Trekking Through Internet by Bob Stocker ********************************************************************* "Trekking Through Internet," by Bob Stocker, April 1992, "Buffer," Vol. 27, no. 4, Article 8 of 9, University of Denver, Editor: Mary F. Ehlert, buffer@du.edu, BUFFER@DUCAIR ********************************************************************* DU's connection to Internet is a tremendous educational resource. Internet can provide access to hundreds of library catalogs, worldwide electronic mail connections with colleagues in almost any field, the potential of searching numerous remote databases, options to participate in hundreds of electronic discussion groups, and the ability to acquire thousands of free and inexpensive shareware programs and public domain texts. The Internet can also be a frustratingly murky cloud of strange acronyms, cumbersome protocols, and mysterious domain names. A year ago, we wrote our short Internet Survival document to help people get started on their treks through the Internet murk. Like other survival documents, Internet Survival is terse and incomplete. It points you in the right direction, but you'll probably want to examine other information early on in your trek. I recommend Zen and the Art of the Internet by Brendan P. Kehoe at Widener University. Zen is easy to read and filled with useful tips. Tex and PostScript sources are available for anonymous ftp from a variety of sites. (One of those strange acronyms, "ftp" stands for file transfer protocol. Anonymous ftp allows you to access a restricted set of files on a computer you can not normally log onto.) I used anonymous ftp to get my copy of Zen from the inet/doc directory on ftp.uu.net. Bound, printed copies of Zen made from the file I downloaded are available at the DU Bookstore for $10.95. The NorthWestNet User Services Internet Resource Guide (NUSIRG) is thicker and more complete than Zen, but it is also more formidable. I use my copy primarily as a reference. Printed and bound copies of NUSIRG are available for $20 per copy from NorthWestNet NUSIRG Orders 15400 SE 30th Place, Suite 202 Bellevue, WA 98007 NorthWestNet also plans to make NUSIRG available for anonymous ftp in the nic/nwnet/user-guide directory on ftphost.nwnet.net. However, if you want a printed copy of the complete guide, you'll do better to buy one. It will probably cost you more than $20 to print your own copy from the PostScript source. Copies of both Zen and NUSIRG are available for inspection in Computer Access and Support Lab (MRB 22) and the Faculty Computing Lab (GCB 323). The National Science Foundation Network Service Center (NNSC) also compiles and distributes an Internet Resource Guide (IRG). IRG is available for anonymous ftp from the resource-guide directory on nnsc.nsf.net. IRG is primarily a list of services available through Internet. Unlike Zen and NUSIRG, IRG contains little tutorial information. If you want to search IRG for a keyword, the best place to look is on Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (CARL). Log onto Diana, Zephyr or Athena and enter the command carl IRG is currently located under CARL's "Information Databases" menu. If you would like to browse through IRG by displaying sections that have interesting titles, you may prefer to use the 'atdu' bulletin board. You can access atdu by logging onto Zephyr, Diana or Athena as "atdu" or by entering the command atdu from the system prompt on any of these computers. You'll find IRG in the computers-and-networks/internet sub-menu. If you poke around a bit on atdu, you'll also find answers to frequently asked questions about Internet, information about exchanging electronic mail with other mail systems (e.g. Compuserve and MCI), a list of anonymous ftp sites, and a list of mailing lists. We also have two public domain programs that provide information about Internet. Both programs are installed on Diana and Zephyr in the /usr/public directory of unsupported public domain programs. You may have to enter the command public before you can use them. The first of these programs is called "archie". Archie searches a database that lists files available at principle ftp sites around the world. The search is done on a computer accessed through Internet. You should expect to wait a while between entering an archie command and having information displayed on your screen. This is especially true if you use archie during normal business hours. You can display a manual page that tells how to use archie by entering the command man archie Archie was conceived and implemented by Alan Emtage, Peter Deutsch, and Bill Heelan at McGill University. The program we use at DU was written by Brendan Kehoe, with modifications by Clifford Neuman and George Ferguson. It uses a protocol developed by Clifford Neuman. We got the sources via anonymous ftp. Another program called hytelnet provides a hyper-text interface to information about publicly accessible computers on Internet. It displays one screen of information at a time and allows you to select the next screenful of information by moving the cursor to different "hot spots" on the screen. After you have entered a "public" command, you can use hytelnet of Diana or Zephyr by entering hytelnet The information accessed by hytelnet was compiled by Peter Scott at the University of Saskatchewan Libraries. The program on Diana and Zephyr was written by his colleague Earl Fogel at the University of Saskatchewan Computing Services. Peter Scott's MSDOS version of hytelnet is available for anonymous ftp from the pub/msdos/datacomm directory on duarchive.cair.du.edu. This should give you more than enough information to get started on your trek through Internet. Before you leave, I'd like to point out something you probably won't see in all the manuals. You'll be going to places some people look upon with a sense of reverence. Internet is a truly remarkable enterprise, supported to a large extent by volunteers (both individual and institutional) all over the world. I obviously can't speak for all these volunteers, but I think it's safe to say the vast majority of them believe that by working together to enhance communication they can make our world a better place. There has not been a more extensive cooperative endeavor in the history of humankind. Bob Stocker is the Director of Academic Computing. You can contact him via on-campus electronic mail at bstocker; via BITNET at bstocker@ducair; or via Internet at bstocker@du.edu. ************************************************************* CCNEWS Copyright Notice If you use this article, in whole or in part, in printed or electronic form, you are legally and morally obligated to credit the author and the original publication name, date, and page(s). We suggest that you also inform the author of your intention to use this article, in case there are updates or corrections that he or she might wish to suggest. The ideas and opinions expressed in this article, as well as articles obtained through CCNEWS and the CCNEWS Articles Archive, do not necessarily reflect those of EDUCOM. EDUCOM will not accept responsibility for misinformation, nor will EDUCOM be responsible for misuse of information obtained through the CCNEWS Articles Archive. 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