The services are run by auto-responders and mailbots. These accept e-mail messages at a special address and then act on instructions contained within them. Response is usually immediate although there can be a delay in transport of messages, to or from the mailbot, across the network. This is especially found when non-Internet networks are involved.

Infomania Infobot
To get started with the service, try sending a message to infobot@infomania.com with the subject "help." It's one of the most useful services available via e-mail because it provides not one but many services to you. I won't describe them all and how to use them because, if all goes well, you should get back a file, about 13k long, describing how to use the services offered.

Via the Infomania service you can look up stock quotes, the latest weather, find out what's on TV tonight (US only), and even get a daily bible verse of recap of famous events this day in history. It also allows you access to several other Internet services such as finger, Archie, and Whois which will be covered Thursday.

Internic mail server
This is where you'll find some of the most important documents about the Internet. You can obtain RFC documents, Internet standards, drafts of future standards, and other services. These include query of the X.500 directory service to find establishments online, resource directory to find Internet resources, the Whois service to look up organizations, domain names, or people online. To get full details send a message to mailserv@ds.internic.net with the message "help."

MIT mail server
The mail server of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers a large number of files and data through it main address, mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu. You can also search a very large database of e-mail addresses to find someone using the command "send usenet-addresses/search_strings." Send the message "help" for details of how to use the server and "index" for details of the services on offer.

E-Minder event reminder service
If you ever have trouble remembering important events or dates, your e-mail will come to the rescue. A free service will send you a message to alert you to an upcoming anniversary, birthday, deadline, or anything else you want. For full details of how to use the service, send a message to e-minder@netmind.com with the message subject "e-minder help."

E-mail to Congress
If you have a message concerning a matter of national importance that you want to share with all the members of congress an automatic e-mail server allows you to do this. Messages of up to five kilobytes are permitted and you can use the service once every three days. A rejection list is kept of abusers and those that send obscene messages. Remember, this message will go to all members with e-mail so don't use it unless you really need to address everyone. To ensure a response, include your name, address, city, and state. For messages to the House or Representatives, e-mail house@mailbot.com, and for message to the Senate, e-mail senate@mailbot.com.

Translations by e-mail
Several services offer free translations by e-mail. These are really more for fun than useful because of the languages supported. To translate a passage of text into the same language that the Swedish Chef on the Muppet Show uses, send the text to mailto:infobot@infomania.com with the subject "chef." The University of Zurich in Switzerland offers translations of text into Jive and Valley Speak, the address for Jive translations is jive@ifi.unizh.ch and for Valley Speak translations is valspeak@ifi.unizh.ch. Send the text to be translated in the message body. The latter two are fun, but the Swedish Chef translation has to be tried!

Getting a job via e-mail
The JobSat service has an e-mail gateway that allows you to search the database and look for jobs that suit you. You need to send in a specially formatted e-mail request and a template, with details of all the information needed, can be obtained by e-mailing jobsat@hookup.net. The service covers the United States and Canada.

Internet Services List
Scott Yanoff produces a list which is worth getting. It's around 90k and lists many resources available via e-mail. To get the Internet Services List send a message to inetlist@aug3.augsburg.edu and it should be mailed straight back to you. If you look through the list you'll notice a number of entries with "mail" before them, you can use these direct from your e-mail box.

The list includes a variety of services such as online genetics banks, dictionaries, daily White House news summaries, the movie database, and how to submit your questions to mathematicians or geologists.

NASA mail servers
NASA maintains several services for e-mail users including its Planetary News Service at pds-listserver@space.mit.edu. If you want to receive all NASA press releases you can subscribe by sending a message to majordomo@hq.nasa.gov with the message body "subscribe press-release."

(Martyn Williams/19960619)