Copyright: Here 1.1 Copyright ® 1996 Everitt Beers


Help Contents for Here
Contents for Here Help

Introduction

Menu Commands

Command Line Parameters

License, Support, and Update Information

Here 1.1

Copyright (c) 1996 Everitt Beers

All Rights Reserved


Introduction

Here is a shareware program that allows you to easily and automatically post your ever-changing dynamic PPP Internet address to a finger account or to a web page, thereby allowing others to look up your current Internet address and contact you.

Here also includes integrated finger and web clients to allow you to easily check the address postings of other users of Here without having to use another application.

Since other Internet users will now be able to locate your current address, you will be able to use talk servers such as WinTalk; FTP servers such as WinQV/Net, Serv-U, and WFTPD; and HTTP servers such as HTTPD and ZB Server.


Finger

Finger is a standard Internet protocol available on many systems, including most UNIX systems, for retrieving user information.  A Finger server program itself provides some general user information, usually including such items as a user's login and real names, and the times mail was last received and read.  Also, Finger will normally display the contents of two files kept in the user's home directory, the project and plan files.  Here can choose to use either of these two files to upload and store your current PPP address for others to retrieve using the finger protocol.  You can check the address postings of other users by using Here's own built-in Finger client.

You can find more information on Finger in your online UNIX manual.  Log onto your UNIX machine and enter man finger.


Web

The Internet's World Wide Web supports a standard protocol called Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).  This protocol allows the fetching and displaying of web pages using a uniform addressing system.  Web addresses normally take the form of:

http://hostname/path/file

For example:

http://www.cris.com/~beers/here.txt

Entering an http address into a Web browser will display that web page.

Here allows you to upload your current dynamic PPP address to a web page of your choice so that others can view it using their own Web browser, or Here's own built-in web client.


Menu Commands

Post

Query

Edit

Settings

Help


Post

On

Off

Exit


On

The On command is used to post your currently assigned PPP hostname and numeric Internet address to your finger and/or web page for public display.

The On command uploads the current hostname and numeric address of your PPP connection and the then current date and time to your finger project or plan file and/or your designated web page.

The uploaded files have the following format:

HERE ON cnc120040.concentric.net 128.125.222.122 Sun Sep 10 23:19:53 1995

Of course, the above is an example.  The hostname and numeric address of your then current PPP connection and your actual date and time of posting will appear instead of the above sample hostname, address, date, and time.

After posting an On message, the On menu item will have a check mark placed next to it.


Off

The Off command is used to post when you logged off of your PPP account.

The Off command posts or uploads an OFF message and the current date and time to a finger project or plan file and/or a designated web page.

The uploaded files have the following format:

HERE OFF Sun Sep 10 23:22:13 1995

Of course, the above is an example.  Your actual date and time of posting will appear instead of the above sample date and time.

After posting an Off message, the Off menu item will have a check mark placed next to it.


Project and Plan Files

The project and the plan files are two files that the finger protocol displays when queried.  On UNIX machines, both file names actually start with a dot:  .project and .plan.  This makes them hidden files.  To see them in a UNIX directory listing, you can use the ls -a command.  Both files must be located in your home directory in order for finger to be able to find them.

On VMS machines, the files are named project.txt and plan.txt, and are not hidden.  By default, Here expects your finger file to be named .project, but you can change this to whatever name is needed by using the Settings/Upload Files menu item.

The difference between the two files is that on most systems, the project file is limited to one line of information, while the plan file may be of any length.  Here defaults to using the project file.  It was chosen as the default for use in Here so that you can still use your plan file to display an unlimited amount of permanent information in your finger, such as your name, mail addresses, phone numbers, web home page address, and biographical information.

However, you also have the option of using your plan file to upload Here's information.  This can be useful if your provider's finger daemon fails to display the project file, but does display the plan file.

If your provider's finger daemon fails to display your project or plan files, but you know that they have in fact been uploaded to your remote home directory, check the file permissions.


File Permissions

In order enable a finger or a web client to display your project and plan files or your web page, other users must have read permission on the designated files, and they must also have execute permission on your home directory and, in the case of web files, also your public_html directory.  Normally, your UNIX system administrator will have set up your account so that your project and plan files, web files, home directory and public_html directory will have the correct permissions by default.  However, if not, you can easily add the correct permissions yourself with the chmod command after the files have been created.

To use the chmod command, log onto your UNIX machine and make sure you are in your home directory.  Then add read permission for others to your finger files by entering:

chmod o+r .project .plan

You can also similarly add read permission to your Here web file, for example:

chmod o+r ~/public_html/here.txt

You can then add execute permission for others to your home and public_html directory by entering:

chmod o+x .

You only need to do this once.  From then on, each new upload will take on the already existing permissions of the files that are overwritten.

You can check you permissions by using the ls -al command.

For more information on these commands, you can look in your online UNIX manual by entering man chmod, man ls, or man finger.


Exit

Use this choice to exit or quit Here.

If Auto Post has been activated, Here will automatically upload an OFF posting as it terminates.


Query

Finger

Web


Finger Query

Selecting Finger in the Query menu presents a dialog box in which you can enter a finger address whose information you would like to retrieve.  This allows you to easily check the current PPP login addresses of others who are also using Here to post their address using a finger server.

Here stores the last twenty-five unique addresses that you have entered, with the most recently used addresses at the top of the list.  Instead of retyping a recently used address, it can instead be chosen from the saved addresses by clicking on the down-arrow to open the list box and then selecting the desired address.

Once you have entered or selected the desired address, click the OK button and the finger information will be retrieved and displayed.

You can copy and paste from the finger display to the Windows clipboard.


Finger Address

Finger addresses have the following format:

username@hostname

For example:

beers@cris.com

Also, you can either enter just the username to check for a user on the local host, or just the remote hostname preceded by the @ to check for all the users currently logged onto a remote machine.

For example:

beers would check for finger information about user "beers" on the local host, that is, on your own PC.  (Note:  You must have a finger daemon, such as Fingerd, running locally on your PC for this to work.)

@cris.com would provide a listing of finger information on all users currently logged onto the machine cris.com.


Web Query

Selecting Web in the Query menu presents a dialog box in which you can enter a web address whose information you would like to retrieve.  This allows you to easily check the current PPP login addresses of others who are also using Here to post their address on the web.

Here stores the last twenty-five unique addresses that you have entered, with the most recently used addresses at the top of the list.  Instead of retyping a recently used address, it can instead be chosen from the saved addresses by clicking on the down-arrow to open the list box and then selecting the desired address.

Once you have entered or selected the desired address, click the OK button and the web posting will be retrieved and displayed.

You can copy and paste from the web display to the Windows clipboard.


Web Address

Web page addresses have the general form:

http://hostname/path/filename

"http" stands for the "Hypertext Transfer Protocol; "hostname" is the name of the machine on which the page are located; and "path/filename" specifies the path and name of the file located on the host machine.

When entering a web page address into the Web Query dialog box, it is not necessary for you to type the "http://" prefix.  Here takes care of it for you.  You should just type the rest of the address:  hostname/path/filename.

For example:

www.cris.com/~beers/here.txt


Edit

Copy

Clear


Copy

The Copy command allows you to copy selected text from a finger or web query result to the Windows clipboard for pasting into another application.  For example, you could double click the current Internet address in the finger or web display to select it, and then copy (Ctrl-C) and paste (Ctrl-V) it into WinTalk's Open Talk Connection dialog box.


Clear

The Clear command clears all text from the finger display.


Settings

Auto Post

Time Zone

Upload Files

FTP Login

Save Window Position


Auto Post

When you select the Auto Post command, Here will immediately upload an ON posting.  From then on, as long as Auto Post remains activated, Here will automatically upload an ON posting whenever it is started and will then minimize itself to an icon.

In addition, as long as Auto Post remains activated, Here will automatically upload an OFF posting whenever you exit the program.

The Auto Post command is a toggle.  A check mark appears on the menu when it has been activated.


Time Zone

The Time Zone command displays a dialog box in which you can enter time zone information for display by Here in you finger postings.

Since the Internet is a world-wide system, all twenty-four time zones are relevant.  All of these time zones have their own unique names.  Therefore, on the Internet, rather than using the time zone names, which might not be familiar to all users, the convention is to instead show the time offset from Greenwich Meridian (or Mean) Time (GMT).  Greenwich is in England.

Going east from England, positive numbers are used.  For example, France would be +0100 GMT.  Going west from England, the offsets are negative.  For example, Eastern Standard Time (EST) in the United States is -0500 GMT.  Using this scheme, the offsets around the world range from -1200 to +1200.

As another example, the GMT offset for Los Angeles, California, USA, with its Pacific Standard Time (PST) would be -0800 GMT.  For Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), the offset would be -0700 GMT.

If you so desire, you can use both the time zone name and the GMT offset.  For example, an OFF message combining both time zone notations could read:

HERE OFF Sun Sep 10 23:22:13 1995 PST -0800 GMT


Upload File
Upload Files

Here originally defaults to using your .project file for uploading your postings.  However, by choosing the Upload Files command, you can instead upload your postings using the plan file or a web page; or you can change the names of the files to conform to the unique requirements of your system, such as using "project.txt" or "plan.txt" for finger files on a VMS system.

Simply click on the appropriate check box for the file you want to use, and then type in its name, including any relative path to the file.  For example, the defaults are ".project" and "public_html/here.txt" ("public_html" is the usual name of the directory for web pages).

On UNIX systems, if your uploaded files fail to display, check their file permissions.


Login
FTP Login

Use this screen to enter your FTP login parameters for the remote machine you are using to post your Here messages.

You need to provide the following information:

Host:  The hostname or Internet address for FTP access to the machine that hosts your finger or web files.

User:  Your FTP login name.

Password:  Your FTP password.

Check the Save Password box to save your password between sessions.  Otherwise, only the Host and User are saved between sessions, and you will have to enter the Password at the beginning of each new session.

Click on OK to save the information.


Save Window Position

Save Window Position will save the current window position so that the next time Here is started, it will be located in the same screen position.


Help

Contents:  Displays the help table of contents.

Search:  Displays the help search dialog box.

About:  Displays version, author, and copyright information.


Command Line Parameters

Here has two command line parameters:  On and Off.  These parameters can be entered when starting Here from the Program Manager's or File Manager's Run command or as Command Line options in the Properties settings of a Program Item in the Program Manager.  (Case is not significant.)

The command line parameters do the following:

On:  Posts an On message and then terminates.

Off:  Posts an Off message and then terminates.

For example:

here on or here off.

Suggestion:  Make two Program Item icons in Program Manager, one using the On parameter, and the other using the Off parameter.  You can then click on the On icon to start an Internet session, automatically posting your ON message with your current address.

When you are ready to sign off, click on the Off icon.  Here will automatically post your OFF message and terminate.

See the Auto Post command as an alternative to the On and Off command line parameters.


Customer Support
Copyright and License

Here is copyrighted by its author, Everitt Beers.  The author reserves and retains all rights to the program and its related files except as otherwise expressly licensed herein.  The program is not in the public domain.

Here is a shareware program.  It may be freely distributed to others as long as all of the original program, help, and documentation files remain together in unmodified form and as long as no fee is charged.

Here may used by any individual for any non-commercial, non-profit, or educational use without paying any fee.

Here may be evaluated for thirty days for commercial use without paying a fee.  However, each copy that is used for any commercial or profit-generating use after the initial thirty-day trial period must be registered.  The commercial registration fee is $10 US per copy.

To register Here for commercial use, you may use the Registration Form contained in the "register.txt" file that is included in the distribution, or you may instead simply mail your check, or credit card information, to:

Everitt Beers

8928 Beverlywood Street

Los Angeles, California 90034-2418

United States

Here may not be resold or distributed as part of any commercial package without the express permission of the author.

Disclaimer

Here is distributed "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including without any implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.  The user assumes all risks of using the program.  The author shall not be liable for any damages whatsoever, including any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, loss of profits, or special damages, arising out of the use, or the inability to use, the program, even if advised of the possibility of such damages in advance.

Support

Support information on Here can be found at http://www.cris.com/~beers/here.  You may also send bug reports, questions, or program revision suggestions to beers@cris.com.

Program Updates

The latest version of Here can be downloaded from http://www.cris.com/~beers/here.