       Discussing pinball-related issues.

  rec.games.programmer    Discussion of adventure game programming.

  rec.games.rogue         Discussion and hints about Rogue.

  rec.games.trivia        Discussion about trivia.

  rec.games.video         Discussion about video games.

  rec.games.video.arcade  Discussions about coin-operated video games.



With so many games and programs around, it is difficult to stay current 

about new programs and new versions of old ones. Consider subscribing to 

the MS-DOS Archive Additions (one-way) information service. Internet MS-DOS 

archive managers use it to announce new additions to their collections. 



To subscribe, send a message to LISTSERV@TACOM-EMH1.Army.Mil with this 

command in the body of the message:                                                                    



      subscribe msdos-ann                                                      



These announcements are also posted to the Usenet newsgroup called 

comp.archives.msdos.announce . 



  | It is probably easier for you to relate to references like     |

  | "rec.games.video on Usenet," than to XIANGQI@INDYCMS.BITNET.   |

  | References to BITNET mailing lists are made in various ways    |

  | throughout the book, just as it is online. This is the basic   |

  | rule:                                                          |

  |                                                                |

  | All BITNET mailing lists are 'managed' by a LISTSERV program,  |

  | which handles all subscription requests. When you read a       |

  | reference like XIANGQI@INDYCMS.BITNET, then that means that    |

  | a subscription request must be set to the LISTSERV at the      |

  | INDYCMS computer on BITNET. Mail to the forum, however, must   |

  | be sent to XIANGQI@INDYCMS.BITNET to be forwarded to the       |

  | other members.                                                 |

  |                                                                |

  | For more information about these strange address codes, and    |

  | how to use them, read about BITNET in appendix 1. You may      |

  | find it useful to read about email addresses in Chapter 7.     |

  |                                                                |

  | All BITNET mailing lists can be used by email through the      |

  | Internet. Several BITNET hosts also have Internet addresses.   |

  | Example: LISTSERV@NDSUVM1.BITNET can also be reached as        |

  | LISTSERV@vm1.nodak.edu . When dual addresses are given,        |

  | Internet users should use the Internet address, while BITNET   |

  | users should use the BITNET address.                           |

  |                                                                |

  | Note: In cases where a BITNET mailing list has dual addresses, |

  | we have usually given the Internet address. If you are on      |

  | BITNET, and using these addresses are difficult or impossible, |

  | ask your local postmaster for help.                            |



Computer viruses

----------------

Few online users ever live to see or experience a computer virus, but they 

do exist. So, read this: 



A virus is a small, hidden computer program that can cause the loss or 

alteration of programs or data, and can  compromise their confidentiality. 

It can spread from program to program, and from system to system, without 

direct human intervention.                                                           



The chance of your computer being infected is small, but you're never safe. 

Therefore, download a program for virus detection and identification, like 

VIRUSSCAN from McAfee Associates, 4423 Cheeney Street, Santa Clara, CA 

95054-0253, U.S.A. They also have virus disinfection programs (for MS-DOS 

computers). 



For more about viruses, subscribe to VIRUS-L@LEHIGH.EDU. CompuServe has the 

Mac New Users Forum (with a a Virus Clinic section), the McAfee Virus Help 

Forum, the Symantec AntiVirus Forum, and more. FidoNet has a VIRUS echo. 

ILINK has VIRUS-I. Usenet has bit.listserv.valert-l (Virus Alert List), and 

comp.virus . 



Online games

------------

If you're into games, why not investigate online adventure games? There are 

many alternatives. Prestel (England) offers TRASH, an environmental multi-

user game with a futuristic theme and full of humor. Up to 64 persons can 

play simultaneously. 



" ...Callers play out the role of pandimensional refuse disposal officers, 

whose primary aim in life is to clean up the multiverse, as the Trash 

environment is called." 



"With a diverse range of 'psionic powers', which vary from the nasty 

(pyrokinesis) to the gentle (faith healing), at their command, Trash 

players roam across dimensions and universes, completing various tasks." 



Bulletin boards throughout the world invite you to role playing games. Some 

have graphics, music and sound effects. Dungeons & Dragons is a popular 

choice. 



On EXEC-PC, play Startrek. Select an identity and "play it out" according 

to its character. If you're a real aficionado, check out 

rec.arts.startrek.info on Usenet or the list RASI-L@ncc1701e.uucp (write 

LISTSERV@ncc1701e.uucp to subscribe). 



Advanced players swap tricks on STARGAME@PCCVM.BITNET. On many BBSes, MUD 

is a most popular game. 



  | Multi-User Dungeons (MUD) is a structured and user-modifiable |

  | online environment, which allows users not only to interact   |

  | with each other, but to do role-playing, build and furnish    |

  | living areas and interaction areas, extend and create the     |

  | interactive "space" and the rules for using that space.       |

  |                                                               |

  | As programmers create new types of MUDs, new names appear.    |

  | These include TinyMud, DUM, MOO, MUCK, MUG, and many others.  |

  | There is a MOO at 155.31.1.1 8888 , which allows 'guests' to  |

  | look around (telnet).                                         |

  |                                                               |

  | For a copy of "The Totally Unofficial List of Internet Muds", |

  | ftp to rtfm.mit.edu as 'anonymous', cd pub/usenet, and get    |

  | the rec.games.mud.announce file.                              |



Popular choices on CompuServe are strategy games like The Island of Kesmai 

and Megawars. One game can last for weeks at a time. On CIX (England), many 

prefer the multi-user dungeon game DiscWorld. 



If you prefer sport fantasies in the armchair, check out GEnie. They offer 

Rotisserie League Baseball. Decide what team player to be, and join in a 

match of American baseball. GemStone is the most popular game on GEnie. 



Nintendo offers online games through the Famicom Networks in Japan and the 

U.S. Your PC must have a special graphics card to play games like GO and 

Shogi, a Japanese game of chess. 



Chat

----

Chat, or "keyboard talking," is a popular attraction, and in particular on 

the large online services. 



Your first attempt will probably be a strange experience. It makes your 

monitor look like an unfolding screenplay, with you speaking one of the 

several parts. 



When many people talk simultaneously in chat mode, incoherent sentences 

seem to fly over your computer screen. It takes some training to be able to 

read what each of them is saying. 



CompuServe's Citizen Band Simulator (GO CB) is an electronic version of the 

hams' short-wave radio. It has 72 CB Simulator channels. You can chat with 

anonymous members, have fun and find new keypals. 



On EXEC-PC's Chat and Entertainment System up to 64 users can talk 

simultaneously. GEnie calls their service Livewire CB. On BIX, look for 

CBIX. 



Some users are serious about chatting. Several large companies are heavy 

users. Although this kind of talking is a slow process, it has advantages. 

It is easy to document the discussion. People from places geographically 

far apart can meet at a low cost to discuss. 



Some online services charge less for chats than for other services. 



My hobby

--------

There are online forums for most hobbies: collection of stamps and coins, 

genealogy, music, holiday travels, skiing, purchase of consumer 

electronics, video, filming, and more. 



Those you meet in the clubs share your interests. They come to exchange 

information and experiences, to listen, swap stamps or coins, participate 

in club auctions, and exploit favorable group discounts when buying things 

for their hobby. 



In these clubs, the main attraction is the open messages that people write 

to each other. Many clubs also have libraries filled with special software 

(like database programs for collectors) and information files. 



Coins (on Coins@rocky.er.usgs.gov) is a forum for discussion of 

Numismatics, the study of coins, American and International.  Paper 

currency is also a welcome topic, but trading is not allowed. To subscribe, 

send a message to robert@whiplash.er.usgs.gov . 



Music

-----

ILINK, an international exchange of conferences between bulletin boards, 

has a forum for country music lovers. It presents itself in these words: 





     COUNTRY MUSIC

     Country & Western music including bluegrass and other related 

     forms.  Discussion of artists, techniques, instruments &

     musicians.  Host: John Stewart





     One oasis of civility in the BBS maelstrom is the 150-board 

     ILINK network -- recently renamed from InterLink.  Unlike most 

     BBS networks, ILINK carefully evaluates each board before 

     permitting membership.  "We are very selective -- some say 

     overly selective," says ILINK's international host Andy Keeves.  

     Choosiness keeps ILINK small but upholds the decorum of its 

     message bases. 



Usenet has rec.music.country.western, rec.music.indian.classic, 

rec.music.indian.misc, alt.music.enya, and in addition over forty other 

music groups (1993). 



FidoNet has 60S_70S_PROGROCK about the progressive rock music of the 60's 

and 70's, gospel music in CHR_GSPL_MUSIC, a club for selling and buying 

between musicians (MUSICIAN'S_SERVICES), and (MUSIC_COMP_101) for aspiring 

composers. 



CompuServe has a bunch of forums. Check out the Music/MIDI sections in the 

Amiga and Atari ST Arts forums. The latter is a full Music/MIDI forum. 



CompuServe's Coin/Stamp/Collectibles Forum has sections for collectors of 

stamps and covers, coins and currency, sports cards, books and media, 

autographs, sports memorabilia, music, dolls and figurines, and other 

things.



CompuServe's RockNet forum has the following structure: 



       Available message sections:      Available file libraries: 

        0 General/Misc.                    0 General Misc

        1 Rock Music                       1 Rock Music

        2 Rock Radio                       2 Rock Radio

        3 Reviews/LK                       3 Reviews   

        4 Q&A/Help                         4 Q&A/Help

        5 Rock Film & Video                5 Rock Film & Video

        6 RockLetters                      6 RockLetters

        7 Trends                           7 Trends

        8 Heavy Metal                      8 Heavy Metal

        9 Old Wave                         9 Old Wave

       10 New Music                       10 New Music

       11 CD Hotline                      11 Compact Discs

       12 Green, Village                  12 Graphics/Programs



You can tailor your visits to RockNet to your personal interests. If you're 

into Heavy Metal, limit your readings of messages to those in section 8, 

and possibly 3 and 7. 



The Music and Performing Arts Forum (GO MUSICARTS) is another interesting 

place on CompuServe. Converse with fellow music fans about on topics like 

classical, jazz/blues, Big Band, country/folk and religious music, 

ballet/dance, drama and more. 



MIDI is discussed on several bulletin boards, including in conferences 

distributed by RelayNet. 



Classical music forums can be found on most larger services. Try CLASSM-L 

on LISTSERV@BROWNVM.BITNET. 



For jazz, try the ILINK conference JAZZ, rec.music.bluenote on Usenet, 

MILES on LISTSERV@HEARN.NIC.SURFNET.NL (about Miles Davis), or BLUES-L at 

LISTSERV@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU . 



Another jazz oriented list, SATURN on LISTSERV@HEARN.BITNET, is for 

discussing the free-jazz big band leader, Sun Ra. 



Write morel@phoenix.imag.fr for subscription to a David Bowie mailing list. 

Put 'Bowie Subscription' in your subject. Subscribe to the Elton John 

mailing list by email to elton-john-request@uiuc.edu . 



Network-Audio-Bits is an electronic magazine bringing reviews and 

information about rock, pop, new age, jazz, funk, folk music and other 

genres. (Write Murph@Maine.BITNET to join.) 



The Music Newsletter offers reviews and interviews. Subscribe by email to 

LISTSERV@VM.MARIST.EDU using the command "SUBSCRIBE UPNEWS Your-full-name."  



  | On BITNET mailing lists, you subscribe by using the command  |

  | "SUB <mailing-list-name> Your-full-name" in the body of your |

  | email.                                                       |

  |                                                              |

  | There are also mailing lists on Unix workstations, PCs, and  |

  | microVaxen. These may require that you write the subscribe   |

  | command in full ('SUBSCRIBE'), or use other commands.        |



To get the "Musical List of Lists," an overview of music oriented mailing 

lists, send email to mlol-request@wariat.org . 



If interested in Australian Top Singles & Albums Charts, write to 

pearson_r@maths.su.oz.au . Write to kiwimusic-request@athena.mit.edu if 

interested in New Zealand bands. 



Medieval & Renaissance Music is available from mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk. To 

subscribe, send "join med-and-ren-music [your name]". For Middle-Eastern 

Music, send to middle-eastern-music-request@nic.funet.fi . 



ETHMUS-L is a closed, moderated list for folks with a professional interest 

in ethnomusicology. Send your subscription request to ETHMUS-L@UMDD.UMD.EDU 

or to ETHMUS-L@UMDD . 



GRIND (write grind-request@unh.edu) focuses on discussions about 

grindcore/death metal/heavy thrash music. PRIMUS is about the funk/rock 

band Primus (write to primus-request@unh.edu). 



SOCO-L on LISTSERV@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU is about topics related to Southern 

Rock Music. 



Write to undercover-request@snowhite.cis.uoguelph.ca to join the Rolling 

Stones mailing list. 



KLARINET (on LISTSERV@VCCSCENT.BITNET) is a network bringing news, 

information, research and teaching items of interest, and other related 

information for clarinet players, teachers, students, and enthusiasts. 



"Backstreets" on UUCP is for those who love the music of Bruce Springsteen 

(backstreets-request@virginia.edu). "Eclipse" (eclipse-

request@beach.cis.ufl.edu) focuses on Pink Floyd and his music. If a fan of 

Jimi Hendrix, join "hey-joe" (hey-joe-request@ms.uky.edu). 



In "brass," the topic is brass band music (write to brass-

request@geomag.gly.fsu.edu for access). 



"J-Pop" (jpop-request@wystan.bsd.uchicago.edu via UUCP) has discussions 

about Japanese pop/rock of today. 



Paul Harris invites to the RMUSIC-L mailing list using these words: 



   RMUSIC-L is on the air...Join us for exciting and intelligent

   discussions on the music industry...Concert and 

   AlbumReviews...Trivia...  Lyrics and Artists from 1935 to the 

   present (earlier if the discussion warrants it)...  All types of 

   Music for all types of People.  It is ouRMUSIC-L.>



To join, send this command: SUB RMUSIC-L Your Name (in the BODY of the mail) 

to LISTSERV@GITVM1.BITNET . 



Then you want to buy music, preferably at a low price. One option is "The 

Compact Disc Connection". This online bookstore offers more than 80,000 CD 

records (1993) at attractive prices, have an easy-to-search database, 

accepts Mastercard/VISA, and ships all over the world. 



Access by telnet holonet.net . At the login prompt, enter CDC. Search for 

artist "Bjork" to order the Icelandic artist's "Debut" CD, or "Venus as a 

boy". My wife ordered one with Albinoni, Pachelbel, and Vivaldi classical 

music played by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. 



Send mail to Used-Music-Server@cs.ucsb.edu with 'help' in the Subject. This 

will tell you how to join a mailing list set up for those wanting to buy, 

sell, and trade CDs, LPs, and tapes. 



Ftp ftp.nevada.edu (or ftp 131.216.1.11) for tablature/chords for guitar in 

/pub/guitar. Also at ftp.uu.net . There's a Lyric/Music Server   at ftp 

ftp.uwp.edu or ftp ftp.iastate.edu (in /pub/lyrics and /pub/music). 



Wine and food

-------------

Some people would rather fill their stomachs than their ears. They call 

CompuServe for the Cooks Online forum (for gourmets) and the Wine and Beer 

Forum (for their throats). The latter even has its own "smoking" section, 

"Cigars/Pipes". 



BITNET has the mailing list "Eat" (EAT-L@VTVM2), a club for FoodLore/Recipe 

Exchange. In J-FOOD-L (J-FOOD-L@JPNKNU10 on BITNET) they discuss Japanese 

food and culture. 



You will find many food recipes on the anonymous ftp sites 

gatekeeper.dec.com (cd pub/recipes) andmthvax.cs.miami.edu (cd 

pub/recipes). 



If your interest is more academic, subscribe to FOODWINE (on 

LISTSERV@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU). It is for those seriously interested in the 

academic study of food and its accompaniments in the 1990's, including a 

variety of disciplines, such as marketing, communications, hospitality, 

consumer affairs, hotel and catering management. 



Usenet has rec.food.cooking, rec.food.recipes, rec.food.drink, 

rec.food.restaurants, and rec.food.veg for vegetarians. On FidoNet, check 

out INTERCOOK for words of wisdom on International Cooking. 



On ILINK and RelayNet, look for CUISINE. That is where we found the 

following recipe for Mexican Meatloaf: 



        2 lb Ground Beef

        1 ea Bell Pepper, Diced

   10 1/2 oz Cream Chicken Soup

       10 oz Cheddar Cheese

        4 oz Green Chilies, Diced

        1 ea Onion, Chopped

        8 oz Taco Sauce

        1 pk Tortillas

        4 oz Mushrooms (fresh optional)

        2 ea Jalapen's (to taste)



  1. Brown ground beef and drain.

  2. Mix onions, green peppers, mushrooms, green CHILIES, taco 

     sauce, jalapen's and cream chicken soup into skillet with 

     ground beef. 

  3. Simmer until vegetables are soft.

  4. Shred cheddar cheese.

  5. In crock pot or dish, layer meat mixture, cheese, and 

     tortillas; heat until cheese melts.



Bon apetit!



Outdoor life

------------

CompuServe's Great Outdoors SIG is for those preferring nature for the 

computer screen. Its sections are called: 



  General/Photography, Scouting, Power Boating, TROUT UNLIMITED, 

  Fishing, Hunting, Cycling, AUDUBON/Birding, Canoe/Kayak/Raft, 

  Camp/Hike/Walk/RV, Snow Sports/Climb, OWAA, CIS/Computers, 

  Firearms, NRA, Environmnt/Wildlife, OUTDOOR LIFE mag. 



If you dream of visiting Alaska to hunt, fish and explore the wilderness by 

canoe, then this is the place. Add the Outdoor Cooking section of the Cooks 

Online Forum to make it perfect. 



Scandinavian bulletin boards exchange the "JAKT_FRILUFT" conference 

(Through MIX). ILINK offers OUTDOORS, which focuses on outdoor hobbies. 



As usual, Usenet has a lot. These are some examples: 



  rec.aviation        Aviation rules, means, and methods.

  rec.backcountry     Activities in the Great Outdoors.

  rec.bicycles        Bicycles, related products and laws.

  rec.birds           Hobbyists interested in bird watching.

  rec.boats           Hobbyists interested in boating.

  rec.boats.paddle    Talk about any boats with oars, paddles, 

                      etc.

  rec.climbing        Climbing techniques, competition 

                      announcements, etc.



Scouts participate in SCOUTER on FidoNet (International SCOUTING 

Conference) and SCOUTS-L (SCOUTS-L@NDSUVM1) on BITNET. Golfers meet in 

GOLF-L (on LISTSERV@ubvm.bitnet). 



Photo enthusiasts will track down PHOTO-L@BUACCA.BITNET, CompuServe's 

Photography Forum and its SCUBA Forum's sections for underwater 

photography. For more, there's "Photography" on EXEC-PC and The Well, PHOTO 

on RelayNet, PHOTOSIG on ILINK and rec.photo on Usenet. 



If you're into 3-d (stereo) photography, enroll in "3d" on UUCP: 





    Contact: 3d-request@bfmny0.bfm.com (Tom Neff) 

    Purpose: Discussion of 3-D (stereo) photography. General info,

    hints, experiences, equipment, techniques, and stereo

    "happenings."  Anyone interested is welcome to join.



There are clubs for all popular outdoor hobbies.



Roots

-----

With networking capabilities, researchers can exchange information, tips 

and family records - something that hasn't always been so easy. In the days 

before personal computers and data networking, performing the necessary 

records research in far-flung libraries, courthouses and cemeteries could 

take a lifetime. Sometimes logistical barriers prevented the proper 

research from ever being carried out. 



Now a genealogy buff in Toronto or Wien can ask a favor of a comrade in 

London or Buenos Aires or Sidney to look up a record or two, check out a 

graveyard or provide some missing bit of information about local history 

and family names. Sometimes these networking hobbyists discover that they 

are related!



ROOTS-L@NDSUVM1.BITNET and soc.roots on Usenet are all about genealogy. 

Here, you'll get tips about tools and techniques. You can exchange 

information about ancestors and find new friends and partners for joint 

research. 



On CompuServe, it is called The Genealogy Forum. One message section is 

called Overseas Ancestry. Remember to check out the Family History Library, 

a newsletter bringing news from the library for genealogical research in 

Salt Lake City, U.S.A. (stored in Library 10.) 



The North American bulletin boards ROOTS-BBS (San Francisco) and THE FAMILY 

ROOTS (Oklahoma) are connected to FidoNet. 



GEnie has the Genealogy Knowledgebase. FidoNet has 



     GENDATA               Genealogy Database

     GENEALOGY:_WGW        Who's Got What (WGW) Database

     GENSOFT               Genealogy software

     SE_GENEALOGY          South Eastern US Genealogy Conference



Since FidoNet has links all over the world, these conferences can give 

contacts in countries that you might otherwise have problems in reaching. 



On most of these services, you'll find interesting genealogy programs and 

files with practical hints about how to write a book about your family. 



Him and Her

-----------

Members of the female sex have their favorite meeting places, like 

Cleopatra on Bergen By Byte. Men do not have admission. 



Usenet has soc.feminism. Those with limited access to Usenet, may subscribe 

to "feminism-digest." Send email to feminism-digest@ncar.ucar.edu to get on 

the mailing list. 



    "Contact feminism-digest@ncar.ucar.edu" above means that you 

    need to write a message to this Internet email address with a 

    subscription request, or to receive further information about

    how to join. This mailing list does not have automatic

    subscriptions.



To join the mailing list "feminists," write Patricia Collins on 

collins@hplabs.hp.com . She presents the conference's purpose in this way: 



    The feminist mailing list is intended to provide a forum 

    for discussion of issues of interest to women, in a friendly

    atmosphere. The basic tenets of feminism and the day-to-day

    experiences of women do not have to be explained or defended.  

    Men and women can join, but everyone requesting to be added to 

    the mailing list MUST provide the moderator with: (1) a full 

    name; (2) a complete UUCP path to a well-known host or a fully 

    specified Internet address; (3) the correspondent's gender (for 

    records and statistics only).  NO exceptions.



While we're at it, let's move on to other topics associated with the term 

sex: 



Bisexuals can participate in "sappho" on UUCP. Contact sappho-

request@mc.lcs.mit.edu. On BITNET, you'll find BIFEM-L (BIFEM-L@BROWNVM), 

BISEXU-L (BISEXU-L@BROWNVM) and others. 



Spanish speaking users can subscribe to ARENAL (Lista de discussion para 

hispanos/as que desean acabar con la homofobia). Subscribe by email to 

LISTSERV@LUT.FI . 



Usenet has tons of it: soc.motss, alt.politics.homosexuality, 

alt.sex.bestiality, alt.sex, alt.sex.bondage, alt.sex.pictures.d, 

clari.news.group.gays, alt.sex.pictures, alt.sex.motss, 

clari.feature.kinsey (Sex Q&A and Advice from Kinsey Institute), 

clari.news.law.crime.sex and clari.news.sex. 



Conferences called "SEXUALITY" are alive on FidoNet and The Well. 

CompuServe has a Human Sexuality Adult Forum and a Human Sexuality Open 

Forum. STOPRAPE@BROWNVM.BITNET is a Sexual Assault Activist List. 



Finally, there are a large number of pictures of nudes in all possible and 

impossible positions. Most of them are childish, some are decidedly 

pornographic, a few are beautiful and erotic. 



The online services' policies vary about what kind of pictures and picture 

programs to make available. The larger the service, the more conservative 

they tend to be. 



Programs for hobbyists

----------------------

It's no rule that a service need to have a conference about a hobby, to 

have interesting programs available for downloading. Programs float around 

from service to service much easier than conference items. Still, the best 

programs for a given hobby are normally found on services where hobbyists 

meet to discuss. 



You will find: 



    Chess and bridge programs,

    Morse code training programs for ham amateurs,

    Astrology programs,

    Database systems for keeping track of music cassettes or

      records, video cassettes, books, stamps, coins, etc.

    Information systems for wine lovers,

    Recipe programs (tell me what you've got, and I'll tell

      you what you can make), and much more.



Online shopping

---------------

You can buy almost anything online: video cameras, books, music, Bonsai 

plants, golf equipment, canned cakes from Gimmee Jimmy's Cookies, Levi's 

trousers for men, computer equipment, a four-door Nissan Pathfinder SE-V6 

car, and air tickets for Mexico. 



Shoppers who let their modem do the "walking" are already a few steps ahead 

of people Still stuck shopping the old-fashioned way. Experienced online 

shoppers know that you can tap a world of stores without ever leaving your 

keyboard, and that you can browse and buy with very little effort. 



Some services present their wares "for your information only." It's like 

reading newspaper ads. You must contact the seller to buy. Other services 

have large online supermarkets with many stores, and you can by while you 

visit. 



Subscribers to CompuServe get a monthly magazine by mail. "Go Mall 

Shoppers' Guide" is a regular insert with color photos and descriptions of 

selected products. Type GO MALL, order a product, enter your credit card 

number, and have it sent you by mail. 



What if used goods are good enough? ILINK, the international conference 

exchange system, has GARAGESALE. Here you can buy and sell for hobby or 

home: Photo, video, audio, sound/music and midi equipment, and all kinds of 

other domestic items. ILINK also has a conference called BUY-SELL. 



HAM-SALE on the FidoNet is for ham amateurs wanting to swap, by or sell. 

The American computer magazine PC Week is operating a Buyer's Forum on 

CompuServe. 



UUCP's "muscle-cars" is where "muscle car" enthusiasts offer advice, share 

problems and solutions, discuss technical issues, racing, buying or selling 

parts, cars, or services, or just discuss cars and swap stories with 

others. (Contact: muscle-cars-request@sorinc.PacBell.COM). 



Similar experiences are waiting for you in "BMW" (Write: bmw-

request@sol.crd.ge.com), "british-cars" (Write: british-cars-

request@encore.com), "italian-cars" (Write: italian-cars-

request@sol.crd.ge.com) and "Z-cars" (the topic is Z-cars from Datsun/Nissan. 

Write: rsiatl!z-car-request). 



Vintage VW (at VintageVW@rocky.er.usgs.gov) is about Vintage Volkswagens. 

This includes the Beetle, Bus (Types II and II/IV), Ghia, Squareback, 

Kubelwagen (Thing), bajas, buggies, Schwimmwagen, rails and any VW (air-

cooled) powered vehicle including aircraft. 



Beginners, gurus, mechanics and non-mechanics, restorers and daily drivers 

are welcomed. This is where you can discuss how-to stuff, parts 

availability, answer mechanical questions, list show dates, swap meets, 

club addresses, favorite stories, etc. To subscribe, send a message to 

robert@whiplash.er.usgs.gov . 



Porsche lovers meet at porschephiles. Send email to porschephiles-

requests@tta.com for information, or to join. 



Lincoln-Mercury has a 24-hour "Electronic Car Showroom" through the Electronic 

Newsstand, an electronic magazine subscription service. It is available by 

gopher or telnet to gopher.netsys.com . 



The newsletter NEWSBYTES brings you regular reports about prices on used 

computers from The Boston Computer Exchange (BOCO). The newsletter is 

available through GEnie, ZiffNet on CompuServe, NewsNet, Dialog, and 

others. 



ZiffNet also offers the Computer Directory, an online encyclopedia with 

information about more than 75,000 hardware and software products sold in 

North America (1993). The database is updated monthly. 



Planning your holidays

----------------------

CompuServe invites you to read reviews of theater performances, books, 

movies and restaurants, opera, symphonies, ballets, dance, museums and art 

galleries. They have information about airline schedules and prices, hotels 

and the latest ski weather forecast. 



Televerket's Datatorg in Norway offers air tickets and hotel reservations 

through SMART LINK, a self-serve system operated by the Norwegian travel 

agencies. Entertainment and travel are also popular on Prestel. Most 

British tour operators have an "office" there. 



Several international services, including CompuServe and Dow Jones 

News/Retrieval, offer OAG (The Official Airline Guide) and Eaasy Sabre (the 

American Airlines reservation system). 



Worldscan/Travel shopper is on CompuServe and Delphi. The Travel Forum on 

CompuServe administers a member travel discount program. Download HOTEL.SAV 

in Library 0 for information about lower rates on hotel room and car-rental 

rates. 



It's often possible to book hotel rooms and rent cars online. Travelshopper 

has a built-in hotel guide, searchable by city around the world. OAG has a 

database of over 40,000 hotels worldwide (1992). It has the AA Rated 

European Hotels & Restaurants menu, which covers trips from Andorra to 

Yugoslavia. Accu-Weather provides three-day weather forecasts for 450 

cities worldwide, updated hourly. 



Travel agents are also operative through the Internet. One alternative is 

at TRAVEL@delphi.com . 



The Central Intelligence Agency-produced World Factbook provides 

information about geography, people, government, economy, communications 

and defense of countries around the world. The full text is available by 

gopher wiretap.spies.com / electronic books / cia world factbook . Also 

available by telnet to lib.dartmouth.edu. A current version can be 

retrieved by anonymous ftp from the etext directories of 

mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (Project Gutenberg). 



Is this your first visit to Japan? Why not prepare your visit through the 

online service TWICS in Tokyo. It presents itself like this: 



  "Japan is an island nation, full of communities in villages, 

  towns, and cities squeezed in between the mountains and the sea, 

  with ports of various sizes and shapes through which communication 

  flows between communities. 



  Our own online community is organized in the same terms, an 

  island community "BEEJIMA" (Bee Island), with our village 

  ("MURA"), a port ("MINATO"), and our very own volcanic mountain 

  ("YAMA"). 



  In the village, there is a village office ("YAKUBA"), a community 

  meeting place ("YORIAI"), a high-tech corner ("AKIHABARA") named 

  after the famous electronics district in Tokyo, a health center 

  ("EMEDICA"), a place to hang around and read things ("HON YA"), a 

  school ("GAKKOU"), and a market ("ICHIBA"). The port has holding 

  areas and leads to other parts of Japan ("NIPPON") and the world 

  ("SEKAI").  The mountain has a hot springs ("ONSEN") recreational 

  area, and a lively outdoor bath ("IN THE OFURO") which has become 

  the social center of our island. 



Add to this soc.culture.japan on Usenet, the BITNET discussion list 

JAPAN@NDSUVM1, the Japan Forum on CompuServe, and "JAPAN" on RelayNet. 



BITNET club TRAVEL-L (TRAVEL-L@TREARN) for those interested in tourism. 

ILINK and The Well have conferences under the name TRAVEL. 



Many conferences in online land concentrate on particular parts of the 

world. BALT-L@UBVM.BITNET is focusing on the Baltic states. In AFRICA-

L@BRUFPB.BITNET they discuss Africa. On Usenet, the news group is called 

soc.culture.african. 



To brush up your Portuguese, consider joining BRAS-NET, It is a Brazilian 

mailing list/network. Send your subscription request to bras-net-

request@cs.ucla.edu . For general information about other Brazilian 

interest groups, write LISTSERV@FAPQ.FAPESP.BR . 



For those into Spanish, why not check out CHILE-L (at 

LISTSERV@USACHVM1.BITNET), or FOLLAC, a mailing list about 'Folklore 

Latino, Latinoamericano y Caribeno'. To join, write Emily Socolov at owner-

follac@ccwf.cc.texas.edu . 



Here are some other African sources: the French language Algeria News List 

(ALGNEWS) is on LISTSERV@gwuvm.gwu.edu. TUNISNET (on 

LISTSERV@psuvm.psu.edu) is The Tunisia Network. EGYPT-NET (write: egypt-

net-request@das.harvard.edu) is the Egypt Discussion and News forum. 



Send mail to mcgee@epsilon.eecs.nwu.edu to get a list of Internet/Bitnet 

mailing lists that focus on African, African-American, African-Caribbean or 

African-Latin issues, and a list of African information sites. 



In the soc.culture hierarchy on Usenet, you'll find area codes like asian, 

african, arabic, asean, australian, bangladesh, british, canada, china, 

celtic, europe, filipino, french, german, greek, hongkong, indian, iranian, 

italian, jewish, korean, latin-american, lebanon, magyar, nepal, new-

zealand, nordic, pakistan, polish, soviet, spain, sri-lanka, taiwan, thai, 

turkish, vietnamese and yugoslavia. 



In "argentina," you can read about how to make empanadas while sharpening 

up your Spanish before visiting Buenos Aires. (Contact: argentina-

request@ois.db.toronto.edu). 



CompuServe's Travel Forum has sections called United States, Canada, 

Mexico/Central America, Caribbean, South America, Oceania, Asia, Europe, 

Africa/Middle East and Hawaii. 



If you're off to London, check out the UK Travel section in CompuServe's UK 

Computing Forum. Its library contains files with tips about affordable 

hotels, British road signs, and a list of London theatre shows with ticket-

buying tips. 



Also, visit Travel Britain Online, a database of festivals, concerts, 

theater and sporting events, London-only events, a listing of London pubs 

and clubs, and the latest news from the British Tourist Authority. 



If your destination is Germany, practice Deutsch in the Deutsches Forum (GO 

GERNET). 



Search for additional background information using CompuServe's Magazine 

Database Plus, if you don't mind paying a wee surcharge. Look up places to 

stay in the ABC Worldwide Hotel Listing. 



On America Online, you can research National Geographic and National 

Geographic Traveler Magazines online. You can look up your destination in 

the electronic Comptons Encyclopedia. 



GEnie has a Japan RoundTable and a Deutschland RoundTable. Both provide for 

interaction with users from those respective countries. 



If you are responsible for your company's business travels, check out the 

following newsletters on NewsNet: BUSINESS TRAVEL NEWS, and TOUR & TRAVEL 

NEWS. (You can also search NewsNet's newsletters through CompuServe's 

IQuest, Dialog, and others). 



NewsNet has searchable newsletters focusing on the conditions in particular 

countries or parts of the world (news, travel and political risk analysis, 

political stability, etc.). 



There is a Travel Information Library  at ftp ccu.umanitoba.ca (or ftp 

130.179.16.8). It offers travelogues, guides, FAQs.  Cd to the directory: 

/pub/rec-travel . 



If you want to learn more about indigenous, native, or aboriginal people, 

culture, and issues, check out the conferences and pointers in the file 

pub/amcgee/indigenous/my_indigenous_related_lists . It is available by 

anonymous ftp from ftp.netcom.com . 



For African, African-American, African-Caribbean or African-Latin people, 

culture, and issues, ftp to the same host, and request the file 

pub/amcgee/african/my_african_related_lists . 



Politics

--------

Many of these conferences and forums are filled to the brim with political 

discussions. For information about the United Nations, subscribe to UN (on 

LISTSERV@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU). 







Chapter 5: Home, education and work

===================================



House, garden and finances

--------------------------

FidoNet has a long list of interesting conferences:



    HOME-N-GRDN           Home and Garden Questions 

    HOMEAUT               Home Automation

    HOMESCHL              Homeschooling support

    HOME_IMP              Improvements around the house.

    HOME_OFFICE           Home Office 

    HOME_REPAIR           Home Repair and Remodelling 

    ZYMURGY               Beer Homebrewing



The EXEC-PC BBS has "Home Repair." The FUTUREHOME TECHNOLOGY NEWS 

newsletter is available through NewsNet. On ILINK, you will find the 

HOMEGARDEN conference. Usenet has misc.consumers.house . Here they discuss 

anything related to owning and maintaining a house. On the Well, check out 

"Homeowners." 



In Ziff-Davis' Magazine Database Plus you can search and read articles from 

the Good Housekeeping Magazine. This full-text article database is  

available from CompuServe and other services. Through UUCP you can get to 

the conference "Antiques" (Contact: antiques-request@swbatl.sbc.com). 



CompuServe also has the Gardening Forum. It is operated by the National 

Gardening Association, which publishes National Gardening magazine. 



The various services' software libraries contain many great shareware and 

public domain programs. You can download software that will help you 

prepare tax return forms, plan next year's taxes, calculate interests and 

down-payments on your loans. You'll find double-entry money-managing 

systems for non-accountants that will help you with personal bookkeeping 

and checkbook balancing. 



Other programs will help you plan and maintain your house. There are 

personal inventory programs (to help you keep track of belongings), and 

programs that can help you plan allocation of the space in your home. . . 



Join CompuServe's Investors Forum to learn how to play the stock and money 

markets, and other moneymaking 'instruments'. Discuss investment techniques 

with others, read reports about economical trends, and retrieve useful 

programs for your personal computer. 



RelayNet offers the international conference INVESTOR. Usenet has 

misc.invest . 



If you want to adopt a child, check out ADOPTION on FidoNet, or subscribe to 

a UUCP conference of the same name. For access, write adoption-

request@think.com . The National Issues Forum on CompuServe has a message 

section called "Adoption Today." 



Addicted TV-viewers may be interested in alt.tv.twin-peaks or 

alt.tv.muppets on Usenet.  "Mystery" on FidoNet and UUCP is for those 

preferring mystery novels by the fire place in the living room. 



There are even offerings for "the perfect house wife." I can think of no 

better pastime than origami, the traditional Japanese art of folding paper. 

(Contact: origami-request@cs.utexas.edu on UUCP). 



Oh, I almost forgot: The BONSAI conference is on LISTSERV@CMS.CC.WAYNE.EDU. 

This is where to discuss the art and craft of Bonsai and related art forms. 

Bonsai is the Oriental Art of miniaturizing trees and plants into forms 

that mimic nature.  



On Usenet, try rec.arts.bonsai . A FAQ is also available. 



Education, teaching and the exchange of knowledge

-------------------------------------------------

The list of conferences, forums, clubs, and other services focusing on 

education -  in its broadest meaning of the word - is long. 



You are offered online courses, workshops, and seminars for students of all 

ages, databases to help you select a school for yourself or your kids, and 

all kinds of discussion forums for educators. 



Usenet, BITNET, Internet, and UUCP have long traditions in education. 

You'll find offerings for teachers within all subject areas, from finance 

and accounting, through history, languages and geography to technical 

subjects on all levels. 



Two guides listing forums of interest to Educators can be retrieved by 

anonymous FTP from the pub/ednet directory at nic.umass.edu . Use the 

following commands (see "FTP by email" at the end of Chapter 12): 



      get educatrs.lst

      get edusenet.gde



KIDSPHERE (subscribe through JOINKIDS@vms.cis.pitt.edu) is a discussion 

forum for teachers of students from the age of kindergarten through high 

school and higher. 



This is a selection of other BITNET discussion lists to suggest the span of 

topics: 





    CHEMED-L (CHEMED-L@UWF)      Chemistry Education Discussion

    CHRONICL (CHRONICL@USCVM)    On-Line Chronicle of Higher Ed

    CIVIL-L  (CIVIL-L@UNBVM1)    Civil Engineering Research & Ed.

    COMLAW-L (COMLAW-L@UALTAVM)  Computers and Legal Education

    DRUGABUS (DRUGABUS@UMAB)     Drug Abuse Education Information 

    JOURNET  (JOURNET@QUCDN)     Discussion List for Journalism Ed

    MEDIA-L  (MEDIA-L@BINGVMB)   Media in Education

    MULTI-L  (MULTI-L@BARILVM)   Language and Education in Multi-

                                 Lingual Settings

    MUSIC-ED (MUSIC-ED@UMINN1)   MUSIC-ED Music Education

    PANET-L  (PANET-L@YALEVM)    Medical Education and Health Info

    TAG-L    (TAG-L@NDSUVM1)     TAG-L Talented and Gifted Ed

    WORLD-L  (WORLD-L@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU)

                                 Non-Eurocentric World History



Here are some Usenet conferences:



    comp.edu        Computer science education

    sci.edu         The science of education

    comp.ai.edu     Applications of Artificial Intelligence to 

                    Education



There are many similar offerings on the commercial services and free 

bulletin boards. 



K12Net is a decentralized network for schools available on FidoNet and 

Usenet. Write janet.murray@f23.n105.z1.fidonet.org for information. 

    FidoNet also has



     A_THEIST     A_Theism Education and Enlightenment

     HIGH_ED      Education, Post Secondary

     HISTORY      International History 

     MAC_GAMES    Macintosh Entertainment & Education



CompuServe has 12 forums focusing on education. Among these you'll find the 

Disabilities Forum, Computer Training Forum, Education Forum, Education 

Research forum, Science/Math Educational Forum, Foreign Language Forum, 

LOGO and Students Forum. 



The Foreign Language Forum has the sections Potpourri/Polyglot, 

Spanish/Portuguese, French, German/Germanic, Latin/Greek, Slavic/E. 

European, English, East Asian, Esperanto, Others, FL Education, 

Translators, Computers/CAI-CALL, The Directory, Jobs/Careers, New Uploads 

and Using the Forum. 



Ken and Carrie Loss-Cutler are coordinating the section for Home/Alternative 

Education in CompuServe's Education Forum. They educate their two children 

at home instead of sending them to a public school. 



The home-ed mailing list is for the discussion on all aspects of home 

education. Contact: home-ed-request@think.com . 



The University of Phoenix, U.S.A., offers accredited degrees, master's and 

bachelor's, in business and management through courses conducted online. 

(GO UP on CompuServe.) 



If you're into reading/writing the African language Kiswahili (Swahili), 

write kuntz@macc.wisc.edu to get onto the SWAHILI-L mailing list. 



The more occupational oriented forums include Communications Industry 

Forum, Environmental Forum, Firenet (for volunteer fire brigades), 

Industrial Hygiene Forum, AAMSI Medical Forum, ASCMD Forum, HealthNet, OP-

Net Forum, the MICRO MD Network, Legal SIG, Aviation SIG, CB Society and 

CEMSIG (computers and electronics). 



Bergen By Byte has the Norwegian language conference Schools. This 

conference is for validated users only. 



  | There are many private conferences in the online world. All  |

  | conferences referred to in this book are open for anybody to |

  | join, unless explicitly told to be private.                  |



RelayNet has EDUCATION. NewsNet offers the newsletters EDUCATION DAILY, and 

the HELLER REPORT ON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY. 



Many online services (including schools and universities) offer students 

accredited courses by modem. Connected Education at the New School for 

Social Research in the United States is one example, as is the University 

of Phoenix in Arizona. (Ask in CompuServe's Education Forum for more 

information.) 



The EDUPAGE newsletter is a twice-weekly summary of news items on 

information technology, provided by a consortium of colleges and 

universities "seeking to transform education through the use of information 

technology." Compact and informative. I like it. 



Subscribe by email to LISTPROC@EDUCOM.EDU . Use the following text: SUB 

EDUPAGE yourfirstname yourlastname. Back issues of Edupage are available by 

WAIS, Gopher, and anonymous ftp from educom.edu. For information about Spanish 

and Portuguese translations, write edunews@nc-rj.rnp.br . 



INFOBITS (at listserv@gibbs.oit.unc.edu) is a monthly service reporting from 

a number of information and instruction technology sources. 



The Internet Resource Directory for Educators is available by anonymous FTP 

from tcet.unt.edu in the pub/telecomputing-info/IRD subdirectory. File 

names include: 



    IRD-telnet-sites.txt          (226KB ASCII text)

    IRD-ftp-archives.txt          ( 73KB)

    IRD-listservs.txt             (201KB)

    IRD-infusion-ideas.txt        (202KB)



Example: KIDLINK

----------------

Many parents and teachers regard the online world as a learning opportunity 

for their kids. Some of them turn to KIDLINK, a global service for children 

between 10 - 15 years of age. The service is operated by a grassroots 

network of volunteers. 



The objective is to get as many children as possible involved in a global 

dialog. 



Participation is free. Before joining the discussion, however, each child 

must respond to the following four questions: 



    1. Who am I?

    2. What do I want to be when I grow up?

    3. How do I want the world to be better when I grow up?

    4. What can I do Now to make this come true?



The kids can write in any language. Most answers are sent through the 

Internet to a large online database in North America. Anyone with an email 

connection to the Internet can search this database at will. 



When they have submitted their responses, they are invited to 'meet' the 

others in several KIDCAFEs. The cafes are split up by language. Here, they 

can discuss anything from pop music to how it is to live in other 

countries. 



KIDLINK grew from an idea in 1990 to over 20,000 participating children in 

59 countries by January 1993. 



Schools all over the globe are integrating KIDLINK with their classes in 

languages, geography, history, environment, art, etc. To the kid 

participant, KIDCAFE may be the beginning of a personal network of 

international friends. 



For more information, send mail to LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU with the 

following command in the TEXT of your message: 



    GET KIDLINK GENERAL





Your personal network

---------------------

Network is a word with many meanings. It can be a system set up to 

transport data from one computer to another. It can be an online service 

with many conferences, and a friendly connection between people (like in 

"old boys' network"). Here, we use it in the latter meaning of the word. 



We use our personal networks more than most of us think of. We have a chain 

of people that we call on to ask for advice, help, and who we invite to 

participate in projects or parties. When they ask us for assistance, we 

lend a hand. 



The online world has some interesting characteristics. One is that most 

participants in online conferences already have received so much help from 

others that they feel obliged to pay back. They do this by helping others. 



Those who help, know that helping others will be rewarded. The reward, 

however, may not come directly from the persons that they help. They 

contributions help maintain and develop the online world as one giant 

personal network. 



A typical example: I wanted to buy a 425 megabyte hard disk for my Toshiba 

5100 personal computer. I discover the existence of such a drive, when a 

user told about his experiences in CompuServe's Toshiba Forum. Before 

placing an order, I wrote to check if he was still satisfied with the disk. 



The happy user did more than reply. He told about other sellers and offered 

to help out with return shipment of my computer when done. He made it clear 

that he had no financial interest in the companies selling the upgrade. We 

had no previous contact with each other. 



The online world is full of similar examples. The list of what people do to 

help others is very, very long. 



In most conferences and forums you get help, just like that. There is always 

someone prepared to help. 



Still, the best long range strategy to build chances of getting help when 

you need it, is to be visually present in conferences, that matter to you. 

'Being visually present' means that you should contribute in the 

discussions and help others as much as you can. The   p o s i t i v e    

contributors get a lot of friends and a disproportional amount of help from 

others. 



For example, you may contribute by telling others about what you find once 

you find it. Keep that up over a stream of weeks or months and you'll start 

to find people sending you things, quite new or interesting, and quite 

unprovoked. 



That is all it takes to build a personal network. One day you may need it. 

It will give you an incredible advantage. I have seen people get jobs, 

partners and clients through such contacts. The online world is full of 

opportunities. 



Watch your words

----------------

Written communications are deprived of the body language and tone of voice 

that convey so much in face-to-face meetings and even in telephone 

conversations. Therefore, it makes sense to work much harder to build in 

humor, sarcasm, or disagreement and avoid your words come across as 

stupidity, rudeness, or aggressiveness. 



One way of defusing misunderstanding is to include cues as to your 

emotional state. One popular technique is to use keyboard symbols like :-). 

We call these symbols emoticons (Emotional icons. Pictorial representations 

of the emotions of the moment). 



What :-) means? Tilt your head to the left and look again. Yes, it's a 

smiling face. 



Here are some other examples to challenge your imagination: ;-) (Winking 

Smiley), :-( (Sad), 8-) (User wears glasses), :-o (Shocked or surprised), 

and :-> (Hey hey). 



A bracketed <g> is shorthand for grin, and <g,d&r> means grinning, ducking, 

and running. Some people prefer to write their emotional state in full 

text, like in these two examples: *grin* and *smile*. 



Do not misunderstand. You still should not allow yourself to write the most 

appallingly insulting things to other people, and then try to shrug it off 

with a <smile>. 



Watch your words. They are so easy to store on a hard disk. 



Religion and philosophy

-----------------------

CompuServe's Religion Forum (GO RELIGION) has many message sections with 

associated file libraries. You can get into serious discussion about topics 

ranging from Christianity, Judaism, Eastern Religions, Islam, Interfaith 

Dialog, Limbo, Pagan/Occult, to Religion and Science, Liturgical Churches, 

Mormonism, Ethics and Values, and more. You may also want to check out the 

New Age Forum. 



Usenet's offerings include these: 



  soc.culture.jewish      Jewish culture & religion. 

  soc.religion.christian  Christianity and related topics. 

  soc.religion.eastern    Discussions of Eastern religions.

  soc.religion.islam      Discussions of the Islamic faith.

  talk.religion.misc      Religious, ethical, & moral implications.

  talk.religion.newage    Esoteric and minority religions & 

                          philosophies.

  alt.pagan               Discussions about paganism & religion.

  alt.religion.computers  People who believe computing is 

                          "real life."

  clari.news.religion     Religion, religious leaders, 

                          televangelists.



The BITNET/Internet arena has The Islamic Information & News Net on MUSLIMS 

(available through LISTSERV@ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU). ISLAM-L (on 

LISTSERV@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU) is a non-sectarian forum for discussion, 

debate, and the exchange of information by students and scholars of the 

history of Islam. 



BUDDHA-L (on LISTSERV@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU) provides a means for those 

interested in Buddhist Studies to exchange information and views.  BUDDHIST 

(on LISTSERV@JPNTUVM0.BITNET) is for non-academic discussions. 



BAPTIST (LISTSERV@UKCC.UKY.EDU) is the Open Baptist Discussion List. 

THEOLOGY (contact U16481%UICVM.BITNET@VM1.NODAK.EDU) is a mailing list 

dedicated to the intellectual discussion of religion. In its self-

presentation, it says: 



    Intellectual is stressed as opposed to the "personal," the 

    inspirational, or evangelistic.  This does not mean one cannot 

    evangelize, but rather that participants should persuade rather 

    than brow-beat or attack those they disagree with.  Arguments 

    are inevitable, but they ultimately should resolve into mutual 

    understanding or at least a truce. 



Pagan (Contact: pagan-request@drycas.club.cc.cmu.edu) is set up to discuss 

the religions and philosophies of paganism. BELIEF-L (on 

LISTSERV@BROWNVM.BITNET) is designed to be a forum where personal 

ideologies can be discussed, examined, and analyzed.  



The discussion list PHILCOMM@RPITSVM.BITNET is where you debate the 

philosophy of communication. PHILOSOP@YORKVM1.BITNET is the Philosophy 

Discussion Forum. 



Several sacred texts and primary texts of religious interest are available 

by anonymous FTP or LISTSERV. The Bible, the Book of Mormon and the Koran 

(also spelled Quran) are available at many sites and in a variety of file 

formats. 



The Bible (King James Version) is available as bible10.zip and bible10.txt 

via FTP to mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (128.174.201.12) in the /etext/etext92/ 

directory. You can also get it from /pub/Library/Religion/Bible directory 

at ocf.berkeley.edu .



M.H. Shakir's translation of the Koran is available as 114 individual ASCII 

text chapters via FTP to quake.think.com (192.31.181.1) in the 

/pub/etext/koran/ directory. 



A short file containing quotes from the Koran is available via LISTSERV 

from LISTSERV@asuacad as PAKISTAN AL_QURAN. 



A collection of Sanskrit texts is available via FTP to ftp.bcc.ac.uk in the 

/pub/users/ucgadkw/indology/ directory. 



You may use the Archie service (see Appendix 6) to find other religious 

texts that are also available through the Internet. On FidoNet, check out 

JVArcServ. 



Job-hunting by modem 

--------------------

Unemployment is a global problem, and losing a job is often a bad 

experience. If this ever should happen to you, consider checking out the 

BITNET discussion list LAIDOFF@ARIZVM1 - "So, you've been laidoff?" 



Maybe you already have a job, but are constantly searching for something 

better. 



There are many forums and conferences devoted to help you get a new job. 

FidoNet has the JOBS conference, for those not in a hurry, and JOBS-NOW 

(Job & Employment offerings/listings) for those who have no more time to 

wait. 



On Bergen By Byte, it is called 'Job_market', and on ILINK CAREER. In many 

countries there are local bulletin boards operated by public employment 

agencies. 



On Televerket's Datatorg (Norway), you can browse jobs from the following 

menu (translated): 





            VACANT JOBS



           Select desired profession         Number

           01 Technical, natural sciences    ( 182)

           02 Education, etc.                ( 601)

           03 Media,art                      (  58)

           04 Medicine, health care, etc.    ( 951)

           05 Social care                    ( 307)

           06 Adm.,management, organization  ( 348)

           07 Finance,computers              ( 100)

           08 Secretarial, office work       ( 138)

           09 Sale,purchasing, advertising   ( 576)

           10 Agriculture,forestry,fishing   (  56)

           11 Oil and gas, mining            (  38)

           12 Transport,communication        (  68)

           13 Workshop,fine mechanics,electro( 126)

           14 craft,building and construction(  93)

           15 Industry,ware-house,mechan.    (  68)

           16 Hotel,restaurant,domestic work ( 133)

           17 Service,surveillance,safety    ( 170)



If your potential employers have an email address, you can send dozens of 

job resumes - while going for a cup of coffee! 



WORK-AT-HOME on FidoNet is for those planning to start their own business 

("Take this job and shove it! I'll work at home!") GEnie has the Home 

Office Small Business forum (HOSB). 



CompuServe has the Working-From-Home Forum under the sysopship of online 

gurus Paul and Sarah Edwards. Home-based business people gather here 

informally to offer contacts and political clout. The file library contains 

back issues of the electronic magazine "Making It on Your Own." In Library 

2, you'll find the IDEAS.BIZ file, a list of 101 home-based businesses you 

can operate with the aid of a computer. 



Home based business opportunities may exist within areas such as desktop 

publishing, desktop video, high-tech equipment repair, import and export 

management, and professional practice management. Learn from others in 

forums or conferences on related topics. 



For some, one of the biggest challenges of being out of work is that they 

have lost that day-to-day contact with the people in their industry. The 

online world is an excellent way to stay in touch. Whatever your industry, 

there are places online to hang out, learn the latest development and stay 

connected.



Also, being a member of an online forum does not mean that you're overtly 

looking for a job - an activity that your current employer may not 

appreciate - but you have put yourself out there to be discovered. The 

discovered candidate is always more interesting than one who sends his 

resume out along with 300 other applicants' resumes. 



The good news is that many organizations are also having problems finding 

qualified candidates for their vacant positions, and that some of them are 

turning to the online world for help. One of them did it like this (from an 

online announcement): 



        Because it is difficult to locate qualified candidates for 

   positions in special libraries and information centers, and to 

   assist special librarians and information specialists to locate 

   positions, the student chapter of the Special Libraries 

   Association at Indiana University has formed a LISTSERV, SLAJOB, 

   in connection with the Indiana Center for Database Systems. 

        The LISTSERV, which is available on both the Internet and 

   Bitnet, will help special libraries and information centers in 

   the sciences, industry, the arts and within public and academic 

   libraries to have a central location for announcing special 

   library and information science positions. 

        The LISTSERV is available to individuals or organizations 

   that have an Internet or Bitnet network connection.  For those 

   on the network, subscribe by sending an email message to: 



   "LISTSERV@iubvm.bitnet" or "LISTSERV@iubvm.ucs.indiana.edu". 

   Leave the subject line blank and then type the following in the 

   message of the text: 



   subscribe SLAJOB [firstname]  [lastname]



The Israelis have the mailing list CJI, Computer Jobs in Israel. Send mail 

to LISTSERV@JERUSALEM1.DATASRV.CO.IL with the usual "SUB CJI Your-Full-

Name" in the text of your message. This will give you monthly updated lists 

of open computer jobs. 



When you get tired of hunting for a job, lean back and relax with HUMOR at 

LISTSERV@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU. This mailing list distributes humor of all types, 

topics and tastes.  To subscribe, send the following command to the 

LISTSERV: 



   SUB HUMOR [firstname]  [lastname]



Enjoy!





Chapter 6: Your personal HealthNet

==================================



Health is a concern in most families. Where a family member or a friend is 

suffering from cancer, AIDS, a serious disability, or a rare disease, 

finding help is imperative. 



Fortunately, there are many sources of information for those who want to 

know more. 



There are clubs and forums, where you can meet others with the same disease 

or problem open 24 hours a day. Those who cannot sleep at night, can log in 

any time to "talk" with others. 



Another reward of participating in forums is that members begin to feel 

part of a community. And, as in communities everywhere, people share the 

good times as well as the not-so-good times. Many online communities have 

pulled together during crises, sharing the grief caused by the death of a 

fellow forum member, a loved one of a member or, occasionally, a celebrity. 



The social aspect of joining a club is important. However, it may be 

equally important to learn from other people's experiences with alternative 

treatment methods, doctors, medicines, and to get other practical advice. 



Here are some examples to illustrate the width of the offering: 



AIDS

----

You may start with "The Fog City Online Information Service" in San 

Francisco, the world's largest bulletin board of AIDS information. The cost 

of using this BBS from afar may be reduced considerably by using i-Com or 

similar data transport services (see chapter 13). 



CompuServe has a Human Sexuality Forum and a MEDSig with associated file 

libraries. It also has a surcharged ZiffNet database with full-text 

articles about health topics (Health Database Plus). On the Well, enter "g 

aids". 



NewsNet has the newsletters "AIDS Weekly" and "AIDS Therapies." The latter 

is a directory, updated monthly, with descriptions of standard and 

experimental treatments for AIDS, along with a guide to treatments for the 

opportunistic infections (OI) of AIDS. It incorporates all existing and 

potential new AIDS treatments in one place. 



On BITNET, check out "AIDS/HIV News" (AIDSNEWS@EB0UB011) and the mailing 

list on AIDS@EB0UB011. 



Usenet has sci.med.aids (AIDS: treatment, pathology/biology of HIV, 

prevention), bionet.molbio.hiv, clari.tw.health.aids (AIDS stories, 

research, political issues), and bit.listserv.aidsnews. 



If you do not have access to Usenet, send a message to aids-

request@cs.ucla.edu for articles from AIDSNEWS, statistics and news 

summaries. 



Aids-stat-request@wubios.wustl.edu is another source of current AIDS 

statistics. Send a request to info-aids@rainbow.UUCP. It is  a 

clearinghouse of information, and discussion about alternative treatment 

methods, political implications, and more. 



Telnet to debra.dgbt.doc.ca (or telnet 142.92.36.15) for interactive AIDS 

documentation (simulated conversation). Login: chat . 



There is also a FAQ document about AIDS (see appendix 6). 



Example: Kidney disease

-----------------------

In chapter 1, I told you that my wife has a rare disease called Polycystic 

Kidneys. Here are more details about what happened during the "online 

health trip" to CompuServe with her doctor: 



The command "GO HEALTH" gave the following menu:



    1 HealthNet

    2 Human Sexuality

    3 Consumer Health

    4 NORD Services/Rare Disease

       Database

    5 PaperChase (MEDLINE)

    6 Information USA/Health

    7 Handicapped User's Database

    8 Disabilities Forum

    9 Aids Information

   10 Cancer Forum



Another menu, which listed available "PROFESSIONAL FORUMS," had choices 

like AAMSI Medical Forum and Health Forum. Besides visiting these, we 

searched several medical databases. 



Menu selection five gave us The National Library of Medicine's database 

(MEDLINE), which is full of references to biomedical literature. 



This database had more than five million references to articles from 4.000 

magazines from 1966 and up to date, when we searched it in 1991. It 

increases by some 25.000 new references per month. Easy navigation by 

menus. Easy to search. 



If you have no medical training, however, you could find it difficult to 

understand the information you retrieve from MEDLINE. Instead, consider 

using a database offering consumer health information, such as HealthNet or 

Health Database Plus on CompuServe. 



The AAMSI Medical Forum (MedSIG) is sponsored by The American Association 

for Medical Systems and Informatics (AAMSI). It is a forum for 

professionals within health care, people within associated technical 

fields, and ordinary CompuServe users. The members meet to find, develop 

and swap information. 



MedSIG has a library full of programs and information files. This is an 

example of what you can find there: 



    ATLAS.ARC          21-Sep-88 30161              



    Keywords: STEREOTAXIC STEREOTACTIC STEREOTAXIS ATLAS THALAMOTOMY 

    MAP FUNCTIONAL GIF

    

    This contains several of the most useful stereotaxic maps from 

    the Schaltenbrand and Wahren Atlas in GIF format.  If you can 

    get GIF into your CAD or drawing program, you can scale the maps 

    to fit your individualized patient's AC-PC distance, thereby 

    generating a customized map for your patient.

    

CompuServe has many programs for reading GIF files, and converting GIF 

files to other graphical formats. 



Through IQuest, we searched medical databases. Simple menus helped define 

relevant search terms. When done, IQuest searched selected databases for 

us, and presented the selected articles on our local computer screen. 



We used the search mode "SmartScan" in the area "Medical research." IQuest 

searched several databases with a minimum of manual intervention. 



First, it told us that the following databases would be included in the 

search: 



BRS databases:

  Ageline - Contains  references to and abstracts of materials on 

    aging and the elderly.  Covers psychological, medical, economic, 

    and political concerns.

  AIDS Database -  Includes critically selected articles covering 

    all aspects of AIDS, (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), and

    AIDS-related research.

  AIDS Knowledge Base - Provides an online textbook of the most 

    current information on AIDS available from San Francisco General  

    Hospital. 

  Combined Health Information Database  -  For professionals, 

    patients, and the general public, CHID contains references to a 

    variety of materials on arthritis, diabetes, health education,  

    digestive diseases, and high blood pressure. Provides abstracts.

  Embase - Includes extensive abstracts of articles related to 

    biomedicine from medical journals worldwide. About 40% of the 

    references are online only. 

  Rehabdata  -  Covers articles, books, reports, and audiovisual 

    materials dealing with the rehabilitation of the physically and  

    mentally handicapped.  References only.

  Sport Database - Indexes publications dealing with sports, 

    including training, medicine, education, and history. Drawn 

    mostly from English and French with technical articles from 

    other languages. 



Dialog databases:

  BioBusiness - Deals with the business aspects of biotechnology and 

    biomedical research. Draws from BIOSIS and MANAGEMENT CONTENTS.

  BIOSIS    Previews  -  Provides international coverage of all 

    aspects of biological science. 

  Cancerlit  - Monitors articles from journals and other technical 

    publications dealing with all aspects of cancer research 

    throughout the world.  Includes abstracts.

  Clinical Abstracts - Covers human clinical study articles of major 

    importance selected from leading medical journals. Includes all 

    aspects of clinical medicine.  Corresponds to Abstracts in 

    Internal Medicine. Abstracts available.

  Life Sciences Collection - Abstracts technical literature in the 

    life sciences from journals and other scientific publications 

    worldwide. 

  Medline (1966 - to date)  - Indexes articles from medical journals 

    published worldwide. Corresponds to Index Medicus, International 

    Nursing Index and Index to Dental Literature. Includes abstracts 

    in roughly 40% of the records.

  SciSearch  -  Monitors worldwide literature across a wide range of 

    scientific and technological disciplines.  Produced by the 

    Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). 



Then we entered our search term: "LIVER AND CYST/". The search word "CYST/" 

signified that "cyst" should match any words starting with these four 

characters. 



While searching, IQuest gave the following progress report:



  Scanning BRS databases.



  Accessing Network...........Completed.

  Accessing Database Host.....Completed.

  Logging on..................Completed.

  Logging on (second step)....Completed.

  Selecting Databases.........Completed.



  Each period equals one line

  of scanned data.  This may take

  several minutes................................



It continued in the same way with a "Scanning Dialog databases." 



When the search results were presented, we glanced quickly at the article 

abstracts, ordered two articles to be sent us by mail and typed BYE. 



CompuServe reported "Off at 09:12 EST 17-Nov-88 Connect time = 0:35." The 

two articles arrived Norway by mail a few weeks later. 



The whole trip, including visits in medical forums, took 35 minutes. The 

cost, including local telephone and network charges, was US$95. Of this 

total cost, the extra cost of searching through IQuest amounted to 

US$54.00 (1988). We all felt that the costs were well justified. 



  | A note about the costs: The online tour was done manually,  |

  | using full menus. We discussed our search strategy while    |

  | connected, which is more expensive than logging off to plan |

  | the next moves. Also, note that the extra cost of searching |

  | IQuest ($54) was not time dependent.                        |



Right now? I have promised to donate one kidney to my wife when the 

time comes. This has prompted me (1993) to join a mailing list for 

"Organ transplant recipients and anyone else interested in the 

issues" (TRNSPLNT@WUVMD.BITNET). 



Cancer

------

FidoNet has the forum CARCINOMA (Cancer Survivors). BITNET has the 

discussion lists CANCER-L@WVNVM and CLAN (Cancer Liaison and Action Network 

on CLAN@FRMOP11). CompuServe has a Cancer Forum. NewsNet offers the 

newsletter CANCER RESEARCHER WEEKLY. 



In September 1992, the following message was posted on CANCER-L by a member 

from Brazil: 



  "A close friend was just diagnosed with acute leukemia of a type 

  called calapositive pre-B linphoplastic. It is supposedly an 

  early diagnosis since he is not anemic. We are very shocked but 

  he is reacting quite bravely and all he wants is to have access 

  to literature on his condition. Are there any new genetic 

  engineering developments effectively clinically available? What 

  is the present state of knowledge regarding this specific form of 

  leukemia? 



  He was diagnosed three hours ago, is 48 yrs old, and will start 

  chemotherapy tomorrow. He was informed that chemotherapy is quite 

  effective in this type of leukemia. But we wonder if there isn't 

  a possibility to use gene therapy. 



  Any help will be greatly appreciated. - Dora."



There were several helpful replies. This came from a member in the United 

States: 



  "In response to the request for information on treatment for 

  leukemia, I recommend that you access CancerNet, the National 

  Cancer Institute's mail server on the Internet which provides 

  current information on treatment for leukemia. To request the 

  Contents List and Instructions, send a mail message to 



   cancernet@icicb.nci.nih.gov (Internet address)

   cancernet%icicb.nci.nih.gov@nihcu ( BITNET)



  Leave the subject line blank, and in the body of the mail 

  message, enter "HELP".  When you receive the Contents list, 

  request the statement for Adult Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia 

  (cn-101024). 



  There are also News and General Information items, under the 

  Heading PDQ Database Information in the Contents List which 

  provide information on centers which have access to Physician 

  Data Query, NCI's database of cancer treatment information which 

  includes clinical trials information for leukemia. - Cheryl."



CancerNet is the U.S. National Cancer Institute's international information 

center. It is a quick and easy way to obtain, through electronic mail, 

recommended treatment guidelines from the National Cancer Institute's 

Physician Data Query system.  

    To access CancerNet, send email to:



    cancernet@icicb.nci.nih.gov



Leave the subject line blank. In the body of the mail message, enter HELP 

to receive instructions and the current contents list. Replace 'help' with 

'spanish' for  Spanish language help text. 



The files are also available from biomed.nus.sg (Singapore), and by email 

from mailgopher@biomed.nus.sg . For information about how to use the 

mailgopher, send the word 'help'. 



The CancerNet information can also be accessed by gopher gopher.nih.gov and 

gopher biomed.nus.sg . 



The National Cancer Center in Tokyo Japan has a gopher service at 

gopher.ncc.go.jp. The World Health Organization (WHO) has one at 

gopher.who.ch. 



In the CompuServe Cancer Forum's Library 1, retrieve the book "Fighting 

Cancer" by Annette and Richard Bloch (File name: FCBOOK.EXE). 



Disabilities

------------

Bulletin boards and online conferences give equal access to all persons. 

Everybody is treated the same way, regardless if they sit in a wheel chair, 

have a hearing impairment, stutter, cannot speak clearly, have difficulties 

in thinking or acting quickly, or just have a different looks. 



You need not worry about typing errors. Those who read them will never know 

whether it's because you never learned how to write on a computer, or if it 

is because you have difficulties in controlling your movements. 



You alone decide if others are to know about your personal disability. If 

you want it to be a secret, then it will remain a secret. 



Nobody can possibly know that you are mute and lame from the neck and down, 

that computer communication is your main gate into the outer world, and 

that you are writing messages with a stick attached to your forehead. 

Therefore, the online world has changed the lives of many people with 

disabilities. 



Computer communications have opened a new world for those who are forced to 

stay at home, or thinks that it is too difficult to travel. Those who can 

easily drive their car to the library, often have difficulties in 

understanding the significance of this. 



Usenet has alt.education.disabled and misc.handicap. It covers all areas of 

disabilities, technical, medical, educational, legal, etc. UUCP has 

handicap. It is presented in the following words: 



    Contact: wtm@bunker.shel.isc-br.com

    Purpose:  The Handicap Digest provides an information/discussion

    exchange for issues dealing with the physically/mentally

    handicapped.  Topics include, but are not limited to: medical,

    education, legal, technological aids and the handicapped in

    society.



CompuServe's Disabilities Forum has the following sections: General 

Interest, Develop. Disabilities, Emotional Disturbances, Hearing 

Impairments, Learning Disabilities, Vision Impairments, Mobility Impaired, 

Rights/Legislation, Education/Employment and Family Life/Leisure. 



AUTISM@SJUVM.BITNET is devoted to the developmentally disabled, their 

teachers, and those interested in this area. The list BLIND-

L@UAFSYSB.BITNET focuses on "Computer Use by and for the Blind." 

COMMDIS@RPITSVM.BITNET is a mailing list discussing "Speech disorders." 



DEAF-L@SIUCVMB.BITNET is the "Deaf Discussion List," and 

DEAFBLND@UKCC.UKY.EDU the "Deaf-Blind Discussion List." STUT-HLP 

(LISTSERV@BGU.EDU) is a support forum for people who stutter and their 

families. 



On L-HCAP@NDSUVM1.BITNET, the focus is on Technology for the handicapped. 

BACKS-L@UVMVM.BITNET discusses research on low back pain disability. 



The Handicap Digest is an electronic mail only digest of articles relating 

to all types of issues affecting the handicapped. The articles are taken 

from the Usenet newsgroup, the Handicap News. (misc.handicap) and various 

FidoNet conferences such as ABLED, BlinkTalk  SilentTalk, Chronic Pain, 

Spinal Injury, Rare Conditions, and several others. Subscribe by email to 



    wtm@bunker.shel.isc-br.com



Handicap.shel.isc-br.com (129.189.4.184) is the email address of an 

anonymous ftp site that has disability-related files and programs.  The 

disk has some 40 directories with 500 or so files covering all types of 

disabilities. (This service can be used through FTPMail. See chapter 12 

about how to do this.) 



Getting old

-----------

BITNET has the "BIOSCI Ageing Bulletin Board" on AGEING@IRLEARN . Usenet 

has bionet.molbio.ageing, while CompuServe's Issues Forum has a message 

section called "Seniors." 



Ageline on Dialog is a database produced by the American Association of 

Retired Persons. It does an excellent job covering research about older 

persons, particularly on consumer issues and health care, by summarizing 

journal articles and the contents of other published reports. 



While our "face-to-face" world sometimes makes it difficult for older 

people to participate in discussions between young people, this is not so 

in the Online World. All people are treated the same way. It is impossible 

for others to know your age, unless someone tells them. 



Holistic Healing and Health

---------------------------

HOLISTIC on LISTSERV@SIUCVMB.SIU.EDU is dedicated to "providing information 

and discussion on holistic concepts and methods of living which provide a 

natural way of dealing with the challenges of life." Here are some topics 

dealt with in this forum: 



      Various Dimensions of Holistic Healing and Health

      States of Consciousness

      Meditation and the role it plays in spiritual/physical health 

      The impact of a healthy diet - including Herbs and Vitamins

      Bodywork - such as Rolfing, Trager bodywork, Reichian, etc.

      Acupuncture/pressure

      Hypnosis and Biofeedback

      Visualizations and Affirmations

      Spiritual Healing - Psychic healing methods

      Bioenergetics

      The holistic connection between mind and body

      Honest discussion of topics relevant to personal/spiritual 

      growth - And anything else within context for the betterment 

      of the world. 



The following message is typical:



From:    Helen 

Subject: Re: Asthma and Sinus Problems

To:      Multiple recipients of list HOLISTIC 



  My condolences to fellow people allergic to cats.  Cats and 

  strawberries are two of the most allergenic substances.  

  Behavorial changes have proven to be EVERYTHING to me.  The 

  techniques I've employed have helped many others.  First, try 

  sleeping at a 45 degree angle.  This usually requires piling up 

  pillows. The elevation of the head facilitates drainage from the 

  sinuses.  When the situation gets really bad, I've slept sitting 

  up on a couch or arm chair propped up by numerous pillows and 

  cushions.  This technique can take some getting used to, but, it 

  works like a charm and is kinder to your system than drug 

  therapy. 

    Second, try "ephedra" tea.  This is an herb found in Chinese 

  herb shops.  Ask the herbalist how to prepare it. 

    I highly recommend the book "Natural Health, Natural Medicine" 

  by Andrew Weil, M.D. of U of A Med School in Tucson. See pages 

  253-256 for more information on asthma. 

     Fourth, stay hydrated.  This means not only drinking PLENTY of 

  fluids, but humidifying the house (that is if you're not also 

  allergic to molds). 

     Basic behavorial techniques are important....diet, exercise, 

  etc. etc, ...but this is the holistic network...I'm preaching to 

  the choir... 



     Finally, take heart!  Being allergic to cats is not well 

  received by cat lovers...often we're cat lovers ourselves. 

  Depending on the breed of cat, there is a good chance you will 

  eventually habituate to those you are around over the long term.  

  Good luck, the advice about sleeping with your head significantly 

  elevated is the best I have ever given out to fellow sinus 

  problem sufferers. It really works!! 



  Helen.



HomeoNet, a service of the Institute of Global Communications (IGC), is for 

those interested in homeopathic medicine. 



List of health science resources

--------------------------------

The Bitnet/Internet online list of health science resources is available by 

email from:  LISTSERV@TEMPLEVM.BITNET . Send the following command: 



  GET MEDICAL RSCRS 



This will give a long list of BITNET, Internet, and Usenet forums, data 

archives, electronic newsletters and journals devoted to health science. 



Here are some examples from the list that may be of interest to people not 

working in the health profession: 



    * ALCOHOL@LMUACAD.BITNET - a discussion list for Alcohol and 

      Drug Studies, 

    * BEHAVIOR@ASUACAD.BITNET - Behavioral and Emotional Disorders 

      in Children,

    * DIABETIC@PCCVM.BITNET is the "Open Discussion forum for 

      DIABETIC patient counseling," 

    * DIARRHOE@SEARN.BITNET (or DIARRHOE@SEARN.SUNET.SE through the 

      Internet) is a forum for information exchange and discussions 

      on all aspects related to diseases, disorders, and chemicals 

      that cause diarrhoea in humans and animals,

    * DIET@INDYCMS.BITNET - Support and Discussion of Weight Loss 

    * DRUGABUS@UMAB.BITNET - Drug Abuse Education Information and

      Research,

    * FAMCOMM@RPITSVM.BITNET - Marital/family & relational 

      communication. 

    * FIT-L@ETSUADMN.BITNET - Wellness, Exercise, Diet, for 

      exchanging ideas, tips and any type of information about 

      wellness, exercise, and diet. 

    * GRANOLA@BROWNVM.BITNET - Vegetarian Discussion.

    * HERB@TREARN.BITNET - Medicinal and Aromatic Plants discussion. 

    * MSLIST-L@NCSUVM.BITNET - Multiple Sclerosis Discussion and 

      Support. 

    * RZAMAL-L@DKAUNI11.BITNET - Dental Amalgam Fillings and 

      chronic mercury poisoning.

    * SPORTPSY@TEMPLEVM.BITNET - Exercise and Sports Psychology.

    * talk.abortion on Usenet.



These mailing lists usually let you search old messages for topics of 

interest. They are both living discussion forums and interesting searchable 

databases! 



Mednews is a weekly electronic newsletter. Its columns bring regular medical 

news summaries from USA Today, Center for Disease Control MMWR, weekly AIDS 

Statistics from CDC, and more. Send the following command to 

LISTSERV@ASUACAD.BITNET to subscribe: 



     SUB MEDNEWS Your-first-name Your-last-name



The World Health Organization provides access to world health statistics, 

WHO press releases, full text of selected WHO publications and more through 

gopher gopher.who.ch . 







Chapter 7: Electronic mail, telex, and fax

==========================================



Electronic mail is one of the most popular online services. People living 

thousands of miles apart can exchange messages and documents very quickly. 



The Boardwatch Magazine (U.S.A.) believes that new callers are coming 

online for their first time at a rate of close to 10,000 per day (January 

1993). Others believe that you can reach around 200 million mailboxes 

through the Internet (January 1994).



The annual rate of increase in the number of messages is over 30% and 

increasing. 



If a given email service charges you US$30 per hour, it will cost you a 

meager US$0.075 to send one typewritten letter (size A-4, or around 2,200 

characters). See chapter 15 for a breakdown of this cost. 



If you live in Norway, and send the letter by ordinary mail to a recipient 

in Norway, postage alone is US$0.53 (1992). The cost is seven times higher 

than using email. 



To send the same letter from Norway to the United States by ordinary mail 

will cost 11 times more. This letter takes several days to reach the 

destination, while email messages arrive almost instantly. 



Often, you can send email messages to several recipients in one operation - 

without paying extra for the pleasure. Compare this to sending to several 

parties by fax! 



You do not have to buy envelopes and stamps, fold the sheet, put it into 

the envelope, and bring it to a mailbox. Just let the computer call your 

favorite email service to send the letter. 



The recipient does not have to sit by the computer waiting for your mail. 

Upon receipt, it will be automatically stored in his mailbox. He can read 

it when he has time. 



The recipient can print it locally, and it will be a perfect document, no 

different to one typed in locally. He can also make corrections or 

comments, and email onwards to a third party. In this way several people 

can work jointly on a report, and no time is it re-typed from scratch. 



When you receive several messages in the morning, you can very quickly 

create replies to them one at the time at your keyboard, and then send them 

in one go. No need to feed five different pieces of paper into a fax 

machine or envelopes for five different people. 



Where you can find a telephone, you can also read mail. In most countries, 

communicating through email is easy and economical. 



By the way, the simple but miraculous thing about email is that you can 

quote easily and exactly the point to which you are replying. This is a 

revolution in communication, no? 



How to send email?

-------------------

This is what it normally takes for a CompuServe user to send me a message: 



    Type GO MAIL to get to the "post office," and then type 

    COMPOSE. 

         "Start writing," says CompuServe. Type your message

    manually, or send a file (text or binary). Type /EXIT when 

    done. 

         "To whom?" asks CompuServe. You enter: "Odd de Presno

    75755,1327," or just my mailbox number (75755,1327).

         CompuServe asks you to enter Subject. You type: "Hello,

    my friend!" Your message has been sent. 

         A few seconds later, the message will arrive in my 

    mailbox. If I am online to CompuServe at the moment, I will 

    probably read it right away. If not, it will stay there until I 

    get around to fetch it. 



Above, we used the term "normally takes to send." Please note that  many 

users never ever TYPE these commands! They use various types of automatic 

software to handle the mechanics of sending and receiving mail (see Chapter 

16). 



Other systems require different commands to send email. Ulrik at the 

University of Oslo (Norway) is a Unix system. So is The Well in San 

Francisco. On such systems, mail is normally sent using these commands: 



    Type "mail opresno@extern.uio.no". When the computer asks for 

    "Subject:," enter "Hello, my friend!" 

         Type your message or send it. When done, enter a period 

    (.) in the beginning of a line. Ulrik will reply with "Cc:" to 

    allow you to 'carbon copy' the message to other people. If you 

    don't want that, press ENTER and the message is on its way.

         While I wrote this book, I had to go to Japan. A simple 

    command allowed me to redirect all incoming mail to CompuServe. 

    As a result I could read and send mail by calling a local 

    CompuServe number in several Japanese cities. 



Though the commands for sending email differ between systems, the principle 

is the same. All systems will ask you for an address and the text of your 

message. On some, the address is a code, on others a name (like ODD DE 

PRESNO). 



Most systems will ask for a Subject title. Many will allow you to send 

copies of the message to other recipients (Cc:). 



Some services allow you to send binary files as email. Binary files contain 

codes based on the binary numeration system. Such codes are used in 

computer programs, graphics pictures, compressed spreadsheets and text 

files, and sound files. 



Many online services let you send messages as fax (to over 15 million fax 

machines), telex (to over 1.8 million telex machines), and as ordinary 

paper mail. We have tested this successfully on CompuServe, MCI Mail and 

other services. 



On CompuServe, replace "Odd de Presno 75755,1327" with ">FAX:  4737027111". 

My fax number is +47 370 27111. 



On MCI Mail type "CREATE:". MCI asks for "To:," and you type "Odd de Presno 

(Fax)". MCI asks for "Country:". You enter "Norway". By "RECIPIENT FAX NO" 

enter "37027111" (the code for international calls). The country code for 

Norway, 01147, is added automatically. By "Options?," press ENTER. When MCI 

Mail asks for more recipients, press ENTER. Type your message and have it 

sent. 



To send a telex, you'll need the recipient's telex number, an answerback 

code, and the code of the recipient's country. If the message is meant for 

telex number 871161147, answerback ZETO, and country Russia (country code 

SU), enter ">TLX:871161147 ZETO SU" when sending from CompuServe. 



By entering ">POSTAL", CompuServe will send your mail to a business 

associate in California or Brazil as a professional laser-printed letter. 

It will take you through the process of filling out the various address 

lines. The letter may well arrive faster than through ordinary mail. You

can also send for paper delivery through MCI Mail.



When the recipient is using another mailbox system

--------------------------------------------------

When the recipient is using your mailbox service, writing addresses is 

simple. Not so when your email has to be forwarded to mailboxes on other 

online services. 



The inter-system email address consists of a user name, a mailbox system 

code, and sometimes also routing information. The problem is that there is 

no universal addressing format. Finding out how to write a given address 

may be surprisingly difficult. 



Some services are not set up for exchange of email with other services. 

This is the case with my bulletin board, the Saltrod Horror Show. To send 

mail to a user of this system, you'll have to call it directly and enter it 

there. This bulletin board is not connected to the outside world for 

exchange of mail. 



If your favorite system lets you send mail to other services, make a note 

about the following: 



    * You need to know the exact address of your recipient, and

      whether he's using this mailbox regularly. Many users have

      mailboxes that they use rarely or never. For example, don't

      try to send mail to my mailbox on Dow Jones/News Retrieval. 

      I only use this service sporadically. 

           Think of the easiest way for a recipient to respond 

      before sending a message to him or her. 



    * You need to know how to rewrite the recipient's address to

      fit your system. For example, you may have to use a domain 

      address to send through Internet, and a different form when 

      sending through an X.400 network. (More about this later.)



    * The recipient's mailbox system may be connected to a network

      that does not have a mail exchange agreement with your 

      system's network(s). Sometimes, you can use a commercial mail 

      relay service to get your message across (see chapter 9). 

      Users of the Internet can send messages to recipients on the 

      Dialcom network through the DASnet relay service. 



    * Sometimes, you need to know how to route a message through 

      other systems to arrive at its destination. For example, a 

      message sent from the Ulrik computer in Oslo must be routed 

      through a center in London to get to Dominique Christian on 

      the Difer system in Paris (France), 



    * While it may be possible to enclose binary files when sending

      to someone on your system, this may be impossible when sending

      across mailbox system boundaries.



    * While it may be possible to send text containing embedded control

      codes and special language characters to users of your system,

      they may dissappear when sent by email to people elsewhere. Your 

      safest bet is to send your text as standard 7-bit ASCII text (see 

      appendix 4). It is the lowest common denominator between computers,

      software, networks, and users.



      Example: A user in Norway tried to send the Norwegian language

      line: "Jeg bor p Karlsy i Troms, Norge." The text was stored 

      using Windows Latin1. The receiver got: "Jeg bor pe Kalsxy i 

      Troms, Norge." The word "p" came out as "p=E5" from another

      user.



      If you are using WordPerfect or Word for Windows on an MS-DOS

      computer, consider storing your text as DOS text before sending. 



Internet

--------

is the name of a computer network (here called "INTERNET"), and a term used 

of a global web of systems and networks that can exchange mail with each 

other (here called "Internet"). 



INTERNET is a very large network that has grown out of ARPANET, MILNET, and 

other American networks for research and education. This core network has 

many gateways to other systems, and it's when we include these systems and 

their connections that we call it the Internet. Others call it WorldNet or 

the Matrix. 



Internet users can exchange mail with users on networks like EUnet, JANET, 

Uninett, BITNET, UUCP, CompuServe, MCI Mail, EcoNet, PeaceNet, ConflicNet, 

GreenNet, Web, Pegasus, AppleLink, Alternex, Nicarao, FredsNaetet, UUNET, 

PSI, Usenet, FidoNet and many others. We therefore say that these networks 

are also "on the Internet." 



If you have access to the Internet, you can send email to users of online 

services all over the world. You can send to people using Bergen By Byte 

and Telemax in Norway, TWICS in Tokyo, and Colnet in Buenos Aires. 



Now is the time to take a closer look at the art of addressing mail through 

the Internet. 



Domain name addressing

----------------------

On the Internet, the general form of a person's email address is: 



    user-name@somewhere.domain



My main, international Internet mailbox address is: 



    opresno@extern.uio.no



You read the address from left to right. First, the local name of the 

mailbox (my name abbreviated). Next, the name of the mailbox system or 

another identification code (in this case EXTERN, to show that I have no 

affiliation with the University), the name of the institution or company 

(here UIO or "Universitetet i Oslo"), and finally the country (NO for 

Norway). 



People have sent mail to my mailbox from New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Guatemala, 

Peru, India, China, Greece, Iceland, and Armenia using this address. 



Some users must send their messages through a gateway to the Internet. In 

these cases, the address may have to be changed to reflect this: 



Users of AppleLink use opresno@extern.uio.no@INTERNET# . Those on JANET use 

opresno%extern.uio.no@eanrelay.ac.uk. On SprintMail, use ("RFC-822": 

<opresno(a)extern.uio.no>, SITE:INTERNET) . CompuServe subscribers use 

>INTERNET:opresno@extern.uio.no . 



The core of these address formats is "opresno@extern.uio.no", in one way or 

the other. 



We call this basic addressing format a Domain Naming System. 

"EXTERN.UIO.NO" is a domain. The domain may also contain reference to the 

name of a company or an organization, like in twics.co.jp, compuserve.com, 

or IGC.ORG. The CO, COM, and ORG codes identify TWICS, CompuServe and IGC 

as companies/organizations. 



To send mail from the Internet to my CompuServe mailbox, use: 



    75755.1327@compuserve.com



Normally (except on AppleLink), a domain address can only contain one @-

character. When an address has to be extended with gateway routing 

information, replace all @-characters to the LEFT in the address by %-

characters. Here is an example: 



BITNET uses a different addressing method (USER@SYSTEM). Let's assume that 

you are subscribed to the club for lovers of Japanese food (J-FOOD-

L@JPNKNU10.BITNET, see chapter 6). You have a mailbox on INTERNET, and want 

to send a recipe to the other members using the address J-FOOD-L. 



On some Internet systems, you can simply use the address: J-FOOD-

L@JPNKNU10.BITNET , and your mailbox system will take care of the routing 

for you. 



If this addressing method doesn't work, you can use different gateways into 

BITNET depending on where you live. The preferred method is to route 

through a gateway near to you. If living in North America, you may route 

CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU using the following address: 



    J-FOOD-L%JPNKNU10.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU



The rightmost @ in this address is maintained. The one to the LEFT has been 

replaced with a %. The term ".BITNET" tells the gateway machine where to 

forward the message. 



The following will happen: First, the message will be sent to system CUNYVM 

at the EDUcation site CUNY. CUNYVM investigates the address, and discovers 

that the message is for BITNET. It cuts off all text to the right of 

"JPNKNU10," and replaces the % with an @. The message is forwarded to the 

mailbox J-FOOD-L on the BITNET system JPNKNU10 at the Kinki University in 

Japan. 



Bang addressing

---------------

"Bang" is American for "exclamation point" (!). The UUCP network uses this 

variation of the domain addressing scheme. 



Example: User Jill Small on Econet in San Francisco used to have the 

address pyramid!cdp!jsmall . Read this address from right to left. The name 

of her mailbox is to the right. The name of the organization is in the 

middle. "Pyramid" is the name of the network. 



Some email systems can use bang addresses directly. (Note that the ! 

character has a special function on Unix computers. Here, you may have to 

type the address as pyramid\!cdp\!jsmall to avoid unwanted error messages. 

The \ character tells Unix to regard the next character as a character, and 

not as a system command. This character may also have to precede other 

special characters.) 



Other systems do not accept bang addresses directly. Here, the users must 

send such messages through a gateway. The American host UUNET is a 

frequently used gateway. If routing through UUNET, you may write the 

address like this: 



    pyramid!cdp!jsmall@uunet.uu.net



If your system absolutely refuses to accept exclamation points in 

addresses, try to turn the address into a typical Internet address. Write 

the address elements in the Internet sequence (left to right). Replace the 

exclamation points with %-s, like this: 



    jsmall%cdp%pyramid@uunet.uu.net



This method works most of the time. When it works, use this addressing 

form. Bang paths may fail if an intermediate site in the path happens to be 

down. (There is a trend for UUCP sites to register Internet domain names. 

This helps alleviate the problem of path failures.) 



Some messages must be routed through many gateways to reach their 

destination. This is the longest address that I have used, and it did work: 



   hpda!hplabs!hpscdc!hp-lsd.cos.hp.com!oldcolo!dave@uunet.uu.net



It used to be the Internet address of a user in Colorado, U.S.A.. Today, he 

can be reached using a much shorter address. 



If you are on UUCP/EUnet, you may use the following address to send 

email to Odd de Presno: 



   extern.uio.no!opresno. 



Addressing international electronic mail sometimes looks like black magic. 

To learn more, read some of the books listed in appendix 5. We have found 

"The Matrix" by John S. Quarterman to be particularly useful. 



The conference INFONETS (General network forum) is another source. Here, 

the INTERNET postmasters discuss their addressing problems. Activity is 

high, and you will learn a lot about the noble art of addressing. (This is 

not the place to ask for Olav Janssen's Norwegian email address, though. 

This question should be sent to a Norwegian postmaster.) 



You can subscribe to Infonets by sending the following mail: 



    To: LISTSERV@NDSUVM1.BITNET

    Subject: (You can write anything here. It will be ignored.)

    TEXT:  SUB INFONETS Your-first-name Your-last-name



If your mailbox is on another network, alter the address to route your 

subscription correctly to this LISTSERV. 



  | Hint: You can search the database of old INFONETS messages by |

  | email to LISTSERV@DEARN.BITNET. See "Directories of services  |

  | and subscribers" below for information about how to search    |

  | LISTSERV databases.                                           |



While the global matrix of networks grows rapidly, it is still behind in 

some lesser-developed nations and poorer parts of developed nations. If 

interested in these parts of the world, check out GNET, a library and a 

journal for documents about the efforts to bring the net to lesser-

developed nations. 



Archived documents are available by anonymous ftp from the directory 

global_net at dhvx20.csudh.edu (155.135.1.1). Chapter 12 has information on 

how to use FTP if you only have mail access to the Internet. 



To subscribe to a conference discussing these documents, send a request to 

gnet_request@dhvx20.csudh.edu. 



cc:Mail gateways

----------------

Many Local Area Networks have been connected to the global Matrix of 

networks. CompuServe offers a cc:Mail gateway. Lotus cc:Mail is a PC Lan 

based email system used in corporate, government and other organizations. 



When sending from CompuServe Mail to a cc:Mail user through this gateway, a 

typical address may look like this: 



    >mhs:pt-support@performa



To send to this user from the Internet through CompuServe's MHS gateway, 

write the address like this: 



    pt-support@performa.mhs.compuserve.com



Other vendors of LAN gateways use other addressing methods. 



X.400 addressing

----------------

X.400 is a standard for electronic mail developed by ITU-TSS. It is used on 

large networks like AT&T Mail, MCI Mail, Sprintnet, GE Information System, 

Dialcom, and Western Union, and on other public and private networks 

throughout the world. 



EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) uses X.400 as a transport mechanism for 

coordination of electronic part ordering, stock control and payment. X.400 

is used to connect EDI systems between companies and suppliers. 



The X.400 addressing syntax is very different from domain addressing. To 

send a message from an X.400 mailbox to my address (opresno@extern.uio.no), 

you may have to write it like this: 



   (C:NO,ADMD:uninett,PRMD:uninett,O:uio,OU:extern,S:opresno)



Alas, it's not so standard as the domain addressing schemes. On other X.400 

networks, the address must be written in one of the following formats - or 

in yet other ways: 



   (C:US,A:Telemail,P:Internet,"RFC-822":<opresno(a)extern.uio.no>)



   ("RFC-822": <opresno(a)extern.uio.no>, SITE:INTERNET)



   '(C:USA,A:TELEMAIL,P:INTERNET,"RFC-822":<opresno<a>extern.uio.no>) DEL'



   (site: INTERNET,ID: <opresno<a>extern.uio.no>)



   "RFC-822=opresno(a)extern.uio.no @ GATEWAY]INTERNET/TELEMAIL/US"



To send an Internet message to a mailbox I once had on the X.400 host 

Telemax in Norway, I had to use the following address: 



   /I=D/G=ODD/S=PRESNO/O=KUD.DATASEKR/@PCMAX.telemax.no



To send from Internet to Telemail in the US, I have used this address: 



   /PN=TELEMAIL.T.SUPPORT/O=TELENET.MAIL/ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/@sprint.com



If you need to route your message through gateways, then complexity 

increases. One Norwegian UUCP user had to use the following address to get 

through: 



  nuug!extern.uio.no!"pcmax.telemax.no!/I=D/G=ODD/S=PRESNO/O=KUD.DATASEKR/"



To send a message from an X.400 system to my CompuServe mailbox, I have 

used the following address elements: 



       Country = US

       ADMD = CompuServe

       PRMD = CSMail

       DDA = 75755.1327



The addressing methods used on X.400 systems vary. Another example: Some 

use the code C:USA rather than the ISO country code C:US. MCI Mail uses 

C:NORWAY, C:USA, and C:SWEDEN. 



Here are some important X.400 codes: 



    C       the ISO country code (on most services)

    ADMD    domain code for public system (abbreviation A)

    PRMD    domain code for connected private system 

            (abbreviation P)

    O       organization name 

    OU      organization unit

    S       surname (last name)

    G       given name (first name)

    I       initials (in the name) 

    DDA     domain-defined attributes, keywords defined and 

            used by the individual systems to specify mailboxes

            (user name, list, station, user code, etc.), direct

            delivery devices (attention name, telex addresses,

            facsimile, etc.)

    PN      personal name 

    (a)     the character @ cannot be used when routing messages

            from X.400 to Internet. Try (a) instead.

    (p)     the character % cannot be used when routing messages

            from X.400 to Internet. Try (p) instead.

    (b)     the character ! (used in "bang" addresses).

    (q)     the character " used in email addresses.

    RFC-822 this code tells X.400 that an Internet domain address

            follows. Does not work on all X.400 systems.



Returned mail

-------------

When an email address is incorrect in some way (the system's name is wrong, 

the domain doesn't exist, whatever), the mail system will bounce the 

message back to the sender. 



The returned message will include the reason for the bounce. A common error 

is addressing mail to an account name that doesn't exist. 



Let's make an error when sending to LISTSERV@vm1.nodak.edu. Enter 

"pistserv@vm1.nodak.edu" instead of "LISTSERV@vm1.nodak.edu". 



This address is wrong. Below, we've printed the complete bounced message. 

It contains a lot of technical information. Most lines have no interest. 

Also, the message is much larger than the original message, which contained 

three lines only. 



When browsing the bounced message, note that it has three distinct parts: 

(1) The mail header of the bounced message itself (here, the 13 first 

lines), (2) The text of the error report (from line 14 until the line 

"Original message follows:"), and (3) the mailer header and text of your 

original message (as received by computer reporting the error): 



  From MAILER@VM1.NoDak.EDU Fri Dec 18 12:54:03 1992

  Return-Path: <MAILER@VM1.NoDak.EDU>

  Received: from vm1.NoDak.edu by pat.uio.no with SMTP (PP) 

    id <07610-0@pat.uio.no>; Fri, 18 Dec 1992 12:53:54 +0100

  Received: from NDSUVM1.BITNET by VM1.NoDak.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R2)

    with BSMTP id 9295; Fri, 18 Dec 92 05:53:27 CST

  Received: from NDSUVM1.BITNET by NDSUVM1.BITNET (Mailer R2.07) 

    with BSMTP id 3309; Fri, 18 Dec 92 05:53:26 CST

  Date: Fri, 18 Dec 92 05:53:26 CST

  From: Network Mailer <MAILER@VM1.NoDak.EDU>

  To: opresno@extern.uio.no

  Subject: mail delivery error

  Status: R



  Batch SMTP transaction log follows:



  220 NDSUVM1.BITNET Columbia MAILER R2.07 BSMTP service ready.

  050 HELO NDSUVM1

  250 NDSUVM1.BITNET Hello NDSUVM1

  050 MAIL FROM:<opresno@extern.uio.no>

  250 <opresno@extern.uio.no>... sender OK.

  050 RCPT TO:<pistserv@NDSUVM1>

  250 <pistserv@NDSUVM1>... recipient OK.

  050 DATA

  354 Start mail input.  End with <crlf>.<crlf>

  554-Mail not delivered to some or all recipients:

  554 No such local user: PISTSERV

  050 QUIT

  221 NDSUVM1.BITNET Columbia MAILER BSMTP service done.



  Original message follows:



  Received: from NDSUVM1 by NDSUVM1.BITNET (Mailer R2.07) with BSMTP id 3308;

   Fri, 18 Dec 92 05:53:25 CST

  Received: from pat.uio.no by VM1.NoDak.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with TCP;

     Fri, 18 Dec 92 05:53:23 CST

  Received: from ulrik.uio.no by pat.uio.no with local-SMTP (PP)

            id <07590-0@pat.uio.no>; Fri, 18 Dec 1992 12:53:24 +0100

  Received: by ulrik.uio.no ; Fri, 18 Dec 1992 12:53:18 +0100

  Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 12:53:18 +0100

  From: opresno@extern.uio.no

  Message-Id: <9212181153.AAulrik20516@ulrik.uio.no>

  To: pistserv@vm1.nodak.edu

  Subject: test



  index kidlink



The first part of the bounced message is usually of no interest. Hidden in 

the second part you'll find the following interesting line: 



  554 No such local user: PISTSERV



Ah, a typo! 



If your original message was long, you're likely to be pleased by having 

the complete text returned in the third part of the bounced message. Now, 

you may get away with a quick cut and paste, before resending it to the 

corrected address. 



The text and codes used in bounced messages vary depending on what type of 

mailbox system you're using, and the type of system that is bouncing your 

mail. 



Above, MAILER@VM1.NoDak.EDU returned the full text of my bounced mail. Some 

systems just send the beginning of your original text, while others (in 

particular some X.400 systems) send nothing but a note telling you the 

reason for the bounce. 



  | Note: When you fail to understand why a message is being  |

  | bounced, contact your local postmaster for help. Send him |

  | a copy of the complete text of the bounced message up to  |

  | and including the line "Subject:" at the bottom.          |

  |    You do not have to send him the text of your original  |

  | message!                                                  |



Replying to an Internet message

-------------------------------

On the Internet, electronic messages have a common structure that is common 

across the network. On some systems, you can reply by using a reply 

command. If this feature is not available, use the sender's address as 

given in the mail header. 



The bounced message contained two mail headers: the header of my original 

message (in part three), and the header of the bounced message (in part 

one). 



The 'good' reply address is laid out in the 'From:' header. Thus, this 

message contains the following two 'good' addresses: 



  From: Network Mailer <MAILER@VM1.NoDak.EDU>

  From: opresno@extern.uio.no



The Network Mailer located the second address line above in my original 

message, and used this address when sending the bounced message. (Note: 

there is no point in sending a message back to MAILER@VM1.NoDak.EDU since 

this is the address of an automatic mail handling program. Write to 

Postmaster@VM1.NoDak.EDU to talk to a "real person" at this computer 

center.) 



The exact order of a message's header may vary from system to system, but 

it will always contain the vital 'From:' line. 



  | Note: Exercise caution when replying to a message sent by  |

  | a mailing list. If you wish to respond to the author only, |

  | make sure that the only address you're replying to is that |

  | person's. Don't send it to the entire list!                |



Directories of services and subscribers

---------------------------------------

There is no complete global directory of available electronic addresses. On 

many systems, however, you can search lists of local users. 



  | Normally, you'd be better off by calling the recipient for |

  | his or her email address.                                  |



Sometimes, the information given you by the recipient is not enough. Maybe 

the address needs an extension for the message to be routed through 

gateways to the destination. 



Another typical problem is that the syntax of the address is wrong. Perhaps 

you made a mistake, when you wrote it down (KIDCAFE became KIDSCAFE). 



The return address in the received messages' mailer headers may be wrong. 

It may use a syntax that is illegal on you email system, or it may suggest 

a routing that is unknown to your system. When trying to send mail to this 

address, the Mailer-Daemon complains: "This is a non-existent address." 



Again, the first person to contact for help is your local postmaster. On 

most Internet hosts this is simple. If you have a mailbox on the ULRIK 

computer at the University of Oslo, send a request for help to 

postmaster@ulrik.uio.no . If you are on COLNET in Buenos Aires, send to 

postmaster@colnetr.edu.ar . 



POSTMASTER is also the address to turn to on BITNET. Users of FidoNet or 

RelayNet, should write to SYSOP. 



It may not be that simple to locate the postmaster on UUCP. The postmaster 

ID may exist on some systems, but often he's just a name or a user code. 



You can get the email address of known Internet systems by sending a 

message to MAILSERV@INTERNIC.NET . In the subject of the message, write 

the command WHOIS host-machine-name. Do not write anything in the text 

(will be ignored). You will get a report of the desired mailbox computer, 

and the address of the local postmaster.  Example: 



    To:       MAILSERV@INTERNIC.NET

    Subject:  WHOIS AERO.ORG

    Text:



Sometimes, you just don't know the name of a recipient's mailbox computer. 

When this is the case, start at the "top of the pyramid." 



Say your desired recipient lives in Germany. The ISO country code for 

Germany is DE (see appendix 6). Send the message 



    To:       MAILSERV@INTERNIC.NET

    Subject:  WHOIS DOMAIN DE

    Text:



This will give you the email addresses of the main postmasters for this 

country. Most postmasters are willing to help, but please note that most of 

them are very busy people. It may take days before they get around to 

respond to your inquiry. 



There are over 100 other "whois-servers" in more than 15 countries. The 

systems whois.nic.ad.jp and whois.ripe.net cover Japan and Europe. The rest 

of them provide information about local users. (A list is available via 

anonymous FTP from sipb.mit.edu in the file /pub/whois/whois-servers.list . 

Chapter 12 has information about how to get this list by email). 



If your recipient is on UUCP, try netdir@mcsun.eu.net . To locate the 

postmaster of the mailbox system "amanpt1", use the following format (write 

nothing in the text): 



    To:       netdir@mcsun.eu.net

    Subject:  amanpt1

    Text:



BITNET provides information about connected systems through many sources. 

Scandinavian users use LISTSERV@FINHUTC.BITNET in Finland. Try a LISTSERV 

on a host closer to where you live. For example, North American users may 

use LISTSERV@NDSUVM1.BITNET, which is a host in North Dakota.   Japanese 

users should write to the host LISTSERV@JPNKNU10.BITNET. 



When retrieving for BITNET host information mail, your search will have to 

be done in two steps. Here, your commands are NOT to be entered on the 

Subject line. Enter all commands in the TEXT field (text on the Subject 

line will be ignored). Example: 



    You want information about the BITNET computer FINHUTC (called

    a "node in the network"). Your first message should have the 

    following text: 





      // job echo=no

      database search dd=rules

      //rules dd *

      search * in bitearn where node = FINHUTC

      index



    LISTSERV sends you the following report:



      > search * in bitearn where node = FINHUTC

      --> Database BITEARN, 1 hit.



      > index

      Ref# Conn  Nodeid   Site name

      ---- ----  ------   ---------

      0910 85/11 FINHUTC  Helsinki University of Technology, Finland



    Send a new search message to the LISTSERV containing the same 

    commands as above. Add one line in which you ask for database 

    record number 0910 (given in the column Ref#). 

    Like this:



      // job echo=no

      database search dd=rules

      //rules dd *

      search * in bitearn where node = FINHUTC

      index

      print 0910



    LISTSERV will return a report with a lot of information. 

    Here is part of it: 



      Node: FINHUTC

      Country: FI

      Internet: FINHUTC.hut.fi

      Net: EARN

      Nodedesc: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland

      P_hsalmine: Harri Salminen;LK-HS@FINHUTC;+358 0 4514318

      P_pautio: Petri Autio;POSTMAST@FINHUTC;+358 0 4514318

      P_vvoutila: Vuokko Voutilainen;OPR@FINHUTC;+358 0 4514342

      Routtab: RSCS (NETSERV,POSTMAST@FINHUTC)



For more information about searching BITNET databases, send this message to 

your favorite LISTSERV, or use the address below: 



    To:       LISTSERV@FINHUTC.BITNET

    Subject:  nothing

    TEXT:     GET LISTDB MEMO



X.400 systems are developing an address directory according to ITU-TSS 

standard X.500. The plan is to connect several directories. The developers 

hope that routing of X.400 messages may eventually be done automatically 

without the user needing to know the identity of the recipient's mailbox 

computer. 



X.500 will certainly help X.400 users. The problem is that most email is 

still carried by other types of systems, and that X.500 has no concern for 

mail transported through "foreign systems." 



Dialcom

-------

is a commercial, global online service, which have many nodes in Africa and 

Latin America. To send mail from Dialcom to the Internet you must use 

commercial gateway-services like DASnet (see appendix 1). 



To send mail from one Dialcom system to another, use the syntax 

6007:EWP002. This address points to mailbox EWP002 on system number 6007. 



To send mail from Internet to Dialcom user YNP079 on system 10001, use the 

following address when sending through DASnet: 



    10001_ynp079@dcdial.das.net



Note: Only registered users with DASnet can use this method. 



FidoNet

-------

Users of this global network can send and receive mail to/from the 

Internet. For example, a FidoNet user may use the following method to send 

to my Internet address: 



    Send the message to user UUCP at 1:105/42. The first line of 

    the TEXT of the message should contain:



      To: opresno@extern.uio.no 



    Add a blank line after the address before entering the text

    of your message.



FidoNet addresses are composed by three or four numbers;



        zone:net/node

        or

        zone:net/node.point



The FidoNet address 1:105/42 has three elements. "1:" tells that the 

recipient lives in Zone number 1 (North America). "105/42" refers to Node 

number 42, which receives mail through Net number 105. This node has an 

automatic gateway to the Internet. 



Another example: Jan Stozek is sysop of "Home of PCQ" in Warsaw, Poland. 

The Node number of his BBS is 10. He receives mail through Net number 480. 

Poland is a country in Europe, Zone number 2. The address to his system is: 

2:480/10. His user name is Jan Stozek. 



You can send an Internet message to anyone in FidoNet by using the 

following template: 



 <firstname>.<lastname>@p<point>.f<node>.n<net>.z<zone>.fidonet.org



Where <firstname> is the person's first name

      <lastname>  is the person's last name



To send a message from the Internet to Jan, use this address: 



    Jan.Stozek@f10.n480.z2.fidonet.org



One final example: Ola Garstad in Oslo has the FidoNet address 2:502/15. 

Use the address Ola.Garstad@f15.n502.z2.fidonet.org , when sending mail to 

him through the Internet. 



An updated list of global FidoNet nodes can be retrieved from most 

connected BBS systems. (More in appendix 1.)



For more information

--------------------

If you have access to BITNET or Internet mail, get "The Inter-Network Mail 

Guide." It describes how to send mail between electronic mail systems like 

AppleLink, BITNET, BIX, CompuServe, Connect-USA, EasyNet, Envoy, FidoNet, 

GeoNet, Internet, MCI, MFENET, NasaMail, PeaceNet, Sinet, Span, SprintMail, 

and more. 



Send a message to the BITNET address LISTSERV@UNMVM.BITNET. In the TEXT of 

the message enter: 



    GET NETWORK GUIDE



This list is posted monthly to the Usenet newsgroups comp.mail.misc and 

news.newusers.questions. It is also available by anonymous ftp to 

csd4.csd.uwm.edu . Enter "cd /pub", and "get internetwork-mail-guide" . 



The document "FAQ: How to find people's E-mail addresses" is regularly 

posted to the Usenet group news.answers. It is also available by email from 

mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu . To get a copy, put the command "send 

usenet/news.answers/finding-addresses" in the body of your message. 







Chapter 8: Free expert assistance

=================================



This may sound too good to be true. Many computer experts are ready to help 

YOU without asking a dollar in return. The same is the case with experts in 

other areas. 



You have an impossible decision to make. A lawyer has a dotted line that 

requires your signature, or a surgeon has a dotted line in mind for your 

upper abdomen. You're not comfortable with the fine print or the diagnosis 

and wonder if a second opinion is in order. Just ask, and get help. 



If you have problems with your communications program, post a message on a 

bulletin board. Do the same thing if you want to sell equipment. Learn from 

other people's experiences with computers or software that you plan to buy. 



You will get a reply - if the subject or you attract interest. In the 

process, you'll get new friends, and be able to follow the development in a 

dynamic marketplace. 



The following message from CompuServe is typical: 





  16-Nov-91  15:16:14

  Sb: Back & Forth software

  Fm: Joan Healy 

  To: John Nelson



  Changed my mind about GrandView:

 

  1. Learning curve like Mt. Everest.  Give me intuitive or give me 

     death. 

  2. Lack of patience with "  ".

  3. Lack of time.

  4. It may be unsuited for what I wanted (outlining a book). Since 

     becoming a born-again Galaxian, I've started using that for the 

     outline, and I'm happy.  There's nothing like a  decision and a 

     permanent bonding and lifelong commitment to make a woman 

     happy. Remember that, you louts. :-) 



Many users prefer open conference messages to private email for their 

technical discussions. This gives "the group" a chance to read, comment, 

provide additional facts, and return with new questions. 



The reactions to one simple question may be overwhelming, but most of the 

time the contributions are useful and educational. Since the discussion is 

public, regard it as your personal online university. Offer opinions when 

you have something to contribute, or keep silent. 



In most conferences, some members are critical to "lurkers." A "lurker" is 

someone who read without ever contributing. Don't let them get to you. Do 

not feel bad about being silent. Most other members are there only to watch 

and learn as well. 



If you consider buying a newly released computer program, tune in to the 

section of your favorite online service that deals with products from this 

manufacturer. Count messages with complaints of the new program before 

buying. 



When you have received your new program, return to read other users' 

experiences and to pick up practical advice. It will never hurt to offer 

your own two cents' worth in the process. 



  | Visit online services that have many users who know more than   |

  | most. There, you will usually get faster and better replies to  |

  | your questions. It is far cheaper to ask than to search.        |



Start with bulletin boards. If you have never visited a BBS, call one in 

your neighborhood to get a feel for what this is. Most of them can be 

accessed free. Usually, their only requirement is that you answer some 

self-presentation questions before being granted full access to their 

system. 



Most bulletin boards offer conferencing and archives filled with shareware 

and public domain software. Many also have files or bulletins listing 

telephone numbers of other boards in your country or area. 



The trick is to find know-how. The larger the online service, the more 

skilled people are likely to "meet" there regularly. Therefore, if local 

bulletin boards fail to satisfy your needs, visit the large commercial 

services. CompuServe and EXEC-PC are two services in the top league. BIX is 

another good source of information for professional computer specialists. 



One exception: When you need contact with ONE particular person, who knows 

YOUR problem in detail, go where he uses to go. 



Examples: If you need top advice about the communications program GALINK, 

call Mike's BBS in Oslo (at +472 -416588). If you buy modems from Semafor 

A/S, the best place for expert advice is Semaforum BBS (tel. +4741-370-

11710). If you have a Novell local area network, visit the Novell forums on 

CompuServe. 



For users of MS-DOS computers

-----------------------------

I visit the following CompuServe forums regularly: 



    IBM Communication - about communication software for MS-DOS 

        computers. 

    IBM Hardware - about new IBM compatibles, expansion cards, 

        displays, hard disks, IBM PS/2, software for performance 

        evaluation, printers, etc. 

    IBM Systems/Utilities - about DOS, utilities, shells, file 

        utilities, and much more. A large software library. 

    IBM Applications - about all kind of applications. The forum 

        has a large file library full of shareware and public 

        domain software. 



Many CompuServe forums are operated or sponsored by software and hardware 

vendors, like: 



Adobe Systems Inc., Aldus Corp., Ashton-Tate Corp., Autodesk Inc., Borland 

International, Broderbund Software Inc., Buttonware Inc., Cadkey Inc., 

Crosstalk Communications, Customs Technologies, Enable Software, Datastorm 

Technologies Inc., Microsoft Systems, Nantucket Corp., Lotus Development 

Corp., Novell Inc., Peter Norton Computing, Quarterdeck Office Systems, 

Quicksoft, Sun Microsystems (TOPS Division), Symantec Corp., Toshiba, 

Turbopower Software, and WordPerfect Corp. 



CompuServe has hundreds of other forums with associated libraries of files 

and programs. 



FidoNet has the PC_TECH and PCUG conferences, and a long list of product 

specific echos like QUICKBBS, PCTOOLS, ZMODEM, DESQVIEW and WINDOWS.SHAREW 

. 

BITNET has CLIPPER (CLIPPER@BRUFPB), I-IBMPC (I-IBMPC@UIUCVMD), PC-L (PC-

L@UFRJ), and the abstract service INFO-IBMPC (IBMPC-L@BNANDP11). On EXEC-

PC, look under MS-DOS systems. Usenet has many offerings including the 

following: 



  comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc    Discussion about IBM personal computers.

  comp.sys.ibm.pc.digest  The IBM PC, PC-XT, and PC-AT. (Moderated)

  comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware        XT/AT/EISA hardware, any vendor.

  comp.sys.ibm.pc.rt      Topics related to IBM's RT computer.

  comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware       Microchannel hardware, any vendor.



For help with Lotus 1-2-3, there are two CompuServe forums. There is a 

LOTUS conference on RelayNet.  For Ami Pro support, visit CompuServe's LDC 

Word Processing Forum. 



WordPerfect Corp. has a support forum on CompuServe. WORDPERF is the 

offering on RelayNet. On ILINK, visit WORDPERFECT. On the Internet, your 

email questions to support@wordperfect.com . They also have a BBS Internet 

connection at ftp.wordperfect.com . 



For owners of Amiga computers

-----------------------------

FidoNet has a long list of conferences for Amiga users:



   AMIGA              Amiga International Echo

   AMIGAGAMES         Amiga Gaming

   AMIGA_COMMS        Amiga Communications Software and Hardware 

   AMIGA_DESKTOP      Amiga Desktop Publishing

   AMIGA_INFO         AMIGA_INFO

   AMIGA_LC           Amiga Lattice/SASC C Echo

   AMIGA_NET_DEV      Amiga Network Developers.

   AMIGA_PDREVIEW     Amiga PD Reviews & Requests

   AMIGA_PERFECT      Amiga Word Perfect & Word Processing

   AMIGA_PROG         Amiga Programmer's International Conference 

   AMIGA_SYSOP        Amiga SysOp's Discussion/ADS Echo

   AMIGA_UG           Amiga User's Groups

   AMIGA_VIDEO        Amiga Video and Animation



EXEC-PC has the Amiga Hardware and Amiga Software conferences, and a large 

library with shareware and public domain files. ILINK has the AMIGA 

conference. 



Usenet's com.sys.amiga hierarchy has entries like advocacy, announce 

applications, audio, datacomm, emulations, games, graphics, hardware, 

introduction, marketplace, multimedia, misc, programmer, reviews and more. 



Abstracts of comp.sys.amiga conferences are available through several 

BITNET mailing lists, like AMIGAHAR@DEARN, AMIGA-D@NDSUVM1, and AMIGA-

S@NDSUVM1. 



Most online services have "Find this File" commands. The most powerful ones 

are often found on free bulletin boards. 



On CompuServe, type GO AMIGA to get to CBMNET and get the following welcome 

menu: 





   Amiga Forums

    1 Amiga Arts Forum

    2 Amiga Tech Forum

    3 Amiga User's Forum

    4 Amiga Vendor Forum

    5 Amiga File Finder



   Commodore Forums

    6 Commodore Arts and Games

    7 Commodore Applications Forum

    8 Commodore Service Forum

    9 Commodore Newsletter



A while ago, we visited CBMNET to find a communications program. From the 

menu above, selection five took us to The Amiga File Finder service, and 

this menu: 



   File Finder AMIGA



    1 About File Finder

    2 Instructions For Searching

    3 How to Locate Keywords



    4 Access File Finder



    5 Your Comments About File Finder



Choice four lets us search for files using keywords, file creation dates, 

forum names, file types, file name extension, file name or author. Our 

choice was searching by keywords. The result was a long list of 

alternatives: 



   Enter Search Term: comm



   Amiga File Finder



    1 AMIGATECH/C Programming  COMSRC.ARC

    2 AMIGATECH/C Programming  PMDSRC.LZH

    3 AMIGATECH/C Programming  PNTSRC.LZH

    4 AMIGAUSER/Communications  BBSIND.LZH

    5 AMIGAUSER/Communications  INTOUC.ARC

    etc.



By entering numbers, we asked for short descriptions of file number 4 

through 13. Here is one of them: 



   Filename : INTOUC.ARC  Forum: AMIGAUSER 

   Lib: Communications  Lib #: 5 

   Submitter: [76702,337]   24-Mar-89 

   Size: 51200   Accesses: 157 



   This is a modified Comm1.34.  It supports both VT100 and ANSI. 

   The VT100 emulation is based on Dave Wecker's VT100 program. 

   There is automatic dialer, split screen that is configurable, 

   phone book, and other nice features. 



This is what we were looking for. First, enter GO AMIGAUSER to get to the 

forum. Enter "DL 5" to get to Downloading Library number 5. INTOUCH.ARC was 

retrieved using the CompuServe Quick B transfer protocol. This protocol is 

usually the most efficient choice on this service. 



  | CompuServe has several File Finder services. These includes   |

  | IBMFF (MS-DOS computers), MACFF (Macintosh), GRAPHFF (for     |

  | Graphics), ATARIFF (Atari computers), AMIGAFF.  Use the GO    |

  | command to access, as in GO IBMFF .                           |



There are also active Amiga forums on BIX, GEnie, and CIX (England). 



Apple users

-----------

FidoNet has an APPLE conference. BITNET has APPLE2-L (APPLE2-L@BROWNVM). 

CompuServe has Apple II Programmers Forum, Apple II Users Forum, Apple II 

Vendor Forum, Mac Community Clubhouse Forum, Mac Developers Forum, Mac 

Fun/Entertainment Forum, Mac Hypertext Forum, Mac New Users/Help Forum, Mac 

System 7.0 Forum, Mac System Software Forum, MacUser Forum and MacWEEK 

Forum. 



Similar services are found on many other online services. You will also 

find conferences devoted to support of popular commercial software for 

Apple computers. 



Other computers

---------------

There are so many types of computers: Atari computers, the TRS-80 series 

and others from Tandy, DEC computers, mainframes from IBM, Hewlett-Packard 

computers, CP/M machines, users of LDOS/TRSDOS or OS9, Apricot, Z88, 

Timex/Sinclair, Archimedes, Psion, and Armstrad. 



Even so, there is a high probability that you can find online support for 

almost all of them. This is so even if the vendor is out of business long 

ago. CompuServe is a good place to start. 







Chapter 9: Your electronic daily news

=====================================



   Read national and global news before they are announced by 

   the traditional media. Get those interesting background 

   facts. Read special interest news stories that seldom 

   appear in print. 



Sure, you read newspapers, watch TV, and listen to radio. But did you know 

how limited their stories are? 



Traditional news media just give you a small part of the news. Their 

editors are not concerned about YOUR particular interests. They serve a 

large group of readers, viewers or listeners with different interests in 

mind. 



Go online to discover the difference. The online news has an enormous width 

and depth. Besides "popular" news, you will find stories that few editors 

bother to print. This may give you better insight in current developments, 

and in as much details as you can take. 



Most commercial online services offer news. Most of their stories come from 

large news agencies and newspapers. You can also read and search articles 

from magazines, newsletters and other special publications. 



The online users' ability to search today and yesterday's news makes these 

offerings particularly useful. 



The cost of reading a given news item varies by online service. What will 

set you back 20 cents on one service, will cost you two dollars on another. 



It may be many times more expensive (or cheap) to read the same article 

from the same news provider on another online service. So, professional 

online users compare prices. 



National news

-------------

In Norway, we have long been able to read local language news from print 

media like Aftenposten, Dagens Naeringsliv, Kapital, and news wires from 

NTB and other local sources. Similarly, local language news is available 

online in most countries. 



The cost of reading local news on national online services tends to be more 

expensive than on major global online services. As competition among global 

news providers increases, however, this is bound to change. 



International news

------------------

"The Global Village" is an old idea in the online world. News from most 

parts of the world has long been globally available. 



A while ago, a well-known Norwegian industrialist visited my office. I 

showed off online searching in NewsNet newsletters and stumbled over a 

story about his company. "Incredible!" he said. "We haven't even told our 

Norwegian employees about this yet." 



Often, American online services give news from other countries earlier you 

can get it on online services from these countries. Besides, the stories 

will be in English. 



  | In 1991, the United States had 56 percent of the world's online |

  | databases (Source: the research company IQ, September 1991).    |



Sure, most Norwegians prefer to read news in Norwegian. The Japanese want 

news in their language, and the French in French. If they can get the news 

earlier than their competitors, however, most are willing to read English. 



Few master many languages. Unless you live in a country where they talk 

Arabic, Chinese or French, chances are that you cannot read news in these 

languages. English, however, is a popular second choice in many countries, 

and it has become the unofficial language of the online world. 



Another thing is that reading local language news is risky. Translators 

often make mistakes. One reason is time pressure, another poor knowledge of 

the source language. 



The risk of inaccuracies increases when a story, for example initially 

translated from Spanish into English, then are being translated into a 

third language. 



Avoid news that has been translated more than once. If not, you may 

experience something like this: 



    On September 19, 1991, Norwegian TV brought news from Moscow.

    They told that Russian president Boris Yeltsin had a heart 

    attack. 



    The online report from Associated Press, which arrived 7.5 

    hours earlier, talked about "a minor heart attack" with the

    following additional explanation: "In Russian, the phrase 

    'heart attack' has a broader meaning than in English. It is 

    commonly used to refer to a range of ailments from chest pains 

    to actual heart failure." 



Your "personal online daily newspaper" will often give you the news faster 

and more correctly than traditional print media. Some news is only made 

available in electronic form. 



Seven minutes in 1991

---------------------

On September 19, I called CompuServe to read news and gather information 

about online news sources. 



According to my log, I connected through Infonet in Oslo (see Chapter 13). 

The total cost for seven minutes was US$6.00, which included the cost of a 

long distance call to Oslo. (Today, using CompuServe's Standard Pricing 

Plan, it would have set me back much less.) 



I read some stories, while they scrolled over the screen. All was captured 

to a file on my hard disk for later study. The size of this file grew to 

32.000 characters, or almost 15 single-spaced typewritten pages (A-4 size). 

If I had spent less time reviewing the lists of available stories, seven 

minutes would have given a larger file. 



When I had entered my user ID and password, a menu of stories came up on my 

screen. The headline read "News from CompuServe." 



The two first items caught my attention, and I requested the text. One had 

20 lines about an easier method of finding files in the forum libraries. 

The other had ten lines about how to write addresses for international fax 

messages. 



The command GO APV brought me directly to Associated Press News Wires. 

You'll find such tricks by reading the online services' user manuals. This 

command produced the following menu: 



    AP Online                  APV-1



     1 Latest News-Updated Hourly

     2 Weather

     3 Sports

     4 National

     5 Washington

     6 World

     7 Political

     8 Entertainment

     9 Business News

    10 Wall Street

    11 Dow Jones Average

    12 Feature News

    13 Today in History



I entered "9" for business news, and got a new list of stories: 



    AP Online



    1 Women, Minority Businesses Lag

    2 Child World Accuses Toys R Us

    3 UPI May Cancel Worker Benefits

    4 Drilling Plan Worries Florida

    5 UK Stocks Dip, Tokyo's Higher

    6 Dollar Higher, Gold Up

    7 Farm Exports Seen Declining

    8 Supermarket Coupons Big Bucks

    9 Cattlemen Tout Supply, Prices

    0 Tokyo Stocks, Dollar Higher



    MORE !



The screen stopped scrolling by "MORE !". Pressing ENTER gave a new list. 

None of them were of any interest. 



Pressing M (for previous menu) returned me to the APV-1 menu (the videotext 

page number is given in the upper right corner of each menu display). I 

selected "World" for global news, which gave me this list: 





    AP Online



    6 Two Killed In Nagorno Karabakh

    7 Yugoslavia Fighting Rages On

    8 Storm Kills Five In Japan

    9 Afghan Rebels Going To Moscow?

    0 19 Killed in Guatemala Quakes



    MORE !8



Oh, a storm in Japan! Interesting. I was due to leave for Japan in a couple 

of weeks, and entered 8 at the MORE ! prompt to read. A screenful of text 

was transferred in a few seconds. 



"This is for later study," I said, pressed M to return to the menu, and 

then ENTER to get the next listing: 





    AP Online



    1 Bomblets Kill American Troops?

    2 No Movement On Hostage Release

    3 Baker Plans Return To Syria

    4 Baker, King Hussein To Confer

    5 Madame Chiang Leaving Taiwan?

    6 Baker Leaves Syria for Jordan

    7 Klaus Barbie Hospitalized

    8 Iraq Denounces U.S. Threat

    9 Yelstin Said Resting At Home

    0 SS Auschwitz Guard Found Dead



    MORE !



Here, I used another trick from the user manual. Entering "5,6,9" gave 

three stories in one batch with no pauses between them. Five screens with 

text. If I had read the menu more carefully, I might probably also have 

selected story 0. It looked like an interesting item. 



"This is enough of the Associated Press," I thought,  and typed G NEWS. This 

gave me an overview of all available news sources ("G NEWS" is an 

abbreviation for "GO NEWS," or "GO to the main NEWS menu"): 





    News/Weather/Sports         NEWS



     1 Executive News Service ($)

     2 NewsGrid

     3 Associated Press Online

     4 Weather

     5 Sports

     6 The Business Wire

     7 Newspaper Library

     8 UK News/Sports

     9 Entertainment News/Info

    10 Online Today Daily Edition

    11 Soviet Crisis



First, a quick glance at 6. The service presented itself in these words: 

"Throughout the day The Business Wire makes available press releases, news 

stories, and other information from the world of business.  Information on 

hundreds of different companies is transmitted daily to The Business Wire's 

subscribers." 



Then #7: "This database contains selected full-text stories from 48 

newspapers from across the United States. Classified ads are NOT included 

in the full-text of each paper." 



The list of newspapers included Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and San 

Francisco Chronicle (known for many interesting inside stories from Silicon 

Valley). 



Choice 8 gave news from England. There, I selected UK News Clips, which 

gave the following options: 



  U.K. News Clips



   93 stories selected



   1 RTw  09/19 0818  YUGOSLAV AIR FORCE HITS CROATIAN COMMUNICATIONS

   2 RTw  09/19 0755  CROATIA BATTLES CONTINUE AS EC PONDERS PEACE FORCE

   3 RTw  09/19 0753  ARAB PAPERS SAY MOSCOW WANTS MIDEAST PARLEY DELAYED

   4 RTw  09/19 0749  DOLLAR STANDS STILL, SHARES DRIFT LOWER IN ...

   5 RTw  09/19 0729  EARNINGS GLOOM REVERSES LONDON STOCKS' EARLY GAINS

   6 RTw  09/19 0716  SOVIETS NEED 14.7 BILLION DOLLARS FOOD AID, EC SAYS

   7 RTw  09/19 0707  IRA SAYS IT KILLED TIMBER YARD WORKER IN BELFAST DOCKS

   8 RTw  09/19 0706  BRITISH CONSERVATIVE CHIEF PLAYS DOWN TALK OF ...

   9 RTw  09/19 0630  FINANCE RATES

  10 RTw  09/19 0603  REUTER WORLD NEWS SCHEDULE AT 1000 GMT THURSDAY ...



The numbers in column four are the release times of the stories. They flow 

in from the wires in a continuous stream. 



Next stop was the UK Newspaper Library. Here, you can search in full-text 

stories from The Daily and Sunday Telegraph, Financial Times, The Guardian, 

UK News (with selected stories from The Daily & Sunday Telegraph, Financial 

Times, The Guardian, The Times/Sunday Times, Today, The Independent, 

Lloyd's List and The Observer). 



The rate for searching the UK Newspaper Library at that time was US$6.00 

for up to ten hits. For another US$6.00, I could get a selection menu with 

an additional ten stories. The rate was US$6.00 to read the full text of 

selected stories. These rates were added to CompuServe's normal access 

rates. 



The news service Soviet Crisis was my final destination. This was just a 

few weeks after the attempted coup in Moscow, and I was eager for reports. 



I found the following interesting story from OTC NewsAlert: 



OTC  09/19 0750  FIRST ENGLISH LANGUAGE SOVDATA DAILINE IS LAUNCHED



This selection gave me three screens with information about a new online 

service. Briefly, this is what it said: 



   "The SovData DiaLine service includes an on-line library of more 

   than 250 Soviet newspapers, business and economic periodicals, 

   profiles of more than 2,500 Soviet firms and key executives that 

   do business with the West, legislative reports and other 

   information."



It also said that part of the database was available through Mead Data 

Central (Nexis/Lexis), and that it would be made available through like 

Data-Star, FT Profile, Reuters, Westlaw, and GBI. Undoubtedly, the name has 

changed by the time you read this. 



Finally, a fresh story about the fate of KGB. I read another fifty lines, 

entered OFF (for "goodbye CompuServe"), and received the following verdict: 



    Thank you for using CompuServe!



    Off at 09:03 EDT 19-Sep-91

    Connect time = 0:07



Seven minutes. Fifteen typed pages of text. US$6.00. Not bad!



An overwhelming choice

----------------------

I am confident that your "daily online newspaper" will contain other 

stories. If you're into computers, you may want to start with Online Today, 

CompuServe's daily newspaper. It brings short, informative news stories 

about the computer industry. 



NewsBytes is another interesting source for computer news. It offers global 

headline news from its bureaus around the world. The articles are sorted in 

sections called APPLE, BUSINESS, GENERAL, GOVERNMENT, IBM, REVIEW, TELECOM, 

TRENDS and UNIX. A favorite! 



Newsnet is also available through Genie, ZiffNet on CompuServe, America 

Online, Applelink, Prodigy, BIX, NewsNet, Dialog, in the newsgroup clari.nb 

on Usenet, and various BBS systems around the world. 



For general news, start with major newswires, like Associated Press, Agence 

France-Presse, Xinhua, Reuters, and the like. You will find them on many 

commercial services including NewsNet, CompuServe, and Dialog. 



FROGNET - The French Way

------------------------

If you know French, check out FROGNET. This French language service brings 

daily news from Agence France Press, and often has added excerpts from the 

French dailies. 



FROG is distributed by the services of the French embassy in Washington. It 

covers world affairs, European and French items, assembled, naturally, from 

a French point of view. 



The service is free. To subscribe, send a message through the Internet to 

FROG@GUVAX.GEORGETOWN.EDU . It should contain your answers to the following 

electronic application form. Replace the %s with your inputs (This is 

French, right?): 



     NOM:   %

     PRENOM:  %

     NAISSANCE:../../..%

     ARRIVEE:../../..%

     DEPART:../../..%

     EMAIL:    %

     ECOLE D'ORIGINE:  %

     QUALITE:  %

     ADRESSE DE RECHERCHE:   %

     PAYS:   %

     STATE:     %

     UNIVERSITE:   %

     RECHERCHE:   %

     MOTSCLES:   %

     DOMAINE:  %



Complicated? OK, here's some instructions in "French ASCII":



   * Pour les dates veuillez utiliser le format Francais

     (DD/MM/YY). Arrivee: c'est la date d'arrivee dans le pays

     ou vous etes actuellement.

   * QUALITE: Etes vous VSN, PHD, MASTER, INGENIEUR, POST-DOC ...?

   * ECOLE D'ORIGINE: Diplome obtenu en France

   * PAYS: US, Australie ....

   * STATE: pour les US en 2 lettres (NY, TX, CA)

   * UNIVERSITE: actuelle ou societe

   * RECHERCHE: Soyez explicite !

   * MOTSCLES: (ex: Neuronaux, polymeres, TVHD...)

   * DOMAINE: En 3 lettres confere nomenclature ci-dessous





Nomenclature de la National Science Foundation.



   AGR   AGRICULTURE

   BIO   BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

   HES   HEALTH SCIENCES

   ENG   ENGINEERING

   CIS   COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SC.

   MAT   MATHEMATICS

   PHY   PHYSICAL SCIENCES

   AST   Astronomy

   ATM   Atmospheric & Meteorological Sciences

   CHE   Chemistry

   GEO   Geological Sciences

   PHS   Physics

   OPH   Other Physical Sciences

   PSY   PSYCHOLOGY

   SOS   SOCIAL SCIENCES

   HUM   HUMANITIES

   HIS   History

   LET   Letters

   FLL   Foreign Languages & Literature

   OHU   Other Humanities

   EDU   EDUCATION

   EDG   Education General

   TED   Teacher Education

   TEF   Teaching fields

   PRF   PROFESSIONAL FIELDS

   BUS   Business & Management

   COM   Communications

   PFO   Other Professional Fields

   OTH   OTHER FIELDS



News is more than news 

----------------------

After some time, your definition of the notion "news" may change. Since so 

many conferences are interesting sources, they should also be a part of 

your news gathering strategy. Check in regularly to read what members 

report about what they have seen, done, heard, or discovered. 



By the way, professional news hunters have also discovered this. Online 

conferences are popular hunting grounds for reporters of the traditional 

press. 



FidoNet has many conferences with specialized news contents: 



      ANEWS                 News of the US and World

      BBNS                  BBS News Service

      BIONEWS               Environmental News

      EL_SALVADOR           Analysis and News About El Salvador

      NICANET               Analysis and News About Nicaragua

      PACIFIC_NEWS          Pacific News

      PANAMA                Analysis and News About Panama



BITNET has mailing lists like:



      CHINA-NN         CHINA-NN@ASUACAD  China News Digest (Global News)

      CURRENTS         CURRENTS@PCCVM    South Asian News and Culture 

      INDIA-L          INDIA-L@TEMPLEVM  The India News Network

      PAKISTAN         PAKISTAN@ASUACAD  Pakistan News Service

      SEDSNEWS         SEDSNEWS@TAMVM1   News about Space from SEDS

      TSSNEWS          TSSNEWS@PSUVM     Tunisian Scientific Society News



RFERL-L (on LISTSERV@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU) distributes the RFE/RL Research 

Institute Daily Report. It is a digest of the latest developments in the 

former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.  The report is published Monday 

through Friday by the RFE/RL Research Institute, a division of Radio Free 

Europe/Radio Liberty Inc. in Germany. 



Some mailing lists bring a steady flow of news from various sources. 

SEASIA-L@MSU - The Southeast Asia Discussion List - is one example. The 

list is "designed to facilitate communication between researchers, 

scholars, students, teachers, and others interested in Southeast Asian 

studies with an emphasis on current events." 



SEASIA-L defines Southeast Asia loosely as Burma/Myanmar across to Hong 

Kong and down through Australia and New Zealand. Regularly, it brings full-

text news stories from Inter Press Service, regional news agencies, and 

newspapers/radio. Some examples: 



On Jul. 30, 1992, a full-text story from IPS:  "PHILIPPINES: RAMOS URGES 

REPEAL OF ANTI-COMMUNIST LAW." On Aug. 13, 1992, full-text story from The 

New Straits Times (Singapore): "Schoolgirls involved in flesh trade, says 

Farid." On Aug. 31, "ANTI-VIETNAMESE FORCE TURNS UP IN CAMBODIA" (Reuter). 



SEASIA-L also brings "underground" reports like "The Burma Focus," a 

bimonthly newsletter published by the All Burma Students' Democratic Front. 



ECUADOR brings news from Ecuador. Daily news bulletins from "Diario Hoy" 

are posted to the list. Send rone@skat.usc.edu your subscription request. 



Many CompuServe forums have news sections. If you're into Hot News and 

Rumors about Amiga Computers, read messages in section 3 of the Amiga Tech 

Forum. 



Consumer Electronics Forum has the section "New Products/News." The 

Journalist Forum has "Fast Breaking News!" The Motor Sports Forum has 

"Racing News/Notes." The Online Today Forum has "In the News." 



NewsNet's list of newsletters that you can read or search online is long, 

and back issues are also available. For example: 



      Africa News, Agence France-Presse International News, Applied 

      Genetics News, Asian Economic News, Asian Political News, 

      Business Travel News, Catholic News Service, CD Computing 

      News, Computer Reseller News, Electronic Materials Technology 

      News, Electronic Trade & Transport News, Electronic World 

      News, High Tech Ceramics News, Inter Press Service 

      International News, International Businessman News Report, 

      News From France, Northern Ireland News Service, Online 

      Product News, Sourcemex -- economic news on Mexico, and 

      XINHUA English language news service (China). 



The Inter Press Service's newsletter International News focuses on Third 

World countries, and news from Europe/North America of interest to these 

countries (also available through Impress on Nexis). 



Usenet brings news from Bangladesh, India and Nepal in misc.news.southasia. 



Clarinet is an electronic publishing network service on the Internet that 

provides commercial news and information, including live UPI wire service 

news. On Usenet, the ClariNet hierarchy gateways newsgroups from sources, 

like: 



      biz.commodity     Commodity news and price reports.

      feature           Feature columns and products

      canada.briefs     Regular updates of Canadian News in Brief.

      biz.economy       Economic news and indicators

      biz.top           Top business news

      books             Books & publishing. 

      briefs            Regular news summaries. 

      bulletin          Major breaking stories of the week. 

      consumer          Consumer news, car reviews etc. 

      demonstration     Demonstrations around the world. 

      disaster          Major problems, accidents & natural disasters.

      economy           General economic news. 

      entertain         Entertainment industry news & features. 

      europe            News related to Europe. 

      fighting          Clashes around the world. 

      hot.east_europe   News from Eastern Europe. 

      hot.iraq          The Gulf Crisis

      hot.panama        Panama and General Noriega. 

      news.top          Top US news stories. 

      news.top.world    Top international news stories. 

      news.trends       Surveys and trends. 

      news.urgent       Major breaking stories of the day. 



A feed of ClariNet news is available for a fee and execution of a license.  

(Write info@clarinet.com for information.) 



UUCP has which brings regular news bulletins from Poland (Contact: 

przemek@ndcvx.cc.nd.edu). 



Behind the news

---------------

In an effort to garner new subscribers and retain current readers, magazine 

publishers turn to online services to create an ancillary electronic 

version of their print product. 



Their readers are being transformed from passive recipients of information 

into active participants in publishing. 



You can "talk" to BYTE's writers on BIX, and with PC Magazine's writers 

through ZiffNet on CompuServe. Their forums function as expert sources. 

Here, you will often learn about products and trends sometimes before the 

magazines hit the newsstand. 



InfoWorld, an American computer magazine, runs the InfoWorld OnLine service 

on CompuServe. Enter GO INF to get to the following menu: 



InfoWorld On-Line      INFOWORLD



WELCOME TO INFOWORLD

 1 About InfoWorld Online

 2 Read Current Week's News -  1/13/92

 3 Read Prior Week's News   -  1/06/92

 4 Download Current Week's Reviews,

    Comparisons and Test Drives ($)

 5 Download Prior Week's Reviews,

    Comparisons and Test Drives ($)

 6 Searching Help

 7 Search Review/Comparisons/

    Impressions/Test Drives

 8 Comments to InfoWorld



InfoWorld highlights comprehensive computer product comparisons and 

reports. You can browse this or previous weeks' comparisons and reviews, or 

search the entire collection. You can search by company name, product, 

software and hardware category. 



Britain's two best-selling PC magazines share the PC Plus/PC Answers Online 

forum on CompuServe (GO PCPLUS). 



PC Magazine, another American magazine, has several forums on CompuServe. 

They also operate a bulletin board. People from AI Expert Magazine can be 

encountered in the AI Expert Forum. Dr. Dobb's Journal is in the Dr. Dobb's 

Journal Forum. 



The Entrepreneur's Small Business Forum (CompuServe) is managed by 

representatives from the magazine. Live Sound!, a magazine devoted to the 

MIDI sound field, occupies section and library 9 of the MIDI B Vendor 

Forum. 



Time magazine has a forum on America Online. There, readers can discuss 

with magazine reporters and editors, and even read the text of entire 

issues of Time electronically before it is available on newsstands. Time 

Warner's book authors and editors are available on CompuServe. 



The Online World shareware book, the one you're reading just now, also has 

a forum. For information about how to join, send email to 

LISTSERV@vm1.nodak.edu (or LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 on BITNET). In the text of your 

message, write the command "GET TOW MASTER". 







Chapter 10: Looking for a needle in a bottle of hay

===================================================





There is little doubt that the databases of the online world contain nearly 

everything needed to complete a major research project, fuel an 

information-needy business, or just help get the school homework done. 



Online research is faster, provides more depth and is cross-referenced to 

help researchers locate obscure resources. It makes you an "instant expert" 

on a subject matter. The main problem is learning how to get a confident 

grip on the searching process. 



Prepare by clipping

-------------------

Experienced users regularly clip news from online services, and store 

selected parts of it on their personal computers' hard disks. They use 

powerful tools to search their data, and know how to use the information in 

other applications. 



Regular clipping of news is highly recommended. It is often quicker and 

easier to search your own databases than to do it online. 



Since your data is a subset of previous searches, your stories are likely 

to have a high degree of relevancy. 



There are many powerful programs for personal computers that let you search 

your personal data for information. Read Chapter 14 for more on this. 



While secondary research can never replace primary information gathering, 

it often satisfies most information needs related to any task or project. 

Besides, it points in the direction of primary sources from where more in-

depth information may be elicited. 



When your personal database fails to deliver

--------------------------------------------

Regular "clipping" can indeed help you build a powerful personal database, 

but it will never satisfy all your information needs. Occasionally, you 

must go online for additional facts. 



When this happens, you may feel like Don Quixote, as he was looking "for a 

needle in a bottle of hay." The large number of online offerings is 

bewildering. To be successful, you must have a sound search strategy. 



Your first task is to locate useful SOURCES of information. The next, to 

decide how best to find that specific piece of information online. You must 

PLAN your search. 



Although one source of information, like an online database, is supposed to 

cover your area of interest, it may still be unable to give you what you 

want. Let me explain with an example: 



    You're tracking a company called IBM (International Business

    Machines). Your first inclination is to visit forums and clubs

    concerned with products delivered by this company. There, you 

    plan to search message bases and file libraries. 



    What is likely to happen, is that the search term IBM gives so 

    many hits that you almost drown. To find anything of interest 

    in these forums, your search terms must be very specific. 



    General news providers, like Associated Press, may be a better 

    alternative. Usually, they just publish one or two stories on 

    IBM per week. Don't expect to learn about details that are not 

    of interest to the general public. 



    AP's stories may be too general for you. Maybe you'll be more

    content with industry insiders' expert views, as provided by

    the NewsNet newsletters OUTLOOK ON IBM, or THE REPORT ON IBM.



The level of details in a given story depends in part on the news 

providers' readers, and the nature of the source. The amount of "noise" 

(the level of irrelevancy) also varies. In most public forums, expect to 

wade through many uninteresting messages before finding things of interest. 



We suggest the following strategy: 



    Step 1: Locate sources that provide relevant information,



    Step 2: Check if the information from these sources is at a

            satisfactory level of details, and that the volume 

            is acceptable (not too much, neither too little). 



    Step 3: Study the service's search commands and procedures, 

            PLAN, and then SEARCH.



Start by asking others!

-----------------------

Step 1 is not an easy one. Start by asking other online people for advice. 

This may be the fastest way to interesting sources. 



If looking for information about agriculture and fisheries, visit 

conferences about related topics. Ask members there what they are using. 



If you want information about computers or electronics, ask in such 

conferences. 



  | When you don't know where to start your search, ask others! |

  | Their know-how is usually the quickest way to the sources.  |



If this doesn't help, check out GEnie's Home Office/Small Business 

RoundTable, a hangout of online searchers. Visit CompuServe's Working From 

Home Forum, which has a section for information professionals (#4), and the 

section for new librarians in the Journalism Forum. 



Patent searchers are a very specialized group. They discuss common problems 

on Dialog's DialMail. Their bulletin board is named PIUG. 



Buy user manuals

----------------

Some online services send free user information manuals to their users. 

Others charge extra for them. If they do, buy! They're worth their weight 

in gold. 



The user manuals from Dialog, Dow Jones News/Retrieval and CompuServe make 

good reading. The last two also publish monthly magazines full of search 

tips, information about new sources, user experiences, and more. Dialog 

distributes the monthly newsletter Chronolog. 



NewsNet customers periodically receive a printed listing of available 

newsletters by subject area, and a presentation of their information 

providers. The NewsNet Action Letter (monthly) is also distributed by mail. 



On some services, you can retrieve the help texts in electronic form. Doing 

that is not a bad idea. It is often quicker to search a help file on your 

disk, than to browse through a book. 



Monitor the offerings

---------------------

Professional information searchers monitor the activity in the online 

world. They search databases for information about new sources of 

information, and regularly read about new services. 



On most online services, you can search databases of available offerings, 

and a section with advertisements about their own 'superiorities'. Keep an 

eye on what is being posted there. 



NewsNet lets you read and search the following newsletters:  Worldwide 

Videotex Update, Worldwide Databases (#PB44), Online Newsletter, The Online 

Newsletter, the Information and Database Publishing Report, and The Online 

Libraries and Microcomputers. 



The last two are also available as a database from Information 

Intelligence, Inc., (P.O. Box 31098, Phoenix, AZ 85046, U.S.A. Tel.: +1-

602-996-2283). You can read the text on NewsNet about one week before it 

appears in print. 



These two newsletters can also be read and searched on Dialog and Data-

Star, as part of the Information Access PTS Newsletter Database. 

Information Access is a full-text database with many specialized 

newsletters for business and industry. 



On CompuServe, you can get to Information Access through the IQuest gateway 

to NewsNet. 



Subscribe to THE ONLINE NEWSLETTER at US$50.00 per year (10 issues) for 

companies, and US$35.00 for personal use (1991). For both newsletters, the 

price is US$75.00. 



These newsletters are also available on CD-ROM. The disk contains four 

databases: the Online Newsletter, Online Hotline, Online Libraries and 

Microcomputers, Major Online Vendors and *Joblines* with more than eight 

thousand full-text articles from January 1980 until today. 



The CD-ROM version is delivered with a menu-driven searching program. Each 

word in every article and headline has been indexed and can be located in 

all databases. The price for subscriptions of the printed version is 

US$99.95. Price for nonsubscribers: US$199.95. 



The September 1991 issue of The Online Newsletter had the following index 

(partial): 



   *****************************

   *NEW & FORTHCOMING DATABASES*

   *****************************



   10)  MULTIMEDIA CIA WORLD FACT BOOK (CD-ROM) [REVIEW]

   11)  NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS ON CD-ROM (CD-ROM) [REVIEW]

   12)  WORLD CERAMICS ABSTRACTS (ORBIT)

   13)  GENE-TOX (TOXNET/NLM)

   14)  UK TRADEMARKS (ORBIT) [RENAMED]

   15)  BRS ADDS DATABASES TO ITS OFFERINGS

   16)  CURRENT PATENTS (ORBIT)

   17)  NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE ON CD-ROM (CD-ROM)

   18)  ALUMINUM STANDARDS DATABASE [AAASD] (STN

   19)  PLASNEWS (STN INTERNATIONAL)

   20)  EPIC ANNOUNCES NEW DATABASES

   21)  DISCLIT: AMERICAN AUTHORS (CD-ROM - OCLC)

   22)  CROSS-CULTURAL: CRIME AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS (CD-ROM)

   23)  INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICAL ABSTRACTS (CD-ROM)

   24)  RINGDOC (CD-ROM - SILVERPLATTER)

   25)  CODUS (ESA-IRS)

   26)  MOODY'S COMPANY DATA (CD-ROM)

   27)  FEDERAL NEWS SERVICE (DIALOG)

   28)  INPADOC DATABASE TO BE MADE AVAILABLE IN JAPAN (DIALOG)    

   29)  SOFTWARE CD: DESCRIPTIONS & REVIEWS (CD-ROM)

   30)  MONARCH NOTES ON CD-ROM (CD-ROM)



An earlier issue of the newsletter reviewed The Encyclopedia of Information 

Systems and Services, a three-volume "bible" for online users and producers 

(9th edition): 



EISS covers more than 30,000 organizations, systems, services, more than 

five thousand databases, publications, software products, etc. Their 

international listing covers 1,350 information organizations in 70 

countries, and has 535 pages. 



Topics: online host services, videotex/teletext information services, PC 

oriented services, data collection and analysis services, abstracting  and 

indexing services,  computerized searching services, software producers, 

magnetic tape/diskette providers, micrographic applications and services, 

library and information networks, library management systems, information 

on demand services, transactional services (new category), document 

delivery services, SDI/current awareness services, consultants, 

associations, research and research projects, and electronic mail 

applications. 



Contact: Gale Research  Company,  645  Griswold, Detroit, MI 48226, U.S.A. 

Tel.: +1-313-961-2242. Price per set: US$ 420.00. 



The European Common Market

--------------------------

Many services bring news and information from the European Common Market. 

The Common Market's free database service,  I'M-GUIDE, is a good place to 

start. 



I'M-GUIDE is available through ECHO in Luxembourg by telnet to echo.lu . At 

the question "PLEASE ENTER YOUR CODE," enter ECHO and press RETURN. 



You can search I'M-GUIDE for information sources, send email inquiries to 

ECHO, and more. Searches can be done in English, French, German, Italian, 

Spanish, Dutch, Danish, and Portuguese. 



If you have problems using I'M-GUIDE, call the ECHO Help Desk in Luxembourg 

at +352-34 98 11. 



The full text of the Maastricht Treaty on European Union is available 

through gopher sunic.sunet.se / subject tree / politics . 



More sources about sources

--------------------------

The "Internet-Accessible Library Catalogs and Databases" report is 

available by email from LISTSERV@UNMVM.BITNET. Put the following command in 

the TEXT of your message: 



     GET LIBRARY PACKAGE



The Online Access Publishing Group Inc. (Chicago) sells "The Online Access 

Guide." Annual subscription for this printed manual costs US$18.95 (six 

issues - 1992). 



The LINK-UP magazine is another interesting source. If living in North 

America, contact Learned Information Inc., 143 Old Mariton Pike, Medford, 

NJ 08055-8707, U.S.A.. If living elsewhere, contact Learned Information 

(Europe) Ltd., Woodside, Hinskey Hill, Oxford OX1 5AU, England, if you live 

outside North America. Tel.: +44 865 730 275.  Price: US$25.00 for six 

issues/year (1993). An online version is available through ZiffNet's 

Business Database Plus on CompuServe. 



Two monthly magazines, Information World Review (price: GBP 30/year) and  

FULLTEXT SOURCES ONLINE from BiblioData Inc. in the United States, is also 

available through Learned Information. (BiblioData, P.O. Box 61, Needham 

Heights, MA 02194, U.S.A.) 



FULLTEXT SOURCES ONLINE publishes their listing of full-text databases 

twice per year. The price is GBP 50 GBP per booklet or GBP 90 per year. 



The newsletter SCANNET TODAY (c/o Helsinki University of Techn. Library, 

Otnaesvaegen 9, SF-02150 ESBO, Finland) presents news of Scandinavian 

databases by country. Subscription is free. 



The Gale Directory of Databases from Gale Research is available both in 

print and online through Dialog, and others. It contains information about 

5183 online databases, 2204 information producers, and 818 database hosts 

or information services (1993). Write to Gale Research Company, 645 

Griswold, Detroit, MI 48226, U.S.A., or Gale Research Int. Ltd, P.O. Box 

699, North Way, Andover, Hampshire, England SP10 5YE. 



The 120 pages English language Directory of Information Services in China 

lists over 325 online databases, information networks and sources of 

publications in the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong (Sep. 93). It 

has been prepared by The China Co-operative Library and Information Science 

Linkage Project (CINFOLINK) in Canada. Email: MHe@idrc.ca (for inquiry).



The mailing list NET-RESOURCES@IS.INTERNIC.NET serves network information

service providers and end users with announcements of new tools and 

resources available over the Internet. Send your subscription to 

LISTSERV@IS.INTERNIC.NET . 



Many electronic journals and newsletters are available through the 

Internet, covering fields from literature to molecular biology. For a 

complete list, send a message to LISTSERV@ACADVM1.UOTTAWA.CA with the 

following commands in the BODY of your text: 



    GET EJOURNL1 DIRECTRY

    GET EJOURNL2 DIRECTRY



Practical hints about online searching

--------------------------------------

We cannot give a simple, universal recipe valid for all online services. 

What is the best approach on one service, may be useless on others. 



Most services offer full online documentation of their search commands. You 

can read the help text on screen while connected, or retrieve it for later 

study. 



Make a note about the following general tricks: 



    In conferences and forums:

    --------------------------

    Many services have commands for selective reading of messages.

    For example, on CompuServe you can limit your search to given 

    sections. You can also select messages to be read based on

    text strings in the subject titles. The command



            rs;s;CIS Access from Japan;62928



    displays all messages with the text "CIS Access from Japan"

    in their subject titles starting with message number 62928.



    Online searching often starts by selecting databases. The

    next step is to enter search words (or text strings), and 

    a valid time frame (as in "between 1/1/90 and 1/1/91").



    The following sample search terms are used on NewsNet:



    VIDEO*                  search for all words starting with

                            VIDEO. "*" is a wild-card character

                            referring to any ending of the word.

                            VIDEO* matches words like VIDEOTEXT 

                            and VIDEOCONFERENCE. 



    SONY AND VIDEO          The word SONY and the word VIDEO. Both

                            words must be present in the document

                            to give a match.



    SONY WITHIN/10 VIDEO    Both words must be present in the text,

                            but they must not be farther apart than

                            ten words. (Proximity operators)



    IBM OR APPLE            Either one word OR the other.



    Many services let you reuse your search terms in new search 

    commands. This can save you time and money, if there are too 

    many hits. For example: if IBM OR APPLE gives 1,000 hits, 

    limit the search by adding "FROM JANUARY 1st.," or by adding

    the search word "NOTEBOOK*". 



    In file libraries

    -----------------

    The commands used to find files are similar to those used in

    traditional databases. Often, you can limit the search by 

    library, date, file name, or file extension. You can search for 

    text strings in the description of the contents of a file, or 

    use key words. 



    Example: You're visiting a bulletin board based on the BBS 

    program RBBS-PC. You want a program that can show GIF graphics 

    picture files.  Such files are typically described like this: 



 VUIMG31.EXE     103105  07-15-91 GIF*/TIFF/PCX Picture Viewer/Printer   



    From left to right: file name, size in bytes, date available,

    and a 40 character description.



    You can search the file descriptions for the string "gif". You

    do this by entering the term "s gif all". This will probably 

    give you a list of files. Some will have the letters GIF in 

    the file name. Others will have them in the description field. 



Using ANDs and ORs

------------------

Boolean searching may seem confusing at first, unless you already 

understand the logic. There are three Boolean operators that searchers use 

to combine search terms: AND, OR, and NOT. 



Use the Boolean operator AND to retrieve smaller amounts of information. 

Use AND when multiple words must be present in your search results 

(MERCEDES AND VOLVO AND CITROEN AND PRICES). 



Use OR to express related concepts or synonyms for your search term (FRUIT 

OR APPLES OR PEARS OR BANANAS OR PEACHES). 



Be careful when using the NOT operator. It gets rid of any record in a 

database that contains the word that you've "notted" out. For example, 

searching for "IBM NOT APPLE" drops records containing the sentence, "IBM 

and Apple are computer giants." The record will be dropped, even if this is 

the only mention of Apple in an article, and though it is solely about IBM. 



Use NOT to drop sets of hits that you have already seen. Use NOT to exclude 

records with multiple meanings, like "CHIPS Not POTATO" (if you are looking 

for chips rather than snack foods). 



Often, it pays to start with a "quick-and-dirty" search by throwing in 

words you think will do the trick. Then look at the first five or 10 

records, but look only at the headline and the indexing. This will show you 

what terms are used by indexers to describe your idea and the potential for 

confusion with other ideas. 



Use proximity operators to search multiword terms. If searching for "market 

share," you want the two words within so many words of another. The order 

of the words, however, doesn't matter. You can accept both "market share" 

and "share of the market." 



Searching by email

------------------

MCI Mail and MCI Fax have a program called Information Advantage, under 

which online services and newsletters can deliver search results and other 

information over the online services. Dialog, Dun & Bradstreet, NewsNet, 

and Individual Inc. have signed up for the program. 



You can request a search by direct email to say Dialog. The search results 

will be returned to you via MCI Mail or MCI Fax. 



With Dun and Bradstreet, you call them for a credit report and they send it 

to you. With History Associates, you send them a message via MCI Mail, and 

they report to you. 



Using BITNET discussion lists through Internet

----------------------------------------------

To get a directory of Internet/BITNET mailing lists, send the following 

email message: 



    To:  LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU

    Subject: (keep this blank)

    Text: 

    LIST GLOBAL



You will receive a LONG list of available sources of information. A recent 

copy had over two thousand lines of text. Each mailing list is described 

with one line. All these mailing lists can be used by email through the 

Internet. Here is a random selection: 



Network-wide ID  Full address      List title

---------------  ------------      ----------

AESRG-L          AESRG-L@UMCVMB    Applied Expert Systems Research Group List

AGRIC-L          AGRIC-L@UGA       Agriculture Discussion

AIDSNEWS         AIDSNEWS@EB0UB011 AIDS/HIV News

ANIME-L          ANIME-L@VTVM1     Japanese animedia and other animation news.

BANYAN           BANYAN-L@AKRONVM  Banyan Networks Discussion List

BRIDGE           BRIDGE@NDSUVM1    Bridge Communication products

CHEM-L           CHEM-L@UOGUELPH   Chemistry discussion

EJCREC           EJCREC@RPITSVM    Electronic Journal of Communication

FAMCOMM          FAMCOMM@RPITSVM   Marital/family & relational communication

SOVNET-L         SOVNET-L@INDYCMS  USSR electronic communication list



The column "Network-wide ID" contains the names of the mailing lists. "Full 

address" contains their BITNET email addresses. "List title" is a short 

textual description of each conference. 



Keep the list on your hard disk. This makes it easier to find sources of 

information, when you need them. 



Subscribing to mailing lists

----------------------------

Each line in the list above refers to a mailing list, also often called 

'discussion list'. They work like online conferences or message sections on 

bulletin boards, but technically they are different. (Read about KIDLINK in 

Chapter 2 for background information.) 



All BITNET mailing lists are controlled by a program called LISTSERV on the 

host computer given in column two above (for example @UMCVMB). They offer 

"conferencing" with the following important functions: 



    * All "discussion items" (i.e., electronic messages sent to the

      lists' email address) are distributed to all subscribers.

    * All messages are automatically stored in notebook archives.

      You can search these log files, and you can have them sent

      to you as electronic mail.

    * Files can be stored in the lists' associated file libraries

      for distribution to subscribers on demand.



Where to send a subscription request, depends on where you are 

communicating from relative to the host running the LISTSERV. If this host 

is your nearest BITNET LISTSERV, then send the request to the address in 

column two by replacing the list name by LISTSERV. 



    Example:

    AESRG-L@UMCVMB is administered by LISTSERV@UMCVMB. Subscribe

    (or signoff) by email to LISTSERV@UMCVMB.BITNET . 



If there is a LISTSERV closer to where you live, then you should subscribe 

to the nearby system rather than to the remote. This helps keep the total 

costs of the international network down. 



    Example:

    You live in Norway. The nearest LISTSERV is at FINHUTC. To

    subscribe to AESRG-L@UMCVMB, send to LISTSERV@FINHUTC.BITNET . 



Use the addresses in column two when sending messages to the other members 

of the discussion lists, but do NOT send your subscription requests to this 

address!! If you do, it will be forwarded to all members of the mailing 

list. Chances are that nothing will happen, and everybody will see how 

sloppy you are. 



So, you subscribe by sending a command to a LISTSERV. The method is similar 

to what we did when subscribing to Infonets in Chapter 7. If your name is 

Jens Jensen, and you want to subscribe to SOVNET-L, send this message 

through the Internet (assuming that NDSUM1 is your nearest LISTSERV host): 



    To:  LISTSERV@NDSUVM1.BITNET

    Subject: (You can write anything here. Will be ignored.)

    Text: SUB SOVNET-L Jens Jensen



When your subscription has been registered, you will receive a 

confirmation. From this date, all messages sent to the list will be 

forwarded to your mailbox. (Send "SIGNOFF SOVNET-L" to this address, when 

you have had enough.) 



Some lists will forward each message to you upon receipt. Others will send 

a periodic digest (weekly, monthly, etc.). 



To send a message to SOVNET-L, send to the BITNET address in column two 

above. Send to 



    SOVNET-L@INDYCMS.BITNET



Review the following example. Most BITNET lists will accept these commands. 



Example: Subscription to the China list

---------------------------------------

CHINA-NN is listed like this in the List of Lists: 



    CHINA-NN   CHINA-NN@ASUACAD  China News Digest (Global News)



Scandinavians may subscribe to CHINA-NN by Internet mail to 

LISTSERV@FINHUTC.BITNET . North American users may send their mail to 

LISTSERV@NDSUVM1.BITNET . 



If your name is Winston Hansen, write the following command in the TEXT of 

the message 



    SUB CHINA-NN Winston Hansen 



When you want to leave CHINA-NN, send a cancellation message like this: 



    To: LISTSERV@NDSUVM1.BITNET

    Subject: (nothing here)

    SIGNOFF CHINA-NN



NOTE: Send the cancellation command to the address you used, when 

subscribing! If you subscribed through LISTSERV@FINHUTC, sending the 

SIGNOFF command to LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 will get you nowhere. Send to 

LISTSERV@FINHUTC. 



Never send the SIGNOFF command to the discussion list itself! Always send 

to the LISTSERV. 



Monitoring the action

---------------------

THINKNET is an online magazine forum dedicated to "thoughtfulness in the 

cybertime environment." It brings reviews of significant and thought-

provoking exchanges within our new electronic nation. 



This electronic publication is free. If you're interested in philosophy, 

subscribe by sending a message through Internet to thinknet@world.std.com . 

Write the following in the TEXT of the message: 



SEND THINKNET TO Your-Full-Name AT UserId@Your-Internet-Email-Address



    Example:

    If your email address is opresno@extern.uio.no and your name 

    Odd de Presno, use the following command: 



      SEND THINKNET TO Odd de Presno AT OPRESNO@EXTERN.UIO.NO 



THINKNET is also available through the Philosophy conference on The Well, 

and on GEnie in the Philosophy category under the Religion and Ethics 

Bulletin Board. (Hard copy versions can be bought through THINKNET, PO BOX 

8383, Orange CA 92664-8383, U.S.A.). 



If you're on The Well, read the topic "News from Around Well Conferences" 

to learn about new developments. 



These are some mailing lists that may help you locate sources of interest: 



 NETSCOUT    (NETSCOUT@VMTECMEX) The BITnet/Internet scouts.

             Subscribe by email to LISTSERV@VMTECMEX.BITNET 

             with the following in the TEXT of your message

               SUB NETSCOUT yourfirstname yourlastname



             This is where you can discuss and exchange information

             about servers, FTP sites, Filelists, lists, tools, and

             any related aspects.



 HELP-NET    (HELP-NET@TEMPLEVM) BITNET/CREN/INTERNET Help Resource.

             Send email to LISTSERV@TEMPLEVM.BITNET with the text

              SUB HELP-NET yourfirstname yourlastname



             The list's main purpose is to help solve user problems 

             with utilities and software related to the Internet 

             and BITNET networks. The library contains several good

             help files for novice networkers. A great place for

             new Internet users!



Other sources available through the Internet

--------------------------------------------

The Interest Groups List of Lists is available by electronic mail. See 

under 'List of Lists' in appendix 6 for retrieval instructions. 



You can search the List of Lists by email. Say you're looking for a mailing 

list related to Robotics. To find out, send a message to 

LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU containing the following commands: 



   //ListSrch JOB   Echo=No

   Database Search DD=Rules

   //Rules DD *

   search robotics in lists

   index

   search robotics in intgroup

   index

   search robotics in new-list

   index



Replace the search word 'robotics' with whatever else you may be looking 

for. 



A directory of scholarly electronic conferences is maintained by Diane K. 

Kovacs (DKOVACS@KENTVM.BITNET). instructions are available by sending the 

message 



   get acadlist readme 



to LISTSERV@KENTVM.KENT.EDU (or LISTSERV@KENTVM.BITNET).

   

The Usenet list of newsgroups and mailing lists is available on hosts that 

run Usenet News or NetNews servers and/or clients in the newsgroups 

news.announce.newusers and news.lists. 

   

The members of news.newusers.questions, alt.internet.help, 

alt.internet.access.wanted, and alt.internet.new-users readily accept your 

help requests. 

   

Alt.internet.services focuses on information about services available on 

the Internet. It is for people with Internet accounts who want to explore 

beyond their local computers, to take advantage of the wealth of 

information and services on the net. 

   

Services for discussion include:



    * things you can telnet to (weather, library catalogs, 

      databases, and more),

    * things you can FTP (like pictures, sounds, programs, data)

    * clients/servers (like MUDs, IRC, Archie)



Every second week, a list of Internet services called the "Special Internet 

Connections list" is posted to this newsgroup. It includes everything from 

where to FTP pictures from space, how to find agricultural information, 

public UNIX, online directories and books, you name it. 

   

Dartmouth maintains a merged list of the LISTSERV lists on BITNET and the 

Interest Group lists on the Internet. Each mailing list is represented by 

one line. To obtain this list, send a message to LISTSERV@DARTCMS1.BITNET . 

Enter the following command in the text of the message: 



   INDEX SIGLISTS



InterNIC Information Service maintains an announcement-only service at 

LISTSERV@is.internic.net called net-happenings. It distributes 

announcements about tools, conferences, calls for papers, news items, new 

mailing lists, electronic newsletters like EDUPAGE, and more. To subscribe, 

send a message to the LISTSERV containing this command: 



   subscribe net-happenings Your Name 



InterNIC's automated mail service is at MAILSERV@INTERNIC.NET. It allows 

access to documents and files via email. To use it, send email to the 

Mailserv with the word "HELP" in the subject field of your mail. 



On the Internet, the number of public network information (NIR) and access 

catalogue services (OPAC) is increasing rapidly. For example, in November 

1993, new registered Gopher Servers were about 100 per month. There is also 

a substantial number of new WWW, WAIS and CWIS services. 



The NewNIR-L mailing list is a place where full descriptions of such new 

services are posted. Send your subscription commands to 

LISTSERV@itocsivm.csi.it . 



How to get more out of your magazine subscriptions 

--------------------------------------------------

PC Magazine (U.S.A.) is one of those magazines that arrives here by mail. 

We butcher them, whenever we find something of interest. The "corpses" are 

dumped in a high pile on the floor. 



To retrieve a story in this pile is difficult and time consuming, unless 

the title is printed on the cover. 



Luckily, there are shortcuts. Logon to PC MagNet on CompuServe. Type GO 

PCMAG to get the following menu: 





   PC MagNet



    1 Download a PC Magazine Utility

    2 PC Magazine Utilities/Tips Forum

    3 PC Magazine Editorial Forum

    4 PC Magazine Programming Forum

    5 PC Magazine After Hours Forum

    6 PC Magazine Product Reviews Index

    7 Free! - Take a Survey

    8 Submissions to PC Magazine

    9 Letters to the Editor

   10 Subscribe to PC Magazine



Choice six lets you search for stories. Once you have a list with 

page/issue references, turning the pages gets much easier. 



PC Magazine is owned by the media giant Ziff-Davis. PC MagNet is a part of 

ZiffNet on CompuServe. So is Computer Database Plus, which lets you search 

through more than 250,000 articles from over 200 popular newspapers and 

magazines. The oldest articles are from early 1987. The database is also 

available on CD-ROM, but the discs cover only one year at a time. 



CDP contains full-text from around 50 magazines, like Personal Computing, 

Electronic News, MacWeek and Electronic Business. Stories from the other 

magazines are available in abstracted form only. 



To search the database, CDP, you pay an extra US$24.00 per hour. In 

addition, you pay US$1.00 per abstract and US$1.50 per full-text article 

(1992). These fees are added to your normal CompuServe access rates. 



ZiffNet also offers Magazine Database Plus, a database with stories from 

over 90 magazines covering science, business, sport, people, personal 

finance, family, art and handicraft, cooking, education, environment, 

travel, politics, consumer opinions, and reviews of books and films. 



The magazines include: Administrative Management, Aging, Changing Times, 

The Atlantic, Canadian Business, Datamation, Cosmopolitan, Dun's Business 

Month, The Economist, The Futurist, High Technology Business, Journal of 

Small Business Management, Management Today, The Nation, The New Republic, 

Online, Playboy, Inc., Popular Science, Research & Development, Sales & 

Marketing Management, Scientific American, Technology Review, UN Chronicle, 

UNESCO Courier and U.S. News & World Report. 



In the next chapter, we will present another ZiffNet magazine database: the 

Business Database Plus. 



Magazine Index (MI), from Information Access Company (U.S.A.), is another 

source worth looking at. It covers over 500 consumer and general-interest 

periodicals as diverse as Special Libraries and Sky & Telescope, Motor 

Trend and Modern Maturity, Reader's Digest and Rolling Stone. Many titles 

go as far back as 1959. 



Although most of the database consists of brief citations, MI also contains 

the complete text of selected stories from a long list of periodicals. It 

is available through Dialog, CompuServe, BRS, Data-Star, Dow Jones 

News/Retrieval, Nexis, and others. 



What to do if you have so many references to a given magazine that you want 

to check it out? Try the Electronic Newsstand. It is available by gopher or 

telnet to gopher.netsys.com . You can read a magazine's table of contents 

as well as one article for free. If you like, you can subscribe by sending 

a computer message. 



Failing access to the gopher or telnet command, try an email to 

staff@enews.com. 



Finding that book

-----------------

Over 270 libraries around the world are accessible by the Internet telnet 

command. Some of them can also be accessed by Internet mail. This is the 

case with BIBSYS, a database operated by the Norwegian universities' 

libraries. 



I am into transcendental meditation. I'm therefore constantly looking for 

books on narrow topics like "mantra". To search BIBSYS for titles of 

interest, I sent mail to genserv@pollux.bibsys.no . The search word was 

entered in the subject title of the message. By return email, I got the 

following report: 



    Date:         Fri, 21 Jul 93 13:54:18 NOR

    From: GENSERV@POLLUX.BIBSYS.NO

    Subject:      Searching BIBSYS



    Search request   : MANTRA 

    Database-id      : BIBSYS

    Search result    : 5 hits.



The following is one of the references. I have forwarded it to my local 

library for processing: 



    Forfatter : Gonda, J.

    Tittel    : Mantra interpretation in the Satapatha-Brahmana 

                / by J. Gonda.

    Trykt     : Leiden : E.J. Brill, 1988.

    Sidetall  : X, 285 s.

    I serie   : (Orientalia Rheno-traiectina ; 32)

    ISBN      : 90-04-08776-1

    1  - UHF  90ka03324 - UHF/INDO Rh III b Gon



The Danish library database REX may be accessed through most international 

packet switching networks. Its Network User Address (NUA) is 

23824125080000. When connected, enter RC8000 and press return. Press ESC 

once. The system will respond with ATT. Enter KB REX, and you're ready to 

search Dansk Bogfortegnelse since 1980, Dansk Musikfortegnelse since 1980, 

and ISDS Denmark. 



BARTON is the library system of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Its 

database contains everything received since 1974 except magazine articles, 

brochures, and technical reports from sources outside M.I.T.  Phone: +1-

617-258-6700 (1200 bps). Press ENTER a couple of times to access the 

system. 



On CompuServe, there is a section for book collectors in the 

Coin/Stamp/Collectibles Forum, and a Weekly Book Chat section in the 

ScienceFiction & Fantasy Forum. In the Electronic Mall, you can buy books 

directly from Ballantine Books, Penguin Books, Small Computer Book Club, 

The McGraw-Hill Book Company, Time-Life Books and Walden Computer Books. 



On the Internet, Roswell Computer Books Ltd.'s online book store (Canada) 

has a database of over 7,000 titles (1993). Gopher to nstn.ns.ca, select 

"Other Gophers in Nova Scotia", "Roswell Electronic Computer Bookstore". 

Email requests can be sent to roswell@fox.nstn.ns.ca . 



Book Stacks Unlimited, Inc. (U.S.A.) has an online catalog with over 

260,000 titles (1993). Internet access: telnet books.com . Search books by 

title or author, select from a menu, order, enter your credit card number, 

and have it sent to you by mail. 



Quanta is the  electronically distributed journal of Science Fiction and 

Fantasy.  Request to be added to the mailing list by email to 

quanta+requests-ascii@andrew.cmu.edu . 



For more on science fiction, check out the mailing list 

SFLOVERS@RUTVM1.BITNET . 



The Book Review Digest (GO BOOKREVIEW) is CompuServe's database of 

bibliographical references and abstracts of reviews (since 1983). You can 

search by title, author, and keywords found in the text of book reviews. 

CompuServe also offers book reviews through Magazine Database Plus. 



"Books in print" is a North American bibliographic reference database. It 

is available on BRS and CompuServe. 



South African Bibliographic and Information Network has a gopher service at 

info2.sabinet.co.za. 



FidoNet has COMICS (The Comic Book Echo), BITNET the list Rare Book and 

Special Collections Catalogers (NOTRBCAT@INDYCMS). NewsNet has the COMPUTER 

BOOK REVIEW newsletter and on The Well you'll find the "Computer Books" 

conference. OCLC's WorldCat is a reference database covering books and 

materials in libraries worldwide. 



Bookworms may appreciate the BITNET discussion list DOROTHYL 

(LISTSERV@KENTVM.KENT.EDU), and especially if they like Agatha Christie, 

Josephine Tey and Dorothy L. Sayers. Then there is the Mark Twain forum (at 

TWAIN-L@YORKVM1.BITNET), the J.R.R. Tolkien books, readers list (at 

TOLKIEN@JHUVM.BITNET), and the mailing list for Bizarre, disturbing, and 

offensive short stories (at WEIRD-L@BROWNVM.BITNET). 



On Usenet, they have alt.books.reviews, k12.library, alt.books.technical, 

rec.arts.books, and misc. books.technical, and more. 



On the Internet, there are a rapidly growing number of library online 

public-access catalogs (OPACs) from all over the world. Some provide users 

with access to additional resources, such as periodical indexes of 

specialized databases. More than 270 library catalogs are now online 

(1992). 



An up-to-date directory of libraries that are interactively accessible 

through Internet can be had by anonymous ftp from ftp.unt.edu (then: cd 

library). File name: LIBRARIES.TXT. Check out the end of Chapter 12 for how 

to get the file by email (ftpmail). 



You will also find full electronic versions of books. This book is one 

example. Many texts are courtesy of Project Gutenberg, an organization 

whose goal is to develop a library of 10,000 public  domain electronic 

texts by the year 2000. 



Since books are often quite large, they are somewhat bulky for email 

transfer.  If you have direct Internet access, use anonymous ftp instead. 



Many books are available through the /pub/almanac/etext directory at 

oes.orst.edu. For more about how to use the Almanac information server, 

send Almanac@oes.orst.edu the following email command: 



        send guide



For a list of books, add the line 



        send gutenberg catalog



Among the offerings, you'll find The Complete Sherlock Holmes Mysteries, 

Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee, Tarzan, Frankenstein, The Unabridged 

Works of Shakespeare, Aesop's Fables, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The 

Holy Bible, The Love Teachings of Kama Sutra, The Holy Koran, The Oedipus 

Trilogy (Sophocles), Peter Pan, Roget's Thesaurus (1911), and The World 

Factbook (CIA). 



If quite impossible to locate a given book, try the Rare Books and Special 

Collections Forum at EXLIBRIS@RUTVM1.BITNET. 



Non-Chinese speaking people will probably classify Chinese poems as 'rare'. 

Many of them are impossible to read, unless your computer can handle the 

special characters, and you know their meaning. 



Still interested? If yes, subscribe to CHPOEM-L@UBVM.BITNET . Be prepared to 

use your Big5 and GuoBiao utilities. 



Searching a dictionary

----------------------

If you have access to telnet, enter this command 



    telnet 132.239.68.1



Here's what happened to me:



 Trying 132.239.68.1 ...

 Connected to 132.239.68.1.

 Escape character is '^]'.



 Accel UNIX (chem.ucsd.edu)

 login: webster

 Last login: Fri Oct 29 09:29:24 from selene.cstp.umkc

 Word: modem

 mo-dem \'mo--,dem\ n

 [modulator + demodulator]

 (ca. 1952)

 :a device that converts signals from one form to a form compatible 

     with another kind of equipment <a modem for transmitting 

     computer data over telephone lines> 



The Webster Dictionary is also available by telnet cs.indiana.edu 2627 (or 

129.79.254.191 2627). 







Chapter 11: Getting an edge over your competitor

================================================





    We must be willing to risk change to keep apace with rapid 

    change. 



    The key is moderation and balance, supported by sufficient 

    information to allow meaningful feedback. 



    Going online requires adaption by management and staff in 

    developing the necessary skills and vision.



This chapter starts with how to use the networks to manage projects. Next, 

we will show you how to monitor competitors, prospects, suppliers, markets, 

technologies, and trends. It winds down with marketing and sales by modem. 



Project coordination

--------------------

Several services offer rental of private online conference areas to 

businesses. Corporations are discovering that such conferencing is 

efficient when coordinating a group of people, who are geographically far 

apart from each other. 



Online conferences are also useful when team members are constantly on the 

move and hard together face to face. 



Many international companies use such services regularly. The applications 

range from tight coordination with suppliers and subcontractors, to 

development of company strategies, and new organizational structures. 



Renting an online conference room has advantages over doing it in-house: 

The company does not have to buy software, hardware, expensive 

communications equipment. It does not need to hire people to operate and 

maintain the conferencing system. The more international the business, the 

better is the external alternative. 



For ideas about how to set up and operate a coordination conference. Study 

how volunteer organizations do it. One place to check out is KIDPLAN, one 

of several coordination conferences used by KIDLINK (see Chapter 2 and 5). 



KIDPLAN is usually most active during April and May each year. This is when 

their annual projects are being closed down, and new projects are started. 

Read the dialog between coordinators to get an idea of how the medium is 

being used. 



Old conference messages are stored in notebook files. You can have the full 

coordination dialog for a given month sent you by email. Send all requests 

for notebook files to 



    LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU



Getting notebook files is a two-step process. In your first message to the 

LISTSERV, ask for a list of available files. Do this by using the following 

command in your email: 



    INDEX KIDPLAN



The LISTSERV will return a list. The following part is of particular 

interest: 



101/2/  KIDPLAN  LOG9105B   ALL OWN V      80  2397 91/05/14 

    23:40:22 Started on Wed, 8 May 91 00:11:09 CDT

102/2/  KIDPLAN  LOG9105C   ALL OWN V      80  3141 91/05/21 

    20:44:16 Started on Wed, 15 May 91 01:24:51 CDT

104/2/  KIDPLAN  LOG9105D   ALL OWN V      80  2685 91/05/28 

    22:34:31 Started on Wed, 22 May 91 17:01:21 +0200



Do not worry about the details. You are only interested in file names, and 

dates. The file LOG9105B contains all messages from 8 May 1991 until 15 

May. 



If you want all these three files, send a message to the LISTSERV with the 

following commands: 



    GET KIDPLAN LOG9105B

    GET KIDPLAN LOG9105C

    GET KIDPLAN LOG9105D



The notebook files will be forwarded to your mailbox. 



Note: Some mailbox services have restrictions on the size of incoming mail. 

This may prevent you from receiving large notebook files. If this happens, 

contact your local postmaster for help. 



Some email systems are unable to forward your return-address correctly to 

LISTSERV. If you suspect that this is the reason for lack of success, try 

the following commands: 



    GIVE KIDPLAN LOG9105B TO Your-Correct-Return-Address

    GIVE KIDPLAN LOG9105C TO Your-Correct-Return-Address

    GIVE KIDPLAN LOG9105D TO Your-Correct-Return-Address



Making it work

--------------

Making online conferences and task force meetings work, can be a challenge. 

Most of the dialog is based on the written word. The flow of information 

can be substantial, and this may cause an information overload for some 

participants. 



To overcome this, consider appointing a moderator-organizer for your online 

conference. This person: 



  Adds value by setting agendas; summarizing points; getting

  the discussion(s) back on track; moving on to the next

  point; mediating debate; maintaining address and member

  lists; acting as general sparkplug/motivator to keep things

  flowing by making sure that contributions are acknowledged,

  relevant points are noted, new members are welcomed, silent

  "Read-Only Members" are encouraged to participate, and the

  general atmosphere is kept appropriate to the goals of the

  conference/task force meeting.



Great online conferences don't just happen. It takes a lot of work by those 

responsible for getting the meeting fired up and for keeping the discussion 

rolling. 



The meeting's organization may depend on the number of participants, where 

they come from, the exclusivity of the forum, and the goal of the meeting. 



In large meetings, with free access for outsiders, the best strategy may be 

to appoint a Moderator-Editor. This person 



  Filters contributions, gathers new information, summarizes

  scattered contributions, does background research. 



Filtering may be desirable when conferences are open to customers and 

media. Its main purpose, however, is to help participants cope with the 

absolute flow of information. 



A conference can have an educational purpose. You can bring in someone who 

can add value by bringing experience and expertise to the group. 



You also need someone to do the dirty jobs everyone expects to be done - 

but never notices until they are not. This person keeps the show running by 

serving as a benevolent tyrant, sheriff, judge, mediator, general 

scapegoat, and by playing a role in setting the general policy and 

atmosphere of the meeting. 



Now, back to the 'normal' applications of the online resource. 



Monitoring what others do

-------------------------

The best business opportunities are outside your company, in the external 

world. 



Companies need to monitor customers and markets, find technologies to help 

develop and build products, research new business actions, find new 

subcontractors and suppliers, people to hire, and persons to influence in 

order to boost sales. 



In this marketing age, where sales calls cost hundreds of dollars and 

business-to-business marketers use the telephone or the mails to reach 

prospects, maintaining complete and accurate market lists is important. 



There are many other questions: What are our most important customers and 

their key people doing? What new products are they promoting? Who are their 

partners? What else may influence their willingness to buy from us? 



What prices are our major suppliers offering other buyers? Should we get 

other sources for supplies? What major contracts have they received 

recently? Will these influence their ability to serve our needs? 



What new technologies are available now and how are they being used by 

others? 



Threats are the reverse side of opportunities. What are our competitors 

doing? What products and services have they launched recently? Are they 

successful? What are our competitors' weaknesses and strengths? What 

relationships do they maintain with our most important customers? How is 

their customer support functioning, and what methods are they using in 

their quality assurance? 



Are new trade regulations being introduced in important foreign markets? 



Each company has its own priorities when it comes to watching the external 

environment. The information needs differ depending on what products and 

services are being offered, the technological level of the company, the 

markets that it addresses, and more. 



Needs and priorities also differ by department and person, for example 

depending on whether a user is the president, a marketing manager, product 

manager, sales man, or has a position in finance or production. 



Remember your priorities when online. You cannot possibly capture and 

digest all information that is out there. Your basic problem is to find the 

right information in the right form at the right time. 



Companies should consider appointing an online manager. Select and empower 

a central manager to oversee the process for going online. A "make-things-

happen" person, who can also be a contact point for upper management. 



Monitoring your own business

----------------------------

What kind of news about your company are being published? What do others 

say about your products and services? What kind of exposure do your new 

product announcements get in the media? 



Build your own, local 'database'

--------------------------------

It does not take much effort to check one hundred different topics from 

multiple online sources on a daily basis. The computer will do it for you. 



You do not have to read all stories as carefully as you would with printed 

material. Most experienced users just read what is important now, and save 

selected parts of the retrieved texts on local disks for later reference. 



We handle printed material differently. Most of us make notes in the 

margins, underline, use colors, cut out pages and put into folders. These 

tricks are important, as it is so hard to find information in a pile of 

papers. 



Not so with electronic information. With the right tools, you can locate 

information on your computer's disk in seconds. 



In seven seconds, I just searched the equivalent of 2000 pages of printed 

text for all occurrences of the combined search words 'SONY' and 'CD-ROM'! 



The search tool was a simple shareware program called LOOKFOR (see Chapter 

14). It searched through 4.2 megabyte on a 80486-based notebook computer. 

If you use an indexing program, the search may be completed even faster. 



During a typical work day, my personal "databases" usually give me more 

direct value than what I have on paper, or can get online. 



My disks contain megabytes of texts retrieved from various online services, 

- but only what I have decided to keep. Consequently, my personal databases 

contain more relevant information per kilobyte than the online databases 

that I am using. Searching the data on my disk often gives enough good hits 

to keep me from going online for more. 



  | You will often get better results when searching your own subset |

  | of selected online databases,  than  when you go  online to find |

  | information. It is usually easier and faster.                    |



On the other hand, your in-house database will never be fully up-to-date. 

Too many things happen all the time. 



Also, the search terms used for your daily intake of news will never cover 

all future needs. Occasionally, you have to go online to get additional 

information for a project, a report, a plan. 



Updating your database means going online regularly to find supplementary 

information. 



  | Regular monitoring gives the highest returns, and is required |

  | to get an edge over your competitors.                         |



For beginners, the best strategy is often to start with the general, and 

gradually dig deeper into industry specific details. Let us review some 

good hunting grounds for information, and explain how to use them. 



Clipping the news

-----------------

Several online services offer 'clipping services'. They select the news 

that you want - 24 hours a day - from a continuous stream of stories from 

newspapers, magazines, news agencies and newsletters. 



Several services make news available immediately, as soon as they have been 

received by satellite. The delay previously used to protect the interests 

of print media is disappearing. Online services usually deliver news sooner 

than print media, radio and television. 



You select stories by giving the online service a set of search terms. The 

hits are sent to your electronic mailbox, for you to read at will. 



'Clipping' gives an enormous advantage. Few important details escape your 

attention, even if you are unable to go online daily. The stories will stay 

in your mailbox until you have read them. 



'Clipping' on CompuServe

------------------------

CompuServe's Executive News Service (ENS) monitors more than 8,000 stories 

daily. They use sources like Deutsche Press-Agentur (Germany), Kyodo News 

Service (Japan), ITAR/TASS (Russia), Xinhua News Agency (China), Pacific 

Rim News Service, The Washington Post, OTC News-Alert, Reuters Financial 

News Wire, Associated Press, UPI, Reuters World Report, IDG PR Service, 

Inter Press Service (IPS), Middle East News Network, and European Community 

Report. 



One of them, Reuters, has 1,200 journalists in 120 bureaus all over the 

world. They write company news reports about revenues, profits, dividends, 

purchases of other companies, changes in management, and other important 

items for judging a company's results. They write regular opinions about 

Industry, Governments, Economics, Leading indicators, and Commerce. 



Reuters also offers full-text stories from Financial Times and other 

leading European newspapers. Its Textline is a database with news from some 

1,500 publications in over 40 countries. It includes Reuters' own news 

services, and translated abstracts of stories from some 17 languages. The 

database reaches back more than 10 years and is updated at around one 

million articles per year. (Textline is also available on Nexis, Data-Star, 

and Dialog.) 



The IDG PR Service distributes high-tech related news gathered by the 

staffs of IDG's magazines.  The InterPress Service covers Third World 

countries. The Middle East News Network integrates the contents of 28 

information sources covering this region of Asia. 



The Executive News Service lets you define up to three 'clipping folders'. 

Supply up to seven 'key phrases' that define your interests. These key 

phrases will be used for searching stories as they are sent. Hits will be 

'clipped' and held in a folder for you to review at your convenience. 



Each folder can hold 500 stories. When creating a clipping folder, you set 

an expiration date and specify how many days a clipped story is to be held 

(maximum 14 days). 



To browse the contents of a folder, select it from the menu. Stories can be 

listed by headlines or leads. Select those you want to read, forward to 

others as email, or copy to another folder. Delete those that you do not 

need. 



Defining key phrases is simple. The important thing is not to get too much, 

nor too little. General phrases will give many unwanted stories while too 

narrow phrases will cause you to miss pertinent stories. Let me illustrate 

with an example: 



    The phrase APPLE COMPUTERS will only clip stories that have the

    words APPLE and COMPUTERS next to each other. This may be too 

    narrow. Specifying just APPLE or just COMPUTERS would be too

    broad. Entering APPLE + COMPUTERS is a better phrase since the

    words can appear anywhere in the story, and not necessarily 

    next to each other. 



ENS carries an hourly surcharge of US$15/hour over base connect rates. 



Clipping on NewsNet

-------------------

NewsNet greets users with this opening screen:



                          -----------------

                          - N E W S N E T -

                          -----------------

                  W O R K I N G   K N O W L E D G E



   ***New--Electromagnetic Field Litigation Reporter (EY86) tracks 

   developments in every important legal action involving 

   electromagnetic radiation from power lines, cellular phones, 

   VTDs, and radar and microwave equipment. 



   ***The title of HH15 has been changed to Cancer Researcher 

   Weekly. This service was formerly entitled Cancer Weekly. 



   ***Important work in the blood field throughout the world is 

   covered by Blood Week (HH44), including research, literature, 

   and upcoming events. 



   ***TB Weekly (HH45) is an internationally-focused newsletter 

   that concentrates on tuberculosis-related news and research, 

   including business developments. 





   New Services on NewsNet: 



   TB Weekly (HH45) 

   Blood Weekly (HH44) 

   Electromagnetic Field Litigation Reporter (EY86) 

   Chapter 11 Update (FI82) 

   Tobacco Industry Litigation Reporter (HH48) 

   Trade and Development Opportunities (GT50) 



For details on new services, enter READ PB99# or HELP followed by the 

service code. 



NewsFlash, NewsNet's clipping service, will automatically search all new 

editions of newsletters selected for monitoring. The hits are sent to your 

mailbox. They are retained there for up to ten weeks besides the current 

week. 



Your selection of newsletters can be extended to include news stories from 

United Press International (UPI), Reuters News Reports, Associated Press, 

Business Wire, PR Newswire, and others. 



For some time, I clipped newsletters in the telecommunications group using 

the keywords  'Victoria' (an American communication project) and 'KDD' (the 

Japanese telecom giant). When I called NewsFlash to check, it typically 

reported: 





                    NEWSFLASH NOTIFICATION                                     

****************************************************************               

   4 Total Newsflash hits. Use STOP to stop and delete all.                    

  New Hits =   4    Saved Items =   0                                          



TE01      7/17/89     ==     VICTORIA               ==       Headline #1       

  COOKE SELLS CABLE HOLDINGS TO 6-MEMBER GROUP FOR NEARLY $1.6 BILLION         

    Jack Cooke's cable systems will be sold to 6-member consortium             



TE11      7/17/89     ==     VICTORIA               ==       Headline #2       

  BOCs' PROGRESS TOWARD INTELLIGENT NETWORK ARCHITECTURE INTERTWINED           

WITH DIFFICULT INTERNETWORKING NEGOTIATIONS, PENDING DECREE COURT              



EC89      7/18/89     ==     KDD                    ==       Headline #3       

  KDD OPENS NY/LONDON OFFICES                                                  

TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 JUL 14 (NB) -- Kokusai Denshin Denwa (KDD),                 



EC89      8/22/89     ==     KDD                    ==       Headline #4       

  FOREIGNERS CAN BUY INTO KDD                                                  

TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 AUG 17 -- The Japanese government is planning               



Enter Headline numbers or ALL to read, MORE, AGAIN, SAVE, STOP, or HELP        

-->

                                                                               

NewsNet's databases grow by more than 400 stories per day. Your search 

profiles may contain an almost unlimited number of subjects. Delivery of 

hits is concurrent. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. 



Sprintmail's clipping service (U.S.A.) scans stories from more than 15 

international newswires. FT Profile's E-mail Alert searches daily on that 

particular day's issue of the Financial Times. 



Dow Jones News/Retrieval has NewsScan (//CLIP). It can deliver by fax or 

email to a mailbox on another online service. 



Financial Times' thirty international business reports - grouped within 

four primary industry segments - are available through //CLIP. So is 

Intelligence Reports, which cover more than 100 countries. They monitor 

news stories from these countries' own media. 



GEnie's QuikNews Express is a personalized news clipping service that is 

integrated with the Quik-Comm System email service. 



Clarinet, a commercial news service available through Usenet, also has a 

clipping program. 



When clipping is impossible

---------------------------

Many services do not offer clipping. Here, your alternative is various 

methods of selective reading on a regular basis. 



Many conferencing systems let you select messages to read by keywords. 



BIX Keyword Indexer lets you search public conferences after a key word 

or phrase and reports hits. Then it offers you to review (or retrieve) 

messages of interest. 



CompuServe's forums have efficient 'read selective' and 'quick scan' 

commands. Another trick is to limit your reading to specific message 

sections. 



The high forum message volume is a special problem on this service. Old 

messages are regularly deleted to make room for new ones. (Often called 

"scroll rate.") Some popular forums do not keep messages for more than a 

couple of days before letting them go. You must visit often to get all new 

information. 



Many bulletin boards can be told to store unread messages about given 

topics in a compressed transportation file. This file can then be retrieved 

at high speed. Special communication programs (often called offline 

readers) and commands are available to automate this completely. 



Powerful scripts and offline reader programs (see Chapter 12) can do 

automatic selection of news stories based on the occurrence of keywords 

(e.g., a company name) in headlines or the messages' text. 



Subscription services

---------------------

It is useful to dig, dig, and dig for occurrences of the same search words, 

but digging is not enough. Unless you periodically scan "the horizon," you 

risk missing new trends, viewpoints and other important information. 



It can be difficult to find good sources of information that suits your 

needs. One trick is to watch the reports from your clipping services. Over 

time, you may discover that some sources bring more interesting stories 

than others. Take a closer look at these. Consider browsing their full 

index of stories regularly. 



If your company plans exportation to countries in Asia, check out MARKET: 

ASIA PACIFIC on NewsNet. The newsletter is published monthly by W-Two 

Publications, Ltd., 202 The Commons, Suite 401, Ithaca, NY  14850, U.S.A. 

(phone: +1-607-277-0934). Annual print subscription rate: US$279. 



The index itself may be a barometer of what goes on. Here is an example. 

Note the number of Words/Lines. Do these numbers tell a story? 



   July 1, 1993



   Head #  Headline                                             Words /Lines

   ------  ---------------------------------------------------- ------------

       1)  THE PHILIPPINES IS AT A TURG POINT                      616/78

       2)  CHINA AND KOREA WILL LEAD REGIONAL ECONOMIC BOOM        315/41

       3)  ASIAN COMPENSATION IS STILL LOW, BUT RISING QUICKLY     303/38

       4)  CONSUMER GOODS WON'T BE ALL THE CHINESE BUY             221/29

       5)  WOMEN BEAR THE BRUNT OF CAMBODIA'S TROUBLES             284/34

       6)  TAIWAN MAKES A MOVE TOWARD THE CASHLESS SOCIETY         243/29

       7)  TIPS ON MANAGING CULTURAL HARMONY IN ASIA               264/37

       8)  TAIWANESE BECOME MORE DISCERNING, HARDER TO REACH       217/27

       9)  DIRECT MARKETING HEADED FOR GROWTH IN SINGAPORE         205/27

      10)  TOURISM IN MALAYSIA WILL GROW                           610/76

      11)  CHONGQING: FUTURE POWERHOUSE                          2708/342



It is a good idea to visit NewsNet to gather intelligence. Review indexes of 

potentially interesting newsletters. Save them on your hard disk for future 

references. You never know when they may be of use. 



The newsletters within computers and electronics bring forecasts of market 

trends, evaluation of hardware and software, prices, information about IBM 

and other leading companies. You will find stories about technological 

developments of modems, robots, lasers, video players, graphics, and 

communications software. 



The Management section contains experts' evaluation of the economical 

climate with forecasts, information about foreign producers for importers, 

tips and experiences on personal efficiency, management of smaller 

companies, and office automation. 



Other sections are Advertising and Marketing, Aerospace and Aviation, 

Automotive, Biotechnology, Building and Construction, Chemical, Corporate 

Communications, Defense, Entertainment and Leisure, Education, Environment, 

Energy, Finance and Accounting, Food and Beverage, General Business, 

Insurance, Investment, Health and Hospitals, Law, Management, 

Manufacturing, Medicine, Office, Publishing and Broadcasting, Real Estate, 

Research and Development, Social Sciences, Telecommunications, Travel and 

Tourism, Transport and Shipping. 



Several newsletters focus on specific geographical areas, like: 



   * THE EXPORTER (Published by Trade Data Reports.  Monthly

     reports on the business of exporting. Functionally divided

     into operations, markets, training resources, and world

     trade information.)



   * SALES PROSPECTOR (Monthly prospect research reports for sales

     representatives and business people interested in commercial, 

     and institutional expansion and relocation activity. Grouped 

     by geographic area in the United States and Canada.) 



Other newsletters focuses on technology intelligence: 



    Advanced Manufacturing Technology

    ---------------------------------

    Reports on desktop manufacturing, computer graphics, flexible

    automation, computer-integrated manufacturing, and other 

    technological advances that help increase productivity.



    High Tech Materials Alert

    -------------------------

    Reports on significant developments in high-performance 

    materials, including alloys, metallic whiskers, ceramic and

    graphite fibers, and more. Concentrates on their fabrication,

    industrial applications, and potential markets.



    Futuretech

    ----------

    Provides briefings on focused, strategic technologies that 

    have been judged capable of making an impact on broad 

    industrial fronts. Includes forecasts of marketable products

    and services resulting from the uncovered technology and its

    potential impact on industry segments.



Advanced Coating & Surface Technology, Electronic Materials Technology 

News, Flame Retardancy News, High Tech Ceramics News, Innovator's Digest, 

Technology Access Report, Inside R&D, Japan Science Scan, New Technology 

Week, Optical Materials & Engineering News, Performance Materials, Surface 

Modification Technology News, Genetic Technology News, Battery & Ev 

Technology, and much more. 



Newsletters on CompuServe

-------------------------

Many newsletters are being made available through forums' file libraries on 

CompuServe. Consequently, they are a little harder to locate. Some examples 

(1993): 



    Abacus Online - Quarterly newsletter on executive computing. 

    (In the Lotus Spreadsheet forum, Library 3.) 



    Communique - The quarterly newsletter of the International

    Association of Business Communicators U.K. Chapter. (PR and

    Marketing Forum, Library 8.)



Hint: To find newsletters in the IBM PC oriented forums, enter GO IBMFF to 

search. Select "Keyword" as search criteria, and enter "newsletter". Add 

further keywords to narrow the search to your areas of interest. CompuServe 

also has other file find services. 





Databases with an international orientation

-------------------------------------------

Information Access provides reference databases to businesses. You can 

search 10 databases with full-text stories, abstracts, and indexes from 

international magazines. 



PROMPT (Overview of Markets and Technology) is the largest of them. It 

provides international coverage of companies, markets and technologies in 

all industries. 



The other databases cover areas like Aerospace and Defense, Advertising and 

Marketing, New Product Announcements, Industry Forecasts and Time Series. 



The Information Access' databases are available through online services 

like Dialog, Data Star, Financial Times Profile (England), Nikkei in Japan 

and on the Thomson Financial Networks. They are regularly published on CD-

ROM. 



ZiffNet offers the Business Database Plus through CompuServe. You can 

search in full-text stories from around 550 North American and 

international publications for industry and commerce (1993). 



The articles are about sales and marketing ideas, product news, industry 

trends and analysis, and provide company profiles in areas such as 

agriculture, manufacturing, retailing, telecommunications, and trade. This 

is a partial list of the database's magazines: 



    Agribusiness Worldwide, Air Cargo World, Beverage World, Beverage World 

    Periscope Edition, Business Perspectives, CCI-Canmaking & Canning 

    International, CD-ROM Librarian, Chain Store Age - General Merchandise 

    Trends, Coal & Synfuels Technology, Communication World, Communications 

    Daily, Communications International, Consultant, Cosmetic World News, 

    Dairy Industries International, Direct Marketing, Financial Market 

    Trends, Financial World, Food Engineering International, Forest 

    Industries, Gas World, Graphic Arts Monthly, The Printing Industry, 

    High Technology Business,  International Trade Forum, Investment 

    International, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of 

    Marketing Research, Market Research Europe, Medical World News, OECD 

    Economic Outlook, The Oil and Gas Journal, Oilweek, Petroleum 

    Economist, Plastics World, Purchasing World, Restaurant-Hotel Design 

    International, Seafood International, Supermarket Business Magazine, 

    Training: the Magazine of Human Resources Development, World Economic 

    Outlook, World Oil. 



The International Reports financial newsletter may be read and searched on 

NewsNet, Information Access, and Mead Data Central. 



NewsNet also has the Weekly International Market Alert. 



Use CompuServe's Consumer Report to spot trends in the consumer markets for 

appliances, automobiles, electronics/cameras, home. EventLine (IQuest, 

CompuServe) monitors international conferences, exhibitions, and 

congresses. The Boomer Report concentrates on the habits of the "the baby-

boom generation." 



CompuServe's Global Crisis Forum has message sections covering the xUUSR, 

The Balkans, Baltic Republics, The Old East Bloc, The Middle East, Bosnia, 

Somalia, Iraq, and Worldwide Business. 



CitiBank Global Report on CompuServe provides detailed information on 

worldwide economic issues, real-time foreign-exchange, fixed-income rates, 

country profiles, company profiles, and activity on the international bond 

markets. 



The Business Dateline contains news from more than 150 regional business 

publications in the United States and Canada. If you have a niche market, 

chances are that the Predicast newsletters cover it (Dow Jones). 



The ABI/Inform business database (UMI/Data Courier) contains abstracts and 

full-text articles from 800 business magazines and trade journals. Includes 

the World Bank Research Observer. 



Market research reports from Frost & Sullivan are available through Data-

Star. It produces over 250 market reports each year, in 20 industrial 

sectors. These reports cover results of face-to-face interviews with 

manufacturers, buyers and trade association executives, supplemented by a 

search and summary of secondary sources. 



Internet users can access hundreds of sources of current government 

information from around the world -- Census data, Supreme Court decisions, 

world health statistics, company financial reports, weather forecasts, 

United Nations information, daily U.S. White House press briefings and much 

more. A list is available by anonymous ftp to una.hh.lib.umich.edu . Change

to the inetdirsstacks directory and get government:gumprecht . You can also 

get it by gopher to una.hh.lib.umich.edu . Select: inetdirs / guides on the 

social sciences / government... 



International Business Practices is full text of a U.S. Department of 

Commerce reference work that provides overviews of import regulations, free 

trade zones, foreign investment policy, intellectual property rights, tax 

laws and more in 117 countries. Gopher to umslvma.umsl.edu . Select: the 

library / government information. 



United Nations (UN) has a gopher at gopher.undp.org . It carries UN DPI 

Press Releases, General Assembly, Security Council and ECOSOC resolutions, 

and more. People with access to Internet email only can use United Nation's 

gophermail gateway. Send a message to gopher@undp.org (subject and contents 

irrelevant) for instructions. 



The World Health Organization (WHO) has a gopher at gopher.who.ch .



Africa

------

NewsNet has several interesting newsletters 



   Africa Intelligence Report

   Africa News On-Line

   Country Risk Guides: Sub-Saharan Africa

   Country Risk Guides: Mid-East & North Africa

   Investext: African Region

   Monthly Regional Bulletin - Southern Africa, 

   PRS-Forecasts: Mid-East & North Africa

   PRS-Forecasts: Sub-Saharan Africa



Usenet has



  soc.culture.african     Discussions about Africa & things African.

  clari.world.africa      Translated reports from Africa. 

  soc.culture.maghreb     North African society and culture.

  clari.news.hot.somalia  News from Somalia. 

  bit.tech.africana       Information Technology and Africa.



The bit.tech.africana newsgroup is also on the AFRICANA mailing list. 

Subscribe by email to LISTSERV@WMVM1.CC.WM.EDU . 



PeaceNet's World News Service offers an Africa digest with coverage from 

the Inter Press Service (IPS). Write to pwn-info@igc.apc.org for more

information. 



You may also want to check out the Fourth World Documentation Project at

gopher fir.cic.net . Select: Politics / Fourth.World .



CompuServe's International Trade Forum has the Africa/Middle East message 

section.



Asia and the Pacific

--------------------

CHINA IMPORT/EXPORT NEWS is a weekly newsletter of international business 

information regarding import/export to/from China and the Pacific Rim. The 

newsletter is distributed by the mailing list CHINA-LINK. Subscribe by 

email to LISTSERV@IFCSS.ORG . 



A WWW service for the Chinese community exists at http://www.edu.tw/ . Most of 

the local texts support Chinese BIG5 only. You can also telnet to WWW.edu.tw 

and login as www . After login, if you don't know how to read Chinese BIG5, 

select 'READ THIS DOCUMENT' <A HREF="http://www.edu.tw/readbig5.html"> to 

browse. 



The JAPAN mailing list (at LISTSERV@PUCC) is a forum for the discussion of 

Japanese business, industry, and economic systems. The AJBS-L mailing list

(at the same LISTSERV) is for people interested in the Japanese economy and 

business systems. 



Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute Daily Report: Full text 

of a daily digest of the latest developments in Transcaucasia and Central 

Asia. Gopher to gopher.lib.umich.edu. Select: news services . 



NewsNet has the following newsletters and services:



   Asian Aviation News

   Asian Economic News

   Asian Political News

   AsiaPacific Space Report

   China Intelligence Report

   Comline Japan Daily: Biotechnology

   Comline Japan Daily: Computers

   Comline Japan Daily: Electronics

   Comline Japan Daily: Industry Automation

   Comline Japan Daily: Telecommunications 

   Comline Japan Daily: Transportation

   Country Risk Guide: Asia & The Pacific 

   Daily Japan Digest

   Investext: Asian Region

   Japan Computer Industry Scan

   Japan Consumer Electronics Scan

   Japan Economic Institute Report

   Japan Energy Scan

   Japan Policy and Politics

   Japan Semiconductor Scan

   Japan Science Scan

   Japan Transportation Scan

   Japan Weekly Monitor

   Japanese Telecommunications Scan

   Jiji Press Ticker Service

   Kyodo News Service

   Mid-East Business Digest 

   Middle East Intelligence Report

   New Era: Japan

   PRS Forecasts: Asia & The Pacific 

   Telenews Asia

   Tokyo Financial Wire

   Xinhua English Language News Service 



Dialog's ASIA-PACIFIC DATABASE covers business and economics in Asia and 

the Pacific. It contains over 80,000 references from newspapers, magazines 

and other sources in North America and international. 



The Asia-Pacific Dun's Market Identifiers on Dialog is a directory listing 

of about 250,000 business establishments in 40 Asian and Pacific Rim 

countries. 



The Middle East News Network publishes daily news, analysis and comments 

from 19 countries in the Middle East produced by Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish 

and Persian press. You can read these news through Reuters (e.g., on 

NewsGrid/CompuServe), Down Jones News/Retrieval, and Information Access. 



The Jerusalem Institute for Western Defence provides a monthly newsletter 

with research of the Arab press. It has unedited quotes from around the 

Arab world. Write LISTSERV@jerusalem1.datasrv.co.il to subscribe (Command: 

sub arab-press Firstname Lastname). Here is one example:



   SAUDI ARABIA



   Al-Sherook,  United Arab Emirates, 25 March 1993;

   Al-Iqtisa'adia, London, 16 March 1993.

   Summary of two reports on Saudi oil resources.



   Saudi Arabia's oil revenues grew from $24 billion in 1989 to $40

   billion in 1992. They are expected to rise further in 1993. Saudi

   economic growth appears to be assured for the next few years.

   Saudi authorities reported a discovery of oil in the area of Medin,

   west of Tabuk. The extent and quality of this oil field will be

   investigated.



       Note: This area is relatively close to the Red Sea and much closer

       to Israel than the main oil deposits of the Gulf. A major oil

       discovery here could lead to the transfer of additional military

       forces to this area.



To join CORMOSEA (Committee on Research Materials on Southeast Asia), send

a subscription request to Kent Mulliner <MULLINER@OUVAXA.CATS.OHIOU.EDU>.



PeaceNet's World News Service offers a Southeast Asia digest. It includes 

coverage from the Inter Press Service (IPS) on Vietnam, Thailand, Hong 

Kong, Japan, Cambodia, Korea, Phillipines, Taiwan, The People's Republic of 

China, Malaysia and the region as a whole. For information, send email to 

pwn-info@igc.apc.org . 



The TIBET-L mailing list is for discussion on issues relating to Tibet and 

the Tibetan people. Subscribe by email to LISTSERV@IUBVM.BITNET . 



The BERITA-L list (on LISTSERV@VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU) carries news (only) about 

Malaysia, Singapore, Islam, and also of other ASEAN countries when of 

interest to Malaysians or Singaporeans. Since the topics are somewhat 

unrelated, MY, SG and IS topics have been set up so that subscribers can 

avoid uninteresting postings (selective reading). 



Orbit has an English language database of Japanese technology. It contains 

abstracts of articles, patents and standards from more than 500 Japanese 

magazines. 



Dow Jones News/Retrieval brings full-text stories from the Japan Economic 

Newswire, and from over 70 other international publications including New 

Era Japan, New Food Products in Japan, New Materials Japan, and PDS's 

Japan Auto Industry Survey, Power Asia. 



The ABI/Inform business database (UMI/Data Courier) contains abstracts and 

full-text articles from the Asia Pacific Journal of Management, and 

Business Korea. 



Business Database Plus has IDC Japan Report, Inc., Japan Economic Newswire, 

Kyodo, Israel Business, MEED Middle East Economic Digest, Middle East 

Agribusiness. 



Telnet to vms.huji.ac.il and login as mop for access to WAIS information 

about Israeli companies' R&D projects. 



Write LISTSERV@MATIMOP.ORG.IL to subscribe to the MOP-flash mailing list. 

It brings announcements from MOP - Israel Industry R&D Information System. 

The announcements include new items added to MOP's gopher; new mailing 

lists established; updates on descriptions of R&D Projects (Advanced 

Technologies from Israel); new bilateral projects being carried out by 

MATIMOP (The Israeli Industry Center for Research and Development). 



The Israeli Industry Center for Research and Development has a gopher at 

gopher.matimop.org.il  70 . The Israel Information Service gopher is at 

gopher israel-info.gov.il (some documents are in French and Spanish). You 

can also get information about Israel by email to ask@israel-info.gov.il 



Usenet has 



  soc.culture.arabic      Technological & cultural issues, *not* politics.

  soc.culture.afghanistan Discussion of the Afghan society.

  soc.culture.iranian     Discussions about Iran and things Iranian/Persian.

  soc.culture.lebanon     Discussion about things Lebanese.



  soc.culture.israel      Israel and Israelis.



  misc.news.southasia     News from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, etc. 

  soc.culture.bangladesh  Issues & discussion about Bangladesh.

  alt.culture.karnataka   Culture and language of the Indian state of Karnataka.

  alt.india.progressive   Progressive politics in the Indian sub-continent. 

  bit.listserv.india-d    India Interest Group. 

  soc.culture.indian      Group for discussion about India & things Indian.

  soc.culture.indian.info Info group for soc.culture.indian, etc. 

  soc.culture.indian.telugu       The culture of the Telugu people of India.

  soc.culture.nepal       Discussion of people and things in & from Nepal.

  soc.culture.sri-lanka   Things & people from Sri Lanka.



  bit.listserv.pakistan   Pakistan News Service. 

  bit.listserv.pns-l      Pakistan News Service Discussions. 

  soc.culture.pakistan    Topics of discussion about Pakistan.



  soc.culture.china       About China and Chinese culture.

  talk.politics.china     Discussion of political issues related to China.

  soc.culture.hongkong    Discussions pertaining to Hong Kong.

  alt.taiwan.republic     Like soc.culture.taiwan, only different.

  soc.culture.taiwan      Discussion about things Taiwanese.



  alt.culture.indonesia   Indonesian culture, news, etc.

  soc.culture.indonesia   All about the Indonesian nation.



  soc.culture.malaysia    All about Malaysian society.

  soc.culture.singapore   The past, present and future of Singapore.

  soc.culture.vietnamese  Issues and discussions of Vietnamese culture.

  bit.listserv.seasia-l   Southeast Asia Discussion List.

  misc.news.southasia     News from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, etc. 



  comp.research.japan     The nature of research in Japan. (Moderated)

  soc.culture.korean      Discussions about Korea & things Korean.

  soc.culture.laos        Cultural and Social Aspects of Laos.



  soc.culture.australian  Australian culture and society.

  soc.culture.new-zealand Discussion of topics related to New Zealand.



A list of Australian mailing lists is available on gopher.gu.edu.au .

Select: Directory Services \ Ozlists .



CompuServe has the Australian/New Zealand Company Library, the Japan/Asia 

message section of the International Forum, the Asia/OZ/NZ and the 

Africa/Middle East sections of the International Trade Forum. Its Japan 

Forum has a Business & Industry section, and several other interesting 

offerings. Also, check out the Pacific Forum.



Central and South America

-------------------------

NewsNet has these newsletters 



   Brazil Service

   Chronicle Of Latin American Economic Affairs

   Country Risk Guide: THE AMERICAS

   Environment Watch: Latin America

   Investext: Latin American Region

   Latin America Intelligence Report

   Latin America Opportunity Report

   Latin American Telecom Report

   Mexico Service.

   Mexico Trade and Law Reporter

   NOTISUR - Latin American Political Affairs

   PRS Forecasts: South America

   Sourcemex: Economic News on Mexico



Dow Jones has SourceMex (bi-monthly newsletter about Mexico's changing 

economic environment), Mexico Service, Central America Update, Chronicle of 

Latin American Economic Affairs, InterAmerican Opportunities, Notisur - 

Latin American Political Affairs, and Latin America Opportunity Report. 



PeaceNet's World News Service offers a Latin America and the Caribbean 

digest with coverage from the Inter Press Service (IPS). The America Latina 

digest is the Spanish language equivalent. The digests feature regular news 

from sources like La Agencia Latinoamericana de Informacio'n (ALAI), Third 

World Network's Revista del Sur, and Tercer Mundo Econo'mico. For 

information, send email to pwn-info@igc.apc.org . 



Usenet has



  clari.world.americas    News on the Americas, usually outside the USA 

                          and Canada 

  soc.culture.latin-america       Topics about Latin-America.

  soc.culture.argentina   All about life in Argentina.

  soc.culture.brazil      Talking about the people and country of Brazil.

  soc.culture.chile       All about Chile and its people.

  soc.culture.mexican     Discussion of Mexico's society.

  soc.culture.peru        All about the people of Peru.

  soc.culture.uruguay     Discussions of Uruguay for those at home and abroad.

  soc.culture.venezuela   Discussion of topics related to Venezuela.



RNP - Rede Nacional de Pesquisa (National Research Network) in Brazil has 

a WWW server at http://www.rnp.br/ with links to most ftp, gopher and WWW 

servers in Brazil.



The Peruvian Scientist Network (Red Cientifica Peruana) has a gopher at

gopher.rcp.net.pe .



CompuServe's International Trade Forum has a South & Central America 

message section. 



The European Common Market and Central Europe

---------------------------------------------

NewsNet, and others, offer Dun & Bradstreet European Marketing Online. It 

contains company profiles of around two million European companies. 



NewsNet also has the following newsletters and services



   Agence France-Presse International news

   Aviation Europe

   Country Risk Guide: Europe

   Environment Watch: Western Europe

   European Community: Business Forecast

   European Venture Capital Journal

   German Business Scope

   INVESTEXT/European Region

   Market: Europe

   News From France

   Northern Ireland News Service

   Opportunities Briefing: Central Europe

   PRS Forecasts: Western Europe

   The Week In Germany

   West Europe Intelligence Report



For news from France, you can also gopher to gopher.tc.umn.edu . Look in 

the "News" directory: "French Language Press Review".



The UK Company Library on CompuServe has financial information about more 

than 1.2 million British companies from sources like Extel Cards, ICC 

British Co. Directory and Kompass UK. 



Business Database Plus has Finnish Trade Review (CompuServe).



For economics, check out the gopher at netec.mcc.ac.uk. Select Economics 

to get access to BibEc (bibliography of working research papers), and WoPEc 

(a collection of working papers). 



DJNR offers full text from the Paris-based International Herald Tribune, 

publications like the Guardian and others from the United Kingdom. 



Data-Star offers Tenders Electronic Daily, a database of European Community 

contract offers. Its Textline is an excellent source of information about 

European companies. 



Investext offers a series of bulletins authored by Europe Information 

Service (EIS): European Report (biweekly), Tech Report (Monthly), Transport 

Europe (monthly), Europe Environment (bimonthly), European Energy 

(bimonthly), European Social Policy (monthly), and Multinational Service 

(monthly). 



Investext is available through Data-Star, Lexis/Nexis, Dialog, Dow Jones 

News/Retrieval, NewsNet, and others. 



The German Company Library (on CompuServe) offers information about some 

48,000 German companies from databases like Credit Reform and Hoppenstedt's 

Directory of German Companies. Its European Company Library contains 

information about over two million companies in the area. 



Nexis (Mead Data Central International) brings news and background 

information about companies and the different countries in Europe. Their 

Worldwide Companies database contains company profiles, balance sheets, 

income statements, and other financial data on the largest companies in 40 

countries. 



Nexis also has Hoppenstedt German Trade Associations directory, four more 

newsletters from the Europe Information Service: Europe Energy, Europe 

Environment, Transport Europe and European Insight, a weekly brief on 

European Community-related happenings, and Notisur, a biweekly news and 

analysis report on South American and Caribbean political affairs. 



Need newspapers not published in English? Nexis carries Le Monde (in 

French), Suddeutsche Zeitung (in German), and La Stampa (in Italian). They 

have The Agence France Presse wire service in French. 



Data-Star has Il Sole 24 Ore, L'Impresa, and Il Mundo Economica in Italian, 

and the Belgian newspaper De Financieel Ekonomische Tijd (in Flemish). In 

its Swiss News Agency wire service, you have a choice of French or German. 



The Dutch language Internet newspaper InterNetKrant brings news from the 

Netherlands at gopher ohrid.cca.vu.nl . News about Flanders and Belgium in 

Dutch is available from Rijksuniversiteit Gent. For information about how 

to subscribe, send a empty mail message to msr@elis.rug.ac.be, with the 

word HELP in the subject line. 



The IR-POL mailing list on LISTSERV@IRLEARN.UCD.IE is for discussion of 

current Irish politics. 



Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute Daily Report offers full 

text of a daily digest of the latest developments in Central Europe. Gopher 

to gopher.lib.umich.edu and select: news services. 



LEXIS (also Mead) has databases with information about English and French 

law, and other law material from Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland 

and North America. 



Their Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory has information on over 700,000 

lawyers and law firms worldwide. The directory can be used for referrals, 

selection of associate counsel, and evaluation of competitive counsel. 



Check out KOMPASS EUROPE when planning exports to the EEC. Its database 

contains details about companies in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, United 

Kingdom, Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden and Norway. (On 

Dialog) 



ILINK has the EEC-I conference (Discussion about the European Common 

Marked). Profile offers full-text searches (and a clipping service) in 

stories from Financial Times. The database is being updated daily at 00:01. 



Those exporting to the EEC need to master German, French, Italian, and 

Spanish besides having a common knowledge of English. 



Conversation is the easy part. The problem is writing, and especially when 

the task is to translate technical expressions to the languages used within 

the Common Market. 



For help, check out the Eurodicautom online dictionary through ECHO (and 

others.) Start by selecting a source language (like English), and up to 

seven languages for simultaneous translation. The translation is word-for-

word, but may be put in the correct context if required. 



ECHO also offers the European Commission's CORDIS database (Community 

Research and Development Information Service) containing  information about 

research results within scientific and technical fields. Keywords: Race, 

Esprit, Delta, Aim, Fast, Brite, Comett, Climat, Eclair and Tedis. 



CONCISE (COsine Network's Central Information Service for Europe) is a pan-

European information service to the COSINE scientific and industrial 

research community. COSINE (Cooperation for Open Systems Interconnection 

Networking in Europe) is part of the European Common Market's Eureka 

project.  



CONCISE brings information about the COSINE project, networks, conferences, 

networking products, special interest groups, projects databases, 

directories, email services and other networked services in Europe. It is 

intended for researchers in all fields, from astronomers through linguists 

and market researchers to zoologists. 



CONCISE is accessible by email through the Internet, by FTP, and 

interactively (telnet) over the European academic and research networks, 

over public data networks and over telephone links. (See ECHO in appendix 1 

for more information.) 



The mailing list EC@INDYCMS.BITNET is dedicated to discussion of the 

European Community, and is open to all interested persons. Subscribe by 

email to a LISTSERV close to where you live, or to LISTSERV@INDYCMS.BITNET. 



Business Database Plus has Agra Europe, Belgium: Economic and Commercial 

Information, British Plastics & Rubber, British Telecom World, The 

Economist, Erdol und Kohle, Erdgas, Petrochemie: Hydrocarbon Technology, 

EuroBusiness, Euromoney, Europe 2000, European Cosmetic Markets, European 

Rubber Journal, Report on the Austrian Economy, Royal Bank of Scotland 

Review, swissBusiness. 



Data from the Vienna Stock market (Austria) is available by telnet to

fiivs01.tu-graz.ac.at (login as "BOURSE"). The language is German.



Usenet has



  alt.culture.austrian    You'll find more Austrians in soc.culture.austria.

  soc.culture.austria     Austria and its people.

  soc.culture.french      French culture, history, and related discussions.

  soc.culture.netherlands People from the Netherlands and Belgium.

  soc.culture.portuguese  Discussion of the people of Portugal.

  soc.culture.spain       Spain and the Spanish.



CompuServe has a European Forum. Its message sections include the European 

Question, the Italian Section, the French Section, and the Spanish Section.

The International Forum has the Europe/UK/EEC message Section, and the 

International Trade Forum has a European Community section.



Scandinavia

-----------

Most countries have several local language news services. In Norway, 

Statens Datasentral lets you search stories from the NTB news agency. 

Aftenposten, a major newspaper, offers full-text stories from their A-TEKST 

database, from Dagens Naeringsliv (DNX), and the Kapital magazine. 



The NORWAVES mailing list distributes digested news from Norway (currently 

in Norwegian language only - 3/1994). Subscribe by email to LISTSERV@NKI.NO 

using the command "SUBSCRIBE NORWAVES Your Name". 



Before meeting with people from Norsk Hydro, go online to get recent news 

about these companies. It will only take a couple of minutes. What you find 

may be important for the success of your meeting. 



If you know the names of your most important competitors, use their names 

as keywords for information about recent contracts, joint venture 

agreements, products (and their features), and other important information. 



KOMPASS ONLINE offers information about over 180,000 companies and 34,000 

products in Scandinavia, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, and Great Britain. 

The information is presented in the local language of the different 

countries. 



KOMPASS is used by easy menus. You can search by 



    * company name

    * product or service (optionally using an industry 

      classification code for companies or products)

    * number of employees, type of business, postal number,

      telephone area code, export area, year of incorporation,

      bank affiliation.



The database is available through Affaersdata (Sweden). New users pay a one 

time fee of around US$85. Searching costs around US$3.00 per minute. 



Affaersdata in Sweden also offers the Swedish-language service "Export-

Nytt," which brings short news stories about export/import from all over 

the world. Information providers are the Swedish Export Council, the 

Norwegian Export Council, and the Suomen Ulkomaankauppaliitto in Finland. 



The TYR database on the Finnish service VIEXPO (tel.: +358 67 235100) 

offers information about 2,500 companies in the Vaasa and Oulu regions with 

addresses, phone numbers, contact persons, main products, revenues, and SIC 

industry classification codes. 



CompuServe's European Forum has a Nordic message section. The International 

Trade Forum has the NonEEC Europe & CIS section.



North America

-------------

There are so many sources focusing on North America, and we have already 

mentioned several. This section is therefore kept intentionally short. 



Usenet has



  clari.canada.biz        Canadian Business Summaries. 

  clari.canada.general    Short items on Canadian News stories. 

  clari.canada.gov        Government related news (all levels).

  clari.canada.law        Crimes, the courts and the law. 

  clari.canada.newscast   Regular newscast for Canadians.

  clari.canada.politics   Political and election items.

  clari.canada.trouble    Mishaps, accidents and serious problems. 

  clari.news.canada       News related to Canada. 

  misc.invest.canada      Investing in Canadian financial markets.

  soc.culture.canada      Discussions of Canada and its people.



  clari.biz.market.amex   American Stock Exchange reports & news. 



As of February 1994, there were more than 100 selections in the listing of 

publically accessible  U.S. Government Gophers and U.S. Government supported 

or related gophers. Gopher to peg.cwis.uci.edu port 7000 , and select peg / 

gophers/ gov . 



The National Technical Information Service provides access to more than 100 

U.S. Government operated bulletin boards and online systems. Access: telnet 

fedworld.gov . Information is also available by anonymous ftp to 

ftp.fedworld.gov (or 192.239.92.205).



Free listings of patents are available from patents-request@world.std.com .



Statistics Canada is the country's national statistical agency. Its Gopher 

is at talon.statcan.ca port=70  (142.206.64.2). 



The Commercial.RealEstate@data-base.com mailing list is for commercial real 

estate professionals involved in sales, acquistions, management and 

development of commercial property.  Receive and send property for sale, 

ask/answer questions, send Press Releases, receive editioral material and 

do general "networking". To subscribe, send email and your Internet address 

to Commercial.RealEstate@data-base.com . 



xUSSR

-----

Glasnost in the former Soviet Union produced a long list of new online 

information sources, including: 



    The Soviet Press Digest (stories from over 100 newspapers), 

    The BizEkon Reports (financial news from 150 business and 

        financial magazines), 

    SovLegisLine (law), 

    BizEdon Directory (detailed information about over 2,500 

        companies, who want to do business with foreign companies), 

    Who's Who in the Soviet Union and 

    The Soviet Public Association Directory. 



Some of these may have changed their names now. Contact Mead Data Central 

(Nexis/Lexis), Data-Star, FT Profile and Reuters for more information. 



DJNR offers full text from Soviet Press Digest, BizEkon News, Moscow News, 

and others. 



E-EUROPE is an electronic communications network for doing business in 

Eastern Europe countries, including CIS. Its purpose is to help these 

countries in their transition to market economies. It links business 

persons in Western Europe-Asia-North America with those in Eastern Europe. 



Subscription is free and for anyone. To subscribe to E-EUROPE, send email 

LISTSERV@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU (or a LISTSERV closer to you) with the body the 

message containing this line 



    SUB E-EUROPE YourFirstName YourLastName



E-EUROPE also offers International Marketing Insights (IMI) for several 

countries in this region, including Russia, Hungary, Czech, Germany, 

Estonia, Poland, Bulgaria, and Lithuania. 



The IMI reports important developments that have implications for traders 

and investors. Typically brief and to-the-point, they are prepared by 

American Embassies and Consulates. 



The reports cover a wide range of subjects, such as new laws, policies and 

procedures, new trade regulations, changing dynamics in the marketplace, 

recent statements by influential parties and emerging trade opportunities.  



For a list of E-EUROPE IMI offerings, send the following commands to 

LISTSERV@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU: 



    GET E-EUROPE IMI 



IMI update notices are not posted to E-EUROPE, but you can subscribe to 

updates to these files. 



Telnet to ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu  and login as ex-ussr to access a database 

of xUSSR-related files .



There is a Russia-American World Wide Web Server at the URL locator:   

http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/friends/home.html . If you do not have a WWW 

browser, telnet to solar.rtd.utk.edu . At the login: prompt, enter friends. 

Send a subscription request to LISTPROC@SOLAR.RTD.UTK.EDU to join a related 

moderated mailing list called FRIENDS. 



PeaceNet's World News Service offers an Eastern Europe (including Russia 

and the CIS) digest with coverage from the Inter Press Service (IPS). For 

information, contact pwn-info@igc.apc.org . 



Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute Daily Report offers full 

text of a daily digest of the latest developments in Russia, and Eastern 

Europe. Gopher to gopher.lib.umich.edu . Select: news services. 



The Financial Izvestia weekly, the joint publication of London Financial 

Times and Moscow-based Izvestia, is available by email. The complete feed 

includes the full text of all articles published in the Russian language 

newspaper, and financial and statistical tables on the commodities and 

financial markets. Write Legpromsyrie at root@sollo.soleg.msk.su for 

information. 



Several Russian newspapers, including Commersant Daily, Nega, and press 

services like Postfactum and Interfax, have digests or complete editions 

available for Relcom network subscribers, usually for a nominal fee. 



NewsNet has the following newsletters:



   Baltic Business Report

   Czech Republic Business & Investment News

   East Europe Intelligence Report

   East Europe & Soviet Telecom Report

   Eastern Europe Finance

   Eastern European Energy Report

   Federal News Service Kremlin Transcripts

   PRS Forecasts: Eastern Europe

   Russia Express Executive Briefing

   Russia Express Contracts

   Russia/CIS Intelligence Report



Business Database Plus has Soviet Aerospace & Technology.



Usenet has



  soc.culture.bulgaria    Discussing Bulgarian society.

  alt.current-events.bosnia       The strife of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

  soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna      The independent state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

  soc.culture.czecho-slovak       Bohemian, Slovak, Moravian and Silesian life.

  soc.culture.croatia     The lives of people of Croatia.

  clari.local.georgia             Local news. 

  clari.local.georgia.briefs      Local news Briefs. 

  alt.news.macedonia      News concerning Macedonia in the Balkan Region.

  soc.culture.romanian    Discussion of Romanian and Moldavian people.

  relcom.bbs.list         Lists of Russian-language BBSes. 

  soc.culture.soviet      Topics relating to Russian or Soviet culture.

  clari.news.hot.ussr     News from the Soviet Union. 

  talk.politics.soviet    Discussion of Soviet politics, domestic and foreign.

  alt.culture.tuva        Topics related to the Republic of Tuva, South Siberia.

  alt.current-events.ukraine      Current and fast paced Ukrainian events.

  soc.culture.yugoslavia  Discussions of Yugoslavia and its people.



There's a Croatian gopher at diana.zems.etf.hr  port 70 .



The mailing list UKRAINE is on LISTSERV@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU .



CompuServe's International Trade Forum has a NonEEC Europe & CIS message 

section.



How to monitor your competitors

-------------------------------

Sales managers need to know what competitors are doing. Lacking this 

knowledge, it is risky to maneuver in the market. 



Start by making a strategy for online market intelligence. Here are some 

practical hints: 



(1) Select online services that offer clipping of stories and 

    information based on your search words or phrases. Examples: 

    NewsFlash on NewsNet, //TRACK on Dow Jones News/Retrieval, The 

    Executive News Service on CompuServe. Use these services for 

    automatic monitoring of stock quotes and business news. 



(2) Read what investment analysts and advisors write about your 

    competitors. Most markets are well covered by databases and 

    other sources of information. 



(3) Read what competitors write about themselves. Their press 

    releases are available from online databases in several 

    countries. 



(4) Compare your competitors with your own company and industry. 

    Items: stock prices, profits, revenue, etc. 



(5) Regularly monitor companies and their particular products. 



(6) Watch trend reports about your industry. Search for patterns and 

    possible niches. 



(7) Save what you find on your hard disk for future references. 



Can you get everything through the online medium? Of course not! 



Do not expect to find production data, production formulas, detailed 

outlines of a company's pension plan, or the number of personal computers 

in a company. Such information rarely finds its way to public databases. 



Intelligence by fax

-------------------

Financial Times' Profile has Fax Alert. Predefine your interests using 

search words. Stories will be cut and sent to your personal fax number 

whenever they appear. Price depends on the number of characters 

transmitted. 



Other online services offer similar services. 



The Bulletin Board as a sales tool

----------------------------------

Many companies - large and small - use bulletin board systems as a 

marketing instrument. Here is an example: 



The San Francisco-based Compact Disk Exchange (Tel.: +1-415-824-7603) 

offers a database of used CD records. Members can call in to buy at very 

low prices. They can sell old CDs through the board or buy from other 

members. (1992) 



Many companies set up bulletin board systems to provide technical support 

to customers. McAfee Associates, Inc. in California is one example. They 

offer technical information, help, upgrade software, list of agents, 

technical bulletins with lists of products, and new products through 

agents' support BBSes all over the world. For example, when in Port of 

Spain, Trinidad & Tobago call the Opus Networx BBS at (819) 628-4023. 



Setting up a professional BBS is not very expensive. You can easily have 32 

people online to the same conference simultaneously on a standard 80386-

based PC, running Xenix and Caucus conferencing software. This is what the 

Washington Information Service Corp. in U.S.A. did. There's an abundance of 

software to choose from. 



To keep in touch with customers all over the world, Microsoft, Toshiba, 

Quarterdeck, Digital Research, Tandy, Novell and hundreds of others rent 

public support forum space on CompuServe. Others run their own BBSes or 

rent space on regional bulletin boards. 



Marketing and sales by modem

----------------------------

The Americans have a gift for this. You meet them in online forums all over 

the world, in person or through agents, and especially in computer oriented 

conferences and clubs. 



Their main strategy is reference selling. Make key customers happy, and 

make sure they tell others. 



In Chapter 5, I told you what happened when a member wrote about his 

upgrade to a 425 megabytes hard disk in CompuServe's Toshiba forum. It made 

me place my order with his preferred seller. 



One common sales strategy is to be constantly present in relevant 

conferences, and spend a generous amount of time helping others. This takes 

time. By proving competence and willingness to help, you build a positive 

personal profile. This profile is the key to business, information about 

competitors and other benefits. 



To drop quickly into a conference to post an "advertisement," is a waste of 

time. The message may be read by some, but chances are that you will be 

criticized (in public) for having "polluted their environment" with a 

commercial message. On the Internet, it is considered unappropriate to send 

out unsolicited information. 



Besides, the volume of information in the best conferences for your 

marketing effort is probably too high to make traditional advertisements 

worth the while. 



When you send out commercial information, preface it with a concise summary, 

which can be followed-up with more detail if requested. Also, make sure that 

the information provided is of significant value. 



International trade

-------------------

Check out the International Trade Forum on CompuServe. Message areas and 

libraries are divided into geographical parts of the world, as well as 

topic of general interest. Separate message sections are set up for traders 

to network among themselves and make contacts that may lead to deals. 



The International Trade Network is on the IntlTrade mailinglist. It is for 

advertisements of exports, imports, services, and direct investments. Trade 

advertisements may be posted gratis by anyone, and are relayed worldwide by 

email to subscribers in a daily digest. For information, send email to 

majordomo@world.std.com with the following in the body of the text (leave 

the subject blank): 



     INFO INTLTRADE



Management

----------

The Management Archive is a free electronic forum for business management 

ideas and information of all kinds. Complete details are available by e-

mail message to "ma-request@chimera.sph.umn.edu", with "Subject: archive" 

and a one-line message: "get ma-info". 



Electronic mail

---------------

Here is a list of other useful applications of electronic mail: 



    * to quickly distribute lists of important prospects to your 

      sales force,

    * to avoid lengthy telephone conversations,

    * to receive order information faster and more efficiently than

      by traditional mail or fax (and from a larger geographical area),

    * to distribute quickly reports and memos to key people all

      over the world,

    * to send new prices and product announcements to customers,

    * to exchange spread sheets and analyses between users of

      personal computers.



If this isn't enough, ask for information from the International Business 

Network at 70724.311@compuserve.com (70724,311 on CompuServe). 







PART 3: WORKING SMARTER



In some countries, the costs of communication is outrageously high, in 

others almost free. In some places, it is rare to experience noise on the 

telephone line, while it may be almost impossible even to connect at 2400 

bits/s in other countries. 



Whatever your local situation, I hope that you will benefit from the hints 

given in this part of the book. 



Chapter 12: Practical tips

==========================



- Quick transfers with a minimum of errors

- Rescuing lost files

- Copyright and other legal matters

- Unwritten laws about personal conduct

- Privacy 

- Fax services weigh less than your printer

- File transfers through the Internet



Speed and safety

----------------

Read about MNP, ITU-TSS V.42, and V.42bis in appendix 2. These are popular 

methods for automatic error correction and compression of data. Compression 

gives faster transfers of data. 



To use them, your modem must have these features built-in. They must also 

be enabled in the modem of the service that you are calling. 



Compression is particularly helpful when sending or receiving text, for 

example news stories and messages in conferences. They ensure faster 

transfers. 



They are not of much help when transferring precompressed texts and 

programs. They may even make file transfers with protocols like ZMODEM, 

Kermit, and XMODEM impossible. If this happens, temporarily turn off the 

MNP and V.24/V42bis settings in your modem (more about this in appendix 2). 



Some online services let users retrieve conference messages using a special 

get or grab function. This function often comes in two versions: 



    * Grab to display: New messages and conference items are received in an 

uninterrupted stream without stops between items. Retrieval of text can 

happen at maximum speed. 



    * Grab to compressed file: New messages and conference items are 

selected, automatically compressed and stored in a file. This file is then 

transferred using ZMODEM or similar protocols. 



Some services offer unattended online work with a variation of the "get 

compressed file" method. Read about 'offline readers' in chapter 16 for 

more about this. 



The more advanced your software is, the more time it will take to learn how 

to use it. The rewards are lower telephone costs, faster transfers, and 

less time spent doing technical online work. 



Recommended. 



Different needs, different solutions

------------------------------------

Frank Burns of the American online service MetaNet is spokesperson for the 

strategy SCAN - FOCUS - ACT. 



On your first visits to a new online service, you SCAN. The goal is to get 

an overview of what is being offered and find out how to use it most 

efficiently. Notes are made of interesting bulletins, databases, 

conferences, messages, news services, public domain and shareware programs, 

games, and more. 



Capture all of it to disk. Don't study it until disconnected from the 

service. Evaluate the material to prepare for your next moves: FOCUS and 

ACT. 



As you learn about offerings, users and applications, your use of the 

service changes. What was interesting on your first visits, lose out to new 

discoveries. Some applications may stay as 'regular online functions', like 

when you decide to read a given news report on Monday mornings. 



Here are some other hints: 



    * Find out what you do NOT have to know and have enough self- 

confidence immediately to discard irrelevant material. Walk quickly through 

the information. Select what you need now, store other interesting items on 

your hard disk, clip references, and drop the remainder of your capture 

file. 



    * Learn when and how to use people, computers, libraries and other 

resources. Prepare well before going online. Note that the online resource 

may not necessarily be the quickest way to the goal. If you want the name 

of Michael Jackson's latest album, you may get a faster answer by calling a 

local music shop. . . . 



    * Make an outline of how to search the service before going online. If 

required, start by going online to collect help menus and lists of search 

commands (unless you already have the printed user information manual). 

Study the instructions carefully, plan your visit, and then call back. 



Often, it may be useful to do trial searches in online data, which you have 

previously captured to your hard disk. Do this to check if your use of 

search words is sensible. 



Who knows, you may even have what you are searching for right there.  

Besides, it is imperative that you use the correct search terms to find 

what you're looking for. 



Write your search strategy on a piece of paper. If you know how to write 

macros for your communications program, consider writing some for your 

planned search commands. - Few people can type 240 characters per second. 

Using macros may save you time, frustration and money. 



    * It may be wise to do your search in two steps. On your first visit: 

Get a LIST of selected headlines or references, and then log off the 

service. 



Study your finds, and plan the next step. Then call back to get full-text 

of the most promising stories. 



This strategy is often better than just 'hanging online' while thinking. 

When you feel the pressure of the taximeter, it is easy to make costly 

mistakes. 



    * Novices should always go the easiest way. Don't be shy. Ask SOS 

Assistance services for help, if available. Invest in special communication 

programs with built in automatic online searching features. They are 

designed to make your work easier. 



    * Limit your search and avoid general and broad search terms. It is 

often wise to start with a search word that is so 'narrow' that it is 

unlikely to find articles outside your area of interest. Your goal is not 

to find many stories. You want the right ones. 



When everything fails

---------------------

Data communications is simple - when you master it. Occasionally, however, 

you WILL lose data. You may even experience the worst of all: losing unread 

private email on your hard disk. 



A while ago, this happened to a friend. She logged on to her mailbox 

service using the communications program Procomm. 



After capturing all her mail, she tried to send a message. For some reason, 

the computer just froze. It was impossible to close the capture file. She 

had to switch the power OFF/ON to continue. All retrieved mail was 

obviously lost. 



The other day, I had a similar experience. After having written a long and 

difficult letter, something went wrong. The outfile was inexplicably 

closed. The resulting file size was 0 bytes. 



Both problems were solved by the MS-DOS program CHKDSK run with the /F 

option. If you ever get this problem, and have an MS-DOS computer, try it. 

It may save your day. 



Copyright notices and legal stuff

---------------------------------

Most commercial online services protect their offerings with copyright 

notices. This is especially so for database information and news. 



Some vendors make you accept in writing not to store captured data on a 

local media (like diskettes or hard disks). Others (like Prodigy in the 

U.S.) force clients to use communication software that makes it impossible 

to store incoming data to disk. 



The reason is simple. Information providers want to protect their income. 



In most countries, you can quote from what others have written. You can cut 

pieces out of a whole and use in your own writing. What you cannot do, 

however, is copy news raw to resell to others. If an online service 

discovers you doing that, expect a law suit. 



Read copyright notices to learn about the limitations on your usage of data 

that you receive. 



Unwritten laws about personal conduct

-------------------------------------

Some services let their users be anonymous. This is the case on many chat 

services. If you want to pose as Donald Duck or Jack the Ripper, just do 

that. 



Many free BBS systems let you register for full access to the service 

during your first visit. It is possible to use any name. Don't do that. Use 

your true name, unless asked to do otherwise. It's impolite and 

unrespectful of the other members to participate in online discussions 

using a false identity. 



Being helpful is an important aspect of the online world. The people you 

meet 'there' use of their time to help you and others. Often free. The 

atmosphere is one of gratitude, and a positive attitude toward all members. 



If you use rude words in public, expect your mailbox to fill with angry 

messages from others. Those who respond carefully to personal attacks, will 

never regret it. Don't say things online that you would not have said in 

person. 



REMEMBER: Words written in a moment of anger or frustration can be stored 

on at least one hard disk. Your 'sins' may stay there for a long time - to 

resurface when you least want it to. 



Here are some guidelines (often called 'online netiquette'): 



    * If mail to a person doesn't make it through, avoid posting

      the message to a conference. Keep private messages private.



    * It is considered extremely bad taste to post private mail

      from someone else on public conferences, unless they give 

      you explicit permission to redistribute it. 



    * Many users end their messages with some lines about how

      to get in touch with them  (their email address, phone

      number, address, etc.). Limit your personal "signature"

      to maximum four lines.



      Hint: Do not include a signature when sending commands

      to TRICKLE, or other email based services. It can confuse

      the servers.



    * Do not send test messages to a public conference, unless

      they are set up to serve this purpose.



    * If someone requests that readers reply by private email,

      do that. Do not send to the conference, where the request 

      appeared. 



    * When replying to a message in a public conference, many

      users 'quote' the original message prefixed by '>' or

      another special character, as in



         You wrote:

         >I strongly believe it was wrong to attack

         >Fidel Castro in this way!



     When you quote another person, edit out whatever isn't

     directly applicable to your reply. By including the entire

     message, you'll only annoy those reading it.



   * Note that if you USE ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, people will

     think you're shouting.



Finally, smile with me about the following story: According to Time 

magazine (7/19/93, p. 58), three women who corresponded with Mr. X over the 

network discovered his duplicity and went public on the network. The 

incident sparked a lively debate over electronic etiquette (and ruined Mr. 

Casanova's chances for further romance). 



Fax services weigh less than your computer's printer

----------------------------------------------------

Many online services let you send electronic mail as fax messages. This is 

an interesting feature when in that far away place without a printer. Send 

the draft contract or other texts to your hotel's fax machine or to your 

client's office to get a printout on paper. 



Privacy

-------

The level of online privacy differs by network, service, and application. 

Whatever these services may claim, always expect that someone, somewhere, 

is able to watch, even record. 



All mailbox services have at least one person authorized to access your 

personal mail box in case of an emergency. Most of the time they not have a 

right to read it without your permission, but they can. 



In some countries, mailbox services may let outsiders (like the police) 

routinely read your private email to check for 'illegal' contents. In this 

respect, email is not safer than ordinary mail. 



The good news is that most 'inspectors' and 'sysops' are good, honest 

people. On the other hand, it is useful to know your situation. 



It is not safe to send sensitive information (like credit card details) by 

private electronic mail. True, the probability that an outsider should get 

hold of and take advantage of such information is small, but it definitely 

is not 100 percent safe. 



    Encrypt your email to protect sensitive information. 



Always assume that someone is recording all that is being said in online 

conferences, chats, and other interactive social gatherings. In chats, 

anyone using a personal computer as a terminal can log the conversation, or 

use screen dump just to capture 'interesting parts'. 



Many PC users can scroll back the screen. They can wait and decide whether 

to save the conversation in a file until after the conversation has taken 

place. With these capabilities widely available, users of chats and talk 

should always assume that their conversations are being recorded. 



Do not say indiscreet things in small, informal discussions. It  may be 

recorded and reposted under embarrassing circumstances. 



The program PGP has become the de facto international Internet standard for 

public key encryption. 



For more on privacy, check out ETHICS-L@MARIST.BITNET. The files RFC 1113 

through 1115 are about 'Privacy enhancements for Internet electronic mail' 

(see appendix 1 for how to get them). 



Usenet has alt.privacy (Privacy issues in cyberspace), and 

comp.society.privacy (Effects of technology on privacy). 



File transfers through the Internet

-----------------------------------

The Internet is a term used of a network interconnecting hundreds of 

thousands of computer centers around the world. These centers use different 

types of hardware and software, and different methods of file transfer. 



What method to use for file transfers depends on the source host and the 

type of mailbox computer that you are using. The transfer usually takes 

place in two steps: 



    1. Transferring files from a remote data center to your local 

       mailbox host. 



    2. Transfer from your local mailbox host to your personal 

       computer. 



Transfer to your local mailbox host

-----------------------------------

We will explain the most commonly used method for those who only have access 

to file transfer by email. This method can be used by everybody. 



Transferring plain text files is easy. Files with imbedded word processor 

control codes will often have to be treated as binary files. More about 

this later. 



To transfer a text to another user, just send it as an ordinary electronic 

message. 



Getting text files from a library on a remote computer is a special case. 

Often, they can be had by sending a retrieval command (like GET) by email 

to the remote center. After a while, the file will be sent to your mailbox 

by email. You can read it like you read other mail. 



Example: The file MSDOS1 can be retrieved from the KIDART directory on a 

computer center in North Dakota, U.S.A. It explains how to retrieve binary 

art files from the KIDLINK project's file libraries. 



To get the file, send a message to the center's mail forwarding 'agent' at 

LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU. Use the following command syntax in your text: 



    GET <directory name> <file name>



To get the MSDOS1 file, write the following command in the TEXT of your 

message: 



    GET KIDART MSDOS1



Note that the command has to be put in the body of the mail and not in the 

subject field. The file will arrive in your mailbox after a while. 



Also, note that lists of available files are usually available by using an 

"INDEX <directory name>" command. To get a list of files in the KIDART 

directory, add the command "INDEX KIDART" in your message above. 



Non-LISTSERV libraries may use other retrieval commands. Often, you can get 

information of what commands to use by sending the word HELP to a mailing 

service (in the Subject area or in the body of the text). 



Transferring binary files

-------------------------

Users with a direct connection to the Internet usually have access to the 

FTP command (File Transfer Protocol). If they do, they often prefer FTP for 

transfers of binary files like computer programs, pictures, sound, and 

compressed text files. 



The bad news is that the FTP command is not available to all users of 

Internet mail. These will have to use "FTP by mail," or other tricks to 

transfer such files. More about this in a moment. 



The FTP command gives access to a special file transfer service. It works 

in the following way: 



    1. Logon to your local email host and enter 'FTP remote-center-code'. 

Example: 'ftp 134.129.111.1'. 



This command will connect you to the center in North Dakota mentioned 

above. Here, you will be prompted for user name and password. Enter 

'anonymous' as user name, and use your real name or email address as 

password. 



This way of logging on to retrieve files is called "transfers by anonymous 

ftp." You can use this method on many hosts on the Internet. 



    2. When connected to the remote center, you can request transfer of the 

desired file to your mailbox. Before doing that, you may have to navigate 

to a given file catalog (cd directory), and tell the host that the transfer 

is to be binary (bin). Finally, initiate the transfer by entering a "GET 

file name" command. 



    3. The file will be transferred to your local mailbox computer at high 

speed. When the transfer is done, you logoff from the remote center to "get 

back" to your mailbox computer's prompt line. 



Now, you can transfer the file to your personal computer using 

communications protocols like Kermit, XMODEM, ZMODEM or whatever else is 

available. 



Binary files transferred as text codes

--------------------------------------

If you do not have access to FTP, you must use ordinary email for your 

binary transfers. 



Usually, email through the Internet can only contain legal character codes 

(ASCII characters between number 32 - 126). Most systems cannot transfer 

graphics or program files directly, since these files normally contain 

binary codes (which are outside this ASCII character range). 



The solution is to convert binary files to text codes using a utility 

program called UUENCODE. The encoded file can be sent by ordinary email, as 

in this example: 





  From TRICKLE@VM1.NoDak.EDU Fri Aug 16 16:32:37 1991

  Date:     Fri, 16 Aug 1991 09:31:34 CDT

  To: opresno@EXTERN.UIO.NO

  Subject:  Part 1/1 SIMTEL20.INF PD:<MSDOS.STARTER>



  The file PD:<MSDOS.STARTER>SIMTEL20.INF  has been uuencoded before 

  being sent. After combining the 1 parts with the mail headers

  removed, you must run the file through a decode program.

  ------------ Part 1 of 1 ------------

  begin 600 SIMTEL20.INF

  M6T9I;&4Z(%-)351%3#(P+DE.1B`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("!,87-T(')E

  M=FES960Z($IU;F4@,C@L(#$Y.3%=#0H-"B`@(%M.;W1E.B!$=64@=&\@9&ES

  M:6P-"AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:

  M&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:

  6&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&@(Z

  `

  end

  -------- End of part 1 of 1 ---------



When you receive a message with uuencoded text, download it to your 

personal computer's hard disk. Use an editor to cut out the codes and paste 

them to an empty work file. Using the example above, the first line in your 

work file should contain: 



  begin 600 SIMTEL20.INF



and the last line should contain

  end



Now, use a utility program called UUDECODE to convert the file back to its 

binary form (or whatever). 



More information about uuencoding and uudecoding is given in the MSDOS1 

file mentioned above (for MS-DOS computers). It has a detailed explanation, 

BASIC source code for making the program UUDECODE.COM, and a DEBUG script 

for those preferring that. 



Versions of UUDECODE are also available for other types of computers. 



Transfer of pictures

--------------------

Denis Pchelkin in Protvino (Russia) is 11 years old, has two cats and one 

dog, and has contributed beautiful computer graphics art to the KIDLINK 

project (1992). 



The file ART019 in the KIDART catalog of the North Dakota center contains 

one of his creations. It is a UUENCODEd picture in GIF graphics format. 



You can retrieve Denis' creation by sending a GET command to 

LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU . Put the following command in the TEXT of your 

message: 



    GET KIDART ART019



The LISTSERVer will return a message filled with strange uu-codes. We 

assume that you have already retrieved the MSDOS1 file, and that you have a 

version of the conversion program. Your next step is uudecoding: 



Read the message into an editor or a viewing program. Cut and paste the 

codes to a work file. Keep the original as backup. Use the UUDECODE.COM 

program to convert ART019 into a GIF formatted file. 



Now, view the picture with your favorite graphics program. (Or use 

shareware GIF-viewers like PICEM, VUIMG, and VPIC for MS-DOS computers. 

These programs are available from CompuServe's IBM forums and other 

services.) 



Sending binary files in uuencoded form has weaknesses. One is the lack of 

automatic error correction when sending/receiving e-mail. Noise on the line 

can easily distort the picture. 



File size is another problem. UUENCODEing typically increases file sizes by 

almost one third. Some mailbox systems restrict the length of individual 

messages that you can receive, and the file may just be too big. 



If the uuencoded file gets too big, some services can (or will by default) 

split it up in parts and then sent separately. 



Tons of uuencoded public domain and shareware programs are available for 

retrieval by ordinary email. 



FTP by email

-------------

While some services accept commands like GET KIDART ART019 by email, this 

is not so with the many so-called FTP libraries. Many of them can only be 

accessed by FTP. 



Services exist that will do FTP transfers by email for those not having 

access to the FTP command. The most popular is at DEC Corporate Research in 

the U.S. 



For more information, write a message to one of the following addresses: 



    ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com                  (U.S.A.)

    ftpmail@sunsite.unc.edu

    bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu

    ftpmail@cs.uow.edu.au                   (Australia)

    ftpmail@grasp.insa-lyon.fr              (European users only)

    BITFTP@DEARN.BITNET, or BITFTP@vm.gmd.de 

    ftpmail@ftp.uni-stuttgart.de             

    ftpmail@src.doc.ic.ac.uk                 

    bitftp@plearn.bitnet                     



In the TEXT of your message, put the word "HELP". 



FTPMAIL lets you uuencode binary files for transfers. It can split large 

files up into several messages, thus helping you around local restrictions 

on the size of each incoming mail message. 







Chapter 13: Cheaper and better communication

============================================



    Packet data services and data transportation

    services like Tymnet Outdial, Infonet, Internet,

    and PC Pursuit may help keep costs down. 

    About reducing the cost of using mailing lists. 



Many users access online services by calling them directly. A lot pay extra 

for long distance calls to other cities and countries, even when this means 

inferior transmission quality (like when noise characters degrade the 

data). 



Others investigate other routings for their data. One option is the packet 

data networks. Most countries have Public Data Networks (PDNs) operated by 

local telecommunications authorities. These services are often cheaper than 

direct calls for some applications, but more expensive for others. 



Before using a packet data network, you'll need to establish a "Network 

User Identification" (NUI) with the PDN carrier. You must also know the 

Network User Address (NUA) of the hosts that you want to access. 



In Scandinavia, the local PDNs are called Datapak. In China, it is called 

CNPAC (or CHINAPAC). They can be accessed by direct local calls or through 

leased lines. To personal users, direct calls are least expensive. A leased 

line may be cost efficient when the daily volume is high, like in a 

company. 



When you communicate with online services through a PDN, the latter will 

split your data and bundle it in standard envelopes or 'packets'. 



Each packet is marked with a code and sent out into the data stream. Based 

on this code, the packet is routed from computer center to computer center 

until it reaches its final destination. There, the information will be 

reassembled into its original form before being handed over to a user or 

online service. 



It is almost like traveling by train. The price per packet or traveler is 

lower than what it costs to rent the whole train for your trip. 



National telecommunications monopolies were the first to offer packet data 

services. Their rates were moderately lower than for long distance calls, 

but it was hard to find the relationship between real costs and prices. 

This is still the situation in many countries. 



Throughout the world, efforts to privatize nationwide phone networks 

continue. In many countries, this has given us some interesting competitors 

offering attractive rates for similar services. 



Their rates differ considerably from country to country, as does the 

quality of transmissions. The advantage of using packet data also varies 

considerably, by application and by country. The best routing for retrieval 

of online news may be impossibly expensive for chats or complex online 

jobs. 



We can offer no hard rules of thumb, except this: 



         Compare rates regularly!



What is cheapest?

-----------------

Some networks charge by the hour, while others charge by volume (number of 

characters transferred per minute). 



When volume is low, your best bet is to use network services with a low 

price per minute and high prices for volume. 



When volume is high, you may be better off using those charging by the 

minute. 



To estimate costs reliably, you'll need statistics. Since your usage 

probably differs from what others do, start accumulating experience data 

now. Like this: 



    On services only charging for connect time

    ------------------------------------------

    Capture trip information to a log file. Register the following 

    information:

    * number of minutes connected

    * modem speed

    * number of characters transmitted.

    Some communication programs can do this automatically for you. 



    On services charging for time and volume

    ----------------------------------------

    Log the following information:

    * number of minutes connected

    * modem speed

    * number of segments or packets (measurements of volume)



You need this to estimate the average volume of data transferred by minute. 

Here are some general experiences and hints: 



Long streams of data without stops are cheaper through services that only 

charge by the minute. Retrieving software is a typical high volume 

application. 



Trips that include navigation from conference to conference, with a little 

bit of up- and downloading here and there, make the average transfer speed 

fall dramatically. It's like driving through a big city at 150 kilometers 

per hour. Red lights will reduce the average speed considerably. 



The actual transferred volume of text per minute will differ from place to 

place (geographically), and often also from call to call. It depends on 

factors like: 



    * How fast you can enter commands and how much time you spend 

      staring at the display before pressing keys,

    * How long it takes for an online service to react to your 

      commands. For example, the response time on CompuServe at 

      04:00 GMT on a Friday morning (it is evening in the U.S.) is 

      much worse than at 10:30 GMT on a Sunday morning. Then, most 

      users are asleep. 

    * The load on your packet data network while you use the 

      service (or the amount of noise and retransmission, when 

      calling direct), 

    * The type of modem you are using (speed, level of MNP),

    * The number of commands you (or your scripts) have to enter

      during your online visit. An increase in the number of 

      commands, reduces the average transfer speed.

    * The amount of transfer overhead for color and screen handling 

      (like, VT-100 codes) that is transferred with your text.

    * Your use of menus and help texts while online, or whether 

      you come as "expert" with a minimum of prompts.

  

It's impossible to calculate the practical effects of these items. You will 

just have to bear them in mind when estimating typical jobs, measuring 

speeds, calculating costs, and comparing networks. 



Finding the optimal network for our needs, will take time, but is well 

worth the effort. I think the figures may surprise you. 



The network services in this chapter will often give you better quality 

transfers than a direct call. On the other hand, calling direct may give 

more characters transferred per minute. The average speed tends to drop 

dramatically when using a packet data service. 



Using national packet data services

-----------------------------------

Most commercial online services can be reached through national PDNs, but 

you may have problems finding the correct NUA (Network User Address) to get 

there. Few PDNs have a directory of available "electronic telephone 

numbers" for you to consult. 



The Norwegian PDN, Datapak, used to be my only alternative for access to 

foreign online services, and I thought that the cost was acceptable. Not so 

anymore. 



My applications require that data be pumped back and forth at maximum 

speed. On network services charging by a combination of volume and time, 80 

percent of my costs are typically for volume, while 20 percent is for 

connect time. 



When I log out after a successful visit to CompuServe through Datapak, the 

two services give me similar reports: 



  Thank you for using CompuServe!



  Off at 10:11 EST 24-Nov-87

  Connect time = 0:15



  CLR PAD  (00) 00:00:14:55 537 75 



The last line comes from Datapak. It tells that I have received 537 

segments and sent 75. 



The "Segment" is Datapak's volume measure. A segment contains up to sixty-

four characters and/or carriage returns. The price is calculated 

accordingly. 



At today's prices, Datapak is still my cheapest alternative calling 

CompuServe for chats. 



I use Datapak when connecting to TWICS in Tokyo, as the only alternative 

today is direct calls at a prohibitive cost. Once i-Com (see below) starts 

offering outdial to Japan, I expect this service to be substantially 

cheaper. 



The slower your modem speed, the more attractive is Datapak compared with 

direct calls. 



To get access to a national PDN, you must have a user identification and a 

password. (Getting temporary access to PDN services while traveling abroad 

is often hard and expensive.) 



  | Note: If you have access to a national PDN, but need        |

  | information about PDNs in other countries, try Hostess, the |

  | Global Network Service's information service from British   |

  | Telecom in England. The NUA is 02342 1920101013 (02342 is   |

  | the Data Network Identifier Code section of the address.)   |

  | User name or password is not required to use this service.  |



Outdial through PC Pursuit

--------------------------

Sprintnet (formerly GTE Telenet) lets American users call bulletin boards 

in North America at lower rates through their PC Pursuit service. 



They pay a modest subscription to call a local number for access to PC 

Pursuit. Once connected, they can enter an electronic phone-number to 

connect to a so-called 'outdial modem' in another city. 



Once connected to the outdial modem, they can give it dialing commands and 

have it call any local number. This way, they can use PC Pursuit to call an 

online service in the area, or the private modem of a friend. 



We call PC Pursuit an Outdial service. Such services normally offer lower 

rates for access to remote bulletin boards than what it costs to call by 

long distance. Besides, they reduce the chances for noise on the line. 



Outdial through i-Com

---------------------

i-Com offers outdial to North American online services by reselling 

capacity from Tymnet's network (owned by British Telecommunications PLC). 



In the United States, Galaxy Telecomm Corp. offers a similar service under 

the name Starlink. Outdial to numbers in Japan and Europe is planned. 



i-Com markets its services to users in Europe and Japan, and have local 

access in Brussels, Paris, Lyon, Milano, the Hague, Eindhoven, Zurich, 

Geneva, London, Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Leeds, 

Frankfurt, Cologne, Munich, Madrid, Stockholm, Copenhagen, and more. 



The basic fee for access to the service is US$25.00 per hour (1992). You 

don't pay volume charges. The monthly subscription fee is US$8.00. You can 

pay using VISA or MasterCard/Eurocard. 



In Norway, I have used i-Com to connect to The Well in San Francisco, 

MetaNet in Virginia, EXEC-PC in Wisconsin, and SciLink in Toronto, Canada. 

At the time, i-Com was cheaper than direct calls and Datapak for access to 

these services. 



While an ID on your local PDN is only valid in your area or country, your 

i-Com ID can be used all over the world including several cities in North 

America. Once your plane has landed in Milano, you can dial the local i-Com 

node to connect to your favorite service. 



i-Com also has a bulletin board (US$13.00/hour). These are some of its 

services: 



    * Search a database to find BBS numbers in a given area of 

      interest, or to locate outdial numbers in a given city or

      area code.

    * Conferences about how to use North American bulletin boards.

    * Retrieval of shareware and public domain software.

    * Online shopping of American goods at American prices.



Cheaper access to CompuServe

----------------------------

Wherever CompuServe has local access points, you'll be better off using 

these. You do not have to sign any special agreements. Your CompuServe ID 

is all you need. Payment for using these services will appear on your 

CompuServe bill. 



CompuServe has special deals with a list of network services, like InfoNet 

Europe (formerly Computer Sciences Corp.), Istel, FALNET, FENICS, 

CompuPass, LATA Networks, Tymnet/Sprintnet. Enter the command GO LOG on 

CompuServe to get access information, and GO RATES for rates. 



I have been using CompuPass from Japan, CompuServe's own network in the 

United States, Istel, InfoNet, and PDN services in Europe. 



When at home, I usually use CompuServe's 9600 bps node in Stockholm, 

Sweden. It is even cheaper than calling Oslo for a 2400 bps node for most 

of my jobs. There is no surcharge when accessing at non-prime time, and 

US$7.70 per hour during prime time (weekdays 08:00 to 19:00 local time. 

1994). In addition, I pay long distance rates to call the node. CompuServe 

has no extra charges for volume. 



  | Whenever CompuServe opens a new node in your vicinity, or     |

  | upgrades the modem speed on one of their nodes, look at the   |

  | effects on your total costs.                                  |

  |                                                               |

  | Use software for automatic access and navigation (like TAPCIS,|

  | OzCIS, or ATO). They give higher volume per minute and make   |

  | your accesses even more cost efficient.                       |



Before leaving for a business trip, visit CompuServe to find local access 

numbers in your destination cities. The list of countries includes 

Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, 

Italy, Japan, Mexico, Holland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, 

and England. 



You can also access CompuServe through i-Com and other outdial services. 



CompuServe has exchange of electronic mail with Internet. You can also 

access the service by telnet to hermes.merit.edu (binary transfers are 

impossible, though). 



IXI - a European alternative to PDN

-----------------------------------

IXI is an X.25 data network for European academic, industrial and 

governmental research centers. It is sponsored by the EEC under the ESRIN 

project, and is operated by the Dutch PTT. 



IXI interconnects national research networks, many national public data 

networks and several specialized international networks. It works like a 

national PDN service, but uses its own Network User Addresses. Echo, STN, 

DIMDI, Data-Star and other database vendors can be accessed through IXI. 



The service is not available to most users having email access through the 

Internet. 



Using DASnet to cross network boundaries

----------------------------------------

DA Systems forwards electronic mail and files (also binary files) across 

mailbox system boundaries for customers. They can send your mail to several 

large in-house systems, information networks, and over 60 commercial 

mailbox systems in 30 countries. 



These are some systems on their list (1993): ABA/net, Alternex (Brazil), 

ATT Mail, BIX, BITNET, CESAC (Italy), CIGnet, ComNet (Switzerland), 

CONNECT, Dialcom, Deutsche Mailbox, Dialcom, Envoy 100, EIES, EasyLink, 

Euromail (Germany), FredsNaetet (Sweden), Galaxy, GeoNet (hosts in Germany, 

England, U.S.A.), GreenNet, INET, INFOTAP (Luxembourg), Mailbox Benelux, 

MCI Mail, MercanMail (Asia), MBK Mediabox (Germany), MetaNet, Nicarao 

(Nicaragua), NWI, OTC PeaceNet/EcoNet, Pegasus (Australia), PINET, Portal, 

PsychNet, San Francisco/Moscow Teleport, Telexphone (France), TeleRede 

(Portugal), Telehaus Nordhorn (Germany), Telemail, TEXTEL (the Caribbean), 

TWICS (Japan), UNISON, UUCP, Web (Canada), The WELL, Internet. 



This list may suggest lack of connectivity between networks that do indeed 

have connections. For example, Internet email may easily be sent to ATT 

Mail, Alternex, BIX, BITNET, FredsNaetet, GeoNet, GreenNet, and many others 

on this list. Connectivity changes constantly. Check to see if you really 

need it, as this service is far from free. 



DASnet also lets you send email as telex, fax and by ordinary mail. They 

charge you by the number of characters transferred, and the destination 

address. (Contact Anna B. Lange, DA Systems, Inc., U.S.A. Tel.: +1-408-559-

7434, or write her at AnnaB@11.DAS.NET). 



FidoNet - grassroots playground

-------------------------------

FidoNet is an amateur network consisting of tens of thousands of bulletin 

boards all over the world. The network is "loosely coupled," meaning that 

most of the participating boards are not always connected. They call each 

others at regular intervals to exchange mail, often in the middle of the 

night when the rates are low. (See appendix 1)



RelayNet

--------

is another global network of bulletin boards. It offers exchange of email 

between systems. Messages and conference items entered on one system will 

automatically be copied to other participating boards. Your costs for 

"talking" with others in other parts of the world are very small. 



Other grassroots networks

-------------------------

It doesn't take much to set up a bulletin board service, and it is as easy 

to connect BBS systems to each other in a dial-up network for regular 

exchanges of email, files and conferences. 



All over the world, grassroots networks keep popping up with names like 

ILINK, AmNet, Suedd MB-Verbund, Starmail, MagicNet, A-NET, MausNet, 

Zerberus-Netz, SMBX-NET, BASA-NETZ, you name it. 



Many boards offer access to more than one grassroots network, as well as to 

the Internet. Thus, the ability to send global email is extended to new 

users every day. 



Other services

--------------

The PDN Connect-USA competes with Starlink in North America. (Connect-USA 

Communications, Inc., 2625 Pennsylvania NE Suite 225, Albuquerque, New 

Mexico. 505-881-6988 (voice), 505-881-2756 (FAX), 505-881-6964 (BBS). ) 



Global Access is a similar service reselling time on the Sprintnet network 

in North America. 



Reducing the cost of using mailing lists 

----------------------------------------

The problem of subscribing to mailing lists is that all discussion items 

come to you in individual messages. Each message comes with its own mailer 

header, and this information is generally completely useless. (Read 

"Returned mail" in Chapter 7 for details.) 



Newer versions of the BITNET LISTSERV software provide commands that solve 

this problem: 



    SET <list name> DIGEST

    ----------------------

    This command is sent to a LISTSERV to make all daily messages 

    come to you in one, single message. Example: Say you've joined

    KIDCAFE@vm1.nodak.edu, which usually has a large number of

    messages each day. Send the following command to the LISTSERV:



    SET KIDCAFE DIGEST



    It will typically reduce the number of lines received from this 

    mailing list by around 50 percent. 





    SET <list name> INDEX

    ---------------------

    This command is sent to a LISTSERV to get a daily list of 

    messages, like in this example from KIDCAFE: 



    Index Date  Size Poster and subject

    ----- ----  ---- ------------------

    22839 06/22   26 From:    David Chalmers

                              <David.Chalmers@p3.f155.n633.z3.fidonet.org>

                     Subject: Conor Dublin Ireland



    Based on this list, you can use the LISTSERV's search commands 

    to retrieve individual messages of interest. These commands are 

    similar to those used for searching in chapter 7. 



    For more about searching mailing lists' message bases, send a 

    message to LISTSERV@vm1.nodak.edu with the following command in 

    the text of your mail:



    GET KIDLINK TIPS



    Some LISTSERVs offers simplified search commands and macros

    to make retrieval of individual messages simpler.







Chapter 14: Keep what you find

==============================





    Little is gained by being skillful at

    locating and accumulating information, 

    and then becoming drowned 

                  in an avalanche of data

    that one cannot manage       - or use.



This chapter starts with how to build a personal database on your own hard 

disk. We continue by investigating strategies for finding interesting 

information on your disk, before winding down with some words about what 

separates good information from bad. 



Search and throw away

---------------------

To novices, everything is difficult. During the first online trips, they 

may feel as if moving to the other side of the globe to start over: They 

need new newspapers, magazines, information sources, and services. 



Trial and error are required to find online gold mines. As you get more 

experience, focus tends to shift from getting information to digesting. 



Getting the data gets 'into your fingers', and doesn't bother much anymore. 

The number of retrieved lines increases. The only bad news is that your 

reading speed remains at the same old level. 



In our time, people tend to talk more than they listen, and you usually 

find more information than knowledge. Therefore, say NO to irrelevant 

information. It is seldom worth keeping. 



There is generally no good reason to learn things that you really don't 

need to know. Practice "selective ignorance." 



Regularly evaluate your online sources critically, and discard those 

costing you more than they are worth. Concentrate on those giving the best 

returns. 



Adjust the frequency with which you visit selected services to match their 

usefulness. What used to be daily visits, may have to be downgraded to once 

per week or month. Consider replacing daily news monitoring by clipping 

services. 



Plan 'overview' and 'details' with different frequencies. 'Overview' refers 

to online trips to get an impression of what generally goes on. An example: 



My script system is set for automatic visits to the CompuServe Toshiba 

forum. Whenever I visit, it 'digs out' unread messages based on key words 

on the item's subject line. 



During 1991, it searched for these strings: '5100', T2000', and '425'. 

Once, This gave the following message to read: 



     #: 29550 S6/Hi-Power Notebooks

         05-Oct-91  17:27:30

     Sb: #T2000SX Recharger

     Fm: Steve Kitahata 75166,1741

     To: All



     I tried to order the battery recharger for my T2000SX from Jade 

     Computer last weekend.  The sales rep said it would take about 

     a week, so I called today to check up on it.  He told me that I 

     could only buy the recharger with the car adapter as a bundled 

     set for $260.  They had both advertised in their flyer as 

     separate items, which they should be.  Has anyone heard of 

     this?  



     Does anyone know of any sources that have the battery recharger 

     available?  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanx. 



     -- Steve 



My script found the search word "T2000" in the subject line's text (Sb: 

#T2000SX Recharger), and subsequently selected the message. 



Once per month, the same system "scans the horizon" to give me an idea of 

what is going on. This is done by requesting a list of subjects being 

discussed. Here is part of one such list: 



     29555:  DOS 5 Upgrade               

             6 replies



     29540:  TDOS Upgrade questions      

             3 replies



     29585:  Toshiba DOS 5.0 ships!      

             1 reply



     29586:  DOS 5.0 Upgrade Solution    

     

     29580:  ToshibaDOS=bad business     

             8 replies



     29581:  DOS 5 / Stacker             

             1 reply



Reading the list, allows me to see if new and interesting topics are up for 

discussion. If I use Stacker and want contact with other users, I can 

request message number 29581 and the subsequent reply (1 reply). That 

should give me some email addresses. 



  | Several advanced communication programs and offline readers    |

  | have built-in quick scan features. For example, TAPCIS does    |

  | this just fine in CompuServe forums.                           |

  |                                                                |

  | When retrieving conference messages from bulletin boards using |

  | 1stReader at high speed, like 9600 bps or above, then the cost |

  | of downloading all new items may be insignificant. Therefore,  |

  | you might just as well do it.                                  |

  |                                                                |

  | Later, when reading the captured mail, 1stReader lets you      |

  | select messages to read from a list of subjects. You can save  |

  | what you want to keep, and delete the rest.                    |



By regular scanning subject headers you reduce the risk of missing 

important trends, for example because authors were using other terms on the 

subject line than expected. 



Scanning also lets us discover if the discussion is heading off in other, 

interesting directions. 



After a while, you'll have a set of sources, persons, and tools that will 

provide you with what you need. This is your personal infrastructure of 

electronic information. Now, you must maintain and cultivate it. 



Store incoming information

--------------------------

Chances are that you will retrieve more information than you can read. 

Sometimes it takes weeks for me to get up to date with my own readings. 



If you visit several online services, consider storing the data in files 

with different names. Use part of the file name to show the source of this 

information. 



If visiting a service regularly, consider using the date as part of the 

file names. This will make it easier to select, read and search them in a 

useful sequence. 



  | Example: Say you're regularly visiting TWICS in Tokyo. What you |

  | download on November 10, you may store in a file named          |

  |                                                                 |

  |           TW1110.TMP                                            |

  |                                                                 |

  | My scripts do this automatically. On some services, they also   |

  | split retrieved data into URGENT and MAY BE READ LATER files.   |

  | Private mail from TWICS is stored in NB1110.TMP. By storing     |

  | private mail separately, it is easier to see if somebody wants  |

  | a quick reply.                                                  |



All file names in this example have the extension .TMP (temporary). This 

signifies that these files are unread. 



When I read them, and select parts for permanent storage on my hard disk, I 

use different names. Often, I use the year, or a month/year code in the 

file name extension. For example, the file DIALOG.93 contains information 

from DIALOG collected during 1993. 



Post-processing the data

-------------------------

The data capture is completed, and the retrieved data is stored on the hard 

disk in more or several files. Your next task is to 



    * Read the received texts,

    * Cut and paste selected parts to archive or work files, 

    * Prepare responses to your electronic mail. This may include 

      quoting part of the incoming messages in your replies.

    * Finally, delete all temporary files. 



Many advanced programs have these features built in. If not, you may use 

your favorite word processor, or something else. There are many 

alternatives. 



LIST is my favorite MS-DOS shareware file viewer program. It can be 

downloaded from most bulletin boards. Using LIST, it is difficult to 

destroy your precious retrieved data while reading, cutting and pasting. 



  | MORE ABOUT LIST:                                                |

  | Assume that all input data is stored in the disk catalog C:\IN  |

  | and that you're using the file name convention suggested above. |

  | Type LIST and press ENTER. A list of file names will appear on  |

  | your screen. Press S to sort the list, and then D to have them  |

  | sorted by creation date. The newest files are at the bottom of  |

  | the list.                                                       |

  |     Move the cursor (using the Arrow keys) to the input file    |

  | that you want to read and press ENTER. Scroll up and down in the|

  | file by pressing the PgUp/PgDn or the arrow keys.               |

  |     Let's assume that you are reading TW1110.TMP right now.     |

  | On your screen is a piece of information that you want to       |

  | keep for future reference. Mark the text with ALT-M commands    |

  | (keep the ALT key pressed down, while pressing M), and then     |

  | ALT-D. LIST will ask you for a file name. You enter TWICS.93,   |

  | and the text is appended to what is already there.              |

  |     This method allows you quickly to mark and append parts     |

  | of your input file to various archive files. Press ESC to       |

  | return to the file list when through, then press D. LIST asks   |

  | if you really want to delete the file. Press Y, and TW1110.TMP  |

  | is gone.                                                        |

  |     LIST lets you find information stored in your archives      |

  | (string search). What you find can be marked and copied to a    |

  | work file. It can also be set to invoke an editor or a word     |

  | processor for the selected file.                                |

                                                                    

Reuse of data on your hard disk 

-------------------------------

Over time your personal archives will grow in size. You begin to experience 

the benefits of having all this information on your hard disk. 



Yesterday's news is today's history, and may be used in many interesting 

ways. 



One business executive regularly monitors key technologies, customers, 

competitors, and suppliers. He does it by tapping sources like KOMPASS, 

Associated Press, and Reuters. Interesting bits of information are 

regularly stored on his disk. 



Tomorrow, there is an important meeting with a major customer. First, a 

quick search through the personal customer database to be reminded of 

important events since the last meeting. An unfamiliar person is also going 

to be present. Maybe there is some background information, for example 

about a recent promotion. 



Then, a quick check on major competitors. Maybe they are up to something 

that he needs to know about. 



With efficient tools for searching your hard disk, finding information 

takes only a few seconds. If you are still left with open questions, go 

online to complement. 



On MS-DOS computers, you can search the files with WordPerfect, LIST, the 

DOS utility FIND, and a long list of other programs. I prefer programs that 

let me search for more than one word at the time, like in HYDRO AND 

PETROCHEMICAL AND CONTRACT, or EXXON OR MOBIL. 



  | MY FAVORITE: My favorite search utility is LOOKFOR. It can     |

  | be downloaded from many bulletin boards. The MS-DOS program    |

  | is small, fast, and is superior for searches in DOS text files.|

  | Store your finds in work files, or print them out on paper.    |

  | LOOKFOR is not an indexing program. It is ready to search      |

  | anywhere, anytime.                                             |



Discipline and organization is required to get the most out of your file 

archives. You must decide what to do with each piece of information: Should 

it be printed out and be read in front of the fireplace this evening, or 

should it be circulated? Should it be stored on your hard disk, or be 

refined before storage? 



Use standard file names that are easy to remember. If you don't, risk 

having to view files to find out what they contain. 



It may take longer to find a piece of information in a casual file on a 

large disk, than look up a piece of information on paper in your inbox. 

Therefore, finish handling your capture file while you read it on your 

screen: 



Send the pieces to their final destination. Make immediate transfers to 

your TO-DO files. Give the original file a name that makes it easier to 

move later. Have a procedure that prevents duplication of effort. 



Desinformation, deception and errors

------------------------------------

Always use several sources of information. Some people write to lead you 

astray.  The online world exposed some interesting incidents that came out 

of the former Soviet Union before the attempted coup in 1991. 



Desinformation hurts everybody and comes from all sides. Even professional 

news agencies, like Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse, 

regularly stumble. 



Most news is written by journalists reporting what they have seen, read or 

heard. Their interpretation of the situation may be wrong. Supplement 

online news with what knowledgeable people say (by email or in 

conferences), when knowing the facts is important. 



Another point: Errors will occasionally be discovered and reported by the 

news sources, but always after the fact. Always store these reports in your 

archives, and make it a rule to search to the end when looking for 

something. Otherwise, you may never discover these corrections. 







Chapter 15: You pay little for a lot!

=====================================





Calculating costs

-----------------

Those living in Norway may read up to twenty-six pages of news from 

Associated Press in the United States and Financial Times (England) for 

less than US$0.38. 



The trick is to dial long distance to a 9600 bps node in Sweden when the 

telephone company and CompuServe's non-prime time rates are in effect. 



At 9600 bps, you may transfer text at up to 960 characters per second. One 

page of text (size A-4) holds around 2200 characters. A typical news story 

is one to two pages of text. 



  | Users watching the 'taximeter' can use online services at a  |

  | very low cost. For many, global communication is almost free.|



Reading exactly the same news through another network or service, may cost 

you 300 percent more. Through yet another online service, the cost may 

double again. 



A full issue of the NewsBytes newsletter is around 150,000 characters, or 

68 pages of text. Retrieving it from a local BBS typically costs me around 

29 cents. Retrieving the full text from CompuServe would cost me over 500 

percent more. 



Using NewsNet for the job, at 2400 bps through Datapak, would increase my 

current cost by more than US$30.00. 



The time of day may be important. Some services have different rates for 

access during the day, the evening, and the weekend. 



Use your calculator often. 



When you pay by the minute

--------------------------

When using bulletin boards, phone charges are often the only cost items. 

Some boards require a subscription fee for full access to the system. 

Still, it is easy to calculate the costs of your calls. Divide the 

subscription fee by an estimated number of calls, and add to the cost of 

using the phone. 



The same applies to users of CompuServe. Their total cost is simply the sum 

of all connect charges, any network charges (to CompuServe and others), 

part of the basic subscription fee, and local phone rates (for direct 

dialing to the service, or to reach the network's node). 



Where a service uses a monthly subscription rate, add part of this to the 

time charges. Distribute the rate using an estimated number of online hours 

per month. 



    Example:

    You pay US$30/hour to access a service during prime time. Your 

    modem speed is 240 cps.



    Theoretically, if the data flows without pauses at system 

    prompts, you can transfer 392 pages of text in one hour. 

    Even when you deduct some characters due to stops in the 

    transfer, the resulting transferred volume remains respectable. 



    To transfer one page of text takes around nine seconds (2200 

    characters divided by the speed, which is 2400 bps, or about

    240 characters per second). The cost is nine cents. 



    A given binary file (a program) is 23552 bytes large. Using the

    XMODEM protocol, you can transfer it in about four minutes and 

    thirteen seconds. The cost is US$2.10. To find the cost when

    paying by the minute is simple. Just calculate the cost per

    minute or second, and multiply by the estimated connect time.



    On many services, it will take a minute or two before you can 

    start to receive text or files. Disconnecting also takes a few 

    seconds. Add this to the connect time when calculating costs. 



Pauses and delays in the transfer can be caused by you or others, and may 

have a dramatic impact. It is particularly important to take this into 

account when comparing alternatives using different networks. 



    Example: Transfers to TWICS via Datapak at 9600 bps rarely

    gave me higher effective speeds than 100 cps. The reason was

    that the connection between the Japanese telcom network and 

    TWICS went through a 1200 bps gateway. 



    A high speed connection to your data transporter's network does 

    not guarantee a high speed connection to the remote computer. 



    I used to go through Datapak at 9600 bps to a computer center

    in Oslo. There, I was connected through a local area network to 

    the host computer. The effective speed was rarely higher than

    4800 bps. Calling direct gave twice the speed.



Try to measure the effective transfer speed before selecting a routing for 

your data. Transfer the same amount of text through various networks. 



If future transfers are likely to take place at a given time of day, test 

at that time. If your planned application is retrieval of programs, 

retrieve programs. If you want to read news, then read news from the 

services that you want to compare. 



When a network service charging for volume (like Datapak) will also be part 

of a comparison, measuring volume is particularly important. Do not assume 

that you know the answer in advance. 



  | NOTE: Always calculate the cost based on a fixed volume, like |

  | for the transfer of 1000 characters. This is particularly     |

  | important when you need to use different transfer speeds to   |

  | access competing services.                                    |



Network load varies considerably throughout the day depending on the number 

of simultaneous users, and their applications. This also applies to online 

services. The load is normally lowest, when the bulk of the users are 

asleep, and during weekends. When the load is low, you get more done per 

minute. 



Planning and self-discipline pays off 

-------------------------------------

The actual cost of using a given set of services depends a lot on your 

self-discipline, the tools you use, and on how well prepared you are: 



    * If accessing manually, use "quick" commands rather than menus 

      to move at maximum speed to desired sources of information.



    * Do not set your services to be used with colors, sound, or 

      special methods for displaying graphics, unless you have no

      choice, or are willing to pay the extra cost. They increase 

      the volume of transferred text, and lower effective speed.



    * Get the information and disconnect. It is expensive - and

      usually unnecessary - to read captured text while online.

      Log off to read. Call back for more to read, disconnect, and 

      then call back again. 



    * Learn how to write your mail offline, and send the letters 

      "in a batch" to your mailbox. Your messages will often have 

      fewer typing errors, be better thought out, and the cost 

      will be considerably lower.



    * Consider automating your communication (see Chapter 16).

      I use Bergen By Byte this way. A while ago, it gave me the 

      following progress report: "Time on: 17 hrs 43 min, today 0 

      hrs 0 min, total 827 times." In average, I spend around 1.3 

      minutes per call. Yesterday, I was connected for 2:48 

      minutes. The result was 106 kilobytes' worth of conference 

      mail. 



Modem speed and cost

--------------------

2400 bps is a sensible modem speed for some applications, and used to be a 

good starting point for new onliners. The benefits of using a faster modem 

may be marginal under the following conditions: 



    * When navigating the online service considerably reduces the 

      effective speed, and you access the service manually. 

    * When you pay considerably more for access at higher speed. 

      (CompuServe charges extra for 9600 bps access, but not much.) 

    * When your networks do not offer higher speeds. 

    * When the relative price of a faster modem in your country

      is prohibitive. 



On the other hand, a modem doing 9600 bps or more, does give you 

considerably faster communication. If doing things faster is more important 

than keeping costs down, then it is a wise investment. This is the case for 

me. Besides, often it is definitely cheaper. 



Your applications have a considerable impact on your costs. If you mainly 

use your modem for retrieval of programs and large data files from bulletin 

boards - and don't have to pay extra for volume - then higher modem speeds 

will immediately give reduced costs. 



A slower speed modem may also stop you from getting what you want. For 

example, there are several shareware programs on my board that users of 

2400 bps modems are unable to download within their allotted 30 minutes per 

day. 



When you pay for volume

-----------------------

Some network services, like Datapak in Norway, have high rates for volume, 

and very low rates for connect time. When using such services, automatic 

communication becomes less useful. Rather than connecting, getting a piece 

of information, disconnecting, and then going back for more, you may find 

it cost efficient to review menus and results while online. 



When paying for volume, the online service's menus become luxury items. 

Using quick commands for navigating is cheaper. 



Your comparisons will never be accurate when comparing with services 

charging for connect time. It is particularly difficult when the measure of 

volume is 'packets' rather than 'number of characters transferred'. 



Datapak and many other PDN services reports your sessions like this: 



       CLR PAD  (00) 00:00:14:55 537 75 



These numbers say that you have been connected to a service for 14 minutes 

and 55 seconds, that 537 data 'packets' have been received, and that 75 

have been sent. Use these figures to calculate the cost of the call. 



  | One data 'packet' or segment contains up to 64 characters.     |

  | Think of it as a measure of the number of lines. Each line can |

  | have a maximum of 64 characters. If you send the character A   |

  | and a carriage return, then this also counts as a segment.     |

  |                                                                |

  | Consequently, it is hard to use the Datapak record to estimate |

  | the real number of characters transferred. All we know is that |

  | 537 + 75 segments were transferred, and that 612 segments may  |

  | contain up to 39,168 characters.                               |



When calculating the cost of a direct call, just the number of minutes 

counts. Use the time reported by the online service, and not your stop 

watch. CompuServe gives this type of report: 



       Thank you for using CompuServe!



       Off at 10:11 EST 24-Nov-92

       Connect time = 0:15



If the size of your log file was 15 KB after the first test, and 11 KB 

after the second, then just adjust the latter to compare (Actual 

Cost/11*15). It is easy to compare services that only charge by the minute. 



More practical hints

--------------------

It is more expensive to call a service daily "to check the news," than to 

call it once per week to retrieve the same stories. 



Navigating by menus is more expensive than going directly to a source, or 

going there by stacking commands (i.e., combining quick commands into one). 



Many services let you read selective items in conferences by entering a 

search string. On my BBS, the following command 



    r extended 100+ c



lets you read all messages containing the search string 'extended' in the 

text starting with message number 100. 



If you forget the "c" parameter, the flow will stop after each message. 

This will reduce the average effective speed. Always use "nonstop" commands 

when reading stories, conference items, and other texts. 

    Now, read the next chapter.







Chapter 16: Automatic communication

===================================



Automatic data communication as a development strategy.



    To get a lead on your competitors.

    To avoid duplication of effort.

    To reduce costs.

    To reduce boring and repetitive work.

    To avoid having to remember technical details. 



Automatic communication is both for professionals and amateurs. First, 

because it keeps the costs down. Second, because it lets you do the job 

faster and safer. 



We all have different needs

---------------------------

Automation will never be the same for everybody. Our needs are too 

different. 



Some get excited when a program can dial a bulletin board, retrieve a 

program, and then disconnect without them having to touch the keyboard. 



Some want an "answering machine" that can respond to and forward email when 

he or she is away from the office. 



Others want a communications system that can tap selected news sources, 

search databases, and do postprocessing on the retrieved material. 



For most professionals, doing things manually takes too much time. Time is 

better spent reading, digesting, and using, rather than on stupid technical 

retrieval work. Computers can do that. 



To others again, automation is a question of being able to use the online 

resource at all. If it takes 60 seconds to get a piece of information, it 

may be possible to get before running for the next meeting. 



If it takes 15 minutes, however, there may not be enough time. If you also 

need to read a help text to find out how to do it, you may not even 

consider it. The mind is full of other things right now. 



  | When using a system for automatic communication, you do not |

  | have to learn and remember online commands. The system will |

  | do it for you.                                              |



The minimum solution

--------------------

Automatic data communication in its simplest form entails the following: 



    * One keystroke to get the communications program to dial a

      number, and send user name/password when the online service

      requests this information.



    * Macro commands (like in a word processor) for navigating 

      through an online service, searching, and to send complex 

      commands by pressing one key.



Most communication programs have a macro language or a script language. You 

will probably never regret time spent on learning how to use these 

features. At a minimum, you should be able to have your system log on to a 

service automatically. 



Autologon spares you the task of remembering your user name and password. 

Besides, most people are only able to use the keyboard at a low speed. They 

easily get frustrated by having to correct typing errors. 



Auto-logon with Procomm

-----------------------

Procomm is one of many popular communications programs. It has not been 

selected here because we think it is the best of its kind. It is just 

convenient. Many other programs have similar script systems. 



A Procomm script file is a text file, which can contain a list of commands 

for dialing and navigating on an online service. 



When writing a script for auto-logon, your first step is to list the 

commands that you believe required. Enter them in a text file (as DOS or 

ASCII text). 



In such scripts, you can test for the occurrence of a small piece of 

information that the online service is supposed to send at a given time 

(like the question "Password?"). 



When this information is found, Procomm can be set to send the proper 

response or command (here, your secret password). 



Scripts can be tied to your favorite online services through Procomm's 

dialing directory. Press a key to start the appropriate script file for 

access to a service. 



The following is a simple PROCOMM script file. It can be used to access my 

bulletin board in Norway. It assumes that your name is Jens Mikkelsen, and 

that the secret password is FOXCROOK4. You'll have to change this before 

testing. 



   ;

   ;Script file for auto-logon to SHS 

   ;

   WAITFOR "our FIRST Name? "

   PAUSE 1

   TRANSMIT "Jens^M"

   WAITFOR "our  LAST Name? "

   PAUSE 1

   TRANSMIT "Mikkelsen^M"

   WAITFOR "ots will echo)? "

   PAUSE 1

   TRANSMIT "foxcrook4^M"

   WAITFOR "^JMore (Y),N,NS? "

   PAUSE 1

   TRANSMIT "n^M"

   WAITFOR "^JMore (Y),N,NS? "

   PAUSE 1

   TRANSMIT "n^M"

   WAITFOR "R] to Continue? "

   PAUSE 1

   TRANSMIT "^M"



It is not difficult. You probably understand a lot already. Here is the 

explanation: 



    * the ";" character at the beginning of a line identifies it as 

      a comment line. Procomm is to ignore it. We use such lines 

      for notes. 



    * WAITFOR "our FIRST Name? "

      has Procomm wait for the text string "our FIRST NAME?" from

      my BBS. It is a part of the question "What is your first 

      name?". 



    * PAUSE 1

      halts the execution of the script file for one second.



    * TRANSMIT "Jens^M"

      sends the name "Jens" followed by a RETURN (the code ^M in 

      Procomm). 



    * WAITFOR "our  LAST Name? "

      makes Procomm wait for the question "What is your LAST Name?" 



The script continues like this. In WAITFOR commands, we use part of the 

text that is displayed on our screen once the scrolling stops. 



Make sure that the search term is unique. It must not appear elsewhere in 

the text coming from the host computer. If it does, your name and password 

may be sent too early. 



You can call the script HORROR.CMD, and attach it to the entry for my board 

in your Procomm phone directory. When you call it the next time, Procomm 

will execute the commands in the file and "turn the keyboard over to you" 

when done. 



Macros

------

Above, we used a script to log on automatically to a service. When Procomm 

gives us access to the keyboard again, we must continue manually. 



What we want to do online varies. Sometimes, we want to read new messages 

in conferences. In other cases, the purpose is to check new programs in the 

file library. If we find programs of interest, we may want to download 

them. 



Shorthand macros can help you do this faster and safer. For example, one 

macro can take you quickly to a conference for new messages. You can make 

Procomm start this macro whenever you press ALT-0 (keep the ALT key down, 

then press 0). 



You can have the macro key ALT-1 send other commands when in the file 

archives. 



When I started using MS-DOS computers for data communications, PC-TALK 

became my favorite program. It has many of the same macro capabilities that 

Procomm has. 



With PC-TALK, I did autologon to NewsNet. Macro number one sent commands 

that gave me the contents of various newsletters. Macro #2 picked up the 

contents in another group. Macro #3 picked up stories from my mailbox, and 

macro #4 logged me off the service. My mission was completed by pressing 

four or five keys. 



Automating the full task

------------------------

It's a long way from automated logon scripts and the use of macros to 

automating the whole task. The major difference is that with full 

automation, you do not have to look at the screen while the script is 

working. You can do other things. Sometimes, you may not even be present 

when the job is being done. 



On a typical morning, I go directly from bed to my office to switch my 

communications computer on. 



While I visit the bathroom, my communications program calls three online 

services, retrieve and send information. 



When the script has disconnected from the first service, which is my 

bulletin board, it analyzes the received data. I want an alphabetic list of 

visitors since my last visit, a sorted list of downloaded programs, and 

names of those calling in at 9600 bps or higher. 



Sometimes, the unexpected happen. There may be noise on the line, or a 

sudden disconnect. Usually, my script can solve this without manual 

intervention. It is therefore allowed to work unattended most of the time. 



When I get to my office after breakfast, it is all done. My communications 

program is set for reading and responding to today's email. I can sit down, 

and immediately get to work. 



After having written all my replies, I say "send" to my system. For me, 

it's time for another cup of coffee. I am not needed by the keyboard while 

my mail is being sent. 



This is what an automatic communications system can do. My scripts also 

help plan and prepare online visits, and ease my work by postprocessing 

results. 



  | When your communication is fully automated, you need not  |

  | read incoming data while it scrolls over your screen, and |

  | then again after logging off the service. You do it only  |

  | once.                                                     |



How to get it? Here are some alternatives: 



Alternative 1: Write your own system

------------------------------------

You can write procedures for powerful script-driven programs like ProYam 

(from Omen Technology) and Crosstalk MK IV. 



I started writing scripts for ProYam over seven years ago. The system is 

constantly expanded to include new services, refined to include more 

functions, and enhanced to become more robust. 



The scripts make my system work like an autopilot. It calls online 

services, navigates, retrieves and sends data. 



Postprocessing includes automatic reformatting of retrieved data, transfers 

to various internal databases, statistics, usage logs, and calculation of 

transfer costs. 



Such scripts can do quite complex operations online. For example, it can 



    - Buy and sell stock when today's quotes are over/under 

      given limits,

    - Select news stories and other types of information based 

      on information found in menus or titles.



Script writing is not for everybody. It is complicated, and takes a lot of 

time. Therefore, it is only for the specially interested. 



On the other hand, those going for it seldom regret. Tailor-made 

communication scripts give a wonderful flexibility. The software does not 

cost much, but again, it takes a lot of time! 



  | Do not use large and complex script files before you know the  |

  | online service well. The scripts let you do things quicker and |

  | safer, but there is always a possibility for unexpected        |

  | problems.                                                      |

  |                                                                |

  | Test your scripts for a long time to make them robust by       |

  | "training" them to handle the unexpected. Leave them to work   |

  | unattended when you are reasonably certain that they can do    |

  | the job. - It may take months to get to that point.            |

  |                                                                |

  | Build a timeout feature into your scripts, so that they don't  |

  | just hang there waiting for you after an encounter with fate.  |



Alternative 2: Use scripts made by others

-----------------------------------------

Some script authors generously let others use their creations. Earle 

Robinson of CompuServe's IBM Europe Forum, share his ProYam scripts for 

automatic usage of CompuServe with others. They are available from the IBM 

Communication Forum library. 



Enter GO XTALK on CompuServe to find advanced script files for Crosstalk 

Mk.4. 



ZCOMM and ProYam scripts for visiting my board automatically can be freely 

downloaded there. They split access up into these three phases: 



    Phase 1: Menu driven offline preparation.

    Phase 2: Automatic logon, navigation through the system, and

             automatic disconnection.

    Phase 3: Automatic offline postprocessing.



You will find scripts for other programs on many online services. 



Alternative 3: Special software

-------------------------------

Several online services sell communication programs with built-in functions 

that provides you with automation. They can have offline functions for 

reading and responding to mail. The degree of automation varies. 



There are also many programs written by third parties. Most programs assume 

that you use 'expert' as your default operating mode on the online service. 



TapCIS, Autosig (ATO), OzCIS, CISOP, CompuServe Navigator (for Macintosh), 

AutoPilot (for Amiga), ARCTIC (for Acorn Archimedes), and QuickCIS (for 

Atari) are popular choices on CompuServe. TapCIS is my personal favorite. 

(CIM does not offer much automation!) 



Aladdin is for GEnie. It automates your use of RoundTables (conferences), 

file areas, and mail. Dialog users turn to Dialog-Link. 



Nexis News Plus (for Nexis, US$50) has pull-down menus and detailed 

selection of commands. This MS-DOS program helps users set up detailed 

search commands before logging on to the Mead Data Central. Your search 

results will be downloaded automatically. 



Personal Bibliographics Software, Inc. (Ann Arbor, Mich, U.S.A. Tel.: +1-

313-996-1580) sells Pro-Search to Dialog and BRS users (for Macintosh and 

MS-DOS). 



Pro-Search will lead you through menus to find information on both 

services. It translates your plain English search commands into the cryptic 

search language used by the services. It logs on automatically, connects to 

these services, finds your information, and shows you the hits. 



Alternative 4: Offline readers

------------------------------

The alternatives above have one important weakness. Noise on the line can 

prevent the "robot" from doing the job. All it takes is for noise to give a 

prompt another content than is expected by your program or script (as in 

"En@er a number:" instead of "Enter a number:"). 



You can avoid noise problems by using get commands (see Chapter 15), and by 

making the online service use its minimum prompts ('expert mode') . Still, 

this does not give full protection. 



The best is to let the online service do the navigation.  Think of it as 

logging on to run a batch file on the remote computer. Combine this with 

automatic transfers of your commands, transmitted in of one stream of data 

with automatic error correction (in the software and in the modem), and you 

have a very robust system. 



The program logs on to the service. Then the service takes over. It 

registers your user identity, checks your user profile for personal 

interests, retrieves and packs all messages, news and files into one 

compressed file, and sends it to you at high speed. 



Your outgoing messages, search commands, commands to join or leave 

conferences, and more, are transferred to the remote computer in a similar 

packet (compressed file). 



When received by the remote computer, it unpacks the transfer file and 

distributes messages and commands to various services following your 

instructions. 



Your "physical" contact with the service is when your modem is 

disconnected. The help menus that you read belong to your program, and not 

the online service. You read and respond to mail in a reading module (ref. 

the term "offline reader"). 



Some offline readers give the caller access to more tools than is available 

on the online service itself. They may have spelling checkers, multimedia 

support, let you use your favorite editor or word processor, and offer 

various storage, search, and printing options. 



They may let you sort incoming conference mail by "threads", and permit you 

to place obnoxious writers on a "kill" list. 



Using offline readers is probably the easiest, cheapest, and safest way of 

using online services. You even risk writing more concise and thoughtful 

messages. The "readers" are popular among bulletin board users, and some 

commercial services are also starting to accommodate them. 



There are many offline reader programs. The most advanced take over 

completely upon logon, and manage transfers of commands and compressed 

information files to and from the host. (Example: Binkley Term on FidoNet) 



Global Link is an offline reader for EcoNet. Bergen By Byte offers the 

BBS/CS Mail Grabber/Reader, a script system used with the communications 

program Telix and the service's "auto-get" function. 



NUPOP (MS-DOS), Eudora for Windows (Windows and Macintosh), and WinQVT/Net 

(Windows) are offline readers for use when calling Unix hosts. 



The most popular systems on the PCBoard based Thunderball Cave BBS are 

Offline Express, Megareader, Session Manager, Rose Reader and EZReader. 

Freddie is a reader for Macintosh. 



These readers are used with scripts written for various communication 

programs. Some of them have built in communications (and script) modules. 



EZReader from Thumper Technologies (P.O. Box 471346, Tulsa, OK 74147-1346, 

U.S.A.) lets users retrieve mail from several online systems using transfer 

formats such as QWK, PCBoard capture files, ProDoor ZIPM files, XRS, MCI 

Mail, and others. Cost: US$49 (1992). 



1stReader from Sparkware (Post Office Box 386, Hendersonville, Tennessee 

37077, U.S.A.) is my personal favorite for accessing Qmail based online 

systems. 



  | Note: Some offline readers contain all the features required    |

  | for fully automated communications. Some bulletin boards allow  |

  | up- and downloading to start right after CONNECT.               |

  |     Off-Line Xpress, an offline mail reader for QWK (Qwikmail)  |

  | packets, does not contain a communications module. It just does |

  | pre- and postprocessing of mail packets.                        |

  |     You can use the Off-Line Xpress as one element in a larger  |

  | automated system. For example, a system for access to PCBoard   |

  | bulletin boards may consist of Off-Line Xpress software, PKZIP  |

  | and PKUNZIP (popular shareware programs to compress/decompress  |

  | mail packets), the QMODEM communications program, and a script  |

  | to navigate to/from the QWK packet send and receive area on the |

  | BBS.                                                            |

  |     1stReader (version 1.11) contains a powerful script based   |

  | communications module. It lets you compose replies, set search  |

  | commands, subscriptions to services, add and drop conferences,  |

  | and enter download commands offline.                            |

  |     I am using 1stReader when communicating with a PCBoard BBS  |

  | with hundreds of conferences from Usenet, Internet, BITNET, and |

  | various other networks. By having 1stReader upload a list of    |

  | keywords through the service's QMail door, all new messages     |

  | containing these words or phrases will be retrieved, compressed,|

  | and downloaded. A very powerful feature.                        |



Automatic automation

--------------------

We have explained how to write scripts with Procomm. However, there are 

simpler and quicker ways. Many communication programs can make scripts 

automatically using a learning function. It goes like this: 



Start the learning function before calling the online service. Then log on, 

navigate to the desired services, do what you want to automate, and 

disconnect. 



The learning feature analyzes the received data and builds a script file 

for automatic communication. 



If you call again with the new script, it will "drive the same route one 

more time." 



ZCOMM and ProYam have a learning feature. This is how I made a script for 

accessing Semaforum BBS using ZCOMM: 



    ZCOMM asked for a phone number. I entered +47-370-11710. It

    asked for speed, and I entered 2400 bps. Next, I had to choose 

    one of the following:



      (1) System uses IBM PC (ANSI) line drawing

      (2) 7 bits even parity

      (3) 8 bits no parity 



    My choice was 1.

      ZCOMM dialed the number. When the connection was established,

    I entered my name and password, navigated to the message 

    section, read new messages, browsed new files in the library, 

    and entered G for Goodbye. This was the "tour" that I wanted to 

    automate. 

      When disconnected, I pressed the F1 key. This prompted the 

    learning process based on a record of the online tour. The log 

    described everything that had happened in detail, including my 

    pauses to think. Now I was prompted by the following question: 



      'newscr.t' exists. Append/replace/quit? 



    I selected append. Then: 



       Do you want this script file as a new entry in your

       telephone directory (y/n)?



    I entered "y," and named it "semaforum."  After a few seconds, 

    my new script was ready: 



       Your new script is in the file 'newscr.t' !!

       You can append the file to your current script file

       (for example PHODIR.T) or have the commands executed by

       entering:

          call semaforum.newscr.t 



    It was time to test the new wonder. I entered 

    

          call semaforum.newscr.t



    at the ZCOMM command line, hit the ENTER key, and off it went. 

    ZCOMM called the BBS and repeated everything - at far higher 

    speed than I had done it manually. It went on-hook as planned 

    when done. 



Limitations

-----------

Auto-learn programs can create a script file that let you "drive the same 

route." For some applications this is enough. For others, it's just part of 

the way. You have to refine the script manually to get what you want. 



    Example:

    If you call my bulletin board with an auto-learned script made 

    yesterday, chances are that everything works well. If you call 

    twice on the same day, however, you're in for a surprise. The 

    board greets you differently on your second visit. You will not 

    get the menu of available bulletins. It will take you directly 

    to the system's main menu. Your script must take this into 

    account. 



On most online services, many things can happen at each "junction of your 

road." At one point in one of my scripts, up to twenty things may happen. 

Each event needs its own "routing." 



Twenty possible events are an extreme, but three to four possibilities at 

each system prompt is not unusual. All of them need to be handled by your 

script, if you want it to visit online services unattended while asleep. 



It is quicker and simpler to use other people's scripts and programs, 

although this might force you to use a different program for each service. 



Personally, I prefer offline readers on services where such are able to do 

the job. On other services, I usually depend on my own tailor-made scripts. 







Chapter 17: Gazing into the future

==================================



Thoughts about things to come.



Newspaper of the future

---------------------------

Some years ago, Nicholas Negroponte of Massachusetts Institute of 

Technology, said that today's newspapers are old-fashioned and soon to be 

replaced by electronic "ultra personal" newspapers. 



"If the purpose is to sell news," he said, then it must be completely wrong 

to sell newspapers. Personally, I think that it is a dreadful way of 

receiving the news." 



MIT's Media Laboratory developed a new type of electronic newspaper. Daily, 

it delivered personalized news to each researcher. The newspaper was 

"written" by a computer that searched through the news services' cables and 

other news sources according to each person's interest profile. 



The system could present the stories on paper or on screen. It could 

convert them to speech, so that the "reader" could listen to the news in 

the car or the shower. 



In a tailor-made electronic newspaper, personal news makes big headlines. 

If you are off for San Francisco tomorrow, the weather forecasts for this 

city is front page news. Email from your son will also get a prominent 

place. 



"What counts in my newspaper is what I consider newsworthy," said 

Negroponte. 



He claimed that the personal newspaper is a way of getting a grip on the 

information explosion. "We cannot do it the old way anymore. We need other 

agents that can do prereading for us. In this case, the computer happens to 

be our agent." 



The technology is already here. Anyone can design similar papers using 

powerful communication programs with extensive script features. I have 

tried. 



My test edition of The Saltrod Daily News did not convert news to sound. It 

did not look like a newspaper page on my screen. Not because it was 

impossible. I simply did not feel these 'extras' worth the effort. 



My personal interest profile was taken care of by my scripts. If I wanted 

news, the "news processor" went to work and "printed" a new edition. On 

Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, I got an "extended edition." 



This is a section from my first edition: 



    "Front page," Thursday, November 21.

    Under the headline News From Tokyo, the following items: 



     TOSHIBA TO MARKET INEXPENSIVE PORTABLE WORD PROCESSOR 

     TOHOKU UNIVERSITY CONSTRUCTING SEMICONDUCTOR RESEARCH LAB 

     MEITEC, U.S. FIRM TO JOINTLY MARKET COMPUTER PRINTER INFO 

     TOSHIBA TO SUPPLY OFFICE EQUIPMENT TO OLIVETTI 

     NISSAN DEVELOPS PAINT INSPECTION ROBOT 

     MADE-TO-ORDER POCKET COMPUTER FROM CASIO



    These articles were captured from Kyoto News Service through

    Down Jones/News Retrieval.



    The column with news from the United States had stories from

    NEWSBYTES newsletters:



     * DAY ONE COMDEX. 

     * IBM'S PRE ANNOUNCEMENT OF "CLAMSHELL" 

     * AT&T TO JUMP IN SOONER WITH LAPTOP COMPUTER 

     * COMMODORE THIRD CONSECUTIVE QUARTERLY LOSS 

     * 2 ZENITH UNVEILS TOUCH-SCREEN 

     * HP's EARNINGS DROP 



    Hot News From England came from several sources, including 

    Financial Times, and Reuters (in CompuServe's UK News). 

    Headlines read:



     * THE CHRISTMAS SELLING WAR 

     * BIG MACS GOING CHEAP TO UNIVERSITY STUDENTS 



    "Page 2" was dedicated to technology intelligence. "Page 3" 

    had stories about telecommunications, mainly collected from 

    NewsNet's newsletters. "Page 4" had stories about personal 

    computer applications. 



As the cost of communicating and using online services continues to 

decrease, many people will be able to do the same. Is this where we are 

heading?



The other side of the coin is the newspapers themselves trying to deliver 

upgraded products in the online world. To see what they are up to, join

the ONLINE-NEWS mailinglist. Write Majordomo@marketplace.com . Put the 

following command in your email:



    subscribe online-news 



Some people say it is too difficult to read news on a computer screen. 

Maybe so, but pay attention to what is happening in notebook computers. 

This paragraph was written on a small PC by the fireplace in my living 

room. The computer is hardly any larger or heavier than a book. 



(Sources for monitoring notebook trends: NEWSBYTES' IBM and Apple reports, 

CompuServe's Online Today, and IBM Hardware Forum.) 



Electronic news by radio

------------------------

If costs were of no concern, then your applications of the online world 

would probably change considerably. Pay attention, as we are moving fast in 

that direction. 



Radio is one of the supporting technologies. It is used to deliver Usenet 

newsgroup to bulletin boards (example: PageSat Inc. of Palo Alto, U.S.A.) 

Also, consider this: 



Businesses need a constant flow of news to remain competitive. Desktop Data 

Inc. (tel. +1-617-890-0042) markets a real-time news service called 

NewsEDGE in the United States and Europe. They call it "live news 

processing." Annual subscriptions start at US$20,000 for ten users (1993). 



NewsEDGE continuously collects news from more than 100 news wires, 

including sources like PR Newswire, Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, 

Dow Jones News Service, Dow Jones Professional Investor Report and Reuters 

Financial News. 



The stories are "packaged" and immediately feed to customers' personal 

computers and workstations by FM, satellite, or X.25 broadcast: 



    * All news stories are integrated in a live news stream all day 

      long,



    * The NewsEdge software manages the simultaneous receipt of 

      news from multiple services, and alerts users to stories that 

      match their individual interest profiles. It also maintains a 

      full-text database of the most recent 250,000 stories on the 

      user's server for quick searching. 



In the meantime, traditional newspapers are searching for new ways to keep 

readers. For example, The Washington Post (U.S.A.) plans an electronic 

version with interactive ads, allowing subscribers to check mortgage rates 

at a bank, make restaurant reservations or buy tickets for sports events. 

It also plans to reproduce the Post's front page, "complete with graphics 

that move and photographs that come alive as a videotape excerpt with 

sound." (October 1993) 



Packet radio

------------

A global amateur radio network allows users to modem around the world, and 

even in outer space. Its users never get a telephone bill. 



There are over 700 packet radio based bulletin boards (PBBS). They are 

interconnected by short wave radio, VHF, UHF, and satellite links. 

Technology aside, they look and feel just like standard bulletin boards. 



Once you have the equipment, can afford the electricity to power it up, and 

the time it takes to get a radio amateur license, communication itself is 

free. 



Packet radio equipment sells in the United States for less than US$ 750. 

This will give you a radio (VHR tranceiver), antenna, cable for connecting 

the antenna to the radio, and a controller (TNC - Terminal Node 

Controller). 



Most PBBS systems are connected to a network of packet radio based boards. 

Many amateurs use 1200 bps, but speeds of up to 56,000 bps are being used 

on higher frequencies (the 420-450 MHz band in the United States). 



Hams are working on real-time digitized voice communications, still-frame 

(and even moving) graphics, and live multiplayer games. In some countries, 

there are also gateways available to terrestrial public and commercial 

networks, such as CompuServe, and Usenet. 



Packet radio is demonstrated as a feasible technology for wireless 

extension of the Internet. 



Radio and satellites are being used to help countries in the Third World. 

Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA), a private, nonprofit 

organization, is one of those concerned with technology transfers in 

humanitarian assistance to these countries. 



VITA's portable packet radio system was used for global email after a 

volcanic eruption in the Philippines in 1991. Today, the emphasis is on 

Africa. 



VITA's "space mailbox" passes over each single point of the earth twice 

every 25 hours at an altitude of 800 kilometers. When the satellite is over 

a ground station, the station sends files and messages for storage in the 

satellite's computer memory and receives incoming mail. The cost of ground 

station operation is based on solar energy batteries, and therefore 

relatively cheap. 



To learn more about VITA's projects, subscribe to their mailing list by 

email to LISTSERV@AUVM.BITNET. Use the command SUB DEVEL-L <First-name 

Last-name>. 



For more general information about packet radio, check out HamNet on 

CompuServe, and especially its library 9. Retrieve the file 'packet_radio' 

(Packet radio in earth and space environments for relief and development) 

from GNET's archive (see chapter 7). 



ILINK has an HAMRADIO conference. There is a packet radio mailing list at 

PACKET-RADIO@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL (write PACKET-RADIO-REQUEST@@WSMR-

SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL to subscribe). 



Usenet has rec.radio.amateur.packet (Discussion about packet radio setups), 

and various other rec.radio conferences. There is HAM_TECH on FidoNet, and 

Ham Radio under Science on EXEC-PC. 



The American Radio Relay League (AARL) operates an Internet information 

service called the ARRL Information Server. To learn how to use it, send 

email to info@arrl.org with the word HELP in the body of the text. 



Cable TV

--------

Expect Cable TV networks to grow in importance as electronic high-ways, to 

offer gateways into the Internet and others, and to get interconnected not 

unlike the Internet itself. 



Example: Continental Cablevision Inc. (U.S.A.) lets customers plug PCs and 

a special modem directly into its cable lines to link up with the Internet. 

The cable link bypasses local phone hookups and provide the capability to 

download whole books and other information at speeds up to 10 million bits 

per second. 



The Global Telephone

--------------------

Watch the American company Motorola closely. Their Iridium project aims at 

covering the world with telephone services provided from a large number of 

satellites. Expect them to compete aggressively with local telephone 

services. 



The new system will allow people to communicate by telephone anywhere on 

earth - whether on land, at sea or in the air - via portable cellular radio 

telephones operating as part of a satellite-based system. Callers using the 

new system will not need to know the location of the person (or online 

service) being called. They will simply dial the number to be connected. 



Current plans (1993) estimate that the Iridium system will be operational 

by 1998. 



Electronic mail on the move

---------------------------

For some time, we have been witnessing a battle between giants. On one 

side, the national telephone companies have been pushing X.400 backed by 

ITU-TSS, and software companies like Lotus, Novell, and Microsoft. 



On the other side, CompuServe, Dialcom, MCI Mail, GEISCO, Sprint, and 

others have been fighting their wars. 



Nobody really thought much about the Internet, until suddenly, it was there 

for everybody. The incident has changed the global email scene 

fundamentally. 



One thing seems reasonably certain: that the Internet will grow. In late 

1992, the president of the Internet Society (Reston, Va., U.S.A.) made the 

following prediction: 



    ".. by the year 2000 the Internet will consist of some 100 

    million hosts, 3 million networks, and 1 billion users (close

    to the current population of the People's Republic of China).

    Much of this growth will certainly come from commercial 

    traffic."



We, the users, are the winners. Most online services now understand that 

global exchange of email is a requirement, and that they must connect to 

the Internet. 



Meanwhile, wild things are taking place in the grassroots arena: 



    * Thousands of new bulletin boards are being connected to 

      grassroots networks like FidoNet (which in turn is connected 

      to the Internet for exchange of mail). 



    * Thousands of bulletin boards are being hooked directly into 

      the Internet (and Usenet) offering such access to users at 

      stunning rates. 



    * The BBSes are bringing email up to a new level by letting

      us use offline readers, and other types of powerful mail 

      handling software. 



Email will never be the same. 



Add to this new services under development at BellSouth (USA), which will 

include the capability to retrieve email messages by telephone for 

networkers who find themselves on the road without a laptop and modem. The 

email will be electronically read to them by a computer. (1993) 



Cheaper and better communications

---------------------------------

During Christmas 1987, a guru said that once the 9600 bps V.32 modems fell 

below the US$1,200 level, they would create a new standard. Today, such 

modems can be bought at prices lower than US$200. In many countries, 14,400 

bits/s modems are already the preferred choice. 



Also, expect new developments within data compression to have a further 

impact on the costs of global communications. 



CD-ROM supported communications

-------------------------------

CompuServe is planning to let users with CD-ROM-equipped computers receive 

regularly updated online information enhanced by audio and video components 

held on disc (September 1993). 



Expect new and innovative ways of presenting offerings in the electronic 

shopping area. CompuServe is also talking about an interactive magazine, 

and multimedia extensions to some databases and forums.                                  



Wild dreams get real

--------------------

In the future, we will be able to do several things simultaneously on the 

same telephone line. This is what the promised land of ISDN (Integrated 

Service Digital Networks) is supposed to give us. 



Some users already have this capability. They write and talk on the same 

line using pictures, music, video, fax, voice and data. 



ISDN is supposed to let us use services that are not generally available 

today. Here are some key words: 



    * Chats, with the option of having pictures of the people

      we are talking to up on our local screen (for example in

      a window, each time he or she is saying something). 

      Eventually, we may get the pictures in 3-D. 



    * Database searches in text and pictures, with displays of

      both. 



    * Electronic transfers of video/movies over a telephone line

      (fractal image compression technology may give us another 

      online revolution). Imagine dances filmed by ethnologists 

      at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., or an 

      educational film about the laps in northern Norway from 

      an information provider called the Norwegian Broadcasting

      Corp. 



      The "Internet Talk Radio" is already delivering programs by 

      anonymous ftp (e.g., through ftp.nau.edu in the directory 

      /talk-radio). 



    * Online amusement parks with group plays, creative offerings

      (drawing, painting, building of 3-D electronic sculptures),

      shopping (with "live" people presenting merchandise and

      good pictures of the offerings, test drives, etc.), casino

      (with real prizes), theater with live performance, online

      "dressing rooms" (submit a 2-D picture of yourself, and 

      play with your looks), online car driving schools (drive a

      car through Tokyo or New York, or go on safari). 



      The ImagiNation Network has been playing around with these ideas 

      for quite some time.



    * Your favorite books, old as new, available for on-screen 

      reading or searching in full text. Remember, many libraries 

      have no room to store all the new books that they receive. 

      Also, wear and tear tend to destroy books after some time. 



      Many books are already available online, including this one. 



    * Instant access to hundreds of thousands of 'data cottages'.

      These are computers in private homes of people around the 

      world set up for remote access. With the technical advances

      in the art of transferring pictures, some of these may grow

      to become tiny online "television stations."



These wild ideas are already here, but it will take time before they are 

generally available. New networks need to be in place. New and more 

powerful communications equipment has to be provided. 



Farther down the road, we can see the contours of speech-based electronic 

conferences with automatic translation to and from the participants' 

languages. Entries will be stored as text in a form that allows for 

advanced online searching. We may have a choice between the following: 



    * To use voice when entering messages, rather than entering 

      them through the keyboard. The ability to mix speech, text, 

      sound and pictures (single frames or live pictures). 



    * Messages are delivered to you by voice, as text or as a 

      combination of these (like in a lecture with visual aids). 



    * Text and voice can be converted to a basic text, which then 

      may be converted to other languages, and forwarded to its

      destination as text or voice. 



One world

---------

Within the Internet, the idea of "the network as one, large computer" has 

already given birth to many special services, like gopher and WAIS. 

Potentially, we will be able to find and retrieve information from anywhere 

on the global grid of connected systems. 



Bulletin boards have commenced to offer grassroots features modeled after 

telnet and ftp. These alternatives may even end up being better and more 

productive than the interactive commands offered "inside" the Internet. 



The global integration of online services will continue at full speed, and 

in different ways. 



Rates

-----

There is a trend away from charging by the minute or hour. Many services 

convert to subscription prices, a fixed price by the month, quarter or 

year. 



Other services, among them some major database services, move toward a 

scheme where users only pay for what they get (no cure, no pay). MCI Mail 

was one of the first. There, you only pay when you send or read mail. On 

CompuServe's IQuest, you pay a fixed price for a fixed set of search 

results. 



The Internet is a special case, as anyone who buys Internet can likewise 

sell Internet. Many services are still writing goofy and generally 

unenforceable contracts, making irrational pricing and service decisions. 

Expect this to change, and the cost of getting an Internet connection to 

dive toward cost. 



Cheaper transfers of data

-------------------------

Privatization of the national telephone monopolies has given us more 

alternatives. This will continue. Possible scenarios: 



    * Major companies selling extra capacity from their own

      internal networks,



    * Telecommunications companies exporting their services at

      extra low prices, 



    * Other pricing schemes (like a fixed amount per month with

      unlimited usage),



    * New technology (direct transmitting satellites, FM, etc.)



So far, data transporters have been receiving a disproportionate share of 

the total costs. For example, the rate for accessing CompuServe from Norway 

through InfoNet is US$8.00, while using the service itself costs US$12.80 

at 2400 bps (the Alternative Pricing Plan, 3/1994). 



Increased global competition in data transportation is quickly changing 

this picture, supported by general access to the Internet. Prices will most 

likely continue their dramatic way toward zero. 



Powerful new search tools

-------------------------

As the sheer quantity of information expands, the development of adequate 

finding tools is gaining momentum. Our major problem is how to use what we 

have access to. 



This is especially true on the Internet. Expect future personal information 

agents, called "knowbots," which will scan databases all over the online 

world for specific information at a user's bidding. This will make personal 

knowledge of where you need to go redundant. 



Artificial intelligence will increase the value of searches, as they can be 

based on your personal searching history since your first day as a user. 



Your personal information agents will make automatic decisions about what 

is important and what is not in a query. When you get information back, it 

will not just be in the normal chronological order. It will be ranked by 

what seems to be closest to the query. 



Sources for future studies

--------------------------

It seems appropriate to end this chapter with some online services focusing 

on the future: 



Newsbytes has a section called Trends. The topic is computers and 

communications. ECHO has the free database Trend, the online edition of the 

Trend Monitor magazine. It contains short stories about the development 

within electronics and computers (log on to ECHO using the password TREND). 



Usenet has the newsgroup clari.news.trends (Surveys and trends). Why not 

complement what you find here by monitoring trends in associated areas 

(like music), to follow the development from different perspectives? The 

music forum RockNet on CompuServe has a section called Trends. 



CompuServe's Education Forum has the section Future Talk. What educators 

think about the future of online services (and education) is always 

interesting. The Well, based just outside Silicon Valley in the United 

States, has The Future conference. 



UUCP has info-futures. Its purpose is "to provide a speculative forum for 

analyzing current and likely events in technology as they will affect our 

near future in computing and related areas." (Contact: info-futures-

request@cs.bu.edu for subscription.) 



Usenet has comp.society.futures about "Events in technology affecting 

future computing." 



It is tempting to add a list of conferences dedicated to science fiction, 

but I'll leave that pleasure to you. 



    Have a nice trip!







Appendix 1: List of selected online services

============================================



To make a list of online services is difficult. Services come and go. 

Addresses and access numbers are constantly changed. Only one thing is 

certain. Some of the details below will be outdated, when you read this. 



Advantis

--------

A communications industry joint venture between Sears Roebuck and Co and 

IBM initially focusing on network design, transmission and support services 

(including X.25, SNA, ISDN, TCP/IP, and EDI). 



Established in December 1992, Advantis inherited over one million customers 

from Sears' Technology Services and IBM's Information Network. 



The IBM Information Network was IBM's commercial value-added data network 

offering worldwide email and data transfer services. It was one of the 

largest networks in the world, with operator-owned nodes in over 36 

countries. 



To send mail from the Internet to a user of Advantis IBMmail (also called 

IMX or Mail Exchange), address your message to their userid at ibmmail.com. 

The email address contains a two letter country code (like FR for France), 

and a three letter user identity. You need to know their userid (IEA in 

IBMmail terminology) in advance. 



An IBMmail user can find how to address to Internet by sending mail to 

INFORM at IBMmail with /GET INET in the body of the text. 



Affaersdata i Stockholm AB

-------------------------

P.O. Box 3188, S-103 63 Stockholm, Sweden. Tel.: + 46 8 736 59 19.



America Online

--------------

has the CNN Newsroom (Turner Educational Services), The Washington Post, 

the National Geographic magazine, PC World and Macworld. AOL has tailor-

made graphical user interfaces for Apple, Macintosh, and PC compatible 

computers. It had 600,000 users in February 1994. Sending and receiving 

Internet mail is possible. 



Contact: America Online, 8619 Westwood Center Dr., Vienna, VA 22182-2285, 

USA. Phone: +1-703-448-8700.  Email: info@aol.com



APC

---

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is a worldwide 

partnership of member networks for peace and environmental users with host 

computers in several countries: 



    Alternex (Brazil). Email: support@ax.apc.org

    Chasque  (Uruguay). Email: apoyo@chasque.apc.org

    ComLink e.V (Germany). Email: support@oln.comlink.apc.org

    Ecuanex (Ecuador). Email: intercom@ecuanex.apc.org

    GlasNet (Russia). Email: support@glas.apc.org

    GreenNet (England). Email: support@gn.apc.org

    Institute for Global Communications (U.S.A.), includes

            EcoNet, PeaceNet, ConflictNet, LaborNet.

            Email: support@igc.apc.org

    Nicarao - CRIES (Nicaragua). Email: ayuda@nicarao.apc.org

    NordNet (Sweden). Email: support@pns.apc.org

    Pegasus (Australia). Email: support@peg.apc.org

    Web (Canada). Email: support@web.apc.org



The APC nets have full Internet access (except FTP).



While all these services are fee based, they bring a wealth of information 

on environmental preservation, peace (incl. Greenpeace Press Releases), 

human rights, grant-making foundations, Third World Resources, United 

Nations Information Service, Pesticide Information Service, and more. 



For information about APC, write to apcadmin@igc.apc.org , or APC 

International Secretariat, Rua Vincente de Souza, 29, 22251-070 Rio de 

Janeiro, BRASIL. Fax: +55-21-286-0541. 



For information about the PeaceNet World News Service, which delivers news 

digests directly to your email box, send a request to pwn@igc.apc.org. 



ASCII Net

---------

Japanese PC network for hobbyists. This online service has around 85,000 

users (1993). Phone: +81-3-3797-6506. Fax: +81-3-3486-0488. Full Internet 

connectivity being planned (1993). 



AT&T Mail

---------

AT&T Mail Customer Assistance Center, 5000 Hadley Road, South Plainsfield, 

NJ 07080, U.S.A. Email: postmaster@attmail.com .



Bergen By Byte

--------------

Norwegian online service with conferences and many files. Modem tel.: +47 

05 323781. PDN (Datapak) address: 0 2422 450134. Telnet: oscar.bbb.no 

(192.124.156.38). 



English-language interface available. Annual subscription rates. You can 

register online. Limited free usage. 



BIBSYS

------

Book database operated by the Norwegian universities' libraries. Send 

Internet mail to genserv@pollux.bibsys.no with your search word in the 

subject title of the message. 



Big Sky Telegraph

-----------------

is an online community for educators, business people etc. living in rural 

areas in North America. Address: 710 South Atlantic, Dillon, Montana 59725, 

U.S.A. Email: jrobin@csn.org



BITNET

------

"Because It's Time NETwork" started in 1981 as a small network for IBM 

computers in New York, U.S.A. Today, BITNET encompasses 3,284 host 

computers by academic and research institutions all over the world. It has 

around 243,016 users (source: Matrix News 1993) 



All connected hosts form a worldwide network using the NJE (Network Job 

Entry) protocols and with a single list of nodes. There is no single 

worldwide BITNET administration. Several national or regional bodies 

administer the network. 



The European part of BITNET is called EARN (European Academic Research 

Network), while the Canadian is called NetNorth. In Japan the name is 

AsiaNet. BITNET also has connections to South America. Other parts of the 

network have names like CAREN, ANSP, SCARNET, CEARN, GULFNET, HARNET, 

ECUANET, and RUNCOL. 



Normally, a BITNET email address looks like this: 



         NOTRBCAT@INDYCMS



The part to the left of the @-character is the users' mailbox code. The 

part to the right is the code of the mailbox computer. It is common for 

Internet users to refer to BITNET addresses like this: 

NOTRBCAT@INDYCMS.BITNET . 



To send email from the Internet to BITNET, it has to be sent through 

special gateway computers. On many systems, this is taken care of 

automatically. You type NOTRBCAT@INDYCMS.BITNET, and your mailbox system 

does the rest. 



On some systems, the user must give routing information in the BITNET 

address. For example, North American mail to BITNET can be sent through the 

gateway center CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU . To make mail to NOTRBCAT go through this 

gateway, its mail address must be changed as follows: 



         NOTRBCAT%INDYCMS.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU



Explanation: The @ in the initial address is replaced with % . Then add the 

gateway routing: ".BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU". 



If you must use a gateway in your address, always select one close to where 

you live. Ask your local postmaster for the correct addressing in your 

case. 



BITNET has many conferences. We call them discussion lists or mailing 

lists. The lists are usually administered by a computer program called 

LISTSERV. The dialog is based on redistribution of ordinary email by 

mailing lists. Consequently, it is simple for users of other networks to 

participate in BITNET conferences. 



A list of discussion lists (at present around 1,600 one-line descriptions) 

is available by email from LISTSERV@NDSUVM1.BITNET. Write the following 

command in the TEXT of your message: 



    LIST GLOBAL



NEW-LIST@NDSUVM1.BITNET and NETMONTH (from BITLIB@YALEVM.BITNET) distribute 

regular notices about new discussion lists. Subscribe to NEW-LIST by email 

to LISTSERV@NDSUVM1.BITNET. Use the following command: 



    SUB NEW-LIST Your-first-name Your-last-name



This is how we usually subscribe to discussion lists. Send your 

subscription commands to a LISTSERV close to where you live. 



The command "SENDME BITNET OVERVIEW" tells LISTSERV to send more 

information about the services. 



BIX

---

is operated as a joint venture between General Videotex Corp. and the North 

American computer magazine BYTE (McGraw-Hill). To some extent, it mirrors 

what you can read on paper. BIX offers global Internet email, telnet and 

ftp, multiple conferences. In 1992, the service had about 50,000 members. 



The NUA address is 0310600157878. On Internet, telnet x25.bix.com . At the 

Username: prompt, enter BIX as a user name. At the second Username: prompt, 

enter NEW if you don't already have an account on the service. 



Send email to BIX members as user@bix.com. 



You can sign up for the service, and play during your first visit to the 

service. Read BYTE for more information, or write to General Videotex 

Corporation, 1030 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Phone: +1-

617-354-4137. Email: TJL@mhis.bix.com



BRS

---

Bibliographic Retrieval Services is owned by InfoPro Technologies (see 

below). BRS/After Dark is a service for PC users. It can be accessed during 

evenings and weekends at attractive rates. 



InfoPro offers connection through their own network in Europe, and through 

the Internet. BRS contains about 120 databases within research, business, 

news, and science. The service's strengths are medicine and health. 



Membership in BRS costs US$80 per year, plus hourly database usage charges. 

It is also available through CompuServe (at a different price). 



Contact in Europe: BRS Information Technologies, Achilles House, Western 

Avenue, London W3 OUA, England. Tel. +44 81 993 9962. In North America: 

InfoPro Technologies. Tel.: +1-703-442-0900. Telnet: brs.com (US$6/hr). 



Canada Remote Systems

---------------------

is North America's largest bulletin board system (1992). It has a software 

library of more than 500,000 programs and files, and over 3,500 public 

forums and discussion areas. 



Canada Remote provides several news and information services, including the 

United Press International and Reuters news wires, North American stock 

exchange results, the twice-weekly edition of Newsbytes, and other 

publications. 



Tel.: +1-416-629-7000 (in the U.S.) and +1-313-963-1905 (Canada). Canada 

Remote Systems, 1331 Crestlawn Drive, Unit D, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada 

L4W 2P9. 



CGNET

-----

is a network interconnecting a group of international research 

organizations. Besides email, CGNET provides news clipping services, 

airline reservation information, and database search. (See Dialcom) 



Contact: CGNET Services International, 1024 Hamilton Court, Menlo Park, 

California  94025,  USA. Telephone: +1-415-325-3061. Fax:  1-415-325-2313 

Telex: 4900005788 (CGN UI) . 



CIX (England)

-------------

British online-service available by telnet, through PDN services and by 

direct dial. Telnet cix.compulink.co.uk. 



Compulink Information eXchange Ltd. claims to be Europe's largest 

conferencing system. Sign-up fee (1993): GBP 25.00. Monthly minimum: GBP 

6.25. Off-peak connect rate GBP 2.40. Peak rate is 3.60 per hour. 



The service has full Internet access, and email exchange with CompuServe 

and Dialcom. CIX has many conferences, ISDN access, Usenet News, telnet and 

ftp. 



Contact: The Compulink Information Exchange Ltd., The Sanctuary Oakhill 

Grove, Surbiton, Surrey KT6 6DU, England. Tel.: +44-81-390-8446. Fax: +44-

81-390-6561. NUA: 2342 1330 0310. Data: +44-81-390-1255/+44-81-390-1244. 

Email: cixadmin@cix.compulink.co.uk . 



CIX (USA)

---------

The Commercial Internet eXchange is a North American association of 

commercial Internet providers in which they agree to carry each others' 

packets of mail, and more. 



Clarinet

--------

A commercial network publishing service providing information and news in 

over 200 newsgroups by subject matter on Usenet (1993). Read Chapter 9 for 

more information. Single-user (individual) prices available. 



Clarinet Communications Corp., 124 King St. North, Waterloo, Ontario N2J 

2X8, Canada. Email: info@clarinet.com . 



Commercial Mail Relay Service (CMR)

-----------------------------------

This service is not available anymore. They used to be available on this 

address: 



Intermail-Request@Intermail.ISI.EDU 



CompuServe

----------

has about 1.7 million users (March 94) all over the world, over 1,400 

databases, 400 forums, 500 newspapers, online shopping from more than 100 

shops and entertainment. It's like a large electronic supermarket. 



You can access the service though local access numbers in over 100 

countries, through Packet Switching Services, and outdial services. The 

international NUA address is 0313299999997. 



A list of available forums can be retrieved from the IBM Communication 

Forum. Participation in forums is normally free (no extra charge). 



The IQuest database service gives access to more than 800 publications, 

databases, and indexes within business, public affairs, research, news, 

etc. Bibliographic and full-text searches. 



Some IQuest databases are physically residing on other online services, 

like NewsNet, Dialog, BRS, and Vu/Text (U.S.A.), Data-Star (Switzerland), 

DataSolve (England. It has TASS in the World Reporter database), and 

Questel (France). Sometimes, it is cheaper to use these services on 

CompuServe, than by a call to these services directly. 



Knowledge Index offers over 120 of Dialog's more popular full-text and 

bibliographic databases, the full text of 33 major newspapers, scientific 

abstracts, reference sources, and more within 27 subject sections (1993). 



The connect charge for CompuServe's Alternative Pricing Plan is 

US$12.80/hour at 1200 and 2400 bps. 9600 bps costs US$22.80/hour. Monthly 

subscription US$2.50. Using the Executive News Service (clipping service) 

costs an extra US$15/hour. 



An optional flat-rate pricing plan (the Standard Pricing plan) is available 

for US$8.95 per month. It gives unlimited access to over 30 basic services, 

including CompuServe mail, The Electronic Mall, news, weather and sports, 

member support services, reference and travel services. 



Hourly rates for Standard Pricing Plan members using extended services go 

from US$6/hour for 300 bits/s to US$16/hour for 9600 bits/s access. (Feb. 

93) 



In addition, there are network charges. These differ a lot by country. For 

example, access through European CompuServe nodes has no communication 

surcharges during non-prime time (19:00-8:00 local time). 



CompuServe can be accessed by telnet to hermes.merit.edu, or 35.1.48.150. 

Host: CompuServe. A cheaper alternative is available for a US$50 (1993) one 

time fee. For information, type ? at the WHICH HOST prompt. Select "ACCESS 

information" from the menu, and then "Using the DIALOUT modems" from the 

next menu. A direct telnet address is announced to be available in late 

March 1994.



CompuServe Information Services Inc., POB 20212, 5000 Arlington Centre 

Blvd., Columbus, Ohio 43220, U.S.A. Email: postmaster@csi.compuserve.com



In Europe, call voice: +49-89-66550-111, fax: +49-89-66 550-255 or write to 

CompuServe, Jahnstrasse 2, D-8025 Unterhaching b., Munich, Germany. To 

contact CompuServe Africa, call  (012) 841-2530 in South Africa, or 

(+27)(12) 841-2530 for everywhere else. 



Cosine

------

COSINE (Cooperation for Open Systems Interconnection Networking in Europe) 

is a European Common Market "Eureka" project. It works to establish a 

communications network infrastructure for scientific and industrial 

research institutes all over Europe.  



IXI is the international packet data network on which the COSINE project is 

based. It is available Europe-wide providing links of up to 64 Kbit/s, 

carries non commercial traffic for the research communities, and provides 

links to several public data networks. 



The CONCISE online information service is a focal point for information of 

interest to European researchers. It has lists of sources of information. 



Internet users can access CONCISE through Telnet. Connect either to 

concise.ixi.ch (130.59.2.16) or concise.funet.fi (128.214.6.181). Login: 

concise, password: concise. 



For help, send email to helpdesk@concise.level-7.co.uk with the following 

command in the body of the text: 



     start

     help cug-email



This will give you the `CONCISE User Guide - Email Access'. 



DASnet

------

forwards mail between systems that do not have any email exchange 

agreements. See description in Chapter 13. Contact: DA Systems, Inc., 1503 

E. Campbell Ave., Campbell, CA  95008, U.S.A. 



DataArkiv

---------

Major Scandinavian online service based in Sweden. Contact: DataArkiv, Box 

1502, 171 29 Solna, Sweden. Fax: +46 8 828 296. Tel.: +46 8 705 13 11. 



Data-Star

---------

Formerly owned by Radio-Suisse in Switzerland, Data-Star is now owned by 

Knight-Ridder (U.S.A.). It offers over 200 databases within business, 

science and medicine, and is strong on European information. 



SciSearch is a database with references to over nine million stories from 

4500 newspapers and magazines. 



Other databases: Current Patents Fast Alert, Flightline (with stories about 

air transport), The Turing Institute Database on artificial intelligence, 

Information Access (international market data), parts of SovData, Who Owns 

Whom, Telefirm - Directory of French Companies, etc.. 



Access through Internet: telnet to rserve.rs.ch  [192.82.124.4] and login 

as rserve , and follow standard login procedure. 



Contact in North America: D-S Marketing, Inc., Suite 110, 485 Devon Park 

Drive, Wayne, PA 19087, Tel.: +1-215-687-6777. 



Contact in Scandinavia: Radio Suisse marketing AB, Maessans gt. 18, Box 

5278, S-402 25 Gothenburg, Sweden. Tel.: +46 31 83 59 75. 



Delphi

------

offers full access to Internet. Write to: General Videotex Corp., 1030 

Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Around 110.000 subscribers 

(1993). Email: walthowe@delphi.com .



The service was purchased by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Ltd. (September 

1993), and will be renamed Delphi Internet Services. 



Dialcom

-------

is owned by British Telecom and is a network of data centers in many 

countries. Dialcom is selling its services through many agents (like 

EsiStreet for the music industry, and CGNet for agricultural research). 



Some selected services: The Official Airline Guide, news (Financial Times 

Profile, Newsbytes, AP, UPI, and Reuters), mail (Dialcom400), fax services 

and several conference type offerings (like Campus 2000 for the education 

market). 



Today, most Dialcom users are unable to exchange mail with the Internet 

(DASnet is a commercial alternative), but mail can be sent to users of 

SprintMail, IBM Mail, AT&Ts Easylink, MCI Mail, Compania Telefonica 

Nacional de Espana, and other X.400 systems. 



Contact: Dialcom, 6120 Executive Blvd., Rockville, MD 20852, U.S.A. The 

British service Telecom-Gold is a subsidiary of Dialcom UK. In North 

America, contact BT North America at tel.: +1-408-922-7543. In Europe, 

contact British Telecom. 



CGNET can be reached through the Internet. Send a message to 

postmaster@cgnet.com for more information. 



Dialog Information Services

---------------------------

is owned by Knight Ridder and has more than 400 databases online. They offer 

a long list of newspapers including the San Francisco Chronicle in full-

text, Newsbytes, Information Access, the Japan Technology database, most 

major global news wires, Trademarkscan, USA Today, Teikoku Databank from 

Japan. 



Dialog has gateways to other services, like CompuServe and iNet, making the 

databases available to a larger market. Many databases are also available 

on CD-ROM. 



In Europe, contact DIALOG Europe, P O Box 188, Oxford OX1 5AX, England. In 

the US, contact Dialog, 3460 Hillview Ave., Palo Alto, Calif. 94304. 



You can telnet to DIALOG.COM (192.132.3.254, US$ 3/hour in 1992). 



DIMDI

-----

Postfach 42 05 80, D-5000 Koeln 41, Germany. Tel: +49 221 47 24 270.



Down Jones News/Retrieval

-------------------------

focuses on news for finance and business. DJN/R is the sole online 

distributor of The Wall Street Journal (with articles from the 

international editions), Barron's, Dow Jones and Telerate's newswires in 

full-text. 



Further, it has PR Newswire, many other newspapers in full-text, clipping 

service, online charting for investors, and gateways to other services like 

MCI Mail, Info Globe (Globe and Mail in Canada). 



Address: P.O. Box 300, Princeton, N.J. 08543-9963. DJN/R is also accessible 

through a gateway from MCI Mail. 



You can telnet to djnr.dowjones.com . At the WHAT SERVICE PLEASE prompt, 

enter DJNR and press ENTER. An ENTER PASSWORD prompt will appear. Here, 

enter your normal DJNS account password. 



ECHO

----

European Commission Host Organization is accessible via CONCISE. Telnet 

either to  concise.ixi.ch (130.59.2.16) or concise.funet.fi 

(128.214.6.181). Login: concise, password: concise. The NUA address is 

0270448112. You can also telnet to echo.lu . Login as echotest or echo. 



ECHO's I'M GUIDE is a free database providing information about online 

services within the European Common Market. It includes CD-ROMs, databases 

and databanks, database producers, gateways, host organizations, PTT 

contact points, and information brokers in Europe. 



ECHO's other databases are classified under the headings Research and 

development, Language industry, Industry and economy. 



For information contact: ECHO Customer Service, BP 2373, L-1023 Luxembourg. 

Tel.: +352 34 98 1200. Fax: +352 34 98 1234. 



Eunet Deutschland GmbH

----------------------

Address: 44227 Dortmund, Germany. Email: postmaster@Germany.EU.net . Phone: 

+49-231-972-2222. Internet access provider. 



Exec-PC Network BBS

-------------------

is based in Milwaukee (Wisconsin, U.S.A.). In August 1991, it had 238 

incoming phone lines, 9 gigabytes of disk capacity, more than 100 new 

programs/day, 300,000 programs available for downloading (including the 

complete selection from PC-SIG California) and more than 130,000 active 

messages in its conferences. More than 3,300 persons called EXEC-PC each 

day. 



The service focuses on owners of IBM compatible computers (MS/PC-DOS, 

Windows, OS/2, Windows, Unix), Apple Macintosh, Amiga and Atari ST through 

over 200 conferences. 



You can access EXEC-PC through i-Com's outdial service, Global Access, PC-

Pursuit, Connect-USA, and by direct dialing. Annual subscription costs 

US$60.00. You can sign on while online. Unregistered users get thirty 

minutes per day free. 



FidoNet

-------

was founded in 1984 for automatic transfers of files from one place to the 

other at night, when the telephone rates are low. FidoNet is one of the 

most widespread networks in the world. It consists mainly of personal 

computers (IBM/Amiga/Macintosh...). 



FidoNet systems exchange documents by using a modem and calling another 

FidoNet system.  Communication can be either direct to the destination 

system (calling long distance) or by routing a message to a local system. 



Each computer connected to FidoNet is called a node. There are nodes in 

around 70 countries. In June 1993, the net had 24,800 nodes throughout the 

world (source: FidoNet nodelist). The number of nodes is growing at about 

40 percent per year. 



Most nodes are operated by volunteers, and access is free. FidoNet is 

believed to have over 1.56 million users (1992). 



Conferences (called ECHOs or Echomail) are exchanged between interested 

nodes, and may thus have thousands of readers. The selection of echomail 

conferences on a given FidoNet board can be as unique as the rest of the 

system. A typical FidoNet Echomail conference gets 50 to 100 messages each 

day. Any connected BBS may carry 50, 100, or more echomail conferences. 



NetMail is the term for storing and delivering mail. FidoNet users can 

send and receive mail through the Internet. 



The list of member bulletin boards is called the Nodelist. It can be 

retrieved from most boards. Each node has one line on this list, like in 

this example: 



   ,10,Home_of_PCQ,Warszawa,Jan_Stozek,48-22-410374,9600,V32,MNP,XA



The commas are field separators. The first field (empty in this example) 

starts a zone, region, local net, Host, or denotes a private space (with 

the keyword Pvt). 



The second field (10) is the node number, and the third field (Home_of_PCQ) 

is the name for the node. 



The fourth field (Warszawa) is a geographical notation, and the fifth field 

(Jan_Stozek) is the name of the owner. The sixth field is a telephone 

contact number, and the other fields contain various technical information 

used in making connections. 



FidoNet has six major geographical zones: (1) North America, (2) Europe, 

etc.,  (3) Oceania, (4) America Latina, (5) Africa, (6) Asia. 



For information, contact the International FidoNet Association (IFNA), P.O. 

Box 41143, St. Louis, MO 63141, U.S.A. You can also write to 

postmaster@fidonet.fidonet.org . 



The FIDO subdirectory in the MSDOS directory on SimTel (on the Internet) 

contains extensive information, including explanation of FidoNet, guide for 

its nodes, gateways between FidoNet and Internet, and various programs and 

utilities. (See TRICKLE in Chapter 4 for how to get these files.) 



Fog City Online Information Service

-----------------------------------

is the world's largest bulletin board with AIDS information. Based in San 

Francisco (U.S.A.) it offers free and anonymous access for everybody. 



Call +1-415-863-9697. Enter "AIDS" by the question "First name?" and "INFO" 

by the question "Last Name?". 



FT Profile

----------

has full-text articles from Financial Times in London, from several 

European databases (like the Hoppenstedt database with more than 46,000 

German companies), and the Japanese database Nikkei. 



Profile is available through Telecom-Gold, and can also be accessed through 

other online services. Clipping service. CD-ROM. 



Contact FT Information Services at tel.: +44-71-873-3000. 



GEnie

-----

General Electric Network for Information Exchange is owned by a joint 

venture between GE and Ameritech . GEnie gives access to many databases and 

other information services. It has around 350,000 users (1992). 



The basic rate is US$4.95/month plus connect charges. The surcharge is 

US$18/hour between 08:00 and 18:00, and US$6.00/hour for some services, 

like email, downloading of software, "chat," conferences, and multi-user 

games. Access to Internet email is available as a surcharged add-on 

service. (Addressing format: userid@GEnie.GEis.com) 



For information call +1-301-340-4492. GE Information Services, 401 N. 

Washington St., Rockville, MD 20850, U.S.A. 





GE Information Service Co. (GEIS)

---------------------------------

Online service operated by General Electric. Available in over 32 

countries. GEIS' QUIK-COMM service integrates multinational business 

communications for public and private mail systems. Its services include 

Telex Access; and QUIK-COMM to FAX, which allows users to send messages 

from their workstations to fax machines throughout the world. Contact: tel. 

+1-301-340-4485 

                                   

GENIOS

------

German online service (tel.: +49 69 920 19 101). Offers information from 

Novosti (Moscow), data about companies in the former DDR, the Hoppenstedt 

business directories, and more. 



GlasNet

-------

is an international computer network that provides low-cost 

telecommunications to nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations throughout 

the countries of the former Soviet Union. Email, fax, telex, public 

conferences. 



For nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations, basic GlasNet service fees 

are 350 rubles/month after a one-time registration fee of 1000 rubles.  

This does not include faxes or telexes. (1992) 



Write to: GlasNet, Ulitsa Sadovaya-Chernograizskaya, dom 4, Komnata 16, 

Third Floor, 107078 Moscow, Russia. Tel: +7 (095) 207-0704. Email:

support@glas.apc.org .



Global Access

-------------

is a North American outdial service (see Chapter 13) owned by G-A 

Technologies, Inc. It has an information BBS at +1-704-334-9030. 



IASNET

------

The Institute for Automated Systems Network was the first public switched 

network in the xUSSR. Its main goal is to provide a wide range of network 

services to the scientific community in the xUSSR, including access to 

online databases, a catalog of foreign databases, and conferencing 

(ADONIS). 



IBM Information Network

-----------------------

See Advantis.



i-Com

-----

offers outdial services to North America (ref. Chapter 13). Contact: i-Com, 

4 Rue de Geneve B33, 1140 Brussels, Belgium. Tel.: +32 2215 7130. Fax: +32 

2215 8999. Modem: +32 2215 8785. 



ILINK (Interlink)

-----------------

is a network for exchange of conferences between bulletin boards in U.S.A., 

Canada, Scotland, England, Norway, France, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, 

and other countries. 



Infonet

-------

is a privately owned vendor of packet data services with local operations 

in over 50 countries, and access from more than 135 countries. Contact: 

Infonet Services Corp., 2100 East Grand Ave., El Segundo, CA 90245, U.S.A. 



INTERNET

--------

started as ARPANET, but is now a large group of more than 6,000 

interconnected networks in over 137 countries all over the world supporting 

mail, news, remote login, file transfer, and many other services. All 

participating hosts are using the protocol TCP/IP. 



There are around 1.776 million host computers with IP addresses (in July 

1993. 1.3 million in March 1992. Ref. RFC1296 and RFC 1181). The number of 

users is estimated to more than ten million people. Some one million people 

are said to exchange email messages daily. 



As of June, 1991, commercial applications of the Internet have exceeded 

academic use. 



In addition, private enterprise networks have an estimated 1,000,000 hosts 

using TCP/IP (Source: Matrix News August 1993.) These offer mail exchange 

with the Internet, but not services such as Telnet or FTP to most parts of 

the Internet, and are estimated to have some 7.5 million users. 



Some claim that these figures are low. They believe it is possible to reach 

around 200 million mailboxes by email through the Internet (1993). 



Many commercial companies now offer full Internet services. Among these are 

Alternet (operated by UUNET. Email: alternet-info@uunet.uu.net) and PCI 

(operated by Performance Systems, Inc.). The UK Internet Consortium offers 

similar services in Great Britain. 



INTERNET gives users access to the ftp and telnet commands. Ftp gives them 

interactive access to remote computers for transferring files. Telnet gives 

access to a remote service for interactive dialog. (Read in appendix 6 

about important Internet tools etc.) You can telnet several bulletin boards 

through Internet. Here is a sample: 

       

 Name                       Login as       Description

 ----                       ----------     -----------

 CONRAD.APPSTATE.EDU        info           World news collected by

                                           monitoring short wave

                                           broadcasts from BBS and

                                           other global sources.

 ISCA.ICAEN.UIOWA.EDU       ISCABBS        A large amount of public

                                           domain programs

 ATL.CALSTATE.EDU           LEWISNTS       Electronic newspapers and

                                           the Art World.

 TOLSUN.OULU.FI             BOX            Finnish service. English 

                                           available as an option.



Internet

--------

is a term used on something many call "WorldNet" or "The Matrix." It 

includes the networks in INTERNET, and a long list of networks that can 

send electronic mail to each other (though they may not be based on the 

TCP/IP protocol). 



The Internet includes INTERNET, BITNET, DECnet, Usenet, UUCP, PeaceNet, 

IGC, EARN, Uninett, FidoNet, CompuServe, Alternex (Brazil), ATT Mail, 

FredsNaetet (Sweden), AppleLink, GeoNet (hosts in Germany, England, 

U.S.A.), GreenNet, MCI Mail, MetaNet, Nicarao (Nicaragua), OTC 

PeaceNet/EcoNet, Pegasus (Australia), BIX, Portal, PsychNet, Telemail, 

TWICS (Japan), Web (Canada), The WELL, CARINET, DASnet, Janet (England) 



One important feature of the Internet is that no one is in charge.  The 

Internet is essentially a voluntary association. 



Another thing is that there are rarely any additional charges for sending 

and receiving electronic mail (even when sending to other networks), 

retrieving files, or reading Usenet Newsgroups.. 



Intermail

---------

See Commercial Mail Relay Service.



Istel

-----

A privately owned vendor of packet data services, who has operator-owned 

nodes in Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Holland, Spain, 

Sweden, England. Contact: AT&T Istel. Tel.: 0527-64295 (in England). 



Kompass Online and Kompass Europe

--------------------------------

These databases are available through many services, including Affaersdata 

in Sweden and Dialog. Contact: (voice) +47 22 64 05 75. 



InfoPro Technologies

--------------------

Previously Maxwell Online. InfoPro's services include BRS Online and Orbit 

Online. BRS owns BRS Online, BRS Colleague, BRS After Dark, and BRS Morning 

Search, which focus on medical information. Orbit focuses on patent and 

patent-related searches. 



Orbit carries an annual membership fee of US$50 (1992), and hourly fees 

that differ according to database. 



Contact: InfoPro Technologies, 8000 Westpark Drive, McLean, VA 22102, 

U.S.A. Tel.: +1-703-442-0900. In Europe: InfoPro Technologies, Achilles 

House, Western Avenue, London W3 0UA, England. 



Maxwell Online

--------------

See InfoPro Technologies.



MCI Mail

--------

MCI Mail, Box 1001, 1900 M St. NW, Washington, DC 20036, U.S.A.

Email: 2671163@mcimail.com



Mead Data Central

-----------------

operates the Nexis and Lexis services. Contact: Mead Data Central 

International, International House, 1, St. Katharine's Way, London E1 9UN, 

England. In the US, contact Mead Data Central Inc., P.O. Box 933, Dayton, 

Ohio 45401. 



TELNET lexis.meaddata.com or 192.73.216.20 or 192.73.216.21 . Terminal type 

= vt100a. Note: If characters do not echo back, set your terminal to 

"local" echo. 



MetaNet

-------

Contact: Metasystems Design Group, 2000 North 15th Street, Suite 103, 

Arlington, VA 22201, U.S.A. Tel.: +1-703-243-6622. Telnet or gopher to 

tmn.com . 



MIX

---

A Scandinavian bulletin board network exchanging conferences. For 

information, call Mike's BBS in Norway at the following numbers: +47-22-

416588, +47-22-410403 and +47-22-337320. 



Minitel

-------

French videotex service, which is being marketed all over the world. It is 

based on a special graphics display format (Teletel), has over 13,000 

services, and appears like a large French online hypermarche with more than 

seven million users (1992). 



Access to the French Minitel network is available via the Infonet 

international packet data network on a host-paid and chargeable account 

basis. 



Mnematics

---------

Mnematics, 722 Main Street Sparkill, NY 10976-0019, U.S.A. Tel.: +1-914-

359-4546. 



NEC PC-VAN

----------

is Japan's largest online service. It has about 660,000 registered users 

(February 1994). Your communications system must be able to display Japanese 

characters to use the service. PC-VAN has gateways to GEnie and Dialog. 



Netnews

-------

See Usenet.



NewsNet

-------

The world's leading vendor of full-text business and professional 

newsletters online. Offers access to over 700 newsletters and news services 

within 30 industry classification groups (1993). Includes the major 

international news wires. 



You can read individual newsletter issues, and search back issues or 

individual newsletters or publications within an industry classification. 

NewsNet's clipping service is called NewsFlash. Enter PRICES at the main 

command prompt for an alphabetic listing of all available services. 



Contact: NewsNet, 945 Haverford Rd., Bryn Mawr, PA 19010, U.S.A. Access 

in 97 countries is possible through CompuServe's network. 



NIFTY-Serve

-----------

is Japan's number 2 online service. It had 560,000 subscribers in November 

1993. Access is possible via a gateway from CompuServe. Your communications 

system must be able to display Japanese characters to use the service. 

Internet mail is available as of February 1, 1994. 



Nifty-Serve is jointly operated by Fujitsu and Nissho Iwai Trading in a 

licensing agreement with CompuServe. 



NWI

---

Networking and World Information, Inc. One time subscription fee: US$20 

(US$5 is given to charity. US$15 is returned to the user as free time). 

Non-prime time access costs US$10.70/hour at 300 to 2400 bps. Otherwise, 

the rate is US$23.50. The service is available through PDN and outdial 

services. (1992) 



Contact: NWI, 333 East River Drive, Commerce Center One, East Hartford, CT 

06108, U.S.A. Tel.: +1-203-289-6585. 



CompuServe users can access NWI's PARTICIPATE conferences through a 

gateway. 



OCLC

----

Online Computer Library Center, Inc. is a nonprofit computer library 

service and research organization whose computer network and products link 

more than 15,000 libraries in 47 countries and territories. It serves all 

types of libraries, including public, academic, special, corporate, law, 

and medical libraries. Contact: OCLC, 6565 Fratz Rd., Dublin, OH, U.S.A. 

Tel.: +1-614-764-6000. 



Orbit

-----

is owned by InfoPro Technologies (formerly Maxwell Online and Pergamon 

Orbit Infoline Inc.). It offers more than 100 science, technical and patent 

research, and company information databases. 



Contact in North America: InfoPro Technologies, 8000 West Park Drive, 

McClean, VA 22102, U.S.A. Tel.: +1-703-442-0900. 



In Europe: ORBIT Search Service, Achilles House, Western Avenue, London W3 

0UA, England. Tel.: +44 1 992 3456, Fax. +44 1 993 7335. Telnet orbit.com 

(US$6/hr in 1992). 



Pergamon Financial Data Services

--------------------------------

See Orbit.



Polarnet

--------

A Scandinavian distributed conferencing system available through many 

boards, including Mike's BBS (see above). 



Prestel

-------

is owned by British Telecom. It is a videotex service based on a special 

graphics display format. The service is also available as "TTY Teletype." 

NUA address: 02341 10020020. 



Prodigy

-------

is a North American videotex service owned  by IBM and Sears. You must have 

a special communications program to use the service, which claimed 2.1 

million subscribers in early 1993. 



Rates: US$12.50 per family per month for up to six family members and up to 

30 email messages. Annual subscription: US$ 119.95. The packet sent new 

users contains a communication program and a Hayes-compatible 2400 bps 

modem. Price: US$ 180. (early 1992) 



Email from the Internet to Prodigy users: send to "XXXX@prodigy.com", where 

"XXXX" is the user's Prodigy service ID. 



Contact: Prodigy Services Co., 445 Hamilton Ave., White Plains, NY 10601, 

U.S.A. Tel.: +1-914-962-0310. Email (through Internet): admin@prodigy.com . 



Questel

-------

Le Capitole 55, avenue des Champs Pierreux, F-92029 Nanterre, France.



RelayNet

--------

Also called PcRelay-Net. An international network for exchange of email and 

conferences between more than 8,500 bulletin boards. The Relaynet 

International Message Exchange (RIME) consists of some 1,000 systems 

(1992). 



Relcom

------

means 'Russian Electronic Communications.'  This company provides email, 

other network services, a gateway to Internet, and access to Usenet. 



In early 1992, RELCOM had regional nodes in 25 cities of the xUSSR 

connecting over 1,000 organizations or 30,000 users.  RELCOM has a gateway 

to IASNET.  



Saltrod Horror Show

-------------------

Odd de Presno's BBS system. Tel.: +47 370 31378. 



The ImagiNation Network

-----------------------

(formerly The Sierra Network, or TSN) is one of the best things out there 

for online games. The service claimed more than 20,000 subscribers in 1993. 

Contact: The Sierra Network, P.O. Box 485, Coarsegold, CA 93614, U.S.A. 



SIGnet

------

Global BBS network with over 2500 nodes around the world (1993).



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 identity 'T.Germain' can be sent to 

T.Germain@sprint.sprint.com . 



For information, contact SprintMail, 12490 Sunrise Valley Dr., Reston, VA 

22096, U.S.A. 



STN International

-----------------

Postfach 2465, D-7500 Karlsruhe 1, Germany.





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: TCNxxx@das.net (where xxx 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 Japan, or with 

"shintaishougaisha," which is the Japanese term. Call: +81-3-205-9315. 1200 

bps, 8,N,1. Your communications system must be able to display Japanese 

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 Japan, contact 

Intec at 2-6-10 Sarugaku-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101.  Fax: +81-3-3292-2929. 



TWICS BeeLINE

-------------

English-language Japanese online service with PARTIcipate, Caucus and 

Usenet netnews. Half the users are Japanese. 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 

postmaster@twics.co.jp, or send mail to TWICS/IEC, 1-21 Yotsuya, Shinjuku-

ku, Tokyo 160, JAPAN. 



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 PARTIcipate software. NUA 

address: 031105130023000. Password: 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 association of systems 

all communicating with the UUCP protocol. 



UNIX computers can participate 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 

Japan.  There are many gateway machines that exchange mail between UUCP and 

the Internet. Among these, UUNET.UU.NET is among the most frequently used 

(Email: info@uunet.uu.net). 

 

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. The European portion of Usenet is called EUNET (European Unix NET). 



This grassroots 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. 



Many bulletin board systems import newsgroups, and make them available to 

their users. It is therefore estimated that Usenet reaches 6 million people 

worldwide (1993). 



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 

classifications 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 

classifications: 



"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 classified 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 sex, 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

        info@clarinet.com).



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 . 



A News Mail Server allows users to post to Usenet news via email. Send your 

mail to [newsgroup]@cs.utexas.edu . Replace [newsgroup] with the name of 

the newsgroup, as in mail comp-sys-misc@cs.utexas.edu . 



Mail oracle@cs.indiana.edu  with 'help' in your subject for information 

about how to make The Usenet Oracle answer *all* your questions. [Mind you, 

this is a cooperative effort for creative humor!] 



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 200 hosted conferences, public and private, about 8,000 

members (January 1994), 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). Email: info@well.sf.ca.us



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 rarely a 

problem. 



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 space 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. 



An internal modem blocks one of your serial ports. 



External modems

---------------

The options are many. The modems differ on speed, features, prices - and 

whether they are approved for usage in your country. 



Some of them are connected to the phone line by cable. Others are connected 

to the handset (to the talk and listen part) by two rubber cups. We call 

such modems acoustic modems (or acoustic couplers). 



Acoustic modems are useful where connecting other modems to the telephone 

is difficult. The bad news is that you'll get more noise on the line. 

Acoustic modems can therefore not be recommended for use in other cases. 



Asynchronous or synchronous modems?

-----------------------------------

Formerly, data communication was done by sending job commands to a 

mainframe computer, and having the result returned in one batch. The modems 

were called synchronous. Such modems (and computers) are still in use in 

some large corporations. 



Most of today's online services are based on an interactive dialog between 

the user and the remote computer. The user enters a command, for example a 

letter or a number in a menu, and the result is returned almost 

immediately. The modems used for such work are called asynchronous (See 

"Explanation of some words and terms" in appendix 4). 



Unless you know that you must have a synchronous modem, buy an asynchronous 

one. 



Choice of speed

---------------

Speed is measured in many ways. One method is to use baud. Another is to 

use characters per second (cps) or bits per second (bps). 



Bps is a measure of how many data bits that can be transferred over a data 

channel in one second. (Each byte is split up into bits before transfer 

during serial communication.) 



The relationship between baud and bits per second is complex, and often 

misused. Bits per second is unambiguous. In this book, we will use it as 

bps. 



We can estimate the number of characters per second by dividing the number 

of bps by ten. For example. 1200 bps is roughly 120 cps. 



In 1987, 300, 1200 and 2400 bps asynchronous modems were the standard in 

many countries. Around 1990, the growth in 9600 bps modems and modem with 

faster speeds gained momentum. 



Modem user manuals often give transfer speed by referring to some 

international classification codes. Here are some ITU-TSS codes with 

explanation: 



V.21       0-300 bps        Still used by a small group. Cannot

           full duplex      communicate with the American Bell

                            103 standard. 



V.22       1200 bps         Partly compatible with the American

           full duplex      Bell 212a standard. Sometimes it 

                            works, sometimes it fails.



V.22bis    2400 bps         Used all over the world. Very

           full duplex      common.



V.23       600 &  1200      Rare protocol. Used mainly in Europe. 

           bps w/75         Half duplex.

           bps return ch.   



V.26ter    2400 bps         Used mainly in France

           full duplex



V.27ter    2400/4800 bps    Used in Group III fax

           half duplex



V.29       4800, 7200 and   Used in gr. III fax and in some (Ame-

           9600 bps         rican) modems. Do not buy V.29 if you

           half duplex      want a 9600 bps modem. 



V.32       4800/9600 bps    Current standard for 9600 bps modems

           full duplex      



V.32bis    4800/7200/9600,  Full duplex with faster interrogation.

           12000/14400 bps

           

V.Fast                      Proprietary protocols supporting speeds  

also known as               to 28,800 bps for uncompressed data

V.32terbo  28800 bps        transmission rates over regular dial-

V.FC                        up, voice-grade lines. Using V.42bis

                            data compression, up to 86,400 bps

                            may be achievable. Some claim throughput

                            of over 100 kbps with compression.

                            Incompatibility between brands.



V.34       28800 bps        The proposed standard high speed protocol 

                            (ITU-TSS). 



V.34bis    32 Kbit/sec      Possible future standard.



V.42                        Error correction protocol (an appendix

                            yields compatibility w/MNP gr. 2,3 and  

                            4 (see MNP below). For V.22, V.22bis,

                            V.26ter and V.32.



V.42bis                     Data compression for V.42 modems. 

                            Meant to replace MNP and LAP. Text can

                            be transferred three times faster than

                            with MNP, i.e., in up to 38400 bps

                            using a 9600 bps modem. Very common.



When you consider buying a modem with higher speed, remember that going 

from 1200 bps to 2400 is a 50 percent increase, while going from 1200 to 

9600 bps gives 800 percent! 



On the other hand, if you currently have 9600 bits/s, going to 14.400 will 

only give you 50 percent. 



MNP error correction and compression

------------------------------------

The Microcom Networking Protocol (MNP) is a U.S. industry standard for 

modem-to-modem communication with automatic error correction and 

compression. 



Automatic error correction is useful when there is noise on the telephone 

line. MNP splits the stream of data up into blocks before transmission. 

They are checked by the other modem upon receipt. If the contents are 

correct, an acknowledge message is sent back to the sending modem. If there 

has been an error in the transmission, the sending modem is asked to 

retransmit. 



When using compression, files are being preprocessed before transmission to 

decrease their size. The result is that the modem has to send fewer bytes, 

and the effect is higher speed. 



MNP Level 3 and up send data between two modems synchronously rather than 

asynchronously. Since sending a start and stop bit with each transferred 

byte is no longer required, the effect is higher speed. 



MNP-4 or higher have automatic adjustment of block length when there is 

noise on the line. If the line is good, longer blocks are sent. The block 

size is decreased if the line is bad causing many retransmissions. 



MNP-5 has data compression. This gives a further increase in transfer speed 

by from 10 to 80 percent depending on the type of data sent. MNP-7 is 

capable of a three-to-one compression ratio. 



Both users must have their modems set for MNP to use it. 



The speed of the computer's COMM port

-------------------------------------

Installing a super fast modem does not guarantee an increase in the 

effective transfer speed. The serial port of your computer may be a 

limiting factor. 



Owners of older MS-DOS computers often have UARTs (serial port processors) 

in the Intel 8250 or National 16450 series. With these in the computer, it 

is difficult to achieve speeds above 9600 bps without losing data. 



Take this into account when investing in a modem. 



MNP and efficiency

------------------

I call my bulletin board daily. My personal computer is set to communicate 

with a V.32 modem at 19,000 bps. The modem sends data to the telephone line 

at 9600 bps, which is this modem's maximum line speed. 



Data is received by the remote computer's V.32 modem at 9600 bps, and 

forwarded to bulletin board at 19200 bps. 



Why these differences in speed? 



MNP level 5 compresses data in the modem before transfer, and gives error-

free transfer to and from the bulletin board at higher speed than by using 

9600 bps all the way through. 



The compression effectiveness differs by the type of data. When sending 

text, the effective transfer speed may double. Speed will increase further 

if the text contains long sequences of similar characters. 



Text is typically compressed by up to 63 percent. This means that a 2400 

bps modem using MNP-5 may obtain an effective speed of around the double 

when transferring such data. 



File transfers using MNP

------------------------

Files are often compressed and stored in libraries before transfer. Online 

services do this because compressed files take less space on their hard 

disks. Also, it is easier for users to keep track of files sent in a 

library file. 



You rarely get speed advantages when transferring precompressed files using 

MNP or V.42bis. With some modems, you must turn MNP and V.42bis compression 

off before retrieval of compressed files. 



Dumb or intelligent modem?

--------------------------

Some modems are operated with switches or buttons on a panel. They do not 

react to commands from your computer. We call them dumb. 



You must dial numbers manually, and press a key on the modem, when you hear 

the tone from a remote modem. Only when the modem is connected to the 

remote modem, can you ask your communications program to take over. 



We call those modems 'intelligent' that can react to commands from your 

computer. Most of them react to commands according to the Hayes standard. 



Buy intelligent, Hayes-compatible modems - even when other standards may 

seem better. Most of today's communication programs are designed to be used 

by such modems. 



    Note: Buy modems that use the Hayes extended command set.



When a popular communications program, like Crosstalk, tells the modem to 

"dial a number" or "go on hook," then the Hayes-compatible modem will do 

just that. 



When you press ALT-H in Procomm, the modem will disconnect from the remote 

modem. 



If you press ALT-D followed by the number "2," the program will locate the 

number to an online service in your telephone directory, and dial that 

number. 



When the connection with the remote modem has been established, your modem 

will report back to you with a message like CONNECT 2400. This tells that a 

connection has been set up at 2400 bps. 



If I select "k" from a menu provided by my communications program's command 

scripts, then my system will retrieve today's business news from Tokyo and 

put them up on my screen. 



In the process, my system tells the modem to do several things, including 

"call a number," "speed 2400 bps," "redial if busy," "go on-hook when 

done." The only thing that I have to do, is press "k". The communications 

program and the modem will do the rest. 



Automatic communication is impossible without an intelligent modem. 



The Hayes standard

------------------

The U.S. company Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. pioneered command-

driven modems. Their Smartmodem became a success, and "Hayes compatibility" 

a standard for intelligent modems. 



Today, it is as unimportant to buy a Hayes modem to get access to Hayes 

commands, as to buy an IBM PC to run PC software. 



Automatic dialing (autodial) was one of Smartmodem's important features. 

The modem could call a number and prepare for data communication, once a 

connection had been set up. If the line was busy, it could wait a while and 

then redial. The operator could work with other things while waiting for 

the equipment to be ready for communication. 



The modem had automatic answer (autoanswer), i.e., when someone called in, 

the modem could take the phone off hook and set up a connection with a 

remote modem. The modem enabled a connected PC to act as an electronic 

answering machine. 



Hayes-compatible modems can report call progress to the local screen using 

short numeric codes or words like CONNECT, CONNECT 1200, CONNECT 2400, NO 

CARRIER, NO DIALTONE, BUSY, NO ANSWER, RING etc. 



There can be small differences between such modems. The message DIALTONE on 

one modem may be DIAL TONE on another. Most of the main progress messages, 

however, are the same across brands. 



The old Smartmodem had switches used to configure the modem. Most modern 

Hayes-compatible modems come without switches and have more commands than 

their ancestor. 



Today's Hayes-compatible modems have a core of common commands, the "real" 

Hayes-commands, and several unstandardized additional commands. Here is an 

example: 



A standard on the move

----------------------

On the Quattro SB2422 modem, 2400 bps speed without automatic speed 

detection is set by the command "AT&I1." The equivalent command on 

Semafor's UniMod 4161 is "AT+C0". 



Automatic detection of speed is a feature that lets the modem discover the 

speed of the remote modem to set its own speed at the same level. (Other 

modems may use different commands to set this.) 



When I want Procomm to call a bulletin board, it first sends a sequence of 

Hayes commands to the Semafor modem. The purpose is to "configure" the 

modem before calling. It sends the following: 



      AT S0=0 +C0 S7=40 S9=4 &D2



The cryptic codes have the following meaning:



   AT              "Attention modem. Commands following.."

   S0=0            No automatic answer 

   +C0             No automatic speed detection (fixed speed) 

   S7=40           Wait 40 seconds for an answer tone from the

                   remote modem. 

   S9=4            Wait 4/10 seconds for detection of carrier

   &D2             Go on-hook if the DTR signal is being changed.



If this command is sent to the Quattro modem, it will reply with "ERROR". 

The code "+C0" must be replaced with an "&I1". The rest of the commands are 

the same. (Note: when a modem responds with "ERROR," it has usually 

rejected all commands sent to it!) 



This setup is held in the modem's memory when Procomm sends its dialing 

command: ATDT4737031378. AT stands for ATtention, as above. DT stands for 

Dial Tone. Here, it is used to dial the number 4737031378 using tone 

signaling (rather than pulse dialing). 



The modem cable

---------------

If you have an external modem, you must connect your computer to the modem 

with a cable. Some modems are sold without a cable. 



This cable may be called a serial cable, a modem cable, a RS232C cable, or 

something else. Make sure that you buy the correct cable for your system. 



Make sure that the connectors at each end of the cable are correct. If a 

male connector (with pins) is required in one end and a female (with holes) 

in the other, do not buy a cable with two male connectors. 



Some connectors have 9 pins/holes, while others have 25 or 8-pin round 

plugs (Apple computers). Use a shielded cable to ensure minimal 

interference with radio and television reception. 



At this point, some discover that there is no place on the PC to attach the 

cable. Look for a serial port at the rear of your machine, labeled MODEM, 

COMMUNICATIONS, SERIAL, or with a phone symbol. 



If you find no suitable connector, you may have to install an asynchronous 

communication port in the box. 



Connecting your equipment to earth

----------------------------------

Secure your computer and modem against thunderstorms and other electrical 

problems. Securing the electric outlet in the wall is not enough. Problems 

can also enter through the telephone line. 



Thunderstorms have sent electrical pulses through the telephone line 

destroying four modems, three PC-fax cards, one mother board, and at least 

one asynchronous communication port. 



To prevent this from happening to you, disconnect electrical and telephone 

cables from your equipment during thunderstorms. 



The communications program

--------------------------

A powerful communications program is half the job. In my case it's the 

whole job. Most of my work is done automatically. 



The communications program will help you with the mechanical transportation 

of data in both directions. It lets you store incoming information for 

later use and reduces the risks of errors. 



Here are some items to consider when shopping communications program: 



    * Seriously consider buying automatic programs ('robots') for access to 

individual online services, even if that means having to use several 

programs for different applications. (Read chapter 16 for more details.) 



    * Menus and help texts are important for novices, and in environments 

with "less motivated personnel." Advanced users may find it boring. 



    * Ability to transfer data without errors. The program should have 

transfer protocols like XMODEM, Kermit, XMODEM/CRC, YMODEM and ZMODEM. The 

XMODEM protocol is the most commonly used. You need these protocols if you 

want to transfer compiled computer programs (e.g., .COM and .EXE files). 

They are also used when transferring compressed files, graphics and music 

files. 



    * Does it let you tailor it to your taste/needs? Some programs let you 

attach batches of commands to function keys and keystroke combinations. For 

example, by having your computer call your favorite online service by 

pressing the F1 key. 



    * Does it let you "scroll back" information having disappeared out of 

your screen? This may be useful when you want to respond while online to an 

electronic mail message. The sender's address and name, which you need to 

respond, have scrolled off the screen. If you cannot review the "lost" 

information, you may have to disconnect and call back later to send your 

mail. 



Connecting to the online service

--------------------------------

The first couple of times, most people think that it is very difficult. 

Soon it becomes a simple routine. 



On some computers, you just press a key, and that's it. On others, you have 

to call and press, and watch, while things are happening. Cheap is often a 

synonym for more work. 



If you have a dumb modem connected to your personal computer, these are the 

typical steps that you must take: 



    (1) Start your communications program and set it up, e.g., with

       2400 bps, 8 bits word length, 1 stop bit, no parity. (This

       is the most common setup.) Then set the program to "online."

    (2) Call the number (e.g., +47 370 31378)

    (3) When you hear the tone from the remote modem in the phone,

       press DATA to get the modems to connect to each other

       (i.e., to start to "handshake").

    (4) A front panel indicator may tell you when the connection

       has been set up. You can start transferring data.



With an MS-DOS computer, an automatic modem and a powerful program preset 

for the job, the steps may be as follows: 



    (1) Start the program and display the telephone directory.

       Select a service from the list by pressing a number.

    (2) The modem will call automatically to the service. When

       CONNECT has been established, your user identification and

       password are sent at the prompts for such information. When

       this is done, you are free to take control.



With an MS-DOS computer, TAPCIS, and an intelligent modem, you start by 

selecting forums and services to access on CompuServe. Enter 'o' to upload 

and download programs, or 'n' to have it fetch new message headers and 

messages. 



TAPCIS will dial the number, do the job, and tell you when it's done. 

Meanwhile, you can go out to look at the moon, or sing a song. 



Getting started with Procomm

----------------------------

Procomm is cheap and a popular communications program for MS-DOS computers. 

We will use it here, though there are many better and cheaper alternatives. 



The program is simple for novices, can automate the work for advanced users 

and be run on almost any MS-DOS computer. Here is some of the features: 



Press ALT-F10 for a pull-down window text listing features and commands. 

Press ALT+D to call a number, update the telephone directory, or select a 

script file for autologon to a service. 



Procomm can emulate (pretend to be) different terminal types, like IBM 3101 

and DEC VT-100/VT-52. Most services covered in this book may be well served 

with the setting ANSI.BBS. 



It let you use both dumb and intelligent Hayes-compatible modems. If you 

have the latter, select numbers from the telephone directory for autologon. 

If the number is busy, Procomm can call back until you can get through. 



You can define macros to automate your work. You can have one keystroke 

send your user identification, another for your password, and a third key 

to send a sequence of commands. Macros make your communication faster and 

safer. 



You can write script files to automate the online work further. You can 

transfer text files and binary files using automatic error 

detection/correction protocols, like XMODEM, YMODEM, Telink and Kermit, at 

speeds from 300 to 19200 bps. Adding external protocols like ZMODEM is 

relatively simple. 







Appendix 3:



Online with the world

=====================



- Practical data communication

- Your first trip online

- Typical pitfalls and simple solutions

- Receiving (downloading) letters, text and programs

- Sending (uploading) letters, text and programs



Practical data communication

----------------------------

The first thing novices want to know is how to set up the modem and 

computer for communication. This may take more time than expected and often 

seems complex for the uninitiated. You can save yourself much sweat and 

frustration by asking others for help. 



To set up your equipment for communication is a one time job. Once done, you 

can almost forget what you did and why. 



There are so many different modems, computers and programs out there. We 

just cannot give practical advice on the use of all of them in one short 

appendix. Instead, we will use one example. Your job is to "translate" the 

text into a terminology that fits your tools. 



Once your system is set up for communication, your first job will be to 

find what keys to press to get the job done. How you use your 

communications program may vary considerably from our example. In general, 

however, it will be the same for most people doing manual communication. 

Once online, the environment is the same for all users. 



If you plan to use automatic communications as explained in chapter 16, 

this chapter may not be that important. Your program will do the job for 

you. Still, take a few minutes and browse through the text. It may enable 

you to handle unexpected problems better. 



Our example assumes that you have an MS-DOS computer. Not because this is 

the best microcomputer in the world, but because there are more of them 

than anything else. We assume that you have an external, intelligent Hayes-

compatible modem and the communications program Procomm (version 2.4.2). 



In this example, your modem is tested by calling my bulletin board at +47 

370 31378. Not because this is the best board in the world, but because I 

have full control over how it looks and feels for those using it. 



Assembling the equipment

------------------------

You have the modem, the cable (to connect your modem with the computer), a 

phone cable (to connect your modem with the phone or the wall jack), and a 

communications program. 



Check that the modem's power switch is off. Place the modem by the 

computer, and plug the power supply cord (or the power adapter cord) into 

the AC wall socket. Switch on the modem. 



    Do NOT use 115-volt equipment in 250-volt sockets! 



Connect modem and computer using the modem cable. There may be several 

optional sockets on the computer. These are usually marked RS-232, COMMS, 

MODEM, or just nothing. The connector may be of a flat 25-pins, 9 pins, or 

a round 8-pins type. Use communication port number 1, 2, or whatever else 

is available for this purpose. 



If you have several options, and the socket for communication port number 1 

seems free, use this. If not, try one of the others. 



Next, connect the modem to the telephone line. If in luck, the modem came 

with a phone cable that works with your setup. If so, it is simple: 



    1. Disconnect the phone cable from the telephone. Insert the modular 

plug into the right jack on the modem. This jack is often marked with the 

word LINE, with a drawing of a modular wall jack, or another understandable 

icon. 



    2. You may be able to connect the phone to the modem using the phone 

cord that came with the modem. This may allow you to use the phone for 

voice, when the line is not busy with communication. (You may have to make 

changes in this cord to make it work with the connected phone.) 



This concludes the technical assembly of your equipment. Next step is to 

install the communications program. When this is done, we will check it 

out. 



Installing the program

----------------------

Let us assume that you have received Procomm on a diskette, and that it is 

set up with its default configuration. PROCOMM.EXE is the program. The 

other files have no importance here. 



Enter Procomm and press ENTER. Our first task is to prepare it for 

communication: 



If you are using a monochrome display, use the command 



    PROCOMM /B



The program will greet you by a welcome text. At the bottom of the screen, 

the message "CREATING SYSTEM FILES" may appear (if these have not been 

created yet), followed by a message from the creators of the program. 



Press ENTER when you have read the text. The screen will be blanked, and a 

text line will appear at the bottom. 



Now is the time to test if the technical installation has been successful. 



The dial tone

-------------

Lift the receiver from the phone and check if you can hear the dial tone. 

If you can, turn the pages to "Does the computer have contact with the 

modem?" 



If you hear nothing, there are several possible causes: 



    * The phone is not working. This is easily checked. Disconnect it from 

the modem, and connect it to the wall (using the original cable!). If you 

get a dial tone now, then the phone is in order. 



    * The cable between the modem and the wall jack may be broken, or 

wrongly configured. To check this, we must first check the connection 

between the modem and the computer. 



Once we know that the connection between the modem and the computer is in 

order, we can use the modem to check our phone cable. 



    * The cable between the modem and the phone may be in disorder. For 

example, the modular phone connector may have a cabling that differs from 

what is assumed in your country. If there is no dial tone, then the cable 

between the modem and the telephone must be repaired, or replaced. 



Does your computer have contact with the modem?

-----------------------------------------------

When you first use Procomm, it is preset for communication at 300 bps, use 

of port 1 and ANSI-BBS. (The control line at the bottom of your screen 

should read: ALT-F10 HELP, ANSI-BBS, HDX, 300 N81, LOG CLOSED, PRT OFF, CR 

and CR.) 



    * If your modem is unable to communicate at 300 bps, you must change the 

setup. Press ALT-P (keep the ALT key down while pressing P) to get the menu 

LINE SETTINGS. Choice 9 gives 2400 bps with 8 bits word length, no parity 

and one stop bit. This is a common setting. Select 24 "Save changes" to 

make the setting permanent. 



    * If you know that your modem is not connected to the computer's port 

number 1, then change this from the same menu. Choice 21 gives COM2, and 

choice 22 gives COM3. 



If you don't know what communication port the modem has been connected to, 

you have to find out by testing. Do this by entering (i.e., sending to the 

modem) the characters AT. Now, the modem is supposed to respond with an OK 

(or with the number "0," if the modem is set to reply with numeric codes). 



If you get an "OK" or a "0" on your display, continue reading from "Does 

the modem have contact with the phone line?" 



If you can see "AT" on your screen while you enter it, you have contact 

with the modem. This is true even if it does not send any confirmation. The 

modem may have been instructed not to confirm. If you see the AT 

characters, read from "Does the modem have contact with the phone line?" 



If there is no contact between the modem and the computer, the screen will 

remain blank at all times. Your problem may be the cable, your choice of 

modem port, or the modem setup. 



First, check if the modem is switched on (the power switch), and that the 

plugs are firmly in the jacks. 



Then let's check the modem. It may have been set not to respond to your 

commands. Let's try to change that. Enter the following command, and press 

ENTER: 



    ATQ0E1V1



This should make your modem: give result codes on your screen (Q0), show 

the characters that you enter (E1), and use OK instead of the numerical 

result code 0 (V1). 



If you still get no OK, the reason may still be in the modem. I have seen 

modems get "indigestion problems" when too many commands are given to them. 



Try give a command to return it to its factory setting. This command is not 

the same on all Hayes-compatible modems. On most of them, you can use one 

of the following: AT&F, ATF or ATZ (on some modems ATZ is used to reset to 

the stored configuration). Locate the correct command to use in the modem's 

user manual. Then, try ATQ0E1V1 again. 



If you are still without success, check your choice of modem port. If there 

are several communication connectors at the back of your computer, test 

these. If this doesn't help, connect the modem cable to the most probable 

jack. 



Now, test the communication port for a response from the modem using 

another communications program setting. Press ALT-P, select another port 

(choice 20 - 23), press ESC and try "AT" again (or ATQ0E1V1). If there is 

still no reaction, test the computer's other communications connectors. 





    If you have a mouse connected to your computers, make sure 

    that it is not using the same port as your communications

    program.



    Problems with the communications port are often caused by other 

    equipment. Remove all extra equipment (like a PC-fax card or a 

    mouse), and all associated software (often represented by a 

    line starting with "DRIVER=" in CONFIG.SYS, or a resident 

    program driving a mouse). Remove all resident programs from 

    memory before testing. 



If you are still at the same unfortunate stage, chances are that the 

problem is either in the cable or the modem. If you know others who are 

into data communication, visit them for help. Bring your cable and your 

modem to have them tested in an environment where things work. It is easier 

to isolate a problem by testing your units in sequence on your helper's 

system. 



First, the cable. Connect it between his computer and his modem. Test the 

connection to his modem with your cable as the only foreign element. If the 

test is successful, your cable is OK. 



Next, the modem. If the test is successful, your modem is in order. The 

most probable cause of your problems is your computer's communications 

port. 



    In communications, many parts have to work together. You may 

    have problems with more than one of them at the same time. The 

    rule is to test step by step to eliminate possible problems. 



If you get no reply from your modem, when it is connected to your friend's 

computer, chances are that it needs to be repaired. Call the seller for 

help. 



A last refuge is to buy an extra communications card for your computer . . 

 



Does your modem have contact with the phone line?

-------------------------------------------------

You have contact between your computer and modem. The modem answers "OK" as 

assumed. We now have to test if there is contact with the phone line. That 

is easy. 



Enter the following command and press ENTER: 



    ATQ0E1V1



When the modem answers OK, enter the dialing command: 



    ATDT37031378



The modem will try to call 37031378, the number to my BBS. (You may have to 

prefix the number with an international code, and the country code for 

Norway. If international calls require the prefix 009, enter ATDT009-47-

37031378). 



Your modem will wait for CONNECT a preset number of seconds (rarely longer 

than 60 seconds). 



If your modem does not detect the dial tone (within the preset waiting 

time), it will give you the following error message 



    NO DIALTONE



All other messages (except ERROR) declare that the modem did detect the 

dial tone. If it did, continue reading from "Configuring your program." 



NO DIALTONE

-----------

The most probable causes of NO DIALTONE are that your phone cable is not 

connected, that it has been damaged, or that it is the wrong cable for the 

job. 



The latter cause is common in many countries. For example, a cable made for 

a telephone network in the United States, may not work in Norway. A cable 

made for connection to a switchboard, may not work when connected to a 

domestic phone line. 



A standard, domestic American phone cable contains four lines. Two of these 

(line number 1 and 4) carry sounds. The others are not being used. A 

standard Norwegian domestic cable is set up in the same way, but here line 

number 1 and 3 carry sound. 



Changing the configuration of such cables is often simple. Just cut the 

cable in two, and put the lines together correctly. This is typically 

required when your modem assumes that you use it in North America, while 

you are in a country with different cabling. 



Configuring your program

------------------------

The modem answers. The dial tone is being detected. Procomm is installed on 

your hard disk. Now, check if the program has been correctly configured. 



Press ALT-S to get the Setup Menu. Select 1, Modem setup, from this menu. 



Choice 1, Modem init string, is a general setup command. This command will 

be sent to the modem each time you start Procomm. You are free to make is 

as long and powerful as you want. Our purpose now, however, is to check if 

it works. 



    Most modems do not react if one element in your setup command 

    is wrong. They respond with ERROR (or the numeric code), and 

    disregard the rest. 



Procomm's standard Modem init string has the following commands: 



    ATE0 S7=60 S11=55 V1 X1 S0=0!



These work well with most modems, provided the speed is legal. 



Go back to the blank screen (using ESC). Test the init command by entering 

it manually. (Do not enter the "!" character. This is Procomm's code for 

ENTER.) 



If the modem reacts with ERROR, check with the modem manual to find out 

what is wrong. (Check if the values S7=60 and S11=55 are not too high.) 



If you have to change the init command, go back to the Modem init string 

menu choice. Enter the correct commands. Remember to add the "!" at the 

end. 



Press ESC to get to the main configuration menu and select 2, TERMINAL 

SETUP.  Check if Terminal emulation is ANSI-BBS. Change choice 2, Duplex, 

to FULL. The other factory settings are NONE, CR, CR, DEST, BS, OFF, ON, 

350, OFF. 



Return to the SETUP MENU (press ESC). Press "s" to save the setup to disk. 

Your setting has now been stored, and Procomm is ready to be used. 



Dialing

-------

Now, test your setup by calling your favorite online service. We will show 

how to log on to my bulletin board. 



You can call manually by entering ATDT followed by the phone number. The 

most practical method, however, is to use the built-in phone directory. 



Press ALT-D to get to the phone directory. Press "R" to revise the list, 

and enter Saltrod Horror Show somewhere on the list. I have it as number 2. 

Answer the questions like this: 





    Name: Saltrod Horror Show

    Number: 009-47-370-31378

    Baud: 9600

    Parity: N

    Databits: 8

    Stop Bits: 1

    Echo On? N

    Command file: (press ENTER, meaning that you don't want to

                   use a script file at this point)



Baud can be anything from 300 bps to 9600 bps. It's up to you, and depends 

on your modem's capabilities. 



When done, enter "2" and press ENTER. The modem will dial the number (that 

you have as item 2 on the list), and try to connect. 



If the number is busy, you will get a warning. You can now leave Procomm 

(ALT+X), or set it for redialing (ALT+R). When set for redialing, Procomm 

will call back until a connection has been made. When CONNECT is received 

from your modem, Procomm announces the fact with a beep in the computer's 

loudspeaker. 



Text will start scrolling over your screen. First, a short welcome text 

pops up. Your interactive dialog with the bulletin board can start. 



The first question is "What is your First Name?" Enter your first name. 

Then, "What is your Last Name?"  Enter your last name. 



Your dialog with the remote computer will continue like this. The board 

will ask you questions, and you will enter your answers. 



What may go wrong?

------------------

A setting that works beautifully when calling one bulletin board, may be a 

disaster when calling another service. Here are some typical problems: 



When dialing through a switchboard (PBX).

-----------------------------------------

Remember to add 9 or 0 for a city line, when dialing out from a PBX. If you 

forget, you'll get nowhere. 



Use the following command (assuming that you must enter 0 to get a city 

line, and use tone signaling): 



    ATDT0W4737031378



If you must use 9 for a city line and pulse dialing, use the following 

command 



    ATDP9W4737031378



Register your standard dialing command in Procomm's MODEM SETUP. Enter 

ALT+S and then select 1, Modem Setup. Choice 2, Dialing command. The 

default entry is ATDT. Replace this with ATDT0W, ATDP9W or whatever makes 

dialing work for you. 



No answer from the remote computer

----------------------------------

Your computer has to "talk the same language" as the remote host. If the 

parameters of your communications program have been set incorrectly, it may 

be impossible to set up a connection with the service. 



Sometimes, you get CONNECT, but your screen only gives you strange, 

unintelligible 'noise' characters. The reason may be CONNECT at an 

incompatible speed, a service's use of special codes for displaying text 

(including special language characters), or that the service requires use 

of a special communications program or method (as when a service starts by 

interrogating for the use of an offline reader). 



Many online services require that you use certain settings. Most services, 

however, may be reached when using the following: 



    Speed: 2400 bps

    8 bits word length, no parity, one stop bit



Some services (notably some Unix hosts) demand 7 bits, even parity, one 

stop bit. 



Sorry, no luck!

---------------

Try again, just in case. The remote computer may have had a temporary 

problem, when you called. The PTT may have given you a particularly noisy 

telephone line on this attempt. 



If this doesn't help, recheck each point in the communications process. It 

is so easy to do something wrong. 



If nothing helps, read the service's user information manuals. Only rarely 

will you be able to blame the communications program (unless you have made 

it yourself), or the equipment. Most errors are caused by finger trouble 

and misunderstandings. 



Testing the Saltrod Horror Show

-------------------------------

First time visitors often experience problems, and in particular if this is 

their first time online using a Hayes-compatible modem. 



Here are some typical problems with suggested solutions: 



    * Disable Guard Tones from the modem when dialing. If it has this 

feature, you can often turn it off. Put the required command in your Modem 

init string. 



    * Don't press ENTER to "wake" my system. The software will 

automatically detect your speed and adjust accordingly. The same applies 

for many services. On some, you're just asking for problems by not waiting 

patiently (often the case when the remote software starts by checking if 

you use an offline reader). 



    * My BBS accepts from 300 to 9600 bps asynchronous, full duplex 

communication. You may not succeed with 1200 bps half duplex, Bell 300 bps 

or 1200 bps. 



    * Start with your communications program set for 8 bits word length, no 

parity and one stop bit. Try 7 bits, even parity if there is too much noise 

on the line (you cannot retrieve programs using this setting, though). 



    * When your modem is set at a low transfer speed, it may not wait long 

enough for carrier from my modem. Most modems let you set this waiting time 

longer by giving a value to a S-register. (Read in your modem's manual 

about how to do this). 



Partial success

---------------

Some bulletin boards offer colors and music. If your equipment is set up 

correctly, you can receive the welcome text in full color graphics 

accompanied by a melody in your computer's speaker. 



If it is not, chances are that you will get many strange codes on your 

screen, and an ugly feeling that something is wrong. 



There are two ways out of this problem: 



    1. Ask the bulletin board to send text only (select U for Utilities, 

and then G for Graphics to change setting), 



    2. Set your computer for colors and graphics. This feature is only 

available for callers with an MS-DOS computers. You may need to add the 

line DEVICE=ANSI.SYS in your CONFIG.SYS. 



Finally, you must have a communications program that allows you to display 

colors on your screen. Procomm set with ANSI-BBS does that. 



Downloading programs

--------------------

We call the transfer of programs and files from a remote computer for 

downloading. It means "transfer of data to your computer AND storage of the 

data (down) on YOUR local disk." 



You are downloading, when you call my board to retrieve a program. 



When you, overwhelmed by gratitude, send one of your favorite programs TO 

my bulletin board, then we call it uploading. 



Data can be many things. It may be news from the Washington Post, a digital 

picture, an executable program, a pile of invoices, a piece of music, a 

voice file, an animated sequence of pictures and music, or compressed 

library files. 



Downloading "plain text" (also called "plain ASCII" or "DOS text" on MS-DOS 

machines) is relatively easy. Such text usually only contains characters 

between number 32 (space character) and 126 (the ~ character) in the ASCII 

table. 



Characters with lower numbers have special functions (like the control 

characters ESCape and CTRL+C). These may not even be displayed on your 

screen. Characters with higher numbers are used for graphics, special 

national characters, and other applications. 



Special transfer methods are often required, when your data contains text 

with characters outside ASCII number 32 through 126. Read under "Protocol 

transfers" below for more information about how to do this. 



Downloading text

----------------

Most communication programs require that you begin by opening a file. They 

ask you to enter a file name. From this point and onwards all incoming text 

will be stored in this file until you say stop. 



Communication programs do this in different ways. Some let incoming data 

flow through a temporary storage area using the principle first in, first 

out. When you open a file, it starts storing data from the beginning of the 

temporary storage area, though this text may have scrolled off your screen 

some time ago. 



Most communication programs start storing data from NOW. Procomm works this 

way. You start downloading of text by pressing the PgDn key. A window will 

appear on your screen giving you a choice between various methods. Select 

ASCII. 



In another window, you are asked to enter a file name. When done, storage 

of incoming data starts. You stop the process by pressing the ESC key. 



Procomm has another method called "file logging." You start this by 

pressing ALT-F1. Procomm requests the file name, and the storage process 

starts. (Read under "Strip" about the difference between these methods.) 



    If you forget to tell Procomm to store incoming data, then 

    you will most probably lose this data for ever.



    Do not waste time and money by forgetting to store what you

    receive!



The term "append"

-----------------

When downloading text - or anything - it is important to know whether you 

are appending information to an existing file, or overwriting it (i.e., 

destroying the old text). 



Most communication programs complain with an audible signal, when you try 

to overwrite an existing file. They will ask you if you really want to 

delete it, or append the current data. 



The term "strip"

----------------

The purpose of 'strip' is to remove something from incoming data or to 

change it on the fly. 



When you use ASCII downloading with Procomm, ALL incoming data are being 

stored. This includes so-called ESCape sequences. If you use File Logging, 

all control characters (except the line feed and new page characters) are 

being removed (filtered). 



If you download text from a computer that uses other ASCII characters for 

linefeed and return, save time by having the communications program convert 

them on the fly to their correct form for your computer. 



You define strip procedures through Procomm's SetUp menu (ALT-S). You can 

also request automatic conversion of characters to graphics values, or 

local language variants. 



National characters

-------------------

Special national characters cause problems in many countries. One reason is 

that they are represented by different internal codes on various hardware 

platforms, and that some networks are unable to transmit 8-bits data. 



Some systems represent these special characters by a 7-bit code, others by 

an 8-bit code. Some depend on the computer having an internal national 

language ROM, or that it uses a special (resident) conversion program. 



What gives good results on an MS-DOS computer, may give rubbish on a 

Macintosh, Amiga, Atari, or a PC using MS Windows. 



Many communication programs have features that can help you solve at least 

some these problems. They let you make translation tables for automatic 

conversion of special incoming and outgoing characters. 



If you call a Scandinavian online service using 7 bits even parity, many 

transfer the national special characters using the ASCII code equivalents 

of number 91, 92, 93, 123, 124, and 125. Similar, more or less formal 

standards are in place in other countries. 



Protocol transfers

------------------

If your purpose is to transfer digitized pictures, a computer program, a 

batch of invoices, a piece of music or an animated sequence of pictures, 

it's important that each character (bit) arrives correctly. We achieve this 

by using protocol transfers. 



These files often contain control or binary characters. You cannot transfer 

binary files without the use of special methods. 



It is easy to understand why we need protocol transfers when retrieving 

plain text as tables of numbers, statistics, and financial reports. 

Transfer errors may have fatal consequences. 



Protocol transfers are also required when transferring word processor text 

files having imbedded control codes (like text made with WordPerfect), and 

compressed files. 



Here is an example: 



Downloading public domain software

----------------------------------

First, you need the names and features of the programs that can be 

downloaded from a service. On most bulletin boards, you must enter a 

command to navigate to the File Library. Here, they normally greet you with 

a menu listing available commands. 



    Try H (for Help!) or ? when you are stuck.



Public domain and shareware programs are stored in subdirectories on my 

bulletin board. The directories have numerical names. Utility programs for 

MS-DOS computers are stored in directory 10. Games are stored in directory 

17. 



Enter L for a list of available directories (other bulletin boards may use 

different commands). Enter "L 17" to list the files in directory 17. This 

will give file names, lengths in characters (to help you estimate download 

time), creation dates, and a short description of each file. 



You can search for files of interest. When looking for programs that can 

help you get more out of a printer, you may search using keywords like 

"printer." 



Some programs are made available in text form. This is the case with older 

BASIC programs. (The file name extensions .BAS, .ASC or .TXT suggest that 

the files contain plain text.)  You can download these files using ASCII. 



Most programs are stored in their executable form, or as one executable 

file among several in a compressed transfer file (a library of files). On 

my board, most of these files have the file name extension .EXE or .COM. 



What transfer protocol to use, depends on what is available in your 

communications program. 



The protocol transfer method explained

--------------------------------------

The protocol transfer algorithms use methods to check the transfer with 

automatic error correction. In principle, they work like this: 



The sending program calculates a check sum based on the contents of the 

file. The receiving program does the same calculation and compares the 

result with the senders' check sum. If the figures match, the transfer was 

successful. If not, all or part of the file will be retransmitted. 



These are some popular protocols: 



XMODEM

------

has automatic error detection and correction. Most modern programs have 

this feature. XMODEM exists in programs for MS-DOS computers, CP/M 

computers, Apple, TRS-80 Model 100, etc. It is the most commonly used 

transfer protocol. 



XMODEM assumes 8-bit settings in your communications program. The file to 

be sent is split up into 128 bit sized blocks (or "packets") before 

transfer. The sender calculates the check sum and adds a check sum bit at 

the end of each packet. (Packing, sending and checking is done 

automatically by the software.) 



The receiving program calculates its own check sum and compares with the 

sender's. If an error is detected, XMODEM will request retransmission of 

the last block. 



XMODEM is reasonably good when there is little noise on the telephone line 

is low. When the line is bad, however, there is always a chance that the 

transfer will stop. You cannot use XMODEM on computer networks that use 

ASCII flow control or ESCape codes. 



The transfer commands must be given to both computers. You can only 

transfer one file per command. 



XMODEM's "packet size" (block length) is short. This has an impact on 

transfer speed, and especially when downloading from timesharing systems, 

packet switched networks, via satellites, and when using buffered (error 

correcting) modems. 



The control method (8-bit check sum) and unprotected transactions give a 

low level of safety against errors in the transmission. The transferred 

file may contain 127 bytes with noise characters (at the end). The creation 

date of the file is lost in the transfer. 



These weaknesses have given us better methods. Here are some of them: 



XMODEM/CRC

----------

CRC is an abbreviation for Cyclical Redundancy Check. The method guarantees 

99.9969 percent free transfer. It still has the other weaknesses of 

ordinary XMODEM transfers. 



YMODEM Batch

------------

is faster than XMODEM and gives a high level of safety in the transfers. 

When used with some programs, YMODEM can transfer the files' creation 

time/date. You can transfer updated documents. This will replace documents 

with an older creation date. Only one party must enter the file name. 

YMODEM takes care of the rest. 



Kermit

------

is used on many computer platforms, and especially where they use a 

terminal emulation mode (like VT-100) which makes the use of XMODEM 

impossible. Kermit is one of the few asynchronous error correction 

protocols that functions well when exchanging files having half duplex IBM 

front-end machines. 



Kermit can transfer more than one file at the time. 



Super-Kermit

------------

is also called Kermit with Sliding Windows. It can transfer many packets 

before stopping to check the transfer. The protocol is much faster than 

XMODEM. 



ZMODEM

------

is currently the fastest transfer protocol for many applications. All 

transactions are protected with a 16-bit or 32-bit CRC. ZMODEM is immune 

against most error conditions that prevent traditional protocols to achieve 

correct transfer. 



ZMODEM transfers the creation date of the file and its exact contents. The 

file name is read once, and all transfer commands may be given by the 

sending program. 



Decompression of files

----------------------

If a file has name extensions like ZIP, LZH, ARC, PAK, LQR, LBR, ZOO, ARJ, 

or QQQ, you are facing a compressed file. We use such files to achieve 

faster transfers. 



Files having the extension .EXE or .COM may be compressed files that have 

been converted into a self-extract format. To retrieve the files from a 

self-extract compressed file, just enter the file's name. 



To decompress files that have not been made self-extract, you need a 

utility program. These programs have many names and are available through 

most bulletin boards, and widely through the Internet. Most, if not all, 

decompression files may be found by anonymous ftp to ftp.cso.uiuc.edu . 

Check out the directories pc and exec-pc . The ftp site Oak.Oakland.Edu 

also have many. 



Transfer problems

-----------------

Most transfer problems are caused by the communication programs and their 

(lack of) features. 



Some Procomm users have problems with the Kermit protocol. Tip: use 8 bit 

world length and no parity in your program setup. 7 bits and even parity 

does not always work (on version 2.4.2). 



Uploading

---------

The transfer of data "the other way," i.e., from your disk to a remote 

computer, requires that you start by making some decisions. Is the file to 

be sent as plain ASCII? Should I compress it in a distribution file to 

reduce transfer time, and make it easier to handle for the recipient? 



If you are transferring a text file containing special national characters, 

then these may have to be converted to another format. 



If your text contains blank lines (like blank lines between paragraphs), 

you may have to insert a space character at the start of all such lines. 

Some systems interpret a blank line as a signal telling that transmission 

is done. The invisible space character prevents this. 



Some hosts have limitations on line length. They may require that lines be 

shorter than 80 characters. If you send lines that are too long, the result 

may be fatal. 



Sending electronic mail

-----------------------

If you send your mail too fast, some online services tend to get digestion 

problems. You must be very accurate with the format of your message. It has 

to agree with the host machine's rules about line length, and maximum 

number of lines per message. 



Let's assume that you want to send the following message to an electronic 

mailbox: 



    To: Datatid

    cc: Anne-Tove Vestfossen

    Sj: Merry Christmas!

    Text: Thanks for the box with herring. The taste was 

    formidable. etc .. etc... etc...

    Greetings, Odd



If this is all you have to say, doing it manually may be as fast as doing 

it automatically. However, if the line containing "etc .. etc .." is two 

full pages of text, you may feel differently. Then, the best may be to 

upload a prewritten letter. 



Many Procomm users prefer to split the job in two. They enter the first 

four lines manually, and upload the body of the text (when the remote 

computer is ready to receive). 



Press PgUp to get a menu of various uploading protocols. Select ASCII for 

transfer of plain text. Procomm will ask for the name of the file, which 

contains your letter. Enter the name, and the file will be sent. 



Slow down with "pacing"

-----------------------

Sometimes, the PgUp method is just what you need. On other days, strange 

things may stop you in the middle of your transfer. One typical reason is 

that Procomm is sending it too fast for the recipient. 



"Pacing" is a method used to slow the speed of the transfer to a level that 

the recipient can handle. 



Procomm lets you set a tiny pause after each line sent. Another technique 

is to ask the program to wait for a given character (a "Go-character"), 

before allowing it to send the next line. For example: the character ":" is 

often used in the prompts for the next line on bulletin boards. 



Protocol transfers may be easier

--------------------------------

You may find it easier to use a transfer protocol. With Procomm, press the 

PgUp key, and the program will ask for a protocol. Select Kermit or 

something else. The program will ask for a file name, you enter it, and off 

it goes. You will have no problems with blank lines, or lines that are too 

long. 



At times, even this will fail. The most common reasons are: 



    * The recipient requires that Procomm be set for 8-bits word length, no 

parity, 1 stop bit, when using this protocol, but you have it set 

differently. 



    * You think that the recipient's version of YMODEM is the same that you 

have. Wrong! Total failure. 



Do the following to upload the file TEST.TXT to my bulletin board using 

XMODEM: 



    1. Navigate to the file area. Tell SHS what you want by using 

       the following command:

              u;test.txt;x

    2. Press PgUp, select XMODEM, enter a file name (TEST.TXT), and 

       the transfer will start. (If you're too slow, SHS may be

       tired of waiting for your commands . . .)

    3. When the transfer is completed, my board will ask for a 

       short description of the file. Enter it, and you're done. 



Enter G (for Goodbye), and disconnect.







Appendix 4:



Explanation of some frequently used terms

=========================================



We have included some terms that are commonly used in the online world. 



Acronym

-------

A worded formed from the initial letters of each of the successive parts or 

major parts of a compound term. Examples: BTW (by the way), FYI (for your 

information), IMHO (in my humble opinion).



Address

-------

The string of characters that you must give an electronic mail program to 

direct a message to a particular person. 



The term "Internet address" often refers to an assigned number, which 

identifies a host on this network. 



aftp

----

Abreviation for Anonymous FTP. See appendix 6. 



ANON-FTP

--------

See Anonymous FTP.



ANSI

----

(1) ANSI is an organization that sets standards. 



(2) 'ANSI graphics' (ref. the term ANSI-BBS) is a set of cursor control 

codes that originated on the VT100 terminal. Many online services use these 

codes to help improve the sending of characters to communication programs. 

It uses the escape character, followed by other characters, to move the 

cursor on the screen, change color, and more. 



ASCII

-----

The American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A standard seven-

bit code created to achieve compatibility between various types of data 

processing equipment.  ASCII, pronounced "ask-key," is the common code for 

microcomputer equipment. 



The Standard ASCII Character Set consists of 128 decimal numbers ranging 

from zero through 127 assigned to letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and 

the most common special characters. 



The Extended ASCII Character Set also consists of 128 decimal numbers and 

ranges from 128 through 255 representing additional special, mathematical, 

graphic, and foreign characters. 



ASCII download

--------------

Retrieval of plain ASCII text (without special codes). Normally, it takes 

place without automatic error correction, but it is typically managed by 

XON/XOFF flow control. 



Asynchronous transfer

---------------------

Serial communication between two computers. When signals are sent to a 

computer at irregular intervals, they are described as asynchronous. Data 

is sent at irregular intervals by preceding each character with a start bit 

and following it with a stop bit. 



Asynchronous transmission allows a character to be sent at random after the 

preceding character has been sent, without regard to any timing device.  

Consequently, in case of line noise, the modem can find out right away 

where the next byte should start. 



Autodial

--------

When a modem dials a telephone number automatically. Autodial may be 

started by the user entering the number manually, or the number may be sent 

automatically by the communications program (for example after having been 

selected from a phone register). 



Baud

----

A unit of measurement that shows the number of discrete signal elements, 

such as bits, that can be sent per second. 



Bits per second (bps) is the number of binary digits sent in one second.  

There is a difference between bps and baud rate, and the two are often 

confused.  For example, a device such as a modem said to send at 2400 baud 

is not correct. It actually sends 2400 bits per second. 



Both baud rate and bps refer to the rate at which the bits within a single 

frame are sent. The gaps between the frames can be of variable length.  

Accordingly, neither baud rate nor bps refer accurately to the rate at 

which information is actually being transferred. 



Backbone

--------

Internet's data flows on high-speed lines called backbone lines. 



BBS

---

Bulletin Board or Bulletin Board System. See Bulletin Board. 



Bell

----

Standard frequencies used in older modems made in the United States. The 

standard for 300 bps is called Bell 103. The standard for 1200 bps full 

duplex is called Bell 212A. Modems using these standards are normally 

unable to communicate with ITU-TSS standard modems at these speeds. 



Big5

----

Coding scheme developed in Taiwan for using Chinese on computers. There are 

different varieties of Big5 codes, the most common being ET Big5 (the code 

used by the Taiwanese program ETen, pronounced Yi3tian1) and HKU Big5 (the 

code used for programs developed at Hong Kong University). 



ET Big5 files must be read with the ETen operating system. Check out the 

Archie server at telnet archie.TWNIC.NET , login: archie ,to locate 

software and get more information. 



Binary

------

The base 2 number system in which only the digits 1 and 0 are used is 

called the binary system. The binary system lets us express any number, if 

we have enough bits, as a combination of 1's and 0's. Also used to express 

conditions like on/off, true/false, yes/no.  



Binhex

------

Macintosh software and documents (other than text files) are often 

"encoded" into text files for transmission over the network.  A common 

standard for such encoding is referred to as BinHex. You can usually tell 

that a file contains a BinHex encoded Mac file by the fact that the file 

name ends in ".hqx".  



BinHex5.0 format is a MacBinary format, while BinHex 4.0 files are 

Macintosh ASCII format. 



To keep transmission times short, the BinHexed files are often "compressed" 

using a utility like StuffIt. To reconstitute the Mac application or 

document you may need to "un-StuffIt".  The freeware program, StuffIt 

Expander, will BinHex and unstuff most Mac files.  



Uncompression programs are available from archives on the Internet. 

Examples: xbin23.zip (DOS), mcvert (Unix), and binhex (VM/CMS). 



Bits

----

Bit is an abbreviation for Binary digIT. Computer words and data are made-

up of bits, the smallest unit of information.  



A bit can be either zero or one, represented in a circuit by an off or on 

state, respectively.  The bits are set on or off to store data, or to form 

a code that in turn sends instructions to the computer's central processing 

unit. 



Bits per second (bps)

---------------------

Bits per second (bps) is the number of binary digits sent in one second. It 

refers to the rate at which the bits within a single frame are sent 

('frame' is another term for 'packet'). The gaps between frames can be of 

variable length.  Accordingly, bps does not refer to the rate at which 

information is actually being transferred. 



We usually estimate the amount of characters transferred per second (cps) 

by dividing the number of bps by 10. Example: 2400 bps transfers around 240 

characters per second. 



Boolean

-------

Search algorithm built on the algebraic theories of the English 

mathematician George Booles. Boolean algorithms are used in online 

databases to help narrow down the number of hits using the words AND, OR, 

and NOT. 



Bounce

------

The return of a piece of mail because of an error in its delivery.



Bps

---

Abbreviation for bits per second. See above.



Browse

------

To view and possibly edit a file of data on screen similar to handling text 

in a word processing document. 



Bulletin board

--------------

A computer, often a microcomputer, set up to receive calls and work as an 

online service. The BBSes let users communicate with each other through 

message bases, and exchange files. They and may also offer other services 

(like news, database searches, and online shopping). 



Carrier

-------

The tone that the modem sends over a phone line before any data is sent on 

it. This tone has a fixed frequency and a fixed amplitude. It is then 

modified to indicate data. 



Character

---------

Here used about a letter, a number or another typographical symbol or code. 



CCITT

-----

The Consultative Committee for International Telephony and Telegraphy. Was 

an international consultative committee, organized by the United Nations. 

Now replaced by ITU-TSS. See ITU (below). 



COM port 

--------

A COM port (or communication port) is a communications channel or pathway 

over which data is transferred between remote computing devices. 



MS-DOS computers may have as many as four COM ports, COM1, COM2, COM3, and 

COM4.  These are serial ports most often used with a modem to set up a 

communications channel over telephone lines. They can also be used to send 

data to a serial printer, or to connect a serial mouse. 



Compress

--------

(1) To compact data to save space.



(2) Compression function common on the Internet. COMPRESS files are 

generally, but not always, noted with the file extension .Z. 



Data archive and compression processes can be combined to form files like 

filename.tar.z. 



Conference

----------

Also called SIG (Special Interest Group), Forum, RoundTable, Echo. A 

conference is an area on a bulletin board or online service set up as a 

mini board. Most conferences have separate message bases and often also 

file libraries and bulletins. Conferences are focused on topics, like 

politics, games, multimedia and product support. 



Connect time

------------

A term used for the hours, minutes, and seconds that a user is connected to 

an online service. On several commercial services, users have to pay for 

connect time. 



CPS

---

Characters per second. See Bits per second.



Data

----

Information of any kind, including binary, decimal or hexadecimal numbers, 

integer numbers, text strings, etc. 



Database

--------

A database is a highly structured file (or set of files) that tries to 

provide all the information assigned to a particular subject and to allow 

programs to access only items they need. 



Online services offer databases that users can search to find full-text or 

bibliographic references to desired topics. 



DCE/DTE

-------

Data Communications Equipment/Data Terminal Equipment. Equipment connected 

to an RS232 connector must be either a DCE (like a modem or a printer) or a 

DTE (computer or terminal). The term defines the types of equipment that 

will "talk" and "listen." 



Default

-------

When a value, parameter, attribute, or option is assigned by a 

communications program, modem, or online system unless something else is 

specified, it is called the default. 



For example, communication programs often have prespecified values for baud 

rate, bit size and parity that are used unless alternative values are 

given.  These prespecified values are called the defaults. 



Some services give users a choice between two or more options. If a 

selection is not made by the user, then a selection is automatically 

assigned, by default. 



Demos

-----

are entertaining data versions of music videos. They are short graphic 

animations set to music that typically run for five or six minutes. Also 

known as Intros. 



Samples are available by anonymous ftp to ftp.uwp.edu (in the 

/pub/msdos/demos directory), and ftp.sun.ac.za (/u/msdos/demos). Also, 

check out the Usenet newsgroup comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos. 



Discussion list

---------------

See Mailing list.



Domain Name System (DNS)

------------------------

Email addressing system used in networks such as Internet and BITNET. The 

Internet DNS consists of a hierarchical sequence of names, from the most 

specific to the most general (left to right), separated by dots, for 

example nic.ddn.mil. 



Doors

-----

A service offered by many bulletin boards to allow the user to leave the 

(remote) main software system to use one or several independent programs, 

like games and databases. 



Downloading

-----------

The transfer of data from an online service and "down" to your computers' 

disk. 



DTR

---

Data Terminal Ready is a circuit which, when ON, tells the modem that your 

computer is ready to communicate. Most modems are unable to tell your 

computer that a connection has been set up with a remote computer before 

this circuit has been switched off. If your computer turns this signal OFF, 

while it is in a dialog with a remote computer, the modem will normally 

disconnect. 



Duplex

------

Describes how you see text entered by the keyboard. When the setting is 

HALF DUPLEX, all characters entered on your computer for transfer to an 

online service (or your modem) will be displayed. In addition, you will 

normally receive an echo from the online service (or modem). The result 

will often 'bbee lliikkee tthhiiss'. 



When using the setting FULL DUPLEX, typed characters will not be shown. 

What you see, are characters echoed back to you from the online service 

and/or your modem. 



ECHO

----

(1) When data is being sent, the receiving device often resends the 

information back so the sending device can be sure it was received 

correctly. 



(2) Term used on FidoNet for this network's system of exchanging 

conferences (parallel conferencing). 



Email

-----

Abbreviation for Electronic Mail.



File server

-----------

A file server is a device that "serves" files to everyone on a network. It 

allows everyone on the network to get files in a single place, on one 

computer. Typically, it is a combination computer, data management 

software, and large capacity hard disk drive. 



File transfer

-------------

The copying of a file from one computer to another over a computer network. 



Flame

-----

A "flame" is a conference message sent by someone who generally disagrees 

so violently that they are willing to sink to personal attacks. Flames can 

be extremely annoying, and can get the writer banished from several 

conference networks. 



Fractal

--------

A mathematical algorithm from which an image can be created. A fractal 

formula generates a fractal picture composed of an image based on a basic 

pattern. An outgrowth of chaos mathematics, it is being used for 

compressing and decompressing high quality images. Generally, a fractally 

compressed image has an extremely small file size. 



Full duplex

-----------

The term full-duplex means the transmission of data in two directions 

simultaneously as from a terminal to a computer or from the computer to the 

terminal. Full-duplex is simultaneous two-way communication. 



Full-text database

------------------

A database containing the full text of an article, a chapter in a book, or 

a book. The contents are not limited to abstracted information (indexes, 

bibliographic information). 



Gateway

-------

Here, we use the term gateway about an interconnection between two (or 

more) online services, set up to allow a user of one service to use the 

other service's offerings through the first service's user interface. 



The term also has other meanings: 



A gateway provides an interconnection between two networks with different 

communications protocols. Gateways operate at the 4th through 7th layer of 

the OSI model. For example, a PAD (a packet assembler/disassembler) is a 

device used to interface non-X.25 devices to an X.25 network.  The PAD 

serves as a gateway. Protocol converters are gateways between networks. 



The gateway, provided by an adapter card in a workstation, enables the 

network to perform as if it were a mainframe terminal connected directly to 

the mainframe. 



GuoBiao

-------

Coding scheme for using Chinese on computers developed in mainland China. 

For more information, send email to LISTSERV@UGA.BITNET with one of the 

following commands in the text of your mail: 

    GET PC HELP                   (for PC users)

    GET MAC HELP                  (Macintosh users)

    GET CXTERM HELP               (X Windows users)



Half duplex

-----------

The term half-duplex means the transmission of data in either direction but 

only one direction at a time. 



Ham

---

Amateur radio.



Handle

------

An alias used on a bulletin board or online service instead of your real 

name. Often used in chats. 



Header

------

(1) In an email message, the part that precedes the body of a message and 

contains, among other things, the message originator, date and time. 



(2) On a packet switched network, the portion of a package, preceding the 

actual data, containing source and destination addresses, and error 

checking and other fields. 



Host

----

A term for host computer, remote computer or online service. Here, we use 

it about a timesharing computer, a BBS system, or a central computer that 

controls a network and delivers online services. 



HTTP

----

Hypertext Transfer Protocol. Hypertext is a term used of linking related 

information. 



Many information providers on the Internet run programs that you can obtain 

hypertext from. Examples: WWW, Mosaic. 



You use a special HTTP browser program to access the information. Example: 

Xmosaic. 



Hypermedia

----------

is a medium with pointers to other media (a superset of hypertext). Often 

used in connection with the World Wide Web on Internet. Here, the term 

means that browsers might not display a text file, but might display images 

or sound or animations. 



Information utility 

-------------------

A term often used about online services (not unlike the term power 

utility). 



Internet

--------

See appendix 1.



Internet number

---------------

See IP Address



IP (Internet Protocol)

----------------------

The Internet standard protocol that provides a common layer over dissimilar 

networks, used to move packets between host computers and through gateways 

if necessary. 



For more information, send a message to service@nic.ddn.mil with the 

following text in the subject title: RFC 791 . 



IP Address

----------

Every machine on the Internet has a unique address, called its Internet 

number or IP address. Usually, this address is represented by four numbers 

joined by periods ('.'), like 129.133.10.10. 



The first two or three pieces represent the network that the system is on, 

called its subnet. For example, all of the computers for Wesleyan 

University in the U.S.A. are in the subnet 129.133, while the number in the 

previous paragraph represents a full address to one of the university's 

computers. 



If you want the IP address of a site, send email to resolve@cs.widener.edu 

or dns@grasp.insa-lyon.fr . In the TEXT of your mail write 'help' for usage 

information. You can also use it to get a UUCP node's map entry.



ISDN

----

An emerging technology being offered by many telephone carriers of the 

world. ISDN combines voice and digital network services in a single medium, 

making it possible to offer customers digital data services as well as 

voice connections through a single "wire." The standards that define ISDN 

are specified by ITU-TSS. 



ISO 

---

The International Organization for Standardization. A voluntary, nontreaty 

organization responsible for creating international standards in many 

areas, including computers and communications. Its members are the national 

standards organizations of the 89 member countries, including ANSI for the 

U.S. 



ISO is coordinator of the main Internet networking standards that are in 

use today. 



ISO@NIC.DDN.MIL is a mailing list focusing on the ISO protocol stack. 



ITU

---

The International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations treaty 

organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. Membership includes Telephone, 

governmental Post, and Telegraph Authorities, scientific and trade 

associations, and private companies.  



ITU consists of three "sectors": the Radiocommunication Sector, the 

Telecommunication Standardization Sector (TSS), and the Development Sector. 

(The CCITT Plenary Assembly is now the World Telecommunication 

Standardization Conference.) 



ITU-TSS sets international communications recommendations. These are often 

adopted as standards. It also develops interface, modem, and data network 

recommendations. 



The X.25 protocol for access to packet-switched networks was originally a 

recommendation of CCITT. The CCITT recommendations are now formally known 

with an ITU designator; e.g., CCITT Rec. Q.931 will now be ITU-T-Q.931.  



A wide range of ITU documents is available through The Teledoc database of 

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU): 



   * ITU documents

   * lists of contributions (substantive input/proposals)

     to ITU study groups

   * lists of ITU reports and Recommendations (i.e., standards)

   * summaries of ITU new or revised Recommendations

   * ITU meeting schedules and other information concerning Study 

     Groups structures and activities.



For information, write to helpdesk@itu.ch. The database is at 

teledoc@itu.arcom.ch . Gopher to info.itu.ch , or, write to ITU Information 

Services Dept., Place des Nations. CH-1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland. 



ITU-TSS

-------

The Standards Sector of The International Telecommunication Union (see ITU 

above). 



JIS

---

A Japanese industry standard code for presenting the Japanese character set 

Kanji on computers. JIS defines special ranges of user-defined characters. 

Only the most popular ones are included. 



The newer Shift JIS standard sets aside certain character codes to signal 

the start of a two-character sequence. Together, these define a single 

Kanji metacharacter. 



There are many oddities to be found in handling Kanji over the network. 

Sending JIS-encoded messages through the Internet is done using a 7-bit 

code, called "OLD JIS" (standardized on JUNET). Unfortunately, it 

incorporates the ESC character, which some systems will filter out. This 

problem can be overcome by using UUENCODing. 



Some services, like APICNET in Tokyo, converts outgoing Kanji messages 

automatically to 7-bit format. 



KIDLINK, the global project for children 10 - 15 years of age, operates two 

Japanese language mailing lists. KIDLEADJ is for teachers/coordinators, and 

KIDCAFEJ for children only. For a copy of their "How to send/receive Kanji 

text" help file, send a message to LISTSERV@vm1.nodak.edu with the 

following command in the body of the mail: GET KIDLINK KANJI 



Also, check out "Electronic handling of Japanese text," by Ken Lunde 

(lunde@adobe.com). It is available by FTP from monu6.cc.monash.edu.au . 

File name: japan.inf. Directory: /pub/ninongo/ . 



JVArcServ 

---------

Archive server for FidoNet modelled after Archie for the Internet. It 

maintains file lists from FidoNet systems throughout its area and will do 

searches on these file lists based on netmail requests made to it by remote 

systems. 



JVArcServ lets you search through file listings for the program you are 

looking for. It will send you an email message back telling you the BBS 

name, phone number, and file section of all the systems in the network that 

match the given criteria. 



KB

--

Kilobyte. A unit of data storage size which represents 1024 characters of 

information. 



Kbits

-----

1,000 bits.



Kermit

------

Protocol designed for transferring files between microcomputers and 

mainframe computers developed by Catchings at Columbia University. 



There are both public domain, and copyrighted Kermit programs. Some of 

these programs are complete programs in themselves offering the 

communication functions needed for the particular machine on which they are 

running. 



The complete Kermit protocol manual and the source code for various 

versions are available from: 



     Kermit Distribution, (212) 854-3703

     Columbia University Center for Computing Activities

     612 West 115 Street,  New York, NY 10025



KOI-8

-----

Coding scheme for Russian (Cyrillic). Cyrillic fonts and keyboard maps are 

available from mailserv@kiae.su and by anonymous ftp from mcsun.eu.net . 



To learn more about KOI-8, Russian TeX and Cyrillic text processors, join 

the RUSTEX-L mailing list on LISTSERV@UBVM.BITNET . 



RFC 1489 is about "Registration of a Cyrillic Character Set."



LAN

---

Local Area Network. A data network intended to serve an area of only a few 

square kilometers or less. 



LAP-M

-----

Link Access Procedure for Modems is a ITU-TSS standard for modem modulation 

and error control. It is the primary basis for the ITU-TSS V.42 protocol. 



Library

-------

is used on online services about a collection of related databases (that 

you may search in) or files (that may be retrieved). 



List

----

File-viewing program for MS-DOS computers (see chapter 14). Registration: 

US$37 to Buerg Software, 139 White Oak Circle, Petaluma, CA  94952, U.S.A. 

(1993). 



LISTSERV

--------

An automated mailing list distribution system enabling online discussions of 

technical and nontechnical issues conducted by electronic mail throughout 

the Internet. The LISTSERV program was originally designed for the 

BITNET/EARN networks. 



Similar lists are available on the Internet. Some of them are using the Unix 

readnews or rn facility, and Anastasios Kotsikonas's list server. 



LOOKFOR

-------

Fast and flexible shareware program for boolean searches in text files. 

Registration: US$15 plus postage to David L. Trafton, 6309 Stoneham Rd., 

Bethesda, Md. 20817, U.S.A. 



Lurking

-------

No active participation by a subscriber to a mailing list, a conference, or 

Usenet newsgroup. A person who is lurking is just listening to the 

discussion. 



Mail Gateway

------------

A machine that connects to two or more electronic mail systems (including 

dissimilar mail systems) and transfers messages among them. 



Mailing list

------------

A possibly moderated discussion group on the Internet, distributed via 

email from a central computer maintaining the list of people involved in 

the discussion. Anyone can send a message to a single mailing list address. 

The message is "reflected" to everyone on the list of addresses. The 

members of that list can respond, and the responses are reflected, forming 

a discussion group. 

    (See LISTSERVers) 



Mail path

---------

A series of machine names used to direct electronic mail from one user to 

the other. 



Mail server

-----------

A software program that distributes files or information in response to 

requests sent by email. 



MHS

---

(1) Message handling Service. Electronic mail software from Action 

Technologies licensed by Novell for its Netware operating systems. Provides 

message routing and store and forward capabilities. MHS has gateways into 

PROFS, and X.400 message systems. It has been augmented with a directory 

naming service and binary attachments. 



(2) Message Handling System. The standard defined by ITU-TSS as X.400 and 

by ISO as Message-Oriented Text Interchange Standard (MOTIS). MHS is the 

X.400 family of services and protocols that provides the functions for 

global email transfer among local mail systems. 



MNP

---

Microcom Networking Protocol. A proprietary standard of error control and 

data compression. 



Modem

-----

An acronym for MOdulator-DEModulator.  It is a device that converts digital 

data from a computer or terminal into analog data that can be sent over 

telephone lines.  On the receiving end, it converts the analog data back to 

digital data. 



Most modern modems can handle the dialing and answering of a telephone call 

and generate the speed of the data transmission, measured in bits per 

second, or baud rates. The telephone industry sometimes refers to a modem 

as a dataset. 



Moderator

---------

A person, or a small group of people, who manage moderated mailing lists 

and newsgroups. Moderators are responsible for deciding which email 

submissions are passed on to list. 



MUD

---

Multi-User Dungeon. A multi-user, text based, virtual reality game. 



For information, retrieve the MUD FAQs from ftp.math.okstate.edu as 

/pub/muds/misc/mud-faq/* . 



No>m

----

The No>m Standard Code for Information Interchange (NSCII) is a 16-bit 

character encoding standard used in Vietnam. No>m has been the writing 

system, based on ideographic (Chinese) characters, in use since the tenth 

century for the spoken Vietnamese language. 



A version of the NSCII code table in the form of a Macintosh HyperCard Stack 

is available by anonymous ftp from unicode.org . Look in the directory 

/pub/Mapping_Tables/EastAsia_maps .



NAPLPS

------

North American Presentation-Level Protocol Syntax.  A text and graphics 

data transmission format for sending large amounts of information between 

computers. 



It was designed for the encoding of alphanumeric, alpha-mosaic, alpha-

geometric and alpha-photographic constructs. The standard is resolution 

independent and device independent, and can easily accommodate 

international character sets, bit-mapped images in color, animation and 

sound. 



NAPLPS was originally developed for videotext and teletext systems through 

the Canadian Standards Association (CSA-T500-1983.  It was later enhanced 

by AT&T, and in 1983 became an ANSI standard (ANSI-X3.110-1983). 



Some videotext systems, including Prodigy (U.S.A.), are based on NAPLPS. On 

CompuServe, NAPLPS has been replaced with a newer protocol called GIF, 

Graphics Interchange Format. 



Netiquette

----------

A pun on "etiquette" referring to proper behavior on a network. 



Netnews

-------

See: Usenet.



Network

-------

A data communications system which interconnects computer systems at 

various sites. 



NIC

---

Network Information Center. An organization that provides users with 

information about services provided by the Internet network. 



NREN

----

The National Research and Education Network. A proposed computer network to 

be built in the U.S.A. 



NUA

---

Network User Address. The network address in a packet data network. The 

electronic number that is sent to the network to connect to an online 

service. Also, called X.121 address. 



NUI

---

Network User Identification. The user name/password that you use to get 

access to (and use) a commercial packet switched network. 



Offline

-------

has the opposite meaning of "Online" (see below). It signifies that your 

computer is not in direct communication with a remote online service. 



Offline Reader

--------------

A computer program making the handling of mail and files from online 

services easier (and cheaper). Some also provides automatic mail and file 

transfers. 



Typically, you first connect to an online service (often a BBS) to capture 

new mail in a compressed file (typically through a "QMail door program.") 

Many offline mail reader programs are idle while this goes on, while others 

can do communications as well. 



When disconnected from the service, the offline reader works as a 

combination message database and message editor. It gives you the feeling 

of still being connected to the online service, while actually being 

completely disconnected. 



When you have read and replied to all messages offline, the offline reader 

creates a compressed "packet" containing any replies entered. Some also let 

you prepare packets containing commands to join or leave conferences, 

subscribe to or signoff from special services, and download files. 



Then, you dial back to the BBS to upload (send) the packet, either using 

the offline reader's communications module, or another communications 

program. 



Readers are available for MS-DOS, MS-Windows, Macintosh, Amiga, Atari ST, 

Unix, and CP/M computers. The programs may be downloaded from many BBSes, 

and commercial services. 



Online

------

In this book, it signifies the act of being in direct communication with a 

remote computer's central processing unit. 



An online database is a file of information that can be directly accessed 

by the user. 



OSI

---

Open System Interconnection. A set of protocols designed to be an 

international standard method for connecting unlike computers and networks. 



Outernet

--------

Term used about a network that is not directly connected to the Internet, 

but can exchange email with networks directly linked to the Internet. 

Examples: CompuServe, Prodigy.



OZCIS

-----

DOS-based program that automates access to CompuServe using an elaborate 

array of menus. Free for personal use. Contact: Ozarks West Software, 14150 

Gleneagle Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80921, U.S.A. 



Packet

------

(1) A group of bits sent by a modem that comprise a byte of information. 



(2) A group of bytes sent by a file transfer protocol. 



Packet data networks

--------------------

Also called Packet Switching Networks (PDN). Value added networks offering 

long distance computer communications. They let users access a remote 

computer, by dialing a local node, or access point. 



The packet data networks use high speed digital links, which can be land 

lines or satellite communications, to transmit data from one computer to 

another using packets of data.  They use synchronous communications, 

usually with the X.25 protocol.  The routes are continually optimized, and 

successive packets of the same message need not necessarily follow the same 

path. 



Packet switching

----------------

Sending data in packets through a network to some remote location. The data 

to be sent is subdivided into individual packets of data, each having a 

unique identification and carrying its destination address. This allows 

each packet to go by a different route. The packet ID lets the data be 

reassembled in proper sequence. 



PC

--

Personal computer.



PDN

---

See Packet data networks.



Postmaster

----------

On the Internet, the person responsible for handling electronic mail 

problems, answering queries about users, and other related work at a site. 



Prompt

------

Several times during interactive dialogs with online services, the flow of 

data stops while the host computer waits for commands from the user. At 

this point, the service often presents the user with a reminder, a cue, a 

prompt. These are some typical prompts: 



    ?

    !

    WHAT NOW?

    (Read) next letter -

    ulrik 1>

    System News - 5000>

    Enter #, <H>elp, or <CR> to continue?

    Action ==> (Inbox)

    Command:

    Enter command or <RETURN>

    -->



Protocol

--------

A formal description of message formats and the rules two computers must 

follow to exchange messages. Protocols can describe low-level details of 

machine-to-machine interface (e.g., the order in which bits and bytes are 

sent across the wire), or high-level exchanges between allocation programs 

(e.g., the way in which two programs transfer a file across the Internet). 



ProYam

------

Powerful script-driven communications program. US$139 + $5 for postage from 

Omen Technology Inc., 17505-V NW Sauvie Island Rd, Portland, Oregon 97231, 

U.S.A. (VISA and Eurocard - 1992) 



PSS

---

British Telecom's Packet Switch Stream, an X.25 packet data network. 



PTT

---

Postal Telegraph and Telephone. A telephone service provider, often a 

monopoly, in a particular country. 



QWK

---

Qwikmail. A common offline message file format for bulletin boards offering 

mail through a QMail Door. The .QWK door and file format has been used to 

develop entire BBS networks (example: ILINK.) 



See "offline reader." 



RIP

---

Remote Imaging Protocol. Also called RIPscrip. A graphics protocol for 

bulletin boards designed as an efficient way of delivering graphics to 

online services. 



Script files

------------

A set of commands that enable a communications program to execute a given 

set of tasks automatically (macro commands).  



Server

------

A provider of resources (e.g., file servers and name servers).



SIG

---

Special Interest Group.



SNA

---

System Network Architecture. An IBM product.



Snail mail

----------

A pejorative term referring to the national postal service in different 

countries. 



String search 

-------------

A method for searching a database. Works like the search function in a 

common word processor program. 



On online services, your commands will often search the full document 

(including the title, subtitles, keywords, and the full text). Sometimes, 

string searches just return a line or a few lines around the hit. In other 

cases, they return the full screen or the full document. 



CWIS

----

Campus Wide Information Services.



Sysop

-----

Common name used on bulletin boards for System Operator. This is the person 

in charge of maintenance and helping users. 



System

------

Generic name for a computer with connected equipment or for an online 

service or bulletin board. 



Talk

----

A command on the Internet, which may remind of IRC, but is a single link 

between two parties only. 



.TAR or .tar

------------

File name extension used by a Unix utility for archiving files, often used 

in conjunction with "compress."  Resulting files can contain both files and 

directories, and generally includes the subdirectory structure needed to 

restore the files. 



Utilities to extract on DOS machines include ExTAR, and TAR4DOS. These 

utilities are available by ftp from ftp.uu.net in the 

systems/ibmpc/msdos/simtel20/filutl directory. 



TAPCIS

------

A program for automatic access to CompuServe. It lets callers read and 

respond to personal email and forum message threads offline, and download 

files. Contact: Support Group, Inc., Lake Technology Park, McHenry, MD 

21541, U.S.A.  Also: TAPCIS Forum. Internet mail: 74020.10@compuserve.com. 

On CompuServe: 74020,10. Registration: US$ 79.00. 



TCP/IP 

------

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. Communications protocols 

that internetwork dissimilar systems connected to the Internet. TCP/IP 

supports services such as remote login (telnet), file transfer (FTP), and 

mail (SMTP). 



Terminal emulator

-----------------

A program that allows a computer to emulate a terminal. The workstation 

appears as a given type of terminal to the remote host. 



TTY

---

Abbreviation for TELETYPE, a special type of writing terminal 

(electrical/mechanical). Also, known as 'dumb terminal'. 



TTY mode

--------

This is when a communications program emulates a TTY machine, which only 

involves printing characters and recognizing the linefeed, carriage return 

and backspace characters. 



Unix

----

An operating system that supports multi-user and multitasking operations. 



Uploading

---------

The act of transferring data from your computer's disk (up) to an online 

service and storage there. 



Usenet

------

A global bulletin board, of sorts, in which millions of people exchange 

public information on every conceivable topic. For more information, see 

appendix 1. 



UUCP

----

See appendix 1.



WAN

---

Wide Area Network.



The 'whatis' database

---------------------

Archie (see appendix 6) also permits access to the whatis description 

database. It contains the names and brief synopses of over 3,500 public 

domain software packages, datasets and informational documents located on 

the Internet. 



WYSIWYG

-------

What You See is What You Get.



X.25

----

A ITU-TSS standard communications protocol used internationally in packet 

data networks. It provides error-checked communication between packet data 

networks and their users or other networks. 



Rather than sending a stream of bits like a modem, an X.25 router sends 

packets of data.  There are different packet sizes and types. Each packet 

contains data to be transmitted, information about the packet's origin, 

destination, size, and its place in the order of the packets sent.  There 

are clear packets that perform the equivalent of hanging-up the phone.  

There are reset, restart, and diagnostic packets.  On the receiving end, 

the packet assembler/ disassembler (PAD) in the router translates the 

packets back into a readable format. 



X.400

-----

The ITU-TSS and ISO standard for electronic mail.



X.500

-----

The ITU-TSS and ISO standard for electronic directory services. 



.Z

--

See Compress.





More information

----------------

Irving Kind's Glossary of Computer Oriented Abbreviations and Acronyms is 

available via Gopher  at cronkite.ocis.temple.edu. (You may need to rummage 

around a bit to find it, though). 



The glossary is also available as babel94a.txt by anonymous ftp.  Host 

name: ftp.temple.edu . Look in the pub/info/help-net directory.



To get it by email, send to LISTSERV@VM.TEMPLE.EDU . In the  body of the

message, type SEND BABEL94A TXT







Appendix 5:



Books, articles, newsletters, etc. for further reading

======================================================



Internet

--------

"The Matrix:  Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide," John 

S. Quarterman, Digital Press, Bedford, MA, 719 pages, 1990. (Internet 

address: mids@tic.com. Gopher service at gopher.tic.com.) 



"Matrix News," a newsletter about cross-network issues. Networks frequently 

mentioned include USENET, UUCP, FidoNet, BITNET, the Internet, and 

conferencing systems like the WELL and CompuServe. Matrix News is about all 

computer networks worldwide that exchange electronic mail. 



Online subscription: US$25 for twelve monthly issues, or US$15 for 

students.  Paper subscriptions: US$30 for twelve monthly issues, or US$20 

for students; for overseas postage, add US$10 (1992).  



Contact: Matrix News, Building 2 Suite 300, 1120 South Capitol of Texas 

Highway, Austin, TX 78746, U.S.A.  Email: mids@tic.com . 



"!%@:: A Directory of Electronic Mail Addressing and Networks," by Donnalyn 

Frey and Rick Adams (O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 632 Petaluma Avenue, 

Sebastopol, CA 95472, U.S.A.). 408 pages, US26.95. Write to nuts@ora.com 

for ordering information. 



"The User's Directory of Computer Networks" by Tracy L. LaQuey (Ed.), 

University of Texas, Digital Press, 12 Crosby Drive, Bedford, MA 01730, 

U.S.A. 630 pages, 1990. 



"Zen and the Art of the Internet: A Beginner's Guide, Second Edition" by 

Brendan P. Kehoe, Prentice-Hall Series in Innovative Technology, 1994. 

ISBN 013-121492-6.



"The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog," by Ed Krol. 1992. Published 

by O'Reilly and Associates, Inc., 103 Morris Street, Suite A, Sebastopol, 

CA 95472, U.S.A.. 400 pages, US$24.95. ISBN 1-56592-025-2. Email questions 

to nuts@ora.com or uunet!ora!nuts . 



"A Guide to Electronic Mail Networks and Addressing," by Donnalyn Frey and 

Rick Adams. 1989. O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 103 Morris Street, Suite A, 

Sebastopol, CA 95472, U.S.A. Email address: nuts@ora.com . 



"Managing UUCP and the Internet." Published by O'Reilly and Associates, 

Inc., 103 Morris Street, Suite A, Sebastopol, CA 95472, U.S.A. Email 

address: nuts@ora.com . 



"The Internet Companion: A Beginner's Guide to Global Networking" by Tracy 

LaQuey, with Jeanne C. Ryer. Addison-Wesley, 1992, $10.95, p. 196, ISBN 0-

201-62224-6. Order direct from Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Inc., 1 Jacob 

Way, Reading, MA 01867, U.S.A. 



"Internet: Getting Started," April Marine, ed., SRI International, Menlo 

Park, CA, May 1992. ISBN: none, US$39. 



"The Internet Guide For New Users", Daniel P Dern, ISBN 0-07-016511-4,

$27.95, 1994. McGraw-Hill, New York, USA. 1993.  



"An Internet Primer for Information Professionals: A Basic Guide to 

Networking Technology," by Elizabeth S. Lane, and Craig A. Summerhil, p. 

200, Meckler Corp., Westport, CT, USA. US$37.50. ISBN 0-88736-831-X. 



"Crossing the Internet Threshold," by Roy Tennant, John Ober, and Anne G. 

Lipow, p. 134, Library Solutions Press, 1100 Industrial Rd., Suite 9, San 

Carlos, CA 94070, U.S.A. 1993. ISBN: 1-882208-01-3 . US$45.00 plus shipping 

and handling. 



"The Internet Passport: NorthWestNet's Guide to Our World Online" by 

Kochmer, Jonathan and NorthWestNet. 4th ed. 515p.  Bellevue, WA, USA: 

NorthWestNet, 1993. ISBN:  0-9635281-0-6. Price:  US$29.95. (US$19.95 

nonprofit and educational). Fax: +1-206-562-4822. Email: info@clbooks.com. 



"Internet: Mailing Lists 1993 Edition." Franklin F. Kuo, SRI Internet 

Information Services. Published by PTR Prentice Hall, New Jersey, USA. 

ISBN: 0-13-327941-3. Paperback, 356 pages. 



"Internet Connections: A Librarian's Guide to Dial-Up Access and Use" by 

Mary E. Engle, Marilyn Lutz, William W. Jones, Jr., and Genevieve Engel. 

Library and Information Technology Association's Monographs Series, #3, 

1993. 166 pages. ISBN 0-8389-7677-0. 



"Internet World magazine", Meckler Corporation, 11 Ferry Lane West, 

Westport, CT 06880, U.S.A. (meckler@jvnc.net) 



"The Internet Business Journal," 1-60 Springfield Road, Ottawa, CANADA, K1M 

1C7. Fax: +1-613-564-6641. Publisher: Michael Strangelove 

<72302.3062@compuserve.com>. 



"The Internet Magazine," 60 Springfield Road, Suite 1, Ottawa, Ontario, 

CANADA, K1M 1C7. Tel: +1-613-747-6106. Publisher: Michael Strangelove 

<72302.3062@compuserve.com>. 



"Netpower: Resource Guide to Online Computer Networks," by Eric Persson, 

Fox Chapel Publishing, Box 7948, Lancaster, PA 17604-7948, U.S.A. US$ 

39.95. 1993. 800+ pages. Email: NetPower1@aol.com . 



"Information Highways." Magazine. Annual subscription: $98.00CDN. 

Information Highways, 162 Joicey Blvd., Toronto, Ontario, M5M 2V2, Canada. 

Fax: +1-416-488-7078. 



"Connecting to the Internet" by Susan Estrada. 188 pages. ISBN: 1-56592-

061-9. O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 103 Morris Street, Suite A, Sebastopol, 

CA 95472, U.S.A. Write to nuts@ora.com for information. 



"Online Access," magazine, Chicago Fine Print. Subscription is US$19.80 for 

8 issues. E-mail: 70324,343@compuserve.com . 



Internet Business Report. CMP Publications (Network Computing, 

Communications Week, etc.). Newsletter for corporate strategists interested 

in the Internet as a channel for information products and services, or as a 

means of extending support for current operations. Monthly in an 8-page 

hardcopy format. For a complimentary sample issue, send email to 

ibr@cmp.com . Specify "free copy" in the subject line. 



"Das Internet, -Weltweit vernetzt-" by Peter Klau. p. 320, IWT-Verlag GmbH, 

Vaterstetten, Germany, November 1993. DM 59.00, ISBN 3-88322-467-7. (In 

German) 



"The Internet Complete Reference" by Harley Hahn & Rick Stout. Osborne 

McGraw-Hill, Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17294-0701. ISBN 0-07-881980-6. 818 p., 

US$29.95. 



"The Big Dummy's Guide to Internet" by the EFF (Electronic Frontier 

Foundation) is available by anonymous ftp from ftp.eff.org archived as 

/info-mac/comm/big-dummys-guide-to-internet.hqx . 



"The Internet Directory" by Eric Braun. (Fawcett Columbine, 1994)



"Doing business on the Internet" by Mary J. Cronin. Van Nostrand Reinhold. 

ISBN 0-442-01770-7. US$29.95. Email: Cronin@BCVMS.BC.EDU . 



"The Internet For Dummies", John R Levine & Carol Baroudi, ISBN 1-56884-024-

1, $19.95, 1993   



"The Online User's Encyclopedia" by Bernard Aboba (1993, Addison-Wesley, 

ISBN 0-201-62214-9). 832 pages. US$32.95. Information on the book, 

including sample chapters and reviews, is available on the World Wide Web 

at ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/mailcom/internaut/index.html .



"The Internet Navigator" by Paul Glister (1993, J Wiley, ISBN 0-471-59782-

1). 



"NET GUIDE." ISBN: 0-679-75106-8. Price: $19.00. Email for information:

author@go-netguide.com . 



"Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh," by A.C. Engst. (ISBN 056830-064-6. 

1993.)



"The Internet Message, closing the book with Electronic Mail," by M. Rose.

(ISBN 013-092941-7. 1993.)



"The Whole Earth Online Almanac" by Don Rittner. (ISBN 056686-090-3. 1993)



"Hands-on Internet: A PC User's Guide." by David Sachs & Henry Stair.

(ISBN 013-056392-7. 1994.)



"A DOS User's Guide to the Internet: Email, Netnews and File Transfer

with UUCP." by James Gardner. (ISBN 013-106873-3. 1993.)



"Riding the Internet Highway." by Sharon Fisher-Blankenhorn. (ISBN 056205-

192-X. 1993.) 



"Navigating the Internet" by Richard Smith. (ISBN 0672-30362-0. 1993.)



"The Internet Unleashed." Sams Publishing. (ISBN 0-672-30466-X. 1994). 

$44.95 1,380 pp., 1 HD disk.



Bulletin Board systems and networks

-----------------------------------

BoardWatch Magazine, 7586 Weat Jewell Ave., Suite 200, Lakewood, CO 80232, 

U.S.A. Email: jack.rickard@boardwatch.com . 



"Using Computer Bulletin Boards," by John V. Hedtke. 1990. MIS Press.



"BMUG Guide to Bulletin Boards and Beyond," by Bernard Aboba (1992). 

Quantum Books, 4 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, U.S.A. Email: 

quanbook@world.std.com . (BMUG = Berkeley Macintosh User's Group)



CompuServe

----------

"CompuServe from A to Z," by Charles Bowen, Bantam Computer Books, 1991. 

US$24.95. Paperback, 520 pages. 



GEnie

-----

"Glossbrenner's Master Guide to GEnie," Alfred Glossbrenner, 

Osborne/McGraw-Hill, 1991, US$39.95, paperback, 616 pages. 



Various

-------

"Exploring the World of Online Services," by Rosalind Resnick. Sybex, 1993. 

321 pages. US$ 17.95, paperback. 



"EcoLinking: Everyone's Guide to Online Environmental Information," by Don 

Rittner. Peachpit Press, 1992, US$18.95, paperback, 352 pages, appendices, 

index. 



"Online Information Hunting," by Nahum Goldman, TAB Books, Inc., 1992, 

US$19.95, paperback, 236 pages. 



"SysLaw: The Legal Guide for Online Service Providers" by Lance Rose, Esq., 

and Jonathan Wallace, Esq. Sold by PC Information Group, 1126 East 

Broadway, Winona, MN 55987, U.S.A.  US$34.95 plus $3.00 shipping. 



"The Information Broker's Handbook," by Sue Rugge and Alfred Glossbrenner, 

Windcrest/McGraw-Hill. 



"Dvorak's Guide to PC Telecommunications," John Dvorak and Nick Anis (1992, 

1128 pages, US$39.95). Second edition. Windcrest/McGraw-Hill.



Articles

--------

The following articles are available by email from LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 

(BITNET) or LISTSERV@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU (Internet). In the TEXT of your 

message, write the GET command shown after the article's citation below: 



  Bailey, Charles W., Jr.  "Electronic Publishing on Networks: A 

  Selective Bibliography of Recent Works."  The Public-Access 

  Computer Systems Review 3, no. 2 (1992): 13-20.  GET BAILEY PRV3N2 

  F=MAIL. 



  Harnad, Stevan.  "Post-Gutenberg Galaxy: The Fourth Revolution in 

  the Means of Production of Knowledge."  The Public-Access Computer 

  Systems Review 2, no. 1 (1991): 39-53.  GET HARNAD PRV2N1 F=MAIL. 



  Halbert, Martin.  "Public-Access Computer Systems and the 

  Internet."  The Public-Access Computer Systems Review 1, no. 2 

  (1990): 71-80.  GET HALBERT PRV1N2 F=MAIL. 



  Arms, Caroline R.  Review of Library Resources on the Internet: 

  Strategies for Selection and Use, by Laine Farley, ed.  In The 

  Public-Access Computer Systems Review 3, no. 2 (1992): 29-34. GET 

  ARMS PRV3N2 F=MAIL. 



  Barron, Billy.  Review of Zen and the Art of the Internet: A 

  Beginner's Guide to the Internet, by Brendan P. Kehoe.  In The 

  Public-Access Computer Systems Review 3, no. 1 (1992): 57-59. GET 

  BARRON PRV3N1 F=MAIL. 



  Cook, Dave.  Review of The User's Directory of Computer Networks, 

  by Tracy L. LaQuey, ed.  In The Public-Access Computer Systems 

  Review  2, no. 1 (1991): 177-181.  GET COOK PRV2N1 F=MAIL. 







Appendix 6:



Important Internet tools & pointers

===================================



Anonymous FTP

-------------

The procedure of connecting to a remote computer, as an anonymous or guest 

user, to transfer files back to your computer. Usually, you are asked to 

logon using the identity "anonymous," and to use your email address as a 

password. (See FTP below for more information.) 



Archie

------

An electronic directory service for locating information throughout the 

Internet. You can use Archie to locate files on anonymous ftp archive 

sites, other online directories and resource listings. It is useful for 

finding free software. 



Archie offers access to the "whatis" description database. This database 

contains descriptions that include the name and a brief synopsis of the 

large number of public domain software, datasets and informational 

documents located on the Internet. 



This book emphasizes email access to Archie. You can also reach archie 

servers by telnet to one of the following addresses: 



    archie.au               139.130.4.6     (Australian server)

    archie.mcgill.ca        132.206.44.21   (Canada)

    archie.th-darmstadt     130.83.128.111  (Germany)

    archie.cs.huji.ac.il    132.65.6.15     (Israel server)

    archie.kuis.kyoto-u.ac.jp 130.54.20.1   (Japan)

    archie.sogang.ac.kr     163.239.1.11    (Korea)

    archie.nz               130.195.9.4     (New Zealand)

    archie.ncu.edu.tw       140.115.19.24   (Taiwan)

    archie.doc.ic.ac.uk     146.169.11.3    (UK/England server)

    archie.rutgers.edu      128.6.18.15     (U.S.A.)



Archie server

-------------

An email-based file transfer facility offered by some systems connected to 

the Internet. 



Cello

-----

is a multipurpose WorldWideWeb (WWW) browser which permits you to retrieve 

information from the Internet in an easy-to-use, simplified hypermedia 

environment.  Cello supports WWW, FTP, Gopher, CSO, Telnet and Usenet News, 

as well as WAIS and a variety of other protocols (eg. TechInfo, HyTelnet) 

through external gateways. 



Cello runs in the Microsoft Windows environment, and can be used over low-

speed dialup SLIP and PPP connections. To run Cello, you also need to have 

a Winsock package installed. 



The system is available on ftp.law.cornell.edu, in the pub/LII/Cello 

directory.  Take the file cello.zip and (optionally) one or more of the 

graphics/Postscript viewers/sound players to be found in that directory. 



FAQ

---

"Frequently Asked Questions" are information files about services on the 

Internet, and a wide range of other topics. They are useful pointers to not 

only resources but also a fairly reliable source of answers that have been 

tested by real users. 



A list of FAQ documents is posted every four to six weeks to the Usenet 

newsgroup news.announce.newusers. 



If you do not have direct access to Usenet, retrieve a copy of the files 

ftplist and usenet-faq by anonymous FTP from rtfm.mit.edu (or ftp 

18.70.0.226). They are stored in the pub/usenet/news.answers directory. 



FAQs are also available by email. Send a message with the words "help" and 

"index" on separate lines to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu to get the necessary 

details. Many FAQs are also available via a Veronica search of gopher 

space. Unfortunately, some gopher maintainers do not update their collection 

of FAQs on a regular basis. 



All FAQs are also available by email from LISTSERV@CC1.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (or 

LISTSERV@BLEKUL11 on BITNET). For an index of available FAQs, put the 

command GET NETFAQS FILELIST in the body of your mail. 



Finger

------

A program that returns information about registered users on a host that is 

directly connected to the Internet via TCP/IP. Therefore, you cannot use 

finger to find out the addresses of anyone on BITNET or UUCP, or any of the 

other networks which are gatewayed to the TCP/IP Internet. 



Finger may be useful before initiating chats (known on the Internet as 

"talk"), to check your assumption of a person's email address, to learn 

more about a person, or to get other kinds of information. 



To use finger via telnet, enter the command telnet <site> 79 

Example: telnet csd4.csd.uwm.edu 79 (where <site> is the place you are 

fingering.  Once connected, type the username.  



For finger by email, write <b.liddicott@ic.ac.uk> with Subject: #finger 

name@site.domain , or with Subject: #help for more info. 



Note: My address, opresno@extern.uio.no, is at a site.domain called 

ulrik.uio.no. In this case, use #finger opresno@ulrik.uio.no . 



There are some inventive applications, where finger is being used as a 

general information system. For example, finger normg@halcyon.halcyon.com 

to get weekly U.S. TV ratings according to the Nielsen rating system, or to 

solar@xi.uleth.ca for 24-hour solar x-ray flare activity reports. 



FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

----------------------------

A program on the Internet for sending and receiving files to and from a 

remote computer to your local host. FTP lets you connect to many remote 

computers, as an anonymous or guest user, to transfer files back to your 

computer. 



FTP only lets you list file directories on foreign systems, and get or 

retrieve files. You cannot browse menus, send email, or search databases. 



Usually, type ftp at your system prompt, login on the remote system, and 

ask for the file you want to receive. It transfers to your local host 

machine. (For more on this, read under "Internet" in appendix 1.) 



Unless your computer is directly connected to the Internet, the retrieved 

software will have to be transferred from your local host machine to your 

PC. 



Where ftp is not available, you may use FTPMAIL (see chapter 12). 



FYI

---

"For Your Information." On the Internet, a subseries of RFCs that are not 

technical standards or descriptions of protocols. 



Online FYI. copies are available via FTP from NIC.DDN.MIL as fyi/fyi##.txt 

or fyi/fyi##.ps (## is the FYI number without leading zeroes). 



FYIs may also be requested through electronic mail by sending a message to 

SERVICE@NIC.DDN.MIL with a subject line of "FYI ##" for text versions or a 

subject line of "FYI ##.PS" for PostScript versions.  



To obtain a list of available documents (the FYI index), the subject line 

of your message should read "FYI index". 



Also, check out the sites carrying RFCs (see below).



Gopher

------

A world wide information service with many implementations. It works from a 

top-level subject-oriented menu system that accesses other information 

services across the Internet. You can be viewing a color photograph  of an  

ancient Chinese vase stored on a computer in Taiwan, and, on a moment's 

notice, "be" in the UK, retrieving names and dates from a historical 

database. Gopher combines a finding and fetching capability in one tool. 



Gopher gets information from certain locations on the Internet to which it 

is connected, and brings the information to your computer. It can also get 

information via other Gophers at other locations connected to yet other 

hosts. The Telneting or file transfer protocols are transparent to the 

user. 



"Common Questions and Answers about the Internet Gopher" are posted to the 

following Usenet newsgroups comp.infosystems.gopher, comp.answers, and 

news.answers every two weeks. 



The most recent version of this FAQ is also available by anonymous ftp from 

rtfm.mit.edu in the /pub/usenet/news.answers directory. The file is called 

gopher.faq. 



To get it by email, write mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the command "send 

usenet/news.answers/finding-sources" in the body of the text. 



The Online World book's support forum's files are available on 

gopher.denet.dk . Select "Network information",  and then  "The Online 

World"  from the next menu. 



On the Internet, you will often see pointers to Gopher sources given like 

this: 



  Type=1

  Name=  United States GOVERNMENT Gophers

  Path=1/gopher.welcome/peg/GOPHERS/gov

  Host=peg.cwis.uci.edu

  Port=7000

  URL: gopher://peg.cwis.uci.edu:7000/11/gopher.welcome/peg/GOPHERS/gov



If you are not using a communications program that can use this information 

directly, then try to retrieve the information from URL line. In this case,

it translates into the command 'gopher peg.cwis.uci.edu 7000' , then select 

peg / gophers/ gov . 



If the gopher command is not available on your system, you can often telnet 

to the gopher site, and login as 'gopher' to get access. 



Gophermail

----------

A service for those without interactive access to the Internet. Send a 

message to one of the following addresses for more information: 



    gophermail@ncc.go.jp          (in Japan)

    gopher@nig.ac.jp              (in Japan)

    gophermail@Calvin.Edu         (in USA)

    gopher@dsv.su.se              (in Sweden)

    gopher@ftp.technion.ac.il     (Israel)



Just send a blank message, and a help screen will be returned to you. 



Hytelnet

--------

(1) An Internet service offering access to many other services, including 

university and library catalogues around the world. Prefers VT-100 

emulation. (telnet herald.usask.ca. Login: hytelnet) 



The Hytelnet anonymous ftp archive is at ftp.usask.ca. Get the README file 

in the /pub/hytelnet directory. 



(2) A memory resident utility (MS-DOS) that provides instant information on 

Internet-accessible library catalogues, Free-Nets, Campus Wide Information 

Servers, Gophers, WAIS, and much more. 



The program is available by ftp from access.usask.ca in the 

/pub/hytelnet/pc/ directory. File name is hytelnxx.zip where xx is the 

number of the latest version. 



HYTEL-L@KENTVM.BITNET is a mailing list for announcements of new versions. 



International Standard Top-level Country codes

----------------------------------------------

Top-level country codes derived from the International Standards 

Organization's international standard ISO 3166. For a current list, 

retrieve the FAQ: International E-mail. It is regularly posted to these 

Usenet newsgroups: comp.mail.misc, comp.mail.uucp, news.newusers.questions 

alt.internet.services, alt.answers, comp.answers, and news.answers. 



You may also retrieve it via E-mail as follows:



  mail ftpmail@grasp.insa-lyon.fr

  Subject: anything 

  open

  [mime]

  get pub/faq/mail/country-codes

  quit



(where [ ] = optional)



IRC

---

Internet Relay Chat is a multi-user, multi-channel chatting network. It 

allows people all over the world to talk to one another in real-time. Each 

IRC user has a nickname they use.  All communication with another user is 

either by nickname or by the channel that they or you are on.  It requires 

that you use a service which has a direct connection to Internet. 



More information about IRC is available by anonymous FTP to cs.bu.edu. 

Retrieve the /irc/support/tutorial* files. A FAQ file, "IRC Frequently 

Asked Questions", is also available. 



Global IRC is available by telnet bradenville.andrew.cmu.edu (or telnet 

128.2.54.2), and through many other hosts. 



Jughead

-------

An interactive Internet service which gets menu information from various 

gopher servers. It is a database of Gopher links, and an acronym for 

Jonzy's Universal Gopher Hierarchy Excavation And Display. 



Jughead accepts word searches and the search result can be used to access 

menus on on many remote Gophers.  



More information is available by anonymous ftp to ftp.cc.utah.edu . Get the 

file jughead.ReadMe in the pub/gopher/GopherTools/jughead directory.



Knowbot

-------

Experimental directory services using intelligent computer programs that 

automate the search and gathering of data from distributed databases. The 

concept behind the Knowbot is that it is supposed to be a Knowledge Robot -

- something that goes hunting for information on the Internet. 



To reach a Knowbot: telnet CNRI.Reston.va.us port 70 . Also, try email to 

kis@nri.reston.va.us . Send 'help' for instructions. 



List of Lists

-------------

The Interest Groups List of Lists is a directory of conferences available 

by ftp from sri.com . Log in to this host as user "anonymous." Retrieve by 

using the following commands:



    cd netinfo

    ascii

    get interest-groups



Note that as of March 1994, the file was around 1,400,000 bytes in size. It 

will be returned to you in moderately sized pieces. 



You can also get it by email from mail-server@sri.com . Write the following 

command in the TEXT of the message: 



    Send netinfo/interest-groups



Lynx

----

Text-only World Wide Web browser for any vt100 emulating terminal program 

using full screen, arrow keys, highlighting, etc. Fast naviagion of cross-

linked hypertext documents (minus multimedia) over a low-speed dial-up 

connection. 



To obtain Lynx, ftp to: FTP2.cc.ukans.edu . The releases, including one for 

MS-DOS computers, are in the /pub/lynx directory. 



If you do not have a WWW browser, telnet to ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu . At the 

login: prompt, enter www and press return . This will give you access to 

Lynx. Online help is available. 



MAILBASE

--------

A program functioning like a LISTSERV. For more information about the 

Mailbase at Newcastle University (England), send email to 

MAILBASE@MAILBASE.AC.UK containing the following commands: 



    send mailbase overview  (for a general guide to Mailbase)

    send mailbase userhelp  (for a User Guide)

    lists                   (for a list of available forums) 



This mailbase managed 403 mailing lists in July 1993. 



Majordomo

---------

is another program that organizes mailing lists. Commands for subscribing 

and unsubscribing are similar to those used with a LISTSERV except that the 

name is not given at the end of the subscription line. Further, rather than 

sending e-mail to listserv at the site that houses the list, it should be 

sent to majordomo@csn.org. 



For a list of mailing lists served by this Majordomo server, send the 

command 'lists' in the body of your email message. Add the command 'help' 

on the next line for a short help file.



MIME

----

The Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions is a specification that offers a 

way to interchange text in languages with different character sets, and 

multi-media email among many different computer systems that use Internet 

mail standards. 



MIME lets you create and read email messages containing these things:



    - character sets other than ASCII

    - enriched text (text with markup commands like <bold> to make

      it more readable)

    - images

    - sounds

    - other messages (reliably encapsulated)

    - tar files 

    - PostScript

    - FTPable file pointers

    - other stuff



MIME supports several pre-defined types of non-textual message contents, 

such as 8-bit 8000Hz-sampled mu-LAW audio, GIF image files, and PostScript 

programs. It also permits you to define your own types of message parts. 



For details, check out FAQ 475, and the newsgroup comp.mail.mime .



NCSA Mosaic

-----------

gives easy point-and-click graphical hypermedia access to the World Wide 

Web over a SLIP or TCP/IP connection to the Internet. The system runs on X 

Windows, the Macintosh, and Microsoft Windows, and has integrated 

transparent access to other Internet services, ranging from FTP to WAIS to 

Gopher.  



Mosaic can display hypertext and hypermedia documents in a variety of fonts 

and styles. It has support for sounds, movies, international characters, 



Mosaic can be retrieved by anonymous ftp from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu . The MS 

Windows version is in directory /PC/Mosaic . (Version 1.0 had the file name 

wmos1_0.zip.) The Macintosh version is in directory /Mac/Mosaic . 



Mosaic, the server codes, and other WWW clients, are also available via 

anonymous ftp from: SunSITE.unc.edu in pub/packages/infosystems/Mosaic. 



Netfind

-------

Internet directory services that allow users to get information about 

individuals. Search by name and organization/location. For more 

information, send email to LISTSERV@brownvm.brown.edu with the following 

text in the body of your mail "GET NETFIND HELP". 



Ping

----

A program to test a network connection on the Internet. May be used to 

check if a connection to another host is available, when your email seems 

not to reach a receiver. 



Ping sends a message (an ICMP echo request packet) to a specified host, and 

waits for a response. It reports success or failure and statistics about 

its operation. 



To use ping by email, write <b.liddicott@ic.ac.uk> with Subject: #ping 

<machine> . This command will ping the machine 10 times and send you the 

result. 



PPP

---

Point-to-Point Protocol. A serial communications protocol for connecting to 

the Internet by direct or dial-up lines. PPP systems can receive and 

transfer files without having to use the intermediate host as a transfer 

and rest stop. 



RFC

---

The Internet's Request for Comments document series. Working notes of the 

Internet research and development community. A document in this series may 

be on essentially any topic related to computer communication, and may be 

anything from a meeting report to the specification of a standard.  



Information about new RFCs are regularly sent to the RFC-DIST notification 

mailing list. Requests to be added to this list should be sent to RFC-

REQUEST@NIC.DDN.MIL.          



Note: Once a document is assigned an RFC number and published, that RFC is 

never revised or re-issued with the same number.  There is never a question 

of having the most recent version of a particular RFC. It is therefore 

important to verify that you have the most recent RFC on a given topic!



Details on how to obtain RFCs via FTP or EMAIL may be obtained by sending 

an EMAIL message to rfc-info@ISI.EDU with the message body help: 

ways_to_get_rfcs.  For example: 



        To: rfc-info@ISI.EDU

        Subject: getting rfcs



        help: ways_to_get_rfcs



SimTel Software Repository

--------------------------

maintains a giant collection of public domain software, shareware, 

documentation and mail archives under the following top-level headings: 

Ada, CPM, CPMUG, HZ100, MACINTOSH, MISC, MSDOS, PC-BLUE, SIGM, UNIX-C, 

ZSYS. 



All files are accessible by telnet to OAK.Oakland.Edu (141.210.10.117),

by gopher from Gopher.Oakland.Edu, from various mirror sites around the 

world, or by e-mail through the BITNET/EARN file servers. 



For information by email, send a message to LISTSERV@NDSUVM1.BITNET with 

the command 'GET PDGET HELP' in the first line of your text. 



For a list of MS-DOS files, retrieve the file simlist.zip in the

/pub/msdos/filedocs directory at Oak.Oakland.Edu .



SLIP

----

Serial Line Internet Protocol. A method for connecting to the Internet. 

SLIP systems can receive and transfer IP packets over a serial link, such 

as a dial-up or private telephone line.



Telnet

------

A program on the Internet that allows logins to another computer to run 

software there. Telnet allows a user at one site to interact with a remote 

system at another site as if the user's terminal was connected directly to 

the remote computer. 



With telnet, you can browse menus, read text files, use gopher services, 

and search online databases. Sometimes, you can join live, interactive 

games and chat with other callers. Usually, you cannot download files or 

list file directories. 



Telnet is not available to users who have email only access to the 

Internet. 



To telnet a remote computer, you must know its name. This can either be in 

words, like "vm1.nodak.edu", or a numeric address, like "134.129.111.1". 

Some services require that you connect to a specific "port" on the remote 

system. Enter the port number, if there is one, after the Internet address. 



To access the remote computer, you need a legal user name and password. A 

list of SPECIAL INTERNET CONNECTIONS, with public user names and passwords, 

is available by email to bbslist@aug3.augsburg.edu. You can also get it by 

ftp or gopher to csd4.csd.uwm.edu (cd /pub, and get inet.services.txt), and 

through alt.internet.services on Usenet. 



Note: If you get a return message saying that the host was unknown or 

unavailable, first check if your address syntax was correct. If it is, try 

later. Also, your telnet address may have changed.





TRICKLE

-------

Servers on the Internet offering the SimTel shareware and public domain 

files by email (uuencoded). These servers include: 



          TRICKLE@TREARN.BITNET    (Turkey)

          TRICKLE@TAUNIVM.BITNET   (Israel)

          TRICKLE@IMIPOLI.BITNET   (Italy)

          TRICKLE@DB0FUB11.BITNET  (Germany)

          TRICKLE@AWIWUW11.BITNET  (Austria) 

          TRICKLE@UNALCOL.BITNET   (Colombia)



For more information and a current list of all TRICKLE servers, send a 

message to one of these addresses with the command "/HELP" in the body of 

your text. 



URL (Universal Resource Locater) 

--------------------------------

Many users with interactive connection to the Internet, use remote network 

resources through local programs. These programs are called local clients, 

and there are such programs for anonymous ftp, irc, Mosaic, WWW, and more. 



The local clients programs often require a terse, machine readable resource 

addressing format, called "Universal Resource Locater" (URL). It is a draft 

standard for specifying an object on the Internet, such as a file or 

newsgroup.



Example using WWW: The URL format resource address is



   http://web2.xerox.com/digitrad



This tells us:



   the tool: http (see appendix 4)

   the host: web2.xerox.com

   the path: digitrad



A Gopher example: URL uses the following



   gopher://nutmeg.ukc.ac.uk/archive/uunet/archive/doc/obi

        /USG/Health.Care.Security.Plan/report/forward.txt



The URL tells us:



  the tool: gopher

  the host: nutmeg.ukc.ac.uk

  the path: archive/uunet/archive/doc/obi/USG

            /Health.Care.Security.Plan/report

  the file: forward.txt



A ftp example:



  ftp://ftp.rpi.edu/pub/communications/internet-cmc.html 



Veronica

--------

A service on the Internet. Maintains an index of gopher items, and provides 

keyword searches of those titles. The result of a search is a set of 

gopher-type data items, which is returned to the user as a gopher menu. The 

user can access any of these data items by selecting from the returned 

menu. 



Example: gopher nysernet.org . Select 'Search the Internet' from the main 

menu. Select Veronica alternatives from the next. 



WAIS (Wide Area Information Servers)

------------------------------------

A kind of indexed online search tool to locate items based on what they 

contain - usually keyword text searches. It is a powerful tool for 

concurrent searches of large databases and/or newsgroups on the Internet. 



Example: Telnet QUAKE.THINK.COM (or Telnet 192.31.181.1). Login as "wais". 

Telnet info.funet.fi (or 128.214.6.100).  Login: info . 



FreeWAIS

--------

allows uncapitalized Boolean searching with any combination of and/or/not, 

but no parenthesis.  With freeWAIS, you _can_ search for "dogs and cats". 

It also adds truncation, using "*". This lets you easily search for plurals 

and root words, like "advertis*". 



For information on free WAIS software contact freewais@cnidr.org

Mailing list: wais-discussion@wais.com

To subscribe send a mail to wais-discussion-request@wais.com

Usenet newsgroup: comp.infosystems.wais



VMS

---

Virtual Memory System. A multiuser, multitasking, virtual memory operating 

system for the VAX series from Digital Equipment.



Whois

-----

An Internet program that lets users query a database of people and other 

Internet entities, such as domains, networks, and hosts, kept at the NIC 

(see appendix 4). 



For example, Whois lets you scan through a registry of researchers in the 

network field to find an Internet address, if you have only the last name 

or part of it. It will give you the person's company name, address, phone 

number, and email address. It had around 70,000 listings in December 1992.        



You can access Whois by email to MAILSERV@INTERNIC.NET . Put the word 

HELP in the subject field of your mail for instruction. 



To access the WHOIS, telnet to rs.internic.net. When greeted by the host, 

type "WHOIS" and press RETURN. It also has a gopher service at the same

address. 



Winsock

-------

The Windows Socket standard. A method for providing TCP/IP network services 

to Windows applications (such as a gopher client). Requires a direct 

connection to the Internet, or access to a SLIP or PPP server. With 

Winsock, you can run several applications that make use of the Internet at 

the same time. 



For information, check out the newsgroup comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc and 

alt.winsock . Also, do an anonymous ftp to sunsite.unc.edu and check out 

the files in /pub/micro/pc-stuff/ms-windows/winsock .



The FAQ "Windows and TCP/IP for Internet access" contains a list of some 

shareware and public domain software that can be used with Windows to 

access services on the Internet. This FAQ is regularly being posted to 

alt.winsock . 



WWW (World Wide Web)

--------------------

is much like Gopher in that it provides top level access down to various 

documents, lists, and services on the Internet. WWW uses a hypertext 

interface with cross links between things. You can use highlighted words to 

jump off onto another track. Requires interactive access to the Internet.



A Frequently Asked Questions file about WWW is available by sending the 

command GET WWW FAQ to LISTSERV@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU .



Examples: telnet www.njit.edu or telnet 128.235.163.2 (U.S.A.), telnet 

info.cern.ch or telnet 128.141.201.74 (Switzerland), telnet vms.huji.ac.il 

or telnet 128.139.4.3 (Israel). Login: www .



The Digital Tradition folk song database is avaible through a WWW server 

that allows users to search for and display songs interactively using any 

of several freely available WWW clients. The server can even provide audio 

of the song tunes for some systems. 



This WWW server is located at: http://web2.xerox.com/digitrad. To find out 

about more, access the above WWW server or email digitrad@world.std.com 

(Dick Greenhaus). 



The Australian National University's WWW server at http://rubens.anu.edu.au 

offers Art-History-related images. In January 1994, it held 2,800 images 

with associated short records dealing with the history of printmaking from 

the 15th century to the end of the 19th century, and a few on the classical 

architecture of the Mediterranean. 



For more information

--------------------

You may start with "Answers to Commonly Asked New Internet User Questions," 

which is available by email from SERVICE@NIC.DDN.MIL . Put the following 

command in your message's SUBJECT heading: 



    RFC 1325 



"FYI: Internet User's Glossary" can be retrieved by electronic mail from 

SERVICE@NIC.DDN.MIL . Put the following command in the Subject of your mail:  

RFC 1392 . 



The FAQ: "Internet Services Frequently Asked Questions and Answers" can be 

retrieved by email from mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu . Write the following 

command in the body of your message:



    send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/faq



"FYI: What is the Internet?" is FTPable from nic.merit.edu as fyi_20.txt . 

The file is in the /documents/fyi directory.



For "Internet Services Frequently Asked Questions and Answers," FTP to:      

rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/internet-services/faq , or send an 

email message to "mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu" with a line in the body of the 

message reading "send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/faq". 







Appendix 7: 



LIST OF SERVICES OFFERING ACCESS TO INTERNET

--------------------------------------------



This is a list of online services by country offering general access to the 

Internet. These services provide access to any individual, provided that he 

or she is willing to pay an (often) modest subscription fee. 



In many countries, there are organizations selling Internet access to the 

business community at high prices. The added value provided by these seldom 

justifies their higher price. They will therefore not be listed at all, if 

I can help it. 



The organizations listed deliver one of the following three levels of access:



  [1] Full interactive access. You can use all Internet commands including 

      ftp, telnet, and gopher. 



  [2] Exchange of electronic mail. Local access to selected Newsgroups, 

      BITNET and Internet mailing lists. Limited or no access to 

      interactive commands. 



  [3] Exchange of electronic mail only. No access to interactive commands.



Important: Several key Internet commands are available by email. Examples: 

ftp, archie, gopher, veronica, finger. Level 2 and 3 access may therefore 

be good enough for many users. You may even find such access to be more 

productive for your applications, because of the waiting times often 

experienced when using the Internet interactively. 



Many countries are missing from this list. The objective is to gradually 

expand it with a handfull services in all countries of the world. It is not 

intended to be complete. A few inexpensive, efficient and reliable 

offerings in each country will do. 



If you know of a service that should be listed, please send information to

me for consideration (send to: opresno@extern.uio.no). 



The offerings are sorted by part of world:



  Africa                    

  Asia-Pacific Rim          

  Former Soviet Republics   

  Latin America             

  North America             

  Western and Central Europe



Note: Unless "full access to the Internet" is given, a service will most 

likely only offer access level 2 or 3. 





AFRICA

******

Ethiopia

--------

Addis Ababa: PADIS. Tel: +251(1)511 167. Email: sysop@padis.gn.apc.org.



Kenya

-----

Nairobi: ELCI. Tel: +254 2 562 015 or +254 2 562 022.

Email: sysop@elci.gn.apc.org



Senegal

-------

Dakar: ENDA. Tel: +221 21 6027  or +221 22 4229.

Email: sysop@endadak.gn.apc.org .



South Africa

------------

 

Durban: Dataverters BBS - 3 lines +27-31-765-5534. Full Internet access.

Email: michael.cookson@datavert.co.za

 

Johannesburg: Digitec Online BBS - 10 lines +27-11-476-7136. Full Internet

access. Email: anthony.gerada@digitec.co.za

 

Johannesburg: Netline Flagship BBS - 6 lines +27-11-789-6084. Full Internet 

access. Email: ian.gerada@netline.co.za

 

Johannesburg: SANGONet. Voice: +27-11-838-6944. Email: support@wn.apc.org .



Uganda

------

Kampala: MUKLA. Tel:  +256-41-532-479. Email: sysop@mukla.gn.apc.org



Zambia

------

Lusaka: ZANGO. Tel: +260 1 252 507. Email: sysop@unza.gn.apc.org .



Zimbabwe

--------

Harare: MANGO. Tel: +263 4 303 211 EXT 1492. Email: sysop@mango.apc.org





ASIA - PACIFIC RIM

******************

Australia

---------

Queensland: Pegasus/PACTOK.  Voice: +61(7) 257 1111.

Email: support@peg.apc.org , or pactok@peg.apc.org.

Email: leo@unv.ernet.in .



Hong Kong

---------

Hong Kong Supernet. Full Internet access. Email: info@hk.super.net.



Hong Kong Internet and Gateway Services. Full Internet access. Email: 

helpdesk@hk.net. 



India

-----

New Dehli: INDIALINK DELHI. Tel: 91-11-463-5096 or 461-1745



Bombay: INDIALINK BOMBAY. Tel: 91-22-262-2388 or 261-2185.

Email: mki@inbb.gn.apc.org



Japan

-----

Tokyo: APICNET.  Voice: 03-5423-0571. Fax: 03-5423-0576 . Email 

access to the Internet. Contact: kaneko@apic.or.jp (Yoko Kaneko) 



Tokyo: TWICS. Modem: 03-3351-8244 (8N1). Log in as guest for more 

information. Voice: 03-3351-5977. Email: burress@tanuki.twics.co.jp

 

Others: CompuServe (nodes across the country). 



Philippines

-----------

Quezon City: EMAIL CENTRE. Tel: +632 921 9976. Email: sysop@phil.gn.apc.org 



Thailand

--------

Bangkok: CCAN, Tel: (66-2) 255-5552. Email: ccan@peg.apc.org .





FORMER SOVIET REPUBLICS

***********************

Russia

------

Moscow: GlasNet. Voice:  +7(095)207-0704; +7(095)207-0889. Email: 

support@glas.apc.org . 



Ukraine

-------

Kiev: GLUK - GlasNet-Ukraine, Ltd. Tel:  +7 (044) 266 9481.

E-mail: support@gluk.apc.org .



LATIN AMERICA

*************

Argentina

---------

Buenos Aires: SatLink Uucp/Internet Gateway offers V.32bis and Turbo-PEP 

access. Email: postmaster@satlink.net, or call +54-1-958-1041. Offline reader: 

Waffle. 



Buenos Aires: Wamani. Voice: +54 (1) 382-6842. Email: apoyo@wamani.apc.org .



Brasil

------

Rio de Janeiro: Hot-Line BBS. 8 lines. For information, write Charles Miranda 

at charles.miranda%hlbbs@ibase.br. Voice +55 21 537-3162.



Sao Paulo: Mandic BBS. Modem phone: +55-11-816-3911. Speeds from 300 to 16800 

bits/s. 10 lines. Write to aleksandar.mandic@bbs816.mandic.onsp.br ( Aleksandar 

Mandic) for information. PCBoard BBS. Various offline readers. US$10/month.



Rio de Janeiro: AlterNex. Write to Carlos Afonso <cafonso@ax.apc.org> for 

information. Voice: +55(21)286-0348.



Others: CompuServe, 



Colombia

--------

Santafe de Bogota: COLNODO. Tel: 57-2697181, 2444692, 2697202.

Email: julian@colnodo.igc.apc.org



Ecuador

-------

Quito: Ecuanex. Voice: +593(2) 528-716. Email: intercom@ecuanex.apc.org .



Mexico

------

LANETA, Tlalpan 1025, col. portales, Mexico, df. Mexico. Voice: (525) 2774791

Email: soporte@laneta.igc.apc.org



Nicaragua

---------

Managua: Nicarao - CRIES. Email: ayuda@nicarao.apc.org . Voice: +505(2)621312.



Uruguay

-------

Montevideo: Chasque.  Email: apoyo@chasque.apc.org . Voice: +598(2)496192.



Compuserve. 



NORTH AMERICA

*************

Canada

------

Toronto: Web. Email: support@web.apc.org. Voice: +1(416)596-0212.



United States

-------------



Delphi. Full access. Write to: General Videotex Corp., 1030 Massachusetts 

Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. 



CompuServe. Nodes in most large cities.



Institute for Global Communications (includes EcoNet, PeaceNet, ConflictNet, 

LaborNet.) Contact by email: support@igc.apc.org . Voice: +1(415)442-0220.



WESTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE

**************************



Czech Republic

--------------

Prague: ECONNECT, Tel:+42(02) 66710366. Email: sysop@ecn.gn.apc.org



Finland

-------

CLINET. Modem: 90-455 8331, 90-455 8778, 90-455 8688. Unix. login: new. 

InterNet 193.64.6.33 (clinet.fi) 



JYBOX, Modem: 941-211 562.  Waffle. Internet email



VAASA FREEPORT BBS. Modem: 961-324 8490, 961-317 0972, 961-317 0974. 

FreePort. Internet news and mail. 



Finland Free-Net. Voice: 358-0-4514007



France

------

CompuServe. Voice: 36-63-81-31 (Customer Service).



Germany

-------

Berlin: Grossraum Berlin. Voice: 030/834 68 90. Email: in-berlin-

admin@in-berlin.de . DM 20/month (1993). Full Internet access. 



Hamburg: Grossraum Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein. Voice: 040/2790975, Email: 

info@hanse.de .  UUCP access (email only). 



Hannover: ComLink e.V. Voice: +49(511)350-1573. Email: 

support@oln.comlink.apc.org . 



Frankfurt am Main: Region Rhein/Main. Voice: 069/39048413, Email: 

oli@odb.rhein-main.de . DM 12/month for full Internet access. 



Munich: Grossraum M"unchen. Voice: 089/298934. Email: info@muc.de.



Others: ComLink e.V (Email: support@oln.comlink.apc.org). CompuServe.



Note: A longer list is available by email from LISTSERV@vm1.nodak.edu using

the command GET TOW GERMANY .



Ireland

-------

Galway: Ireland On-Line. Tel: +353 91 92727. Email: postmaster@iol.ie .



Italy

-----

Pisa: ITALYNET. Tel: 39-5-57-6343. Email:  cesare@gn.apc.org



The Netherlands

---------------

Amsterdam: Hacktic. Email: felipe@hacktic.nl. From Dfl 25,-/Month for 15 hr 

access. Voice: +31 206001480. Fax: +31 206900968. Full Internet access. 



Amsterdam: Simplex. Modem: +31(20) 6653388. Email: simplex@simplex.nl



Utrecht: KnoWare. Macintosh oriented, provides full internet access via 

Appletalk Remote Access. Tel. 030-802244, Email: knoware@knoware.nl . 



Nijmegen: Antenna. Tel: +31(80)235372. Email: support@antenna.nl.



Norway

------

Bergen: Bergen By Byte. Voice: (+047) 55 57 01 57. Email: postmaster@bbb.no.



Haugesund: Euronet. Voice: (+47) 52 71 71 70. Modem: (+47) 52 71 60 21 . News 

and various mailing lists. Email: john.nordbo@euronetis.no .



Oslo: Oslonett A/S. Voice: (+47) 22 46 10 99. Email: oslonett@oslonett.no .

Full access to Internet.



Oslo: Thunderball Cave BBS. Modem: (+47) 22  56 70 18. News. Email: 

jon.orten@thave.no . 



Slovenia

--------

Ljubljana: HISTRIA (ABM-BBS), Tel: + 38 61 211-553.

Email: support@histria.apc.org .





Sweden

------

Johanneshov: NordNet. Email: support@pns.apc.org . Voice: +46(8) 600-0331.



United Kingdom

--------------

Compulink Information eXchange Ltd. Sign-up fee (1993): GBP 25.00. Monthly 

minimum: GBP 6.25. Off-peak connect rate GBP 2.40. Peak rate is 3.60 per hour. 

full Internet access. Contact: The Compulink Information Exchange Ltd., The 

Sanctuary Oakhill Grove, Surbiton, Surrey KT6 6DU, England. Voice: +44-81-390-

8446. Fax: +44-81-390-6561. NUA: 2342 1330 0310. Data: +44-81-390-1255/+44-81-

390-1244. Email: cixadmin@cix.compulink.co.uk . 



London: GreenNet. Email: support@gn.apc.org . Voice: +44(71)608-3040 .



internet.demon.co.uk (voice: 081 349-0063). Offers FULL internet connection 

for Ten pounds per month (US$15), with $0 per hour connect charge. You'll get 

a permanent Internet node number assigned to you, and can make your PC an 

actual Internet node while dialed in, using Point to Point Protocol (PPP) and

low-cost shareware TCP/IP software. This allows you to FTP directly to/from 

your hard disk, and run various types of GUI clients, etc. 



Others: CompuServe, 





---------------------------------------------------------------------------

For more information:



[1] Several lists of international BBSes are available through the 

Internet. Example: by anonymous ftp to aug3.augsburg.edu . Change to the 

/files/bbs_lists directory. We have found the nal*.* files interesting. 



[2] The FYI document "Network Service Providers Around the World" is a huge 

lists of Internet, email, and X.400 service providers around the world. The 

list is designed to help people and organizations FIND the providers. Each 

entry is confirmed by the service provider.  Queries for updates are sent 

to each service provider quarterly.  



Gopher gopher.psg.com port 70 . Select Networking Computers \ Connectivity 

\ Providers of Networking Services around the World \ Network Service 

Providers Around the World. 



To get on an email distribution list, mail greenebr@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu .



[3] "Network Service Providers in Latin America and Caribe" is a Spanish 

language text available on gopher.rcp.net.pe port 70 .







Appendix 8:



About the author

================



                   WHO IS ODD DE PRESNO?



Odd de Presno (born 1944) lives in Arendal, a small town in southern 

Norway, with his computers and modems. He has written twelve books. Half 

these focus on various aspects of the Online World. The rest of them are 

about practical applications of MS-DOS based personal computers. Published 

in Norway and England. His book "The Online World" is distributed globally 

as shareware. 



Over 700 of his articles have been published in management and technical 

magazines in Scandinavia, England, Japan, and the U.S. 



Writer. International public speaker. Consultant. Operates an English-

language BBS online service in Norway (since 1985). 



Area of special expertise: applications of global sources of online 

information, computer conferencing, global electronic mail, automation of 

information retrieval, personal computer applications. 



Founder and Project Director of KIDLINK, an international non-profit 

organization promoting a global dialog among the youth of the world. Since 

its start in 1990, KIDLINK has involved over ten thousand kids between 10 - 

15 years of age living in over 58 countries. (1) 



Educational background includes a Diploma Degree in Business from 

Bedriftsoekonomisk Institutt (Norway). 



He founded the software company Data Logic A/S (Norway) in 1967 and was 

president for five years. Sales manager Control Data Corp. seven years (in 

charge of CYBERNET/Norway, an international online service). Marketing 

manager IKO Software Service A/S, two years. Currently running his own 

business. 



Member of the Computer Press Association (U.S.A.) since 1983, and NFF 

(Norway). Listed in Marquis' "Who's Who in the World" from 1991.   



---------------------------------------------------------------------------

(1) For information about KIDLINK, send email to LISTSERV@vm1.nodak.edu (or 

LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 on BITNET). The text of your mail should contain the 

command "GET KIDLINK GENERAL". You can also read it through the KIDINK 

Gopher. Access command: gopher kids.ccit.duq.edu 70 . 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------







Appendix 9:



             HOW TO REGISTER YOUR COPY OF THE ONLINE WORLD

             =============================================



The online world is dynamic. Services and offerings come and go. Your 

registration will support further research, and production of updates. 



You can register your current copy, or sign up for six updates of the book 

during one year. Details are given below. 



==============================================================================



    Please send to:



    Odd de Presno

    4815 Saltrod

    Norway (Europe)





    Please add me as a supporter of the Online World book: 



    Name    ______________________________________________________________



    Company ______________________________________________________________



    Address ______________________________________________________________



            ______________________________________________________________



    City    ________________________________State _______ Zip ____________



    Country ________________________________



    Email address  ______________________________________________________





    Please mark off your selections with (x) below: 





    Basic Registration for individuals

    ----------------------------------

    (  ) NOK 105.00   For payment by credit card. 

                      (around US$ 15.00)



    (  ) US$  20.00   For all other methods of payment. 

                      (or, in Norwegian currency: NOK 140.00.) 



    Option (for Basic Registration)

    -------------------------------

    (  ) US$  2.00    Add to have a copy of the most recent version of the 

                      book sent you on diskette. Only with registration! 

                      (In Norway, NOK 10.00)



                     (  ) 5.25" MS-DOS disk   (  ) 3.5" disk 720KB MS-DOS





    Registration of Six Updates - for individuals

    ---------------------------------------------

    

    (  ) US$  80.00   For all methods of payment (includes shipping and 

                      handling).



                      Six updates of the book will be sent you by mail

                      during the next 12 months. 



    (  ) US$  76.00   For all methods of payment.  (No shipping.)



                      The reader retrieves all new updates by modem. 

                      Six updates. 



                      US$ 60.00 when renewing this option for another

                      year.



    Registration for businesses

    ---------------------------

    All Corporate site licence options include six updates during the

    next 12 months. 



    (  ) US$    500 Distribution for up to   100 people on a single network



    (  ) US$  3.000 Distribution for up to  2500 people on a single network



    (  ) US$ 10.000 Distribution for over  10000 people on a single network



    (  ) Deduct 5 percent if the company retrieves all new updates by modem.



    (  ) Deduct another 20 percent when renewing this option for another

         year.





    Discounts for schools and public libraries

    ------------------------------------------

    Special rates available for schools and public libraries. For details,

    send a message to LISTSERV@vm1.nodak.edu (BITNET users can send it to 

    LISTSERV@NDSUVM1). In the text of the message, use the command: 



    GET TOW SCHOOLS 

    GET TOW LIBRARY



    (  ) Please identify what type of discount you are taking advantage of:



         Ref: ______________



         Description: ____________________________________________________



                      ____________________________________________________







    Amount  ____________________ Date   _______________



    (  )  Check or money order payable to Odd de Presno in U.S. funds enclosed

    (  )  SWIFT transfer to 6311.05.27189 (Kredittkassen 4800 Arendal, Norway)   

    (  )  VISA    (  )  MasterCard    ( ) American Express





    Credit card number __________________________________ Exp date _______



    Note: You should not send your credit card number by email, unless

          the data is sent in PGP encrypted form. For information about

          how to do this, read the instruction at the end of this 

          appendix. If PGP is not available, use fax, or ordinary mail. 



  If you already have an evaluation copy of the book, where did you get it? 



  ________________________________________________  Version number: ____







  Comments or suggestions for improvement of The Online World __________

  

  ______________________________________________________________________

  

  ______________________________________________________________________

  

  ______________________________________________________________________

  





    Date ___________________



    Signature _________________________________





  Ŀ

    T H A N K   Y O U   F O R   S U P P O R T I N G   S H A R E W A R E  

  





How to send your registration using PGP encryption 

--------------------------------------------------



To use this method, you must have a copy of the freeware program PGP 

(Pretty Good Privacy) by Philip Zimmermann. It is available for MS-DOS, 

VAX/VMS, Unix, and other computers. 

 

Various versions of this program can be retrieved from online services all 

over the world. If you have access to the Internet, use Archie to locate a 

recent version. I am currently using version 2.3a.



Version 2.3a is available by anonymous ftp from ftp.eunet.no . The file name 

is pgp23a.zip . You will find it in the /pub/msdos/misc directory.



Follow these steps to encrypt your registration form (you may be able

to do this _without_ reading the documentation): 



Step 1

------

Store your completed registration form on your disk using the file name

ORDER.FRM. 



Cut out the text below, and store it using the file name ONLINE.ASC.



-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

Version: 2.3a



mQBNAi0jCjcAAAECAKBK1u0JZHZSEh50P3TdgSApuZCEWQh2Nsxw1pYrC4bgy/md

bAN3UFrkgwShtnpPIjm+GcXFBiKpZ5kDuT9T9x0ABRG0FW9wcmVzbm9AZXh0ZXJu

LnVpby5ubw==

=AXgT

-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----



Step 2

------

Add ONLINE.ASC to your public keyring using the command:



  pgp -ka online.asc



Step 3

------

Encrypt ORDER.FRM using the command



  pgp -ea order.frm opresno@extern.uio.no



The resulting file will be called ORDER.ASC.



Step 4

------

Send ORDER.ASC by email to opresno@extern.uio.no .





940310op







