Archive-name: www/faq/part1
Last-modified: 1995/26/1
WORLD WIDE WEB FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
This is part 1 of a 2-part posting.
Part 2 begins with section 5 (providing
information to the web). It should be the next
posting in this thread.
This document resides on the World Wide Web on Sunsite (URL is
http://sunsite.unc.edu/boutell/faq/www_faq.html ).
If you are unfamiliar with the term "URL", read on and learn!
Last update: 1/26/95
Contents
* 1: Recent changes to the FAQ
* 2: Information about this document
* 3: Elementary Questions
+ 3.1: What are WWW, hypertext and hypermedia?
+ 3.2: What is a URL?
+ 3.3: What are SGML and HTML?
+ 3.4: How does WWW compare to gopher and WAIS?
+ 3.5: Are there books about the web?
* 4: Accessing the Web (User Questions)
+ 4.1: Introduction: How can I access the web? (Even by email!)
+ 4.2: Browsers Accessible by Telnet
+ 4.3: Obtaining browsers
o 4.3.1: MS Windows, IBM OS/2 and MS Windows NT browsers
o 4.3.2: MSDOS browsers
o 4.3.3: Macintosh browsers
o 4.3.4: Amiga browsers
o 4.3.5: NeXTStep browsers
o 4.3.6: X/DecWindows (graphical UNIX, VMS) browsers
o 4.3.7: Text-based Unix and VMS browsers
o 4.3.8: VM/CMS browsers
o 4.3.9: Batch-mode "browsers"
+ 4.4: How can I access the web through a firewall?
+ 4.5: What is on the web?
o 4.5.1: How do I find out what's new on the web?
o 4.5.2: Where is the subject catalog of the web?
o 4.5.3: How can I search through ALL web sites?
+ 4.6: How can I save an inline image to disk?
+ 4.7: How can I get sound from the PC speaker with WinMosaic?
+ 4.8: I have a Windows PC (or a Macintosh). Why can't I open
WAIS URLs?
+ 4.9: I'm running XMosaic. Why can't I get external viewers
working?
+ 4.10: Hey, I know, I'll write a WWW-exploring robot! Why not?
+ 4.11: How do I send newsgroup posts in HTML to my web client?
+ 4.12: I can't get SLIP. I want Mosaic. Is there a way? (YES!)
* 5: Providing Information to the Web (Provider Questions)
+ 5.1: How can I provide information to the web?
+ 5.2: Obtaining Servers
o 5.2.1: Unix Servers
o 5.2.2: Macintosh Servers
o 5.2.3: MS Windows, IBM OS/2 and MS Windows NT Servers
o 5.2.4: MSDOS and Novell Netware Servers
o 5.2.5: VMS Servers
o 5.2.6: Amiga Servers
o 5.2.7: VM/CMS Servers
o 5.2.8: Yeah, but which is best?
+ 5.3: Producing HTML documents
o 5.3.1: Writing HTML directly
o 5.3.2: HTML editors
o 5.3.3: Converting other formats to HTML
o 5.3.4: Checking your HTML for errors
+ 5.4: How do I publicize my work?
+ 5.5: Can I buy space on an existing server?
+ 5.6: How fast does my net connection have to be?
+ 5.7: Advanced Provider Questions
o 5.7.1: How do I set up a clickable image map?
o 5.7.2: How do I make a "link" that doesn't load a new
page?
o 5.7.3: Where can I learn how to create fill-out forms?
# 5.7.3.1: How can I create hidden fields in forms
(keeping state)?
# 5.7.3.2: How can users email me through their
browsers?
o 5.7.4: How do I comment an HTML document?
o 5.7.5: How can I create decent-looking tables and stop
using
...
?
o 5.7.6: What is HTML Level 3 and where can I learn more
about it?
o 5.7.7: How can I make interlaced and transparent GIFs?
And what are they?
o 5.7.8: How come mailto: URLs don't work?
o 5.7.9: How can I restrict and control access to my
server?
o 5.7.10: Which format is better for WWW images, JPEG or
GIF?
o 5.7.11: How can I mirror part of another server?
o 5.7.12: How can I keep robots off my server?
o 5.7.13: How can I keep statistics about my web site?
o 5.7.14: How can I generate web pages on the fly from a
program?
# 5.7.14.1: How can I generate GIF images on the fly
from my CGI programs?
* 6: Where can I discuss the Web?
+ 6.1: USENET Newsgroups
+ 6.2: Mailing Lists
* 7: I want to know more.
* 8: Credits
1: RECENT ADDITIONS AND CHANGES TO THE FAQ
* Added htmlchek to validation section
* Added information on interlaced GIFs
* Added information on the WN Server
* Added information on CGI script authoring
* Added information on the gd GIF-generating library
* Updated email links section
* More books!
* Slipknot section updated
* GLACI-HTTPD, a WWW server for Novell Netware
* WWW mailing lists section
* Updated URL for Gabriel White's HTML editor reviews
* IBM OS/2 WebExplorer
* MapMaker: From xv's Visual Schnauzer to an imagemap
* Added comp.infosystems.www.announce
* Added the Arena browser
2: INFORMATION ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT
This is an introduction to the World Wide Web project, describing the
concepts, software and access methods. It is aimed at people who know
a little about navigating the Internet, but want to know more about
WWW specifically. If you don't think you are up to this level, try an
introductory Internet book such as Ed Krol's "The Whole Internet" or
"EFF's Guide to the Internet". The latter is available electronically
by anonymous FTP from ftp.eff.org in the directory
pub/Net_info/EFF_Net_Guide.
This informational document is posted to news.answers,
comp.infosystems.www.users, comp.infosystems.www.providers,
comp.infosystems.www.announce, comp.infosystems.www.misc,
comp.infosystems.gopher, comp.infosystems.wais and alt.hypertext every
four days (please allow a day or two for it to propagate to your
site). The latest and best version is always available on the web as
http://sunsite.unc.edu/boutell/faq/www_faq.html , and is mirrored in
Japan (URL is
http://www.glocom.ac.jp/mirror/sunsite.unc.edu/boutell/faq/www_faq.htm
l ). (see section 3.2, "What is a URL?" to understand what this term
means.) If you run a mirror site which automatically mirrors this
document, please submit the URL for inclusion in the list of mirrors.
Thanks to both Sunsite and Glocom.
This document is also available by anonymous FTP from ftp.netcom.com
in the directory pub/bo/boutell/faq.
In addition, the most recently posted version of this document is kept
on the news.answers archive on rtfm.mit.edu in
/pub/usenet/news.answers/www/faq. For information on FTP, send e-mail
to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with:
send usenet/news.answers/finding-sources
in the body (not subject line) of your message, instead of asking me.
If you want the HTML version but are located behind a firewall, you
can acquire it from CERN's WWW email server. Send mail to
listproc@www0.cern.ch with the following single line in the body
(leave the subject blank):
source http://sunsite.unc.edu/boutell/faq/www_faq.html
Thomas Boutell maintains this document. Feedback about it is to be
sent via e-mail to boutell@netcom.com.
In all cases, regard this document as out of date. Definitive
information should be on the web, and static versions such as this
should be considered unreliable at best. The most up-to-date version
of the FAQ is the version maintained on the web. Please excuse any
formatting inconsistencies in the posted version of this document, as
it is automatically generated from the on-line version.
3: ELEMENTARY QUESTIONS
3.1: What are WWW, hypertext and hypermedia?
WWW stands for "World Wide Web". The WWW project, started by CERN (the
European Laboratory for Particle Physics), seeks to build a
distributed hypermedia system.
The advantage of hypertext is that in a hypertext document, if you
want more information about a particular subject mentioned, you can
usually "just click on it" to read further detail. In fact, documents
can be and often are linked to other documents by completely different
authors -- much like footnoting, but you can get the referenced
document instantly!
To access the web, you run a browser program. The browser reads
documents, and can fetch documents from other sources. Information
providers set up hypermedia servers which browsers can get documents
from.
The browsers can, in addition, access files by FTP, NNTP (the Internet
news protocol), gopher and an ever-increasing range of other methods.
On top of these, if the server has search capabilities, the browsers
will permit searches of documents and databases.
The documents that the browsers display are hypertext documents.
Hypertext is text with pointers to other text. The browsers let you
deal with the pointers in a transparent way -- select the pointer, and
you are presented with the text that is pointed to.
Hypermedia is a superset of hypertext -- it is any medium with
pointers to other media. This means that browsers might not display a
text file, but might display images or sound or animations.
3.2: What is a URL?
URL stands for "Uniform Resource Locator". It is a draft standard for
specifying an object on the Internet, such as a file or newsgroup.
URLs look like this: (file: and ftp: URLs are synonymous.)
* file://wuarchive.wustl.edu/mirrors/msdos/graphics/gifkit.zip
* ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/mirrors
* http://info.cern.ch:80/default.html
* news:alt.hypertext
* telnet://dra.com
The first part of the URL, before the colon, specifies the access
method. The part of the URL after the colon is interpreted specific to
the access method. In general, two slashes after the colon indicate a
machine name (machine:port is also valid).
When you are told to "check out this URL", what to do next depends on
your browser; please check the help for your particular browser. For
the line-mode browser at CERN, which you will quite possibly use first
via telnet, the command to try a URL is "GO URL" (substitute the
actual URL of course). In Lynx you just select the "GO" link on the
first page you see; in graphical browsers, there's usually an "Open
URL" option in the menus.
3.3: What are SGML and HTML?
Documents on the World Wide Web are written in a simple "markup
language" called HTML, which stands for Hypertext Markup Language. See
section 5.3 for more information about creating HTML documents for use
on the web.
SGML is a much broader language which is used to define particular
markup languages for particular purposes. HTML is just a specific
application of SGML. You can learn more about SGML, and the rationale
behind HTML, by reading A Gentle Introduction to SGML (URL is
http://etext.virginia.edu/bin/tei-tocs?div=DIV1%26id=SG ), a document
provided by the Text Encoding Initiative. (Note: Some browsers
apparently crash on this URL. There's nothing wrong with the document;
try another browser if you have problems.)
3.4: How does WWW compare to gopher and WAIS?
While all three of these information presentation systems are
client-server based, they differ in terms of their model of data. In
gopher, data is either a menu, a document, an index or a telnet
connection. In WAIS, everything is an index and everything that is
returned from the index is a document. In WWW, everything is a
(possibly) hypertext document which may be searchable.
In practice, this means that WWW can represent the gopher (a menu is a
list of links, a gopher document is a hypertext document without
links, searches are the same, telnet sessions are the same) and WAIS
(a WAIS index is a searchable page, returning a document with no
links) data models as well as providing extra functionality.
World Wide Web usage grew far beyond Gopher usage in the last few
months, according to the statistics-keepers of the Internet backbone.
(Of course, World Wide Web browsers can also access Gopher servers,
which inflates the numbers for the latter.) WWW has long since reached
critical mass, with new commercial and noncommercial sites appearing
daily.
3.5: Are there books about the web?
Yes, quite a few. A brief list follows. New entries are solicited.
Please include ISBN numbers and/or ordering information.
The Mosaic Handbook (Mac, Windows and X editions)
From O'Reilly. A short, sweet guide to the World Wide Web from
a Mosaic user's perspective. Mac and Windows versions Include
Enhanced NCSA Mosaic on floppy disk; the X Window System
version includes NCSA Mosaic on CD-ROM. Telnet or gopher to
gopher.ora.com (log in as gopher) or find details on the web
(URL is http://gnn.com/ora/ ). Wherever fine X Window System
books and Nutshell Guides are sold.
The World Wide Web Unleashed
From Sams Publishing. By John December and Neil Randall.
Additional chapters contributed by others; I wrote the chapter
on HTML editors and filters. Covers both user and provider
issues in detail. Supporting pages available on the web (URL is
http://www.rpi.edu/~decemj/works/wwwu.html ). 1057 pages. ISBN:
0-672-30617-4. Call 1-800-428-5331 or +1-317-581-3500 for
ordering information.
Spinning the Web: How to Provide Information on the Internet
From Van Nostrand Reinhold. By Andrew Ford. Oriented toward
those with an interest in putting their data on the web. ISBN:
1-850-32141-8 (New York), 0-442-01962-9 (London). Available in
December 1994.
Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML in a Week
From Sams Publishing. By Laura Lemay. Also oriented toward
those who plan to publish materials on the web. ISBN:
0-672-30667-0. 400 pages. Includes information on setting up
servers and handling forms results as well as HTML writing and
editing. (URL is: http://slack.lne.com/lemay/theBook/index.html
) Available December 22nd, 1994. Call 1-800-428-5331 or
+1-317-581-3500 for ordering information.
The HTML Manual of Style
From Ziff-Davis Press. By Larry Aronson. Chapters: introduction
to the WWW, the HTML language, writing HTML documents, and HTML
examples. 120 pages. Available in December 1994.
The Internet via Mosaic and World-Wide Web
From Ziff-Davis Press. By Steve Browne. Details on obtaining
Mosaic and Trumpet Winsock, getting it all set up, and what to
do with it once it works. A chapter of interesting sites on the
Web as well. ISBN: 1-56276-259-1.
MOSAIC Quick Tour
From Ventana Press. By Gareth Branwyn. A good guide to
installing and using NCSA Mosaic under Windows. Includes basic
HTML and trouble-shooting chapters. "More hand-holding than the
FAQ and gives lots of details." - Mari J. Stoddard
Managing Internet Information Services
From O'Reilly and Associates. By Cricket Liu, Jerry Peek, Russ
Jones, Bryan Buus & Adrian Nye. A good choice for those who
will be installing and maintaining WWW servers; also includes
documentation on HTML, imagemaps and the like. Also covers
other types of Internet services.
Hands-On Mosaic: A Guide for Window Users
From Prentice Hall. By Dr. David Sachs & Henry Stair. ISBN:
0-13-172321-9.
HTML Authoring for Fun & Profit
From Prentice Hall. By Mary Morris. Jan 1995. ISBN:
0-13-359290-1.
NCSA Mosaic Handbook
From Prentice Hall. By Amy K. Kreiling & Frank Baker. Jan 1995.
ISBN: 0-13-196692-8.
Plug-n-Play Mosaic for Windows
From Sams. By Angela Gunn. ISBN 0-672-30627-1. 300 pages. Disks
include a special version of Enhanced NCSA Mosaic for Windows
with built-in TCP/IP Winsock and dialer, and an automated
configuration program (hence "plug-n-play"). The book is an
introduction to Mosaic and the Web with some coverage of
creating a home page and HTML and, of course, the obligatory
directory of Web sites.
Using Mosaic
From Que. Ed. by Que Development Group. ISBN: 0-7897-0021-2.
Covers NCSA Mosaic for Windows and the Macintosh.
Using the World Wide Web
From Que. Ed. by Que Development Group. ISBN: 0-7897-0016-6.
Mosaic User's Guide
From MIS Press. By Bryan Pfaffenberger. ISBN: 1-55828-409-5.
Using Mosaic for Windows
From Electric Avenue Press. By Stephen Gauer. ISBN:
0-969-8853-0-X.
4.1: Introduction: how can I access the web?
You have three options: use a browser on your own machine (the best
option), use a browser that can be telnetted to (not as good), or
access the web by email (the least attractive, but for some it's the
only way). It is always best to run a browser on your own machine,
unless you absolutely cannot do so; but feel free to telnet to a
browser for your first look at the web, or use email if the telnet
command does not work on your system (try it first!). Note that
"your machine" can be defined as a system you dial into from home,
such as netcom or another account provider. Running a text-based
browser on such a system is still preferable to telnetting to a
faraway site.
The following sections cover telnetting to a browser and obtaining
your own browser; if neither of these are possible for you (because
you have only an email-and-news connection to the Internet), here is
how to access a web page by email:
Send email to server@mail.w3.org (preferred) or to
listserv@info.cern.ch (older address if the first fails) containing
the following single line. (What you put on the subject line doesn't
matter; blank is OK. This line should go in the text of the message.)
You will receive as a reply a simple page intended to help you learn
more about the Web.
send http://www.earn.net/gnrt/www.html
4.2: Browsers accessible by telnet
An up-to-date list of these is available on the Web as
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/FAQ/Bootstrap.html and should be
regarded as an authoritative list.
telnet.w3.org
A telnettable browser provided by the W3 coalition.
www.cc.ukans.edu
Offers Lynx, a full screen browser which requires a vt100
terminal. Log in as www. Does not allow users to "go" to
arbitrary URLs, so GET YOUR OWN COPY of Lynx and install it on
your system if your administrator has not done so already. The
best plain-text browser, so move mountains if necessary to get
your own copy of Lynx!
www.njit.edu
(or telnet 128.235.163.2) Log in as www. A full-screen browser
in New Jersey Institute of Technology. USA.
www.huji.ac.il
A dual-language Hebrew/English database, with links to the rest
of the world. The line mode browser, plus extra features. Log
in as www. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
sun.uakom.cs
Slovakia. Has a slow link, only use from nearby.
info.funet.fi
(or telnet 128.214.6.102). Log in as www. Offers several
browsers, including Lynx (goto option is disabled there also).
fserv.kfki.hu
Hungary. Has slow link, use from nearby. Login is as www.
4.3: Obtaining browsers
The preferred method of access of the Web is to run a browser
yourself. Browsers are available for many platforms, both in source
and executable forms. Here is a list generated from the authoritative
list, http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Clients.html .
4.3.1: MICROSOFT WINDOWS BROWSERS
NOTE: Most of these browsers require that you have SLIP, PPP or other
TCP/IP networking on your PC. The sole exception is SlipKnot, which
has limited features but operates well without a proper Internet
connection. SLIP or PPP can be accomplished over phone lines. You can
do this one of two ways: using a proper SLIP account, which requires
the active cooperation of your network provider or educational
institution, or using The Internet Adapter (section 4.12), a product
which simulates SLIP through your dialup Unix shell account. If you
only have non-Unix based dialup shell access, or have no PC at home,
your best option at this time is to run Lynx on the VMS (or Unix,
or...) system you call, or telnet to a browser if you cannot do so.
Cello Browser from Cornell LII. Available by anonymous FTP from
ftp.law.cornell.edu in the directory /pub/LII/cello.
Mosaic for Windows
From NCSA. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in
the directory PC/Windows/Mosaic.
WinWeb
From EINet. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.einet.net in
the directory /einet/pc/winweb as the file winweb.zip.
Netscape
From Mosaic Communications Corp (URL is:
http://home.mcom.com/info/index.html ). Downloads and displays
images incrementally while you read pages, which also display
incrementally, making it the best browser at the time of this
writing for those who connect to the web via modems. Also
supports many extensions to HTML, although not all conform to
the proposed standard. Netscape is a commercial product but can
be evaluated free of charge for an unlimited period of time by
individuals. Netscape supports some of the official extended
HTML tags as well as its own variations. The 16-bit version
works under both OS/2 and Windows. Available by anonymous FTP
from the following sites (use the mirror closest to you; see
the URL above for the latest list):
+ ftp://ftp.mcom.com/netscape/
+ ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/info-service/www/mcc/
+ ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/net/infosys/Netscape/
+ ftp://ftp.icsi.net/pub/packages/netscape/
+ ftp://www.sandia.gov/Netscape/
+ ftp://lark.cc.ukans.edu/Netscape/
+ ftp://www.jsc.nasa.gov/pub/netscape/
+ ftp://ftp.meer.net/pub/Netscape/
+ ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/Netscape/
Spry Mosaic
From Spry. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.spry.com in the
directory AirMosaicDemo as the file AMOSDEMO.EXE. Spry Mosaic
is a commercial product but a demonstration version is
available and can be registered inexpensively. Works under
Windows and OS/2. Supports the mailto: URL, transparent GIFs,
ALT tags, hierarchical hotlists, etc.
Booklink
From Booklink. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.booklink.com
in the directory lite; this is a demonstration version of the
full browser, which costs $99. Booklink can open many
simultaneous connections in different windows and display
images and pages progressively; at the time of this writing it
is the only browser to equal Netscape in this area. The "lite"
version can only open two simultaneous connections, however.
SlipKnot
SlipKnot is the only graphical WWW browser that operates
entirely without SLIP, PPP, an Ethernet connection, or special
server-side software (but consider TIA, section 4.12 for
another workaround). SlipKnot supports multiple fonts, inline
images, and review of documents you have already received while
new documents arrive, and it operates entirely through your
regular Unix shell account. SlipKnot does not require that
you install any new software on your Unix shell account.
(However, it is lacking certain important features as a result,
such as forms and validation; this will keep you from accessing
some web pages. SlipKnot does support the tag, which
many sites support as a simpler alternative to forms.) You can
obtain SlipKnot by anonymous FTP from ftp.netcom.com in the
directory pub/pbrooks/slipknot or from oak.oakland.edu in the
directory SimTel/win3/internet. For more information, see the
SlipKnot information page (URL is
http://www.interport.net/slipknot/slipknot.html ) or send a
blank email message to slipknot@micromind.com.
IBM OS/2 WebExplorer
A native IBM OS/2 web browser. WebExplorer is a multithreaded
application and replaces the usual "back" and "forward" buttons
with a visual map of your exploration of the web. IBM
WebExplorer can be acquired by anonymous FTP from
ftp01.ny.us.ibm.net in the directory pub/WebExplorer/ .
4.3.2: MSDOS BROWSERS
NOTE: These browsers require that you have SLIP, PPP or other TCP/IP
networking on your PC. SLIP or PPP can be accomplished over phone
lines. You can do this one of two ways: using a proper SLIP account,
which requires the active cooperation of your network provider or
educational institution, or using The Internet Adapter (section 4.12),
a product which simulates SLIP through your dialup Unix shell account.
If you only have non-Unix based dialup shell access, or have no PC at
home, your best option at this time is to run Lynx on the VMS (or
Unix, or...) system you call, or telnet to a browser if you cannot do
so.
DosLynx
DosLynx is an excellent text-based browser for use on DOS
systems. You must have a level 1 packet driver, or an emulation
thereof, or you will only be able to browse local files;
essentially, if your PC has an Ethernet connection, or you have
SLIP, you should be able to use it. DosLynx can view GIF
images, but not when they are inline images (as of this
writing). See the README.HTM file at the DosLynx site for
details. You can obtain DosLynx by anonymous FTP from
ftp2.cc.ukans.edu in the directory pub/WWW/DosLynx; the URL is
ftp://ftp2.cc.ukans.edu/pub/WWW/DosLynx/.
4.3.3: MACINTOSH BROWSERS
NOTE: These browsers require that you have SLIP, PPP or other TCP/IP
networking on your PC. SLIP or PPP can be accomplished over phone
lines. You can do this one of two ways: using a proper SLIP account,
which requires the active cooperation of your network provider or
educational institution, or using The Internet Adapter (section 4.12),
a product which simulates SLIP through your dialup Unix shell account.
If you only have non-Unix based dialup shell access, or have no PC at
home, your best option at this time is to run Lynx on the VMS (or
Unix, or...) system you call, or telnet to a browser if you cannot do
so.
Mosaic for Macintosh
From NCSA. Full featured. Available by anonymous FTP from
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the directory Mac/Mosaic.
Netscape
From Mosaic Communications Corp (URL is:
http://home.mcom.com/info/index.html ). Downloads and displays
images incrementally while you read pages, which also display
incrementally, making it the best browser at the time of this
writing for those who connect to the web via modems. Also
supports many extensions to HTML, although not all conform to
the proposed standard. Netscape is a commercial product but is
free for personal use by individuals. Version 0.9 (available to
the public as of this writing) does not support printing, but
this is promised in the forthcoming version 1.0. Contrary to
popular myth, version 1.0 will be free for personal use, just
like version 0.9. Available by anonymous FTP from the
following sites (use the mirror closest to you; see the URL
above for the latest list):
+ ftp://ftp.mcom.com/netscape/
+ ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/info-service/www/mcc/
+ ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/net/infosys/Mosaic_Comm/Netscape/
+ ftp://ftp.icsi.net/pub/packages/netscape/
+ ftp://www.sandia.gov/Netscape/
+ ftp://lark.cc.ukans.edu/Netscape/
+ ftp://www.jsc.nasa.gov/pub/netscape/
+ ftp://ftp.meer.net/pub/Netscape/
+ ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/Netscape/
Samba From CERN. Basic. Available by anonymous FTP from info.cern.ch
in the directory /ftp/pub/www/bin as the file mac.
MacWeb
From EINet. Has features that Mosaic lacks; lacks some features
that Mosaic has. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.einet.net
in the directory einet/mac/macweb.
4.3.4: AMIGA BROWSERS
AMosaic
Browser for AmigaOS, based on NCSA's Mosaic. Supports older
Amigas as well as the newer machines in the latest versions;
available for anonymous ftp from max.physics.sunysb.edu in the
directory /pub/amosaic, or from aminet sites in
/pub/aminet/comm/net. see the site for details. See the URL
http://insti.physics.sunysb.edu/AMosaic/home.html .
Emacs-W3
The Emacs-W3 browser works under Gnu Emacs on the Amiga (see
section 4.3.7).
4.3.5: NEXTSTEP BROWSERS
Note: NeXTStep systems can also run X-based browsers using one of the
widely used X server products for the NeXT. The browsers listed here,
by contrast, are native NeXTStep applications.
SpiderWoman
A brand-new (as of 12/94), multithreaded, graphical browser for
NeXTStep. Available by anonymous FTP from sente.epfl.ch in the
directory pub/software.
OmniWeb
A World Wide Web browser for NeXTStep. The URL for more
information is http://www.omnigroup.com/; you can ftp the
package from ftp.omnigroup.com in the /pub/software/ directory.
WorldWideWeb, CERN's NeXT Browser-Editor
A browser/editor for NeXTStep. Currently out of date; editor
not operational. Allows wysiwyg hypertext editing. Requires
NeXTStep 3.0. Available for anonymous FTP from info.cern.ch in
the directory /pub/www/src.
4.3.6: X/DECWINDOWS (GRAPHICAL UNIX, VMS) BROWSERS
NCSA Mosaic for X
Unix browser using X11/Motif. The original multimedia browser.
Full http 1.0 support including PUT-method forms, image maps,
etc. Recent beta versions have limited support for tables.
Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the
directory Mosaic.
NCSA Mosaic for VMS
Browser using X11/DecWindows/Motif. For the VMS operating
system. Full http 1.0 support including PUT-method forms, image
maps, etc. Probably the best browser available for VMS.
Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the
directory Mosaic.
Netscape
From Mosaic Communications Corp (URL is:
http://home.mcom.com/info/index.html ). Downloads and displays
images incrementally while you read pages, which also display
incrementally, making it the best browser at the time of this
writing for those who connect to the web via modems. Also
supports many extensions to HTML, although not all conform to
the proposed standard. Netscape is a commercial product but is
free for personal use by individuals. Version 0.9 (available to
the public as of this writing) does not support printing, but
this is promised in the forthcoming version 1.0. Contrary to
popular myth, version 1.0 will be free for personal use, just
like version 0.9. Available by anonymous FTP from the
following sites (use the mirror closest to you; see the URL
above for the latest list):
+ ftp://ftp.mcom.com/netscape/
+ ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/info-service/www/mcc/
+ ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/net/infosys/Mosaic_Comm/Netscape/
+ ftp://ftp.icsi.net/pub/packages/netscape/
+ ftp://www.sandia.gov/Netscape/
+ ftp://lark.cc.ukans.edu/Netscape/
+ ftp://www.jsc.nasa.gov/pub/netscape/
+ ftp://ftp.meer.net/pub/Netscape/
+ ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/Netscape/
Quadralay GWHIS Viewer (Commercial Mosaic)
Quadralay offers a commercial-grade (not free!) version of
Mosaic for Unix systems, with Windows and Macintosh versions
expected in the future. (URL is:
http://www.quadralay.com/products/products.html#gwhis )
tkWWW Browser/Editor for X11
Unix Browser/Editor for X11. (Beta test version.) Available for
anonymous ftp from harbor.ecn.purdue.edu in the directory
tkwww[extension] (followed by an extension possibly dependent
on the current version). Please ftp to the site and look for
the latest version (or use the link above). Supports WSYIWYG
HTML editing.
MidasWWW Browser
A Unix/X browser from Tony Johnson. (Beta, works well.)
Viola for X (Beta)
Viola has two versions for Unix/X: one using Motif, one using
Xlib (no Motif). Handles HTML Level 3 forms and tables. Has
extensions for multiple columning, collapsible/expandable list,
client-side document include. Available by anonymous FTP from
ora.com in /pub/www/viola. More information available at the
URL http://xcf.berkeley.edu/ht/projects/viola/README.
Chimera
Unix/X Browser using Athena (doesn't require Motif). Supports
forms, inline images, etc.; closest to Mosaic in feel of the
non-Motif X11 browsers. Available for anonymous FTP from
ftp.cs.unlv.edu in the directory /pub/chimera.
Emacs w3 mode
The Emacs w3 mode supports multiple fonts, color, inline
images, movies, and the whole nine yards when run under a
graphical version of emacs; see section 4.3.7.
Arena Arena's primary purpose is to be a testbed for HTML Level 3
documents. As a result, Arena supports many of the new and
interesting features of HTML Level 3. As of this writing it is
still in prerelease and expectations should be set accordingly!
Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.w3.org in the directory
pub/www/arena/ .
4.3.7: Text-mode Unix and VMS browsers
These are text-based browsers for Unix (and in some cases also VMS)
systems. In many cases your system administrator will have already
installed one or more of these packages; check before compiling your
own copy.
Line Mode Browser
This program gives W3 readership to anyone with a dumb
terminal. A general purpose information retrieval tool.
Available by anonymous ftp from info.cern.ch in the directory
/pub/www/src.
The "Lynx" full screen browser
This is a hypertext browser for vt100s using full screen, arrow
keys, highlighting, etc. Available by anonymous FTP from
ftp2.cc.ukans.edu.
Tom Fine's perlWWW
A tty-based browser written in perl. Available by anonymous FTP
from archive.cis.ohio-state.edu in the directory pub/w3browser
as the file w3browser-0.1.shar.
For VMS
Dudu Rashty's full screen client based on VMS's SMG screen
management routines. Available by anonymous FTP from
vms.huji.ac.il in the directory www/www_client.
Emacs w3-mode
A WWW browser for emacs. Runs under Xwindows, NeXTstep, VMS,
OS/2, Windows NT, Windows 3.1, AmigaDOS, or just about any Unix
system. Also has fonts, color, inline images, and mouse support
if using Lemacs, Epoch, or Emacs 19. Also works in local mode
under DOS and on the Macintosh. Available by anonymous ftp from
ftp.cs.indiana.edu in the directory pub/elisp/w3.
4.3.8: VM/CMS BROWSERS
Albert
A WWW browser for the VM/CMS operating system. Available by
anonymous FTP from gopher.ufl.edu in the directory pub/vm/www/.
4.3.9: BATCH-MODE "BROWSERS"
Batch mode browser
A batch-mode "browser", url_get, which is available through the
URL http://www.utexas.edu/~zippy/url_get.html . It can be
retrieved via anonymous FTP to ftp.cc.utexas.edu, as the file
/pub/zippy/url_get.tar.Z. This package is intended for use in
cron jobs and other settings in which fetching a page in a
command-line fashion is useful.
4.4: How can I access the web through a firewall?
A "proxy server" is a specialized HTTP server which (typically) runs
on a firewall machine, providing access to the outside world for
people inside the firewall. The CERN httpd can be configured to run as
a proxy. Furthermore, it is able to perform caching of documents,
resulting in faster response times.
If you cannot arrange to run a proxy server (definitely the
recommended approach), read on:
For information on using NCSA Mosaic from behind a firewall, please
read the following. In general, browsers can be made useful behind
firewalls through the use of a package called "SOCKS"; the source must
be modified slightly and rebuilt to accommodate this. Whenever
possible, work with your network administrators to solve the
problem, not against them.
An excerpt from the NCSA Mosaic FAQ:
NCSA Mosaic requires a direct internet connection to work, but some
folks have put together a package that works behind firewalls. This is
completely unsupported by NCSA, but here is the latest announcement:
November 15, 1993: C&C Software Technology Center (CSTC) of NEC
Systems Lab has made available a version of SOCKS, a package for
running Internet clients from behind firewalls without breaching
security requirements, that includes a suitably modified version of
Mosaic for X 2.0. Beware: such a version is not supported by NCSA;
we can't help with questions or problems arising from the
modifications made by others. But, we encourage you to check it
out if it's interesting to you. Questions and problem notifications
can be sent to Ying-Da Lee (ylee@syl.dl.nec.com).
4.5: What is on the web?
Currently accessible through the web:
* anything served through gopher
* anything served through WAIS
* anything on an FTP site
* anything on Usenet
* anything accessible through telnet
* anything in hytelnet
* anything in hyper-g
* anything in techinfo
* anything in texinfo
* anything in the form of man pages
* sundry hypertext documents
4.5.1: HOW DO I FIND OUT WHAT'S NEW ON THE WEB?
comp.infosystems.www.announce
The newsgroup comp.infosystems.www.announce carries
announcements of new resources on the World Wide Web. Since
newsgroups are distributed, it can be accessed reliably even
when the net is very busy.
What's New With NCSA Mosaic
The unofficial newspaper of the World Wide Web is What's New
With NCSA Mosaic (URL is
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/whats-new.html )
, which carries announcements of new servers on the web and
also of new web-related tools. This should be in your hot list
if you're not using Mosaic (which can access it directly
through the help menu).
comp.internet.net-happinings
You can also check out the newsgroup
comp.internet.net-happenings, which carries WWW announcements
and many other Internet-related announcements.
4.5.2: WHERE IS THE SUBJECT CATALOG OF THE WEB?
There are several. There is no mechanism inherent in the web which
forces the creation of a single catalog (although there is work
underway on automatic mechanisms to catalog web sites). The best-known
catalog, and the first, is The WWW Virtual Library (URL is
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/Overview.html ),
maintained by CERN. The Virtual Library is a good place to find
resources on a particular subject, and has separate maintainers for
many subject areas.
There is also a newer cataloging system called ALIWEB that requires
very little effort to maintain and is growing rapidly (URL is
http://web.nexor.co.uk/aliweb/doc/aliweb.html ).
4.5.3: HOW CAN I SEARCH THROUGH ALL WEB SITES?
Several people have written robots which create indexes of web sites
-- including sites which have not arranged to be mentioned in the
newspapers and catalogs above. (Before writing your own robot, please
read the section on robots.)
Here are a few such automatic indexes you can search:
* WebCrawler (URL is
http://webcrawler.cs.washington.edu/WebCrawler/WebQuery.html )
builds an impressively complete index; on the other hand, since it
indexes the content of documents, it may find many links that
aren't exactly what you had in mind. However, it does a good job
of sorting the documents it finds according to how closely they
match your search.
* World Wide Web Worm (URL is
http://www.cs.colorado.edu/home/mcbryan/WWWW.html ) builds its
index based on page titles and URL contents only. This is somewhat
less inclusive, but pages it finds are more likely to be an exact
match with your needs.
* Lycos (URL is http://fuzine.mt.cs.cmu.edu/mlm/lycos-home.html ) is
another web-indexing robot, which includes the ability to submit
the URLs of your own documents by hand, ensuring that they are
available for searching.
You can read about other robots in the robots section.
4.6: How can I save an inline image to disk?
Here are two ways:
1. Turn on "load to local disk" in your browser, if it has such an
option; then reload images. You'll be prompted for filenames instead
of seeing them on the screen. Be sure to shut it off when you're done
with it.
2. Choose "view source" and browse through the HTML source; find the
URL for the inline image of interest to you; copy and paste it into
the "Open URL" window. This should load it into your image viewer
instead, where you can save it and otherwise muck about with it.
4.7: How can I get sound from the PC speaker with WinMosaic?
This piece of wisdom donated by Hunter Monroe:
This section explains how to install sound on a PC which already has a
working version of Mosaic for Microsoft Windows. Be warned in advance
that the results may be poor.
To get Mosaic to produce sound out of the PC speaker, first, you need
a driver for the speaker. You can get the Microsoft speaker driver
from the URL ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/SPEAK.EXE or by
doing an Archie search to find it somewhere else. SPEAK.EXE is a
self-extracting file. Copy the speak.exe file to a new directory, and
then type "SPEAK" at the DOS prompt. Do not put the file SPEAKER.DRV
in a separate directory from OEMSETUP.INF.
Now, you need to install the driver. In Windows, from the Program
Manager choose successively Main/Control Panel/Drivers/Add/Unlisted or
updated drivers/(enter path of SPEAK.EXE)/PC Speaker. At this point
some strange sounds come out as the driver is initialized. Change the
settings to improve the sound quality on the various sounds: tada,
chimes, etc. Click OK when you are finished and choose the Restart
windows option.
Having installed the speaker driver, you will now get sounds whenever
you start Windows, make a mistake, or exit Windows. If you do not want
this, from the Main/Control Panel/Sounds menu, make sure there is no X
next to "Enable System Sounds."
Now, you need a sound viewer program that Mosaic can call to display
sounds. NCSA unfortunately recommend WHAM, which does not work well
with a PC speaker. Get the program WPLANY instead. You can find a copy
nearby with an Archie search on the string "wplny"; the current
version is WPLNY09B.ZIP. For details on archie and other basic issues
related to FTP, please read the Usenet newsgroup
news.announce.newusers.
Move the zip file to a new directory, and use an unzip program like
pkunzip to unzip it, producing the files WPLANY.EXE and WPLANY.DOC.
Then edit the MOSAIC.INI file to remove the "REM" before the line
"TYPE9=audio/basic". Then, you need lines in the section below that
read something like: audio/basic="c:\wplany\wplany.exe %ls"
audio/wav="c:\wplany\wplany.exe %ls" where you have filled in the
correct path for wplany.exe. The MOSAIC.INI file delivered with Mosaic
may have NOTEPAD.EXE on the audio/basic line, but this will not work.
Now, restart Mosaic, and you should now be able to produce sounds. To
check this, with Mosaic choose File/Local File/\WINDOWS\*.WAV and then
try to play TADA.WAV. Then, you might try the Mosaic Demo document for
some .AU sounds, but you are lucky if your speaker produces something
you can understand.
4.8: I have a Windows PC or Macintosh. Why can't I access WAIS URLs?
This answer provided by Michael Grady (m-grady@uiuc.edu):
The version of Mosaic for X has "wais client" code built-in to it.
This was relatively easy for the developers to do, because there was
already a set of library routines for talking to WAIS available for
Unix as "public domain" (freeWAIS). I don't think there is such a
library of routines for PC/Windows or Mac, which would make it much
more difficult for the Mosaic versions for Windows and the Mac to add
"wais client" capability. Therefore, at least for now, neither the
Windows or Mac versions of Mosaic support direct query of a WAIS
server (i.e. can act as wais clients themselves).
4.9: I'm running XMosaic. Why can't I get external viewers working...
... No matter what no matter what I do to my .mailcap and .mime.types
files?
Answer provided by Ronald E. Daniel (rdaniel@acl.lanl.gov):
Mosaic only looks at the .mime.types file if it has no idea what the
document's type is. This is actually a very rare situation.
Essentially all servers now use the HTTP/1.0 protocol, which means
that they tell Mosaic (or other browsers) what the document's MIME
Content-type is. The servers use a file very much like Mosaic's
.mime.types file to infer the Content-type from the filename's
extension.
It is pretty simple to find out if this really is the problem. Use
telnet to talk to the server and find out if it is assigning a MIME
type to the document in question. Here's an example, looking at the
home page for my server. (idaknow: is my shell prompt)
idaknow: telnet www.acl.lanl.gov 80 // Connect to the httpd server
Trying 128.165.148.3 ...
Connected to www.acl.lanl.gov.
Escape character is '^]'.
HEAD /Home.html HTTP/1.0 // replace Home.html with your documen
t
// you supply the blank line
HTTP/1.0 200 OK // the rest of this comes from the serve
r Date: Wednesday, 25-May-94 19:18:11 GMT
Server: NCSA/1.1
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/html // Here's the MIME Content-type
Last-modified: Monday, 16-May-94 16:21:58 GMT
Content-length: 1727
Connection closed by foreign host.
idaknow:
In the example above, /Home.html will get
http://www.acl.lanl.gov/Home.html .
Normally servers will be configured to supply a Content-type of
text/plain if they don't know what else to do. If this is the
problem you are having, take a look at the TypesConfig documentation
for NCSA's httpd. You can have the server look at the filename
extension, supply the correct Content-type, then use your local
.mailcap file to tell Mosaic what viewer to use to look at the
document.
Russ Segal adds:
The answer from Ronald Daniel is essentially correct, but it needs a
small addendum.
When starting Moasic, you can specify a "fileProxy" which will fetch
files for you:
"*fileProxy: http://socks/"
If you do this, file: URLs are no longer strictly local accesses. So
even if the URL is not fttp:, the proxy server must be upgraded as
Mr. Daniel suggests.
4.10: Hey, I know, I'll write a WWW-exploring robot! Why not?
Programs that automatically traverse the web can be quite useful, but
have the potential to make a serious mess of things. Robots have been
written which do a "breadth-first" search of the web, exploring many
sites in a gradual fashion instead of aggressively "rooting out" the
pages of one site at a time. Some of these robots now produce
excellent indexes of information available on the web.
But others have written simple depth-first searches which, at the
worst, can bring servers to their knees in minutes by recursively
downloading information from CGI script-based pages that contain an
infinite number of possible links. (Often robots can't realize this!)
Imagine what happens when a robot decides to "index" the CONTENTS of
several hundred mpeg movies. Shudder.
The moral: a robot that does what you want may already exist; if it
doesn't, please study the document World Wide Web Robots, Wanderers
and Spiders (URL is: http://web.nexor.co.uk/mak/doc/robots/robots.html
) and learn about the emerging standards for exclusion of robots from
areas in which they are not wanted. You can also read about existing
robots there.
4.11: How do I send newsgroup posts in HTML to my web client?
How to do this depends greatly on your system; if you have a Mac or
Windows system, the answer is completely different. But, as food for
thought, here is a simple shell script I use on my Unix account to
send posts from rn and related newsreaders to Lynx. Put this text in
the file "readwebpost" and use the "chmod" command to make it
executable, then put it somewhere in your path (such as your personal
bin directory):
#!/bin/sh
echo \ > .article.html
cat >> .article.html
echo \
>> .article.html
lynx .article.html < /dev/tty
rm .article.html
Then add the following line to your .rnmac file (create it if you
don't already have one):
W |readwebpost %C
Now, when you press "W" while reading a post in rn, a message will be
sent to Lynx, and the links enclosed in it will be live.
Larry W. Virden provides the following version which invokes Mosaic
instead, and is also capable of communicating with an already-running
copy of Mosaic instead of launching another. (You can use the same rn
macro as above, invoking "goto-xm" instead of "readwebpost".) Read the
comments for details on the assumptions made by the script.
#! /bin/sh
# goto-xm, by Joseph T. Buck
# Modified heavily by Larry W. Virden
# Script for use with newsreaders such as trn. Piping the article
# through this command causes xmosaic to pop up, pointing to the
# article. If an existing xmosaic (version 1.1 or later) exists,
# the USR1 method will be used to cause it to point to the correct
# article, otherwise a new one will be started.
# assumptions: ps command works as is on SunOS 4.1.x, may need changes
# on other platforms.
URL=`/bin/grep '^Message-ID:' | /bin/sed -e 's/.*.*//'`
if [ "X$URL" = "X" ]; then
echo "USAGE: $0 [goto] [once] < USENET_msg" >&2
exit 1
fi
pid=`ps -xc | egrep '[Mm]osaic' | awk 'NR == 1 {print $1}'`
p=`which Mosaic`
gfile=/tmp/Mosaic.$pid
$p "$URL" &
if [ "$#" -gt 0 ] ; then
if [ "$1" = "goto" -o "$1" = "same" ] ; then
shift
echo "goto" > $gfile
else
echo "newwin" > $gfile
fi
else
echo "newwin" > $gfile
fi
/bin/awk 'END { printf "'"$URL"'" }' > $gfile
trap "echo signal encountered" 30
kill -USR1 $pid
exit 0
See also MosaicMail (URL is
http://www.oac.uci.edu/indiv/ehood/mhonarc.doc.html ), a Perl script
which pipes email and/or news to your current Mosaic session.
4.12: I can't get SLIP. I want Mosaic. Is there a way?
YES! If you have a plain old Unix shell account on a Unix system, such
as a SunOS or Ultrix system, you can do one of two things: you can run
SlipKnot, a special browser which operates using programs that may
already be installed on your shell account (see section 4.3.1), or you
can run The Internet Adapter (TIA), a program which provides a
pseudo-SLIP connection. The remainder of this section focuses on TIA.
TIA is not free software, but there is a free two-week trial period
and it is very cheap to register.
"So what do I run on my machine at home?"
Exactly the same software you would use for real SLIP; as far as your
PC is concerned, it is a SLIP connection. If you're unfamiliar with
SLIP please check out a newsgroup relevant to your particular type of
PC (Windows, Mac, etc). (This isn't restricted to common systems;
because all the emulation happens on your Unix shell account, your
client machine can run anything that supports SLIP.)
"Details, please! I'm confused."
Check out the TIA home page (URL is
http://marketplace.com/tia/tiahome.html ), or send email to
info@marketplace.com and request details about TIA.
If you have a Macintosh, check out the Macintosh TIA Users' FAQ (URL
is: ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/bi/billa/tia/faq.html ) for additional
help.