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                PC Magazine's Internet Special
             From PC Magazine for October 11, 1994

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Copyright 1994 by Ziff-Davis Interactive. All rights reserved.

This file may not be reproduced in any form, or stored in a database or
retrieval system, or transmitted or distributed in any form by any
means, electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of Ziff-Davis Interactive. 
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Contents:

Introduction: Making the Internet Connection
   Editors' Choice
   Highlights: Internet Access Software
   Three Paths To Connect to the Internet
   The Argot of the Internet
   Webs and Gophers
   How to Search the Internet
   Where to Go and What to Find
   About the Internet on the Internet
   Places That Matter
   Cool Things To Know
   Cool Places To Be
   Six More Suggestions

Related Articles
   About the Internet on the Internet
   Places That Matter
   Cool Things To Know
   Cool Places To Be
   Big Fun
   Six More Suggestions

Services for Connecting
   Introduction
   America Online
   Delphi
   NetCruiser
   The Pipeline for Windows
   Tools for Connecting
   Introduction
   Suitability to Task: Internet Access Tools
   Riding the Internet for Free
   Mosaic and Cello: Freeware Gold
   Internet Front Ends to Watch For

Connection Tool Reviews
   Acadia/VxD Version 1.0
   AIR NFS [Editors' Choice]
   ChameleonNFS for Windows Version 4.0
   Distinct TCP/IP Tools for Windows, Version 3.21.
   LAN Workplace for DOS, Version 4.2
   Pathway Access for Windows
   SuperTCP/NFS for Windows
   WinGopher Complete


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                         General Articles
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Making the Internet Connection

By Rick Ayre

Magazine covers scream Internet, Internet!, Internetglamour masks some
practical realities you need to know about. Our three-part tour shows
how the Internet works, how you can get connected, and what you'll find
once you arrive.

The Internet is, without argument, the most famous computer network
that's ever been built--or, to be even more precise, that ever evolved.
It's actually a network of networks: tens of thousands of computers
connected in a web, talking to one another through a common
communications protocol.

You'll want to be there because it's the closest thing we have to a
fully wired society. You'll want to be there because there's a
staggering amount of information passing through its wires--much of it
critical to any business.

But how do you get there? You'll want to give careful consideration to
decisions about the costs you'll incur, the infrastructure you'll
deploy, the Internet security you'll need, and the goals of your
business. All these factors should influence your choice of tools and
the route you take.

Three very real challenges face anyone who's deciding to become a part
of the Internet: understanding its structure; connecting to it; and
taking full advantage of it. In this story, we tackle all of them, with
detailed descriptions of the inner workings of the Internet; evaluations
of both the services and the tools that will help you get connected, and
a look at some of the places you'll want to visit.

Before you make your connection to the Internet, though, you should
decide which Internet services you want and look around to see what
options may already be available to you. There are benefits--and
limitations--to each of the connection methods.

ON-LINE CONNECTIONS

The first thing you need to know is that many Internet services are
available via commercial on-line service providers, depending on what
each service sees fit to support. If you're a member of America Online
(AOL), CompuServe, Delphi, or GEnie, for example, you already have some
Internet access. All of the big on-line services will let you send and
receive Internet e-mail; some, like Prodigy, require you to run a
special program, and some charge a premium for the service.

Several of the on-line services also offer access to Internet
newsgroups: Delphi offers the largest number; AOL is adding to its
offerings all the time. If you can send and receive Internet e-mail, you
can subscribe to Internet mailing lists, but you may want to be careful
of the costs. Popular lists generate hundreds of messages a day, and
even if your service charges you only a small fee for receiving mail,
costs can mount up rather quickly.

What you won't be able to get from a commercial service, at least not
today, is complete access to the hyperlinked, multimedia World-Wide Web
(WWW, or "the Web," for short). WWW was developed in Switzerland by the
European Laboratory for Particle Physics (or CERN). It has been
generating a great deal of interest--as well as hype--lately, and a lot
of people think it's the only reason to be on the Internet. Our sidebar
"Webs and Gophers" shows you why.

Joining an on-line service is the easiest way to connect to the
Internet. The obvious benefit of this approach is that it's less complex
than other connection options. Today, Delphi probably offers more
Internet services than any competitor; in fact, it gives you access to
most of the Internet. America Online is closing the gap quickly,
however, and in an effort to catch up, most of the other big-name
commercial services have announced their intentions of adding Internet
services.

We look at what on-line services have to offer in "The Internet:
Services for Connecting." Additionally, we evaluate The Pipeline for
Windows, from The Pipeline--a unique product that's actually a dedicated
custom front end for the company's own Internet service. This is the
only finished product of its kind right now, but NetCom's NetCruiser,
which we also review, is another up-and-comer. The Pipeline for Windows
and NetCruiser combine service and software in one package; this is a
category where rapid growth is likely over the next several months, so
watch out for even more of these combo products soon.

THE BIG T

What about other kinds of connections? Before you can connect fully to
the Internet (that is, without the kinds of constraints, technical and
otherwise, imposed by commercial on-line providers), your computer must
be running TCP/IP, the Unix-based Transmission Control
Protocol/Internetwork Protocol. This "protocol stack," which lies at the
heart of Internet connectivity, is a way of packaging information for
easy movement between many different kinds of computers, large and
small. While not the world's most efficient networking protocol, per se,
it does an outstanding job in the heterogeneous cross-platform
environment that is the Internet.

The connection methods we discuss below require that the TCP/IP stack be
running on your system. Herein lies a potential problem, since
installing and configuring network protocols is likely to be challenging
for the uninitiated. If your organization has a LAN--with a LAN
administrator--the job will likely fall to that person. If not, you
should be able--with perseverance and some help from tech support--to
get the job done yourself.

With TCP/IP running on your system, you can choose to connect to the
Internet directly, by being connected to a LAN that is itself wired to
the Internet, or indirectly, through a modem connection to the host
system of a public-access provider that in turn is wired to the
Internet. The latter solution requires that your system and the host
computer be running one of the serial communications protocols--Serial
Line Interface Protocol (SLIP) or Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)--as
well.

The eight products we review in the section entitled "The Internet:
Tools for Connecting" all provide TCP/IP transport and, in many cases,
SLIP and PPP as well. They're today's best hope of connecting fully to
the Internet and giving you the kind of productivity you should expect.

Our aim was to cover a group of products that provide all your Internet
needs in one box--a kind of Internet suite that combines connection
software with user-friendly programs for e-mail, news, and more. What we
found was somewhat disappointing: In too many cases, the connection
software is difficult to configure and nearly impossible to
troubleshoot. The front-end software tools tend to be more like applets
than like complete software applications.

In many cases, freeware programs proved far better than the applets
provided with the commercial programs we reviewed. Be sure to see the
sidebar "Riding the Internet for Free," in which we highlight the best
of available freeware and shareware.

DIFFERENT STROKES

For a fuller Internet connection than an on-line service provides, you
can contract with an Internet public-access provider for a SLIP or PPP
account. You run the TCP/IP stack on your computer, along with a SLIP or
PPP program and, if you're running Windows, a Winsock (as in Windows
Socket) program that manages the application's interface to TCP/IP. With
all this in place, you use your modem to call into the SLIP/PPP server;
once the connection is made, you're on the Internet and can access any
of its resources. Local SLIP/PPP accounts can be purchased for $30 a
month or less from regional providers who in some cases add value in the
form of news wires or weather or financial information.

The benefit of a SLIP/PPP connection is that you sit on the Internet as
a peer, with full access to all the service has to offer. The
limitations occur primarily in terms of the bandwidth available using a
modem connection. The faster the modems are on both ends of the
connection, the more satisfactory your Internet experience will be. We
think you need at least a 14.4-Kbps modem to take advantage of full
Internet access.

THE ULTIMATE LINK

As mentioned, you can also connect to the Internet through a LAN, but
this is not an option for everyone since it requires a LAN that's
directly wired to the Internet. Still, if you can connect this way,
you'll have the benefit of the fastest and most complete connection
possible. In this case, the limitations are related mostly to cost--of
the dedicated lines used to make the connections, of the hardware needed
at the local site, and of the personnel needed to keep it up and
running.

While you may not be asked to pay the cost of a dedicated leased line,
at least directly, such lines for LAN connections to the Net don't come
cheap. Prices vary with bandwidth, starting at about $2,000 a month for
a "dedicated 56" line (56 Kbps) on up. LAN-based connections also
require special (often costly) routers at the local site. For these
reasons alone, direct LAN connections to the Internet are usually out of
the reach of individuals, but they make sense as a corporate solution
where a lot of people need connecting at one site.

MAIL CALL

Once you're connected to the Internet, there's a lot you can do. The
most popular services fall into three main categories: mail; news and
discussion groups; and finding and downloading files.

E-mail is easily the single most popular activity on the Internet. The
Internet Society claims that there are currently somewhere between 20
and 30 million people on the Net, and most if not all have e-mail
addresses. Furthermore, from the Internet you can exchange mail with
just about anyone who has an e-mail address, even if they're not
directly hooked to the Internet. All the big commercial services--
CompuServe and Prodigy, for example--readily handle mail both to and
from the Internet.

Many smaller corporate nets have established similar Internet mail
gateways. The addresses themselves may at first look like some sort of
secret code, but once you understand their structure, they're clear
enough. For help with deciphering Internet e-mail addressing, see our
sidebar "How Internet Mail Finds Its Way."

VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES

The second-most-popular Net activity comprises two subcategories: Usenet
newsgroups and topical mailing lists. At last count there were almost
10,000 newsgroups and about half that many commonly used mailing lists.
Though the two operate quite differently (see the sidebar "How to Use
Newsgroups and Mailing Lists" for details), they offer quite similar
functionality. Both are essentially discussion groups, loosely organized
around topics, in which people inform each other and engage in lively
debates. Think of them as the world's largest bulletin boards. Some of
these groups are free-form, following the direction of the collective
will; others are moderated, with an editor reviewing all submissions and
posting the only most relevant or entertaining.

Many people participate actively in these discussions; many more only
lurk, or read the messages others post. Topics range from computer
security to the future of the on-line culture; names take forms like
comp.risks (a newsgroup) and Cybermind (a mailing list).

Two other activities, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and telnet, are equally
interesting ways to use the Internet. IRC is a way to hold real-time
keyboard conversations on-line; it's an experience not unlike playing
with a CB radio. Telnet is a terminal emulation protocol that lets you
to log on to other computers on the Internet.

DO YOU FTP?

Downloading files is another of the three most popular Internet
activities. Most often, files are downloaded using the Internet file
transfer protocol (FTP); the acronym is also commonly used to denote
programs that use the protocol to transfer files. Out on the Internet
are thousands of so-called anonymous FTP servers that store a variety of
files of all types and allow users to copy them using the FTP. The
designation anonymous reflects the fact that when you log on to one of
these servers, you normally do so as "anonymous" (after which you type
your e-mail address in response to the password prompt).

FTP servers are great, but finding the one among thousands that has the
file you want can be a daunting task. That's what led to the development
of archie, a tool for searching FTP servers. For a fuller description of
archie and other search methods (including Veronica and WAIS), see our
sidebar "How to Search the Internet."

SOPHISTICATED SEARCHES

There's more to the Internet that the three main categories. Some of the
newer services and resources are creating quite a stir and may soon
outrank the reigning champs. Prominent among these are Gophers and the
previously mentioned World-Wide Web servers, both of which are tools for
Internet-based information publishing. Content providers can make
information (text, sound, and images--even video) available in a format
that virtually anyone on the Internet can access, regardless of what
kind of computer he or she may be using.

The amazing thing about WWW documents is that the hyperlinks they
contain can instantly transport you to another document, even if the
second document is located on a server halfway around the world. PC
Magazine has recently established its own WWW server on the Internet:
www.pcmag.ziff.com./~pcmag.

NO MATTER WHERE YOU GO

Once you've made the leap and gotten connected to the world of the
Internet, don't be surprised if you're not welcomed with open arms by
those who already "live" there. Millions of long-time Internet denizens
aren't all that happy that everyone and her cousin are suddenly clogging
their arteries, using up their network bandwidth, and generally behaving
boorishly. "Newbies" exploring the Internet via services like America
Online (and soon from CompuServe) have sometimes been met with less than
a friendly embrace. Get on the Internet by all means, but do so in a
spirit of respect, and you'll be accepted more quickly. Hang out a while
and learn the culture. Play by the rules. The rewards will be enormous.

There's no doubt about it: Some of the hype the Internet has been
enjoying in the past 18 months is definitely justified. This globe-
encircling network of computers of all types and models, doing different
things for different people, in places as far apart as Tokyo, Toronto,
and Tanzania, is truly amazing. That the Internet has grown to its
current size without central planning and without anyone being in
control is an unprecedented achievement. Get connected and you'll see
for yourself.

Our Contributors: Robin Raskin is editor and Rick Ayre is an executive
editor of PC Magazine. Sean Gonzalez is a systems support programmer at
Ziff Information Services. Angela Gunn and Eric Berlin are freelance
writers. Kevin Reichard has written ten books for MIS on the Unix
operating system. Brendon M. Macaraeg and Angela Hickman are editorial
researchers at PC Magazine. Ted Stevenson was the associate editor in
charge of the story, and Amarendra Singh was the project leader.

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

Editors' Choice

Services for connecting: The Pipeline

Tools for connecting: AIR NFS

When we undertook this survey of Internet access software, we looked for
a product that could give you everything you need to connect to the
Internet. We concentrated on two areas: services for connecting and
tools for connecting.

The Pipeline is the best choice among today's available services. The
package is tied to The Pipeline's "interpreted" Internet service. For
Internet newcomers as well as for those who don't have access to a LAN-
based connection, The Pipeline provides a well-developed graphical
interface that among other things imposes its own organizational scheme
on the vast unstructured cyberspace, making it easy to get to topical
content.

On the tools side, we sought out packages that had the TCP/IP transport
capability necessary for peer-level connections, along with application
modules to handle at least a modest number of the many Internet services
and resources--an easy-to-use, one-stop-shopping suite for the Internet.
For the most part, what we found was disappointing.

The majority of the products we looked at originated as corporate wide-
area connectivity tools--TCP/IP stacks designed to be installed,
configured, and maintained by networking professionals. While we were
able in every case to get the TCP/IP transports working, in no case was
it easy.

Our Editors' Choice, Spry's AIR NFS, Version 3.0, is the only package
that provides virtually all the tools that a well-equipped, self-
sufficient Internet surfer would want to have, including mail, news,
telnet, FTP (server and client), Gopher, and a special version of
Mosaic. AIR's many utilities include a graphics viewer and a uu (Unix-
to-Unix) encoder-decoder. The individual modules are, for the most part,
fully featured and easy to use.

Spry doesn't force you to fend for yourself. It has its own WWW server
and Gopher server, giving new users a much-needed point of reference
within the Internet. To top it off, Spry gives you not one but two
TCP/IP stacks, developed by Microsoft and Novell. The package will also
work with any other TCP/IP stack you might have already installed.

Honorable mention goes to Ameritech Library Services' WinGopher
Complete. WinGopher has the best Gopher among the reviewed products. It
targets users determined to build their own suite of tools using strong
components from different vendors and can serve as the cornerstone of a
complete Internet connection setup.

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

Highlights: Internet Access Software

IT'S A BIG, BIG WORLD: The Internet Society currently claims that there
are about 20 to 30 million active Internet users and says that number is
growing by about 160,000 users per month. If you're impatient to join
the swelling ranks, read on: We'll fill you in on the latest services
and tools for getting connected.

CONNECTING CAN BE EASY or not-so-easy; it all depends on how you decide
to do it. For the former, turn to on-line services--such as Delphi and
America Online--that offer a selection of Internet services. An
intermediate step is to buy a service-and-software package like The
Pipeline.

FULL INTERNET ACCESS requires that you load TCP/IP, the Internet's
communications protocol, onto your system, then connect over a LAN or by
modem to a service provider. Setting up TCP/IP is the sort of work
usually left to network professionals, but with a little help from tech
support, you'll be able to handle it.

GOPHERS GALORE will characterize the next generation of Internet access
packages. Gophers and other trendy new Internet tools, like World-Wide
Web browsers, are scarce in the packages available today. (WWW servers
are multimedia capable and can connect to files at distant sites via
hypertext links.) However, you can count on finding mail modules,
newsreaders, FTP utilities for transferring files, and telnet packages
for logging on-line sessions on remote host computers.

FREEWARE and shareware tools for the Internet still abound. The first
software tools for cruising the Internet came from the same community
that built the Internet and, like the Internet, were offered either
cost-free or on a voluntary fee basis. Many of these tools, including
the famous Mosaic and the up-and-coming Cello, are still free and still
the most powerful available.

THE FUTURE of TCP/IP-based connectivity products--which constitute the
majority of the ones reviewed here--may be somewhat in jeopardy as new
operating systems appear on the market. Popular standalone and network
OSs that hit the market over the coming six months will have the basic
connectivity tools for reaching the Internet built right in. Stay tuned
for future developments.

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

Three Paths To Connect To the Internet

1. Connect your computer to a LAN whose server is an Internet host.

2. Dial into an Internet host using SLIP or PPP.

3. Dial into an on-line service that provides Internet services.

The first two are direct connections, since you run TCP/IP (the
Internet's network protocol) on your computer, making you a peer on the
Internet. The third is indirect: The on-line host is directly connected;
your computer uses terminal emulation software to access the services
that the host provides.

The differences between direct and indirect connections are more
profound than you might imagine. The type of connection you make will
define the type of experience you have on the Internet. While on-line
services have been adding features that help you interact with the
Internet, most still deliver only electronic-mail capabilities. Delphi
and America Online are the exceptions: Both provide access to the best
of the Internet--mailing lists, newsgroups, and Gopher services.

If you want the freedom to surf the Internet using a browser like Cello
or Mosaic, you'll need to make one of the two direct connections.

NETWORK CONNECTION

What you need:

You must be connected to a network that is connected to the Internet;
this requires a network adapter card and ODI or NDIS packet drivers. You
also need to run TCP/IP on your computer; if you're running Windows, you
will need Winsock support.

What you get:

Access to everything the Internet has to offer: mail, news, Gopher
servers, Web servers, and more.

What it costs:

The cost of the connection (data lines such as T1, dedicated 56 Kbps,
Switched 56 Kbps), which in most cases you won't have to pay directly,
plus the cost of connection-related software (TCP/IP and Winsock).

Where to get more information:

* Connecting to the Internet, by Susan Estrada. O'Reilly & Associates
Inc.; ISBN: 1-56592-061-9.

SLIP/PPP CONNECTION

What you need:

A modem and TCP/IP plus SLIP or PPP software; if you're running Windows
you will need Winsock software. You must also have a service provider
that lets you dial into a SLIP/PPP server.

What you get:

Access to everything the Internet has to offer, although at speeds
slower than a direct network connection. How much slower? With a 14.4-
Kbps modem, substantially slower; with a slower modem, probably too
slow.

What it costs:

The cost of the modem and software, plus the service provider's charges
for access to the SLIP/PPP server.

Where to get more information:

* PDIAL list of service providers.

* The Internet Starter Kit for Windows, by Adam C. Engst, Corwin S. Low,
and Michael A. Simon. Hayden Books; ISBN: 1-56830-094-8.

* The Internet Unleashed. Sams Publishing; ISBN: 0-672-30466-X.


ON-LINE SERVICE CONNECTION

What you need:

A modem, standard communications software, and an on-line service
account.

What you get:

Access to the Internet services your on-line service offers. Some
services (CompuServe, for example) offer only e-mail and may add per-
message charges. Delphi currently offers the most complete Internet
support (e-mail, newsgroups, Gopher services, and more). America Online
is gaining fast.

What it costs:

The on-line service fee, a per-hour connect charge, and, where
applicable, e-mail surcharges.

Where to get more information:

* "Making On-Line Services Work for You,"

PC Magazine, March 15, 1994.

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

The Argot of the Internet

archie: A system for locating files that are stored on FTP servers.

backbone: A central high-speed network--the NSFnet, for example--that
connects smaller, independent networks.

DNS (domain name system): A scheme for translating numeric Internet
addresses into strings of word segments denoting user names and
locations.

finger: A software tool used to determine whether another user is logged
on to the Internet. It can also be used to find out a user's e-mail
address.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol): A protocol that describes file transfer
between a host and a remote computer; also, programs based on this
protocol.

Gopher: A search tool that presents information in a hierarchical menu
system somewhat like a table of contents.

IP (Internet Protocol): A standard that describes how packets of data
are transported across the Internet and recognized as an incoming
message.

IRC (Internet Relay Chat): A software tool that makes it possible to
hold real-time keyboard conversations on-line.

NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification): A Microsoft specification
for a type of device driver that allows multiple transport protocols to
run on one network card simultaneously.

newsgroup: A BBS-like forum or conference area where you can post
messages on a specified topic. Newsgroups exist for a huge range of
subjects.

NNTP (Network News Transport Protocol): An extension of the TCP/IP
protocol; describes how newsgroup messages are transported between
compatible servers.

ODI (Open Data-link Interface): A standard interface, developed by
Novell and Apple, that performs the same functions as NDIS.

PING (Packet Internet Groper): A TCP/IP utility that sends packets of
information to a computer on a network; it can be used to determine
whether a computer is connected to the Internet.

protocol: A set of rules or standards that describes ways to operate to
achieve compatibility.

router: A hardware/software solution that directs messages between LANs.

SLIP/PPP (Serial Line IP/Point-to-Point Protocol): Two protocols that
allow dial-up access to the Internet through a serial link. Most
Internet access packages support both, though you can use only one at a
time.

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol): The protocol in a TCP/IP network
that describes how e-mail moves between hosts and users.

SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol): A protocol that describes how
information is passed between reporting devices and data collection
programs; it can be used to gather information about hosts on the
Internet.

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol): A compilation
of network- and transport-level protocols that allow a PC to speak the
same language as other PCs on the Internet or other networks.

telnet: A terminal emulation protocol (or a program based on that
protocol) that lets you log on to other computers on the Internet.

Usenet (User Network): A public network made up of thousands of
newsgroups and organized by topic.

uucp (Unix-to-Unix Copy): Originally a Unix program that permitted file
transfer between two Unix-based PCs via a dial-up connection. The term
also refers to a Unix networking protocol or to a network using that
protocol.

Veronica (Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Netwide Index to Computerized
Archives): A search tool, like archie, which searches text that appears
in Gopher menus.

WAIS (Wide Area Information Server): Software that is used to index
large text files in servers. On the client side, it finds and retrieves
documents in databases, based on user-defined keywords.

WHOIS: A TCP/IP utility that lets you query compatible servers for
detailed information about other Internet users.

Winsock (Windows Socket): An application programming interface (API)
designed to let Windows applications run over a TCP/IP network.

WWW (World-Wide Web): A network of servers that uses hypertext links to
find and access files. Many Web sites also support sound and video.

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

Webs and Gophers

The World-Wide Web and Gopherspace are two solutions to the problem of
how to publish information on the Internet. Gopher servers are mostly
limited to publishing text, but WWW servers can publish text and
graphics--and even sound and video in some cases--in such a way that
you'll be able to read information accurately, no matter what kind of
computer you're using. Both solutions link separate elements, whether
they're different documents on the same server or documents located on
different servers. Both solutions are client/server-based, which means
you need Gopher or WWW client software to make them work.

THE GOPHER SYSTEM

Gopher servers present information in a hierarchical menu system that's
analogous to a table of contents. Select a topic on the Gopher menu
(left) and you jump to the location of the related Gopher server. What
you see is the top menu of that Gopher (right).

One of the best Gopher clients available today is WinGopher, but note
that many of the packages in this evaluation include very good Gopher
clients. In case your Internet access package doesn't come with one,
several freeware and shareware packages are available, too.

To get information about the more than 3,000 Gopher servers accessible
today, begin on any Gopher server or start at the University of
Minnesota, the mother of all Gophers, at gopher.micro.umn.edu.

WORLD-WIDE WEB

World-Wide Web servers use hypertext links to join pieces of infomation
in separate HTML-based (hypertext markup language) documents located
either at the same or at disparate sites. The links are maintained using
URLs (uniform resource locators), a standard way of coding the locations
of the HTML documents. WWW pages are loosely analogous to chapters in a
book. For example, on Ziff-Davis's WWW home page (left), you can click
on the PC Magazine icon, which is a hot link to PC Magazine's home page
(right).

The two most popular WWW clients are Cello (Windows only) and Mosaic (
Mac, Windows, and X Window).

To get more information about WWW, begin on any server, such as PC
Magazine's WWW server (www.pcmag.ziff.com). Many jumps and references
are available there.

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

How to Search the Internet

Three useful search tools--archie, Veronica, and WAIS--help you find the
information you need quickly, no matter where on the Internet it
resides. Searching for information on the Internet is something all
Internet users do, so the best search sites are often crowded and slow.
Some get so crowded that they refuse log-on attempts during the busiest
parts of the day. Your best bet is to find a search site that is
available when you are and use it consistently, which may mean doing
your searches late at night or early in the morning.

Archie

Archie helps you find files that are stored on FTP servers. FTP sites
are regularly indexed by title and keyword--many every night--and archie
searches these indexes for the files you want.

A sample search: Find PC Magazine utilities available on any FTP server.

Step 1: Select archie from the Gopher menu.

Step 2: Type in a search string relating to the files you want to find.

Result: A list of locations where the utilities are available, returned
in this case as a Gopher menu.

Veronica

Veronica searches for text that appears in Gopher menus. That may sound
like a small domain, but since there are Gophers that index mailing
lists, newsgroups, and more, the results of a Veronica search can often
be surprisingly expansive.

A sample search: Find President Clinton's Inaugural Address.

Step 1: Select Veronica from the Gopher menu.

Step 2: Type in a search string relating to the document you want to
find.

Step 3: See the results of the search returned as a Gopher menu, then
select a Gopher site from that menu.

Result: The Inaugural Address.

WAIS

WAIS, for Wide-Area Information Server, is full-text indexing software
that's used to index large text files, documents, and periodicals. You
can search WAIS indexes for everything from the text of the NAFTA treaty
to information on Zen Buddhism. A good place to start is the University
of Minnesota Gopher that lists all WAIS servers, both by location and by
topic, at gophergw.micro.umn.edu.

A sample search: Find references to PC Magazine's utilities on-line.

Step 1: From the Global Network Navigator home page, type in "pcmag."

Step 2: The WAIS search returns one result, which is weighted 1,000.
(The number 1,000 always indicates the document containing the most
occurrences of the search string. A document with half as many
occurences would be given a weight of 500.)

Result: Click on it to see a hypertext jump to an FTP server where the
PC Magazine utilities are stored.

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

Where To Go and What to Find

The Internet is so rich in resources that it's a real challenge to put
together a definitive guide of places to go and things to do. This list
includes documents available on the Internet to help you learn about the
Internet, places to go to find access and search tools, and locations
where you'll find fun, entertainment, and conversation. Using these
resources you should be able to explore until find your own favorite
spots.

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

ABOUT THE INTERNET ON THE INTERNET

* The best book about the Internet is available for free on-line. It's
Brendan Kehoe's Zen and the Art of the Internet: A Beginner's Guide to
the Internet, and you can find it at many sites, including
emoryu1.cc.emory.edu in the /computing/reference/networking/internet
directory, where you can view it with a Gopher client.

* The second-best text about the Internet is Scott Yanoff's list.
Variously known as Yanoff's list, Yanoff's Internet services, and the
Internet Services Special Directory, it's a constantly updated list of
places to go and things to see. You can find the file in many places,
including on the Gopher at gopher.csc.fi. Along the same lines is Jeremy
Smith's text, Big Fun in the Internet with Uncle Bert. You'll think this
is big fun if you want lists (the actual IP addresses in most cases) of
archie servers, lists of FAQs, or databases of ZIP codes. You can find
it on the Gopher at gopher.fsl.orst.edu.

On the same Gopher is Ed Krol's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Internet.
Though it's a bit outdated (it was written in 1987 with funding from the
National Science Foundation) it's still good for helping you learn about
what the Internet is and how it works.

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

PLACES THAT MATTER

As the Internet grows, it is being documented on-line at many locations,
and in some of those same places you'll find the software that's helping
it grow. To stay current on the Internet you need not always go to one
of these sources, but things change so fast that they're the best places
to help you stay up to date.

* The InterNIC is the official source of information about the Internet.
It has three missions: to provide Internet information services, to
supervise the registration of Internet addresses and DNS names, and to
develop databases that will serve as white and yellow pages to the
Internet. Its information services are vast and are distributed through
a variety of means. The InterNIC has a WWW server (www.internic.net), a
Gopher server (gopher.internic.net), and an FTP server
(ftp.internic.net), and it is also available via e-mail at
info@internic.net. It even has, believe it or not, a phone number (800-
444-4345 or 619-455-4600).

* Not only is the World-Wide Web the newest information service to
arrive on the Internet, it is also generating much of the latest
interest in the Internet. The people who started this hypertext-based
client/server system and are the most responsible for its development
are at the CERN European Particle Physics Laboratory. Their Web pages
are a necessary pit stop on the Internet, and a source of information
about WWW client and server software development. Visit at www.cern.ch.

* The most popular WWW client for Windows is Mosaic, which we look at in
detail in the sidebar "Mosaic and Cello: Freeware at its Finest." Mosaic
was developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications
(University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana). Not only is its WWW server
a good source for Mosaic updates and information, but the NCSA's home
page, at www.ncsa.uiuc.edu, is a great place to explore using any WWW
client. It tracks scientific stuff, it's true, but it does a wonderful
job of showing how the Web can be developed as a resource for
investigations of all kinds.

* Though the World-Wide Web is generating all the heat, the Gopher-based
information system generates at least as much light.

* If the WWW is like surfing over the Internet, the Gopher system,
developed at the University of Minnesota, is like tunneling through it.
Using Gopher clients, you drill down and across rather than jump from
link to link. In any case, Gophers servers are the repositories of a
wealth of information. If you want to find out what Gophers have to
offer, the University of Minnesota Gophers are a good place to start.
You can find the top-level Gopher at gopher.micro.mnu.edu.

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

COOL THINGS TO KNOW

Remember, to be cool on the Internet you have to know everything before
anyone else does. The trick, of course, is figuring out what everyone is
going to want to know.

* You could start by knowing the names of all the publicly accessible
Internet service providers. To get the newest version of that list, just
send e-mail to info-deli-server@netcom.com, and in the text of your
message say "send PDIAL." The list will be returned to your e-mail box,
but beware, it might be long.

* The next thing you might want to know is the addresses of all of the
publicly accessible WAIS databases. To find such a list, get on your
Gopher and go to gopher-gw.micro.umn.edu.

* To be really cool, you have to encrypt. The best free encryption
software is PGP, for pretty good privacy. The way to get it, via FTP, is
long and convoluted, as this kind of techno-secrecy should be, but you
can start at ftp.csn.net, in the /mpj directory, where you'll find
directions to begin the hunt cleverly concealed in the README file.

* An adjunct to pretty good privacy is pretty good security, and to
ensure good security in the Internet you should be sure to read all the
posts in the comp.security.announce newsgroup, where the Computer
Emergency Response Team (CERT) keeps users up to date on security
issues. If you want to keep abreast of the latest debates on this
subject, you can check out CERT's FTP archives at ftp.cert.org.

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

COOL PLACES TO BE

It's true that the Internet puts you on an equal footing with the rich
and famous. You can send mail to the President, or even Bill Gates. Of
course, the President doesn't read his own e-mail.

There's no map to the on-line homes of the stars, but we've visited many
of the virtual communities on the I-Way, and two of the most interesting
are MindVox and The WELL.

* You can visit MindVox via Gopher (gopher.phantom.com) or WWW client
(www.phantom.com) and read a little about the place, but to get a flavor
for it you should hang out in the Bandwidth Conference for a few days.
It's a virtual soap opera. People pretend to fall in love, do fall in
love, even become other people, in ways possible only in virtual worlds.
MindVox is truly mind-boggling.

* The WELL, on the other hand, is a solid sort of place, a virtual
community in which you could settle down and raise your kids. There you
will find luminaries of a sort--writers, mostly. Conferences on The WELL
take on a serious tone. It's the kind of place where topics are
discussed at length and then begin to drift far afield. It's the best
example of a real community in the virtual world. You can visit via
Gopher (gopher.well.sf.ca.us) or WWW client (www.well.sf.ca.us).

BIG FUN

For real fun, the Internet offers multiuser dungeons, or MUDS, and their
offspring, object-oriented MUDS that are known as MOOS. These fantasy
role-playing games are text-based but manage to stretch the imagination
to its very limits.

Similar to the old computer game Adventure, these games start out with a
shell that the users build into a virtual world and then inhabit. For
more information on where the games are and how to play them, visit the
newsgroups in the rec.games.mud topics.

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

Six More Suggestions

* There's a great on-line newsletter for parents and educators about on-
line life called KIDLINK. Send e-mail to opresno@estern.uio.no to
subscribe.

* Visit the Library of Congress on-line. You can find its gopher at
marvel.loc.gov.

* Download complete texts of classic books placed on-line at Project
Gutenberg. The address: ftp.mrcnet.cso.uiuc.edu.

* Visit Microsoft's WWW server, where you can learn about its upcoming
Internet plans. It's at www.microsoft.com.

* Get a list of all the electronic magazines (E-zines) you can find on
the Internet. Send e-mail to e-zines-request@netcom.com.

* Head for the Ziff-Davis WWW server (www.ziff.com) where you will find
not only PC Magazine's WWW server (www.pcmag.ziff.com/~pcmag), but also
the server of our sister publication, PC Week.


************************************************************************
                        Related Articles
************************************************************************


Suitability to Task: Internet Access Tools

With demand for Internet access tools mushrooming, we've seen packages
designed primarily as TCP/IP stacks move toward becoming Internet front
ends by adding applications for managing specific Internet services. For
the most part, however, progress in this direction has been slow. We
found that most of the products currently provide only basic
implementations with middling usability features--not enough to tame the
colossal network of networks for the uninitiated.

In evaluating a package's TCP/IP implementation, we looked at how the
TCP/IP stack is implemented. We look at whether a package will work with
both ODI and NDIS drivers and whether it loads in DOS or as drivers in
Windows. In addition, we tested the packages with NCSA Mosaic for
Windows to check whether they would work with Winsock 1.1-compliant
applications. Packages that allowed both direct connections and
asynchronous connections (using SLIP or PPP) got higher ratings. If a
package required extensive scripting for asynchronous connections but
did not include sample scripts, we lowered its ease of use score.

The most important criterion evaluating in ease of use was how well a
package shelters users from the complexities of the TCP/IP setup. Most
programs do a pretty poor job of taking a novice user through this
inherently complex process, but the ones that included worksheets
detailing all the information required before the setup got points for
usability.

Part one of the mail/newsgroups rating gauges a package's ability to
mimic both the functionality and ease of use typical of existing Windows
e-mail packages. The evaluation also rates a package's address book:
whether or not it had folders, whether it implemented automatic reply
separators, and whether it allowed users to filter message header
information.

We gave good ratings to those able to function as standalone e-mail
servers, as well as to the ones that supported a variety of mail
protocols. In particular, packages that support MIME (Multipurpose
Internet Mail Extensions)--the protocol necessary for sending and
receiving sound, graphics, and video files via Internet mail--earned
high marks.

In the newsgroups category, we rated each package's newsgroup reader.
Those readers able to provide automatic access to an NNTP server earned
extra points. We looked at a package's ability to access and sort
newsgroups, as well as its ability to set up single or multiple
newsgroups for easy lookup. The latter capability lets a user avoid
having to load all the lists each time he or she logs on. As with the
mail modules, we gave points for the ability to include a "signature" at
the end of a message.

In the first part of the FTP/telnet category, we looked at the number of
terminal emulations a package supplies, as well as its ability to remap
the keyboard and offer other customization options. Packages with
scripting ability got higher scores.

In the FTP area, packages providing both server and client capabilities
scored higher. We also gave higher ratings to packages that let the user
log onto multiple-server operating systems and that provided a generic
and default log-on parameter. Among Windows-based packages, we looked
for those able to simulate the Windows File Manager interface in their
file management offerings, especially by implementing features such as
drag-and-drop. We looked for the ability to perform file management
tasks, including directory creation and deletion on both the host and
remote systems.

Unfortunately, in the area of search tools, we had to grant points even
if a package simply contained a search tool; that alone constituted a
big plus. Search tools that earned a good rating included applets for
launching certain file types as they were retrieved. Also a plus was a
package's ability to integrate with third-party tools, such as graphics
viewers.

Only one of the packages we looked at included a true Web browser,
although many vendors say they are planning to include one in their next
release. Three packages--ChameleonNFS, Spry's AIR NFS, and WinGopher
Complete---did offer Gopher tools; we evaluated these for their user
interfaces and their status messages.

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

Riding the Internet for Free

Kevin Reichard

Why buy software when you can have it for the price of a phone call?

Considering that the Internet grew out of many people's free
contributions of time and effort, it should come as no surprise that a
number of useful Internet software tools are given away. Browsing on-
line, you can easily build your own cost-free suite of Internet tools.

We say suite since there's no single freeware package that's likely to
address all of your Internet needs. (Freeware, by the way, is software
given away free of charge. Shareware is software for which the developer
asks for a registration fee.) You'll typically use one tool to connect,
another to grab your Internet mail, and still another to read the
postings from Usenet newsgroups.

Just about every program we look at here is available on CompuServe or
on the Internet itself. (The archives at ftp.cica.indiana.edu in the
/pub/pc/win3/winsock directory contain most of the tools listed here. We
specify alternate FTP sites where they exist.) All of these tools can be
used on direct serial-line connections to the Internet, as they are all
Winsock 1.1-compliant. All are freeware--except for Trumpet Winsock,
whose developer asks for a $20 registration fee--and all run under
Microsoft Windows 3.1.

MAKING THE CONNECTION

One tool that's essential for all users is a SLIP (Serial Line Interface
Protocol) manager, which allows you to call an Internet provider's
server via a modem and phone line. Trumpet Winsock is one of the most
popular shareware SLIP managers; it facilitates the initial connection
through dial-up scripts and then continues to manage the connection for
other programs.

Trumpet uses the Windows WINSOCK.DLL TCP/IP driver, which then allows
other applications to write directly to the DLL. You can find the most
recent version of Trumpet (1.0a) at ftp.utas.edu.au in the
/pc/trumpet/wintrump directory and on many commercial on-line services.

Once it's up and running, Trumpet is reliable and unobtrusive. Getting
it running is challenging, however, even for experienced Internet users.
The trick lies in getting Trumpet to match the IP address of the server
you're calling. The solution is to parse the correct address from the
server's output, but to do this, you need to use a log-on script, and
the sample script that's provided simply doesn't work. If you plan on
using Trumpet, be prepared to master the obscure and poorly documented
scripting language. You'll need to factor in some configuration time
before you actually get on the Internet.

OTHER TOOLS

Beyond the general-purpose browsers is a slew of more specialized
Windows freeware tools. Take the ever-popular Gopher programs. WSGopher,
Version 1.0 (available on boombox.micro. umn.edu in
/pub/gopher/windows), is a useful Gopher implementation that has been
configured with most of the popular Gopher servers. It also comes
preconfigured for Gopher resources, such as Gopher Jewels and Usenet
newsgroups.

Are you looking for an FTP program? WS_FTP (at ftp.usma.edu in the
/pub/msdos /winsock.files directory) comes preconfigured for downloading
most of the programs listed here.

Live chat over the Internet in the form of Internet Relay Chats (IRCs)
has become popular, thanks to coverage in the mainstream press. And
despite the general focus of some of that coverage, not all IRCs appeal
to prurient interests; at times, IRCs can be fascinating. A good tool
for accessing IRCs is WSIRC (found at cs.bu.edu, also available in
several CompuServe forums).

For Usenet newsgroups, WinVN connects directly to an NNTP server and
lets you read and write postings. It's not fancy, but it works quickly
and reliably. You can find it at newstitan.ksc.nasa. gov in the
/pub/win3/winvn directory.

Finally, two noteworthy Winsock-compliant mail readers are PC Eudora
(found at ftp.qualcomm.com in /pceudora/windows) and Pegasus Mail for
Windows (available on CompuServe). Both can track sent and received mail
and require only a minimal amount of effort on your part. Version 2.0 of
Eudora is available commercially for $65 and is arguably the best
Internet mail reader. The free version is 1.4, and though it's a few
features short, it's still a fine program worth adding to your software
collection.


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

Mosaic and Cello: Freeware Gold

Kevin Reichard

If you have only one Internet tool, it should be a browser. These are
the best so far.

An Internet browser is the closest thing there is to a Swiss Army knife
for the Internet. Browsers can grab documents from anywhere on the Net,
treating even Gopher servers and Usenet groups as documents. Embedded
hyperlinks lead you to related subjects; you can easily get lost in
cyberspace following their paths.

The two best freeware Windows browsers are NCSA Mosaic for Windows (from
the National Center for Supercomputing Applications) and Cello (from the
Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School). Both work with the
Windows WINSOCK.DLL SLIP driver for access to the Internet through a
service provider. Even at 14.4 Kbps, performance is acceptable.

THE ORIGINAL

A snazzy combination of slick design and solid code (two traits not
commonly found together in freeware), Mosaic has probably done more to
popularize the Internet than any other single piece of software has.
Mosaic is also becoming the most widespread Internet browser (it already
dominates the Unix Internet world), as vendors like Spry, Quarterdeck,
and others base commercial Windows products upon it.

When launched, Mosaic presents you with a highly useful Starting Points
document, which contains concise explanations of Mosaic and the many
tools available on the World-Wide Web, like directories of Web, Gopher,
and FTP servers. (If you're familiar with specific Web servers, you can
of course go directly to any of them at any point.) Highlighted phrases
serve as hypertext "jump points" to other Web documents. Beginners will
like the introductory documents that explain the intricacies of Internet
navigation.

Mosaic also works well as a personal archiver of your Internet searches.
For example, when you stumble upon a resource that you want to revisit,
you can annotate the document either on a document hotlist or by direct
placement on a pull-down menu. Arcane hyperlinks can be documented with
lengthier explanations.

Beginners should probably stick to Version 1.0 since the most recent 16-
bit version (Version 2.0, alpha 2) is considered a work in progress and
lacks some basic features, such as help files. Both are available from
ftp.NCSA.uiuc.edu in the /PC/Mosaic directory, as is a 32-bit Windows
alpha version.

THE NEWCOMER

Cello is an equally ambitious effort in terms of combining access to
disparate Internet elements. Version 1.01a (which can be found at
ftp.law.cornell.edu in the directory /pub/LII/Cello) comes close to
being the ideal single-source Internet tool: It supports native Web,
Gopher, FTP, CSO/ph/qi, and Usenet News retrievals, as well as external
tools for other protocols like WAIS, Hytelnet, and telnet. Cello also
supports DDE, so you can link data from the Net to files created by any
software application that also supports DDE.

Serious Internet users will probably resort to integrating other tools
with Cello, since it lacks some important features (such as the ability
to retrieve e-mail or post messages to newsgroups), and some of its
other basic services, such as FTP, don't always work the way they
should.

In reality, Cello is still very much a development effort--not yet quite
stable and lacking the visual polish of Mosaic. While it is still very
much a work in progress, Cello is worth your attention. But if you want
to dive immediately into the Net--no muss, no fuss--Mosaic for Windows
may be a better starting point.

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

Internet Front Ends to Watch For

Angela Gunn

Internet software tools are popping up all over. Here are some late
poppers.

In the course of creating this story, we received constant reminders of
how rapidly this field is changing: Several important new products and
major upgrades of current products weren't shipping in time for our
review, but by the time you read this, many of them will already be on
the market.

SPRY YOUNGSTER

As we went to press, Spry (Seattle, Washington; 800-777-9638) was
putting the finishing touches on the long-awaited Internet in a Box.
More than just a software package, Internet in a Box includes a
specially revised edition of Ed Krol's classic The Whole Internet User's
Guide & Catalog (for a review, see Read Only in this issue), along with
AIR NFS 3.0 versions of mail, news, Gopher, telnet, FTP, and Mosaic
modules; access to Spry's own news server; and a subscription to GNN,
the Internet on-line magazine. Expect to see the package both in
traditional computer stores and in up-to-date bookstores.

The 3.0 upgrade of Spry's AIR NFS package has seen significant
improvement, too. Changes to the newsreader, for example, let you sort
messages by several criteria including author, topic, and size.

FTP PLUS

The new 32-bit PC/TCP OnNet package from FTP Software (North Andover,
Massachusetts; 508-685-4000) was among those not quite ready in time for
our review. This product uses a Windows VxD instead of the earlier
version's TSR drivers, and handles telnet and mail (SMTP, VMAIL, POP2,
and POP3). It has an NNTP newsreader and includes FTP client and server
support.

PC/TCP OnNet also runs under most major network operating systems,
including NetWare, Microsoft LAN Manager, IBM LANserver, Banyan's VINES,
DEC Pathworks, Microsoft Windows for Workgroups, and Artisoft's
LANtastic. PC/TCP OnNet also provides a significant level of Kerberos
security.

ACCESS PACKS

Finally, many users have chosen to get their Internet access through one
of the on-line services. Delphi has been particularly aggressive about
offering wide-ranging access to the Net; currently the company is
bundling its Internav Windows front end as part of the Phoenix Complete
Internet Start-Up Kit, from Phoenix Technologies (Chicago, Ilinois; 312-
541-0260). Like Internet in a Box, this package is more than just
software; it includes guides both to Delphi and to the Net itself, as
well as 10 free hours on-line--certainly enough for new users to get
their toes wet.

TURBULENT MARKET

Why so volatile, this market? In part, because no one knows quite how
connections to the Net will be made in a year or so. Where once
Microsoft couldn't be convinced to support modems faster that 2,400 bps,
the company is now building both TCP/IP and PPP support into Chicago and
Windows NT 3.5 and has assigned at least one person to work directly
with Internet service providers. Not to be outdone, both Novell and IBM
are rumored to be including World-Wide Web browsers in upcoming versions
of LAN WorkPlace and OS/2 for Windows.

Mosaic, rapidly becoming the most widespread Internet browser, has
caught the fancy of a number of providers. NCSA Mosaic, the original
version, has been licensed far and wide to commercial companies, and
NCSA continues to develop the program in conjunction with Spyglass
(Savoy, Illinois; 217-355-6000).

Expect other, non-Mosaic World-Wide Web browsers to make waves soon. Jim
Clark's new company, Mosaic Communications, is a likely source, and it's
thought that Novell's WWW browser will not be particularly Mosaic-like. 


************************************************************************
                    Services for Connecting
************************************************************************

The Internet: Services for Connecting

By Ted Stevenson

If you want an easy connection to the Internet via a modem and a local
phone number, but you don't want to fool with installing or configuring
communications protocols, the national on-line services we profile here
should top your list of resources to investigate. Just sign up and log
on; they'll do the rest.

You may not have a direct connection to the Internet through your
computer or your organization's network. If that's the case, your
alternative is to gain entry to the Internet using one of the many
commercial Internet providers. Internet providers come in many flavors,
with varying capabilities and charges. At one end of the spectrum are
simple "public-access providers" that offer little more than an open
pipe to the Internet. To utilize their services you'll need some of the
tools discussed in the next section of this story, "Tools for
Connecting." At the other end of the spectrum are the well-known
commercial on-line services. Some--such as BIX, CompuServe, GEnie, MCI
Mail, and Prodigy--currently offer e-mail access only. Others--America
Online and Delphi--offer a much wider range of services. In this story,
we look at the Internet offerings of America Online and Delphi and
compare them with the integrated tools and services offered by two
dedicated Internet services, NetCom On-Line Communication Services and
The Pipeline. If ease of connecting to the Internet is your most
important goal, you should check out these services.

EASY DOES IT

When you use one of these services, the hassles of connecting to the
Internet are reduced to a bare minimum: You install the end user
software (in the case of NetCom's NetCruiser and The Pipeline), sign up,
log on, make a menu choice or two, and you're there.

Once you're connected, on-line services simplify your Internet
experience by handling most navigation tasks for you. Instead of
searching out cryptic listings like /pub/pc/win3/winsock at cryptic
places like ftp.cica.indiana.edu, you can make menu choices and sit
back.

How many of the Internet's many doors do these services open for you?
Several--but details vary with each provider. In fact, no provider gives
100 percent complete access today. Delphi and The Pipeline come close,
providing everything but full text-and-graphics World-Wide Web access.
Though NetCruiser also promises access to many services--including an
existing Web browser--it has some rough edges.

NO FREE RIDE

One downside to connecting to the Internet via a traditional on-line
service is slow access speed. You're fighting the limitations of modem
bandwidth and the monotasking nature of typical on-line connections. The
Pipeline's PinkSlip client/server architecture gives it a big advantage
in this area. Also, on-line service fees may seem inordinate when
compared with those charged by local Internet service providers for
comparable services.

On-line services offer far and away the easiest path to the Internet and
lots of hand-holding once you're there, but they have some drawbacks:
limited scope of services, restricted access speed, and relatively high
cost. Are the trade-offs worth it? Read the reviews that follow and
decide for yourself.

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

America Online

Brendon M. Macaraeg

The Internet Center started life in October 1993 with a whimper. It
promised a multitude of services--including Usenet newsgroups, Gopher,
WAIS, a mailing-list database, FTP, and telnet--but most of these didn't
work then, and some--FTP and telnet--aren't delivered yet. Still, it was
the first commercial on-line service to offer a Windows graphical front
end, and this alone has won it great popularity.

Once you have the AOL Windows software installed, getting onto the
Internet is a simple point-and-click process. The trade-off for this
ease of use, as with most on-line services, is access speed: Expect to
watch the Windows hourglass a lot while surfing the Internet with AOL.

EASY READER

Newsgroups remain an AOL strength. The package offers a default
selection of groups for those with mainstream tastes, and the Add
Newsgroups function lets you add your choice of groups to a personal
collection. An icon labeled "Latest Newsgroups" allows you to view and
choose among new arrivals from a frequently updated list. AOL's
newsreader groups messages by subject and automatically threads related
messages by date.

Reading and sending mail via AOL are a snap, and your AOL e-mail address
book can manage mailings to multiple recipients. AOL also lets you send
and receive unlimited mail without added per-message charges. You can't
attach files on Internet mail, however.

You can do Gopher and WAIS searches in AOL, but they can be slow, and
they don't always work.

AIDS TO NAVIGATION

AOL helps new users learn how to handle a variety of Internet tasks,
from subscribing to mailing lists to performing Gopher and WAIS
searches. The service's message boards help members share tips, and
Brendan Kehoe's Zen and the Art of the Internet is available as a
searchable on-line reference.

AOL shines as a place for Internet newcomers to familiarize themselves
with e-mail and newsgroups. Those with more sophisticated needs,
however, may be better served elsewhere.

America Online. The Internet Center, Vienna, Virginia; 800-827-6364; e-
mail, aohotline@aol.com.

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

Delphi

Angela Gunn

Whatever you may think of its text-based services, Delphi certainly
blazed the trail, offering full-on Internet access way back when other
services still balked at even a simple mail gateway. The company's plans
to introduce a new interface this fall, which will have an iconized main
menu and a graphical mail module, indicate that Delphi is ready to meet
the GUI world halfway.

Just about anything you'd want from the Internet is available through
Delphi: e-mail, FTP, IRC, newsgroups, Gopher, telnet and the World-Wide
Web (via Gopher; you'll see text only--no graphics). Delphi also
outstrips other on-line services in supporting such useful Internet
utilities as finger, PING, and WHOIS.

Furthermore, the service provides plenty of documentation; if you're
unsure how to go about using any of Delphi's tools, you'll find
instructions a few keystrokes away. Delphi also offers many well-chosen
pointers to useful files and utilities that document the various tools
and provide tips for choosing the right application for whatever you
mean to accomplish on the Internet.

For the moment at least, Delphi's tools are all text-based. The
newsreader, for instance, is virtually the same one you'll find on many
standard Internet public-access services, but it works. Its simple two-
or three-letter commands are clear (though since they depend on the
application in use, they lack the consistency offered by those found in
the other services), and its speed is impressive. In fact, Delphi
generally lets you roar; it's astonishing how fast Web sessions move,
for instance, when you're not waiting for a GUI to pull itself together.
For users intent on serious e-mail usage, Delphi's file-folder system is
superior to AOL's and on a par with The Pipeline's.

Though our focus is on the Internet tools just discussed, we should note
that Delphi's original on-line service is still alive and well. Plenty
of users enjoy Delphi's games and discussion groups and don't ever
venture onto the Internet (although Delphi makes a point of integrating
Internet access into the regular service to a great extent). Also,
unlike many of the larger on-line services, Delphi is engagingly open to
member input. Many of the more than 200 special interest groups and
forums available on the service itself were suggested (and are run) by
members.

The close-knit nature of the comparatively small Delphi community
extends to the Internet areas; users having trouble navigating are often
advised by friendly passersby, and it's notable that Delphi members have
participated on the Internet for years without wreaking the kind of
havoc caused by some of AOL's Internet newbies recently.

If you're still wondering if the Internet would be interesting, you
can't do much better than Delphi.

Delphi. Delphi Internet Services Corp., Cambridge, Massachusetts; 800-
695-4005; e-mail, askdelphi@delphi.com.

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

NetCruiser

Angela Gunn

Like The Pipeline, NetCom On-Line Communication Services has moved from
providing Internet access services to offering a graphical front end for
using those services. NetCom is now one of the nation's largest
commercial Internet access providers, and its Windows-based NetCruiser
offers a fully integrated suite of Internet tools and services.

You won't find a more comprehensive service provider than NetCom.
Services offered include FTP; archie, Gopher, Jughead, and Veronica; and
IRC, telnet, Usenet newsgroups, WAIS, and World-Wide Web. All of these
are accessible from the main screen with one click.

Its software, NetCruiser, needs serious work, however. There's no
support for archie, IRC, or WAIS, for instance, and we experienced
several system errors. The Gopher interface provides a spiffy map with a
number of servers listed for your convenience, but the interface had a
bug that rendered it useless during our evaluation.

Moreover, the browsers, though numerous, aren't particularly advanced.
For instance, the newsreader doesn't support threading, and the Web
browser's hotlists rely on filenames rather than user-defined names.
Inexplicably, the program has no horizontal browse bar, which makes for
problems when you're viewing files and graphics. And NetCom would do
well to imitate The Pipeline by including an off-line mail client and
newsreader.

While there are good ideas here, and the GUI makes nice use of icons and
other interface elements, NetCruiser has "Version 1.0" written all over
it. But by the time you read this, many of the features now missing--
such as archie, IRC, and threading by newsgroups--should be available to
users who can download the software from NetCom. With the might of
NetCom behind it, this service/software combo should soon be competitive
with its peers.

NetCruiser. NetCom On-Line Communication Services Inc., San Jose,
California; 408-554-8649; e-mail, info@netcom.com.

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

The Pipeline for Windows

Robin Raskin

The Pipeline for Windows, Version 1.4.2, succeeds in carrying off an
unlikely task: It is at once an access service and a complete collection
of Internet-access tools. Its back end provides seamless dial-up access,
and its front end offers simple point-and-click Windows navigation while
clearly interpreting the morass of the Internet.

The Pipeline, written in Visual Basic, allows dial-up access without
SLIP or PPP; it runs (and runs pretty quickly) over a standard modem
connection. Thanks to a technology called PinkSlip--developed by the
package's creators--Windows can act like a true multitasking system by
prioritizing the transmission of information from the back end to your
client. Whereas The Pipeline's service used to be available only via a
New York City phone number, the latest version includes a SprintNet
connection that makes it affordable for national use.

The Pipeline's main menu provides access to mail, real-time chat,
newsgroups, and Internet databases through a series of buttons. A table-
of-contents-style menu offers access to topic areas such as Weather,
Shopping, and Reference. The Pipeline runs a side-by-side translation of
Netspeak terms such as FTP and Gopher, providing English equivalents
such as get files and search for information. It also answers many
questions in the form of FAQ (Frequently Asked Question) files.

While the mail reader is not the most sophisticated, myriad
straightforward procedures are built into the top level. These
procedures include addressing, inserting files, quoting from a previous
message, creating an address book or a mail folder, and even using
mailbots (Pipelinespeak for mail robots).

To join newsgroups, you simply click on the groups you'd like to join.
You can easily create a custom selection of newsgroups, and bookmarks
let you quickly tag your favorite places for revisiting.

Searching for information is easy: The archie and FTP menus each offer a
direct route to files or archives when you know their names or
locations, and Gopher and Veronica searches are simple. The Pipeline
also includes value-added services such as Clarinet--a news service that
taps such sources as the Associated Press and Reuters.

The Pipeline's main shortcoming today is its lack of full graphical and
audio support for the World-Wide Web. You can access the Web through
Liunx, but you lose an awful lot of richness in the translation. We
tested a beta version of The Pipeline 2.0, which remedies this problem,
providing Mosaic-like graphical access to the Web. Other improvements in
the new version include the addition of a stock-quote service and an
infinitely nested tree design for the service's bookmarks.

Problems remain: The package does not work over a LAN, support searches
of multiple folders, or offer drag-and-drop. These are minor blemishes
on a true beauty queen, however. The Pipeline is an elegantly conceived
program; we've seldom seen a Version 1.x program that's as well thought
out. Watch as The Pipeline continues to grow; the Internet will be a
better place because of this package.

The Pipeline for Windows, Version 1.4.2. The Pipeline, New York, New
York; 212-267-3636; e-mail, info@pipeline.com.


************************************************************************
                     Tools for Connecting
************************************************************************


The Internet: Tools for Connecting

Ted Stevenson

If you want the fullest, fastest, and most flexible Internet access
possible, you'll need a variety of software tools. The prepackaged
collections we review here may be your answer--or you may prefer to
design your own kit from tools available free over the Net itself.
Either way, the entire Net will be at your command.

For the time being, at least, full Internet access means a dose of the
P's: You definitely need to have TCP/IP (the communications "stack" of
Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol) running on your PC;
you may also have to contend with either SLIP (Serial Line Interface
Protocol) or PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol). How difficult is this?
Probably not as bad as you think.

True, the tasks of marshalling all the information you need to get the
right computers talking to each other, as well as setting up and
configuring TCP/IP, are somewhat daunting (if you don't have a LAN
administrator to handle this chore for you), but the rewards should
justify the effort. With TCP/IP connectivity in place, you can connect
either through your LAN (the fastest of all links) or, with the aid of a
modem and one of the serial communications protocols (SLIP or PPP) to a
public access service provider.

Even a modem connection through a public-access service provider is
likely to be much faster than the commercial on-line services discussed
in "The Internet: Services for Connecting" because it lets you sit as a
full peer on the Net. Both types of connections, however, give you a
wide choice of software applications for interacting with the Net. We'll
examine many of these applications in the pages that follow.

SUITE IDEAL

We had hoped to find products with a complete set of Internet tools. We
looked for packages that had the TCP/IP and SLIP/PPP transports
necessary for connecting and a Winsock program (which allows any
compliant application to access TCP/IP services from Windows). And we
felt that the same package should offer a selection of robust, graphical
applications for handling the full range of Internet services and
resources: e-mail, news, telnet, Gopher, and the World-Wide Web.

Our reviews show that the news is both good and bad. The bad news is
that our quest was somewhat unsuccessful. To a large extent, packages
that purported to be complete solutions were primarily TCP/IP stacks--
corporate wide-area connectivity tools--packaged with a variety of not-
so-robust or well-integrated applications that covered only a small part
of the Internet spectrum.

BRIGHT FUTURE

The good news is that things are changing. Spry's AIR NFS is a one-stop-
shopping solution that combines a full and powerful set of
applications--including Spry's own fully licensed version of the fabled
Mosaic--with not one but two different TCP/IP stacks. (Spry's tools will
also work on top of any stack you may already have running.) And
although Ameritech Library Services' WinGopher doesn't have full
Internet functionality, it is an impressive example of what a full-blown
Internet application can be. It deserves a place in the workbox of
anyone who is willing to handpick his or her access tools.

Both these products have built-in connections to their vendors' servers.
WinGopher connects to Ameritech Library Services' Gopher server; AIR
NFS, to Spry's NNTP/Usenet and Web servers.

STEP UP AND SAVE

For the more independent-minded (and economy-minded), we also look at
some of the many Internet tools available free of charge (freeware) or
for a modest registration fee (shareware) on the Internet and on many
commercial on-line services. Many are still the best available
applications of their kind.

Of them, NCSA Mosaic for Windows, is undoubtedly the most famous. This
"tool of tools," from the National Center for Supercomputing
Applications, gives almost single-handed access to World-Wide Web,
Gopher, and FTP servers. It is readily available on-line, as is the beta
version of Cello, an even more ambitious application, from the Legal
Information Institute at Cornell Law School. Cello natively allows
retrievals from the Web, Gopher, FTP, and Usenet News and supports other
protocols including WAIS, Hytelnet, and telnet. For a detailed look see
the sidebar, "Cello and Mosaic: Freeware at Its Finest." Other useful
freeware and shareware apps are profiled in the sidebar "Riding the
Internet for Free." Of these, the mail reader Eudora is a standout.

Whether you prefer the all-in-one commercial package solution or the
pick-and-choose freeware approach--or some combination of the two--the
Internet software you need should be covered in the pages that follow.


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

Acadia/VxD

Eric Berlin

Acadia/VxD, Version 1.0

List price: Single user, $395; 5 users, $1,475. Requires: 4MB RAM, 6MB
hard disk space, Microsoft Windows 3.1 or later. In short: Acadia has a
good FTP program that can serve as a mini file manager for both your
local computer and the remote site, making file management easy. But
although Acadia/VxD has all the TCP/IP functionality a user would need,
it offers only some of the expected Windows tools. Lack of any kind of a
search tool seriously limits Acadia's usefulness as an Internet research
vehicle. This shortcoming, combined with the fact that there is no
newsreader, is ample reason to look at other packages before turning to
Acadia.

Ipswitch Inc., 669 Main St., Wakefield, MA 01880; 617-246-1150; fax,
617-245-2975; e-mail, info@ipswich.com.

Although Ipswich's $395 Acadia/VxD, Version 1.0, provides aspiring Net
surfers with all the TCP/IP functionality they need, the package offers
only some of the expected Windows tools. It has mail, telnet, and FTP,
but no Gopher or newsreader.

SECOND GUESSING

Upon installation, Acadia forms a Windows program group containing five
icons that give you access to FTP, mail (and mail configuration), and
telnet (via VT320 emulation). You can also launch these applications
from Acadia's front end, which is essentially a menu bar. From there you
can also launch additional telnet emulations, PING, WHOIS, and TFTP
(which runs in a DOS window). Although this front end is usable, it is
not well designed. Its on-line help does no more than tell you how to
get in touch with Ipswich. The commands on the menu bar appear to be
listed in a random order; many functions or command variants don't
appear on it at all.

A LITTLE BIT OF GOOD

Acadia's mail is basically easy to use, with a button bar controlling
most of the functions you'll need. You can search, reply to, or forward
messages, and you can create folders for convenient filing (although
here folders are called "mailboxes," which is confusing). The Address
book, however, is excessively complicated: You can't delete names
without the help of an extra utility.

There are many mail-related options that let you, for example, use
signature files, alter line lengths in both sent and received mail, and
specify how you want to view mailed attachments. You can choose whether
to remain continually logged onto your mail server or log on only when
you want to check for new messages. Useful as these options are,
unfortunately they are all mashed together in one large disorganized
window. Also, like Acadia's front end, the mail application lacks any
real on-line help.

EASY FTP

Acadia fares considerably better with its FTP program, which is handsome
and uncluttered--even intuitive--and also has a real help screen. The
application serves as a mini file manager for both your local computer
and the remote site. You can create or delete directories and send files
in either direction simply by double-clicking. Notepad serves as Acadia
FTP's file viewer (although you can specify another), and you can launch
executable files directly from within the FTP module.

Only a few telnet protocol options are available on Acadia's front end
Access menu. Of these, the VT320 protocol is the most full-featured. It
encompasses an attractive phone book that is easier to use than its mail
counterpart, buttons for sending and receiving files under Kermit (but
not under other common protocols like Xmodem or Zmodem), and extensive
customization options.

When you install Acadia, a dialog box guides you through the process of
entering all the proper information. Make a mistake, however, and you'll
find yourself at a standstill because there is no clear way to correct
it. There are some nonobvious ways--involving editing various text files
with Notepad--but there's no way to know this short of calling tech
support.

But the real drawback with Acadia isn't related to installation. The
absence of search tools seriously limits Acadia's usefulness as an
Internet research vehicle. These shortcomings provide ample reason to
look at other packages.

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

AIR NFS

Angela Gunn

[EDITORS' CHOICE] AIR NFS, Version 3.0

List price: Single user, $499; 10 users, $2,300. Requires: 4MB RAM, 3MB
hard disk space (additional 3MB required for the Novell TCP/IP transport
and utilities; additional 500K for Microsoft transport), Microsoft
Windows 3.1 or later. In short: Spry's AIR NFS 3.0 provides the most
comprehensive set of Internet access tools of all the packages reviewed
here. AIR is easy to use because of its well-designed interface and its
automatic connections to Spry's news, Gopher, and Web servers. It also
includes AIR Mosaic, the first commercial release of NCSA's GUI Web
browser.

Spry Inc., 316 Occidental Ave. South, Seattle, WA 98104; 800-777-9638,
206-447-0300; fax, 206-447-9008; e-mail, info@spry.com.

Of all the packages in this roundup, Spry's AIR NFS, Version 3.0, was by
far the most complete. At a list price of $449 (single-user NFS
product), AIR provides all the tools required for a foray into the folds
of Internet space. Applications include mail, telnet, a newsreader, FTP
(both server and client), a Gopher client, and the first commercial
release of NCSA's GUI Web browser, Mosaic. The package also has a uu
(Unix-to-Unix) encoder-decoder and a graphics viewer. AIR offers two
TCP/IP options, one licensed from Microsoft and the other from Novell.

AIR NFS supports PPP connections. With one double-click on an icon, you
can switch between a direct and a PPP connection. You can also set the
package to invoke the dialer automatically when you launch any
application.

MODULE FOR MODULE

The applications--Gopher, telnet, mail, FTP, and Mosaic--are well chosen
and complete. Particularly impressive is the graphical FTP client, which
opens Windows' File Manager along with a File Manager-style view of the
remote server. File transfers are as simple as drag-and-drop. By
default, the package truncates long filenames at eight characters and
warns you when you're in danger of overwriting files already on your
machine.

The mail module supports both POP3 and SMTP, as well as the ability to
work off-line. Spry has also added nested folders since the last
release, which, along with the editor and the mail sorting features, are
exceptional parts of this module.

The newsreader is even more successful than the mail module, letting you
view messages sorted by thread, subject, size, and date. You can easily
subscribe to groups and round up your selections into personalized
subgroups. It is also simple to post, follow up on, and quote from
messages, and to include signature files. Another useful addition is the
ability to filter message and mail headers down to those categories that
interest you.

ARBOREAL GOPHER

AIR's Gopher uses a graphical tree interface much like The Pipeline's.
Navigation is easy, and you can set up the application to go to a
particular site automatically at startup. You can also automatically
associate file types with different applets for viewing images or
listening to sound files.

Telnet rarely provides much interface excitement, and AIR's telnet is no
exception. Still, it can automatically save the addresses of new
sessions to a pick list, and you can customize and launch sessions via
their own icons.

One of the most important inclusions in AIR is AIR Mosaic, a licensed
version of the popular Mosaic developed by NCSA. This version is
significantly improved over the current 16-bit Windows version (1.0) of
shareware Mosaic, though a 32-bit Windows version is expected soon. For
one thing, AIR Mosaic lets you print. You can also customize the hotlist
and even add it to the menu bar. AIR Mosaic supports what is called
kiosk mode, in which you lose the top portion of the application and
deal directly with the screen options only.

AN OBSTACLE OR TWO

Although Spry has made great strides in usability, the user is still not
isolated from the complexities of setting up the TCP/IP portion of the
product. But, like many of the products in this roundup, AIR includes a
complete worksheet of the information you will need. Once this
information is collected, installation should proceed peacefully. The
package provides clear directions for plugging in individual items such
as the addresses of your workstation, router, and DNS server. You choose
which applets to install via a Windows radio-button screen.

During installation, we found that we were unable to recover from
mistakes: When we mistyped an IP address, for example, we tried to
correct our gaffe by the recommended expedient of opening the
appropriate file using an editor and retyping the setting. However, this
requires expert knowledge, and the novice might be better off simply
reinstalling the package. Spry does provide several handy samples--
typical versions of configuration files such as NET.CFG--for
troubleshooting the installation process. Users can refer to these--and
even cut and paste sections of code from them--when complications arise.

As one of the first of the new generation, AIR is by far the most
extensive product we reviewed. Except for the complication in setting up
the TCP/IP stack, it was very easy to use. We feel confident in
recommending AIR for those ready to make the Internet connection.

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

ChameleonNFS for Windows

Eric Berlin

ChameleonNFS for Windows, Version 4.0

List price: Single user, $495. Requires: 6K RAM, Microsoft Windows 3.1
or later. In short: ChameleonNFS for Windows has everything the
usability-conscious Internet surfer could want, including a slew of
icons and a generous selection of Internet applications. Applications
include Gopher, NFS, client and server FTP, and mail. While the package
has a polished appearance, it is nonetheless plagued by several
imperfections. On the whole though, it's a good choice.

NetManage Inc., 10725 N. De Anza Blvd., Cupertino, CA 95014; 408-973-
7171; fax, 408-257-6405; e-mail, support@netmanage.com.

NetManage's $495 ChameleonNFS for Windows, Version 4.0, has everything
the usability-conscious Internet surfer could want. It includes a TCP/IP
stack, a generous selection of Internet applications (Gopher, NFS,
client and server FTP, and mail), and buttons galore to make those
applications easy to use. Moreover, pop-up dialogs ease installation. In
fact, ChameleonNFS has such a polished appearance that its imperfections
come as a bit of a surprise.

THE WHOLE SHEBANG

The package's scope is evident in the whopping number of available icons
(24). These include FTP, Gopher, mail, and three different telnet modes.
There's also NEWTNews, a Usenet newsreader, but you'll have to find a
news server to use it because ChameleonNFS doesn't provide one. NEWTNews
is easy to use: Click on the newsgroups you want to subscribe to, and
then click on those you want to read. Messages are organized only in
order of appearance, however, so following message threads is not as
easy as it could be. Also, you can't conduct keyword searches for
specific messages in busy newsgroups. Saddled with these limitations,
NEWTNews falls short of being a serious research tool.

The setup for mail isn't as easy as the general installation, but once
you get all the mailboxes set up via the Postmaster function, mail is
simple and efficient. There is support for signature files, and you can
save your mail in folders and organize your incoming mail by date,
subject, and sender. The simple address book has no place for notes,
just addresses. Our one complaint: Outgoing mail must be completed and
sent in one sitting; you can't save drafts in a folder for later
completion.

The interface to ChameleonNFS's FTP client may appear confusing at
first, as it provides no fewer than 18 task buttons, none of which is
marked Send or Receive. But you'll eventually figure out, as we did,
that because the FTP program serves as a miniature File Manager (for
your own local files and those at the remote site), it's the Copy button
that activates file transfers. Alternatively, you can drag and drop file
icons to their proper destinations. ChameleonNFS also provides an FTP
server, which lets other users log on to your machine. You can monitor
your FTP site, grant or deny access, and set up specified users for
read-only status, all with a few mouse clicks.

JUST SHORT OF PERFECTION

ChameleonNFS's Gopher program is slanted more toward searching for a
particular topic than general Internet surfing. Traveling through the
Gopher server is simply a matter of knowing which icon to click on:
Little red books indicate branches off the main hierarchy; computer
terminals indicate telnet sites; pages indicate viewable text files. The
screen is cluttered in its default mode, which duplicates Gopher entries
on both sides of a split screen, but you can easily minimize one of the
windows to make everything readable. A far more serious problem is
revealed when you click on "All the Gopher Servers in the World." You
get a gigantic mess of cut-off Gopher entries and unconnected hierarchy
lines--a nasty bug activated when the Gopher program is overloaded with
information.

You can use telnet in a wide variety of terminal emulation modes, and
you can create and alter log-on scripts from within the program. But as
with many other aspects of ChameleonNFS, telnet stops short of
perfection: You can keep a log of your telnet session, but you can't
scroll back in an active session to get the e-mail address that went
flying by, for example.

Setup is a mixed bag. Although the package provides friendly dialog
boxes that prompt you for information needed during installation, not
all of the relevant info is requested. The Default Gateway and the DNS
servers are skipped over entirely, making it easy to forget that this
info is often critical for a trouble-free connection.

ChameleonNFS (and its sibling dial-up-only product, Internet Chameleon)
compensates for its imperfections with some nifty special features. The
Diagnostic Center, for example, can capture every TCP/IP packet entering
or exiting your computer. You can have NetManage analyze the data, or
you can buy the company's NEWTTrace application to do so.

ChameleonNFS's tools, while not as good as the best in their categories,
make up a well-rounded kit for users who need a jump-start to the
Internet. The package is worthy of notice not only for its thorough
suite, but also for its reasonably successful GUI implementation.

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

Distinct TCP/IP Tools for Windows

Sean Gonzalez

Distinct TCP/IP Tools for Windows, Version 3.21.

List price: Single user, $395; 5 users, $1,200. Requires: 4K RAM, 2MB
hard disk space, Microsoft Windows 3.1 or later. In short: Distinct
TCP/IP Tools for Windows has all the tools you need for basic TCP/IP
connectivity. It lacks, however, the tools to access today's exciting e-
mail, Web, Gopher, and Usenet News Internet resources. If you are
already an Internet user and all you want is a good Winsock-compliant
stack to run your favorite Internet-access tools, then this product will
suit the task. Otherwise, you are better off looking someplace else.

Distinct Corp., 12901 Saratoga Ave., P.O. Box 3410, Saratoga, CA 95070;
408-366-8933; fax, 408-366-0153; e-mail, mkgg@distinct.com.

Distinct TCP/IP Tools for Windows, Version 3.21 ($395), surprised us
with both its strengths and its deficiencies. We liked its seamless
TCP/IP stack and ability to initiate a TCP/IP connection automatically,
even when used with third-party Winsock-compliant tools. But
installation can be difficult and confusing even for experienced users,
and some of its tools are unreliable and awkward.

Distinct offers FTP and TFTP--both of them client and server--as well as
telnet and LPD/LPR (for network printing). You'll also find finger,
WHOIS, a group of troubleshooting utilities called Network Monitor, and
a handy toolbar utility that lets you access all of the tools from the
desktop. There are no tools to access newer and more exciting Internet
resources such as e-mail, Gopher, Usenet news, and World-Wide Web, but
Version 3.3, which was due at the end of August, will support
newsgroups.

There are two setup programs for installation. The TCP/IP Tools setup
program installs Distinct's applications and tools, and the Run Time
setup program installs the TCP/IP stack. The stack supports the NDIS and
ODI packet drivers and the SLIP and PPP configurations. Also in this
setup program are PING, BOOTP, an SNMP agent, and a network
configuration utility.

TRICKY INSTALLATION

The installation instructions and user guide are incomplete and not very
clear. Depending on your system configuration, you may need to contact
Distinct Corp. for assistance (fortunately, the company's technical
support staff is excellent). According to Distinct, the installation
program in Version 3.3 will be more user-friendly.

We were initially unable to get both NetWare and the Distinct TCP/IP
stack running concurrently using the ODI drivers on our test system.
Distinct observed that our system required a "very unusual
configuration," which needed both IP and IPX bound to a single Ethernet
frame. We made the suggested changes and were able to run IP and IPX
concurrently without any problems.

Dial-up configurations using SLIP and PPP will likely require a script
to establish a modem connection. Distinct's scripting language is
intuitive and easy to use.

TOOLS: EASY SETUP, ROUGH WORK

Installing the tools was a breeze. A few minutes after running the
installation program, we were cruising down the Internet. We did hit a
few potholes, however.

Though Distinct's telnet tool worked well, the FTP client tool is
nonstandard and confusing, and we found it slow and difficult to use.
You need to know what OS and FTP server software are running at the
remote site (as well as the version number of the server software). Once
running, the FTP client shows remote files and directories in two
separate windows. This is a nice feature, but it takes a long time to
update the display if you are connected to a server that has many files.

If you want to share resources with others, you will appreciate the FTP
server and LPD tools. With them we were able to make both drives and
printers available to remote Internet systems.

The PING and Network Monitor utilities will prove useful in
troubleshooting connectivity problems. For getting information about
users on remote hosts, Distinct includes finger and WHOIS. We found that
finger worked well and was easy to use, but Distinct documented the
identity of the default WHOIS servers only in an addendum, so access to
it was difficult at first.

While Distinct has created a reliable and robust stack that makes
launching TCP/IP applications simple and effortless, some of its tools
need to be revised. If you are looking for the all-in-one product that
gives you everything you need to access all of today's Internet
resources, this probably isn't it.

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

LAN Workplace for DOS

Angela Gunn

LAN Workplace for DOS, Version 4.2

List price: Single user, $395; 10 users, $1,995. Requires: 512K RAM,
5.5MB hard disk space, Microsoft Windows 3.0 or later. In short: LAN
Workplace for DOS provides TCP/IP connectivity and some basic Internet
tools, but it does not include the more sophisticated tools such as
Gopher and a Web browser. Even if you are devoted to NetWare, chances
are you can find a more suitable (not to mention more attractive and
efficient) Internet front end.

Novell Inc., 122 East 1700 South, Provo, UT 84606-6194; 800-638-9273,
801-429-5588; fax, 801-429-5155; e-mail, ftp@novell.com.

If you're not already connected to a NetWare network, there is no
particular reason to choose LAN Workplace for DOS, Version 4.2. And even
if you are a NetWare devotee, you can probably get a better Internet
front end than this $395 package, not to mention one that's more
attractive and efficient. LAN Workplace provides TCP/IP connectivity, as
well as a few useful utilities and sturdy albeit basic and unexciting
Internet client applications (telnet and FTP). Though the package
supports Gopher and Web-browsing tools, the package does not include
them.

SEEING RED

Once you're set up, the program adds a program group to Windows and
deposits more than a dozen Novell-red icons therein. As you might expect
from the company that rules the office connectivity market, most of the
package's functions are skewed toward the needs of WAN connectivity.

For instance, you're unlikely to find such a comprehensive collection of
remote printing options in any other package on the market. In a similar
vein, the package has a decent FTP server and even allows you to set up
as a finger server or a DNS.

Casual Internet users, however, may be dissatisfied with LAN Workplace's
offerings, which include FTP and telnet, as well as finger, PING, and
WHOIS. (Finger lets you find out information about a particular user.
Also, some sites on the Internet--certain weather-info places, for
instance--are reached mainly by finger. WHOIS lets you check a host to
see if it has a user by a particular name. PING allows you to see if
another IP address is on-line.) LAN Workplace's telnet and FTP are
sturdy--we couldn't crash them--but unremarkable. They're Windows
applications only by virtue of the fact that they run in their own
windows.

Though many of its components operate under Windows, LAN Workplace must
be installed from the DOS prompt. Installation is not too painful,
although certain NetWare conventions--using the Esc key rather than the
Enter key to choose options and progress through the setup, for
instance--will disconcert anyone unaccustomed to the Novell way of doing
things.

Like many of the packages we looked at, LAN Workplace includes a useful
installation guide that lists the various pieces of information you'll
need to collect in order to get started. The program installs all its
utilities at start-up; there's no picking and choosing.

BEYOND THE RED HORIZON

Novell knows that changes are necessary to keep up in this volatile
market. By the time you read this, LAN Workplace will include a special-
offer coupon for Ameritech Library Services' WinGopher, which, if
purchased, will simultaneously add Gopher capabilities and the package's
first truly graphical component.

Beyond that, expect to see a mail reader, a Web browser, and perhaps a
newsreader in subsequent releases of Novell's sturdy red suite. But if
you need those features immediately, there are more comprehensive
packages around, any one of which might make a better choice--even if
you already run NetWare.

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

Pathway Access for Windows

Eric Berlin

Pathway Access for Windows, Version 3.0

List price: Single user, $350. Requires: 640K RAM, 1MB hard disk space,
Microsoft Windows 3.1 or later. In short: Pathway Access for Windows
features plenty of applications to play with, such as mail, two telnet
protocols, and FTP. Unfortunately, it lacks a Gopher. The package comes
with its DOS counterpart, Pathway Access for DOS, and Pathway Runtime,
which installs the TCP/IP kernel. Pathway is unremarkable, but it's
adequate for aspiring Internet cruisers.

The Wollongong Group Inc., 1129 San Antonio Rd., Palo Alto, CA 94303;
800-872-8649, 800-962-8649; fax, 415-962-0286; e-mail, sales@twg.com.

It's tough not to be intimidated by this $350 TCP/IP package. After all,
there are eight manuals representing three programs: Pathway Access for
Windows, Version 3.0; its DOS counterpart; and Pathway Runtime, which
installs the TCP/IP kernel. But if you're not bowled over by all the
documentation--and all the accompanying disks--there are lots of reasons
to be pleased.

Pathway hooks you up to mail (which includes a combined mail client and
newsreader), two telnet terminal emulations, and an attractive FTP
application that lets you transfer files from a remote server by using
drag-and-drop. (You can change the transfer mode from ASCII to binary by
clicking a button, although it would be ideal if the program
automatically identified which mode would be most appropriate.) FTP also
allows for scripting, so you can automate regular file transfers. For a
final gold star, the package lets you stop an erroneous command before
it finishes processing.

THE POSTMAN RINGS OCCASIONALLY

Pathway's combined mail/newsreader program is handsome and easy to use,
with big buttons for sorting old mail and creating new mail, accessing
the address book, and reading Usenet News. A source of confusion here,
however, is the Get New Messages command, which was grayed out of the
menu bar. You might reasonably take this to mean that you can't get your
new messages. It took us a little while to figure out that using the big
"Inbox" button is the primary way to poll for new mail.

Pathway mail's newsreader keeps all of the newsgroups you follow in a
concise list, so you can read all of them in one session or save some
for later. Though subscribing or unsubscribing is simply a matter of
clicking on the desired newsgroup, you have to find that newsgroup
first--among the thousands available. It would be better if the
Subscribe Newsgroups command could search across hierarchies (alt.,
rec., news., and so on) for a given topic; instead, you must go through
the hierarchies one at a time, searching for what you want. The only
other problem we witnessed with Pathway's newsreader is that while it
gives you many options for saving and forwarding recent messages, it has
no way to go back to messages written in the past.

Telnetters can choose between using the VT220/230 or the TN3270
emulations. Commands under telnet are few and simple and deal mainly
with saving telnet sessions to a file or the Clipboard--although the
Script function will let you automate things to some degree. Creating
telnet scripts requires a climb up a steep learning curve, though.

Pathway Runtime's TCP/IP kernel is the only part of Pathway that is
complicated to set up. This is because of the number of inputs needed
from the user. But clear dialog boxes prompt you for the required
information: IP address, domain name, and so on. If you make a mistake,
you can reconfigure Pathway Runtime simply by running PWSETUP.EXE, which
lets you reinstall, uninstall, or adjust an existing configuration.
Unfortunately, the odds are that you will make a mistake, especially if
you believe the Pathway Runtime manual when it tells you certain
information is optional. (The IP address of the DNS server, for
instance, is mandatory for most installations.) Pathway Runtime also
provides a PING program so that you can test your connection.

It is unfortunate that Pathway does not include a Gopher, and that one
or two confusions throughout the applications prevent it from being
anyone's ideal package. But Pathway's many virtues exceed its faults,
and anyone exploring the possibilities of Internet interfaces would do
well to include this package in the comparison.

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

SuperTCP/NFS for Windows

Angela Hickman

SuperTCP/NFS for Windows, Version 4.0

List price: Single user, $495. Requires: 2MB RAM (8MB recommended), 10MB
hard disk space, Microsoft Windows 3.1 or later. In short: SuperTCP/NFS
for Windows offers a fairly complete set of tools to access and retrieve
information, send and receive mail, and join newsgroups, letting users
take advantage of all the Internet has to offer. SuperTCP/NFS lacks a
search tool such as Gopher or a Web browser, but since it's Winsock-
compatible, any third-party tool will fit in well with it.

Frontier Technologies Corp., 10201 N. Port Washington Rd., Mequon, WI
53092; 414-241-4555; fax, 414-241-7084; e-mail,
tcptech@FrontierTech.com.

Version 4.0 of Frontier Technologies Corp.'s Super-TCP/NFS for Windows
($495), combines a full-featured TCP/IP implementation with a somewhat
quirky but fairly generous set of Internet applications. Of the packages
reviewed here, only Spry's AIR NFS 3.0 has more functionality.

In addition to dial-up connections via SLIP and PPP, SuperTCP/NFS will
run over any network running TCP/IP, with or without an additional
protocol such as IPX (using NDIS or ODI drivers). X.25 support is
optional. Internet applications supplied include FTP, TFTP, telnet, an
NNTP newsreader, and e-mail--but not search tools such as Gopher, WAIS,
or a World-Wide Web browser.

At press time, Frontier had planned the September release of another
product, SuperHighway Access, which was to include "Tapistry" (a set of
navigational tools for Gopher, WAIS, and the Web), and default
installation scripts for several major Internet providers.The scripts
will ensure quick and easy access to the Internet via SLIP and PPP dial-
up connections. SuperHighway Access will not support direct network
connections.

BUTTON BOX

Once SuperTCP/NFS is loaded, getting on the Internet is easy. You access
any of the package's applications simply by clicking one of the many
colorful icons. Through these icons you can also access SuperTCP/NFS's
myriad utilities, which include chat (called Talk), finger, WHOIS, PING,
and several terminal emulators, including VT320 and TN3270.

SuperTCP/NFS is one of the few packages in this roundup to provide fax
support. And while it lacks a Web browser and similar search tools, the
package is Winsock-compliant and thus readily supports third-party tools
like Mosaic. Furthermore, as the name indicates, SuperTCP/NFS supports
NFS protocols that allow shared access to files and printers across a
network. Alternatively, a $395 version of SuperTCP/NFS is available
without NFS.

Unfortunately, whereas SuperTCP/NFS is fairly rich in features, many of
its applications are unintuitive and shallow. For example, although you
can easily subscribe and unsubscribe to any of the thousands of Usenet
groups by means of a menu at the top of the screen, messages are posted
by date rather than by thread, so you'll have to search high and low to
follow a particular discussion.

TEMPERAMENTAL MAIL

Similarly, the e-mail module (which supports SMTP, POP2, POP3, and MIME
binary-file attachments) is fundamentally sound but has some
idiosyncrasies, both major and minor. The module has no default
configuration; you must choose to set it up either as a server or as a
client. Furthermore, you must specify one of the aforementioned mail
protocols before the module will work.

To make matters worse, SuperTCP/NFS does not alert you to these setup
necessities when you launch the application, leaving you to figure out
why you're not getting mail functionality. Once you do have
SuperTCP/NFS's mail running, you'll have to get along without (minor)
conveniences like drag-and-drop.

On the plus side, the mail module supports rules-based management,
carbon copies, sorting, a phone book, and signature files. Also, the
fact that SuperTCP/NFS can operate as a mail server is quite cool. If
you do set it up this way, you'll be able to receive mail directly
without having to bother with a remote mailbox.

The graphical FTP application is easy to use, in part because it so
closely resembles the appearance and features of the Windows File
Manager. With it, you can rename, refresh, or delete ASCII and binary
files. And unlike many of the reviewed programs, this package shields
you from having to know the file system of the FTP server.

One cannot be completely shielded, however. SuperTCP/NFS does only a
mediocre job of sheltering users from its under-the-hood complexities,
so getting the package up and running is a challenge. That's especially
true for network novices, who will almost certainly need help from tech
support or another experienced user. The detailed manual is valuable for
its step-by-step guidance, however.

Installation alone should not deter you: SuperTCP/NFS is certainly a
competitor in the current bevy of Internet graphical front-end packages.
Consider the package a solid performer with a few minor usability
quirks. Also, watch for Frontier's SuperHighway Access, which should be
available by the time you read this.

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

WinGopher Complete Sean Gonzalez

WinGopher Complete, Version 1.0

List price: WinGopher Complete: Single user, $129.00; WinGopher: Single
user, $69.95. Requires: 2MB RAM, 3.5MB hard disk space, DOS 5.0 or
later, Microsoft Windows 3.1 or later.(WinGopher also requires a Winsock
DLL-compatible TCP/IP stack, a mouse, and a TCP/IP service provider. In
short: If you are looking for a Gopher browser, WinGopher is the only
Gopher browser for you. Packed with collections of handpicked and well-
organized Gopher links and items, WinGopher will have you cruising the
Internet's Gopher servers in no time. Along the way, you'll enjoy the
program's amusing sound effects, colorful icons, and hilarious animated
icons.

Ameritech Library Services, 1007 Church St., Evanston, IL 60201-3665;
800-556-6847, 708-866-4924; fax, 708-866-4893; e-mail,
wingopher@notis.com.

Ameritech Library Services' WinGopher for Windows, Version 1.0, is an
excellent Gopher browser with many exciting and innovative features.
It's an excellent choice for anyone who wants to explore and exploit the
abundant Gopher resources available on the Internet. The package is
$69.96 if you already have a Winsock-compatible TCP/IP stack or $129.00
for WinGopher Complete for Windows, Version 1.0, which includes a third-
party version of the Distinct TCP/IP stack.

WinGopher ships with excellent printed and on-line documentation, help
files, and a collection of responses to frequently asked questions
(FAQs) that is an invaluable source of information.

SOUND AND FURRY

WinGopher's sound files and animated Gopher icons make it fun to use.
Also, the product is well organized and easy to use, so even novices
should be cruising those Gopher servers in no time. WinGopher uses
"collections" of Gopher links and items to group Gopher sources and
documents by topic. The software comes preconfigured to connect to the
company's Gopher server, where you will find a wealth of Gopher links
and documents (including a link that allows you to download updated and
additional collections).

WinGopher includes document and image viewers and a telnet program
(although it has neither a TN3270 emulator nor an AVI player). By
default, it uses the Windows .WAV player (mplayer.exe) to play sound
files. You can easily configure the program to use other "helper"
applications.

TRIVIAL FURSUIT

Installing WinGopher itself is trivial--a snap, in other words. If you
purchase the WinGopher Complete version, you have the option of
installing the Distinct TCP/IP stack. To configure the Distinct stack,
you must run Distinct's interface configuration utility, which supports
both direct connect (via ODI, NDIS, and a packet driver) and dial-up
(SLIP or PPP) configurations. See the review of Distinct TCP/IP Tools
for Windows for further installation details.

Especially considering that this is a 1.0 release, Ameritech Library
Services' Gopher browser is very stable, well organized, easy to
configure, and fun to use. If you want to access Gopher resources, we
strongly recommend adding WinGopher to your toolkit of Internet
utilities.