MaasInfo.HowNet = brief descriptions of how to get started using various network services (mostly InterNet and BitNet), version of 1993.Apr.02, copyright 1991,1992,1993 by Robert Elton Maas, all rights reserved. This is published as "trivial shareware"; If it's worth more than a dollar to you, do some favor in return. (See more details about "trivial shareware" in MaasInfo.TopIndex, and a list of specific questions waiting for answers in MaasInfo.SQWA) Note that most services listed here are accessible via TELNET, which is available for TCP/IP users only, and many such services handle only VT100 emulation which is not available when connecting from VM/CMS systems. Note the format here is to indent all lines after the first line of each access method, but you OMIT those indentation spaces when using the service. (The first line of instructions starts with 'To:' for electronic mail, 'ftp' for File Transfer Protocol, 'telnet' for TELNET i.e. remote login, and 'TELL' for Bitnet interactive messages.) Major recent changes: Keyword-based searches in lists of interest groups have been added. The nslookup and FIXADDR services at CSNET, and the interface from e-mail to UseNet at Berkeley, have been withdrawn and are no longer documented here. If similar services have been made available anywhere recently I'd like to know about them. UC Berkeley Network Information Service -- A network information manual that guides new users through an introduction to the network. Contains easy to follow directions for uploading and downloading files as well as a listing of UC Berkeley email addresses and anonymous ftp sites. This database was developed for students and faculty at UC Berkeley, however it is also very useful for new users of the Internet, such as for getting nameserver information. Update 1992.Feb: Now it works with only minor glitches when connecting from VM/CMS hosts. Problems to . telnet netinfo.berkeley.edu 117 (two IP addresses: 128.32.136.12 128.32.206.12, port#117 on either) Once connected, the most useful groups of commands are: * Internet domain nameserver query commands: * ANY MX NS REVERSE * UUCP/USENET map data base query commands: * UFIND UFILE UHOST UPATH Note that hostname mailhost.berkeley.edu and IP addresses 128.32.136.9 & 128.32.206.9 listed in previous versions of this document are no longer providing this service. (Thanks to Sridhar Venkataraman for informing me of this update at a time when I didn't have any TCP/IP service so I couldn't use this service myself and hence didn't notice this document was now out of date.) WHOIS -- A service of NIC (Network Information Center), find registered information about individual people, hosts, domains, etc. (Personally I haven't found this service to be of much use. None of the hosts I asked about, due to bounced e-mail, could be found here.) Any problems encountered should be sent to ACTION@NIC.DDN.MIL telnet nic.ddn.mil (192.112.36.5) WHOIS (Update 1993.Mar.24, from KLENSIN@INFOODS.MIT.EDU (John C Klensin):) telnet rs.internic.net (This service will not be complete until April 1, 1993. See RFC1400.) (Useful for getting e-mail address of administrative/technical contacts.) BitNet node-entries -- Via email or RSCS you can get the node entry for any BitNet node. It will tell you the country where it is located, the name of the institution, and lots of other information including the equivalent InterNet domain-style name if such exists (avoids breaking a field across a line boundary): To: netserv@bitnic (use the server assigned to your region or it'll complain) GET NODENTRY (8 characters maximum, no domain suffix) Info from PETE@wmvm1.cc.wm.edu (Pete Hoyle): To see whether a given node or gateway knows the nodename in question (exactly the same information as above, but some fields broken across line boundaries): To: LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 (use any Bitnet host that has a LISTSERV) show node (8 characters maximum, no domain suffix) InterNet hostnames for BitNet hosts -- If you just want to know the InterNet name for a given BitNet host (or if the nodeentry doesn't include that information), try this trick discovered by John K. Duchowski . Send mail to user 000000 at the BitNet host. When the mail is returned (in a nondelivery notice), it's FROM: the Postmaster at the InterNet host. Warning, I tried this and started getting extra bounces, and don't know how to stop it! Merit Net Mail Sites Database -- Lets you search for institution name by keyword, or domain name of host. Claims to handle InterNet UseNet & BitNet hosts. Sometimes useful for looking up names of BITNET nodes that once existed but don't now. birchall%pilot.njin.net@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU posted the how-to info and might be an expert on this system. telnet hermes.merit.edu (35.1.48.150) netmailsites verbose (That makes it print out the full information on each site, instead of just machine names) -- (this could be "New York" or any key word that you would expect to be associated with your area.) Project Gutenberg -- Special project to provide full-text of public-domain (copyright expired) full-length documents such as books. -- The monthly announcement of its status is posted on PACS-L (a mailing list based at the BitNet node UHUPVM1) and accessible only via database search commands sent to that host (somewhat of a royal pain, see LISTDB.MEMO indexed in MaasInfo.DocIndex). The directory of full-text books currently online isn't posted as a file anywhere either, so you have to make an FTP connection and issue a directory command and collect a transcript of the output yourself if you want a directory listing. ftp mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (128.174.201.12) etext/* ftp quake.think.com (192.31.181.1) pub/etext/* We also have a new site in New Zealand, for local access only. Just ask HART@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu for more info. WAIS (Wide-Area Information Service) -- Uses client/server system for accessing a library of files around the net. Normally you'd have a WAIS client installed on your local system, but you can also TELNET to this demo client (the SWAIS interface by John Curran). I've verified it works through a Unix host using VT100 emulation on the dialin port. I don't know if it works when you are local to a Unix machine, nor through other systems such as VM/CMS. telnet quake.think.com (192.31.181.1) Login: wais (Flat list of about 318 sources) Usage instructions from Jim Fullton : After pressing the space bar to select one or more sources, hit w for keywords, then enter the words you want to search for and hit return. The search will occur on the remote sources (online instructions aren't clear about this). Unfortunately there seems to be no way to guess which of the hundreds of sources to try to find a given topic, and scrolling them page by page at 1200 baud takes "forever" and still doesn't give a good idea what topics are in each source. The same SWAIS, but with fewer sources, can also be accessed indirectly via bbs.oit.unc.edu, see next entry. The Extended Bulletin Board (EBB) -- can connect you to the information systems in cwis-l (see MaasInfo.TopIndex). But warning: "This bbs is for research and educational purposes ONLY! Don't even think about using it for commercial purposes" telnet bbs.oit.unc.edu (128.109.157.30) or (152.2.22.80) ? login: bbs (Info from Judy Hallman via Richard : When you get the EBB's menu, select item 9., "On-line Information Systems." Nope, when I tried it item 9 said Libraries and Campus-Wide Info Systems (LIBTEL)) (Also: 4. Simple WAIS Client -- Flat list of about 269 sources, but no way I could find to actually connect to any of them.) Update, new info from Jeffrey L. Needleman , not yet verified: telnet nyx.cs.du.edu (130.253.192.68) login: new gopher -- This is normally a client/server protocol, where you install the client on your own Unix machine and it automatically connects to the various servers. But you can TELNET from a Unix host using VT100 mode (doesn't work at all from VM/CMS) to try a demo client. All files it points to are searchable via the Unix 'more' interface. For more info, contact Paul Lindner telnet consultant.micro.umn.edu (128.101.95.9) login: gopher The last time I connected, these toplevel subjects were available: 1. Information About Gopher 2. Computer Information 3. Internet file server (ftp) sites 4. Fun & Games 5. Libraries 6. Mailing Lists 7. UofM Campus Information 8. News 9. Other Gopher and Information Servers 10. Phone Books 11. Search lots of places at the U of M Cleveland FreeNet -- It's sort of a giant nationwide-access bulletin-board system. Except for three copies of an error message (User "fnguest" does not exist in database.) on initial connection, it seems to work ok from Unix hosts using VT100 emulation, but not from VM/CMS hosts. One interesting feature is "Ask Sheba the Intercat". After login, say "go inet" and you'll see it in the menu. It's sort of a bulletin board where you can ask general questions about the network and get answers from some sort of expert, as well as from other members, but you have to be a registered user to ask/answer questions. telnet freenet-in-b.cwru.edu (129.22.8.75) telnet: connect: Connection refused (See also cwis-l listed in MaasInfo.TopIndex for list of other freenet bulletin board systems) UseNet white-pages database and e-mail daemon. Suppose you want to know the names and e-mail addresses of everyone who has posted on UseNet since the data-collecting started (1991.Aug/Sep) and has the first or last name "Maas": To: mail-server@pit-manager.mit.edu send usenet-addresses/Maas Non-alphanumeric characters in names should be replaced with a period. For example, to request the name "O'Connor": To: mail-server@pit-manager.mit.edu send usenet-addresses/O.Connor White Pages server (PSI White Pages Pilot Project) -- Warning, commands are case-sensitive. For example 'WHOIS' doesn't work but 'whois' does. telnet wp.nyser.net (192.33.4.21) login: fred help TOPIC -- Sort of pretty interface on VT100 via TELNET from Unix host, but topic-browse mode is user-unfriendly in that it has many hundreds of toplevel topics arranged alphabetically and it takes 13 seconds (at 2400 baud) to change pages so it takes about a half hour to page to the topic you want, only to find there isn't anything there. It doesn't work at all from VM/CMS. For more info, contact Lou Rosenfeld or Mike Morse (stis project manager) telnet stis.nsf.gov (128.150.195.40) login: public Library of Congress catalog -- You can search by author or title, but not by subject or keyword. It works fine from Unix with VT100, but can't be used from VM/CMS. Note that only volumes indexed after 1968 (when they started cataloging on computers) are included. Mail comments, or suggestions to CATALOG@DRA.COM telnet dra.com (192.65.218.43) (No login required) Keyword search of lists of interest groups (to avoid having to FTP the whole giant files and search locally). Three different files are searchable at this host, two files described in MaasInfo.TopIndex, and the archives of an interest group where new interest groups are announced. If you want to search all three files for the keyword MATH: To: LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 //DBlook JOB Echo=No Database Search DD=Rules //Rules DD * Select MATH in lists index Select MATH in intgroup index Select MATH in new-list index That will give you a report of hits. To retrieve the full records it found you'll need to submit another batch job. (It's too dangerous to try to search and retrieve full-text blind in a single attempt, like what if you get a thousand items of which you want only five? The index is 1000 lines but the full text could be in the megabyte range.) Each hit will be shown as a line starting with a number (Ref# or Item#). You use those numbers to retrieve the full-text of the desired records in your second batch job. For example, if you wanted to see only items 725 and 944 from intgroup, your second batch job would be: To: LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 //DBlook JOB Echo=No Database Search DD=Rules //Rules DD * Select MATH in intgroup Print all of 725 944 See MaasInfo.DocIndex for where to find full documentation for the Database Search facility in general (not specific to these three databases on this one LISTSERV host). Keyword search of BitNet GLOBAL list -- (info from David Sitman ) To find all descriptions that contain the word "math": To: LISTSERV@NCSUVM LIST GLOBAL /math Note this gives you only a single line containing the name of the mailing-list and host it resides on and a very brief title. The report usually contains a subset of the information that would be gotten by the Database Search of 'lists' (see previous section), thus would seem to be of not much use except when the requestor in a real hurry and willing to accept partial results. Posting UseNet news via e-mail -- If you read NetNews via some means such as NNTP or a bulletin board that doesn't allow you to post your own articles, you may be able to send e-mail to this service and have your message automatically posted for you (info from c.CRepin@ic.ac.UK, not yet confirmed) (Nope, I tried it 1992.Nov.17 and my e-mail promptly bounced, apparently this pointer was bogus. c.CRepin@ic.ac.UK replies that only certain newsgroups are handled here, in particular not the one I tried, misc.jobs.resumes.): To: @cis.ohio-state.edu for example To: news.newusers.questions@cis.ohio-state.edu Update: stevep@snowhite.cis.uoguelph.ca (Steve Portigal) says to try: To: newsgroup-name@cs.utexas.edu (convert periods to hyphens) &ETry-IP-93.3.20 NetFind -- A kind of WHOIS/Whitepages service: Given somebody's name and any location info you know, automatically query nameservers at lots of appropriate hosts to find e-mail address, info from mrichard@cie.uoregon.edu: telnet bruno.cs.colorado.edu (128.138.243.151) login: netfind Alternate Netfind servers: archie.au (AARNet, Melbourne, Australia) bruno.cs.colorado.edu (University of Colorado, Boulder) lincoln.technet.sg (Technet Unit, Singapore) malloco.ing.puc.cl (Catholic University of Chile, Santiago) monolith.cc.ic.ac.uk (Imperial College, London, England) mudhoney.micro.umn.edu (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis) netfind.oc.com (OpenConnect Systems, Dallas, Texas) redmont.cis.uab.edu (University of Alabama at Birmingham) sun.uakom.cs (Slovak Academy of Sciences, Czech and Slovak Fed. Repub.) BitNet users only: InterNet alias for BitNet hosts -- Some BITNET hosts have a formal InterNet alias. If they do, you can find it out: TELL LISTSERV AT BITNIC SHOW ALIAS Bit_Node where Bit_Node is the 8-character (maximum) BITNET node name. BitNet users only: How to find the nearest NETSERV (the one that will service you without sending you complaints about using the wrong one): Send the QUERY SERVICE command via RSCS (not via SMTP, that won't work because it can't figure out which BitNet node you are at) to any Netserv. If your mailer uses RSCS for email to BitNet hosts, you can do this by email: To: NETSERV@BITNIC (or NETSERV@UCBCMSA or any other you know about) QUERY SERVICE Otherwise you'll have use the equivalent TELL command on VM/CMS or the SEND command on Vax-VMS: TELL NETSERV AT BITNIC QUERY SERVICE SEND NETSERV@BITNIC "QUERY SERVICE" BitNet users only: How to find the human name associated with a user name on a remote BitNet host (info from Johan Berteloot not fully verified): Some BitNet hosts have a virtual machine called "QNAMES". To see a help file: TELL QNAMES AT BANUFS11 HELP to switch that particular host from Dutch to English responses: TELL QNAMES AT BANUFS11 ENGLISH You can also get more verbose info if you do this first: TELL QNAMES AT BANUFS11 MAX Then to actually retrieve a record, for example: TELL QNAMES AT BANUFS11 SHOW JBERTELO X.500 experimental white-pages demo -- (Info from pflynn@curia.ucc.ie (Peter Flynn) & helpdesk@paradise.ulcc.ac.uk) The only documentation available is glossy hardcopy and PostScript, plus online help. telnet paradise.ulcc.ac.uk Login: de Sits there at 1200 baud printing and erasing over and over and over a line that says: Organizations still to search: nn where nn decreases from about 70, so it wastes several minutes just printing that progress line wastefully when it could have been done already, then it says: No entries were found. Another search, I specify the country as Taiwan and it says: Denmark (fuzzily matched) then with no asking for confirmation it proceeds to spend the next 5 minutes printing that annoying progress line over and over and over again, then as before: No entries were found. ** Urgent appeal from the author: I've been unemployed since 1991.Sep.01, except for 2.5 weeks 1992.Sep, and have gotten deep in debt keeping my family of four in an apartment, but soon my credit may run out and we'll lose the apartment and be forced to live in the streets, which would be a terrible hardship on my children (ages 3.0 and 1.2). If you can, please help me find some employment or some other source of income before it's too late. **