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* You get a "host unknown" message. Check your spelling of the site name. * You type in a password on a telnet site that requires one, and you get a "login incorrect" message. Try logging in again. If you get the message again, hit your control and ] keys at the same time to disengage and return to your host system. * You can't seem to disconnect from a telnet site. Use control-] to disengage and return to your host system. 6.8 FYI The Usenet newsgroups alt.internet.services and alt.bbs.internet can provide pointers to new telnet systems. Scott Yanoff periodically **posts his "Updated Internet Services List" in the former. The alt.bbs.internet newsgroup is also where you'll find Aydin Edguer's compendium of FAQs related to Internet bulletin-board systems. Peter Scott, who maintains the Hytelnet database, runs a mailing list about new telnet services and changes in existing ones. To get on the list, send him a note at scott@sklib.usask.ca. Gleason Sackman maintains another mailing list dedicated to new Internet services and news about the new uses to which the Net is being put. To subscribe, send a message to listserv@internic.net. Leave the "subject:" line blank, and as your message, write: Sub net-happenings Your Name. The soc.net-people is a place to ask about people you can't find elsewhere. Chapter 7: FTP 7.1 TONS OF FILES hundreds of systems connected to Internet have file libraries, or archives, accessible to the public. Much of this consists of free or low- cost shareware programs for virtually every make of computer. If you want a different communications program for your IBM, or feel like playing a new game on your Amiga, you'll be able to get it from the Net. But there are also libraries of documents as well. If you want a copy of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, you can find it on the Net. Copies of historical documents, from the Magna Carta to the Declaration of Independence are also yours for the asking, along with a translation of a telegram from Lenin ordering the execution of rebellious peasants. You can also find song lyrics, poems, even summaries of every "Lost in Space" episode ever made. You can also find extensive files detailing everything you could ever possibly want to know about the Net itself. First you'll see how to get these files; then we'll show you where they're kept. Increasingly, you can get these files via gopher or the World-Wide Web (see Chapter 8 for gopher; Chapter 9 for the Web). But it's still good to know how to use the original way of getting files across the Net: file-transfer protocol, or FTP, because there is still a large number of files stil stored on FTP sites. Starting ftp is as easy as using telnet. At your host system's command line, type ftp site.name and hit enter, where "site.name" is the address of the ftp site you want to reach. One major difference between telnet and ftp is that it is considered bad form to connect to most ftp sites during their business hours (generally 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time). This is because transferring files across the network takes up considerable computing power, which during the day is likely to be needed for whatever the computer's main function is. There are some ftp sites that are accessible to the public 24 hours a day, though. You'll find these noted in the list of ftp sites in section 7.6. 7.2 YOUR FRIEND ARCHIE How do you find a file you want, though? Until a few years ago, this could be quite the pain -- there was no master directory to tell you where a given file might be stored on the Net. Who'd want to slog through hundreds of file libraries looking for something? Alan Emtage, Bill Heelan and Peter Deutsch, students at McGill University in Montreal, asked the same question. Unlike the weather, though, they did something about it. They created a database system, called archie, that would periodically call up file libraries and basically find out what they had available. In turn, anybody could dial into archie, type in a file name, and see where on the Net it was available. Archie currently catalogs some 1,000 file libraries around the world. Today, there are three ways to ask archie to find a file for you: through telnet, "client" Archie program on your own host system or e-mail. All three methods let you type in a full or partial file name and will tell you where on the Net it's stored. If you have access to telnet, you can telnet to one of the following addresses: archie.mcgill.ca; archie.sura.net; archie.unl.edu; archie.ans.net; or archie.rutgers.edu. If asked for a log-in name, type archie and hit enter. When you connect, the key command is prog, which you use in this form: prog filename Followed by enter, where "filename" is the program or file you're looking for. If you're unsure of a file's complete name, try typing in part of the name. For example, "PKZIP" will work as well as "PKZIP204.EXE." The system does not support DOS or Unix wildcards. If you ask archie to look for "PKZIP*," it will tell you it couldn't find anything by that name. One thing to keep in mind is that a file is not necessarily the same as a program -- it could also be a document. This means you can use archie to search for, say, everything online related to the Beetles, as well as computer programs and graphics files. A number of Net sites now have their own archie programs that take your request for information and pass it onto the nearest archie database -- ask your system administrator if she has it online. These "client" programs seem to provide information a lot more quickly than the actual archie itself! If it is available, at your host system's command line, type archie -s filename where filename is the program or document you're looking for, and hit enter. The -s tells the program to ignore case in a file name and lets you search for partial matches. You might actually want to type it this way: archie -s filename|more which will stop the output every screen (handy if there are many sites that carry the file you want). Or you could open a file on your computer with your text-logging function. The third way, for people without access to either of the above, is e- mail. Send a message to archie@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca. You can leave the subject line blank. Inside the message, type prog filename where filename is the file you're looking for. You can ask archie to look up several programs by putting their names on the same "prog" line, like this: prog file1 file2 file3 Within a few hours, archie will write back with a list of the appropriate sites. In all three cases, if there is a system that has your file, you'll get a response that looks something like this: Host sumex-aim.stanford.edu Location: /info-mac/comm FILE -rw-r--r-- 258256 Feb 15 17:07 zterm-09.hqx Location: /info-mac/misc FILE -rw-r--r-- 7490 Sep 12 1991 zterm-sys7-color-icons.hqx Chances are, you will get a number of similar looking responses for each program. The "host" is the system that has the file. The "Location" tells you which directory to look in when you connect to that system. Ignore the funny-looking collections of r's and hyphens for now. After them, come the size of the file or directory listing in bytes, the date it was uploaded, and the name of the file. 7.3 GETTING THE FILES Now you want to get that file. Assuming your host site does have ftp, you connect in a similar fashion to telnet, by typing: ftp sumex-aim.stanford.edu (or the name of whichever site you want to reach). Hit enter. If the connection works, you'll see this: Connected to sumex-aim.stanford.edu. 220 SUMEX-AIM FTP server (Version 4.196 Mon Jan 13 13:52:23 PST 1992) ready. Name (sumex-aim.stanford.edu:adamg): If nothing happens after a minute or so, hit control-C to return to your host system's command line. But if it has worked, type anonymous and hit enter. You'll see a lot of references on the Net to "anonymous ftp." This is how it gets its name -- you don't really have to tell the library site what your name is. The reason is that these sites are set up so that anybody can gain access to certain public files, while letting people with accounts on the sites to log on and access their own personal files. Next, you'll be asked for your password. As a password, use your e-mail address. This will then come up: 230 Guest connection accepted. Restrictions apply. Remote system type is UNIX. Using binary mode to transfer files. ftp> Now type ls and hit enter. You'll see something awful like this: 200 PORT command successful. 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls. total 2636 -rw-rw-r-- 1 0 31 4444 Mar 3 11:34 README.POSTING dr-xr-xr-x 2 0 1 512 Nov 8 11:06 bin -rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 11030960 Apr 2 14:06 core dr--r--r-- 2 0 1 512 Nov 8 11:06 etc drwxrwsr-x 5 13 22 512 Mar 19 12:27 imap drwxr-xr-x 25 1016 31 512 Apr 4 02:15 info-mac drwxr-x--- 2 0 31 1024 Apr 5 15:38 pid drwxrwsr-x 13 0 20 1024 Mar 27 14:03 pub drwxr-xr-x 2 1077 20 512 Feb 6 1989 tmycin 226 Transfer complete. ftp> Ack! Let's decipher this Rosetta Stone. First, ls is the ftp command for displaying a directory (you can actually use dir as well, but if you're used to MS-DOS, this could lead to confusion when you try to use dir on your host system, where it won't work, so it's probably better to just remember to always use ls for a directory while online). The very first letter on each line tells you whether the listing is for a directory or a file. If the first letter is a ``d,'' or an "l", it's a directory. Otherwise, it's a file. The rest of that weird set of letters and dashes consist of "flags" that tell the ftp site who can look at, change or delete the file. You can safely ignore it. You can also ignore the rest of the line until you get to the second number, the one just before the date. This tells you how large the file is, in bytes. If the line is for a directory, the number gives you a rough indication of how many items are in that directory -- a directory listing of 512 bytes is relatively small. Next comes the date the file or directory was uploaded, followed (finally!) by its name. Notice the README.POSTING file up at the top of the directory. Most archive sites have a "read me" document, which usually contains some basic information about the site, its resources and how to use them. Let's get this file, both for the information in it and to see how to transfer files from there to here. At the ftp> prompt, type get README and hit enter. Note that ftp sites are no different from Unix sites in general: they are case-sensitive. You'll see something like this: 200 PORT command successful. 150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for README (4444 bytes). 226 Transfer complete. 4444 bytes received in 1.177seconds (3.8 Kbytes/s) And that's it! The file is now located in your home directory on your host system, from which you can now download it to your own computer. The simple "get" command is the key to transferring a file from an archive site to your host system. If you want to download more than one file at a time (say a series of documents, use mget instead of get; for example: mget *.txt This will transfer copies of every file ending with .txt in the given directory. Before each file is copied, you'll be asked if you're sure you want it. Despite this, mget could still save you considerable time -- you won't have to type in every single file name. If you want to save even more time, and are sure you really want ALL of the given files, type prompt before you do the mget command. This will turn off the prompt, and all the files will be zapped right into your home directory. There is one other command to keep in mind. If you want to get a copy of a computer program, type bin and hit enter. This tells the ftp site and your host site that you are sending a binary file, i.e., a program. Most ftp sites now use binary format as a default, but it's a good idea to do this in case you've connected to one of the few that doesn't. To switch to a directory, type cd directory-name (substituting the name of the directory you want to access) and hit enter. Type ls and hit enter to get the file listing for that particular directory. To move back up the directory tree, type cd .. (note the space between the d and the first period) and hit enter. Or you could type cdup and hit enter. Keep doing this until you get to the directory of interest. Alternately, if you already know the directory path of the file you want (from our friend archie), after you connect, you could simply type get directory/subdirectory/filename On many sites, files meant for public consumption are in the pub or public directory; sometimes you'll see an info directory. Almost every site has a bin directory, which at first glance sounds like a bin in which interesting stuff might be dumped. But it actually stands for "binary" and is simply a place for the system administrator to store the programs that run the ftp system. Lost+found is another directory that looks interesting but actually never has anything of public interest in them. Before, you saw how to use archie. From our example, you can see that some system administrators go a little berserk when naming files. Fortunately, there's a way for you to rename the file as it's being transferred. Using our archie example, you'd type get zterm-sys7-color-icons.hqx zterm.hqx and hit enter. Instead of having to deal constantly with a file called zterm-sys7-color-icons.hqx, you'll now have one called, simply, zterm.hqx. Those last three letters bring up something else: Many program files are compressed to save on space and transmission time. In order to actually use them, you'll have to use an un-compress program on them first. 7.4 ODD LETTERS -- DECODING FILE ENDINGS There are a wide variety of compression methods in use. You can tell which method was used by the last one to three letters at the end of a file. Here are some of the more common ones and what you'll need to un- compress the files they create (most of these decompression programs can be located through archie). .txt or .TXT By itself, this means the file is a document, rather than a program. .ps or .PS A PostScript document (in Adobe's page description language). You can print this file on any PostScript capable printer, or use a previewer, like GNU project's GhostScript. .doc or .DOC Another common "extension" for documents. No decompression is needed, unless it is followed by: .Z This indicates a Unix compression method. To uncompress, type uncompress filename.Z and hit enter at your host system's command line. If the file is a compressed text file, you can read it online by instead typing zcat filename.txt.Z |more u16.zip is an MS-DOS program that will let you download such a file and uncompress it on your own computer. The Macintosh equivalent program is called MacCompress (use archie to find these). .zip or .ZIP These indicate the file has been compressed with a common MS-DOS compression program, known as PKZIP (use archie to find PKZIP204.EXE). Many Unix systems will let you un-ZIP a file with a program called, well, unzip. .gz A Unix version of ZIP. To uncompress, type gunzip filename.gz at your host system's command line. .zoo or .ZOO A Unix and MS-DOS compression format. Use a program called zoo to uncompress .Hqx or .hqx Mactintosh compression format. Requires the BinHex program. .shar or Another Unix format. Use unshar to uncompress. .Shar .tar Another Unix format, often used to compress several related files into one large file. Most Unix systems will have a program called tar for "un-tarring" such files. Often, a "tarred" file will also be compressed with the gz method, so you first have to use uncompress and then tar. .sit or .Sit A Mactinosh format that requires the StuffIt program. .ARC Another MS-DOS format, which requires the use of the ARC or ARCE programs. .LHZ Another MS-DOS format; requires the use of LHARC. A few last words of caution: Check the size of a file before you get it. The Net moves data at phenomenal rates of speed. But that 500,000-byte file that gets transferred to your host system in a few seconds could take more than an hour or two to download to your computer if you're using a 2400-baud modem. Your host system may also have limits on the amount of bytes you can store online at any one time. Also, although it is really extremely unlikely you will ever get a file infected with a virus, if you plan to do much downloading over the Net, you'd be wise to invest in a good anti-viral program, just in case. 7.5 THE KEYBOARD CABAL System administrators are like everybody else -- they try to make things easier for themselves. And when you sit in front of a keyboard all day, that can mean trying everything possible to reduce the number of keys you actually have to hit each day. Unfortunately, that can make it difficult for the rest of us. You've already read about bin and lost+found directories. Etc is another seemingly interesting directory that turns out to be another place to store files used by the ftp site itself. Again, nothing of any real interest. Then, once you get into the actual file libraries, you'll find that in many cases, files will have such non-descriptive names as V1.1-AK.TXT. The best known example is probably a set of several hundred files known as RFCs, which provide the basic technical and organizational information on which much of the Internet is built. These files can be found on many ftp sites, but always in a form such as RFC101.TXT, RFC102.TXT and so on, with no clue whatsoever as to what information they contain. Fortunately, almost all ftp sites have a "Rosetta Stone" to help you decipher these names. Most will have a file named README (or some variant) that gives basic information about the system. Then, most directories will either have a similar README file or will have an index that does give brief descriptions of each file. These are usually the first file in a directory and often are in the form 00INDEX.TXT. Use the ftp command to get this file. You can then scan it online or download it to see which files you might be interested in. Another file you will frequently see is called ls-lR.Z. This contains a listing of every file on the system, but without any descriptions (the name comes from the Unix command ls -lR, which gives you a listing of all the files in all your directories). The Z at the end means the file has been compressed, which means you will have to use a Unix un-compress command before you can read the file. And finally, we have those system administrators who almost seem to delight in making things difficult -- the ones who take full advantage of Unix's ability to create absurdly long file names. On some FTP sites, you will see file names as long as 80 characters or so, full of capital letters, underscores and every other orthographic device that will make it almost impossible for you to type the file name correctly when you try to get it. Your secret weapon here is the mget command. Just type mget, a space, and the first five or six letters of the file name, followed by an asterisk, for example: mget This_F* The FTP site will ask you if you want to get the file that begins with that name. If there are several files that start that way, you might have to answer 'n' a few times, but it's still easier than trying to recreate a ludicrously long file name. 7.6 SOME INTERESTING FTP SITES What follows is a list of some interesting ftp sites, arranged by category. With hundreds of ftp sites now on the Net, however, this list barely scratches the surface of what is available. Liberal use of archie will help you find specific files. The times listed for each site are in Eastern time and represent the periods during which it is considered acceptable to connect. AMIGA ftp.uu.net Has Amiga programs in the systems/amiga directory. Available 24 hours. wuarchive.wustl.edu. Look in the pub/aminet directory. Available 24 hours. ATARI atari.archive.umich.edu Find almost all the Atari files you'll ever need, in the atari directory. 7 p.m. - 7 a.m. BOOKS rtfm.mit.edu The pub/usenet/rec.arts.books directories has reading lists for various authors as well as lists of recommended bookstores in different cities. Unfortunately, this site uses incredibly long file names -- so long they may scroll off the end of your screen if you are using an MS-DOS or certain other computers. Even if you want just one of the files, it probably makes more sense to use mget than get. This way, you will be asked on each file whether you want to get it; otherwise you may wind up frustrated because the system will keep telling you the file you want doesn't exist (since you may miss the end of its name due to the scrolling problem). 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu Project Gutenberg is an effort to translate paper texts into electronic form. Already available are more than 100 titles, from works by Lewis Carrol to Mark Twain; from "A Tale of Two Cities" to "Son of Tarzan." Look in the /etext/etext92 and /etext/etext93 directories. 6 p.m. - 9 a.m. COMPUTER ETHICS ftp.eff.org The home of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Use cd to get to the pub directory and then look in the EFF, SJG and CPSR directories for documents on the EFF itself and various issues related to the Net, ethics and the law. Available 24 hours. CONSUMER rtfm.mit.edu The pub/usenet/misc.consumers directory has documents related to credit. The pub/usenet/rec.travel.air directory will tell you how to deal with airline reservation clerks, find the best prices on seats, etc. See under Books for a caveat in using this ftp site. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. COOKING wuarchive.wustl.edu Look for recipes and recipe directories in the usenet/rec.food.cooking/recipes directory. gatekeeper.dec.com Recipes are in the pub/recipes directory. ECONOMICS neeedc.umesbs.maine.edu The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston uses this site (yes, there are three 'e's in "neeedc") to house all sorts of data on the New England economy. Many files contain 20 years or more of information, usually in forms that are easily adaptable to spreadsheet or database files. Look in the frbb directory. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. town.hall.org. Look in the edgar directory for the beginnings of a system to distribute annual reports and other data publicly held companies are required to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The other/fed directory holds various statistical files from the Federal Reserve Board. FTP iraun1.ira.uka.de Run by the computer-science department of the University of Karlsruhe in Germany, this site offers lists of anonymous- FTP sites both internationally (in the anon.ftp.sites directory) and in Germany (in anon.ftp.sites.DE). 12 p.m. to 2 a.m. ftp.netcom.com The pub/profiles directory has lists of ftp sites. GOVERNMENT ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu The SENATE directory contains bibliographic records of U.S. Senate hearings and documents for the past several Congresses. Get the file README.DOS9111, which will explain the cryptic file names. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. nptn.org The General Accounting Office is the investigative wing of Congress. The pub/e.texts/gao.reports directory represents an experiment by the agency to use ftp to distribute its reports. Available 24 hours. info.umd.edu The info/Government/US/Whitehouse directory has copies of press releases and other documents from the Clinton administration. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. leginfo.public.ca.gov This is a repository of legislative calendars, bills and other information related to state government in California. Available 24 hours. whitehouse.gov Look for copies of presidential position papers, transcripts of press conferences and related information here. Available 24 hours. See also under law. HISTORY nptn.org This site has a large, growing collecting of text files. In the pub/e.texts/freedom.shrine directory, you'll find copies of important historical documents, from the Magna Carta to the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation. Available 24 hours. ra.msstate.edu Mississippi State maintains an eclectic database of historical documents, detailing everything from Attilla's battle strategy to songs of soldiers in Vietnam, in the docs/history directory. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. seq1.loc.gov The Library of Congress has acquired numerous documents from the former Soviet government and has translated many of them into English. In the pub/soviet.archive/text.english directory, you'll find everything from telegrams from Lenin ordering the death of peasants to Khrushchev's response to Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis. The README file in the pub/soviet.archive directory provides an index to the documents. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. HONG KONG nok.lcs.mit.edu GIF pictures of Hong Kong pop stars, buildings and vistas are available in the pub/hongkong/HKPA directory. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. INTERNET ftp.eff.org The pub/Net_info directory has a number of sub- directories containing various Internet resources guides and information files, including the latest online version of the Big Dummy's Guide. Available 24 hours. nic.ddn.mil The internet-drafts directory contains information about Internet, while the scc directory holds network security bulletins. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. LAW info.umd.edu U.S. Supreme Court decisions from 1989 to the present are stored in the info/Government/US/SupremeCt directory. Each term has a separate directory (for example, term1992). Get the README and Index files to help decipher the case numbers. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. ftp.uu.net Supreme Court decisions are in the court-opinions directory. You'll want to get the index file, which tells you which file numbers go with which file names. The decisions come in WordPerfect and Atex format only. Available 24 hours a day. LIBRARIES ftp.unt.edu The library directory contains numerous lists of libraries with computerized card catalogs accessible through the Net. LITERATURE nptn.org In the pub/e.texts/gutenberg/etext91 and etext92 directories, you can get copies of Aesop's Fables, works by Lewis Carroll and other works of literature, as well as the Book of Mormon. Available 24 hours. world.std.com The obi directory has everything from online fables to accounts of Hiroshima survivors. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. MACINTOSH sumex-aim.stanford.edu This is the premier site for Macintosh software. After you log in, switch to the info-mac directory, which will bring up a long series of sub-directories of virtually every free and shareware Mac program you could ever want. 9 p.m. - 9 a.m. ftp.uu.net You'll find lots of Macintosh programs in the systems/mac/simtel20 directory. Available 24 hours a day. MOVIE REVIEWS lcs.mit.edu Look in the movie-reviews directory. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. MS-DOS wuarchive.wustl.edu This carries one of the world's largest collections of MS-DOS software. The files are actually copied, or "mirrored" from a computer at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range (which uses ftp software that is totally incomprehensible). It also carries large collections of Macintosh, Windows, Atari, Amiga, Unix, OS9, CP/M and Apple II software. Look in the mirrors and systems directories. The gif directory contains a large number of GIF graphics images. Accessible 24 hours. ftp.uu.net Look for MS-DOS programs and files in the systems/msdos/simtel20 directory. Available 24 hours a day. MUSIC cs.uwp.edu The pub/music directory has everything from lyrics of contemporary songs to recommended CDs of baroque music. It's a little different - and easier to navigate - than other ftp sites. File and directory names are on the left, while on the right, you'll find a brief description of the file or directory. potemkin.cs.pdx.edu The Bob Dylan archive. Interviews, notes, year-by-year accounts of his life and more, in the pub/dylan directory. 9 p.m. - 9 a.m. ftp.nevada.edu Guitar chords for contemporary songs are in the pub/guitar directory, in subdirectories organized by group or artist. NATIVE AMERICANS pines.hsu.edu Home of IndianNet, this site contains a variety of directories and files related to Indians and Eskimos, including federal census data, research reports and a tribal profiles database. Look in the pub and indian directories. PETS rtfm.mit.edu The pub/usenet/rec.pets.dogs and pub/usenet.rec.pets.cats directories have documents on the respective animals. See under Books for a caveat in using this ftp site. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. PICTURES wuarchiv.wustl.edu The graphics/gif directory contains hundreds of GIF photographic and drawing images, from cartoons to cars, space images to pop stars. These are arranged in a long series of subdirectories. PHOTOGRAPHY ftp.nevada.edu Photolog is an online digest of photography news, in the pub/photo directory. RELIGION nptn.org In the pub/e.texts/religion directory, you'll find subdirectories for chapters and books of both the Bible and the Koran. Available 24 hours. SCIENCE FICTION elbereth.rutgers.edu In the pub/sfl directory, you'll find plot summaries for various science-fiction TV shows, including Star Trek (not only the original and Next Generation shows, but the cartoon version as well), Lost in Space, Battlestar Galactica, the Twilight Zone, the Prisoner and Doctor Who. There are also lists of various things related to science fiction and an online science-fiction fanzine. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. SEX rtfm.mit.edu Look in the pub/usenet/alt.sex and pub/usenet/alt.sex.wizards directories for documents related to all facets of sex. See under Books for a caveat in using this ftp site. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. SHAKESPEARE atari.archive.umich.edu The shakespeare directory contains most of the Bard's works. A number of other sites have his works as well, but generally as one huge mega-file. This site breaks them down into various categories (comedies, poetry, histories, etc.) so that you can download individual plays or sonnets. SPACE ames.arc.nasa.gov Stores text files about space and the history of the NASA space program in the pub/SPACE subdirectory. In the pub/GIF and pub/SPACE/GIF directories, you'll find astronomy- and NASA-related GIF files, including pictures of planets, satellites and other celestial objects. 9 p.m. - 9 a.m. TV coe.montana.edu The pub/TV/Guides directory has histories and other information about dozens of TV shows. Only two anonymous-ftp log-ins are allowed at a time, so you might have to try more than once to get in. 8 p.m. - 8 a.m. ftp.cs.widener.edu The pub/simpsons directory has more files than anybody could possibly need about Bart and family. The pub/strek directory has files about the original and Next Generation shows as well as the movies. See also under Science Fiction. TRAVEL nic.stolaf.edu Before you take that next overseas trip, you might want to see whether the State Department has issued any kind of advisory for the countries on your itinerary. The advisories, which cover everything from hurricane damage to civil war, are in the pub/travel- advisories/advisories directory, arranged by country. 7 p.m. - 7 a.m. USENET ftp.uu.net In the usenet directory, you'll find "frequently asked questions" files, copied from rtfm.mit.edu. The communications directory holds programs that let MS-DOS users connect directly with UUCP sites. In the info directory, you'll find information about ftp and ftp sites. The inet directory contains information about Internet. Available 24 hours. rtfm.mit.edu This site contains all available "frequently asked questions" files for Usenet newsgroups in the pub/usenet directory. See under Books for a caveat in using this ftp site. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. VIRUSES ftp.unt.edu The antivirus directory has anti-virus programs for MS- DOS and Macintosh computers. 7 p.m. - 7 a.m. WEATHER wuarchive.wustl.edu The /multimedia/images/wx directory contains GIF weather images of North America. Files are updated hourly and take this general form: CV100222. The first two letters tell the type of file: CV means it is a visible-light photo taken by a weather satellite. CI images are similar, but use infrared light. Both these are in black and white. Files that begin with SA are color radar maps of the U.S. that show severe weather patterns but also fronts and temperatures in major cities. The numbers indicate the date and time (in GMT - five hours ahead of EST) of the image: the first two numbers represent the month, the next two the date, the last two the hour. The file WXKEY.GIF explains the various symbols in SA files. 7.7 ncftp -- NOW YOU TELL ME! If you're lucky, the people who run your host system or public-access site have installed a program called ncftp, which takes some of the edges off the ftp process. For starters, when you use ncftp instead of plain old ftp, you no longer have to worry about misspelling "anonymous" when you connect. The program does it for you. And once you're in, instead of getting line after line filled with dashes, x's, r's and d's, you only get listings of the files or directories themselves (if you're used to MS-DOS, the display you get will be very similar to that produced by the dir/w command). The program even creates a list of the ftp sites you've used most recently, so you can pick from that list, instead of trying to remember some incredibly complex ftp site name. Launching the program, assuming your site has it, is easy. At the command prompt, type ncftp sitename where "sitename" is the site you want to reach (alternately, you could type just ncftp and then use its open command). Once connected, you can use the same ftp commands you've become used to, such as ls, get and mget. Entries that end in a / are directories to which you can switch with cd; others are files you can get. A couple of useful ncftp commands include type, which lets you change the type of file transfer (from ASCII to binary for example) and size, which lets you see how large a file is before you get it, for example size declaration.txt would tell you how large the declaration.txt file is before you get it. When you say "bye" to disconnect from a site, ncftp remembers the last directory you were in, so that the next time you connect to the site, you are put back into that directory automatically. If you type help you'll get a list of files you can read to extend the power of the program even further. 7.8 PROJECT GUTENBERG -- ELECTRONIC BOOKS Project Gutenberg, coordinated by Michael Hart, has a fairly ambitious goal: to make more than 10,000 books and other documents available electronically by the year 2001. In 1993, the project uploaded an average of four books a month to its ftp sites; in 1994, they hope to double the pace. Begun in 1971, the project already maintains a "library" of hundreds of books and stories, from Aesop's Fables to "Through the Looking Glass" available for the taking. It also has a growing number of current- affairs documents, such as the CIA's annual "World Factbook" almanac. Besides nptn.org, Project Gutenberg texts can be retrieved from mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu in the etext directory. 7.9 WHEN THINGS GO WRONG * You get a "host unavailable" message. The ftp site is down for some reason. Try again later. * You get a "host unknown" message. Check your spelling of the site name. * You misspell "anonymous" when logging in and get a message telling you a password is required for whatever you typed in. Type something in, hit enter, type bye, hit enter, and try again. Alternately, try typing "ftp" instead of "anonymous." It will work on a surprising number of sites. Or just use ncftp, if your site has it, and never worry about this again. *You connect to a site, but then the site promptly disconnects you. Try again in a few minutes. As the internet becomes more popular, more and more sites are being overloaded by the demand. 7.10 FYI Liberal use of archie will help you find specific files or documents. For information on new or interesting ftp sites, try the comp.archives newsgroup on Usenet. You can also look in the comp.misc, comp.sources.wanted or news.answers newsgroups on Usenet for lists of ftp sites posted every month by Tom Czarnik and Jon Granrose. The comp.archives newsgroup carries news of new ftp sites and interesting new files on existing sites. In the comp.virus newsgroup on Usenet, look for postings that list ftp sites carrying anti-viral software for Amiga, MS-DOS, Macintosh, Atari and other computers. The comp.sys.ibm.pc.digest and comp.sys.mac.digest newsgroups provide information about new MS-DOS and Macintosh programs as well as answers to questions from users of those computers. Chapter 8: GOPHERS AND WAISs 8.1. GOPHERS Even with tools like Hytelnet and archie, telnet and ftp can still be frustrating. There are all those telnet and ftp addresses to remember. Telnet services often have their own unique commands. And, oh, those weird directory and file names! But now that the Net has become a rich repository of information, people are developing ways to make it far easier to find and retrieve information and files. Gophers and Wide-Area Information Servers (WAISs) are two services that are helping to make the internet far easier to use. Both gophers and WAISs essentially take a request for information and then scan the Net for it, so you don't have to. Both also work through menus -- instead of typing in some long sequence of characters, you just move a cursor to your choice and hit enter. Gophers even let you select files and programs from ftp sites this way. Let's first look at gophers (named for the official mascot of thE University of Minnesota, where the system was developed). Most public-access sites now have gophers online. To use one, type gopher at the command prompt and hit enter. If you know your site does not have a gopher, or if nothing happens when you type that, telnet to consultant.micro.umn.edu At the login prompt, type gopher and hit enter. You'll be asked what type of terminal emulation you're using, after which you'll see something like this: Internet Gopher Information Client v1.03 Root gopher server: gopher.micro.umn.edu --> 1. Information About Gopher/ 2. Computer Information/ 3. Discussion Groups/ 4. Fun & Games/ 5. Internet file server (ftp) sites/ 6. Libraries/ 7. News/ 8. Other Gopher and Information Servers/ 9. Phone Books/ 10. Search lots of places at the U of M <?> 11. University of Minnesota Campus Information/ Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up a menu Page: 1/1 Assuming you're using VT100 or some other VT emulation, you'll be able to move among the choices with your up and down arrow keys. When you have your cursor on an entry that looks interesting, just hit enter, and you'll either get a new menu of choices, a database entry form, or a text file, depending on what the menu entry is linked to (more on how to tell which you'll get in a moment). Gophers are great for exploring the resources of the Net. Just keep making choices to see what pops up. Play with it; see where it takes you. Some choices will be documents. When you read one of these and either come to the end or hit a lower-case q to quit reading it, you'll be given the choice of saving a copy to your home directory or e-mailing it to yourself. Other choices are simple databases that let you enter a word to look for in a particular database. To get back to where you started on a gopher, hit your u key at a menu prompt, which will move you back "up" through the gopher menu structure (much like "cd .." in ftp). Notice that one of your choices above is "Internet file server (ftp) sites." Choose this, and you'll be connected to a modified archie program -- an archie with a difference. When you search for a file through a gopher archie, you'll get a menu of sites that have the file you're looking for, just as with the old archie. Only now, instead of having to write down or remember an ftp address and directory, all you have to do is position the cursor next to one of the numbers in the menu and hit enter. You'll be connected to the ftp site, from which you can then choose the file you want. This time, move the cursor to the file you want and hit a lower-case s. You'll be asked for a name in your home directory to use for the file, after which the file will be copied to your home system. Unfortunately, this file-transfer process does not yet work with all public-access sites for computer programs and compressed files. If it doesn't work with yours, you'll have to get the file the old-fashioned way, via anonymous ftp. In addition to ftp sites, there are hundreds of databases and libraries around the world accessible through gophers. There is not yet a common gopher interface for library catalogs, so be prepared to follow the online directions more closely when you use gopher to connect to one. Gopher menu entries that end in a / are gateways to another menu of options. Entries that end in a period are text, graphics or program files, which you can retrieve to your home directory (or e-mail to yourself or to somebody else). A line that ends in <?> or <CSO> represents a request you can make to a database for information. The difference is that <?> entries call up one-line interfaces in which you can search for a keyword or words, while <CSO> brings up an electronic form with several fields for you to fill out (you might see this in online "White Pages" directories at colleges). Gophers actually let you perform some relatively sophisticated Boolean searches. For example, if you want to search only for files that contain the words "MS-DOS" and "Macintosh," you'd type ms-dos and macintosh (gophers are not case-sensitive) in the keyword field. Alternately, if you want to get a list of files that mention either "MS-DOS" or "Macintosh," you'd type ms-dos or macintosh 8.2 BURROWING DEEPER As fascinating as it can be to explore "gopherspace," you might one day want to quickly retrieve some information or a file. Or you might grow tired of calling up endless menus to get to the one you want. Fortunately, there are ways to make even gophers easier to use. One is with archie's friend, veronica (it allegedly is an acronym, but don't believe that for a second), who does for gopherspace what archie does for ftp sites. In most gophers, you'll find veronica by selecting "Other gopher and information services" at the main menu and then "Searching through gopherspace using veronica." Select this and you'll get something like this: Internet Gopher Information Client v1.1 Search titles in Gopherspace using veronica --> 1. . 2. FAQ: Frequently-Asked Questions about veronica (1993/08/23). 3. How to compose veronica queries (NEW June 24) READ ME!!. 4. Search Gopher Directory Titles at PSINet <?> 5. Search Gopher Directory Titles at SUNET <?> 6. Search Gopher Directory Titles at U. of Manitoba <?> 7. Search Gopher Directory Titles at University of Cologne <?> 8. Search gopherspace at PSINet <?> 9. Search gopherspace at SUNET <?> 10. Search gopherspace at U. of Manitoba <?> 11. Search gopherspace at University of Cologne <?> Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up a menu Page: 1/1 A few choices there! First, the difference between searching directory titles and just plain ol' gopherspace. If you already know the sort of directory you're looking for (say a directory containing MS-DOS programs), do a directory-title search. But if you're not sure what kind of directory your information might be in, then do a general gopherspace search. In general, it doesn't matter which of the particular veronicas you use -- they should all be able to produce the same results. The reason there is more than one is because the Internet has become so popular that only one veronica (or one gopher or one of almost anything) would quickly be overwhelmed by all the information requests from around the world. You can use veronica to search for almost anything. Want to find museums that might have online displays from their exhibits? Try searching for "museum." Looking for a copy of the Declaration of Independence? Try "declaration." In many cases, your search will bring up a new gopher menu of choices to try. Say you want to impress those guests coming over for dinner on Friday by cooking cherries flambe. If you were to call up veronica and type in "flambe" after calling up veronica, you would soon get a menu listing several flambe recipes, including one called "dessert flambe." Put your cursor on that line of the menu and hit enter, and you'll find it's a menu for cherries flambe. Then hit your q key to quit, and gopher will ask you if you want to save the file in your home directory on your public-access site or whether you want to e-mail it somewhere. As you can see, you can use veronica as an alternative to archie, which, because of the Internet's growing popularity, seems to take longer and longer to work. In addition to archie and veronica, we now also have jugheads (no bettys yet, though). These work the same as veronicas, but their searches are limited to the specific gopher systems on which they reside. If there are particular gopher resources you use frequently, there are a couple of ways to get to them even more directly. One is to use gopher in a manner similar to the way you can use telnet. If you know a particular gopher's Internet address (often the same as its telnet or ftp address), you can connect to it directly, rather than going through menus. For example, say you want to use the gopher at info.umd.edu. If your public-access site has a gopher system installed, type this gopher info.umd.edu at your command prompt and you'll be connected. But even that can get tedious if there are several gophers you use frequently. That's where bookmarks come in. Gophers let you create a list of your favorite gopher sites and even database queries. Then, instead of digging ever deeper into the gopher directory structure, you just call up your bookmark list and select the service you want. To create a bookmark for a particular gopher site, first call up gopher. Then go through all the gopher menus until you get to the menu you want. Type a capital A. You'll be given a suggested name for the bookmark enty, which you can change if you want by backspacing over the suggestion and typing in your own. When done, hit enter. Now, whenever you're in gopherspace and want to zip back to that particular gopher service, just hit your V key (upper- or lower-case; in this instance, gopher doesn't care) anywhere within gopher. This will bring up a list of your bookmarks. Move to the one you want and hit enter, and you'll be connected. Using a capital A is also good for saving particular database or veronica queries that you use frequently (for example, searching for news stories on a particular topic if your public-access site maintains an indexed archive of wire-service news). Instead of a capital A, you can also hit a lower-case a. This will bring you to the particular line within a menu, rather than show you the entire menu. If you ever want to delete a bookmark, hit V within gopher, select the item you want to get rid of, and then hit your D key. One more hint: If you want to find the address of a particular gopher service, hit your = key after you've highlighted its entry in a gopher menu. You'll get back a couple of lines, most of which will be technicalese of no immediate value to most folks, but some of which will consist of the site's address. 8.3. GOPHER COMMANDS a Add a line in a gopher menu to your bookmark list. A Add an entire gopher menu or a database query to your bookmark list. d Delete an entry from your bookmark list (you have to hit v first). q Quit, or exit, a gopher. You'll be asked if you really want to. Q Quit, or exit, a gopher without being asked if you're sure. s Save a highlighted file to your home directory. u Move back up a gopher menu structure v View your bookmark list. = Get information on the originating site of a gopher entry. > Move ahead one screen in a gopher menu. < Move back one screen in a gopher menu. 8.4. SOME INTERESTING GOPHERS There are now hundreds of gopher sites around the world. What follows is a list of some of them. Assuming your site has a gopher "client" installed, you can reach them by typing gopher sitename at your command prompt. Can't find what you're looking for? Remember to use veronica to look up categories and topics! AGRICULTURE cyfer.esusda.gov More agricultural statistics and regulations most people will ever need. usda.mannlib.cornell.edu More than 140 different types of agricultural data, most in Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet format. ANIMALS saimiri.primate.wisc.edu Information on primates and animal-welfare laws. ARCHITECTURE libra.arch.umich.edu Maintains online exhibits of a variety of architectural images. ART marvel.loc.gov The Library of Congress runs several online "galleries" of images from exhibits at the library. Many of these pictures, in GIF or JPEG format, are HUGE, so be careful what you get first. Exhibits include works of art from the Vatican, copies of once secret Soviet documents and pictures of artifacts related to Columbus's 1492 voyage. At the main menu, select 2 and then "Exhibits." galaxy.ucr.edu The California Museum of Photography maintains its own online galery here. At the main menu, select "Campus Events," then "California Museum of Photography," then "Network Ex- hibitions." ASTRONOMY cast0.ast.cam.ac.uk A gopher devoted to astronomy, run by the Institute of Astronomy and the Royal Greenwich Observatory, Cambridge, England. CENSUS bigcat.missouri.edu You'll find detailed federal census data for communities of more than 10,000 people, as well as for states and counties here. At the main menu, select "Reference and Information Center,"