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- From: dalamb@spamcop.net (David Alex Lamb)
- Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,soc.net-people,news.announce.newusers,news.newusers.questions,comp.answers,soc.answers,news.answers
- Subject: FAQ: How to find people's E-mail addresses
- Supersedes: <finding_1204453801@qucis.QueensU.CA>
- Followup-To: poster
- Date: 6 Apr 2008 09:30:02 GMT
- Organization: Queen's University at Kingston
- Lines: 858
- Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu
- Expires: 20 May 2008 09:30:01 GMT
- Message-ID: <finding_1207474201@qucis.QueensU.CA>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: highnoon.cs.queensu.ca
- Summary: How to find people's electronic mail addresses
- Keywords: e-mail, electronic mail, finding people, FAQ, frequently asked questions
- X-Disclaimer: Approval for *.answers is based on form, not content.
- Originator: dalamb@qucis.queensu.ca
- Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.mail.misc:94408 soc.net-people:25186 news.announce.newusers:5342 news.newusers.questions:732170 comp.answers:65677 soc.answers:21294 news.answers:318447
-
- Archive-name: finding-addresses
- Version: $Id: finding.n,v 2.49 2005/02/17 18:53:41 dalamb Exp $
- URL: http://www.cs.queensu.ca/FAQs/email/finding.html
-
- Copyright 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 Jonathan I. Kamens
- Copyright 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005 David Alex Lamb.
- See end of file for copying permission and mirror sites.
-
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about finding e-mail addresses. This FAQ is
- available on the World-Wide Web at
- <URL:http://www.cs.queensu.ca/FAQs/email/finding.html>
- An older version of this FAQ is available in French at
- <URL:http://web.fdn.fr/fdn/doc-misc/find-e-mail-add/>
-
- ******************************************************************************
- * Introduction *
- ******************************************************************************
-
- A question which appears frequently on the Usenet is, "I know someone's
- name, and I think they might have an electronic mail address somewhere. How
- can I find it?"
-
- There are many different techniques for doing this. Several of them are
- discussed below. Your best bet is to try the pertinent methods in this
- posting in the order in which they are listed (well, sort of; at the very
- least, please try all the pertinent methods which do not involve posting
- queries to soc.net-people before resorting to that).
-
- I've listed "Direct contact" near the end of this list because, for some
- reason, people seem to be reluctant to call people on the telephone or write
- them a paper-mail letter asking what their E-mail address is, as long as there
- is even a remote chance that it might be found without asking. This attitude
- is somewhat counterproductive, since in most cases, it is much easier to get
- someone's E-mail address by asking them than it is by following the other
- methods outlined below. Furthermore, even if you do manage to find an E-mail
- address using one of the on-line methods described below, it is not guaranteed
- that the person at the other end of the line checks that address regularly or
- even that it is the correct address.
-
- Therefore, if you do have a telephone number that isn't too expensive to
- call, or if you have a paper-mail address and aren't in too much of a hurry,
- you can probably save yourself a lot of trouble by skipping all of the on-line
- methods listed below and going directly to "Direct contact."
-
- ******************************************************************************
- * Avoid public distribution of individuals' addresses *
- ******************************************************************************
-
- It is considered rude to widely distribute (e.g., in a Usenet posting) a
- person's E-mail address without his/her prior consent, even if the address is
- publicly available using one of the techniques described below or some other
- technique.
-
- It might seem that having one's E-mail address listed in a publicly
- accessible database is equivalent to distributing it, but this is not the case
- in practice, for three primary reasons:
- * Some people may not be aware that their addresses are available for others
- to locate. For example, the majority of Usenet posters are unaware of the
- database of Usenet E-mail addresses mentioned below.
- * When some effort is required to locate a person's address (e.g., using the
- techniques described below), only people who have a specific reason to
- send mail to him/her will go to the trouble. However, if the address is
- mentioned in a Usenet posting read by thousands of people, no effort is
- required to obtain it, and many more people will send him/her mail. Most
- people with E-mail addresses are not accustomed to receiving E-mail from
- strangers or large amounts of E-mail, and they may not be happy if they
- do.
- * As unwanted E-mail becomes more common, people will start to remove their
- addresses from public databases, which means that it will become more
- difficult to find people's addresses for legitimate reasons.
-
- In summary, if you want to advertise someone's E-mail address, get his/her
- permission before you do it. Besides, if you're going to advertise an
- address, it's a good idea to make sure it works first, and writing to it for
- permission is a good way to do that.
-
- ******************************************************************************
- * Web Searches *
- ******************************************************************************
-
- o E-mail directories Changed: Thu Feb 17 2005
-
- Several organizations let you search for addresses by filling in and
- submitting a form from your Web browser. In many cases these services
- populated their databases by scanning for addresses in USENET news postings.
- My list below is fairly short; there is a longer list at Electro-Byte
- Technologies at
- <URL:http://www.sarnia.com/tech/class/search/whiteyellow.htm>. Many of
- these were once free, but have now gone commercial (charging a fee for
- lookups). Some are primarily phone number searches, but sometimes have e-
- mail addresses as well.
- * Addresses.com at <URL:http://www.addresses.com> as of early 2004 claims
- to be the world's largest email directory - 10 times the size of any
- other email address directory on the web. All people searches are free
- and content is protected from spammers. Also verify email, reverse email
- search, reverse phone, white pages, yellow pages, area codes and
- postal/zip codes; phone-based searches are USA-only.
- * AnyWho at <URL:http://www.anywho.com/> is a white pages and yellow pages
- directory service that encourages people to update their listing to
- include e-mail addresses.
- * Bigfoot at <URL:http://www.bigfoot.com/> had about 100 million white
- pages listings and 8 million e-mail listings as of December 1996. The
- company focuses on value-added services for e-mail users, complementing
- those of ISPs.
- * Find mE-Mail at <URL:http://www.findmemail.com/> advertises itself as
- the place to post your new e-mail address, for your old e-mail friends.
- * Fresh Address at <URL:http://www.freshaddress.com/> FreshAddress.com is
- a free worldwide registry of old and working email addresses. People
- can register their current address along with any additional working and
- obsolete email addresses, so friends can find them even if they only
- know an old address.
- * InfoSpace at <URL:http://www.infospace.com> used to have about 200
- million worldwide telephone numbers, and also provides search for e-mail
- addresses. Now its front-page search form appearsa to be USA only.
- * Internet Address Finder at <URL:http://www.iaf.net/> appears to be USA
- only.
- * MESA (MetaEmailSearchAgent) at <URL:http://mesa.rrzn.uni-hannover.de/>
- allows you to submit a single query to multiple search engines,
- including Bigfoot, IAF, Populus, Switchboard, Usenet Addresses,
- WhoWhere, and Yahoo People Search. You get to specify how long to wait,
- and it might time out returning no hits.
- * Switchboard at <URL:http://www.switchboard.com/> is a Web-based
- telephone directory; its names are compiled from published white pages
- directories and other publicly-available sources. If you register a
- password with Switchboard, you can add additional information to your
- listing, including your email address. You can arrange to hide your
- email address (or other parts of your listing), while still allowing
- people to email you a brief note via Switchboard.
- * WhoWhere? at <URL:http://www.whowhere.com> has directories for e-mail,
- phone numbers, and personal Web pages. You can search based on
- affiliations like occupation, school, or interests.
- * Yahoo People Search at <URL:http://www.yahoo.com/search/people/>
-
- o Phone and Surface Address Directories Created: Thu Feb 17 2005
-
- These don't give you e-mail addresses, but can deliver phone numbers you can
- use to make an initial contact.
- * AllPages.com at <URL:http://www.allpages.com> has online yellow pages
- and business directories for the United States.
- * Find a Friend at <URL:http://www.findafriend.com/> is a commercial
- search service; you pay nothing if your search is empty. You can search
- by Social Security Number, full name and prior address, name with date
- of birth or approximate age, or by phone number
- * Phonebooke at <URL:http://www.phonebooke.com/> links to several online
- phonebooks, some of which have fees.
-
- o Web Search Engines Created: Thu Nov 4 2004
-
- Search engines index Web pages (and sometimes Usenet postings). If you
- suspect the person you are looking for has created a web page or posted to
- Usenet, you may be able to find them through your favourite search engine.
- Since spammers also harvest e-mail addresses from web pages, many people are
- removing their email addresses from the Web and using fake addresses for
- Usenet postings.
-
- o National white pages Changed: Wed Jul 31 2002
-
- There are a few internet white pages based on nationality:
- * Australia at <URL:http://www.whitepages.com.au/>.
- * Austria at <URL:http://www.etb.at/>.
- * Belgium at <URL:http://www.advalvas.be/white>.
- * Brazil at <URL:http://www.supermail.com.br/>.
- * Dennmark: at <URL:http://www.epost.dk/>, at
- <URL:http://joes.jubii.dk/>, at <URL:http://adressebog.sektornet.dk/>
- * France at
- <URL:http://www.legratuit.com/Outils_de_recherche/Annuaire_telephonique/>.
- * Germany: German Telecom at <URL:http://www.email-service.de/>, at
- <URL:http://www.suchen.de/>, at <URL:http://www.finden.de/>.
- * Hungary at <URL:http://www.skyex.com/default1.htm>. (people with some
- connection to...)
- * Ireland at <URL:http://www.esearch.ie/>.
- * Israel at <URL:http://www.ibm.net.il/WebPh>.
- * Italy at <URL:http://www.ats.it/wpages/>.
- * Netherlands at <URL:http://emailgids.hetnet.nl>.
- * Slovenia at <URL:http://afna.telekom.si/>.
- * South Africa: free at <URL:http://andromeda.marques.co.za/epost_s.htm>
- (a frames-based page that I had trouble loading), commercial at
- <URL:http://www.bellemodel.co.za/emails.html> (pay only if found)
- * Sweden at <URL:http://epostkatalog.telia.com/>.
- * Switzerland: at <URL:http://www.email111.ch/> (click on "Email-Suche");
- www.directories.ch at <URL:http://www.directories.ch/cgi-
- bin/etv/etv?lang=de&d=ead> (German)
-
- ******************************************************************************
- * Directory Protocols *
- ******************************************************************************
-
- o PH and WebPH Changed: Thu Apr 1 1999
-
- PH, documented at <URL:http://www.emailman.com/ph/>, is a system for
- managing "phone books." WebPH at
- <URL:http://www.middlebury.edu/~its/Software/WebPh/> is a World-Wide Web
- interface PH. If a site you are interested has installed it, you can look
- up people from that site by filling in a query form. Unfortunately, there
- is no convention for how to guess where to find the WebPH or PH server given
- the site name.
-
- o LDAP Created: Thu Apr 1 1999
-
- LDAP, documented at <URL:http://www.emailman.com/ldap/>, is a "Lightweight
- Directory Access Protocol". PH is used more heavily at colleges and
- universities; LDAP seems to be used more by commercial organizations.
-
- ******************************************************************************
- * Other Techniques *
- ******************************************************************************
-
- o College and School Email Addresses
-
- The College Email FAQ at
- <URL:http://www.cs.queensu.ca/FAQs/email/college.html> describes the account
- and E-mail address policies for graduate and undergraduate students at many
- universities and colleges. If you are looking for a university/college
- student, check those postings for the university or college in question and
- follow their instructions for finding out more.
-
- This FAQ is also posted regularly to soc.college as a collection of postings
- whose subjects start with "College Email Addresses." If the postings have
- expired at your site or has not been posted recently, you can get a copy of
- them using the instructions below(in the "Useful Usenet postings" section).
-
- If the university has a PH (phonebook) server, it may be listed in the
- Colleges and Universities PH server directory at
- <URL:http://home.cdsnet.net/~zachbo/others.html>.
-
- ClassMates at <URL:http://www.classmates.com> lets secondary school alumni
- freely register their e-mail addresses; the database covers US, Canada, and
- American Overseas high schools (2 million entries as of August, 1999).
- Searches require a fee. Alumni.NET at <URL:http://www.Alumni.Net> has a
- smaller database (750,000 as of August 1999) but does not charge for
- searches.
-
- Curious Cat Educated Connections at <URL:http://www.curiouscat.com/educate/>
- indexes colleges, high schools, and grade schools in the USA, Canada, and
- Australia. You can register so that school friends can find you.
-
- o Usenet-addresses server
-
- If you think that your target may be on the Usenet and may have posted a
- message to the Usenet at some point in the past, you might be able to find
- his/her address in the Usenet address database on the machine rtfm.mit.edu.
-
- To query the database, send an E-mail message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu
- with "send usenet-addresses/name" in the body of the message. The "name"
- should be one or more space-separated words for which you want to search;
- since the search is fuzzy (i.e., all of the words you specify do not have to
- match), you should list all of the words you think might appear in the
- address, including (for example) first and last name, possible username, and
- possible components of the host name (e.g. "mit" for a person who you think
- is at MIT). The case and order of the words you list are ignored.
-
- Note that multiple requests can appear (on separate lines) in mail to the
- mail server, but each request will be answered in a separate message.
-
- In many cases, you will get a list of quite a few matching addresses, and
- you will have to go through it looking for ones that may be the one you're
- looking for. However, the mail server will return a maximum of only 40
- matches.
-
- Note that the usenet-addresses database is accessible via WAIS (in fact, the
- script that does mail server searches is actually just a front-end to a WAIS
- database) on two different hosts: rtfm.mit.edu and cedar.cic.net. In both
- cases, the database is called "usenet-addresses" and is on port 210. Note
- that the version on rtfm is slightly more up-to-date with respect to the
- master address list than the version on cedar. If you don't know what WAIS
- is, then don't worry about this paragraph; if you're curious, see the
- "comp.infosystems.wais" newsgroup.
-
- For more details about how to use the database, send the command "send
- usenet-addresses/help".
-
- o Inter-Network Mail Guide
-
- If you know which network/service your target has an account on (e.g.
- CompuServe, Fidonet), then the "Inter-Network Mail Guide" posting in
- comp.mail.misc *may* be able to provide you with some help, although it
- probably will not be particularly helpful unless you have some sort of
- address to start with (a small number of networks use full names as
- addresses, and the posting mentions when this is the case, but it doesn't
- apply in very many cases).
-
- See the instructions below for getting a copy of this posting if it isn't
- available in comp.mail.misc at your site.
-
- o whois/nicname Changed: Sat Dec 6 1997
-
- Whois is the internet user name directory service. It's available on some
- UNIX systems as a command called "whois" or "nicname". Do
- whois help
- or
- nicname -h
- to get a help message. The whois and nicname programs will check the
- database maintained at rs.internic.net (or nic.ddn.mil for U.S. military
- sites) for the given names. For example,
- nicname <name>
- or
- whois <name>
- or
- whois -h <host> <names>
- where <host> is some site with a whois server. This is only useful for
- people listed in the database. Many regional networks and some universities
- maintain their own NICs.
-
- You can also get some of this information by telneting to rs.internic.net
- and running whois and host there, or to nic.ddn.mil if you are looking for
- U.S. military personnel. Alternatively, you can issue a single command to
- the whois.internic.net server by typing "telnet whois.internic.net whois" in
- order to connect to it and then typing the command and hitting return; the
- "help" command will return several screens full of text, so if you need
- help, you should use a utility such as "tee" or "script" to capture the help
- message and save it for future reference.
-
- If you do not have Internet access, you can send mail to
- whois@whois.internic.net to query the "whois" database; send a message with
- "help" in the body to find out more information.
-
- Some sites run local "whois" databases to provide information about people
- inside their organizations. The only way to find out if your site runs such
- a database is to ask someone locally about it (see "Get more help locally"
- below), and the only way to find out about such databases at other sites
- (assuming, of course, that those databases are not mentioned in any of the
- other sources listed in this document) is to contact responsible individuals
- at those sites and ask (see "Finding a host name and asking someone there
- for help" below).
-
- o Other whois databases
-
- Quite a few other sites also run "whois" databases that can be connected to
- over the Internet using the whois protocol (using either the "whois" program
- or "telnet hostname whois" as described in the previous section). Some of
- those sites are listed here, and others are listed in a separate list,
- described in more detail below.
-
- The Ohio State University runs a "whois" database (on the machine "osu.edu")
- that has all of the faculty, staff, and students listed. It responds to
- "whois" queries in the normal fashion, or you can just send mail to
- firstname.lastname@osu.edu and it will try to deliver e-mail if the person
- has registered an e-mail address. You can also telnet to osu.edu and look-
- up a person. If you are unsure of the spelling this is a good way, as it
- does a soundex type search so exact matches are not necessary. No password
- is necessary.
-
- RIPE (a cooperative group of several European Internet providers) runs a
- "whois" database, with RIPE information, on "whois.ripe.net"; it is a
- European counterpart to "whois.internic.net".
-
- Matt H. Power of MIT <mhpower@athena.mit.edu> has compiled and maintains an
- extensive list of sites that run "whois" servers. The file can be retrieved
- via anonymous ftp from /pub/whois/whois-servers.list on sipb.mit.edu.
-
- In addition to E-mail addresses for individuals, "whois" servers often also
- contain contact information about domains. For example, asking
- whois.internic.net's server for information about "mit.edu" would tell you
- to look up "mit-dom" in order to get information about MIT's domain, and
- doing that would give you contact information about the people responsible
- for administrating that domain, including the handles of those individuals,
- which you can then look up to get still more information about them.
-
- o Other directory services Changed: Thu Feb 17 2005
-
- There are several other directory services you may be able to use to search
- for your target.
-
- The person you are searching for may be using Pobox.com at
- <URL:http://pobox.com/>, which provides permanent email forwarding addresses
- You submit to a searchable database your real name and some biographical
- information; you receive short, memorable email aliases at pobox.com that
- forward to your current real mailbox. Whatever your real address is, you
- can be found at and mailed through pobox.com. Pobox.com is growing very
- quickly and has amassed a substantial database. To sign up or find a
- subscriber, use the Web address or send mail to info@pobox.com
-
- Other sources of permanent e-mail addresses include ActiveNames at
- <URL:http://www.ActiveNames.Net/>, by Google at <URL:http://www.google.com>,
- and Yahoo at <URL:http://www.yahoo.com/>.
-
- The IBM Corporate Internet Gateway provides a directory of users (which I
- believe contains only IBM employees, although I'm not certain) that is
- available to anyone who can send E-mail to it. If your target works for IBM
- (or you suspect s/he does), then this might be useful to you.
-
- To use it, send mail to nic@vnet.ibm.com with the command "whois lastname,
- firstname" in the subject or body of the message. If you are unsure of the
- spelling of the last name, use an asterisk (*) to indicate that the last
- name should be treated as a prefix, rather than a complete name. The first
- name is always treated as a prefix. For example, "whois Smith*, R" would
- return all people with a last name starting with "Smith" and a first name
- starting with "R", while "whois Smith, R" would return only those people
- with exactly the last name "Smith" and a first name starting with "R".
-
- Users of the directory are limited to 25 name searches per day. Each name
- that results is counted as a separate name search. For example, a single
- "whois Smith, R" that found Rodger Smith, Robert Smith, and Reginald Smith
- would count as three name searches. Multiple requests may be made in a
- single note provided that the number of names found does not exceed the
- daily limit of 25.
-
- RPI runs a white pages server for people interested in the field of
- communications. To find out how to use it, send mail to
- comserve@rpitsvm.bitnet (or comserve@vm.its.rpi.edu) with "help" in the body
- of the message.
-
- BITNIC (the BITNET Network Information Center) runs a name server of more
- general interest. To find out how to use it, send mail to
- netserv@bitnic.bitnet (again, netserv@bitnic.educom.edu can also be used)
- with "help" in the body of the message.
-
- There is an X.500 white pages service run by UNINETT. It is accessible by
- sending mail to the address Directory@UNINETT.NO (send a message with "help"
- in the subject or body to get more information). Furthermore, there is
- software for UNIX available for use as a convenient interface to the
- service. It is available for anonymous ftp in
- ~ftp/directory/directory.tar.Z on the machine nac.no. Finally, if the
- administrator of your site registers your organization with UNINETT
- (instructions about doing so are available with the software just
- mentioned), people from your site can then register in the database so that
- other people can look them up in it.
-
- AT&T Bell Labs runs a mailer on the host "att.com" that can get mail to
- about 400 employees in the Research Area of Bell Labs using their names as
- addresses. You can send mail to "lastname@att.com" or to
- "initials.lastname@att.com", where "initials" consists of one or more
- initials separated by dots. If the name is ambiguous, you will get a bounce
- message indicating several possible matches, and the appropriate address to
- use for each.
-
- Tim Pozar has set up a WAIS server that contains the FidoNet email addresses
- of Sysops of FidoNet BBSs. You can access it by connecting to the
- "nodelist" WAIS database on port 210 of kumr.lns.com; use the name(s) for
- which you wish to search as your search keywords. See above for more
- information about WAIS.
-
- PSI runs a X.500 directory server, accessible by sending mail to
- whitepages@wp.psi.com.
-
- Information about hosts in the "ca" Internet domain (i.e., hosts in Canada)
- Is accessible via anonymous ftp to ftp.CDNnet.CA, or by mail to archive-
- server@relay.CDNnet.CA. You can get site domain names and host names, as
- well as the names and addresses of contact people for individual sites. For
- more information, retrieve the file /ca-domain/Introduction via anonymous
- ftp, or send a mail message to the mail server with "send ca-domain
- Introduction" in it. The information in this archive is also available via
- the Gopher service at <URL:gopher://nstn.ns.ca>.
-
- o Finding a host name and asking someone there for help
-
-
- If you know the organization, company, or whatever at which your target's
- account is likely to be located, then you might be able to get your hands on
- the host name of a machine at that location. Once you've done that, you can
- usually write to someone responsible for E-mail support at the site and ask
- for help finding the address you are seeking. See the section on below.
-
- Once you've got a host name and the person to contact, you need to figure
- out how to get the mail there, if it's on a network you don't know how to
- reach. See the "Inter-Network Mail Guide" posting referenced above if you
- need help with that.
-
- If you do go this route, make sure you provide as much information as you
- can about the person whose address you are seeking; remember that the more
- detailed (and polite!) you are, the more likely it is that the person you
- are contacting will be able to help you. Remember, too, that the person you
- are contacting is probably very busy, and responding to requests like yours
- is probably not one of his/her highest priorities, so be patient.
-
- o Using 'finger' Changed: Mon Sep 2 1996
-
- Finger is a user information lookup program. If you've found a potential
- host name for your target using one of the other methods described here, and
- if you have direct access to the Internet, then you may be able to use the
- "finger" program/protocol to look up your target at a remote site. To
- finger someone at another site, you generally type "finger name@host".
- Andrew Starr maintains the Finger FAQ at
- <URL:http://www.emailman.com/finger/>. Some sites provide Web-based
- interfaces to finger, such as Middlebury College at
- <URL:http://www.middlebury.edu/~otisg/cgi/HyperFinger.cgi>.
-
- o Knowbot Information Service
-
- The "Knowbot Information Service" (KIS) is another white pages service.
-
- Two hosts running KIS servers are info.cnri.reston.va.us and
- regulus.cs.bucknell.edu. Either can be reached on the Internet via telnet
- at port 185 (e.g. "telnet info.cnri.reston.va.us 185"), or via electronic
- mail (kis@cnri.reston.va.us or netaddress@regulus.cs.bucknell.edu). For
- more information about Knowbot, use the "man" command after connecting via
- telnet or in the body of your E-mail message. In addition,
- info.cnri.reston.va.us' KIS server can be reached using the Internet "whois"
- protocol described above.
-
- o Searching LISTSERV mailing lists Changed: Tue Jul 4 1995
-
- Many sites around the network are running the VM/CMS LISTSERV package for
- managing mailing lists. If you have some reason to believe that a
- particular user may be a member of a mailing list on a LISTSERV site, you
- can ask that LISTSERV to send you a membership list and search it for your
- target.
-
- To do this, send mail to listserv@host (if "host" is a BITNET host, try
- using listserv@host.bitnet; if that doesn't work, you'll have to ask someone
- at your site how to send mail to BITNET hosts). In the body of your
- message, include the command "review list-name", where "list-name" is the
- name of the mailing list you wish to search.
-
- Alternatively, sending mail to the server with the line
- WHOIS <name>
- may catch the person. For example, listserv@buacca.bu.edu. This is an
- unlikely option. It also does not work with all listserv implementations.
-
- If you don't know what LISTSERV is and dont' know of any LISTSERV sites or
- mailing lists, then this technique probably isn't worth bothering with.
-
- o Direct contact
-
- If you have a paper mail address or telephone number for your target, call
- them or write to them and ask for an E-mail address.
-
- In that case, you might encounter the somewhat common situation where your
- target knows s/he has an E-mail address, but s/he doesn't know what it is.
- If this happens to you, then give him/her your E-mail address and ask
- him/her to send you mail (and if s/he can't figure out how, tell him/her to
- get someone at his/her site to help). The odds are that when you get
- his/her message, it'll contain a valid return address in it.
-
- o Get more help locally
-
- Often, the postmaster at your site (or whomever is responsible at your site
- for answering mail-related questions) has a large amount of knowledge that
- will help him/her to help you find the answer to your question. If you have
- been unable to find the answer for yourself, check with people locally and
- see if one of them can help you out.
-
- o postmaster Changed: Thu Jul 1 1993
-
- Most sites have an individual responsible for network and mail operations at
- the site, usually with the userid of 'postmaster'. These people are usually
- very busy, so before bothering one of them, try telephoning the person you
- are trying to reach. Long distance is expensive for you, but less
- expensive, globally, than the postmaster's time. The one reasonable
- exception is if you're sending mail and getting messages in response that
- suggest some sort of mail system problem; you might report the problem to
- postmaster at your own site, who may in turn contact postmaster at the
- destination site.
-
- Many postmasters will refuse to answer questions about user identification,
- for reasons of privacy, though they may be willing to forward *your* address
- so your intended recipient can write to you.
-
- o The last resort -- soc.net-people
-
- If all the methods above have failed, you can consider posting a message to
- soc.net-people asking for help locating your target. Before doing so,
- however, you should read the "Tips on using soc.net-people" posting in that
- newsgroup. If it has expired, you can get a copy using the instructions
- below (note that the name in the instructions below may change when a new
- version with a new date is posted, so you may need to ask for an index of
- the soc.net-people archive to find out the name of the most recent version).
-
- Note that this is listed as THE last resort, to be tried even later than
- using a telephone number or paper mail address. Any posting to the Usenet
- uses the resources of the sites on the Usenet and of the networks that carry
- it; certainly, the total cost of transporting a Usenet message is more than
- the cost of a stamp or a short phone call. Since the benefit gained is to
- you and not to the Usenet as a whole, you should avoid posting if you
- possibly can.
-
- ******************************************************************************
- * Finding Host Names *
- ******************************************************************************
-
- o Whois
-
- The NIC "whois" database mentioned above contains site and organization
- information as well as information about individuals. Organization entries
- in the NIC database will usually list an administrative, technical and/or
- zone contact person, with his/her address, to whom you can write. You can
- also write to "postmaster" at almost any Internet host to get in touch with
- someone responsible for E-mail.
-
- o U. Texas Network Directory
-
- The University of Texas publishes a network directory. Although it hasn't
- been updated in a few years, it still provides a useful list of many site
- names. It is available for anonymous ftp from several different locations,
- including /net.directory/1988.netbook on emx.utexas.edu. It is BIG, so you
- might not have room to store it locally, unless you ask someone in charge to
- set up some space for it. You should NOT transfer it to /tmp every time you
- need it, or something like that; that's a horrible waste of network
- bandwidth. Contact people are usually listed in the site entries in the net
- directory, but you might want to try "postmaster" first. This directory is
- superseded by the book "The user's directory of computer networks," whose
- bibliography information is provided in the section below. Of course, you
- have to pay for the book, and you can't grep dead trees, but it's probably
- more up-to-date than the University of Texas directory.
-
- o UUCP maps Changed: Tue Jul 4 1995
-
- The UUCP maps are posted in the comp.mail.maps newsgroup. See the posting
- "UUCP map for README" in that directory for more information. You can grep
- in the news spool or use your news reader's search facilities to search for
- a particular string (e.g. an organization name) in the comp.mail.maps
- postings. Each UUCP map entry lists the contact person for the entry. You
- can also search the UUCP maps by connecting to the "uumap" WAIS database on
- port 210 of wais.cic.net. For more information about WAIS, see above.
-
- o Netinfo
-
- You can also search UUCP maps using the University of California at
- Berkeley's Netinfo service (which also supports other services, such as
- looking up IP addresses for hosts on the Internet). You connect to it at
- port 117 of netinfo.berkeley.edu, e.g. on some systems, "telnet
- netinfo.berkeley.edu 117". The "ufind", "ufile", "uhost" and "upath"
- commands are used to look up information in the UUCP maps. For more
- information about Netinfo, connect to it and type "?".
-
- o Merit Network NetMail database
-
- Allows one to find the appropriate bitnet, internet or uucp address for a
- site given part of the address.
- telnet hermes.merit.edu
- At the "Which Host?" prompt, type netmailsites then enter any part of the
- address you want.
-
- o nslook/nslookup and hostq programs
-
- Some sites have programs which will give you information about a host given
- its name or IP address. Some such programs include nslook, nslookup, and
- hostq.
-
- o /etc/hosts Changed: Mon Feb 15 1993
-
- Mail routing on UNIX machines on the internet use to use a large file called
- /etc/hosts to validate host names. We used to advise you to examine this
- file to guess host names when all else fails - but that really isn't useful
- anymore. Use one of the above methods instead.
-
- ******************************************************************************
- * Commercial Networks *
- ******************************************************************************
-
- o Internet to America Online Changed: Sat Dec 7 1996
-
- Creating the Internet version of an America Online address requires that you
- know the conversion rule. You ignore the case, remove the spaces, and add
- "@aol.com" to the end of the address. Thus, an America Online address "Jane
- Doe" becomes "janedoe@aol.com" (without the quotes, of course). Internet
- mail incoming to America Online is trucated at 27 kilobytes. To find
- addreses, send e-mail to NameSearch@aol.com and provide the user's real
- name, state, and city. Their World-Wide Web service at
- <URL:http://home.aol.com/> allows you to search for members' home pages
- containing the search terms you specify.
-
- o Internet to Compuserve Changed: Sat Dec 7 1996
-
- If someone's Compuserve ID is 77777,7777 you can send Internet mail to
- 77777.7777@compuserve.com (change the comma to a dot, and append the site
- name). Their Web directory at
- <URL:http://www.sprynet.com/ourworld/searchow/> lets you search for people
- by name, location, or occupation.
-
- o Internet to DELPHI Changed: Sat Dec 7 1996
-
- Delphi users can receive Internet EMail at <username>@delphi.com. Usernames
- are user-defined and vary from handles to real names. Their Web directory
- at <URL:http://www.delphi.com/dir-html/simple_web_search.html> lets you
- search for member Web pages containing your search terms, or browse their
- username directory.
-
- o Internet to GEnie Changed: Sat Dec 7 1996
-
- Creating the Internet version of a GEnie address requires that you add
- "@genie.com" to the end of the address. Thus, a GEnie address "J.DOE3"
- becomes "J.DOE3@genie.com" (without the quotes, of course). There is no
- added cost to GEnie users (beyond normal connect-time charges) to send or
- receive Internet mail. GEnie addresses are case-insensitive, but you should
- preserve periods.
-
- o Internet to Prodigy Changed: Sat Dec 7 1996
-
- Prodigy users receive Internet mail via the address format
- abcd12a@prodigy.com
- where "abcd12a" is the recipient's Prodigy user ID. We have not found an
- Internet-accessible directory.
-
- o Internet to T-Online (Germany) Created: Wed Nov 22 1995
-
- Since Summer 1995, T-Online (former BTX) users have access to the Internet.
- Use the T-Online Id of the recipient and add -000x where x is the
- appropriate user number, mostly 1. The T-Online Id is mostly equal to the
- telephone-number of the person, inculding the city prefix. To send a mail to
- a T-Online user in Frankfurt (city prefix: 069), with the telefon number
- 123456, send Internet mail to 069123456-0001@T-Online.de.
-
- ******************************************************************************
- * References *
- ******************************************************************************
-
- If you want to learn more about computer networks and how they interact with
- each other, these books and articles might be interesting and useful to you:
- * !%@:: A Directory of Electronic Mail Addressing & Networks by Donnalyn
- Frey and Rick Adams ISBN 1-56592-031-7 (published by O'Reilly, E-mail
- nuts@ora.com) (current edition published in August 1993; $24.95 cover
- price)
- * The Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide, by John
- S. Quarterman, Digital Press, Bedford, MA, 1990. $50. Digital order
- number EY-C176E-DP-SS, Digital Press ISBN 155558-033-5, Prentice-Hall ISBN
- 0-13-565607-9.
- * ``Strategies for Finding People on Networks,'' by John S. Quarterman,
- Matrix News, Vol. 1, No. 6, pg. 3, Matrix Information and Directory
- Services, Austin, Texas, September 1991.
- * The user's directory of computer networks, ed. Tracy L. LaQuey, Digital
- Press, Bedford, MA, 1990. Digital order number EY-C200E-DP, ISBN
- 1-55558-047-5.
- * Zen and the Art of the Internet: A Beginner's Guide, by Brendan Kehoe,
- Prentice Hall, July 1992. ISBN 0-13-010778-6. (This is the second
- edition. The first edition is available for free on-line. To find out
- how to get it, send mail to archive-server@cs.widener.edu with "send zen
- hints" in the body of the message.)
-
- ******************************************************************************
- * Useful Usenet Postings *
- ******************************************************************************
- Subject: FAQ: College Email Addresses 1/4 [Monthly posting]
- Subject: FAQ: College Email Addresses 2/4 [Monthly posting]
- Subject: FAQ: College Email Addresses 3/4 [Monthly posting]
- Subject: FAQ: College Email Addresses 4/4 [Monthly posting]
- Newsgroups: soc.college,soc.net-people,news.answers
- Subject: Updated Inter-Network Mail Guide
- Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,alt.bbs.lists,alt.internet.services,comp.misc,comp.answers,alt.answers,news.answers
- Subject: Tips on using soc.net-people [l.m. 13/09/92]
- Newsgroups: soc.net-people
-
- [Same as above -- check the archives for a newer version if this one isn't
- available.]
-
- Available in the indicated Usenet newsgroup(s), or via anonymous ftp from
- rtfm.mit.edu in the files:
- /pub/usenet/news.answers/mail/college-email/part1
- /pub/usenet/news.answers/mail/college-email/part2
- /pub/usenet/news.answers/mail/college-email/part3
- /pub/usenet/news.answers/mail/college-email/part4
- /pub/usenet/news.answers/mail/inter-network-guide
- /pub/usenet/soc.net-people/Tips_on_using_soc.net-people_[l.m._13_09_92]
-
- Also available from mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu by sending a mail message
- containing any or all of:
- send usenet/news.answers/mail/college-email/part1
- send usenet/news.answers/mail/college-email/part2
- send usenet/news.answers/mail/college-email/part3
- send usenet/news.answers/mail/college-email/part4
- send usenet/news.answers/mail/inter-network-guide
- send usenet/soc.net-people/Tips_on_using_soc.net-people_[l.m._13_09_92]
-
- Send a message containing "help" to get general information about the mail
- server.
-
- ******************************************************************************
- * Credits *
- ******************************************************************************
-
- This FAQ was originally maintained by Jonathan I. Kamens; David Lamb took
- over maintenance in January 1994. In July 1995 David merged in the general
- information on finding addresses from the College E-mail FAQ, originally
- created by Mark Kantrowitz.
-
- Comments about, suggestions about or corrections to this posting are
- welcomed. If you would like to ask me to change this posting in some way, the
- method I appreciate most is for you to actually make the desired modifications
- to a copy of the posting, and then to send me the modified posting, or a
- context diff between my posted version and your modified version (if you do
- the latter, make sure to include in your mail the "Version:" line from my
- posted version). Submitting changes in this way makes dealing with them
- easier for me and helps to avoid misunderstandings about what you are
- suggesting.
-
- These people provided useful comments, information and/or suggestions:
- Randall Atkinson <atkinson@itd.nrl.navy.mil>
- Ed Blackman
- Mark Brader <msb@sq.com>
- Bruno Chatras
- Jim Cheetham
- Huang Chih-Hsien
- Marcel Dorenbos
- Alessio Dragoni <drago@ats.it>
- Ralph E. Droms <URL:http://www.bucknell.edu/~droms/>
- Donald E. Eastlake, III
- Marshall Gene Flax
- Arthur K. Ho
- Patrick Hoepfner <hoepfner@heasfs.gsfc.nasa.gov>
- Dan Hoey <hoey@aic.nrl.navy.mil>
- Kjetil Torgrim Homme <kjetilho@ifi.uio.no>
- Ivar Mar Jonsson
- Jonathan I. Kamens <jik@security.ov.com>
- Mark Kantrowitz <mkant+@cs.cmu.edu>
- Dan Kegel (dank at alumni.caltech.edu)
- Jonathan Kochmer
- Patt Leonard <leonard@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu>
- Jerry Martin <nic@osu.edu>
- Skip Montanaro <URL:http://www.automatrix.com/~skip/>
- Dan Muller <dmuller@etrademail.com>
- Eric De Mund <ead@ixian.com>
- Hank Nussbacher <hank@ibm.net.il>
- Jerry Peek <jpeek@jpeek.com> <URL:http://www.jpeek.com/>
- Tim Pozar <pozar@kumr.lns.com>
- Mark Prior
- John S. Quarterman <URL:http://www.mids.org/>
- Gowri Ramanathan <URL:http://www.cs.orst.edu/~ramanag/>
- Michael Santullo <santullo@Four11.com>
- Jenny Schmidt <jenny@whowhere.com>
- Ellen Keyne Seebacher
- Rolf E. Sonneveld
- Andrew Starr <URL:http://www.amherst.edu/~atstarr/>
- Donald Stoy
- Robert Ullmann
- Edward Vielmetti
- Peter M. Weiss <pmw1@psuvm.psu.edu>
- Bill Wells <URL:http://ack.berkeley.edu/~wcwells/>
- Sean White <sean@whowhere.com>
- Martin Westphal <martin@PNN.sgz-bank.com>
- Bill Wohler <wohler@sap-ag.de>
- Peter J. Woodrow
-
- ******************************************************************************
- * Copying *
- ******************************************************************************
-
- You can reprint (or archive, or make CDs of) this FAQ posting anywhere you
- want, as long as the following conditions are met:
- * You use as recent a version of the FAQ as possible.
- * The copyright holders' names (as well as the section listing other people
- who have contributed) stays on it.
- * Any modifications (other than typesetting changes) you make to it are
- clearly designated as your modifications. If you are significantly
- reformatting the information in the FAQ, then you don't have to explicitly
- show every change from the original, but you make clear that what you are
- printing is derived from our FAQ rather than a direct copy of it.
- * You tell people where to find updated versions of it, i.e., what
- newsgroups it appears in.
- * If paying outside authors for articles is standard practice of the forum
- in which you wish to reprint it, then we would appreciate some sort of
- reimbursement for the reprinting. However, we leave this to your
- discretion (i.e., you can pay us or not; if you choose to pay us, the
- amount can be whatever you think is appropriate).
-
- ******************************************************************************
- * Mirrors *
- ******************************************************************************
-
- Known mirrors of this site include:
- * Australia at <URL:http://ecco.bsee.swin.edu.au/inet/email/>.
- * Germany at <URL:http://www.cis.fu-berlin.de/~rober/emailfaq.html>.
- * Russia at <URL:http://wgc.chem.pu.ru/mirrors/finding-
- addresses/finding.html>.
- * USA: Texas at <URL:http://www.pimall.com/nais/n.emailfind.html>, North
- Carolina at <URL:http://bbsnews.net/research/emailaddresses.html>
- --
- "Yo' ideas need to be thinked befo' they are say'd" - Ian Lamb, age 3.5
- http://www.cs.queensu.ca/~dalamb/ qucis->cs to reply (it's a long story...)
-