Cream of the Crop 22/Cream of the Crop 22.iso/faq/online28.zip/ONLINE.TXT

Text File | 1996-09-17 | 953KB | 21,146 lines

                 Those registering as readers of this
                       book, will be REWARDED.
                    =>  Details in Appendix 9  <=



                        *********************
                        *  THE ONLINE WORLD *
                        *********************


                      Version 2.8 - August 1996
                   (Version 1.0 released in Aug. 93)
                          ISBN 82-7820-010-6


                          By Odd de Presno
                    4815 Saltrod, Norway (Europe)
              Voice (registrations only): [phone]

                 Internet mail: [e-mail]
                                [e-mail]
                     Data/BBS:      [phone]
                     FAX:           [phone]

     http://login.eunet.no/~presno/bok/                [Norway - source]
     http://www.bhp.com.au/simtel.net/presno/bok/      [Australia]
     http://www.iniaccess.net.au/simtel.net/presno/bok/
     http://www.tas.gov.au/simtel.net/presno/bok/
     http://www.puc-rio.br/parcerias/presno/bok/       [Brazil]
     http://www.direct.ca/simtel.net/presno/bok/       [Canada]
     http://pub.vse.cz/simtel.net/presno/bok/          [Czech Republic]
     http://kamakura.mss.co.jp/guest/presno/bok/       [Japan ]
     http://www.nuri.net/simtel.net/presno/bok/        [Korea]
     http://www.bitcon.no/simtel.net/presno/bok/       [Norway]
     http://www.cyf-kr.edu.pl/simtel.net/presno/bok/   [Poland]
     http://www.sorostm.ro/simtel.net/presno/bok/      [Romania]
     http://www.ege.edu.tr/mirror/presno/bok/          [Turkey]
     http://www.simtel.net/simtel.net/presno/bok/      [U.S.A.]
     http://oak.oakland.edu/simtel.net/presno/bok/



PREFACE
=======
This is the ASCII online version of the Online World handbook.   It
deals with practical aspects of using the rapidly growing global on-line
information resource.

The book is distributed in a form designed to be easily accessible with the
maximum range of computers, printer types, and search programs. In this
way, it is compatible with most electronic reading devices for the blind.
Many frills, such as fancy formatting, extraneous characters or tags, have
been omitted to achieve this.

The main subject of the handbook is what you can get out of the global
online resource.

Expect an outline, not a comprehensive list or directory of all available
offerings. We explore selected applications across network and service
boundaries to show how selected needs may be satisfied. In the process, we
give information about how to reach many interesting offerings.

The applications range from entertainment and the bizarre to databases and
special services for professionals and organizations.

You are not expected to live in the United States or in Norway. Focus is on
international offerings available through major services and networks like
the Internet, BITNET, Usenet, FidoNet, CompuServe, Echo, Dialcom, MCI,
Dow Jones News/Retrieval, NewsNet and UUCP. These services can be
accessed from almost anywhere.

Talking about the Internet, we must still assume that many readers are
unable to get full interactive access at an affordable price, and that they
therefore only have access to these offerings by electronic mail.

I wrote The Online World for anybody interested in knowing more about the
"Global Village" of today, they be parents or youth, teachers, students,
business people, social workers, psychologists, young, or old.

You can read it like a novel to get an idea of what is going on, as a
practical guide book to online databases and news sources, or as a book of
reference. No need to be a computer expert or an experienced "onliner" to
find it useful!

While not a textbook on data communications, it contains information to
help novices get started. For an introduction to telecommunications, read
appendix 2 and 3 before continuing with Chapter 1.

Warning: New online offerings are born every day, while others are closing
down. Most services in this book are probably still around when you read
it, but the text certainly needs to be updated regularly. Therefore, all
feedback is welcomed with thanks!

Please tell me what you like, what you don't, what you think I have missed
-- or have got hopelessly wrong. Send to [e-mail].

This book is not free
---------------------
The book is not public domain. It is copyrighted material, and can only be
distributed in accordance with this license. - You are granted a limited read
and use license of the book to see if it is for you.

If you register as a reader, then we will  reward  you with a free copy of
The Online World  Monitor  newsletter (ISSN: 0805-6315). The newsletter is
published six times per year. See appendix 9 for registration details.

Registration for six updates of the handbook, will give you  six issues of
the newsletter!

While the book describes the online world as it is, this newsletter tracks
changes. It can more  freely focus on selected offerings or phenomena than
can be done within the strict framework of a book. The newsletter  and the
book are companions.

The newsletter contains:       Discoveries that never made it to the book.
Glimpses of what is going on. Trends.  Spotlight on important developments
around the world.

For details, send electronic mail to [e-mail]. Put the
following command in the body of your text: GET TOW.MONITOR .

Sample articles are available both by email, and from this Web-address:

  http://login.eunet.no/~presno/monitor.html

To stay current, register for six updates per year.

Note: We do not receive any payments from vendors of shareware disks.
Purchase of such a disk will not give you any free newsletters.

Please give to others
---------------------
Permission is granted to reproduce and distribute the Online World book if:

 (1)  No remuneration of any kind is received in exchange.
      A distribution fee may be charged for the cost of a
      diskette, shipping and handling, if the total (per
      disk) does not exceed US$8.00.
 (2)  Distribution is without ANY change to the contents of
      all accompanying text files, including the copyright
      notice and this license. All files in this package are to
      be distributed together.
 (3)  No publication of the book or individual articles from the
      book in print is permitted, in any language, without the
      express written consent of the author.

Any other use is prohibited without express, written permission in advance.
This includes bundling of any of the book's chapters or appendixes for your
own distribution,

If archiving this book for use on a BBS or in a library, please include all
files. Use the name ONLINE28, as in ONLINE28.ZIP,  or ONLINE28.LZH. This
will provide consistency for future updates.

Information about where to get the latest version of the book can be
retrieved by email to [e-mail] containing the command:
GET TOW.WHERE

How to read the book
--------------------
You may read the book using any ASCII viewing or text searching program. My
favorites are:

  LIST       -  Shareware MS-DOS file viewing program,

  LOOKFOR    -  Shareware boolean text search program.

Print versions of The Online World
----------------------------------
The Online World handbook is not meant for any specific area of the world.
Local versions are being printed and published in various countries through
local partners. These versions of the book are adapted to local conditions,
and contain many local examples and references.

The following local versions of the book are available:

English/Canada
--------------
"The Online World - How to Profit from the Information Superhighway" by Mike
Weaver and Odd de Presno. For free information brochure and order form,
send your postal address to the publisher: Productive Publications, P.O.Box
7200, Station A, Toronto, Ontario M5W 1X8, Canada. Fax:[phone].
Email: [e-mail]. To contact coauthor by electronic
mail: [e-mail]. Price: C$ 39.95 plus shipping and
handling. ISBN: 0-920847-89-7.

You can also order by email to: [e-mail]

German
------
"ONLINE-world," by Dr. Karl Sarnow and Odd de Presno. 312 pages. ISBN 3-
88229-035-8. Publisher: Verlag Heinz Heise GmbH & Co KB, Helstorfer Strasse
7, D-3000 Hannover 61, Germany. Fax: [phone]. Price: DM 58. Email
to Dr. Karl Sarnow: [e-mail].

Order by email to: [e-mail]

Icelandic
---------
"Netheimar" by Lara Stefansdottir, Lars H.Andersen and Odd de Presno. 280
pages. ISBN 9979-60-112-4  Published December 1995. Orders: Netheimar,
Postholf 181, 300 Akranesi, Iceland (tel. [phone], and fax +354 31
4239). Email addresses: [e-mail], and [e-mail]. On the
World Wide Web: http://www.ismennt.is/n/netheimar/.

Norwegian
---------
"Ut i verden fra egen skjerm," Norwegian text, Datatid A/S, 1992. 220
pages. Phone: [phone].  Fax: [phone]. Price: NOK 245.-.
ISBN: 82-90628-67-6. Order: [e-mail]

Soon available
These local language versions are in the process of being published by
partners in various countries:

Romanian
--------
"Internet - lumea comunicatziilor" by Mihai Jalobeanu and Odd de Presno.
ISBN - 973-97377-7-5. Publisher: ProMedia Plus SRL, Cluj' (prof.Emil
Munteanu), Cluj-Napoca, Aleea Muscel 11, Romania,  tel.[phone].
To contact coauthor: [e-mail]

Danish
------
"ONLINE-Bogen, Vol. 1 & 2" by Claus Berg and Odd de Presno. One MS DOS disk
included in each volume (shareware utilities on #1, the latest version of
the shareware version of the book on #2). ISBN: Vol.1: 87-90129-04-0,
Vol.2: 87-90129-05-9. Publisher: Forlaget PC Boeger, Roskildevej 378, DK-
2630 Taastrup, Denmark. Fax.: [phone]. To contact coauthor:
[e-mail]

English/Australia
-----------------
"The Online World" by John D'Alton and Odd de Presno. Paradox Publishing
P.O. Box 423 Annerley 4103 Brisbane Australia. Tel. [phone]. Fax +61-7-
33931763.  Email: [e-mail].

Finnish
-------
"The Online World: Tiedot valtatiet" by Jarmo Lahti and Odd de Presno.
Publisher: Suomen Atk-kustannus Oy, Espoo, Finland. Fax: [phone]. To
contact coauthor by email: [e-mail]. Through WWW, look up this
URL: http://www.otol.fi/infolinja/infoline.html

Spanish/Spain
-------------
"El mundo en conexion - Introduccion practica a Internet" by Armando Ramos
and Odd de Presno. Clerval-Mundo 3. Boix y Morer 9. E-28003-Madrid, Spain.
Fax: [phone]. Email: [e-mail]

Do you want to become a partner?
--------------------------------
If you are interested in becoming the coauthor of a local language version
of the book for your country, please write me at [e-mail] to
discuss.


Saltrod (Norway), August 31, 1996

      Yours,

  Odd de Presno


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World book's text on paper, disk and in any other electronic
form is (C) copyrighted 1996 by Odd de Presno. All rights reserved.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

INDEX
=====

PREFACE

-----------------------
PART 1: AN ONLINE WORLD
-----------------------
1. Will going online make me rich?
   Knowledge is Power. A larger personal network will give you a stronger
   punch. The value of information, and of having fun . . . .

2. The online world
   The structure and content of the online offerings. About
   Bulletin Board systems, mailing lists, conferencing systems,
   and online databases. About packet data services, and network
   services like FidoNet, i-Com, Infonet, Internet, and others.
   A constantly changing environment.

3. Using online services
   Short introduction. How to use menus, and how to navigate like
   an expert. Tailoring online services to your interests and needs.

--------------------
PART 2: APPLICATIONS
--------------------
4. Hobbies, games, and fun
   About computer programs, online adventure games, threatening viruses,
   planning holidays and travel, collecting coins and stamps, genealogy,
   music, shopping and other leisure activities.

5. Home, education, and work
   Tips for house owners, for those more concerned about money, about
   education and the exchange of knowledge, electronic conferences.
   Building a personal network. Job hunting by modem, and about
   working from home.

6. Your personal healthnet
   About support for diseases like AIDS, cancer, and kidney diseases.
   Forums for people with physical or mental disabilities, like
   hearing impairments, learning disabilities, vision impairment,
   mobility problems.

7. Electronic mail, telex, and fax
   How to communicate globally at a ridiculously low cost, with
   notes about how to address electronic mail.

8. Free expert assistance
   How to get free advice about your computer, software, profession,
   and many other things.

9. Your electronic daily news
   Read national and global news before getting it through the
   traditional media. Get those interesting background facts.
   Read special interest news that the media never bother to print.

10. Looking for a needle in a bottle of hay
    Searching databases. 'Clipping' news. Locating interesting books
    and articles. Monitoring the online offerings, and sources about
    sources.

11. Getting an edge over your competitors
    Using the networks to manage projects. Monitor competitors,
    prospects, suppliers, markets, technologies, and trends in
    Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Central and South America,
    Europe, North America, and xUSSR.
    Marketing and sales by modem.

-----------------------
PART 3: WORKING SMARTER
-----------------------
12. Practical tips
    about how to get more out of your online time.

13. Cheaper and better communications
    Using packet data services or competing data
    transport services like Tymnet Outdial, Infonet,
    Internet, PC Pursuit, and others.

14. Keep what you find.
    Build your local personal database. Strategies for
    locating interesting information. What separates good
    from bad information?

15. You pay little for a lot!
    Figuring out costs.

16. Automatic communication
    Get a lead on your competitors.
    Avoid duplication of effort.
    Reduce costs.
    Reduce boring repetitive work.
    No need to remember the "tricks" of communications anymore.

17. Gazing into the future.
    Thoughts about things to come.

-----------------------------------------------
Appendices:
-----------------------------------------------
A1. List of selected online services
A2. Getting started.
    About your personal computer, modem and
    communications program.
A3. Your first online trip
    Typical pitfalls and simple solutions.
    Down and uploading.
A4. Frequently used terms
A5. Books and articles for further reading
A6. Web and Internet tools & pointers
A7. List of services offering access to Internet
A8. About the author
A9. Registering your copy of this book
-----------------------------------------------



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PART 1: AN ONLINE WORLD

Chapter 1: Will going online make me rich?
=========================================

There are so many sources of information and services out there, and each
of them has to be searched or used separately. Therefore, half the battle
is figuring out where to look.

Information is abundant, even overwhelming. At risk of drowning in that
vast sea, anyone navigating the online world needs to know what is
available, and how to find and use it.

Getting there takes time, but the potential rewards are interesting:

* Knowledge is power.
* The value of critical information is increasing,
* A large personal network gives you a punch.

You will also discover that using the online resource can be quite fun and
entertaining. After all, there is more to life than business and work.

Knowledge is Power
------------------
My wife has a rare and dangerous kidney disease. One day her doctor joined
us on an online research session to look for experiences and advice in
other countries.

We sat down in my office in Norway. I turned on my personal computer and
started a communications program.

After some keystrokes, we could hear the attached modem dial the number of
CompuServe, a North American information utility. (A modem is a piece of
equipment that converts computer signals to and from sound codes, so data
can be sent by phone.)

It took just a few seconds to make the connection. A greeting scrolled over
our screen, followed by a menu of available choices.

    For an introduction to practical telecommunications, check out
    appendix 2 and 3. Appendix 1 lists major services mentioned
    in this book.

We selected "Health," and "Database for Rare diseases" from a new menu.
Here, we found the address of a foundation for "cysts in kidneys," which is
the name of her disease. My wife made contact. Since then, she has received
regular reports of research results and experiences gained in the field.
(The organization is called Polycystic Kidney Research Foundation. You
can reach them at http://www.kumc.edu/pkrf/.)

We sent a request for help to an electronic forum for doctors. This
resulted in several useful pointers. We searched a magazine database for
medical articles containing the word "kidney." Paper copies of the most
interesting finds arrived by mail a few days later. My wife gave them to
her hospital doctor as background reading.

Kenya Saikawa is paralyzed. He communicates with his PC and modem using
light key strokes and Morse code. Online communications allow Kenya to be
in regular contact with people outside the walls of his Tokyo hospital.

We met online in a "Handicap Club" on a computer center called TWICS in
Tokyo. He was there to exchange experiences with others with disabilities.
I called in by modem from Norway. Geographical distance is no problem in
the online world.

CompuServe's Cancer Forum has a similar function. "It's a blessing that I
can visit here 24 hours a day," one visitor said. "When I'm unable to sleep
at night, I often sit down by the PC to read and write messages to others."

The forum works like a family. The file library is full of information
about cancer. Members can go in there and pick up whatever they want to
read.

Dave Hughes from Old Colorado Springs, Colorado in the United States has
had a long career as a professional soldier. He has fought in places like
the Yalue river in Korea and Vietnam's jungle. When he retired, he became a
political online force.

"I'm using the new tools of the individual mind to change the world," he
says. Native American Indians are among those, who have benefited from
Dave's energy and knowledge. He has helped them show their culture to the
outside world in a graphical form.

Vladimir Makarenkov from the Crimea in the Ukraine is manager in a company
called VINKO. In early 1993, he distributed an offer of partnership with
foreign companies through the E-EUROPE mailing list on Internet. VINKO is
into aluminium processing. He wrote:

"From our own production we can offer some one metals and aniline dye for
cotton, viscose, wool, silk, leather. We are interested in deliveries of
chemical production (gamma acid, H-acid) and not quickly deteriorating
foods (food concentrates, canned food etc.)."

George Pavlov is Planning and Reporting manager with an American computer
manufacturer. Daily, he logs on to online services to monitor industry
product announcements and daily news from several electronic sources. It
helps him stay ahead of rapid technological developments.

Chairman Bill Gates of Microsoft says messaging is his most important
application personally. He spends as much as five times more time in
electronic mail as in spreadsheets or word processing, and claims "it's
probably the most mission-critical application for Microsoft in running
the company."

IBM relies on the Internet to give OS/2 users and developers around the
world a way to retrieve documentation, technical interface specifications,
fixes and upgrades.

Semafor A/S in Arendal, Norway, produces modems and telecommunications
equipment. They operate an electronic bulletin board for customers, users
and prospects. Anybody can call in to get information about products and
offerings. If in need of help, they can leave a message to Semafor A/S day
and night. A response will be waiting for them, when they call back.

Eduardo Salom heads Software Plus SA in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He
discovered the online world in 1988, and uses it to find information that
can help his company develop industrial applications.

The Norwegian civil engineer Kai Oestreng regularly calls specialized
online computer clubs to discuss his computational needs, fetch programs
and monitor developments.

Mary Lou Rebelo was born in southern Brazil. Today, she is married to a
Japanese and lives in Tokyo. She teaches Portuguese and works as a
translator. The modem enables her to keep in touch with others around the
world interested in Portuguese and Spanish language and culture.

Sheena Macleod teaches in a primary school in Lusaka, Zambia. She
integrates the online world in her teaching to motivate her students. Her
classes are involved in international projects with schools all over the
globe.

In August 1991, the "Old Stalinists" made a coup d'etat in the Soviet
Union. The news media were silenced, but they forgot the  country's many
bulletin boards. Early one morning, a foreign caller picked up the
following messages from a Moscow BBS:


  From:    Valery Koulkov
  To:      All                                    Msg #560, 00:42am
  20-Aug-91
  Subject: Moscow, August 19, 23:00

  Some news from the square news RSFSR white building, 23:00. Local
  inhabitants are very welcome for the people guarding 'white
  building', they carry food and some garments to the square.
  Approx. 8 tanks stand by the house under the RSFSR flags! There is
  an information that 'white house' is surrounded by the soldiers
  from Vysshee Desantnoye uchilische from Ryazan. The people are not
  so desperate than some hours ago. There are more and more people.


  From:    Stas Stas
  To:      Alexey Zabrodin                        Msg #562, 02:53pm
  20-Aug-91
  Subject: Russia In Agency news

  I have sent two files RIA4.txt & ria5.txt
  It's msgs of Russia Information Agency
  Spread it as much as you can!!!


  From:    Andrew Brown
  To:      All                                    Msg #563, 06:31pm
  20-Aug-91
  Subject: What's happening?

  I am a journalist on the London Daily newspaper *The Independent*,
  and I am trying to discover whether this technology, like fax
  machines, is being used for independent communication now that the
  censors have clamped down on everything else.

  Can people describe what is happening, and what they see?
  Something similar was done on Compuserve during the Gulf War, by
  subscribers who where in Israel and were able to describe Scud
  missile attacks without censorship.

  Andrew Brown


  Select: 564
  From:    Valery Koulkov
  To:      All                                    Msg #564, 00:52am
  21-Aug-91
  Subject: Moscow events

  There is shooting near the American embassy and RSFSR state
  building. Informer said (by phone) that he saw several victims
  shot and killed under the tanks. there is fire near the RSFSR
  building. Moscow, August 21, 1:15 am

Telecommunications played a role in this historic event. While CNN
televised the coup, it was not the images, but the words of men like
Yeltsin that held sway for Russian citizens.

Within hours of Yeltsin's statement in defiance of the coup leaders,
handbills reproducing his statement papered the walls of the Moscow metro
and Leningrad houses.

Another one: On Friday, Feb. 26 1993 at 12:18 p.m., a bomb exploded in the
World Trade Center in New York City, U.S.A. Four minutes later, the Dow
Jones News Service flashed this headline: "NYC Fire Dept. Says Fire At 3
World Trade Center."

Then there is this Norwegian friend of mine, Svein-Erik Dahl, photographer
by profession. His passion in life is playing bridge. Each night, he logs
on to BPLive (http://www.bridgeplayer.com/~bridge/bplive.html). Here, he
fights other enthusiasts of the green table until the early morning.

You can!
--------
Online communication is not just for the privileged or those with a special
interest in computers. It is for you, me, everybody.

There is much to learn in the "online land," and the medium is fascinating.
It makes learning fun. You can learn about your hobbies, your profession,
life in other countries, languages, other people's views about whatever,
and more. Often, you will find reports about experiences and know-how that
it is hard or impractical to get in other ways.

Some go online to learn how to do things better. Teachers want to give
their students a better and more motivating learning environment.
Architects, engineers and companies want increased competitiveness and
sales. They seek timely information about competitors, technologies and
tools, partners and trends.

You can take a Masters Degree in Business Administration while sitting in
front of your computer at home. You can join online seminars arranged by
local or foreign educational institutes. You can even study at night, when
the rest of your family has calmed down.

Some build their own educational programs supported by databases, online
forums and associations of various kinds.

You may feel helpless in hospital, or when visiting your doctor. Knowledge
about your disease will make you better equipped to handle the situation.

The online resource is just keystrokes away, and knowledge is power.

To get this power, you must know what you can get from the online world.
This book is filled with examples of what are available, and practical tips
about how to use the many offerings.

A large personal network gives strength
---------------------------------------
Most of us belong to one or several networks. They consist of persons that
we can call on when we need help. Your network may be private, like your
family. You may be member of associations, or part of a group of people
with common interests within a company or organization.

The modem allows you to be part of more personal networks than you can
possibly cope with in the "real world." Besides, it's easier to develop
personal networks in the online world.

We have used words like "clubs" and "associations." By this we mean groups
of people interested in helping You and in participating in what You happen
to be interested in. That is what networking is all about.

Today's communications technology lets us participate in networks in other
countries at a very low cost. Many describe it as participation "beyond
time and space."

Write a message and send it to a person in your network. It arrives in
his/her "mailbox" within minutes (sometimes seconds) and stays there until
the recipient wants to read it.

This built-in ability to send messages to other people's electronic
mailboxes reduces the power that time and geographical distances have over
our lives.

A friend in a remote country gets out of bed nine hours after you, but keeps
going well into what, for you, is the next morning. No problem. You can
send letters when you are awake and receive replies when you are asleep.

You can pick up and read your friend's messages the next day or when you
feel like doing it. That is how two people as far apart as Arendal, Norway
and Auckland, New Zealand could be involved in the development of this book.

Sometimes "real time" discussions are important. Consider the following
example. CompuServe has a Diabetes Forum. You can call there any time, day
or night, seven days a week. Whenever you feel like it. You will always
find someone to chat with who understands and shares your problems.

Hours of real-time chatting may be expensive, but you are free to decide
your level of involvement. If you think that $10 spent on a chat session is
enough, then just stop there.

What is the point?
-----------------
Thousands of commercial online services offer over 7,000 online databases
(source: Frost & Sullivan, 1994). These infobases are repositories of
electronic information. They contain full-text and reference books,
magazines, newspapers, radio and TV shows, reports, and more.

Add to this all millions of free databases available through Internet's
World Wide Web. You will find information about almost anything in the
online world.

The world also has over 100,000 public bulletin board systems. Most are
small information centers, running on personal computers using a simple
computer program and modems. People call in to read messages and
information, retrieve free software, or just to have a good time.

Most BBSes are free. Some charge a small annual fee. The largest board has
over 300 telephone lines, fifty gigabytes of storage for conferences,
letters, computer programs, and more (1995).

Mind you, 50 gigabytes is a lot. It is equivalent to over 50,000,000,000
characters, or a whopping 58,000 copies of this book!

The entrepreneur sees the online world as a new, profitable playground.
Many have made it their profession to search for information for others,
and they earn a good living doing so.

Others advertise and sell products and services by modem. Some set up their
own services to sell knowledge and know-how, be it of aqua culture, wine
production, marketing, or about the petroleum offshore market.

In business, it pays to be one step ahead of the competition. Early warnings
of customers' needs, competitors' moves, and emerging opportunities can be
turned into fortunes. This can reduce potential losses and help develop
businesses in more profitable directions.

Turn this to your advantage. Build your own early warning system that
monitors online information sources and networks.

Have fun
--------
The online world has an abundance of joke clubs, dramatic adventure games
with multiple players, and large archives filled with computer game
software. You can transfer these programs to your personal computer and be
ready to play in minutes.

Others may feel more entertained when things get "interesting." Surely,
those calling Moscow in August 1991 for news about the coup must have had a
strange sensation in the stomach.

Some online users react quickly when dramatic events occur. They go online
to read news directly from the wires, from Associated Press, TASS, Reuters,
Xinhua Press, Kyodo News and others.

Usually, online news comes directly to you from the journalists' keyboards.
Often, you heard it here first.

Others prefer to socialize. They meet in online "meeting places" to debate
everything from Africa and the administration of kindergartens to poetry,
LISP programming, and compressed video for multimedia applications.

Some claim that increased use of online networking in a country can effect
social changes within politics, economics, communication and science. It
can support democratic tendencies, the transition to a market economy, the
formation and support of businesses, the spreading of interpersonal and
mass communication, the forging of invisible colleges among scientists, and
breaking-up of traditional and closed information systems developed in some
societies.

The Star-Ledger (USA, 1/13/94 p. 41) wrote that with communications playing
a greater role in economic development, experts are warning of the creation
of a new technological underclass. They think that communities deprived of
computers and telecommunications will end in poverty.

No matter whether your application is useful or just a pastime, online
services queue up to help give your life a better content.

Some people fear that language might be a problem, and in particular if
English is not their first language. Don't worry. There are many other
languages used in the online world. Besides, you are in the driver's seat.
If something is hard to understand, just log off to study the difficult
text. Take your time. Nobody is watching. Remember Albert Einstein's words:

    "A person who never made a mistake, never tried anything new."

Will your being member of the online world make you rich? Probably not. On
the other hand, it provides the means to help you achieve such a goal, no
matter how you define the word "rich."

Go for it!



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2: The online world
===========================

This chapter is about the structure and contents of the online world. You
will read about Bulletin Board systems, discussion lists, conferencing
systems, online databases, packet data services, and network services like
FidoNet, i-Com, Infonet, and the Internet.

From papyrus to bits and bytes
------------------------------
Around 1500 B.C., the world's first library was set up in Tell el Amaran,
Egypt. Eight hundred years later, the first public library opened in
Athens, Greece.

It took another two thousand years for the first full-scale stored-program
computer to be invented (The EDSAC. Wilkes, Cambridge, England. 1949), and
for people to express ideas like what Nikola Tesla said in an interview
with Collier's, January 30, 1926:

    It is more than probable that the household's daily newspaper
    will be printed 'wirelessly' in the home during the night.

Tesla was a famous Serbian electrical engineer and inventor, who devised
among other things the alternating-current systems that underlie the modern
electrical power industry. He also did notable research on high-voltage
electricity and invented wireless communication.

Incredibly enough, hypertext (used in World Wide Web documents) was
proposed as early as 1945 (by Vannevar Bush).

In 1954, the first online search service was launched by the Naval
Ordinance Test Station, in Michigan, U.S.A. Six years later, MEDLARS, a
full-text bibliographic database containing references to medical
literature was launched.

From now on, things started to roll faster:

    1969: ARPANET (U.S.A.), the predecessor to the Internet, starts
          research into computer networking.

    1972: Dialog (U.S.A.) opens their Educational Resources Information
          Center and National Technical Information Service databases for
          online searching. (Appendix 1 contains information about the
          major online services referred to in this book.)

    1974: Dow Jones News/Retrieval (U.S.A.) launches a financial
          information service for stock brokers. The design of a
          Transmission Control Program, TCP as in TCP/IP, is specified
          (U.S.A.). Usenet is set up (U.S.A.).

    1978: The first bulletin board opens in Chicago (U.S.A.)

    1979: CompuServe (U.S.A.) launches a service for home users.
          USENET set up.

    1981: Minitel (France) and BITNET (U.S.A.).

    1982: The Internet is born as TCP/IP is adapted by ARPANET (U.S.A.).

    1983: FidoNet (U.S.A.)

    1991: The World Wide Web is born (Switzerland).

    1993: The number of countries reachable by electronic mail through
          the Internet reaches 137. The World Wide Web explodes (annual
          growth rate at 341,634%)!

    1994: Japanese prime minister comes online.

    1995: The Vatican opens at http://www.vatican.va.

Thus, the online world was born in the United States. Little happened in
the rest of the world until the late 1980s. American companies and users
may still appear to be dominating, but they are no longer alone.

We can now use millions of public databases. They are available online
systems ("host computers") all over the world.

With so many online services, and a large variety of access methods, it is
difficult to find our way through the maze of offerings. Telecommunications
has therefore often been presented as one of the more difficult things to
learn to do on a computer.

The good news is that it was never all that terribly difficult and its
getting easier all the time.

It may help to have a picture in your mind of the various parts of this
"online world" before we embark on the applications.  The book therefore
starts with an analogy. Think of it as a "map" of the online world.

The structure and contents of the online world
----------------------------------------------
The online world can be visualized as a cake with multiple layers. The
information sources are the bottom layer, and you, the user, the marzipan
figure on the top. The online world contains the following tiers:

   (1) Database producers and information providers
   (2) Online service companies
   (3) Gateways and networks
   (4) The service offerings
   (5) The user interface
   (6) The data transport services
   (7) The User.

If you are a novice, it may seem complex so far but none of the levels are
difficult. It often helps to visualize what level you are dealing with at
any given time.  Let us consider them in more detail.

1. Database producers and information providers.
------------------------------------------------
I have a bulletin board system in Norway (at [phone]). It runs on a
small personal computer, and offers shareware and public domain software.

Anybody can call this BBS and have programs transferred to their personal
computers by modem (see appendix 2 for how to do this).

When you call it to "download" (retrieve) a free program, do not expect to
find one made by me. I do not write programs. All available programs have
been written by others.

When you call KR Data-Star in Switzerland, or connect to NewsPage in
the U.S. to read news, you may find some stories written by these
companies. Most of their news, however, has been written by others.

The Associated Press, an American news agency, let online services like
KR Dialog, CompuServe, Nexis and NewsNet 'resell' their news to their
users.

My BBS (the "Saltrod Horror Show"), KR Data-Star, KR Dialog, CompuServe,
Nexis, and NewsNet are online services. We call those who have provided the
news and information on these services for information providers or
database producers.

The information providers sell the right to distribute news. What you pay
to an online service to read news may be imbedded in its standard access
rates. Some services will ask you to pay a surcharge when reading news.

CompuServe subscribers pay a monthly membership fee for unlimited use of
a variety of services like The Associate Press Online News (Hourly News
Summaries, Sports, Entertainment, Business, News, This Day In History), UK
News Clips, and Deutsche Presse-Agentur Kurznachrichtendienst.

CompuServe pays Associated Press part of what they earn whenever you read
their news. There is no surcharge for reading AP news on this service.
Some services, like NewsNet, charge per article found and viewed.

Information providers may have subcontractors. Ziff-Davis' Computer
Database Plus, a database with full-text articles from magazines like
Datamation and Wall Street Computer Review, depends on them.

Datamation pays journalists to write the articles. Ziff-Davis pays
Datamation for the right to distribute the articles to CompuServe's
subscribers. CompuServe pays Ziff-Davis part of what you pay when reading
the text.

Some information providers also distribute information through grassroots
bulletin boards. The Newsbytes News Network, Boardwatch Magazine, and the
USA Today newsletter services (http://www.usatoday.com) are two examples.

Rates for reading the same article may differ considerably depending on what
online service you are using. If you are a regular reader, shop around for the
best price.

2. Online services
------------------
The term "online services" refers to the services that are provided by
computer systems, large or small, to owners of personal computers with
modems.

The services may include access to electronic mail, online shopping malls,
discussion forums, hardware and software vendor support, access to
libraries of programs and data, games and entertainment, financial data,
stock market quotes, research capabilities, or simply access to other
service providers as with many Internet hosts.

You do not always need a phone and modem to "log on." Some services can
be accessed through leased phone lines, amateur radio, or other methods.

Appendix 1 contains a list of major services mentioned in this book, with
addresses, phone numbers, and a short description.

CompuServe (U.S.A.), TWICS (Japan), and Orbit (England) are commercial.
They charge you for using their services.

Some online services are priced like magazines and newspapers with a flat
subscription rate for basic services. You can use this part of a service as
much as you like within a given period. CompuServe, GEnie, America Online,
BIX, Delphi, and many for-pay BBSes offer such pricing options.

Other online services charge for 'connect time'. They have a rate per hour
or minute.

MCI Mail uses "no cure, no pay." You only pay to send or read mail. To
check for unread letters in your mailbox is free.

There are all kinds of creative pricing schemes. Some have different rates
for access during the day, night and weekends. Others charge users living
far away less, while others again charge the remote user more than ordinary
subscribers.

Still, most online services are free. This is particularly true for the
over hundred thousand bulletin board systems of the world. The owners of
these services often regard them as a hobby, a public service, a necessary
marketing expense, or do it for other reasons.

The cost of setting up and operating a BBS is low. The BBS systems are as
varied as the people who run them. Each BBS has its own character.

My BBS is also free. I consider it an online appendix to this book and the
articles I write.

Some large, international service providers on the Internet, BITNET, and
UUCP are free. They address research and educational institutions and are
partly financed by public funds.

Some users fear that using online services will increase their telephone
costs dramatically, and especially when using services in other countries.
This is often unjustified. Read in chapter 13 and 15 about how to keep your
communications costs down.

3. Gateways and networks
------------------------
CompuServe users select the Computer Database Plus from a menu. This
prompts CompuServe to dial another service provider and lets you use this,
as if you were still using CompuServe. You hardly notice the difference.
You are using Computer Database Plus through a gateway.

When you search the IQuest databases, you will get a similar welcome
message:

      One moment please...

      Connected to 19EASYN

            Welcome to IQuest

      (c) 1991 Telebase Systems, Inc.
         U.S. Patent No. 4,774,655

Through another gateway, CompuServe connects you to the online service
Telebase Systems, Inc. Telebase lets you go through other gateways to
search in databases located on services like BRS, MEDLINE and NewsNet.

While searching, you may get progress reports like these:

            Dialing BRS
            Connect BRS
            Scanning .... Please wait
            Dialing Medline
            Connect Medline
            Scanning .... Please wait

All the time, your modem is connected to CompuServe. You are mentally using
CompuServe and not other online services. Technically, you are going
through various gateways to reach the information libraries. You pay
CompuServe for the privilege. They, in turn, pay a fee to the others.

You can read The New York Times on Down Jones News/Retrieval through
gateways from MCI Mail and GEnie. (You can also get to it at
http://www.nytimes.com.)

Accessing information through a gateway is often simpler than logging on to
several online systems. Calling several systems often costs more, and takes
more time.

Users of BBSes connected to RelayNet or FidoNet can join in global
discussions. Participants in other countries also call their favorite local
systems. To the individual user, it looks as if they all use the same
bulletin board system.

The networks that tie these boards together regularly send new discussion
items to the other participating boards. Write "This is not correct!" in a
distributed conference on a Norwegian FidoNet BBS, and others may soon read
your line on San Bernardino BBS in Colton (California), Wonderland Board in
Macau or the HighTech BBS in Sidney (Australia).

KIDLINK is a global project for children between 10 - 15 years of age. It
allows kids to discuss through a system of electronic mail.

Part of the dialog takes place by the children sending email to a recipient
called KIDCAFE-TOPICS. A message to 'the cafe' goes through the
international networks to a host computer in North Dakota (U.S.A.). There,
a computer program called LISTSERV distributes copies of the message to
names on an electronic address list. (Conferences controlled by a LISTSERV
are called 'discussion lists' or 'mailing lists'.)

SciLink in Toronto is one recipient. Messages forwarded from North Dakota
are made available for users there as entries in a 'local' conference
called KIDCAFE-TOPICS. A user in Toronto can read a message, as if it had
been entered locally. If she wants to reply, her answer is sent back to the
LISTSERV for redistribution to the world.

Western Michigan University (U.S.A.) is also a recipient. Here, another
LISTSERV program is in charge of forwarding the mail to yet another list of
(local) addresses. We call it a 'mail exploder'.

This mailing exploder has been set up by local administrators to reduce
costs as the individual user does not have to receive his own copies of
messages all the way from North Dakota. One Michigan recipient may be a
local area network that further spreads the messages.

This is how the online world got started. Two systems were interconnected
for exchange of electronic mail. Then, another system was added, and
another, until it developed into a large network of computer systems.

Some network systems are connected by leased telephone lines. Other
networks, like FidoNet, depend mainly on dial-up using regular voice-grade
telephone service. Each BBS dial regularly to other computers in the
network to send or receive mail and files. They may do it once per day,
twice per day, or whatever.

Then someone got the idea of interconnecting networks. FidoNet was
connected to the UUCP network, which was connected to the Internet, which
in turn was connected to the Bergen By Byte BBS in Norway, CompuServe,
SciLink, MCI Mail, and various local area networks for exchange of email
and other offerings.

Today, the online world is a global web of networks. The world is 'cabled'.
You, I, and all the other modem users stand to benefit enormously.

4. The services
---------------
The most popular online services are electronic mail, chat, file transfers,
conferences and discussion forums, news, reading of online journals and
grassroots publications, database searching, and entertainment.

The online world has many niches, things that people are interested in and
have fun doing.

Electronic mail
---------------
is not just like paper mail. Email is faster, easier to edit and use in
other applications.

Your mail may be private, or public. It can be 'broadcasted' to many by a
mailing list. The principle is the same on all systems.

Typically, an email message is sent to your mailbox in the following form:

    To:  Odd de Presno
    Subject: Happy Birthday
    Text: I wish you well on your birthday. -Ole

The sending mail system automatically adds your name (that is, the
sender's return email address), the creation date, and forwards it to the
recipient. If the recipient's mailbox is on another system, the message is
routed through one or several networks to reach its destination.

When the message gets to the receiver's mail system, it is stored in her
"mailbox" until she logs on and chooses to read it. Besides reading the
message, she can print it, save it to a disk, forward it to someone else,
or send a reply.

Depending on the mail system, if the reply option is chosen, the address is
automatically supplied from the original mail piece and you have the option
of including all or parts of the original message.

Several email services offer forwarding to fax, telex or ordinary postal
service delivery. Some offer forwarding to paging services. With these,
when new mail arrives in your mailbox, a message with text like 'MAIL from
[e-mail]' will be displayed on your beeper's small screen.

By the turn of the century, it probably will be difficult to tell the
difference between fax messages and email. The services will automatically
convert incoming faxes to computer-readable text and pictures, so you can
use them in word processing and other computer applications.

Automatic language translation is another trend. You will soon be able to
send a message in English, and have it automatically translated into
Spanish for Spanish-reading recipients, or into other languages. Conference
systems with automatic translation are already being used in Japan (English
to/from Japanese).

One day we may also have a global email address directory where you can
ask, "What is the address of Nobuo Hasumi in Japan?" and have it supplied.
This will be nice since email addresses are more volatile than normal (snail
mail) addresses.  Since they now reside on many different networks and
systems and the sharing of email between systems is still fairly young,
this has yet to be set up.

'Chat'
------
Email has one important disadvantage. It may take time for it to be picked
up and read by the recipient. The alternative is real-time conferencing, a
form of direct keyboard-to-keyboard dialog between users. We call it
'chat'.

Most large systems let you chat with many users simultaneously. Even small
bulletin boards usually have a chat feature.

Chat is set up in several ways. On some systems, you see each character on
the screen as it is entered by your dialog partners. Other systems send
entries line by line, that is, whenever you press ENTER or RETURN. Here it
may be difficult to know whether the other person is waiting for you to
type, or if he is actively entering new words.

You will find regular chat conferences in CompuServe's forums. Often, they
invite a person to give a keynote speech before opening 'the floor' for
questions and answers. Many a famous person has been featured in such
'meetings'.

In May 1991, KIDLINK arranged a full-day chat between kids from all over
the world. Line, a 12-year old Norwegian girl, started the day talking with
Japanese kids at the Nishimachi and Kanto International School in Tokyo.
When her computer was switched off late that night, she was having an
intense exchange with children in North America.

The chats took place on various online services and networks, including
Internet Relay Chat (IRC), BITNET's Relay Chat, Cleveland Free-Net
(U.S.A.), TWICS in Tokyo, the global network Tymnet, and the Education
Forum on CompuServe.

The discussions had no moderator. This made the meetings chaotic at times.
The kids enjoyed it, though! One-line messages shot back and forth over the
continents conveying intense simultaneous conversations, occasionally
disrupted by exclamations and requests for technical help.

Speed is a problem when chatting. It takes a lot of time as most users are
slow typists.

If an individual message spans more than one line, there is always a risk
that it will be split up by lines coming from others. It takes practice to
understand what goes on.

Users of SciLink (Canada) use a method they call 'semi-sync chat'. The
trick is to use ordinary batch-mode conferences for chatting. Instead of
calling up, reading and sending mail and then log out, they stay online
waiting for new messages to arrive.

This approach allows the entry of multiple-line messages without the risk
of them being broken up by other messages. The flow of the discussion is
often better, and each person's entries easier to understand.

File transfers
--------------
The offerings of free software on bulletin boards brought the online world
out of the closet. Today, you can also retrieve books and articles,
technical reports, graphics pictures, files of digitized music, weather
reports, and much more.

Millions of files are transferred to and from the online services each day.
File transfers typically represent over 75 percent of the bulletin boards'
utilization time. Downloading free or inexpensive software is still the
most popular service.

In February 1994, users downloaded 105 megabytes' worth of public domain
and shareware programs from of my BBS (which has only one phone line).
Add to this the megabytes being downloaded from hundreds of thousands of
other bulletin boards. The number is staggering.

    If you want to download software, check out appendix 3 for
    additional information.

Downloading is simple. Just dial an online service, order transfer of a
given file, select a file transfer protocol (like XMODEM), and the file
comes to you through the phone line.

Services on the Internet offer file transfer through gateways using a
command called FTP (File Transfer Protocol). It works like this:

    The easy way is to use an Internet browser like Netscape. To
    retrieve a file called ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/some.zip,
    just click on File, Open location, and enter the file's address
    (given in the strange code above).

    The manual method is called anonymous FTP. Say your Internet access
    provider is an Ultrix system that you access by dial-up modem. You
    dial up to download free programs from a large archive in the United
    States.
        After having connected to the Ultrix system, you enter
    'ftp ftp.simtel.net' to connect to a computer in the United States.
        A few seconds later, the remote host asks for your logon
    id. You enter 'anonymous', and supply your email address as
    the password. This gives you access.
        You use the cd command (change directory) to navigate to
    the desired library catalog on the remote hard disk. You locate
    the desired file, and use a GET command to transfer the file
    to your personal file area on your local Ultrix system.
        When done, you logout from the remote computer and are
    returned to the Ultrix service. Finally, you transfer the file
   from the Ultrix to your personal computer using traditional
    methods (like XMODEM).

This file transfer involves the use of 8-bit binary code.

Note that some mail systems only use a 7-bit binary code, and that being
able to send Internet mail is no guarantee for access to the ftp command.
If ftp is unavailable, check if you can have files sent by email using a
technique called UUENCODEing. Here, the file is converted before transfer
into a format that can be sent as ordinary mail (into a seven bits, even
character code).

When the file arrives in your mailbox, you 'read' it as an ordinary message
and store the codes in a work file on your disk. Finally, you decode the
file using a special utility program (often called UUDECODE). Read more
about this in Chapter 12.

Conferences and discussions
---------------------------
Online conferences have many things in common with traditional face-to-face
conferences and discussions. The main difference is that the participants
do not physically meet in the same room. They 'arrive' by modem and discuss
using electronic messages.

There are conferences about nearly every conceivable topic, from How to
start your own company, Brainstorming, Architectural design, Investments,
The Future of Education, to AIDS, The Baltic States, Psychology, and
Cartoons.

Instead of calling these discussions "online conferences," some services
use terms like echos, discussion or mailing lists, clubs, newsgroups, round
tables, SIGs (Special Interest Groups), and forums. They use other terms in
an attempt to make their offerings more attractive and exclusive.

Others refer to "conferences" by using the name of the software used to
administer the discussions, like LISTSERV, PortaCom, News, Usenet, Caucus,
or PARTIcipate.

Note that we're still talking email. However, while private mail is usually
read by one recipient only, 'conference mail' may be read by thousands of
people from the whole world.

All of them can talk and discuss SIMULTANEOUSLY. It is almost impossible
for one individual to dominate. The number of active participants can
therefore be far larger than in 'face-to-face' conferences.

The conferencing software automatically records all that is said. Every
character. Each participant can decide what to read and when. He may even
use the messages in other applications later. Opinions and information can
easily be selected and pasted into reports or new responses.

Some conferences are public and open for anybody. Others are for a closed
group (of registered) participants.

Conferences are normally structured by topic and influenced by the
participants' behavior. If the topic is limited, like in "The football
match between Mexico and Uruguay," it may start with an introduction
followed by comments, questions, and answers like pearls on a thread. After
some time, the conference is 'finished'. Other conferences go on for ever.

    The content and the quality of the discussion are what separates
    one online conference from others.

How a conference develops, depends in part on the features of the software
used by the online service. However, this is much less important than the
kind of people you meet there and their willingness to contribute. Still,
let's take look at some differences in features.

Messages in the PC Hardware Forum on CompuServe are divided into 11
sections. Section 2 is called Printers' utilities. If you have problems
with an old Epson FX-80 printer, send requests for help to "All" (=to
everybody) and store it in this section.

CompuServe's subscribers call in from all over the place to join the forum.
Some are there to show off competence (read: to sell their expertise).
Others visit to find solutions to a problem, or simply to mingle or learn.

    A conference with many users increases your chances of meeting others
    who are compatible and have relevant skills. As always, the quality of
    the people is the first requirement of a good conference.

On CompuServe, professional 'Sysops' (system operators) moderate the
discussion. They get up to 15 percent of what you pay CompuServe for using
their forums. To them, being a sysop is a profession. They spend
considerable time trying to make the forum a lively and interesting place.

The Printers/utilities section is not just about Epson FX-80. Its members
have hundreds of different printers, each with their own set of user
problems. Let's use this to explain differences between some conferencing
systems.

Each message in CompuServe's forums contains the sender's name (his local
email address), subject, date, and the text itself. We call this the
'bulletin board model'. Messages posted on Usenet, Internet and BITNET
mailing lists, and most bulletin boards have a similar structure.

On CompuServe, systems, a message typically looks like this:

   #: 24988 S10/Portable Desktops
       22-Jul-91  10:05:38
   Sb: #T5200 425meg HDD
   Fm: Gordon Norman 72356,370
   To: Menno Aartsen 72611,2066 (X)

   Menno-

   Can you share the HD specs on that 425'er...random access time,
   transfer rate, MTBF, etc.?

   Gordon

The problem with this message is that it may not be of interest to you.
Each day, thousands of messages OUTSIDE your areas of interest are being
posted. You do NOT want to read all these messages.

The good news is that most services that use the bulletin board model
allow selective reading of messages. You can select all messages containing
a given word or text string in the subject title ('Sb:' above). You can
read threads of messages from a given message number (replies, and replies
to replies). You can read all messages to/from a given person, from a given
message number, and from a given date. There are many options.

The PARTIcipate conferencing software functions diametrically opposite to
CompuServe's forum software with its bulletin board style. PARTI is used on
TWICS (Japan), and several systems in the United States.

PARTI lets the user log on using an alias. For example, she can use the
identity 'BATMAN'. You may never get to know the true name of the other
person. On the other hand, this allows people to talk about controversial
topics, with which they may not want to have their names associated.

Anyone can start a conference. The conference can be public, private or a
combination. Combination conferences allow public review of the messages in
the conference, but restrict the number of people who can contribute to the
discussion.

To start a new conference, simply enter 'write'. PARTI will prompt you with
"Enter the text of your note, then type .send or .open to transmit." You
can enter the welcome text for your new conference, like I did in this
example:

    "This conference is based on a series of articles about
    shareware and public domain programs for MSDOS computers, which
    I wrote for publication in England.
    Since the editor cheated me and they never reached the printing
    press, I've decided to make them available online instead of
    letting them rot on my hard disk. Join to read, discuss or
    (hopefully) enjoy! "

The conference was presented to the other users of TWICS like this:

    "MSDOS TIPS" by ODD DE PRESNO, Feb. 23, 1990 at 11:57 about
    GOOD PD AND SHAREWARE PROGRAMS (7 notes)

Few systems of the bulletin board model let users start new conferences at
will. New topics must be stored in a given structure. The administrators
(sysops) of the services manage the evolution of the 'conference room'.
Periodically, old messages may be deleted to make room for new.

On PARTI, all participants read all notes. Selective reading must be done
in other ways (by searching conference contents).

These two conferencing models seem to attract different types of
discussions. PARTI has given birth to more discussions on topics like these
(from PARTI on The Point, January 1992):

  "HELLO BEEP" by THE SHADOW on Sept. 17, 1991 at 19:20, about
  BEEP'S ADVENTURES IN JAPAN, AND THE LIKE (840 characters and 22
  notes).

  "MEMORIES" by LOU on Dec. 21, 1991 at 12:31, about .......I
  REMEMBER WHEN...... (423 characters and 1 notes).

  "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOTO" by PONDER on Jan. 2, 1992 at 14:34, about
  AND I BET HE THOUGHT I FORGOT. (86 characters and 15 notes).

  "PUERTO RICO" by PACKER on Jan. 18, 1992 at 20:47, about PARA
  DISCUTIR ASUNTOS PUERTORIQUENA (166 characters and 9 notes).

Systems using the bulletin board model rarely have conferences like
"MEMORIES." In PARTI, one-note conferences are allowed to stay. In the
bulletin board environment, they soon disappear.

In larger PARTI conferences, the notes can be read like a book. Often, side
discussions appear like 'branches' on a 'tree'. Join and read them, if you
want to, or just pass.

The bulletin board model systems and PARTIcipate are at two extremes of the
spectrum of conference systems. Toward the BBS model, there are systems
like Usenet, FidoNet Echo, RBBS-PC, and PortaCom. Toward the PARTI side,
there are systems like Caucus.

On Norwegian bulletin boards the primary language is Norwegian. In France,
expect French. Local systems usually depend on messages in the local
language.

Services catering to a larger geographical area may have a different
policy. English used to be the most common language for international
discussions online. Spanish possibly number two. This is changing as
connectivity opportunities flourish in the non-English speaking parts of
the world. (See http://babel.alis.com:8080/ for more on languages.)

The global web of connections between computers enables us to discuss with
people living in other parts of the world, as if they were living next
door.

Things Take Time!
-----------------
How long does it take a message to get from Hyougo in Japan to Saltrod in
Norway? To Dominique Christian in Paris?

Sometimes, mail travels from mailbox service to mailbox service in seconds.
This is usually the case with messages from my mailbox in Norway to Dan
Wheeler in Ohio (U.S.A.) and Mike Burleigh in London.

Messages that must go through many gateways may take more time. How long it
takes, depends on the degree of automation in the mail systems involved,
and how these systems have been connected to the global matrix of networks.

Speed is high if the computers are interconnected with fixed, high-capacity
lines. This is not so for mail from Oslo to Dominique in Paris. Although
the distance is not great, mail is routed through a system in London and is
forwarded only once a day through a dial-up connection. It usually takes at
least one day to reach the destination.

News
----
Most large news agencies have online counterparts. You can often read their
news online before it appears in print. This is the case with news from
sources like NTB, Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Kyodo News Report
(Japan), Reuters, Xinhua English Language News Service (China) and TASS.
Some news is only made available in electronic form.

News may be read in several ways, depending on what online service you use:

[1] From a list of headlines. Enter a story's number to receive its full
text. The news may be divided into groups, like Sports, International news,
Business, and Entertainment.

[2] Some services let you hook directly into a news agency's 'feed line'
to get news as it is being made available. At 11.02, 11.04, 11.15, etc.

[3] News may be 'clipped' and stored in your mailbox twenty-four hours a
day, seven days a week. Clipping services search articles for occurrences
of your personal keyword phrases while you are offline. In this way, you can
watch new products, companies, people, events, and countries, even when you
are not online.

NewsFlash is NewsNet's electronic clipping service, a powerful resource
that lets you monitor NewsNet's newsletters for topics of interest.

The Executive News Service on CompuServe let you search for words in story
headlines, or in the first three lines of text. ENS searches through 8,000
stories/day from the Washington Post, ITAR/TASS, Associated Press, Xinhua
News Agency, United Press International, Reuters Financial News Wire, and
others.

Newspapers used to receive news through the wires before the online user.
This built-in delay has now been removed on many services. Industry and
professional news is usually available online long before it appears in
print or even on television.

Databases
---------
Some years ago, most databases were bibliographic. They just contained
references to articles, books and other written or electronic sources of
information. The typical search result looked like this:

  0019201     02-88-68
    TRIMETHOPRIM-SULFAMETHOXAZOLE  in  CYST  Fluid  from  Autosomal
    Dominant POLYCYSTIC KIDNEYS.
    Elzinga L.W.; et al. W.M.  Bennett, Dept. of Med., Oregon Hlth.
    Sci. Univ., 3101 Southwest Sam Jackson Park Rd., Portland,
    OR 97201.

  Kid. Int.   32:  884-888.  Dec.  1987

  Subfile:  Internal  Medicine;  Family Practice;  Nephrology;
  Infectious Disease; Clinical Pharmacology; Highlights of General
  Medicine

You had to take the reference to a library to read a printed copy of the
article. Some services did let you to order a copy while online, to be sent
you by mail from a copying service.

Full-text searching is now the rule. When you find an article of interest,
you can have the full text displayed on your screen at once (often without
accompanying pictures and tables, though). The search commands have also
become simpler and more powerful.

Just for fun
------------
Many online services focus on your leisure time. They offer reviews and
news about movies, video, music, and sport. There are forums for stamp and
coin collectors, travel maniacs, passionate cooks, wine tasters, and other
special interest groups. Besides, many services are entertaining in
themselves.

Large, complex adventure games, where hundreds of users can play
simultaneously, are popular choices. Some people sit glued to the computer
screen for hours.

Others prefer 'Chat', a keyboard-to-keyboard contact-phone type of
simultaneous conversation between from two and up to hundreds of persons.
It works like a combination of a social activity and a role-
playing/strategy/fantasy/skill-improving game.

Shopping is the online equivalent of the traditional mail order business.
The difference is that you can buy while browsing. Some commercial services
distribute colorful catalogues to users to support sales. Some distribute
pictures of the merchandise by modem.

You can buy anything from racer fitness equipment and diamonds to cars.
Enter your credit card number and the Chevrolet is yours. The online mail
order business is becoming increasingly global.

Level 5: The user interface
---------------------------
Part of the character of all online service providers is the way they
interact with the user.  The term "user interface" refers to how the online
service is presented to you, that is, in what form text, pictures and sound
appear on your computer.

Most online services offer the first three of these four levels. Some offer
more:

    1. Menus for novices. The user can select (navigate) by
       pressing a figure or a letter.
    2. Short menus or lists of commands for the intermediate user.
       The user knows some about how the service works, and just
       wants a short reminder to help navigate.
    3. A short prompt (often just a character, like a "%"), which
       tells the expert user where he is in the system right now.
       Those knowing the service inside out, do not need reminders
       about what word or command to enter at this point.
    4. Some services offer automatic access without any menus or
       visible prompts at all. Everything happens in a two-way
       stream of unintelligent data. The only menus that the user
       sees, are those belonging to the program running on his
       personal computer.

Some services emphasize colors, graphics and sound. They may require that
users have certain hardware or special add-on cards in their communications
computer. Often, a special communications program is also needed.

Other services use methods for presenting colors and graphics already built
into their users' computers (and programs).

Colors, graphics and sound are highly desirable in some applications, like
online games and weather forecasts. Even where it is not important, there
will always be many wanting it.

To the professional on a fact-gathering mission, these features may give
slower data transfer and problems when saving text to disk for later use.
Therefore, some prefer ASCII text with no extras.

Sports cars are nice, but for delivering furniture they're seldom any good.
The same applies to user interfaces. No one is best for all applications.

Level 6: The data transporters and Internet access providers
------------------------------------------------------------
When the host computer for an online service is far away, the user often
faces the challenges of:

    1. Noise on the line, which may result in unreadable text,
       errors in the received material, or inability to  maintain
       a desired transmission speed level.

    2. Expensive long distance calls (especially if using a low-
       speed modem).

There are many alternatives to direct long distance calling. Some offers
better quality data transfers and lower costs.

The Internet is a global network offering a very large range of interesting
services, such as the World Wide Web, and cost-efficient mail exchange with
private and public networks throughout the world.

Modem users typically dial up to a computer center in the vicinity that
functions as an Internet access provider. Once online, they can access
remote services in other countries to retrieve files, read texts, view
pictures, talk with others, and more.

Many use regional packet data services for cheaper and more reliable access
to remote commercial online services. In Scandinavia, the offerings of the
local PTTs are called Datapak. Similar services are offered in most
countries, often by a national telephone monopoly.

Competitively priced alternatives exist in many countries. For example,
Infonet, TRI-P, and i-Com has competed successfully with former monopolies
for transport of data to and from North America. (More about this in
Chapter 13.)

Today, the packet data services are quickly loosing ground to remote
computing through the Internet and direct calls using cheap high-speed
modems.

Level 7: The user
-----------------
This is you, your computer and communications equipment. Turn the page to
Chapter 3 and read about how to use the online services.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3: Using online services
================================

The user interface refers to what you get on your computer screen and how,
when you call an online service. It is about menus and help screens, and
various options to tailor the service to your personal preferences.

The World Wide Web
------------------
is essentially a vast repository of files (or documents) stored on
computers (often called Web sites) connected to the Internet. The service
that lets you get to these files is built to be used by a computer running
in a windows environment, but it can also be accessed by non-graphics
programs (like Lynx, appendix 6), and by electronic mail (see chapter 12).

Most of the things you can do on the Internet take place in two places at
once - your computer and the computer it is connected to over the network.

In general, the software program that you are running on your computer is
called the client (or, browser), and that on the remote computer is the
server. Do something on your computer, and the client software translates
it into a form that the server can understand.

Tell your client to retrieve information at a given World Wide Web server
address, and it will go get it for you. A World Wide Web page can look like
anything. It can be a text, like the one you read now, with some words
highlighted in a special way. You can "click" on these emphasized words with
your mouse to jump off to another track.

Example: If the term "World Wide Web" in the paragraph above had been
highlighted, and you clicked on this term, you would have received a text
defining this service. Many people think this method is easier than having
to page forward to appendix 6 for a definition. (Yes, this appendix does
contain some general information about the Web.)

In the online hypertext version of this handbook, the term "appendix 6"
above is highlighted. Click on it to get there. When you are done browsing
the appendix, you can "click back" to this chapter to continue reading.

Some World Wide Web services have hypertext links imbedded in pictures or
other graphics. These pointers are impossible to see unless you use a
windows program to access the service. However, they work in the same way.
Click on the pointers to get to the other tracks, which may be text, video,
sound, a picture, or whatever.

The Web documents
-----------------
are identified by a coded address called an URL (Uniform Resource Locator),
or Web Page Address, which looks something like this: http://www.site.com.

The prefix "http://" must be used to tell the Internet that you want to use
the HyperText Transfer Protocol. The rest,"www.site.com," is the actual
address identifying the web site and the document you want to retrieve.

Your computer's browser software activates embedded graphics designed into
the document, unless you have turned this feature off in your software.
Some documents even offer motion video clips an sound bites.

One document can have any number of hyperlinks creating an inter-woven
system of infinite size and depth. This is how the World Wide Web got its
name.

Navigating by menus
-------------------
Many online services use menus to make them easier for novices to use.
In its simplest form, a menu may look like this:

    R)ead messages
    Q)uick search available messages
    W)rite messages
    C)omments to Sysop
    D)ownload programs
    ?) for help
    G)oodbye. This is enough!

Enter a letter (or ?) to select a function. Enter R to read messages. There
is hardly any need to read the documentation to use this service.

Internet's Gopher service use the following type of menus:

     The Online World resources handbook (de Presno)

 -->  1.  Introduction.
      2.  The Online World resources handbook/
      3.  Retrieving the handbook/
      4.  Printed versions/
      5.  The Online World Monitor newsletters/
      6.  The TOW mailing list/
      7.  Press here if you have a Web-browser.

 Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up a menu                   Page: 1/1

The "/" at the end of a menu item shows that this choice will give you
another menu. Failing the "/," the item will give you a file.

If you access a gopher service using a Web browser, the item numbers are
replaced by icons. The numbers are not needed any more. The icons tell you
whether the choices are files, directories, graphics, search services, or
other things. Just click on the item to make your choice.

CompuServe greets European users with this menu:

    CompuServe Europe         EUROPE

    COMPUSERVE EUROPE MAIN MENU

     1 About CompuServe
     2 What's New
     3 Member Assistance
     4 Electronic Mail
     5 Personal Computer Support
     6 Company Information
     7 Logon Instructions (Europe)
     8 CompuServe Information Service (U.S.)

Enter '8' to get another menu:

    CompuServe                   TOP

     1 Member Assistance (FREE)
     2 Find a Topic (FREE)
     3 Communications/Bulletin Bds.
     4 News/Weather/Sports
     5 Travel
     6 The Electronic MALL/Shopping
     7 Money Matters/Markets
     8 Entertainment/Games
     9 Hobbies/Lifestyles/Education
    10 Reference
    11 Computers/Technology
    12 Business/Other Interests

You can "go" to Associated Press' newswires or the section for home-
schooling in the Education Forum by entering numbers listed in menus. The
service is like a tree with menus by every set of branches.

A code in the upper right-hand corner of each screen tells you exactly
where you are. The last menu has the code 'TOP' meaning that this menu is
at the 'top of the tree'.

By each CompuServe system prompt, the command GO followed by a destination
code will take you directly to a desired location. Enter GO PCHW to go
directly to the PC Hardware Forum.

The GO command will save you time and money. Similar codes and commands are
used on several other online services.

On many systems, the first menu encountered when logging on is a list of
announcements and new offerings. The following is from GEnie, General
Electric's Consumer Information Service (U.S.A.):

       GEnie Announcements (FREE)

  1. July 1991 GEnie Billing Completed.  To review yours, type:....*BILL
  2. Hot Summer Nights continues to SIZZLE.........................*HSN
  3. NEW...Quality Product and Amazing Value in....................SOFTCLUB
  4. LAST CHANCE---Blue GEnie Sweatshirts..........................*ORDER
  5. Color hypermedia in Apple II world. HyperStudio RTC in........A2
  6. Meet the Product Manager, FREE RTC............................SFRT
  7. "Future of Online Gaming" RTC with GEnie Game Designers in....MPGRT
  8. A Revolutionary Credit Service - TRW CREDENTIALS..............TRWCREDIT
  9. 900 Numbers: Ripoff or Good Business Sense - RTC 8/11 9PM.....RADIO
 10. Air Warrior Convention set for Sept.26-29. in Washington......AIR
 11. SEARS Fall/Winter Catalog On-line NOW.........................SEARS
 12. How to Sell your CRAFTS for Profit............................HOSB
 13. Stellar Warrior Campaign starts with a FREE weekend...........WARRIOR
 14. Followup Investment RTC with Mickey Friedman in...............REAL ESTATE
 15. Federation II, the adult space fantasy........................FED

 Enter #, <H>elp, or <CR> to continue?

At the 'Enter #' prompt, enter '7' to go directly to the "Future of Online
Gaming" conference (RTC=Round Table Conference). Enter H for Help, or press
RETURN to get to the systems' main menu.

You can "go" to selected services by entering a videotext page number code
or a number (selected from the menu). Type 'mail' to get to your mailbox,
'backgammon' to play, or 'SEARS' to visit the online version of this North
American shoppers' paradise.

'Mail' has page number 200. Enter 'm 200' to go there directly. To go to
Newsbytes' technical news reports by subject, select "5" from menu page
number 316.

GEnie even has a faster way. Like some other services, it let you stack
commands. Instead of issuing one command, and then wait for the system to
respond before issuing the next command, stacking allows you to put all
commands on one line. The command "m 316;5" will take you directly to
choice 5 from the menu on page 316 without displaying intermediate menus.

Many online services use the same template. They have commands like "go
service-name," "join service-name" (or just J), "delta service-name,"
or just the code or name of the offering as in 'mail' and 'sears' above.

Entering H or ? (for help) usually give you help. Few services are fussy
about whether you use lower or capital letters in commands.

On some services, and especially if a selection requires just a letter or a
number, you do not even have to press return to make it happen. This method
is used on many bulletin boards.

Some codes are standard. This is particularly the case with ?, H, or Help
for more information.

Test drive
----------
Several commercial systems let you try the service for free or at lower
rates. You can check what is out there without paying for the exploratory
connect time, and get some free training in how to use the service.

CompuServe's Practice Forum (GO PRACTICE) does not carry any connect
charges, but applicable communication surcharges are still in effect. They
also have a free 'Guided Tour'.

Free trials are particularly useful before a search in an expensive
database. Use DialIndex on KR Dialog. Orbit has DBIN (The database Index),
and KR Data-Star has CROS. They are master indexes to the databases on the
system. First, select a general subject area, then enter your search terms.
The systems will respond with lists of databases and hit counts.

Note: You must go to the 'real' databases for results. You cannot retrieve
actual information during a test drive.

Selecting an expert level
-------------------------
Most services regard all new users as novices. The software designers
assume that users do not want (or are unable) to read lengthy explanations.
They think that most users prefer navigation by going from menu to menu.

Commercial services may support this view for financial reasons, and
especially when charging for access by the minute. (Some of them let you
read their help screens for free, though.)

Menus are important when browsing new offerings, or accessing services that
we seldom use. Frequent users of a service, however, quickly learn how to
do things. Menus may soon begin to annoy rather than please. Reading them
costs money, and it slows our communications down.

We do not need menus when accessing online services in fully automated
mode. Your communications program remembers exactly what to do, and does
all the typing for you.

There is no point in paying extra for having menus. You'll not read them
anyway. The aim is to access the service at maximum speed and the lowest
possible cost.

Most online services can be tailored to your personal needs and
preferences. Many let you choose between:

    * Full menus
    * Short menus
    * A prompt line with a list of the most often used
      commands,
    * a prompt character or word (see "prompt" in appendix 4
      for examples). Prompts can be used by automatic
      communication script files to trigger the next action.

If concerned about costs, note that you can use expert mode without being a
true expert. Just print the menus, and keep them by your keyboard while
moving around.

Some users draw 'road maps' of the services to navigate more quickly.
Others automate the process using automatic communications scripts.

Tailoring your services
-----------------------
Many online services allow you to tailor the way information is sent to
you.

Some communications programs, like Internet browsers, also lets you change
the way things happen. For example:

    * Most Internet browsers, like Netscape, let you turn graphics ON/OFF.
      I usually visit World Wide Web pages with graphics viewing set to
      OFF. When I find something worthy of being seen, I switch the option
      ON, and reload the page to view. (Click on View, Reload.)

    * Many Internet browsers are preset to load automatically a selected
      Web page upon startup. This may take more time than you like. With
      Netscape, you can click Options, Preferences, Styles, and mark off
      "Start with blank page." Alternatively, you can set it to load your
      personal hotlist of sites from your hard disk. Remember to save the
      new settings when done!

The need to tailor the online service's prompts and menus differs
considerably from user to user. We have all kinds of needs, and use all
kinds of computers for communication.

Some screens are large. Other screens can only display a few lines of text
at a time. One user of my BBS even used a Hewlett Packard pocket calculator
with a tiny, tiny screen.

If you are satisfied with how things are, skip the next couple of pages and
read from "Connecting the first time." If curious of your options, read on
for a brief technical overview.

Besides a selection of various types of menus, you can usually also set the
following preferences:

    * What menu is to be the first, when you access the service?
    * The first menu is to be a tailored menu containing your
      favorite offerings, and nothing else.
    * Colors, graphics, or no colors/graphics.
    * Preferred file transfer protocol (to avoid a question each
      time you want to transfer a file).
    * Desired terminal emulator, like TTY, VT-100 or VT-52.
    * CAPITAL LETTERS or Mixed Case.
    * The ASCII character code to use for the DELETE function.
    * How many spaces to insert when expanding TABs in your mail.
    * Number of lines per screen, for example, 24 on an IBM PC, or
      eight on a TRS-80 Model 100. Determines whether scrolling is
      to pause after each screenful or not.
    * Determines the number of characters per line (for example, 80
      lines on a PC, or 40 on a TRS-80 Model 100.)
    * Determines if the linefeed character is to be sent or not.
    * Determines whether blank lines are to be sent.
    * Determines whether the service is to check when you log on to
      see if you are using special software (as in 'Inquire for VIDTEX'
      on CompuServe).
    * The use of 'echo'. Is the service to return the characters
      that you enter on your keyboard?
    * Use of delay when sending line feeds. (Useful if capturing
      text to a dumb printing terminal. If text scrolls too fast
      for the printer, you risk losing some of it.)
    * Choice of prompt character, or prompt text string. This is
      useful when communicating by script files. On CompuServe, I
      have asked the system to add the BackSpace character (ASCII
      character number 8) to the end of all forum prompts. Since
      this character is rarely found in messages or other texts,
      I can safely let scripts depend on this prompt character for
      unattended communication.

Displaying information on the screen
------------------------------------
An 'A' is not an 'A' no matter what service you use. If you call Tocolo BBS
in Japan with a non-Japanese MS-DOS computer, chances are that the welcome
text will look like this:

    *--------------------------------------------------------------*
    *  D0:[ BBS    (<^/9] 7.8)                                     *
    *   62>] =3     ---> 3  (@^2K.3 03-205-9315)                   *
    *   3]V3 <^6]   ---> 24 <^6] 6D^3 C=D A-3                      *
    *                    (Wed 9:00-17:00 J R]C I @R 5T=P C^=)      *
    *--------------------------------------------------------------*

You'll need a Japanese ROM (Read-Only Memory) in your computer, a special
graphics program, or a Japanese language operating system  to have the
Kanji characters displayed properly on your screen.

The characters that you see on your computer's screen are based on a code.
The computer finds the characters to display from a table built into your
system's hardware or software.

Most personal computers can be preset to use various tables depending on
your needs. When communicating in English, you may want it to show Latin
characters. When writing in Japanese, you may want it to display Kanji
characters.

Those writing in Norwegian, often want to use the special Scandinavian
characters ¢¥æÆåÅ. If the first two of these Nordic characters read like
the symbols for Yen and Cent, you are not set up for Scandinavian
characters. If your system is set up correctly, they should look like an
'o' and an 'O' overwritten by a '/'.

The code telling your computer what to display, may also contain
information about where to put characters and what colors to use.

Thus, an online service may order your computer to display a given
character in column 10 on line 2, and to print it in blinking red color. If
you are not set up correctly, these codes may show as garbage on your screen
rather than as a colorful character in a given position.

If you call a service set to display text in VT-52 format, and your
communications program is set accordingly, then you should be OK. VT-52 is
a setup that makes a program or a service 'behave' like a DEC VT-52
terminal.

Being able to view VT-52 coded text on your screen, does not guarantee that
you can capture this 'picture' to a file on your disk. Your communications
program may need special features to do that. If these features are
missing, you are in for a surprise. The text in your capture file may look
like in this example (it came on a single, long line on my computer):

  --------------------------------------------------------------------
  **H*J*Y"4   Innhold*Y%>                              *Y&4Emneoversikt
  1   Brukerprofil    6*Y)4Stikkord A-]       2   Bruker-          *Y*4
  veiledning      7*Y,4Informasjons-                           *Y-
  4leverand|rer A-]   3   Teledatanytt*Y.W    8*Y04Personlig indeks
  4*Y2H                    *Y34Meldingstjenesten  5   Avslutte
  9*Y64   ]pningsside *00#                     *Y 4TELEDATA
  880823-1538*Y74                               NTA01-00a*Y74     *Y74*Y74
  --------------------------------------------------------------------

The character '*' in this example refers to the ESCape character (ASCII
number 27). ESC is used to tell your computer that what follows is a VT-52
display command.

The codes following the ESC say where text is to be printed on your screen
(from line number x and column number y).

If your communications program cannot save VT-52 coded text in a readable
way, you'll need auxiliary programs to remove or convert the codes. Some
communication programs let you take snapshots of the screen, and store the
result in a file. This usually gives good results, but it may be a
cumbersome approach.

Minitel (in France and the U.S.) belongs to a group of online services
called videotex (or viewdata). They believe that beautiful color graphics,
large characters, and menus give them a competitive advantage.

CompuServe is often called a videotex service because of its emphasis on
menus. However, most call it 'ASCII videotex' as it is not depending on
special display formats. Their philosophy is that 'plain text' is required
to attract many users across hardware platforms.

The viewdata services use graphical display standards with names like
CEPT, Captain (Character and Pattern Telephone Access Information Network
System, in Japan), Telidon (Canada), Minitel, Teletel (France), GIF (the
Graphics Interchange Format), Viewdata, and NAPLPS (The North American
Presentation Level Protocol Syntax).

You often need special terminal machines to use some viewdata services. On
other services, you must use special software plus an emulator card in your
computer.

Many MS-DOS based bulletin boards let you set access defaults to colors and
graphics. Most of them use ANSI graphics in welcome texts and menus. Users
must set their programs to ANSI (or ANSI BBS) to take advantage.

Capture these welcome texts and menus to a file on your hard disk, and view
them with an editor. They are filled with ANSI escape codes, and thus hard
to read (and search). The good news is that conference and forum mail only
rarely contain such codes.

Many users routinely keep captured online information on their hard disks
for later reference. If this is your intention, make sure that text is sent
to you in plain ASCII, or TTY mode.

    TTY sends one line at a time, and only uses the codes TAB,
    BackSpace, Carriage Return and LineFeed during the transfer.
    The rest is 'plain text'.

Many commercial online services offer TTY format. The notable exception is
your Internet access provider. On the Internet, text based services are
often best accessed with VT-100 or equivalent. To see graphics, use a
graphics windows browser.

If you want 'TTY' or 'ASCII', and these are not on your online services'
lists of options, try 'Others' or 'Other computers'. These settings usually
identify your computer as unable to handle 'standard' colors, sound and
graphics.

Viewdata pages may provide "selling pictures," but the screens often have a
low contents of information compared with TTY-based services. They are not
my favorite services for news in full-text.

For other applications, like games and weather maps, colorful graphics are
a definite advantage.

Connecting the first time
-------------------------
If you have low cost access to a local Internet provider, or unlimited
financial resources, go ahead and call up services all over the world.
Learning by doing is exciting.

If resources are limited and the service is expensive, start by reading
user information manual. Go online to capture key menus and help texts.
Print them out on paper for further study before going online again for a
'real' visit.

I always hurry slowly during my first visits to a new commercial online
service. I call up, quickly capture information about how to use it, and
disconnect. It may take days to study the material. My goal is to find what
the service offers to plan how to use it most efficiently.

The first important command to look up is the logoff command. There is
nothing more frustrating than to get an error message after submitting BYE.
If lost, try "quit," "exit," "logoff," "off," "logout," and "G" in the hope
of finding the correct command. These are the most usual variations. You
should also try ? or HELP.

If you really can't figure out how to get off a system, just hang up on it.
Be careful, though. Some systems will continue to charge for a period, even
after you have disconnected by hanging up.

    Note: If you are using a dialup modem to connect to online
    services, make sure that it is always set to watch the
    presence of the carrier signal. On my modems, this is set
    by the command: AT &D2. If this feature is not set, then
    you may not get disconnected from the online service until
    the phone line is physically disconnected from your modem!

One of the first things that I do, is set my options to expert status,
though I am obviously an amateur at this stage.

Often, I also start automating the process during my first visits. I write
script files for automatic access and quick navigation to key offerings.
Another good strategy is to look for automated offline readers or systems
(see Chapter 16 for details).

Others prefer paper and pencil. They write a list of required commands on a
piece of paper, like this:

    Call 0165
    At CONNECT:                   ENTER @SP ENTER
    At the NUI prompt:            Nxxxxxppppp-a170041
    At Enter 'dix' and <Enter>:   dix
    At -- More --:                ENTER
    At Your name:                 Odd de Presno
    At Password:                  hemmelig
    At What do you want to do:
    - when no unread mail         goodbye
    - when mail to read           ENTER

Put the list by your keyboard before calling the service. Follow it
carefully. After a while you may remember the procedure, and can throw away
your notes.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PART 2: APPLICATIONS


            "Imagination is more important than knowledge"
                             - Albert Einstein


This part of the book is the core of the matter. We want to give you an
idea of what is out there.

The bad news is that the online world has too much. We have been forced to
make a selection. So, if there are important pointers that you feel have
been left out, please drop me a line. Maybe it can be included in a future
release of the book.

Terms used in this book
While references to offerings with terms like "on CompuServe," and "on
TWICS" may be easily understood, you may not be used to our terms referring
to resources on the Internet. These include the following:

    anonymous ftp
    gopher
    telnet
    RFC, FYI, FAQ
    archie
    WWW
    WAIS

Do not despair. Explanation is given in appendix 6. You can also search the
book for additional information.

Throughout the book, we will use the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) format
when referring to Internet resources. These codes are basically

    method://site.name/filepath

The "method" part tells whether the URL points to a hypertext document
(http), a gopher menu (gopher), an anonymous ftp host for file transfers
(ftp), etc.. Examples:

    * URL: http://login.eunet.no/~presno/index.html
      This means: "Connect me to the site login.eunet.no, and show
      me the hypertext ~presno/index.html file." This URL will give
      you the Online World resources handbook's World Wide Web home
      page. The tilde character in the directory name "~presno" is
      a special notation used on Unix systems.

      Read under WWW in appendix 6 for more, including how to get
      the text from WWW pages by electronic mail! Also, do not forget
      to read about Lynx. . . .

    * URL: ftp://ftp.eunet.no/pub/text/online.txt
      This means: "Do anonymous ftp to site ftp.eunet.no, and get
      the file /pub/text/online.txt."  This URL retrieves the
      current version of this handbook.

      You can also use the contents of this address in other ways,
      for example, for retrieval by email, or by using Internet's
      ftp command. Read about 'anonymous FTP' and 'FTP by email'
      in Chapter 12 and Appendix 6.

    * Pointer: gopher://login.eunet.no
      This is an Internet Gopher address given in a form that can
      be used directly by World Wide Web browser programs. You can
      also use the contents of this address in other ways, for
      example, for retrieval by email, or by using Internet's
      gopher command. Read under Gopher in appendix 6 for more.


Chapter 4: Hobby, games and fun
===============================

  * Programs. Online adventure games. The virus threat.
  * Hobbies. Holiday travelling. Collecting stamps or coins.
    Roots, music, and online shopping.

Online services have one thing in common with newspapers, magazines and
books. What they offer, varies from provider to provider.

The next chapters will focus on the contents of the offerings. Appendix 1
has details about how to access the major service providers.

Small online services often have interesting offerings in specialized
areas, and especially when they are based on local phenomena or events.
They tend to be more personal. They often present their 'wares' in a local
language, and offer very large collections of free software.

The large online services have hundreds of thousands of users. The activity
is often high. They usually attract interesting (and competent)
participants to their conferences and forums, have more programs available
for download and more news sources and databases to search. In short, they
generally give you a wider choice.

We will focus on the large international services. These are available from
anywhere without too much effort, and using them comes surprisingly cheap.
Therefore, please remember that this book just covers the top of the
iceberg. Cheaper services may be found elsewhere, and they may even be
better tuned to your particular areas of interest.

Locating game software
----------------------
The fastest, easiest and cheapest method is to call an online service to
download game programs. You will find an overwhelming number of programs
for all types of microcomputers.

Many games are free. We call them "Public Domain" or "Freeware" programs.
Others are distributed free. You do not have to pay to get and try them
out. If you want to use them, however, the copyright owner expects you to
pay a fee. We call them "shareware" or "user supported" programs.

When the game program has been transferred to your personal computer, you
can play without worries about communications costs, or the busy signal on
your phone line.

My favorite game is shareware. The name is Arachnid. It is an MS Windows
solitaire game (patience) made by SP Services, P.O. Box 456, Southampton,
SO9 7XG, England. The desired registration fee is UKP 15.00 (English
pounds). You can download the program from my board as WINCARD.EXE. The
file is 106 kilobytes large.

WINCARD.EXE is a special distribution file, which contains three games and
all supporting files. The EXE extension may fool you into thinking that it
is a program, and in a way it is. The file is a self-extract file, meaning
that you just enter "WINCARD" on an MS-DOS computer to extract the game
files from the "package."

Games are usually distributed in special distribution files. All files used
by a game (or several games) are put into one file by special software, and
compressed in size. This makes retrieval of programs easier and cheaper.
You do not have to download many related files individually. The transfer
takes less time. (Read in appendix 3 about how to extract programs from
distribution files.)

You will find some of the largest collections of games on the North
American services CompuServe and Exec-PC BBS. You will also find large
collections on the Internet. Asia's possibly largest anonymous ftp
archives are at ftp://NCTUCCCA.edu.tw/. You may also want to check out
the Usenet newsgroup comp.archives' collections at

    http://www.mid.net/MSDOS_A

GamesDomain is a central reference point for all things "games-related" on
the Internet (at http://www.gamesdomain.co.uk/). It also points to
information about PBMs, MUDs, MUSHes, Interactive games, and similar
offerings.

If you just have email access to the Internet, read this:

  | Try Archie, a distributed index to all the files available by  |
  | anonymous ftp on the Internet. The Archie database maintains a |
  | list of millions of million files containing over 100 Gigabytes|
  | from hundreds of anonymous FTP archive sites.                  |
  |     You can search the database by email to find where files   |
  | are located. Some Archie systems maintain a list of libraries  |
  | all over the world, while others concentrate on a more limited |
  | geographical area.                                             |
  |     Once Archie has told you where desired programs and files  |
  | are located, you can retrieve them by telnet, anonymous FTP,   |
  | FTPmail, and WWW. Read "File transfers through the Internet"   |
  | in chapter 12 for details.                                     |
  |     For information on how to use Archie, send email to one of |
  | these addresses (see appendix 6 for more):                     |
  |                                                                |
  |     [e-mail]         (Canada)                       |
  |     [e-mail]          (Australia)                    |
  |                                                                |
  | Put the word HELP in the body of your mail.                    |
  |                                                                |
  | Getting programs by email is a three-step process:             |
  |                                                                |
  | [1] Use Archie to find file names and where they are stored,   |
  | [2] Send a message to [e-mail] to have them      |
  |     retrieved and forwarded to you by email, and               |
  | [3] Use a utility program to convert the file to a useful      |
  |     format. (See "Binary files transferred as text codes"      |
  |     in Chapter 12.)                                            |
  |                                                                |
  | Check out JVArcServ for an Archie-alike service on FidoNet.    |
  |                                                                |
  | Also, check out the FAQ file on PC GAMES, "Guide To The Gaming |
  | World" (see "FAQ" in appendix 6).                              |

Chances are that online services in your area also have many programs to
offer. Most free bulletin boards have more software than you'll ever get
around to try.

Usually, there is a natural specialization between boards. Those using the
Unix operating system, have the largest number of programs for such
machines. Those running on MS-DOS computers, have more programs for such
computers.

Some games are trite and bad. Others are brilliant. There are ladder games,
racer car driving, flight control, war, subsea games, electronic versions
of traditional games like Backgammon, Yatzy, chess and bridge, educational
games for geography, mathematics and history, puzzles, fractal programs
that draw beautiful pictures on your screen, psychological tests, text-
based adventure games, and more. There is something for everybody.

If you want to get rich in a hurry, go for programs that increase your
chances of winning horse race bets, or other "real world" money winning
games.

If you are into beautiful girls, fill your hard disk with picture files in
GIF, PCX or other graphics formats. (Sorry ladies, there are not many
pictures of naked boys around.) There is an abundance of shareware
programs that will display the pictures on your computer screen.

Keen users of the more popular games often want to swap tricks and discuss
experiences: Players of SNES, Nintendo, Gameboy, Nintendo 64, and the
Virtual Boy regularly meet on the SNES-L mailing list. Join by sending the
command "subscribe snes-l" to:

   [e-mail]

Yes, this is an Internet email address. We will talk more about addressing
email in Chapter 7. For now, let us concentrate on what is out there.

Have you heard about the Internet Go Server? This is where you can play Wei
Qi online, an Ancient Chinese game. Point your Web browser at

        http://www.cnd.org/Other/rec.html

The ancient Chinese I-Ching can hardly be called a game. People use it to
tell their fortunes. Explore the power of prophecy and how it can affect
you. Concentrate on a problem or question facing you now. When you have it
well visualized, select http://www.facade.com/Occult/iching/ to get your
reading.

Usenet excels when it comes to games. Here are some newsgroups:

  rec.gambling            Articles on games of chance & betting.
  rec.games.board         Discussion and hints on board games.
  rec.games.board.ce      The Cosmic Encounter board game.
  rec.games.design        Discussion of game design related issues.
  rec.games.empire        Discussion and hints about Empire.
  rec.games.frp           Discussion about Role Playing games.
  rec.games.go            Discussion about Go.
  rec.games.misc          Games and computer games.
  rec.games.mud           Various aspects of multi-users computer games.
  rec.games.pbm           Discussion about Play by Mail games.
  rec.games.pinball       Discussing pinball-related issues.
  rec.games.programmer    Discussion of adventure game programming.
  rec.games.trivia        Discussion about trivia.
  rec.games.video         Discussion about video games.
  rec.games.video.arcade  Discussions about coin-operated video games.

With so much going on, it is difficult to stay current on new programs and
new versions of old ones. For announcements, check out the Usenet newsgroup
called comp.archives.msdos.announce.

  | It is probably easier for you to relate to references like     |
  | "rec.games.video on Usenet," than to [e-mail]    |
  | References to BITNET mailing lists are made in various ways    |
  | throughout the book, as it is online. This is the basic rule:  |
  |                                                                |
  | On BITNET, mailing lists are usually 'managed' by a program    |
  | called LISTSERV. This program handles subscription requests,   |
  | requests for files, and more. When you see a reference like    |
  | [e-mail], then this means that you must send     |
  | your subscription request to the LISTSERV at the SAKFU00       |
  | computer on BITNET (address: [e-mail]). Mail    |
  | to the CAMEL-L forum, however, must be sent to the address     |
  | [e-mail] to be forwarded to the other members.   |
  | (CAMEL-L is a discussion forum on camels researches.)          |
  |                                                                |
  | For more about BITNET, check out appendix 1. You may also find |
  | it useful to read about email addresses in Chapter 7, and about|
  | LISTSERV in appendix 6.                                        |
  |                                                                |
  | Note: When a BITNET mailing list has dual addresses, we will   |
  | usually give the Internet address in this book. If you are on  |
  | BITNET, and using these addresses are difficult or impossible, |
  | ask your local postmaster for help.                            |

Chess
-----
First, familiarize yourself with the Chess Frequently Asked Questions files
at http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/games/chess/.

CHESS-L, the Chess Discussion List is at [e-mail].

  | On LISTSERV mailing lists, you subscribe by using the command |
  | "SUB <mailing-list-name> Your-full-name" in the body of your  |
  | email. Replace "Your-full-name" with your real name.          |

To play or watch real-time chess with human opponents, try the Internet
Chess Club at http://www.hydra.com/icc/. Here, you can play 24 hours a
day with people from all over the world. Blitz chess and slow chess. Get
ratings, watch games, make friends, play in tournaments, study games with
people, search their database of Grandmaster games. Scheduled visits from
internationally famous Grandmasters. Guest visitors can play unrated games,
or watch others play, for free.

Also, check out http://www.in.net/~kyong/index.html for links to Xiangqi,
Weiqi (GO), and Taijiquan.

Play Chinese Chess on

        telnet://128.103.28.15:5555/

Usenet has a Chess & computer chess newsgroup at rec.games.chess.

CompuServe has a Chess forum (GO CHESSFORUM) with message sections called:
Chess Basics, Theory & Analysis, News Wire, Hardware/Software, Casual
Games, Electronic Knights, Oriental/Variants, Tourneys (Open), USCF Rated
Games, Team Play, and Time Out.

Bridge
------
The game of bridge is one of the world's most fascinating card games, with
the same rules all over the world. For a good starting point, link to the
Web site at

    http://www.cs.vu.nl/~sater/bridge/bridge-on-the-web.html

If you don't mind paying a membership fee, check out BPlive at:

    http://www.bridgeplayer.com/~bridge/bplive.html.

Usenet has the rec.games.bridge newsgroup.

Computer viruses
----------------
Few online users ever live to see or experience a computer virus, but they
do exist. So, read this:

A virus is a small, hidden computer program that can cause the loss or
alteration of programs or data, and can  compromise their confidentiality.
It can spread from program to program, and from system to system, without
direct human intervention.

The chance of your computer being infected is small, but you are never safe.
Therefore, download a program for virus detection and identification, like
VIRUSSCAN from McAfee Associates, 4423 Cheeney Street, Santa Clara, CA
95054-0253, U.S.A. They also have virus disinfection programs (for MS-DOS
computers).

For more about viruses, subscribe to VIRUS-L. Mail the command "information
virus-l" to [e-mail] for subscription information.

CompuServe has the Mac New Users Forum (with a Virus Clinic section), the
McAfee Virus Help Forum, the Symantec AntiVirus Forum, and more. FidoNet
has a VIRUS echo. ILINK has VIRUS-I. Usenet has comp.virus .

The good news is that most large providers of computer programs now have
sophisticated virus scanning programs integrated into their services.

Online games
------------
Why not investigate online adventure games? There are many alternatives.
On the World Wide Web, Nintendo is at

    http://www.nintendo.com

Among the offerings is a "chat room." Here, online gamers can talk with
other gamers, Nintendo's Game Play Counselors, invited guest speakers, and
video game celebrities.

Bulletin boards throughout the world invite to role playing games. Some
have graphics, music and sound effects. Dungeons & Dragons is a popular
choice.

On Exec-PC, play Startrek. Select an identity and "play it out" according
to its character. If a real aficionado, check out rec.arts.startrek.info on
Usenet.

Advanced Stargame players swap tricks on SG50 (mail the command info SG50
to [e-mail]). MUD is also a popular game.

  | Multi-User Dungeons (MUD) is a structured and user-modifiable |
  | online environment. It allows users not only to interact      |
  | with each other, but to do role-playing, build and furnish    |
  | living areas and interaction areas, extend and create the     |
  | interactive "space," and make rules for using that space.     |
  |                                                               |
  | As programmers create new types of MUDs, new names appear.    |
  | These include TinyMud, DUM, MOO, MUCK, MUG, and many others.  |
  |                                                               |
  | For information, including addresses to places where you can  |
  | try them out, consult the Frequently Asked Questions files at |
  | http://mailserv.cc.kuleuven.ac.be/faq/faq.html. Perform a     |
  | keyword search for "mud."                                     |
  |                                                               |
  | Then, check out this: http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~lwl/muds.html |

Popular choices on CompuServe are strategy games like The Island of Kesmai
and Megawars. One game can last for weeks at a time. On CIX (England), many
prefer the multi-user dungeon game DiscWorld.

If you prefer sport fantasies in the armchair, try Sierra's multiplayer
Football Online on the ImagiNation Network (http://www.inngames.com/).
They also have over 40 multiplayer games and hundreds of chat rooms,
bulletin boards and tournaments.

Nintendo offers online games through the Famicom Networks in Japan and the
U.S. Your PC must have a special graphics card to play games like GO and
Shogi, a Japanese game of chess.

Chat
----
Chat, or "keyboard talking," is a popular attraction, and in particular on
the large online services.

Your first attempt will probably be a strange experience. Your monitor
will look like an unfolding screenplay, with you speaking one of the
several parts.

When many people talk simultaneously in chat, incoherent sentences seem to
fly over your computer screen. It takes some training to be able to read
what each of them is saying.

CompuServe's Citizen Band Simulator (GO CB) is an electronic version of the
hams' short-wave radio. It has 72 CB Simulator channels. You can chat with
anonymous members, have fun and find new keypals.

On Exec-PC's Chat and Entertainment System, up to 64 users can talk
simultaneously. GEnie calls their chat service Livewire CB. On BIX, look
for CBIX.

Some users are serious about chatting. Several large companies are heavy
users, and it also has educational applications. Although this kind of
talking is a slow process, it has advantages. It is easy to document the
discussion. People from places geographically far apart can meet and talk
at a low cost.

Some online services charge less for chats than for other services.

My hobby
--------
There are online forums for most hobbies: collection of stamps and coins,
genealogy, music, holiday travels, skiing, purchase of consumer
electronics, video, filming, and more.

The people you meet in these "clubs" share your interests. They come there
to exchange information and experiences, to listen, swap stamps or coins,
participate in club auctions, and exploit favorable group discounts when
buying things for their hobby.

The main attraction is the open messages that people write to each other.
Many clubs also have libraries filled with special software, like database
programs for collectors, and information files.

Coins (on [e-mail]) is where you can discuss Numismatics,
the study of coins, American and International.  Paper currency is also a
welcome topic, but trading is not allowed. To subscribe, send a message to
[e-mail] .

The SKI-L mailing list on [e-mail] is about all topics
on skiing except water skiing.  Topics may include alpine and/or Nordic
skiing, competitions, etc. The GoSKI Network World Resort Database (at
http://www.goski.com) lists over 1,000 mountain resorts, with skier and
snowboarder reviews, facts, contact information, and snow conditions. It
said this about Hemsedal in Norway (1996):

   Hemsedal, Norway
   240 km northwest of Oslo (about 4 hours by train/bus). [IMAGE]

  Vertical Drop: 800m/2,624'
  Lifts:         15 (5 chairs, 10 surface)
  Trails:        30
  Marked Runs:   40 km

  Cross Country: 90 km groomed

  Snow Conditions: 32 06 22 55
  Tourist Office:  32 06 01 56

Music
-----
Sony (Japan) has launched an Internet-based service providing data from its
music, movie and electronic publishing companies. Here, users can retrieve
or watch music video clips, and hear brief sound samples from current and
upcoming projects. Sony Online is at the Web address: http://www.sony.com.

If you prefer classical music, and have a sound card in your computer,
point your Internet browser at The WebMuseum Auditorium:

    http://mistral.enst.fr/louvre/snd/

Offerings include Johan Sebastian Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in d Minor,"
Johann Strauss's "Le beau Danube bleu," and Beethoven's "Hymne a la joie."

The LUDWIG mailing list is about the life and musical compositions of the
German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Write to [e-mail]
to join. The CLASSM-L mailing list is at [e-mail].

Medieval & Renaissance Music is available from [e-mail]. To
subscribe, send "join med-and-ren-music [your name]". For Middle-Eastern
Music, send to [e-mail] .

GRIND (write [e-mail]) focuses on discussions about grindcore,
death metal, and heavy thrash music. PRIMUS is about the funk/rock band
Primus (write to [e-mail]).

Write to [e-mail] to join the Rolling
Stones mailing list. The Web page (http://www.stonesworld.com) pays
tribute to the Stones in other ways. - Frank Sinatra is on the SINATRA
mailing list on [e-mail], and his fan club on the following
Web address: http://www.sinatra.com/club/. The Michael Jackson Internet
Fan Club is at http://fred.net/mjj/.

KLARINET (on [e-mail]) is a network for news, information,
research and teaching items of interest, and other related information for
clarinet players, teachers, students, and enthusiasts.

For jazz, try the ILINK conference JAZZ, rec.music.bluenote on Usenet,
MILES on [e-mail] (about Miles Davis), or BLUES-L at
[e-mail] . Another jazz oriented list, SATURN on
[e-mail], is for discussing the free-jazz big band
leader, Sun Ra.

Write [e-mail] for subscription to a David Bowie mailing list.
Put 'Bowie Subscription' in your subject. Subscribe to the Elton John
mailing list by email to [e-mail] . Subscribe to the
Eric Clapton list (Slowland) by email to [e-mail].
Genesis is on the Paperlate list ([e-mail]).

Write to [e-mail] to join the U2 (Wire) list.

Network-Audio-Bits is an electronic magazine with reviews and information
about rock, pop, new age, jazz, funk, folk music and other genres. (Write
[e-mail] to receive.)

To get the "Musical List of Lists," an overview of music oriented mailing
lists, send email to [e-mail] .

If interested in Australian Top Singles & Albums Charts, write to
[e-mail] . Write to [e-mail] if
interested in New Zealand bands.

"Backstreets" on UUCP is for those who love the music of Bruce Springsteen
([e-mail]). His fan club is at the Web address
http://www.gla.ac.uk/~gkrx11/Bruce/. For Pink Floyd and his music, check
out "Eclipse" ([e-mail]), or "Echoes" (write to
[e-mail]). If a fan of Jimi Hendrix, join "hey-joe"
([e-mail]).

A comprehensive Beatles page is at http://www.sonic.net/~custom/beat.html.
Usenet has rec.music.beatles.

Write to [e-mail] to join a discussion on brass
band music.

"J-Pop" ([e-mail]) has discussions about
Japanese pop/rock of today.

Paul Harris invites to the RMUSIC-L mailing list using these words:

   RMUSIC-L is on the air...Join us for exciting and intelligent
   discussions on the music industry...Concert and
   AlbumReviews...Trivia...  Lyrics and Artists from 1935 to the
   present (earlier if the discussion warrants it)...  All types of
   Music for all types of People.  It is ouRMUSIC-L.>

To join this mailing list, send the command: SUB RMUSIC-L Your-Full-Name to
[e-mail].

You want to buy music, preferably at a low price. CDnow! has over 140,000
CDs, cassettes and videos at discount prices (1995), accepts credit card
payments, and ships around the world. Web site: http://www.cdnow.com/

Search for artist name, like "Bjork" to order this Icelandic artist's
"Debut" CD, or "Venus as a boy," and charge it to your credit card. My wife
wanted classical music by Albinoni, Vivaldi, and Pachelbel played by the
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

By the way, Bjork is at the WWW address: http://www.centrum.is/bjork/).
There is also the Blue-Eyed-Pop mailing list. It focuses on Sugarcubes,
Bjork, and Icelandic music. (Email to [e-mail].)

Send mail to [e-mail] with 'help' in the Subject.
Information about how to join a mailing list for those wanting to buy,
sell, and trade CDs, LPs, and tapes will be returned to you.

Tablature/chords for guitar is available from several archives. Try these
two sources:

    ftp://unix.hensa.ac.uk/pub/uunet/doc/music/guitar/
    ftp://ftp.uni-stuttgart.de/pub/misc/guitar/

There are several Lyric/Music Servers. Here are two:

    http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/Menu/mus_archs.html
    http://vivarin.pc.cc.cmu.edu/lyrics.html

If you're into Chinese music, check out the Web address:

    http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/multimedia/chinese-music/

Choose between Model Beijing Opera, Ceremonial songs and music, Songs
during the "Cultural Revolution" (mostly for Mao), Dream Of Red Mansion,
Folk songs and local opera, Historical Voices, Pop songs after the down-
fall of "Gang Of Four," Post Liberation, Pre Liberation, Current Hits,
Chinese traditional music (various instrumental). Also included are some
music from Taiwan and the Hong Kong area.

Usenet has

    rec.music.country.western
    rec.music.indian.misc
    alt.music.ebm
    alt.music.enya
    alt.punk
    alt.rap
    alt.rave
    alt.rock-n-roll.hard
    alt.rock-n-roll.metal

and over forty other music groups.

FidoNet has 60S_70S_PROGROCK "about the progressive rock music of the 60's
and 70's," gospel music (in CHR_GSPL_MUSIC), a club for selling and buying
between musicians (MUSICIAN'S_SERVICES), and the MUSIC_COMP_101 echo for
aspiring composers.

StampNet (http://www.stampnet.com) offers a virtual stamp library of
images, world class dealers, want lists, and many interesting links for
collectors.

CompuServe's Coin/Stamp/Collectibles Forum has sections for collectors of
stamps and covers, coins and currency, sports cards, books and media,
autographs, sports memorabilia, music, dolls and figurines, and more.

CompuServe's RockNet forum has this structure:

       Available message sections:      Available file libraries:
        0 General/Misc.                    0 General Misc
        1 Rock Music                       1 Rock Music
        2 Rock Radio                       2 Rock Radio
        3 Reviews/LK                       3 Reviews
        4 Q&A/Help                         4 Q&A/Help
        5 Rock Film & Video                5 Rock Film & Video
        6 RockLetters                      6 RockLetters
        7 Trends                           7 Trends
        8 Heavy Metal                      8 Heavy Metal
        9 Old Wave                         9 Old Wave
       10 New Music                       10 New Music
       11 CD Hotline                      11 Compact Discs
       12 Green, Village                  12 Graphics/Programs

You can tailor your RockNet visits to your personal interests. If you are
into Heavy Metal, limit your readings of messages to those in section 8,
and possibly 3 and 7.

The Music and Performing Arts Forum (GO MUSICARTS) is another interesting
place on CompuServe. Converse with fellow music fans about on topics like
classical, jazz/blues, Big Band, country/folk and religious music, ballet,
dance, drama and more.

Pets
----
DOM_BIRD (on [e-mail]) is a discussion list for owners,
breeders and farmers of domesticated birds.  Topics include anything from
the nutritional requirements, to the shows and events held for displaying
the many variety of fancy breeds of domesticated birds.  If you wish to
discuss equipment used for incubating eggs, the veterinary care and
management of adults or chicks, or find the best way to handle any aspect
of domesticated bird ownership, you can be expected to be welcome.

Usenet has:

  rec.pets                Pets, pet care, and household animals in general.
  rec.pets.birds          The culture and care of indoor birds.
  rec.pets.cats           Discussion about domestic cats.
  rec.pets.herp           Reptiles, amphibians and other exotic vivarium pets.
  alt.pets.rabbits        Coneys abound. See also alt.fan.john-palmer.
  alt.pets.hamsters       Pretty popular rodent pets

  alt.aquaria             Fish and Aquarium discussion
  alt.aquaria.killies     Killifish, members of family cyprinodontidae
  rec.aquaria             Keeping fish and aquaria as a hobby
  sci.aquaria             Scientifically-oriented postings about aquaria

  rec.pets.dogs           Any and all subjects relating to dogs as pets.
  rec.pets.dogs.activities    Dog events: showing, obedience, agility
  rec.pets.dogs.behavior  Behaviors and problems: housetraining, chewing
  rec.pets.dogs.breeds    Breed specific -- breed traits, finding breeders
  rec.pets.dogs.health    Info about health problems & how to care for dogs
  rec.pets.dogs.info      General information and FAQs posted here
  rec.pets.dogs.misc      All other topics, chat, humor,
  rec.pets.dogs.rescue    Information about breed rescue, placing and
                          adopting

Frequently Asked Questions information about dogs is on the Web at
http://www.zmall.com/pet_talk/dog-faqs/homepage.html.

The protection-dogs mailing list is for topics of protection training, and
this includes training of sport dogs and or personal protection.  To join,
send an email to Mark Webb Ferrasci  ([e-mail]) telling a little
about yourself and why you want to join the group.

The CANINE-L mailing list (at [e-mail]) covers a wide
variety of dog-related topics. The FELINE-L mailing list is for people who
have cats as companions in their lives (at [e-mail]), while
the Cat Fanciers Home Page at http://www.ai.mit.edu/fanciers/fanciers.html
has a plethora of frequently asked questions about all issues cat-related.

CompuServe has the Pets/Animal Forum (GO PETS) with message sections like
Dogs' World, Cat's Meow, Caged Birds, Reptiles/Exotic, Ask-A-Vet, Horse
Keeping, Cat Breeders World, The Support Group, Small Mammals, Horse
Training, Livestock, and a bulky archive with information files.

For more on pets, try Pets World (http://www.basenet.net/~tci/pets.html).
It has over 200 pet related links covering 14 subjects!



Wine and food
-------------
Some people prefer to fill the stomach rather than their ears. If this
sounds right, what about some French culinary art? Visit chef Paul Bocuse
at the Lyon Life Gastronomy page. Learn how to make Truffles Soup Ilysie,
and read Paul's wise words about cooking:

   "Memory and hunger are the main ingredients of cooking. I still think
   to the roast calf that my grand mother used to make. I still see her
   digging a small well in the mashed potatoes to pour the sauce whose
   inimitable taste still makes me salivate. Cooking is the dish that
   one places on the table, which steams, which smells good, and which
   one serves twice. There is only one cooking, the good one."

http://www.ec-lyon.fr/home.en/Rhone-Alpes/Lyon/Art_de_vivre/Cuisine/main.htm
is indeed a hard Web address to remember. Not so with the taste of Paul's
truffle soup!

The EAT-L mailing list ([e-mail]) is a club for
FoodLore/Recipe Exchange. On J-FOOD-L ([e-mail]),
Japanese food and culture is in the focus. You'll find an abundance of
recipes in this file archive:

    ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/recipes/

If your interest is more academic, subscribe to FOODWINE (on
[e-mail]) - "For those seriously interested in the
academic study of food and its accompaniments in the 1990's, including a
variety of disciplines, such as marketing, communications, hospitality,
consumer affairs, hotel and catering management."

OZWINE is for the discussion of Australian and New Zealand wines. To
subscribe, send "subscribe" in the body of your email letter to
[e-mail].

For South African wines, try http://www.cs.wits.ac.za/~ian/WineFAQ.html.
The Spanish Wine Page: http://www.eunet.es/InterStand/vino/es_vino.html.
The World Wine Web and The Wine Encyclopedia (http://www.winevin.com/)
has French and English language details about vineyards, viticulture,
winemaking and aging by producer and vintage.

Usenet has rec.food.cooking, rec.food.recipes, rec.food.restaurants,
rec.food.drink, and rec.food.veg for vegetarians. For Slovak recipes,
try http://www.nomius.com/personal/sasarec/sasarec.htm.

Call CompuServe for the Cooks Online forum (for gourmets), and the Wine
and Beer Forum (for their throats). The latter even has its own "smoking"
section, called "Cigars/Pipes."

On FidoNet, pursue INTERCOOK for words of wisdom on International Cooking.
On ILINK and RelayNet, join CUISINE. That is where we found the following
recipe for Mexican Meatloaf:

        2 lb Ground Beef
        1 ea Bell Pepper, Diced
   10 1/2 oz Cream Chicken Soup
       10 oz Cheddar Cheese
        4 oz Green Chilies, Diced
        1 ea Onion, Chopped
        8 oz Taco Sauce
        1 pk Tortillas
        4 oz Mushrooms (fresh optional)
        2 ea Jalapenó's (to taste)

  1. Brown ground beef and drain.
  2. Mix onions, green peppers, mushrooms, green CHILIES, taco
     sauce, jalapenó's and cream chicken soup into skillet with
     ground beef.
  3. Simmer until vegetables are soft.
  4. Shred cheddar cheese.
  5. In crock pot or dish, layer meat mixture, cheese, and
     tortillas; heat until cheese melts.

Bon apetit!

Outdoor life
------------
As usual, Usenet has a lot. These are some examples:

  rec.aviation        Aviation rules, means, and methods.
  rec.backcountry     Activities in the Great Outdoors.
  rec.bicycles        Bicycles, related products and laws.
  rec.birds           Hobbyists interested in bird watching.
  rec.boats           Hobbyists interested in boating.
  rec.boats.paddle    Talk about any boats with oars, paddles, etc.
  rec.climbing        Climbing techniques, competition
                      announcements, etc.

Scouts participate in SCOUTER on FidoNet (International SCOUTING
Conference) and SCOUTS-L ([e-mail]). Golfers meet in
GOLF-L (on [e-mail]).

Photo enthusiasts often start with PhotonNet's Web page:

    http://www.scotborders.co.uk/photon/netindex.html

Then, they track down PHOTO-L. To join, send your subscription request to
[e-mail] (SUB PHOTO-L Your-Full-Name).

If you are into 3-d (stereo) photography, enroll in "3d:"

    Contact: [e-mail] (Tom Neff)
    Purpose: Discussion of 3-D (stereo) photography. General info,
    hints, experiences, equipment, techniques, and stereo
    "happenings."  Anyone interested is welcome to join.

There are clubs for all popular outdoor hobbies.


    | "Contact [e-mail]" above means that you must |
    | write a message to this Internet email address with a         |
    | subscription request, or to receive further information       |
    | about how to join. This mailing list does not have automatic  |
    | subscriptions.                                                |

CompuServe's Great Outdoors SIG is for those preferring nature for the
computer screen. Its sections are called:

  General/Photography, Scouting, Power Boating, TROUT UNLIMITED,
  Fishing, Hunting, Cycling, AUDUBON/Birding, Canoe/Kayak/Raft,
  Camp/Hike/Walk/RV, Snow Sports/Climb, OWAA, CIS/Computers,
  Firearms, NRA, Environmnt/Wildlife, OUTDOOR LIFE mag.

If you dream of visiting Alaska to hunt, fish and explore the wilderness by
canoe, then this is the place. Add the Outdoor Cooking section of the Cooks
Online Forum to make it perfect.

CompuServe has a Photography Forum, and its SCUBA Forum has a section for
underwater photography. There is "Photography" on Exec-PC and The Well,
PHOTO on RelayNet, PHOTOSIG on ILINK and rec.photo on Usenet.

Scandinavian bulletin boards on the MIX network exchange the "JAKT_FRILUFT"
conference. ILINK offers OUTDOORS, which focuses on outdoor hobbies.

Roots
-----
Tracing family history used to be difficult. In the days before personal
computers and data networking, performing the necessary record research in
far-flung libraries, courthouses and cemeteries could take a lifetime.
Sometimes logistical barriers prevented the proper research from ever being
carried out.

With data networking capabilities, researchers can exchange information,
tips and family records. Now, a genealogy buff in Toronto or Wien can ask a
favor of a comrade in Buenos Aires or Sidney to look up a record or two,
check out a graveyard or provide some missing bit of information about
local history and family names. Sometimes these networking hobbyists even
discover that they are related!

ROOTS-L ([e-mail]) and soc.roots on Usenet are all
about genealogy. Here, you will get tips about tools and techniques. You
can exchange information about ancestors, and find new friends and partners
for joint research, and learn about genealogical Web sites.

On the World Wide Web, start with Genealogy Resources on the Internet, at

     http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cgaunt/gen_int1.html

Then, check these links:

     http://www.sn.no/disnorge/genress.htm (Scandinavian resources)
     ftp://ftp.cac.psu.edu/pub/genealogy/public_html
     http://ftp.cac.psu.edu/~saw/
     http://www.qrz.com/gene/genealogy.html
     http://pubweb.acns.nwu.edu/~pib/genealo.htm

CompuServe has The Genealogy Forum. One message section is called Overseas
Ancestry. Remember to check out the Family History Library, a newsletter
bringing news from the library for genealogical research in Salt Lake City,
U.S.A. (stored in Library 10.)

The North American bulletin boards ROOTS-BBS (San Francisco) and THE FAMILY
ROOTS (Oklahoma) are connected to FidoNet.

GEnie has the Genealogy Knowledgebase. FidoNet has

     GENDATA               Genealogy Database
     GENEALOGY:_WGW        Who's Got What (WGW) Database
     GENSOFT               Genealogy software
     SE_GENEALOGY          South Eastern US Genealogy Conference

Since FidoNet has links all over the world, these conferences can give
contacts in countries that you might otherwise have problems in reaching.

On most of these services, you'll find interesting genealogy programs and
files with practical hints about how to write a book about your family.

Him and Her
-----------
Members of the female sex have their favorite meeting places. Usenet has
alt.feminism and soc.feminism. Those with limited access to Usenet, may
subscribe to "feminism-digest." Send email to

   [e-mail]

to get on the mailing list.

To join the mailing list "feminists," write Patricia Collins on
[e-mail] . She presents the forum's purpose in this way:

    The feminist mailing list is intended to provide a forum
    for discussion of issues of interest to women, in a friendly
    atmosphere. The basic tenets of feminism and the day-to-day
    experiences of women do not have to be explained or defended.
    Men and women can join, but everyone requesting to be added to
    the mailing list MUST provide the moderator with: (1) a full
    name; (2) a complete UUCP path to a well-known host or a fully
    specified Internet address; (3) the correspondent's gender (for
    records and statistics only).  NO exceptions.

ILINK has Women and Feminism. Mailing lists include FEMISA on
([e-mail]). Also, check out this Web site:
http://www.clark.net/pub/s-gray/feminist.html.

While we're at it, let's move on to other topics associated with the term
sex. Infoqueer (at http://login.infoqueer.org/queer/qis/) covers some of
them.

Bisexuals have "sappho" on UUCP. Contact [e-mail]. On
Internet, there are BIFEM-L (on [e-mail]), BISEXU-L (on
[e-mail]) and others.

Spanish speaking users can subscribe to ARENAL (Lista de discussion para
hispanos/as que desean acabar con la homofobia). Subscribe by email to
[e-mail]

Usenet has lots of it: soc.motss, alt.politics.homosexuality, alt.sex,
alt.sex.bestiality, alt.sex.bondage, alt.sex.pictures.d, alt.sex.motss,
clari.news.group.gays, alt.sex.pictures, clari.feature.kinsey (Sex Q&A and
Advice from Kinsey Institute), clari.news.law.crime.sex and clari.news.sex.
(Validation required for access to Clarinet.)

Conferences called "SEXUALITY" are alive on FidoNet and The Well.
CompuServe has a Human Sexuality Adult Forum and a Human Sexuality Open
Forum. STOPRAPE (on [e-mail]) is a Sexual Assault
Activist List.

Finally, there are many pictures of nudes in all possible and impossible
positions. Most of them are childish, some are decidedly pornographic, a
few are beautiful and erotic. Penthouse Magazine is at the Web address
http://www.penthousemag.com/, while Playboy Magazine is at
http://www.playboy.com/.

The online services' policies vary about what kind of pictures and picture
programs to make available. The larger the service, the more conservative
they tend to be.

Other hobbies
The Popular Mechanics magazine (USA) has a great Web site at

    http://popularmechanics.com/

Programs for hobbyists
----------------------
It is no rule that a service need to have a conference about a hobby, to
have interesting programs available for downloading. Programs float around
from service to service much easier than conference items. Still, the best
programs for a given hobby are normally found on services where hobbyists
meet to discuss.

You will find:

    Chess and bridge programs,
    Morse code training programs for ham amateurs,
    Astrology programs,
    Database systems for keeping track of music cassettes or
      records, video cassettes, books, stamps, coins, etc.
    Information systems for wine lovers,
    Recipe programs (tell me what you've got, and I'll tell
      you what you can make), and much more.

On the Internet, search the Virtual Shareware Library for things of
interest (see Chapter 10).

Online shopping
---------------
You can buy almost anything online: video cameras, books, music, Bonsai
plants, golf equipment, canned cakes from Gimmee Jimmy's Cookies, Levi's
trousers, computer equipment, a four-door Nissan Pathfinder SE-V6 car, and
air tickets for Mexico.

Shoppers who let their modem do the "walking" are already a few steps ahead
of people still stuck shopping the old-fashioned way. Experienced online
shoppers know that you can tap a world of stores without ever leaving your
keyboard, and that you can browse and buy with very little effort.

Some services present their wares "for your information only." It is like
reading newspaper ads. You must contact the seller to buy. Other services
have large online supermarkets with many stores, and you can by while you
visit.

On the World Wide Web, there's a directory of links to U.S. Shopping Mall
Retailers at http://www.ecola.com/ez/retail.htm.

AutoPages of Internet is a service for dealers and individual sellers of
exotic and classic automobiles and motorcycles. They are on the World Wide
Web at: http://www.clark.net/pub/networx/autopage/autopage.html . Nice
full-color photographs!

UUCP's "muscle-cars" is where "muscle car" enthusiasts offer advice, share
problems and solutions, discuss technical issues, racing, buying or selling
parts, cars, or services, or just discuss cars and swap stories with each
other. (Contact: [e-mail]).

Other options include "BMW" (Write: [e-mail]), "british-
cars" (Write: [e-mail]), and "italian-cars" (Write:
[e-mail]).

Vintage VW (at [e-mail]) is about Vintage Volkswagens.
This includes the Beetle, Bus (Types II and II/IV), Ghia, Squareback,
Kubelwagen (Thing), bajas, buggies, Schwimmwagen, rails and any VW (air-
cooled) powered vehicle including aircraft. If you're into Skoda cars,
visit their Czech Republic Web site (http://www.skoda-auto.cz/).

Beginners, gurus, mechanics and non-mechanics, restorers and daily drivers
are welcomed. The discussion is about how-to stuff, parts availability,
mechanical questions, show dates, swap meets, club addresses, favorite
stories, etc. To subscribe, send a message to [e-mail].

Porsche lovers meet at porschephiles. Email [e-mail]
for information, or to join. On their Web page, there are Image archives,
Racing Schedules and Information, and a FAQ document. Address:

   http://tta.com//Porschephiles/home.html

Alfa Romeo (Italy) is at http://www.alfaromeo.com/. The Worldwide Car
Network forum has a searchable database of cars for sale on CompuServe.

The NEWSBYTES newsletter brings regular reports of used computers prices
from The Boston Computer Exchange (BOCO). The newsletter is available
on GEnie, ZiffNet on CompuServe, NewsNet, KR Dialog, and others.

CompuServe subscribers get a monthly magazine by mail. "Go Mall Shoppers'
Guide" is a regular insert with color photos and descriptions of selected
products. Type GO MALL, order a product, enter your credit card number, and
have it sent you by mail.

ZiffNet offers the Computer Directory, an online encyclopedia with data
on more than 75,000 hardware and software products sold in North America
(1993). The database is updated monthly.

Planning your vacation
----------------------
So get ready for your vacation. The more planning, the more fun and value.
A simple equation.

Normally, your first step will be to select a destination, be it next door,
or in a remote country. You may want to start with an idea about how far
your money can take you.

City.Net (at http://www.city.net) combines the features of an atlas,
gazetteer, and almanac. It offers general information, tourist guides, and
pictures for thousands of places. Select a region, country, or search for a
desired city to get information. Comprehensive!

Lonely Planet online (http://www.lonelyplanet.com.au/) is another
favorite.

UNESCO's World Heritage list points to special cultural and natural
historic sites around the world worth visiting:

    http://www.unesco.org/whc/heritage.html

"Hotel Anywhere!, The Internet Travel Grid Home Page" offers a directory
of thousands of travel related Web sites from over 200 countries, 3500
locations.  Includes accommodations, airlines, local information, skiing,
golf, cruise lines, travel agents, Usenet groups, and anything else travel
related. At http://www.earthlink.net/~hotelanywhere/.

The "Round-the-World Travel Guide" is an extensive compilation of tips from
travellers also contain journals from Round-the-World trips. Try
http://www.digimark.net/rec-travel/rtw/html/faq.html or
http://www.nectec.or.th/rec-travel/index.html.

There's another nice travel site at http://www.ypn.com/travel/. It covers
FTP and telnet sites, mailing lists, America Online, Compuserve, and more
with links to anything ranging from Amusement Parks, Bizarre Tours,
Casinos, Gambling and Outdoors to Cruises, Fishing, Golf, Honeymoon, Scuba
and Skiing. Surfing by country is possible.

If you're looking for links to city night life around the world, try

    http://www.azc.com/client/enn2/nitelife.htm

On America Online, you can research National Geographic and National
Geographic Traveler Magazines online. You can look up your destination in
the electronic Compton's Encyclopedia.

NewsNet has searchable newsletters focusing on the conditions in particular
countries or parts of the world (news, travel and political risk analysis,
political stability, etc.). - You can search NewsNet's newsletters through
CompuServe's IQuest, KR Dialog, and others.

You must check out the Rec.Travel Library, the possibly most comprehensive
travel and tourism information source on the Internet. They try to maintain
specific information on destinations around the world, as well as general
travel tips. The library is on

   http://www.digimark.net/rec-travel/

The U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT TRAVEL INFORMATION texts are also interesting.
Their Web site also offers maps and flags:

   http://www.stolaf.edu/network/travel-advisories.html

Their December 16, 1994 bulletin for travellers to Nigeria said:

 "The onset of the holiday season and the continuation of bad economic
 conditions in Nigeria increase the incidence of automobile checkpoints by
 persons wearing police or military uniforms.  Many of these checkpoints
 are not sanctioned by the government, but are improvised, usually in
 darkness, by bands of police, soldiers, or bandits posing as or operating
 with police or soldiers.  The purpose of these unauthorized checkpoints
 generally is to extort cash.  The best defense against unauthorized
 checkpoint shakedowns is to avoid night travel, and act cautiously at all
 times.  Checkpoint personnel should be considered armed and could be
 dangerous."

The Central Intelligence Agency-produced World Factbook provides facts
on geography, people, government, economy, communications and defense of
countries around the world. The full text of the book is available at

    http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/pubs.html

You can search it here, and at several other sites, such as

   http://www.research.att.com/cgi-wald/dbaccess/411

If you feel like making plans in real detail, why not start with subway
trips? The Subway Navigator (http://metro.jussieu.fr:10001/) lets you
find a route in subway networks in several cities around the world. The
choices include Vienna, Montreal, Santiago de Chile, Prague Helsinki,
Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt, Athens, Hong Kong, Calcutta, Budapest, Milano,
Tokyo, Mexico City, Amsterdam, Madrid, Barcelona, Stockholm, Kiev, London,
New York City, Miami, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and many more.

Moon Travel Handbooks, publishers of travel guides to North America, Asia,
and the Pacific Islands, is at http://gopher.moon.com:7000/. The GNN
Travel Center Home Page is at

    http://nearnet.gnn.com/gnn/meta/travel/index.html

Have you ever arrived home feeling as though you had been on a whirlwind
tour of too-touristy sites? A tour bus approach may be the only way to get
it "all in" during a couple of day's time, but who said you had to see it
all anyway?

The best way to learn about the place you want to visit is to have a local
guide or a fellow traveler familiar with the territory. Someone who can
direct you to the sights that bus passes and tourbooks overlook. Therefore,
check out the online conferences and their file libraries also.

The TRAVEL-L forum ([e-mail] or [e-mail]) is
for the discussion of travel experiences. Everyone is welcome to recount
their adventures or inquire about future travels. ILINK and The Well have
conferences under the name TRAVEL.

If you want information about indigenous, native, or aboriginal people,
culture, and issues throughout the world, check out The Center For World
Indigenous Studies and The Fourth World Documentation Project at

   http://www.halcyon.com/FWDP/fwdp.html

Consult the Travel Forum on CompuServe for information about SERVAS, a
global guest/host network linking people in 99 countries who want to share
their homes and lives. No money is exchanged, and the average stay is two
days for SERVAS guests.

For foreign language help, check out the Human-Languages Page on WWW:
http://www.willamette.edu/~tjones/Language-Page.html. It contains German-
to-English (and vice-versa) dictionary, "Travelers Japanese" lessons, an
introduction to the Slovene alphabet, a source of Russian and Eastern-
European languages and literature, and more. There's also a Foreign
languages for Travelers service at http://www.travlang.com/languages/.

For travel health information, point your Web browser at

    http://www.intmed.mcw.edu/travel.html

Many conferences and information sources concentrate on particular parts of
the world. Here are some of them. You may want to supplement with some of
the sources listed in Chapter 11, and the news providers in Chapter 9.

Detailed planning
Several international services, including CompuServe and Dow Jones
News/Retrieval, offer OAG (The Official Airline Guide) and Eaasy SABRE (the
American Airlines reservation system). Eaasy SABRE is also on the Web at
http://www.travelocity.com.

Worldscan/Travel shopper is on CompuServe and Delphi. CompuServe's Travel
Forum administers a member travel discount program. Download HOTEL.SAV in
Library 0 for information about lower rates on hotel room and car-rental
rates.

Travel agents are also operative on the Internet, like [e-mail].

PCTravel's real-time air reservation and ticketing service can be reached
at http://www.nando.net/pctravel.html, and http://www.pctravel.com.
You'll get graphical access to airline schedule, fare, and availability
information for over 700 airlines through the Apollo Reservation System.
Travelers buy their tickets online with a credit card and receive them
fast by ordinary mail.

Some services let you book hotel rooms and rent cars online. Travelshopper
has a built-in hotel guide, searchable by city around the world. OAG has a
database of over 40,000 hotels worldwide (1992). It includes the AA Rated
European Hotels & Restaurants menu, which covers trips from Andorra to
Yugoslavia.

TravelWeb links the reservation systems of twenty of the largest hotel
chains with those of the world's airlines. URL: http://www.travelweb.com.

INTELLiCast (at http://www.intellicast.com) provides detailed weather
forecasts for selected cities throughout the world, graphics, animation and
audio. AccuWeather (http://www.accuweather.com/) provides three-day
forecasts for 450 cities worldwide, updated hourly.

Search for additional background information using CompuServe's Magazine
Database Plus, if you do not mind paying a wee surcharge. Look up places to
stay in the ABC Worldwide Hotel Listing.

For distances between cities around the world, their populations,
elevation, latitude/longitude, try http://www.indo.com/distance/. Learn
that a bird flying from Lima, Peru to Oslo, Norway must travel over 11,024
kilometers (6850 miles), unless it has a pretty good built-in compass. ;-)

Finally, before going there, don't forget to adjust your clock. Check
http://www.stud.unit.no/USERBIN/steffent/verdensur.pl for local time
around the world just now.

Africa
------
Africanet (http://www.africanet.com) covers all 56 countries of the
African continent with information on such subjects as visa requirements,
climate, airlines, transport, currency.

Send mail to [e-mail] for a list of Internet/Bitnet
mailing lists that focus on African, African-American, African-Caribbean or
African-Latin issues, and a list of African information sites.

Zaire-L (on [e-mail]) is a discussion list about Zaire
and surrounding Francophone countries, like Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Gabon,
Zambia, Angola and Sudan.

The African Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania (USA) is a
particularly rich offering of African news and information.  (On the URL:
http://www.african.upenn.edu/African_Studies/)

AFRICA-L is the Pan-Africa Forum discussion list (subscription requests
for AFRICA-L should be sent to [e-mail]).

ALGNEWS (on [e-mail]) is the French language Algeria News
List. TUNISNET (on [e-mail]) is The Tunisia Network.

For EGYPT-NET, the Egypt Discussion and News forum, write

   [e-mail]

You will find many links to Egypt and Egyptology resources throughout the
Web at http://pages.prodigy.com/G/U/N/guardian/egypt.htm. Categories
include: General Egypt Pages, Pyramids, Sites and Monuments, Egyptian Art
& Music, Egypt Travel, and more.

Egypt's Regional Information & Communication Network has a gopher on
gopher://ritsec.com.eg/1. It offers country profiles for Algeria, Egypt,
Morocco, Syria, and Tunisia, and information about economy, geography,
communication, research, government, people.

While visiting, take a look at Collection of Arabic and Islamic
manuscripts, Treasures of the Egyptian Museum, and Tut the King.

For information on Ethiopia, check out http://rs6.loc.gov/et_00_00.html.
This extensive country study report has the following sections: History,
The Society and its Environment, The Economy, Government and Politics,
National Security,

Write to [e-mail] to subscribe to "the Ethiopians' E-
mail group." Put "join EthioForum" in the body of your mail.

On Usenet, check out

  soc.culture.african     Discussions about Africa & things African.
  soc.culture.maghreb     North African society and culture.
  soc.culture.nigeria     About Nigeria
  soc.culture.arabic      Technological & cultural issues, *not* politics.
  soc.culture.somalia     News from Somalia.
  soc.culture.berber

There are many South African newsgroups under the za hierarchy, like:

  za.ads.lifts          Want a lift from Bulawayo to Cape Town via Durbs?
  za.archives           Who's got what, where... and how...
  za.culture.xhosa      For discussions of Xhosa language and culture.
                        (Ingxoxo ngolwini, amasiko nezithete zakwaXhosa.)
  za.events             Conferences, events and happenings nationally
  za.humour             Humour/jokes/fun
  za.misc               General chat, comments, announcements etc
  za.net.misc           Miscellaneous ramblings on networking in ZA
  za.sport              Finer points of jukskei or the Comrades marathon

The za hierarchy is also distributed outside South Africa. Check out
http://www.ru.ac.za/usenet.html for information on how to get a newsfeed.

You may also find things of interest in soc.culture.misc (discussion about
other cultures), and soc.culture.native (Aboriginal people around the
world.) Also, it may useful to search or monitor Usenet more broadly for
African country specific information using Reference.COM (see Chapter 11).

If you plan a safari in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi,
Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya, check out these South African offerings:

   http://www.aztec.co.za/exinet/travel/travel.html
   http://www.africa.com/~venture/

The Cape Town page is at http://www.aztec.co.za/aztec/capetown.html, and
for more South African tourism information, check out this Web address:
http://www.africa.com/captour/.

The African National Congress (ANC) gopher (gopher://gopher.anc.org.za)
has information about South African history, policy documents, and press
statements. A summary of South African demographics by region is on
http://www.aztec.co.za/exinet/sa_regn.html.

The South Africa FAQ (http://www.cs.wits.ac.za/FAQ.html) has country
specific information on Abyssinia, Eritrea, Malawi, and Ethiopia. The
Abyssinia FAQ has information on Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and
Somaliland.

CompuServe's Travel Forum has an Africa/Middle East section.

For more, check out The WWW Organization's DataSources library on the Web
address: http://www.w3.org/hypertext/DataSources/WWW/Africa.html.

Asia and The Pacific
--------------------
On the Web, http://www.pata.org is the official site of The Pacific Asia
Travel Association (PATA). Provides destination and travel info about 41
member nations through links to their tourist offices.

The soc.culture hierarchy on Usenet has area codes like afghanistan,
asian, arabic, asean, australian, bangladesh, china, filipino, hongkong,
indonesia, israel, iranian, jewish, korean, laos, lebanon, malaysia, nepal,
new-zealand, pakistan, singapore, sri-lanka, taiwan, thai, turkish, and
vietnamese. The alt.taiwan.republic is a variant of soc.culture.taiwan,
only different.

If your destination in the Middle East, you may find the quarterly MIDDLE
EAST RESOURCES newsletter interesting. It is published by the Arab World
And Islamic Resources and School Services (AWAIR) for Social Studies
Educators. Write [e-mail] for information.

The Arab Countries' Sites page (http://www.liii.com/~hajeri/arab.html) is
also worth a visit. It offers information on Dubai, United Arab Emirates,
Middle Eastern and African countries, Islam, and Arabic newspapers. The
Saudi Arabia page (http://imedl.saudi.net/) has information on culture,
arts, travel, etc., and arab.net (http://www.arab.net/) offers links to
Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi,
Arabia Syria, Tunisia, UAE, and Yemen.

The official travel guide to Singapore, Singapore Online Guide, is at
http://www.ncb.gov.sg/sog/sog.html. For Australia, try the Australian
Back Packers Guide http://www.world.net/touristradio/Back_Pack.html. For
some Aboriginal Art, check http://www.macmedia.com.au/Tandanya.html. The
Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Institute says the aborigines claim roots that
reach back 40,000 years.

For information about Phuket, Thailand, try http://www.phuket.net/.

Many links and information on exciting Papua New Guinea can be found at
http://coombs.anu.edu.au/SpecialProj/PNG/WWWVL-PNG.html, and don't forget
Mongolia (http://www.magic.mn/). It's an interesting place to visit for
horse riding, swimming, trekking, birdwatching, climbing, rafting, and
more.

Japan
-----
Sushi, geishas, green tea, bullet trains, and sumo wrestlers. If this is
your first visit to Japan, consider learning about the territory through
TWICS in Tokyo. It presents itself like this:

  "Japan is an island nation, full of communities in villages,
  towns, and cities squeezed in between the mountains and the sea,
  with ports of various sizes and shapes through which communication
  flows between communities.

  Our own online community is organized in the same terms, an
  island community "BEEJIMA" (Bee Island), with our village
  ("MURA"), a port ("MINATO"), and our very own volcanic mountain
  ("YAMA").

  In the village, there is a village office ("YAKUBA"), a community
  meeting place ("YORIAI"), a high-tech corner ("AKIHABARA") named
  after the famous electronics district in Tokyo, a health center
  ("EMEDICA"), a place to hang around and read things ("HON YA"), a
  school ("GAKKOU"), and a market ("ICHIBA"). The port has holding
  areas and leads to other parts of Japan ("NIPPON") and the world
  ("SEKAI").  The mountain has a hot springs ("ONSEN") recreational
  area, and a lively outdoor bath ("IN THE OFURO") which has become
  the social center of our island.

Add to this soc.culture.japan on Usenet, and the following discussion
lists:

    CJS-L (Center for Japanese Studies List). Send the command
          INFO CJS-L to [e-mail].

    nihon-seiji - Discussions of contemporary politics and political reform
          in Japan. Send the command "information nihon-seiji" to
          [e-mail].

If this is your first visit, see http://www.gol.com/jguide/jinfo.html
before you go. Then, visit gopher://gan.ncc.go.jp/11/JAPAN for
information on Japan's culture, diplomacy, economy, events, food,
geography, government, history, cultural history, society, and more.

If you are very determined, try NIHONGO ([e-mail]), a forum
for discussion of the Japanese language. (The mailing list is crossposted
to the sci.lang.japan newsgroup on Usenet.)

China
-----
There is a map of China at http://www.cnd.org/Other/china.jpg, and
regional information at http://www.ihep.ac.cn/tour/china_tour.html with
details about

Anhui, Beijing, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei,
Heilongjiang, Hubei, Henan, Hunan, Inner Mongolia (Nei Monggu), Jiangsu,
Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shandong, Shanghai, Shan1xi1,
Shan3xi1, Sichuan, Tianjin, Tibet (Xizang), Xinjiang, Yunnan, and Zhejiang.

The CND InfoBase (http://www.cnd.org) offers many high-resolution scenery
pictures of China.

The Chinese Community Information Center claims the world largest collection
of Chinese magazines and newsletters in computer file form, as well as
Chinese texts, ranging from Confucius classics to Wang Shuo's fictions. At:
ftp://ftp.ifcss.org, and http://www.ifcss.org:8001/.

India
-----
Traveller Sergio Paoli in Argentina maintains what is possibly the largest
collection of links to India related information on the Internet:

    http://webhead.com/~sergio/india.html

The India Network and Research Foundation (USA) offers detailed information
about India, such as tourism (including customs & baggage rules, clickable
map, and images), major news headlines, culture and fine arts, film music,
recipes, sports which include hockey, cricket and tennis. URL:

    http://india.bgsu.edu/

It has links to Embassy of India in Washington, DC (USA) resources, other
Research Resources on India, and several digests (on News, News and
Discussion, Personal Network, Telugu, Faculty).

India Online has information about travel related services and places of
interest (http://indiaonline.com/travel.html). Their travel guide has
tips, things to do, places to visit, means to travel etc. For pictures of
India, try

    http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~arun/gifjpg.html

A travel agent survey is posted monthly on many Indian related soc.culture
groups. The most recent version can be retrieved by electronic mail to
[e-mail], and at this Web address

    http://www.cc.gatech.edu/grads/k/Prince.Kohli/Prince.Kohli.html

The India Humor home page is filled with jokes, cartoons, funny facts.
Click on the India map at this Web address for access:

    http://www.temple.edu/~betul

India Online offers information about Indian food, including listings of
Indian Restaurants around the world, recipes, etc:

   http://indiaonline.com/food.html

There are many India-related newsgroups, including:

   + alt.culture.karnataka       Culture and language of the Indian state
                                 of Karnataka.
   + alt.culture.kerala
   + alt.hindu                   On Hinduism and Hindu culture.
   + alt.india.progressive       Progressive politics in the Indian sub-
                                 continent.

   + misc.news.southasia         News from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, etc.
   + rec.music.indian.classical  Hindustani and Carnatic Indian classical
                                 music.
   + rec.music.indian.misc       Discussing Indian music in general.
   + rec.travel.asia             Traveling in Asia.
   + soc.culture.indian          Group for discussion about India & things
                                 Indian.
   + soc.culture.indian.info     Info group for soc.culture.indian, etc.
   + soc.culture.indian.telugu   The culture of the Telugu people of India.
   + soc.culture.tamil
   + soc.culture.punjab
   + soc.culture.indian.kerala
   + soc.culture.bengali
   + soc.culture.indian.marathi
   + tamu.culture.india

There are several mailing lists, including:

    INDIA-D ([e-mail]) - Discussion on the affairs of the
              Indian subcontinent, and issues facing Indians living abroad.
              (Moderated). It can also be read on bit.listserv.india-d.
              Contribution required.

    HINDU-D (on [e-mail]) - On Hinduism. This
              moderated group can also be read at bit.listserv.hindu-d
              (digest.).

    FROI-L ([e-mail]) Friends of India. Write to
              [e-mail]

Tibet
-----
The TIBET-L mailing list is about Tibet and the Tibetan people. Subscribe
by email to [e-mail].

Indonesia
---------
The Indoz-net (INdonesia-OZtralia-NETwork) mailing list deals with anything
about Indonesia (at [e-mail]). More information at
http://www.gu.edu.au/gint/ozlists/indonesia.html. For Bali, check out
http://bali.simplenet.com/.

Iran
----
The purpose of the Tehran Archive (http://tehran.Stanford.Edu) is to
distribute materials related to Iran and to Persian culture. Also, check
out ParsNet at http://www.rimatech.com/parsnet/ for links to interesting
Persian Web sites.

Central and South America
-------------------------
In "argentina," you can learn how to make empanadas while sharpening up
your Spanish before an upcoming visit to Buenos Aires. To join, write to
[e-mail].

Then there is CHILE-L (at [e-mail]), or FOLLAC, a
mailing list about 'Folklore Latino, Latinoamericano y Caribeno'. Write
Emily Socolov at [e-mail] to join.

To brush up your Portuguese, consider joining BRAS-NET, a Brazilian mailing
list/network. Send the subscription request to [e-mail]
For general information about other Brazilian interest groups, write
[e-mail]. The BRAZILIS Index (in Portuguese) is at
http://www.brazilis.com.br/is/, and a source of English language travel
tips at http://www.iqm.unicamp.br/brasil.html.

If you understand Spanish and are intrigued by the old Maya indians, try El
Mundo de la Cultura Maya at http://www.yucatan.com.mx/mayas/mapamay.htm

On Usenet, check out

  soc.culture.latin-america       Topics about Latin-America.
  soc.culture.argentina   All about life in Argentina.
  soc.culture.brazil      Talking about the people and country of Brazil.
  soc.culture.chile       All about Chile and its people.
  soc.culture.mexican     Discussion of Mexico's society.
  soc.culture.peru        All about the people of Peru.
  soc.culture.uruguay     Discussions of Uruguay for those at home and abroad.
  soc.culture.venezuela   Discussion of topics related to Venezuela.

CompuServe's Travel Forum has sections called Mexico/Central America,
Caribbean, and South America.

Europe
------
Usenet has

  alt.culture.austrian    You'll find more Austrians in soc.culture.austria.
  soc.culture.austria     Austria and its people.
  soc.culture.french      French culture, history, and related discussions.
  soc.culture.netherlands People from the Netherlands and Belgium.
                            (The newsgroup's FAQ file is interesting.)
  soc.culture.portuguese  Discussion of the people of Portugal.
  soc.culture.spain       Spain and the Spanish.
  alt.comedy.british      Discussion of British comedy in a variety of media.
  alt.fan.british-accent  "Oooh, he just sounds soooo cool!  *Giggle*"
  alt.politics.british    Politics and a real Queen, too.

The soc.culture hierarchy has area codes like british, celtic, europe,
german, greek, italian, magyar, nordic, polish, soviet, and yugoslavia.

The United Hostels of Europe homepage has a selection of youth hostels for
the budget traveller (http://www.hostelwatch.com/hostels/welcome.html).

If off to England, check the UK Theatre Web http://www.uktw.co.uk/ for a
list of amateur and professional theatre, opera and dance. Covers the whole
country.

Servicom (at http://www.servicom.es) is a gateway into Spain's culture
and offerings, and in particular if you can read Spanish or Catalan. For
the Canary Islands, try http://www.ulpgc.es/rcid.html, and information
about Gibraltar can be found at http://www.gibraltar.gi/.

Fancy French jazz? Try http://www.erb.com/cdeus/jazzfr.htm. About jazz
festivals, jazz TV and radio programs, jazz music awards, jazz magazines,
jazz clubs and concerts throughout France. Information in English and
French. The French Foreign Office is at http://www.france.diplomatie.fr/.
For a virtual visit to Paris, try http://www.cnam.fr/louvre/paris/.

Luxembourg is at http://www.eo.net/new/. You'll find links to Copenhagen,
Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo, Aalborg, Gothenburg, and other Scandinavian
cities at http://www.algonet.se/~nikos/nordic.html. Zagreb is at
http://tjev.tel.etf.hr/hrvatska/HRgradovi/Zagreb/Zagreb.html, and London
at http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/misc/uk/london.html.

Finland's Virtual Embassy is at http://www.mofile.fi/fennia/um. If you
are intrigued by northern lights, browse the Northern Lights Planetarium
(Norway) site: http://www.uit.no/npt/nordlyset/nordlyset.en.html.

The British Eurodollar car rental company is on the World Wide Web at URL:
http://www.eurodollar.co.uk. Timetables to German railway stations and many
other European cities are on http://www.mcs.net/~dsdawdy/cyberoad.html.
If you want to check up the weather on the British Isles, or plan to travel
around, check out http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/misc/uk/intro.html#map. Today's
weather map is at http://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/public/weather/images/uk/uk.gif.

The Scotland Travels and Business Exchange is at the Web address:

   http://www.ibmpcug.co.uk/~ecs/

For information of how to learn French over the Internet, write Bruno Oudet
at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C., USA ([e-mail]).
Practice at Branchez-vous! (http://www.branchez-vous.com/).

Windows on Italy (http://www.mi.cnr.it:80/WOI/) offers information about
cities and regions, daily news by ANSA (National Agency of Associated
Press), cultural tidbits, tourist information, and more. The famous Opera
theatre Teatro alla Scala of Milano is at http://lascala.milano.it/.

The THRACE mailing list (on [e-mail]) is a forum for
discussions of Greek West Thracian (A Province in Greece) Turkish Minority
issues. For a virtual tour of Athen's Acropolis, try WebAcropol, at
http://atlas.central.ntua.gr:8080/. When starting detailed planning,
check http://www.vacation.forthnet.gr/.

BALT-L ([e-mail]) is focusing on the Baltic states.
The latest weather forecast for Europe is at

    http://shamrock.csc.fi/wmap.html.

GEnie has a Deutschland RoundTable providing for interaction with users
from this country. CompuServe has an Europe forum, and its Travel Forum
has an Europe section. If your destination is Germany, practice Deutsch in
the Deutsches Forum (GO GERNET).

CompuServe has a European Forum. Its message sections include the European
Question, an Italian message Section, a French Section, a Nordic Section,
and the Spanish Section. The International Forum has the Europe/UK/EEC
message Section.

Visit the UK Computing Forum. Its library contains files with tips about
affordable hotels, and British road signs. GO to The Central Press Features
for reviews of the top 20 shows in London. Enter GO AF for Air France
flight, hotel room and car rental information.

CompuServe's Travel Britain Online is a database of festivals, concerts,
theater and sporting events, London-only events, a listing of London pubs
and clubs, and the latest news from the British Tourist Authority.

North America
-------------
CompuServe let you read reviews of theater performances, books, movies and
restaurants, opera, symphonies, ballets, dance, museums and art galleries.
They have information about airline schedules and prices, hotels and the
latest ski weather forecast.

The soc.culture hierarchy on Usenet has many interesting newsgroups,
including soc.culture.canada.

CompuServe's Travel Forum has sections called United States, Canada, and
Hawaii. There are also a California Forum, a Florida Forum, West Coast
Travel, and the Zagat Restaurant Guide.

For a North American music events calendar, point your Web browser at
http://www.automatrix.com/concerts/.

In addition to this, you will find an abundance of information on travels
in the United States on most major networks.

xUSSR
-----
REESweb, at http://www.pitt.edu/~cjp/rees.html, offers a comprehensive
list of links to WWW Servers in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic
countries, Armenia, Georgia, Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Bosnia,
Chechnya, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Moldavia, and more.

Sources are grouped under broad subject areas, such as Language,
Literature, Music, Art, Culture, Government and Public Affairs, Science,
Technology, Engineering, Computers, Business, Communications, Economics,
Law, History, Geography, Sociology.

Relcom's Window-to-Russia page http://www.kiae.su/www/wtr/ has
information about almost everything, from finances to securities.

Usenet has

  soc.culture.bulgaria            Discussing Bulgarian society.
  soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna      The independent state of Bosnia and
                                  Herzegovina.
  soc.culture.croatia             The lives of people of Croatia.
  soc.culture.romanian            Discussion of Romanian and Moldavian people.
  soc.culture.yugoslavia          Discussions of Yugoslavia and its people.
  soc.culture.czecho-slovak       Bohemian, Slovak, Moravian and Silesian life.
  soc.culture.soviet              Topics relating to Russian or Soviet
                                  culture.
  alt.culture.tuva                Topics related to the Republic of Tuva,
                                  South Siberia.

Politics
--------
Start by visiting The Links to Government Servers and Information page
at http://www.eff.org:80/govt.html. It is long, but very comprehensive.

The Parliamentary Elections Around the World page offers an extensive
database by country on election results and parties. World Wide Web
address: http://www.universal.nl/users/derksen/election/home.htm.

These newsgroups are filled with political discussions:

  alt.india.progressive   Progressive politics in the Indian sub-continent.
  alt.politics.british    Politics and a real Queen, too.
  alt.politics.clinton    Discussing Slick Willie & Co.
  alt.politics.correct    A Neil Bush fan club.
  alt.politics.datahighway      Electronic interstate infrastructure.
  alt.politics.drinking-age     Regarding age restrictions for alcohol use.
  alt.politics.economics  War == Poverty, & other discussions.
  alt.politics.elections  All about the process of electing leaders.
  alt.politics.greens     Green party politics & activities worldwide.
  alt.politics.homosexuality    As the name implies
  alt.politics.korea      A forum for political issues in Korea
  alt.politics.libertarian      The libertarian ideology.
  alt.politics.org.batf   Politics of the U.S. firearms regulation agency.
  alt.politics.org.misc   Political organizations.
  alt.politics.radical-left     Who remains after the radicals left?
  alt.politics.reform     Political reform.
  alt.politics.sex        Not a good idea to mix them.
  alt.politics.socialism.trotsky  Trotskyite socialism discussions.
  alt.politics.usa.constitution   U.S. Constitutional politics.
  alt.politics.usa.misc   Miscellaneous USA politics.
  alt.politics.usa.republican   Discussions of the USA Republican Party.
  alt.religion.sexuality        The politics of sexuality and religion.
  info.firearms.politics  Political firearms discussions
                          (also on [e-mail]).
  relcom.politics         Political discussions.
  soc.culture.arabic      Technological & cultural issues, *not* politics.
  soc.culture.burma       Politics, culture, news, discussion about Burma.
  soc.culture.jewish      Jewish culture & religion.
  soc.culture.palestine   Palestinian people, culture and politics.
  soc.culture.polish      Polish culture, Polish past, and Polish politics.
  soc.politics            Political problems, systems, solutions.
  talk.politics.animals   The use and/or abuse of animals.
  talk.politics.china     Discussion of political issues related to China.
  talk.politics.crypto    The relation between cryptography and government.
  talk.politics.drugs     The politics of drug issues.
  talk.politics.guns      The politics of firearm ownership and (mis)use.
  talk.politics.medicine  The politics and ethics involved with health care.
  talk.politics.mideast   Discussion & debate over Middle Eastern events.
  talk.politics.misc      Political discussions and ravings of all kinds.
  talk.politics.soviet    Discussion of Soviet politics, domestic and
                          foreign.
  talk.politics.space     Non-technical issues affecting space exploration.
  talk.politics.theory    Theory of politics and political systems.
  talk.politics.tibet     The politics of Tibet and the Tibetan people.
  za.politics           Politics in Southern Africa

Amnesty International is at http://www.amnesty.org/, and Greenpeace
International on http://www.greenpeace.org/.

DERECHOS-L (write to [e-mail]) is a Spanish
language mailing list for the discussion of human rights issues (derechos
humanos).  The list covers human rights in general, but there is an
especial emphasis on issues of human rights in Spanish speaking countries,
civil and political rights, and impunity and social reconciliation.

You will find information about politics in South African on
gopher://gopher.ru.ac.za/11/South%20African%20Politics .

The Fourth World Documentation Project documents important documents
about the social, political, strategic, economic and human rights
situations being faced by Fourth World nations. They have a historical
archive of the political struggles waged by Indigenous Peoples in the
Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia, Melanesia and the Pacific to assert their
rights as sovereign nations. (http://www.halcyon.com/FWDP/fwdp.html)

Clarinet's commercial newsgroups include (validation required for access):

  clari.canada.politics   Political and election items.
  clari.news.politics     Politicians & politics.
  clari.news.politics.people    Politicians & Political Personalities.
  clari.news.religion     Religious politics, issues, religious news
  clari.news.usa.gov.politics   Party politics and electioneering
  clari.tw.health.aids    HIV and AIDS research, politics

The European Union's Europa site has a "Governments On-Line" home page with
a list of Web addresses providing "a starting point for those wishing to
locate and explore citizen-oriented information issued by governments and
other official institutions of European Union member states." Click at
http://www.cec.lu/en/gonline.html.

The White House is at http://www.whitehouse.gov/, The Tasmanian Government
Web Server at http://info.dpac.tas.gov.au/, and the Australian Commonwealth
at http://snazzy.anu.edu.au/augov/commonwealth.html, the Japanese
Government Gopher at gopher://gan.ncc.go.jp/11/JAPAN, The Laos Government
server at http://ftp.nectec.or.th/pub/mirrors/laos/bane_lao/government/ ,
and Iceland's Althingi at http://www.althingi.is. The latter offers all
speeches, and documents on Althingi, its participants and offices. In
English, Danish, and Icelandic. The Government of the Republic of Croatia
is at http://www.vlada.hr/.

For more sites, try http://www.soc.umn.edu/~sssmith/Parliaments.html.

Also, take a look at the leads in Chapter 9 and 11.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 5: Home, education and work
===================================

House, garden and finances
--------------------------
Homeowners are logging on to solve their household problems. They check
into conferences, forums, newsgroups, and mailing lists for feedback from
contractors, architects, and fix-it experts on anything from broken ceiling
fans and whistling dryers to rotting decks and other annoyances. They're
seeking advice on anything related to house, garden, and finances.

The CHIMNEYS-L mailing list is about chimney maintenance. Topics of
interest include fire prevention, safety issues, new products, trouble
shooting, cleaning technics, and anything you can think of about the
chimney cleaning industry. To subscribe, send an email to

    [e-mail]

Put SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Put your full name, name of your company
or affiliation,  state and/or country in the body of the message.

The newsgroup misc.consumers.house on Usenet is where you can discuss
anything related to owning and maintaining a house. For antiques, join a
newsgroup in the rec.antiques hierarchy. First, check out the FAQ file at
http://www.calweb.com/~smccrory/recantfaq.html.

Several software libraries offer shareware and public domain programs to
help you plan and maintain your house.

There are also personal inventory programs (to help you keep track of
belongings), and programs to help you plan allocation of the space in your
home. . .

Other programs will help you prepare tax return forms, plan next year's
taxes, calculate interests and down-payments on your loans, and do double-
entry money-management (personal book-keeping and checkbook balancing).

To succeed as a private investor, the experts say, you must have a strategy
that is appropriate to your unique circumstances, resources for keeping up
to date on investment options, and tools for managing the process of
investing. It sure is an information-intensive activity and a constant
learning process that requires the up-to-date, exhaustive, and anecdotal
information that online services are perfectly suited to meet.

Usenet has misc.invest. RelayNet offers an international conference
called INVESTOR. Dow Jones News/Retrieval has a LOT, and be sure to check
out the Investext service (on NewsNet and others).

House is also home. To bring more "life" into life, some devote themselves
to fashion. For links to fashion-related Usenet newsgroups and mailing
lists, visit http://www.cs.rice.edu/~lwlutz/fashion/Usenet.html.

Others consider adopting a child. For information and experiences, check
out the ADOPTION mailing list on [e-mail]. The National
Issues Forum on CompuServe has a message section called "Adoption Today."

Then there is television. The Interactive Satellite Chart covers all
satellite TV channels worldwide with links to broadcasters' home pages.
URL: http://www.satcodx.com/

Select your region of world for a list of reachable satellites. The regions
are (1) Europe, Africa and Middle East, (2) North and South America, (3)
Asia and South Pacific. Click on a satellite, like Hispasat at 30 degrees
W, for a list of TV channels with frequencies, Web links, encoding schemes
(if any), sound frequencies, and TV text information.

Some sample Web addresses for TV stations:

    Deutsche Welle (Germany) - http://www-dw.gmd.de/english/index.html
    RTL-2 (Germany) - http://www.rtl2.de
    Swedish TV - http://www.svt.se/
    BBC (United Kingdom) - http://www.bbcnc.org.uk/
    Sky (United Kingdom) - http://www.sky.co.uk/
    Travel Channel - http://www.travelchannel.com
    Discovery Channel - http://www.discovery.com
    Arte (French/German) - http://www.lasept-arte.fr/
    Hrvatska Radio Televizija (Croatia) - http://WWW.HRT.Com.HR/

You will find "Die Tages-uebersicht aller Sender nach Genre" for European
TV channels at Pro Sieben Online at http://www.pro-sieben.de/. Categories
include Spielfilm, Information, Unterhaltung, Sport, Serie, Musik.

For links to your favorite TV show's home page and information, check
http://tvnet.com. They want to be "your starting point for television-
related hot spots across Cyberspace and world-wide." Their Ultimate TV List
has thousands of links to popular programmes, most of them made in the US.

Some sample links:

    The Jeopardy Quiz Show -
         http://www.spe.sony.com/Pictures/tv/jeopardy/jeopardy.html
    Late Show with David Letterman - http://www.cbs.com/lateshow/

The Internet Movie Database is at http://www.imdb.com/. Addicted TV-
viewers can follow alt.tv.muppets on Usenet, or some of the many other
offerings in the alt.tv hierarchy of newsgroups. Read about how to get that
book in Chapter 10 if you would rather read mystery novels by the fire
place. . .

If you are interested in traditional Turkish cinema, check out the Web page
at http://www.art.bilkent.edu.tr/studies/cinstd.html.

WebMuseum features online exhibits at the world-famous art museum Louvre in
Paris, France (http://mistral.enst.fr/).

When we "visited," they offered French medieval art, a collection of well-
known paintings from famous artists, and a tour around Paris, the Eiffel
Tower and Champs-Elysees. There are also pointers to museums in other
countries around the world.

Many of the pictures are large. "The Cry" by Norwegian painter and
printmaker Edvard Munch was 110 KB in size, so if you have a dial-up
connection and a slow modem to the Internet, it will take a while.

The French government has made its JOCONDE database of more than 130,000
paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, sculptures, and other pieces
of art kept in over 60 museums throughout France available at

    http://mistral.culture.fr/cgi-bin/mistral/joconde

The art database can searched by topic, artist, location, century, etc.

There are even offerings for "the perfect house wife." Personally, I can
think of no better pastime than origami, the traditional Japanese art of
folding paper. (Contact: [e-mail]).

Oh, I almost forgot: The Internet BONSAI Club: http://www.bonsai-bci.com/.
They have a mailing list is on [e-mail]. Bonsai is
the Oriental Art of miniaturizing trees and plants into forms that mimic
nature. This conference is for the discussion of the art and craft of
Bonsai and related art forms. On Usenet, try rec.arts.bonsai. A FAQ on
Bonsai is also available through the nets.

FidoNet has a long list of interesting conferences:

    HOME-N-GRDN           Home and Garden Questions
    HOMEAUT               Home Automation
    HOMESCHL              Homeschooling support
    HOME_IMP              Improvements around the house.
    HOME_OFFICE           Home Office
    HOME_REPAIR           Home Repair and Remodelling
    ZYMURGY               Beer Homebrewing

The Exec-PC BBS has "Home Repair," NewsNet The FUTUREHOME TECHNOLOGY NEWS
newsletter, and ILINK the HOMEGARDEN conference. On the Well, check out
"Homeowners."

Join CompuServe's Investors Forum to learn how to play the stock and money
markets, and other moneymaking 'instruments'. Discuss investment techniques
with others, read reports about economical trends, and retrieve useful
programs to use on your personal computer.

CompuServe also has the Gardening Forum. It is operated by the National
Gardening Association (U.S.A.).

Ziff-Davis' Magazine Database Plus lets you search and read full-text
articles from the Good Housekeeping Magazine. You'll find it on CompuServe
and other services.

Buying computers and stuff
--------------------------
Each month, tons of articles comparing computers, modems, software and
gadgets are being published. The good news is that you can find much such
information on the Web.

Ziff-Davis' "PC Magazine on the Web" (at http://www.pcmag.com) is a
favorite for getting product information. The magazine has focused on tests
for years, and are good at it.

When I visited the page in July 1996, the headline story was tests of a new
generation of sub-notebook computers. They brought full documentation under
titles like Introduction, Test Results, and How We Tested.

Some rapid clicks, and I got to tests of 101 Pentium machines, and the
first 200-MHz Pentium PCs. The magazine is published twice per month, and
their home page is changed accordingly.

PC Labs is the magazine's special test unit, and publish results from
tests performed during the last half year. A useful place to visit if
you're planning a purchase (http://www.pcmag.com/pclabs/pcs/pcs.htm).

Their reports are grouped under headings like PCs, Hardware, Software,
Networking and Internet. Under PCs, we found test reports about Pentium
computers, home computers, Departmental File Servers, Pentium Pro
Workstations, Color Pentium Notebooks, and 150- and 166-MHz Pentium PCs.

Magazine subscribers get access to their "vault" of archived articles.
There, you can search all issues of the magazine since January 1995.
You will also be able to search all Ziff-Davis publications in one
operation: Computer Life, FamilyPC, Inter@ctive Week, MacWeek, PC Magazine,
Personalities, Windows Sources, ZD 3D, Computer Shopper, Gaming World,
MacUser, PC Computing, PC Week, The Cobb Group, and Yahoo Internet Life.

In some countries, computer prices are high while import duties are low.
If this is the case for you, then there may be money to be saved by
importing directly from the United States. My experiences are good.

To check out your options, connect to http://www.productsearch.com. This
site brings all the major U.S. computer stores into a single interface for
quick comparison of products and prices.

Education, teaching and the exchange of knowledge
-------------------------------------------------
Use of modem is opening new worlds of opportunities for students, teachers,
and institutions alike at all levels. The list of conferences, forums,
clubs, and services focusing on education -  in its broadest meaning of the
word - is long.

No longer is it hard to find information about educational offerings. On
the Web, one starting point is the international College and University
Home Pages (http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/cdemello/univ.html). In
March 1996, it listed 2500 links to universities in 73 countries.  Mainly text.
You can search by country or name.

The Study Abroad Programs (http://www.studyabroad.com/) lists programs
from over 725 institutions in 110 countries.

There are online courses, workshops, and seminars for students of all ages,
databases to help you select a school for yourself or your kids, and all
kinds of discussion forums for educators.

For examples, check the online distance education catalog of The Globewide
Network Academy (http://www.gnacademy.org), and The British Open
University (http://cszx.open.ac.uk/zx/). The Open University offers both
undergraduate and post-graduate courses (some leading to M.Sc.) for study
via the Internet.

Usenet, BITNET, Internet, and UUCP have long traditions in education. There
are offerings for teachers within all subject areas, from finance and
accounting, through history, languages and geography to technical subjects
on all levels.

There are two guides listing forums of interest to Educators at

    ftp://nic.umass.edu/pub/ednet/educatrs.lst
    ftp://nic.umass.edu/pub/ednet/edusenet.gde

The KIDSPHERE mailing list (originally known as KIDSNET) was set up in May,
1989. Its purpose is "to stimulate the development of an international
computer network for the use of children and their teachers." Subscribers
include teachers, administrators, scientists, developers of software and
hardware and officials of relevant funding agencies.  Topics of continuing
interest include:

   * networks
   * news and mail interfaces suitable for children's use
   * network services for the K-12 audience
   * development of new network services and projects
   * collaborative projects at the national and international level
   * network access for the handicapped

Send your subscription request to [e-mail].

This is a selection of other mailing lists to suggest the span of topics:

    CHEMED-L (at [e-mail])
        Chemistry Education Discussion
    CIVIL-L  ([e-mail])
        Civil Engineering Research & Ed.
    DRUGABUS ([e-mail])
        Drug Abuse Education Information
    JOURNET  ([e-mail])
        Discussion List for Journalism Ed
    MEDIA-L  ([e-mail])
        Media in Education
    MULTI-L  ([e-mail])
        Language and Education in Multi-Lingual Settings
    MUSIC-ED ([e-mail])
        MUSIC-ED Music Education
    NTWFORUM ([e-mail])
        New Technologies in Physics Education
    PANET-L  ([e-mail])
        Medical Education and Health Info
    TAG-L    ([e-mail])
        TAG-L Talented and Gifted Ed
    WORLD-L  ([e-mail])
        Non-Eurocentric World History

Here are some Usenet conferences:

    comp.edu        Computer science education
    sci.edu         The science of education
    comp.ai.edu     Applications of Artificial Intelligence to
                    Education

The home-ed mailing list is for discussion on all aspects of home
education. Contact: [e-mail]. There's a home schooling
resource page at http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs/.

The EDUPAGE newsletter is a twice-weekly summary of news items on
information technology, provided by a consortium of colleges and
universities "seeking to transform education through the use of information
technology." Compact and informative. I like it! Typical example:

  FROM CYBERSPACE TO OUTER SPACE
  Internet users can now reach out and touch the Endeavour space shuttle,
  through NASA's Web site: http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov.  Information
  available includes Endeavour's exact location over Earth, stellar
  observations by Astro telescopes and sky charts, crew and ground control
  team photos, snapshots of the cockpit, and taped conversations from four
  of the astronauts.  More than 350,000 requests for shuttle information
  have poured in since Endeavour's lift-off last Thursday.  (St. Petersburg
  Times 3/6/95 A1)

Subscribe by email to [e-mail]. Use the following text: SUB
EDUPAGE yourfirstname yourlastname. The reports are translated into several
languages, including French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian,
Lithuanian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish.  For translations and back
issues, see http://www.educom.edu/. For information on subscribing to
translated editions, send mail to [e-mail].

For the Portuguese edition of EDUPAGE, contact [e-mail] with
the message SUB EDUPAGE-P Seu Primeiro Nome Seu Sobrenome. For the Spanish
edition, send mail to [e-mail] with the message SUB EDUPAGE-E
Su Primer Nombre, Su Apellido. Write <[e-mail] for details
about an Italian version. French: write to [e-mail] using the
command "subscribe." Hebrew: [e-mail] using "subscribe"
in your subject. German: [e-mail] using the command "STERN Online
Edupage". Hungarian: write [e-mail] for information.

Here are some other interesting links:

    Canada's SchoolNet  - gopher://gopher.schoolnet.carleton.ca, or
                          http://schoolnet2.carleton.ca
    U.S. Department of Education - gopher://gopher.ed.gov, or
                          http://www.ed.gov/
    AskERIC Educational Resources Information Center -
                          http://ericir.syr.edu

You will find many similar offerings on the commercial services and free
bulletin boards.

K12Net is a decentralized network for schools on FidoNet. For information,
write to [e-mail].  FidoNet also has

     A_THEIST     A_Theism Education and Enlightenment
     HIGH_ED      Education, Post Secondary
     HISTORY      International History
     MAC_GAMES    Macintosh Entertainment & Education

CompuServe has 12 forums focusing on education. These include the Education
Forum, Disabilities Forum, Computer Training Forum, Education Research
Forum, Science/Math Educational Forum, Foreign Language Forum, LOGO and
Students Forum.

Ken and Carrie Loss-Cutler coordinates the section for Home/Alternative
Education in CompuServe's Education Forum. They educate their two children
at home instead of sending them to a public school.

Many online services (including schools and universities) offer students
accredited courses by modem. Connected Education at the New School for
Social Research in the United States is one example. Ask in CompuServe's
Education Forum for more information. The University of Phoenix (U.S.A.)
offers accredited degrees, master's and bachelor's in business and
management through courses conducted online. (GO UP on CompuServe.)

CompuServe's occupational oriented forums include Communications Industry
Forum, Legal SIG, Environmental Forum, Industrial Hygiene Forum, Firenet
(for volunteer fire brigades), AAMSI Medical Forum, ASCMD Forum, HealthNet,
OP-Net Forum, the MICRO MD Network, Aviation SIG, CB Society, and CEMSIG
(computers and electronics).

  | There are many private conferences in the online world. All  |
  | conferences referred to in this book are open for anybody to |
  | join, unless explicitly told to be private.                  |

RelayNet has EDUCATION. NewsNet offers the newsletters EDUCATION DAILY, and
the HELLER REPORT ON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY.

Language learning
-----------------
These are some special language conferences and services are available
through the Internet:

    BASQUE-L            Basque, Spanish, French, and English
    Dissemination and exchange of information on Basque culture.
    Subscribe by email to [e-mail].

    The Vocabulary Builder (at http://home.earthlink.net/~mikcar/) will
    help you to increase your Spanish Vocabulary. Select a category. Click
    on each picture to hear the Spanish word. All sound files are in the
    WAVE format. Categories include: Food, Transportation, Sports, Animals,
    Verbs, Days, Months, Clothing, Weather, Numbers, and Telling Time.

    CAUSERIE            French
    Subscribe by email to [e-mail]

    For more in French, why not check out these North African links:
    The Algerian Scientific and Technical Information Research Center
    (CERIST) at gopher://gopher.cerist.dz.

    LEARN-CHINESE
    Email to [e-mail]

    DISC-NORDIC         Scandinavian
    Write to: [e-mail]

    GAELIC-L            Irish, Scottish, and Manx Gaelic.
    Subscribe by email to [e-mail].

    Gakusei-L           Beginning Students of Japanese
    Subscribe by email to [e-mail]

    LANGIT              Italian
    Subscribe by email to [e-mail]

    BTW-L               Italian
    Subscribe by email to [e-mail]. This is a "distribution-only"
    mailing-list for ByTheWIRE, a biweekly newsletter written entirely in
    ITALIAN that covers topics related to the global Internet. You can also
    read it on the Web address http://www.inet.it/btw/home.html.

    UN INDICE suddiviso per soggetto dello spazio Web italiano.  Italian.
    On http://www.mi.cnr.it/IGST

    NIHONGO             Japanese
    Subscribe by email to [e-mail]

    SWAHILI-L           The African language Kiswahili (Swahili).
    Write [e-mail] to get onto the mailing list.

    TAMIL-L             Tamil
    Subscribe by email to [e-mail]

    WELSH-L             Welsh (also Breton, Cornish)
    Subscribe by email to [e-mail].

If English is a foreign language to you, then reading interesting things
online is in itself a great master. Learning how to write the language is
not that easy. Often, you may find yourself trying to find a word that
properly expresses your meaning.

Casey's Snow Day Reverse Dictionary may not be able to help in such cases,
but it is worth a try. The service tries to determine matches between a
query (the definition that you type in) and definitions in the dictionary.
At http://www.c3.lanl.gov:8075/cgi/casey/revdict.

The WWW Human-Languages Page is a super resource for anyone interested in
foreign languages. It lists regional databases across the world where
information about foreign language Web pages, mailing lists, and newsgroups
is stored. It has links to Schools and Institutions, Linguistics Resources,
Text & Book Archives, Languages and Literature, Commercial Resources. Web
address: http://www.willamette.edu/~tjones/Language-Page.html

Offerings include dictionaries (like "English-German Dictionary"),
tutorials (like "Let's Learn Arabic," and "Travelers' Japanese Tutorial"),
literature, other references and resources.

Languages covered include Aboriginal languages, Afrikaans, African, Arabic,
Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto,
Estonian, French, Gaelic, German, Greek, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Indonesian,
Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Klingon, Kurdish, Latin, Lojban, Mongolian,
Maori, Native american languages, Nepali, Persian, Philippine, Polish,
Portuguese, Rasta/patois, Romanian, Russian/eastern european, Sardinian,
Scandinavian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog,
Tamil, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish, Urdu, Viennese, Vietnamese, and Welsh.

MeanBiz.HispanoNet is a Spanish language mailing list where issues related
to the Internet and how it can influence the life and businesses of
Hispanics from all over the world are being discussed. Subscribe by email
to: Lista-MeanBiz.HispanoNet <[e-mail]>. For lists of Spanish
language Web servers and Internet resources, try these pages

   http://www.sbcc.cc.ca.us/~chavez/spanish.html
   http://www.reu.edu.uy/wwwsp1095.html
   http://www2.mmlc.nwu.edu/mmlc/language/spanish/

The Chinese-Language-Related Information Page is at

    http://www.webcom.com/~bamboo/chinese/chinese.html

It points to Chinese-language-related resources, has links to viewing and
listening to Chinese on the WWW, language study courses, educational
software, FTP sites, and more.

A small Urdu dictionary, and a list of hindu names and their meanings, can
be retrieved at

    http://wiretap.spies.com/ftp.items/Library/Article/Language/.

The Russian dictionary with sounds and images page offers pictures of
animals and food paired with Cyrillic text and recordings of a native
speaker pronouncing the words. World Wide Web address:
http://www.wavefront.com/~swithee/dictionary/welcome.html

To search for information in Italian language Web pages, try the Italian
Spider at http://ragno.ats.it/indexuk.html.

If you understand French, and take an interest in "de la Francophonie,"
check out the Web pages of l' Agence de Coopiration Culturelle et Technique
(ACCT) in Paris, at http://www.francophonie.org/.

Try http://www.kd.qd.se/iii/languages/french/course for an online course
in French.

Even if you're not in secondary school, you may enjoy the Latin America
Data Base. This resources for educators has several databases of lesson
plans, resource materials, teacher partners, a photo archive of images of
Latin America and the Caribbean, lists of links to embassies, and 100 other
Internet sites dealing with Latin America or teacher materials. It covers
various subjects, including Spanish, Social Studies, Science, Mathematics,
Art and Language Arts. At: http://ladb.unm.edu/www/retanet.

ITINET en Español is a commercial Spanish language online service offering
news, conferences, fax and telex. Free demo at telnet://itinet.net. At
the prompt Usuario: answer ITINET.

CompuServe's Foreign Language Forum has the following sections Latin/Greek,
French, Spanish/Portuguese, German/Germanic, Slavic/E. European, English,
East Asian, Esperanto, Potpourri/Polyglot, FL Education, Translators,
Computers/CAI-CALL, The Directory, Others, Jobs/Careers, New Uploads and
Using the Forum.

Learning online
---------------
takes different forms in different programs. In some, students simply read
lecture notes and readings, and interact with their professors via email.
In others, especially at the graduate level, the exchange of comments among
students is the highlight of the learning experience.

Unlike students in face-to-face classes, online students usually have ample
time to review "class discussion" and ponder their contribution before
entering it. The result is often a high quality of interaction.

Example: KIDLINK
----------------
Many parents and teachers regard the online world as a learning opportunity
for their kids. Some of them turn to KIDLINK, a global service for children
between 10 - 15 years of age. The service is operated by a grassroots
network of volunteers.

The aim is to get as many children as possible involved in a global dialog.
To help the kids build a global personal network.

Participation is free. Before joining the discussion, however, each child
must respond to the following four questions:

    1. Who am I?
    2. What do I want to be when I grow up?
    3. How do I want the world to be better when I grow up?
    4. What can I do Now to make this come true?

The kids can write in any language. Most answers are sent through the
Internet to an online database. Anyone with an email connection to the
Internet can search this database at will.

Once they have submitted their responses, they are invited to 'meet' the
others in several KIDCAFE forums. There, they can discuss anything from pop
music to how it is to live in other countries. The cafes are split up by
language. There are KIDCAFEs in English, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, and
Scandinavian.

KIDLINK grew from an idea in 1990 to around 60,000 participating children in
88 countries (by September 1996).

Schools all over the globe integrate KIDLINK with their classes in
languages, geography, other cultures, history, environment, art, etc. For
more information, send mail to [e-mail] with the
following command in the TEXT of your message:

    GET KIDLINK.GENERAL

You can also get the information at gopher://gopher.kidlink.org.

Gateways to knowledge
----------------------
The Gateway to World History page has links to documentary archives, and
online resources. You can search for resources by keyword or by subject.
At http://neal.ctstateu.edu/history/world_history/index.html. Another
place to try is http://www.msstate.edu/Archives/History/.

Questacon, a hands-on science centre in Canberra, Australia, is at
http://sunsite.anu.edu.au/Questacon. Discovery Channel Online is at
http://www.discovery.com.

Parenthood
----------
The misc.kids newsgroup is for parents, soon-to-be parents, and others
interested in children. They discuss issues about pregnancy and child
rearing, ask for advice from others on many parenting concerns, and seek
and provide support and encouragement about raising kids. Check the Kids
FAQ out at

    http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/

The alt.parents-teens newsgroup is for parent-teenager relationships. The
commercial clari.news.children brings stories related to children and
parenting. (Validation required for access to Clarinet.)

RIME has a PARENTS conference. TWINS is a mailing lists for issues related
to twins, triplets, etc. Send email to [e-mail] with
"Twins Subscription" in your mail's subject line. In the text, ask to be
added to the list.

CompuServe's Education Forum as a Child Dev/Parenting section. The Issues
Forum has a Parent Connection section, and the Seniors Forum a
"Grandparenting" section.

Your personal network
---------------------
Network is a word with many meanings. It can be a system set up to
transport data from one computer to another. It can be an online service
with many conferences, and a friendly connection between people (like in
"old boys' network"). Here, we use it in the latter meaning of the word.

We use our personal networks more than most of us think of. We have a chain
of people who we call on to ask for advice, help, and invite to participate
in projects or parties. When they ask us for help, we lend a hand.

The online world has some interesting characteristics. One is that most
participants in online conferences already have received so much help from
others that they feel obliged to pay back. They do this by helping others.

Those who help, know that helping others will be rewarded. The reward,
however, may not come from the persons that they help. The contributions
help maintain and develop the online world as one giant personal network.

A typical example: In CompuServe's Toshiba Forum, I read an open message
from a user who had bought a 425 megabyte hard disk for his laptop computer.
I also wanted one, but before placing an order, I wrote to check if he was
still satisfied with the unit.

The happy user did more than reply. He told about other vendors and offered
to help return my computer after the upgrade. He made it clear that he had
no financial interest in the companies selling the upgrade. By the way, we
had never been in touch with each others before that date.

The online world is full of such examples. The list of what people do to
help others is indeed very long.

In most conferences and forums you'll get help. Just like that. There is
always someone prepared to help. Still, it is wise to invest to increase
the odds of getting quality help when you really need it. This is what to
consider:

Your best long range strategy is to be visually present in conferences that
matter to you. 'Being visually present' means that you should contribute in
discussions and help others as much as you can. You see, positive
contributors get a lot more friends and a disproportional amount of help
from others.

For example, you may contribute by telling others about your interesting
finds in the online world. Keep that up over a stream of weeks or months,
and you may find that others start sending you things, quite unprovoked.

Helping others is what it takes to build a personal network. One day you
may need it. It will give you an incredible advantage! I have seen people
get jobs, partners and clients through such contacts. The online world is
full of opportunities.

Watch your words
----------------
Written communications are deprived of the body language and tone of voice
that convey so much in face-to-face meetings and even in telephone
conversations. Therefore, it makes sense to work harder to build in humor,
sarcasm, or disagreement to avoid that your words come across as stupidity,
rudeness, or aggressiveness.

One way of defusing misunderstanding is to include cues as to your
emotional state. One technique is to use keyboard symbols like :-). We call
them emoticons (Emotional icons. Pictorial representations of the emotions
of the moment).

What :-) means? Tilt your head to the left and look again. Yes, it is a
smiling face.

Here are some other examples to challenge your imagination: ;-) (Winking
Smiley), :-( (Sad), 8-) (User wears glasses), :-o (Shocked or surprised),
and :-> (Hey, hey).

A bracketed <g> is shorthand for grin, and <g,d&r> means grinning, ducking,
and running. Some people prefer to write their emotional state in full
text, like in these two examples: *grin* and *evil smile*.

Do not misunderstand. You still should not allow yourself to write the most
appallingly insulting things to other people, and then try to shrug it off
with a <smile>.

Watch your words. They are so easy to store on a hard disk.

Religion and philosophy
-----------------------
Usenet offers

  soc.culture.jewish      Jewish culture & religion.
  soc.religion.christian  Christianity and related topics.
  soc.religion.eastern    Discussions of Eastern religions.
  soc.religion.islam      Discussions of the Islamic faith.
  talk.religion.misc      Religious, ethical, & moral implications.
  talk.religion.newage    Esoteric and minority religions &
                          philosophies.
  alt.pagan               Discussions about paganism & religion.
  alt.religion.computers  People who believe computing is
                          "real life."
  clari.news.religion     Religion, religious leaders,
                          televangelists. (Validation required for access
                          to Clarinet.)

Internet has The Islamic Information & News Net on MUSLIMS (at
[e-mail]). ISLAM-L ( [e-mail])
is a non-sectarian forum for discussion, debate, and the exchange of
information by students and scholars of the history of Islam.

The Islamic Computer Resource Guide of the American Arab Scientific Society
documents bulletin board systems, software, FTP archives, and network
resources such as online academic conferences and newsgroups related to
Islamic topics. At: ftp://cs-ftp.bu.edu/amass/home.html. For more, check
out http://www.islamicity.org/.

BUDDHA-L (on [e-mail]) provides a means for those
interested in Buddhist Studies to exchange information and views.  BUDDHIST
(on [e-mail]) is for non-academic discussions. The
Buddhist Library (http://www.singnet.com.sg/~buddhlib) is a centre of
Buddhist learning.

YOGA (on [e-mail]) has Italian language discussion about yoga.

The Catholic Kiosk page is devoted to cataloging Catholic resources on
the Web. Links include parish and diocese information, educational and
research resources, prolife pointers, and subject menus on various Catholic
subjects. At http://www.erinet.com/aquinas/arch/dio.html.

BAPTIST ([e-mail]) is the Open Baptist Discussion List, and
for Scientology , try http://www.scientology.org/.

BELIEF-L (on [e-mail]) is where personal ideologies can
be discussed, examined, and analyzed.  The Pagan forum is for discussing
the religions and philosophies of paganism. To join, write to:

    [e-mail]

The PHILCOMM ([e-mail]) discussion list is where you
debate the philosophy of communication.

Several sacred texts and primary texts of religious interest are available
by anonymous FTP or LISTSERV. The Bible, the Book of Mormon and the Koran
(also spelled Quran) are available many places, and in a variety of file
formats.

M.H. Shakir's full text translation of the Koran (the Holy Qur'an) are at

    gopher://cs1.presby.edu/11/religion/

Here, you will also find the full text of the Bible (King James Version),
the Book of Mormon, and a "Search the Bible" feature.

A short file of quotes from the Koran is available from the archives of
[e-mail]. File name: PAKISTAN AL_QURAN.

You will find an interesting collection of Sanskrit texts in

    ftp://ftp.bcc.ac.uk/pub/users/ucgadkw/indology/

You can search the Book of Mormon, the Quran, King James' Bible, the
BUDDHA-L mailing list, and other religious resources at

    gopher://gopher.ub2.lu.se/11/allWAIS/experiment/udc/theology

Use Archie (see Appendix 6) to find other religious texts available through
the Internet. On FidoNet, check out JVArcServ.

The Global Metaphysical Resources List covers metaphysical and spiritual
products and services around the world. Keywords: Angels, Astrology,
Channeling, Celestine Prophecy, Environment, Essences, Healing, Intuition,
Lightwork, Light-Technology, Meditation, Mystic, OBE/Astral body, Psychic,
Reincarnation, Theosophy, Travel, UFO, Veda, Yoga. At:
http://www.iwebdesign.com/ccentral/group/.

On CompuServe's Religion Forum (GO RELIGION) you can get into serious
discussion about topics ranging from Christianity, Judaism, Eastern
Religions, Islam, Interfaith Dialog, Limbo, Pagan/Occult, to Religion and
Science, Liturgical Churches, Mormonism, Ethics and Values, and more. You
may also want to check out the New Age Forum.

Job-hunting by modem
--------------------
Unemployment is a global problem, and losing a job is usually a bad
experience. Job-hunting is the solution. If you have a job, you may be
looking for something better.

There are many forums and conferences devoted to job-hunting. FidoNet has
the JOBS conference, for those with plenty of time, and JOBS-NOW (Job &
Employment offerings/listings) for those who cannot wait.

On Bergen By Byte, it is called 'Job_market', and on ILINK CAREER. In many
countries there are local bulletin boards operated by public employment
agencies.

If your potential employers have an email address, you can send dozens of
job resumes - while reading the newspaper!

WORK-AT-HOME on FidoNet is for those planning to start their own business
("Take this job and shove it! I'll work at home!") GEnie has the Home
Office Small Business forum (HOSB).

On Usenet, check out misc.entrepreneur and alt.business.misc. The Web
service at http://www.discribe.ca/yourhbiz/howto/helphint.htm offers
"Helpful Hints for Home Businesses."

CompuServe's Working-From-Home Forum is moderated by online gurus Paul and
Sarah Edwards. Here, home-based business people gather informally to offer
contacts and political clout. The file library contains back issues of the
"Making It on Your Own" electronic magazine. The IDEAS.BIZ file in Library
2 is a list of 101 home-based businesses you can operate with a computer.

Home based business opportunities may exist within areas such as desktop
publishing, desktop video, high-tech equipment repair, import and export
management, and professional practice management. Learn from others in
forums or conferences on related topics.

For some, the biggest challenges of being out of work is losing that day-
to-day contact with the people in their industry. The online world is an
excellent way to stay in touch. Whatever your industry, there are places
online to hang out, learn the latest developments and stay connected.

Being a member of an online forum does not mean that you are overtly
looking for a job - an activity that your current employer may not
appreciate. By being there, however, you have put yourself out there to be
discovered. The discovered candidate is always more interesting than one
who sends in his resume along with 300 other applicants' resumes.

The good news is that many organizations are also having problems finding
qualified candidates for their vacant positions, and that some of them are
turning to the online world for help. This is what one of them did (from an
online announcement):

        Because it is difficult to locate qualified candidates for
   positions in special libraries and information centers, and to
   assist special librarians and information specialists to locate
   positions, the student chapter of the Special Libraries
   Association at Indiana University has formed a LISTSERV, SLAJOB,
   in connection with the Indiana Center for Database Systems.
        The LISTSERV, which is available on both the Internet and
   Bitnet, will help special libraries and information centers in
   the sciences, industry, the arts and within public and academic
   libraries to have a central location for announcing special
   library and information science positions.
        The LISTSERV is available to individuals or organizations
   that have an Internet or Bitnet network connection.  For those
   on the network, subscribe by sending an email message to:

        [e-mail]

   Leave the subject line blank and then type the following in the
   message of the text:

        subscribe SLAJOB [firstname]  [lastname]

The Israelis have the CJI mailing list, Computer Jobs in Israel. Send mail
to [e-mail] with the usual "SUB CJI Your-Full-
Name" in the text of your message. You will get monthly updated lists of
open computer jobs in Israel.

When you get tired of hunting for a job, lean back and relax with HUMOR at
[e-mail]. It distributes humor of all types, topics and
tastes.  To subscribe, send the following command to the LISTSERV:

   SUB HUMOR [firstname]  [lastname]

Enjoy!



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 6: Your personal HealthNet
==================================

Health is a concern in most families. Where a family member or a friend is
suffering from cancer, AIDS, a serious disability, or a rare disease,
finding help is urgent.

Fortunately, there are many sources of information for those who want to
know more.

First, you should check out the online world's health-related clubs and
forums. In these, you can meet others with a given disease or problem 24
hours a day. Those who cannot sleep at night, are free to log in any time
to "talk" with others.

The members of these forums often feel part of a community. As in
communities everywhere, people share both the good times and the not-so-
good times. Many online communities have pulled together during crises,
sharing the grief caused by the death of a fellow forum member, a loved one
of a member or, occasionally, a celebrity.

While the social aspect of joining a forum is important, it may be equally
important to learn about other people's experiences with alternative
treatment methods, doctors, medicines, and to get practical advice.

Second, you should check out Usenet's Frequently Asked Questions texts on
medicine-related topics. The FAQs represent information that newsgroup
participants find essential in their disciplines. For example, the diabetes
FAQ presents collected wisdom about diabetes resources. Read about how to
retrieve these texts in Appendix 6 (under FAQ).

Here are some examples to illustrate the width of the offerings in the
online world:

Emergency medicine
------------------
Practicing First Aid without proper coaching can be as dangerous as not
administering it at all. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing! The
tips found on these links are not meant to be a substitute for attending a
professional First Aid Course!

    http://pharmweb1.man.ac.uk/redcross/tips.html       (General)
    http://www.familyinternet.com/medical/bfirstad.htm  (General)
    http://www.pe.net/%7Eiddpc1/emergenc.htm            (Dental)

AIDS
----
There is a rich resource of AIDS related information on the U.S. National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease gopher:

    gopher://odie.niaid.nih.gov/11

Free access to three databases about AIDS: AIDSLINE, AIDSDRUGS, and
AIDSTRIALS, as well as an online directory of sources of information, is
granted at

    http://lovell.nlm.nih.gov/top_level.dir/nlm_online_info.html

World Health Organization's Global Programme on AIDS is at

    http://gpawww.who.ch/

This Hong Kong page at http://www.iohk.com/UserPages/mlau/aidshome.html
has general information on AIDS, treatments and infections information,
organizations, many links, etc.

Usenet has newsgroups like sci.med.aids (AIDS: treatment, pathology/biology
of HIV, prevention), bionet.molbio.hiv, and clari.tw.health.aids (AIDS
stories, research and political issues). (Validation required for access to
Clarinet.)

If you do not have access to Usenet, send mail to [e-mail]
to receive articles from AIDSNEWS, statistics and news summaries.

The Aids-stat mailing list at [e-mail] is another
source of AIDS statistics. Send an email to [e-mail] for
text from a clearinghouse of information, and discussion about alternative
treatment methods, political implications, and more.

HIVNET is a network for HIV and AIDS information and discussion primarily
based in Europe. They cooperate with AEGIS (U.S.A.), which reaches to other
continents. Links: http://www.hivnet.org/, and ftp://ftp.hivnet.org/.
Send mail to [e-mail] to subscribe to a mailing
list for new files.

Try telnet://debra.dgbt.doc.ca:3000 for interactive AIDS documentation
(simulated conversation). There also exists a FAQ document about AIDS (see
appendix 6).

CompuServe has a Human Sexuality Forum, and a MEDSig with associated file
libraries. Its surcharged ZiffNet database offers full-text articles about
health topics (Health Database Plus). On the Well, enter "g aids".

Health Database Plus is called The Health Periodicals Database on BRS and
KR Dialog. It gathers information from over 240 journals targeted at either
the lay person or the health professional.

NewsNet has the "AIDS Weekly" newsletter. Their "AIDS Therapies" is a
directory, updated monthly, with descriptions of standard and experimental
treatments for AIDS, along with a guide to treatments for the opportunistic
infections (OI) of AIDS. It incorporates all existing and potential new
AIDS treatments in one place.

Example: Kidney disease
-----------------------
In Chapter 1, I told you that my wife has a rare disease called Polycystic
Kidneys. Let me provide more details about what happened during the "online
health trip" to CompuServe with her doctor:

The command "GO HEALTH" gave us the following menu:

    1 HealthNet
    2 Human Sexuality
    3 Consumer Health
    4 NORD Services/Rare Disease
       Database
    5 PaperChase (MEDLINE)
    6 Information USA/Health
    7 Handicapped User's Database
    8 Disabilities Forum
    9 Aids Information
   10 Cancer Forum

Another menu, listing available "PROFESSIONAL FORUMS," had choices like
AAMSI Medical Forum and Health Forum. We also searched several medical
databases.

Menu selection five gave us The National Library of Medicine's database
(MEDLINE), full of references to biomedical literature.

This database had more than five million references to articles from 4,000
magazines from 1966 and up to the time of our search (1991). In 1994, it
had grown to seven million references. Easy navigation by menus. Easy to
search.

Those with no medical training may find it difficult to understand the
information retrieved from MEDLINE (see http://www.infotrieve.com). If
this is the case with you, consider using databases of consumer health
information, such as HealthNet or Health Database Plus on CompuServe.

The AAMSI Medical Forum (MedSIG) is sponsored by The American Association
for Medical Systems and Informatics (AAMSI). It is for professionals within
health care, people within associated technical fields, and ordinary
CompuServe users. Its members meet to find, develop and swap information.

MedSIG has a library with programs and information files. This is an
example of what you can find there:

    ATLAS.ARC          21-Sep-88 30161

    Keywords: STEREOTAXIC STEREOTACTIC STEREOTAXIS ATLAS THALAMOTOMY
    MAP FUNCTIONAL GIF

    This contains several of the most useful stereotaxic maps from
    the Schaltenbrand and Wahren Atlas in GIF format.  If you can
    get GIF into your CAD or drawing program, you can scale the maps
    to fit your individualized patient's AC-PC distance, thereby
    generating a customized map for your patient.

CompuServe offers many programs for reading GIF files, and converting GIF
files to other graphical formats.

Through IQuest, we searched medical databases. Simple menus helped define
relevant search terms. When done, IQuest searched selected databases for
us, and presented the selected articles on our local computer screen.

We used the "SmartScan" search mode in the "Medical research" area. IQuest
searched several databases with a minimum of manual intervention.

First, it reported that the following databases would be included in the
search:

BRS databases:
  Ageline - Contains  references to and abstracts of materials on
    aging and the elderly.  Covers psychological, medical, economic,
    and political concerns.
  AIDS Database -  Includes critically selected articles covering
    all aspects of AIDS, (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), and
    AIDS-related research.
  AIDS Knowledge Base - Provides an online textbook of the most
    current information on AIDS available from San Francisco General
    Hospital.
  Combined Health Information Database  -  For professionals,
    patients, and the general public, CHID contains references to a
    variety of materials on arthritis, diabetes, health education,
    digestive diseases, and high blood pressure. Provides abstracts.
  Embase - Includes extensive abstracts of articles related to
    biomedicine from medical journals worldwide. About 40% of the
    references are online only.
  Rehabdata  -  Covers articles, books, reports, and audiovisual
    materials dealing with the rehabilitation of the physically and
    mentally handicapped.  References only.
  Sport Database - Indexes publications dealing with sports,
    including training, medicine, education, and history. Drawn
    mostly from English and French with technical articles from
    other languages.

KR Dialog databases:
  BioBusiness - Deals with the business aspects of biotechnology and
    biomedical research. Draws from BIOSIS and MANAGEMENT CONTENTS.
  BIOSIS    Previews  -  Provides international coverage of all
    aspects of biological science.
  Cancerlit  - Monitors articles from journals and other technical
    publications dealing with all aspects of cancer research
    throughout the world.  Includes abstracts.
  Clinical Abstracts - Covers human clinical study articles of major
    importance selected from leading medical journals. Includes all
    aspects of clinical medicine.  Corresponds to Abstracts in
    Internal Medicine. Abstracts available.
  Life Sciences Collection - Abstracts technical literature in the
    life sciences from journals and other scientific publications
    worldwide.
  Medline (1966 - to date)  - Indexes articles from medical journals
    published worldwide. Corresponds to Index Medicus, International
    Nursing Index and Index to Dental Literature. Includes abstracts
    in roughly 40% of the records.
  SciSearch  -  Monitors worldwide literature across a wide range of
    scientific and technological disciplines.  Produced by the
    Institute for Scientific Information (ISI).

Next, we entered our search term: "LIVER AND CYST/". The search word
"CYST/" signified that "cyst" should match any words starting with these
four characters.

While searching, IQuest gave the following progress report:

  Scanning BRS databases.

  Accessing Network...........Completed.
  Accessing Database Host.....Completed.
  Logging on..................Completed.
  Logging on (second step)....Completed.
  Selecting Databases.........Completed.

  Each period equals one line
  of scanned data.  This may take
  several minutes................................

It reported in the same way while "Scanning Dialog databases."

When the search results were presented, we quickly browsed the article
abstracts, ordered two articles to be sent us by mail, and typed BYE.

CompuServe reported "Off at 09:12 EST 17-Nov-88 Connect time = 0:35." The
two articles arrived in Norway by mail a few weeks later.

The trip, including visits in medical forums, took 35 minutes. The cost,
including local telephone and network charges, was US$95. Of this total
cost, the extra cost of searching through IQuest amounted to US$54.00.
We all felt that the costs were well justified.

  | A note about the costs: The online tour was done manually,  |
  | using full menus. We discussed our search strategy while    |
  | connected. This is more expensive than logging off to plan  |
  | the next moves. Also, note that the extra cost of searching |
  | IQuest ($54) was not time dependent.                        |
  |                                                             |
  | The cost of doing an equivalent search today may well be    |
  | lower.                                                      |


Since then, I have promised to donate one of my kidneys to her when the
time comes. This prompted me (in 1993) to join a mailing list for "Organ
transplant recipients and anyone else interested in the issues" (TRNSPLNT
on [e-mail]).

Alcohol
-------
Has your life been affected by someone else's drinking? The Al-Anon &
Alateen WWW Server is offered by a world-wide organization for the families
and friends of alcoholics. Alateen is for teenagers.

If you are concerned about someone else's drinking, or were raised in an
alcoholic home, then the resource at

    http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/~al-anon/

may be for you. It offers a self-help recovery program for families and
friends of  alcoholics whether or not the alcoholic seeks help or even
recognizes the existence of a drinking problem.

ALCOINFO ([e-mail]) is a discussion list for alcohol
and drug related issues.

Cancer
------
Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by uncontrolled growth and
spread of abnormal cells. If the spread is not controlled, it can result in
death. Anyone can get cancer. Since incidence rises with age, most cases
affect adults in mid-life or older.

Researchers estimate that if everything known about the prevention of
cancer was applied, up to two-thirds of cancer could be prevented (source:
The American Cancer Society).



Internet has the CANCER-L discussion lists ([e-mail]).
A while ago, a member from Brazil posted the following
message on CANCER-L:

  "A close friend was just diagnosed with acute leukemia of a type
  called calapositive pre-B linphoplastic. It is supposedly an
  early diagnosis since he is not anemic. We are very shocked but
  he is reacting quite bravely and all he wants is to have access
  to literature on his condition. Are there any new genetic
  engineering developments effectively clinically available? What
  is the present state of knowledge about this specific form of
  leukemia?

  He was diagnosed three hours ago, is 48 yrs old, and will start
  chemotherapy tomorrow. He was informed that chemotherapy is quite
  effective in this type of leukemia. But we wonder if there isn't
  a possibility to use gene therapy.

  Any help will be greatly appreciated. - Dora."

Dora had several helpful replies. The following came from a member living
in the United States:

  "In response to the request for information on treatment for
  leukemia, I recommend that you access CancerNet, the National
  Cancer Institute's mail server on the Internet which provides
  current information on treatment for leukemia. To request the
  Contents List and Instructions, send a mail message to

  [e-mail] (Internet address)
  cancernet%icicb.nci.nih.gov@nihcu (BITNET)

  Leave the subject line blank, and in the body of the mail
  message, enter "HELP."  When you receive the Contents list,
  request the statement for Adult Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia
  (cn-101024).

  There are also News and General Information items, under the
  Heading PDQ Database Information in the Contents List which
  provide information on centers which have access to Physician
  Data Query, NCI's database of cancer treatment information which
  includes clinical trials information for leukemia. - Cheryl."

CLAN is the Cancer Liaison and Action Network. Their discussion list is on
[e-mail].

CancerNet is the U.S. National Cancer Institute's international information
center. It offers a quick and easy way of getting recommended treatment
guidelines from the National Cancer Institute's Physician Data Query
system. Check these links for information:

    gopher://gopher.nih.gov:70/11/clin/cancernet
    http://wwwicic.nci.nih.gov/nci-icic.html
    http://imsdd.meb.uni-bonn.de/cancernet/cancernet.html [Germany]

The National Cancer Center in Tokyo (Japan) is at http://www.ncc.go.jp/.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in France is at
http://www.iarc.fr/

In the CompuServe Cancer Forum's Library 1, retrieve the book "Fighting
Cancer" by Annette and Richard Bloch (File name: FCBOOK.EXE).

NYSERNet's Breast Cancer Information Clearinghouse has an information
server at http://nysernet.org/breast/Default.html. For their "After
Diagnosis: Common Questions & Expectations of Cancer Patients and Their
Families," check http://nysernet.org/bcic/subject/diagnosis.html.

The World Health Organization (WHO) at http://www.who.ch/, and the
International Union Against Cancer (UICC) (at http://www.uicc.ch)
present information in English and French.

OncoLink at http://cancer.med.upenn.edu/ is another great resource with an
abundance of information, and links to other resources on cancer. You can
WAIS search its library. Another place to search is The Medical Information
Archives at http://www.medinfo.org/. They also offers a link to an index of
archived messages from Usenet groups dealing with cancer.

The German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum)
is at http://mbi.dkfz-heidelberg.de/. Text is in German and English.

NewsNet offers the CANCER RESEARCHER WEEKLY newsletter. CompuServe has a
Cancer Forum. The American Cancer Society, Inc.'s forum on America Online
focuses on the incidence, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Diabetes
--------
A patient oriented Diabetes FAQ document is available at

   http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/diabetes/top.html

It originates from the misc.health.diabetes newsgroup. Also, check out
these Internet resources:

   ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/diabetes/
   http://www.niddk.nih.gov/
   http://www.biostat.wisc.edu/diaknow/

The diabetes-news e-mail list is a weekly newsletter.  To subscribe send
the message SUBSCRIBE DIABETES-NEWS in the body of an email message to
[e-mail].

The DIABETIC mailing list (at [e-mail]) is where diabetic
patient can exchange ideas, comments, gripes, fears, or whatever, related
to his or her condition. Expect to find lots of "real world" accounts about
living with diabetes.

Disabilities
------------
Online conferences give equal access to all persons. Everybody is treated
the same way, regardless if they sit in a wheel chair, have a hearing
impairment, stutter, cannot speak clearly, have difficulties in thinking or
acting quickly, or just have a different looks.

You need not worry about typing errors. Those who read them will never know
whether it is because you never learned how to write on a computer, or if it
is because you have difficulties in controlling your movements.

You alone decide if others are to know about your personal disability. If
you want it to be a secret, then it will remain a secret.

Nobody can possibly know that you are mute and lame from the neck and down,
that computer communication is your main gate into the outer world, and
that you are writing messages with a stick attached to your forehead.
Therefore, joining the online world has changed the lives of many people
with disabilities.

Computer communications have opened a new world for those who are forced to
stay at home, or who thinks that it is too difficult to travel. Those who
can easily drive their car to the library, often have difficulties in
understanding the significance of this.

Usenet has alt.education.disabled. It covers all areas of disabilities,
technical, medical, educational, legal, etc. UUCP has the handicap forum.
It is presented in the following words:

    Contact: [e-mail]
    Purpose:  The Handicap Digest provides an information/discussion
    exchange for issues dealing with the physically/mentally
    handicapped.  Topics include, but are not limited to: medical,
    education, legal, technological aids and the handicapped in
    society.

CompuServe's Disabilities Forum has sections called: General Interest,
Develop. Disabilities, Emotional Disturbances, Hearing Impairments,
Learning Disabilities, Vision Impairments, Mobility Impaired,
Rights/Legislation, Education/Employment and Family Life/Leisure.

The AUTISM mailing list on [e-mail] is devoted to the
developmentally disabled, their teachers, and those interested in this
area.

The BLIND-L list ([e-mail]) focuses on "Computer Use by
and for the Blind." BLINDFAM on [e-mail] is for blind
people and their families. Sighted people are welcome to take part if any
member of their family has a visual impairment.

GW-INFO on [e-mail] features discussions about products from
GW Micro that allow computer access by the blind and learning disabled.
They also carry products to help the mobility impaired.

DEAF-L on [e-mail] is the "Deaf
Discussion List," and DEAFBLND ([e-mail]) the "Deaf-Blind
Discussion List." DEAF-MAG is a weekly Deaf Magazine. Subscribe by email
to [e-mail]. The Central Institute for the Deaf is at:
http://cidmac.wustl.edu/.

STUT-HLP (on [e-mail]) is a support forum for people who stutter
and their families.

On L-HCAP ([e-mail]), they focus on Technology for the
handicapped. BACKS-L ([e-mail]) discusses research on low
back pain disability.

The Handicap Digest is an email only digest of articles about all types of
issues affecting the handicapped. The articles are taken from the Usenet
newsgroup, the Handicap News (misc.handicap), and various FidoNet
conferences such as ABLED, BlinkTalk  SilentTalk, Chronic Pain, Spinal
Injury, Rare Conditions, and others. Subscribe by email to

    [e-mail]

There is a large amount of disability-related information, files and
programs at http://disability.isc-br.com/.

ADVOCACY on [e-mail] is a discussion list dedicated to
addressing the issues of people with disabilities in bettering their lives
and protecting their rights.

Here are some Web sites devoted to the blind and disabled:

   http://www.rit.edu:80/~easi/
   http://www.webable.com
   http://www.wimsey.com/~jlyon/index.html
   http://disability.com

The Internet Mental Health Resources home page (Canada) is at:
http://www.mentalhealth.com/

Emotional support
-----------------
There are over 200 resources on the Internet offering emotional support.
Areas covered include Abuse, Addiction, Anxiety and panic, Attention
Deficit, Broken Relationships, Divorce, Depression, Loneliness, Obsessive-
Compulsive, Personality Disorders, Schizophrenia, Low Self Esteem, Suicide,
etc. Check out the links at http://www.compulink.co.uk/~net-services/,
and see the Panic-Anxiety Page http://www.algy.com/anxiety/anxiety.html.

If you are already addicted to the Internet, don't hesitate. Click at
http://www.safari.net/~pam/netanon/ for "Netaholics Anonymous."

Getting old
-----------
Ageing is focused at http://alpha.genebee.msu.su/agenews.html. The page
has links to bionet.molbio.ageing, sci.life-extension, and archives of
old postings at BIOSCI/bionet.

CompuServe's Issues Forum has a message section called "Seniors."

Ageline on KR Dialog is a database produced by the American Association of
Retired Persons. It does an excellent job covering research about older
persons, particularly on consumer issues and health care, by summarizing
journal articles and the contents of other published reports.

While our "face-to-face" world sometimes makes it difficult for older
people to participate in discussions between young people, this is not the
situation in the online world. All people are treated the same way. It is
impossible for others to know your age, unless someone tells them.

Getting fertile
---------------
The Atlanta Reproductive Health Centre (USA) is set to help you learn more
about women's health issues such as infertility and endometriosis. An
online book for couples describing infertility treatment is included. A
photo gallery illustrates various problems that result in pelvic pain and
infertility. Various surgical treatments are shown. Text and graphics
explore the latest in high-tech fertility options. Web address:

   http://www.mindspring.com/~mperloe/index.html

Holistic Healing and Health
---------------------------
HOLISTIC (on [e-mail]) is dedicated to
"providing information and discussion on holistic concepts and methods of
living which provide a natural way of dealing with the challenges of life."
Here are some topics dealt with in this forum:

     Various Dimensions of Holistic Healing and Health
     States of Consciousness
     Meditation and the role it plays in spiritual/physical health
     The impact of a healthy diet - including Herbs and Vitamins
     Bodywork - such as Rolfing, Trager bodywork, Reichian, etc.
     Acupuncture/pressure
     Hypnosis and Biofeedback
     Visualizations and Affirmations
     Spiritual Healing - Psychic healing methods
     Bioenergetics
     The holistic connection between mind and body
     Honest discussion of topics relevant to personal/spiritual
     growth - And anything else within context for the betterment
     of the world.

The following message is typical:

From:    Helen
Subject: Re: Asthma and Sinus Problems
To:      Multiple recipients of list HOLISTIC

  My condolences to fellow people allergic to cats.  Cats and
  strawberries are two of the most allergenic substances.
  Behavorial changes have proven to be EVERYTHING to me.  The
  techniques I've employed have helped many others.  First, try
  sleeping at a 45 degree angle.  This usually requires piling up
  pillows. The elevation of the head facilitates drainage from the
  sinuses.  When the situation gets really bad, I've slept sitting
  up on a couch or arm chair propped up by numerous pillows and
  cushions.  This technique can take some getting used to, but, it
  works like a charm and is kinder to your system than drug
  therapy.

  Second, try "ephedra" tea.  This is an herb found in Chinese
  herb shops.  Ask the herbalist how to prepare it.

  I highly recommend the book "Natural Health, Natural Medicine"
  by Andrew Weil, M.D. of U of A Med School in Tucson. See pages
  253-256 for more information on asthma.

  Fourth, stay hydrated.  This means not only drinking PLENTY of
  fluids, but humidifying the house (that is if you are not also
  allergic to molds).

  Basic behavorial techniques are important....diet, exercise,
  etc. etc, ...but this is the holistic network...I'm preaching to
  the choir...

  Finally, take heart!  Being allergic to cats is not well
  received by cat lovers...often we're cat lovers ourselves.
  Depending on the breed of cat, there is a good chance you will
  eventually habituate to those you are around over the long term.
  Good luck, the advice about sleeping with your head significantly
  elevated is the best I have ever given out to fellow sinus
  problem sufferers. It really works!!

  Helen.

HomeoNet, a service of the Institute of Global Communications (IGC), is for
those interested in homeopathic medicine. The Homeopathic Internet Resource
List (at http://antenna.nl/homeoweb) is a catalogue of net resources on
Homeopathy. CompuServe has the Holistic Health Forum.

Also, check out these Web sites:

   http://galen.med.virginia.edu/~pjb3s/ComplementaryHomePage.html
   http://www.cc.emory.edu/WHSCL/medweb.altmed.html
   http://www.teleport.com:80/~amrta
   http://www.yahoo.com/health/alternative_medicine

List of health information resources
------------------------------------
A comprehensive guide to Internet Clinical Medicine resources is at

    http://www.slackinc.com/matrix

OMNI http://omni.ac.uk/ is a gateway to Internet resources in medicine,
biosciences, health care and health management. You can browse and search
the comprehensive list of United Kingdom resources or the best resources
from around the World.

The Chinese Herbs and Health page (http://geog.hkbu.edu.hk/health/) is
maintained by a Chinese Herb Doctor in Hong Kong. Several texts are both in
English and Chinese characters.

Here are some resources that may be of interest to people not working in
the health profession:

  * Allergy ([e-mail]) -  About all types of human
        allergies - how allergies influence our health and lifestyles,
        treatments for allergies from the consumer perspective and
        experience, self-help prevention of allergy symptoms, allergy
        self-care, allergy support systems, and basic facts. Archives
        are at: http://tamvm1.tamu.edu/~allergy/.
  * BEHAVIOR ([e-mail]) - Behavioral and Emotional
        Disorders in Children,
  * DIARRHOE (on [e-mail]) is for information exchange
        and discussions on all aspects related to diseases, disorders,
        and chemicals that cause diarrhoea in humans and animals,
  * FIT-L ([e-mail]) - Wellness, Exercise, Diet, for
        exchanging ideas, tips and any type of information about
        wellness, exercise, and diet.
  * HERB at [e-mail] - Medicinal and Aromatic Plants
        discussion. You can search earlier messages using standard
        LISTSERV methods (see Chapter 7). This database of previous
        messages contains a wealth of interesting information.
  * SPORTPSY ([e-mail]):Exercise and Sports Psychology.
  * talk.abortion on Usenet.
  * MALARIA on [e-mail] is a forum for anyone wishing to
        ask, preach, or communicate on the general subject of malaria.

These mailing lists often save all messages in log files, and let you
search these files for topics of interest. Thus, they are both living
discussion forums and interesting searchable databases!

Mednews is a weekly electronic newsletter. Its columns bring regular medical
news summaries from USA Today, Center for Disease Control MMWR, weekly AIDS
Statistics from CDC, and more. Send the following command to
[e-mail] to subscribe:

   SUB MEDNEWS Your-first-name Your-last-name

For dental related Internet resources, try http://www.nyu.edu/Dental. It
has over 500 links both for those working in the area, and those needing a
dentist or having a question about treatments.

The World Health Organization provides access to world health statistics,
WHO press releases, full text of selected WHO publications and more at
http://www.who.ch/.

Smoking
-------
The SMOKEFREE mailing list is a support forum for people recovering from
addiction to cigarettes.  It is for anybody with an interest in quitting
smoking or in helping others quit. To subscribe, send email mail to
[e-mail]. Command: "subscribe smokefree your name".

Also, there's another ex-smoker mailing list, the name is EXSMKR-L, at
[e-mail].

(Avoid Usenet's alt.smokers - about "Puffing on tobacco," and the CIGAR-L
mailing list of The Cigar and Pipe Society at [e-mail].)

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has their Web
home page at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/nhlbi/nhlbi.html For comprehensive
information about cardiology, coronary care, angioplasty, heart attack,
stroke, vascular disease, tachycardia, angina, cholesterol, blood pressure,
heartburn, atherosclerosis, hypertension, see http://www.hearthome.com/.

Red Cross and Red Crescent
--------------------------
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has a
presence at http://www.ifrc.org/. The International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) is at http://www.icrc.ch.

Computers and health
--------------------
Oh, yes! Almost forgot Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI). You may know it as
typing injury. Start by browsing The Typing Injury FAQ document at
http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~dwallach/tifaq/, and follow the leads.

The RSI Newsletter is for people who suffer from keyboard related injuries.
It is regularly posted to the SOREHAND mailing list, for Discussion of
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Tendinitis, etc. Subscribe by sending email to
[e-mail].

There is a Chronic fatigue syndrome / Myalgic encephalomyelitis Web page
at http://www.alternatives.com/cfs-news/index.htm.

If you have even the slightest pain in your arm or shoulder that could be
related to your use of a computer, check out these leads. Personally, I
lingered too long, and it took me over nine months to be reasonably well
again.

Act now!

The Visible Man
---------------
For 3-dimensional digitized images of the human body, point your Web
browser at

  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/visible_human.html

Beware! While these pictures are very interesting, they are also big.

If you still need more,try Galaxy Net's Medicine page at

  http://galaxy.einet.net/galaxy/Medicine.html

It contains several subject areas as well as powerful search engines tied
to specialty and subspecialty areas.  Galaxy searches Internet documents
and offers listings tied to specialty areas and topical interests.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 7: Electronic mail, telex, and fax
==========================================

Electronic mail is one of the most popular applications of online services.
Its use is growing at a phenomenal rate. Over 25 billion email messages
will be sent in 1995, according to BIS Strategic Decisions (USA). This is
more than twice as many as were sent two years ago.

If a given email service charges you US$30 per hour, it will cost you a
meager US$0.075 to send one typewritten letter (size A-4, or around 2,200
characters). On the Internet, the cost is almost negligible for many users.
See Chapter 15 for a breakdown of this cost.

If you live in Norway, and send the letter by ordinary mail to a recipient
in Norway, postage alone is US$0.52 (1994). The cost is seven times higher
than when using email.

To send the same letter from Norway to the United States by ordinary mail
will cost 11 times more than email. The letter takes several days to reach
the destination, while email messages arrive almost instantly.

Often, you can send email messages to several recipients in one operation,
and without paying extra for the pleasure. Compare with what it costs to
send to several parties using fax!

You do not have to buy envelopes and stamps, fold the sheet, put it into
the envelope, and bring it to a mailbox. Just let the computer call your
favorite email service to send the letter.

The recipient does not have to sit by the computer waiting for your mail.
It will be automatically stored in his electronic mailbox. He can read it
when he has time.

The recipient can print it locally. It will be a perfect document, no
different to one typed locally. He can correct, make comments, and email it
onwards to a third party. In this way several people can work jointly on a
report. There is never any need for you to re-type the text from scratch.

When you receive several messages, you can very quickly create replies to
them one at the time at your keyboard, and then send them in one go. No
need to feed five different pieces of paper into a fax machine or envelopes
for five different people.

Where you can find a telephone, you can also read mail. In most countries,
communicating by email is easy and economical.

The simple but miraculous thing about email is that you can easily and
exactly quote the point to which you are replying. It is truly a revolution
in communication.

  | Some online services have a limit on the size of your mailbox.  |
  | If you receive a lot of mail, you must regularly read and make  |
  | room for new. If your mailbox is full, new mail may be rejected |
  | without warning.   You may never know that a person tried to    |
  | reach you. Select a service that has room for all your mail!    |

How to send email?
-------------------
Many users just "talk" with an email program to send and receive mail.
Internet users of programs like Pegasus Mail and Eudora typically compose
mail before calling the access service. They click on a "write new mail"
icon, enter an email address, a subject, write the text, and click at Send.

When all outgoing messages have been composed, they logon to the Internet.
Their mail is sent in one batch, and incoming messages are retrieved. The
interaction with the online service is transparent to the user. Simple.
Safe. Quick. Cheap. (see Chapter 16 for more on automatic email programs).

CompuServe users of programs like OzWin or TAPCIS do it in a similar way.
However, they can also do it manually. This is what it normally takes to
do that:

    Type GO MAIL to get to the "post office," and then COMPOSE.
         "Start writing," says CompuServe. Type your message
    manually, or send a file (text or binary). Type /EXIT when
    done.
         "To whom?" asks CompuServe. You enter: "Odd de Presno
    75755,1327," or just my mailbox number (75755,1327).
         CompuServe asks you to enter Subject. You type: "Hello,
    my friend!" Your message has been sent.
         A few seconds later, the message will arrive in my
    mailbox. If I am online to CompuServe at the moment, I will
    probably read it right away. If not, it will stay there until I
    get around to fetch it. (For a fast reply, try my Internet
    address instead.)

Other systems require different commands to send email. The Login host in
Oslo (Norway) is a Unix system connected to the Internet. So is The Well
in San Francisco. On these systems, mail can be sent using these commands:

    Type "mail [e-mail]". When the computer asks for
    "Subject:," enter "Hello, my friend!"
         Type your message, or send a pre-prepared text. When done,
    enter a period (.) in the beginning of a line, and the message
    is on its way.

Though the commands for sending email differ between systems, the principle
is the same. All systems will ask you for an address, and the text of your
message. On some, the address is a code, on others a name (like ODD DE
PRESNO). The same applies to the email programs.

Most systems and programs will ask for a Subject title. Many will let you
send copies of your mail to other recipients (Cc:).

Some services let you send binary files as email. Binary files contain
codes based on the binary numeration system. Such codes are used in
computer programs, graphics pictures, compressed spreadsheets, word
processed text files, and sound files.

Email to Fax and back
---------------------
Many online services let you send your messages to millions of fax
machines, as telex (to over 1.8 million telex machines), and as ordinary
paper mail. We have tested this successfully on CompuServe, MCI Mail and
other services.

On CompuServe, replace "Odd de Presno 75755,1327" with "FAX:  [phone]".
My fax number is [phone].

On MCI Mail type "CREATE:". MCI asks for "To:," and you type "Odd de Presno
(Fax)." MCI asks for "Country:". You enter "Norway". By "RECIPIENT FAX NO"
enter "37027111" (the code for international calls). The country code for
Norway, 01147, is added automatically. By "Options?," press ENTER. When MCI
Mail asks for more recipients, press ENTER. Type your message, and have it
sent.

Some commercial services let you send faxes worldwide from the Internet.
Examples: FAXiNET (Email: [e-mail]. Also handles inbound addresses),
Liberty Net (Email: [e-mail] . Has a two-way FAX
gateway), and InterFax (Email: [e-mail]).

The FAQ "How can I send a fax from the Internet?" is posted regularly to
alt.internet.services, alt.online-service, alt.bbs.internet, alt.answers
and news.answers on Usenet. To get the most recent version, send an email
to [e-mail] with the following command in your
Subject line: send fax-faq . You can also get it at

    http://ftp.eff.org/pub/Net_info/Technical/net-fax.faq

Email to Telex
--------------
To send a telex, you'll need the recipient's telex number, an answerback
code, and the code of the recipient's country. If the message is meant for
telex number 871161147, answerback ZETO, and country Russia (country code
871), enter "TLX:871161147 ZETO" when sending from CompuServe.

Postal delivery of email
------------------------
By entering "POSTAL," CompuServe will send your mail to a business
associate in California or Brazil as a professional laser-printed letter.
It will take you through the process of filling out the various address
lines. The letter may well arrive faster than through ordinary mail. You
can also send for paper delivery through MCI Mail, and some other services.

When the recipient is using another mailbox system
--------------------------------------------------
When the recipient is using your mailbox service, writing addresses is
simple. Not so when your email has to be forwarded to mailboxes on other
online services through the Internet, X.400, or similar.

A typical inter-system email address consists of a user name, a mailbox
system code, and sometimes also routing information. The problem is that
there is no universal addressing format. Finding out how to write a given
address may be surprisingly difficult.

Some services are not set up for exchange of email with other services.
This is the case with my bulletin board, the Saltrod Horror Show. To send
mail to a user of my system, you must call it directly and enter it there.
This BBS is not connected to the outside world for exchange of mail.

If your favorite system lets you send mail to other services, make a note
about the following:

    * You need to know the exact address of your recipient, and
      whether he is using this mailbox regularly. Many users have
      mailboxes that they use rarely or never. For example, do not
      try to send mail to my mailbox on Dow Jones News/Retrieval.
      I only use the service sporadically.

      Think of the easiest way for a recipient to respond before
      sending a message to him or her.

    * You may need to know how to rewrite the recipient's address
      to fit your system. For example, you may have to use a domain
      address to send through Internet, and a different form when
      sending through an X.400 network. (More about this later.)

    * The recipient's mailbox system may not be on a network that
      has an email exchange agreement with your system's network(s).
      Sometimes, you may have to use a commercial email relay service
      to get your mail across (see Chapter 9).

    * You may need to know how to route a message through other systems
      to arrive at its destination. For example, for mail from the Ulrik
      computer in Oslo to get to Dominique Christian on the Difer system
      in Paris (France), it must be routed through a center in London.

      Example: If you have problems sending email to me at the address
      [e-mail], then you may succeed by rewriting it as
      [e-mail] . The message will then go
      to listserv.nodak.edu, which will turn it into [e-mail]
      and forward it there. (More under Domain Name addressing below.)

    * While it may be easy to enclose binary files when sending to
      someone on your system, this may be impossible when sending
      across mailbox system boundaries.

    * While it may be possible to send text containing embedded control
      codes and special language characters to users of your system,
      they may disappear when sent to people elsewhere. Your safest bet
      is to send your text as standard 7-bit ASCII text (see Appendix 4).
      It is the lowest common denominator between computers, software,
      networks, and users.

      Example: A user in Norway tried to send the Norwegian language
      line: "Jeg bor på Karls¢y i Troms, Norge." The text was stored
      using Windows Latin1. The receiver got: "Jeg bor pe Kalsxy i
      Troms, Norge." Another user received the word "på" as "p=E5."

      If you are using WordPerfect or Word for Windows on an MS-DOS
      computer, consider storing your text as DOS text before sending.

Internet
--------
is a very large computer network that has grown out of ARPANET, MILNET, and
other American networks for research and education. This core network has
gateways for electronic mail to a long list of other systems. When we
include these systems and their connections, we call it the Matrix, or
WorldNet (see Appendix 1 for more).

If you are on the Matrix, you can send email to users on networks like
EUnet, JANET, Uninett, BITNET, UUCP, CompuServe, MCI Mail, EcoNet,
PeaceNet, ConflicNet, GreenNet, Web, Pegasus, AppleLink, Alternex, Nicarao,
UUNET, FredsNaetet, PSI, Usenet, FidoNet and many others. You can send to
people using Bergen By Byte in Norway, TWICS in Tokyo, and Colnet in Buenos
Aires.

When people talk about this phenomenon, they often refer to it as "Internet
mail," even if they are just using the Internet as kind of an advanced
telephone exchange.

Let us take a closer look at the art of addressing mail through the
Internet and the Matrix.

Domain name addressing
----------------------
On the Internet, the general form of a person's email address is:

    [e-mail]

My main, international Internet mailbox address is:

    [e-mail]

Read the address from left to right. First, the local name of the mailbox
(my name abbreviated). Next, the name of the mailbox system or another
identification code (here Login), the name of the institution or company
(here EUnet, a Norwegian Internet provider), and finally the country (NO
for Norway).

People have sent mail to my mailbox from New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Guatemala,
Peru, India, China, Greece, Iceland, and Armenia using this address.

Some of them had to send their mail through a gateway to the Internet, and
the address sometimes had to be changed accordingly:

Users of AppleLink use [e-mail]@INTERNET# . Those on JANET use
[e-mail]. On SprintMail, use ("RFC-822":
<presno(a)login.eunet.no>, SITE:INTERNET) . CompuServe subscribers use
INTERNET:[e-mail] .

The core of these address formats is "[e-mail]," in one way or
the other.

We call the core addressing format a Domain Naming System. "LOGIN.EUNET.NO"
is a domain. The domain may also contain reference to the name of a company
or an organization, like in twics.co.jp, compuserve.com, or IGC.ORG. The
CO, COM, and ORG codes identify TWICS, CompuServe and IGC as companies or
organizations.

To send mail from the Internet to my CompuServe mailbox, use:

    [e-mail]

Normally (except on AppleLink), a domain address can only contain one @-
character. When an address has to be extended with gateway routing
information, replace all @-characters to the LEFT in the address by %-
characters. Here is an example:

BITNET uses a different addressing method (USER@SYSTEM). Let's assume that
you are subscribed to the club for lovers of Japanese food (J-FOOD-
[e-mail], see Chapter 6). You have a mailbox on the Internet, and
want to send a recipe to the other subscribers using the address J-FOOD-L.

On some Internet systems, you can simply use the address: J-FOOD-
[e-mail] , and the mailbox system will handle the routing for you.

However, if this method doesn't work, you can use different gateways into
BITNET depending on where you live. The preferred method is to route
through a gateway near to you. If living in North America, you may route
through CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU by composing this address:

    [e-mail]

The rightmost @ in this address is maintained. The one to the LEFT has been
replaced with a %. The term ".BITNET" tells the gateway machine where to
forward the message.

The following will happen: First, the message will be sent to system CUNYVM
at the EDUcation site CUNY. CUNYVM investigates the address, and discovers
that the message is for BITNET. It cuts off all text to the right of
"JPNKNU01," and replaces the % with an @. The message is forwarded to the
mailbox J-FOOD-L on the BITNET system JPNKNU01 at the Kinki University in
Japan.

Bang addressing
---------------
"Bang" is American for "exclamation point" (!). The UUCP network uses it
in their variation of the domain addressing scheme.

Example: User Jill Small on Econet in San Francisco used to have the
address pyramid!cdp!jsmall . Read this address from right to left. The name
of her mailbox is to the right. The name of the organization is in the
middle. "Pyramid" is the name of the network.

   | Note: The ! character has a special function on Unix computers.  |
   | You may have to type the address as pyramid\!cdp\!jsmall to      |
   | avoid unwanted error messages. The \ character tells Unix to     |
   | regard the next character as a character, and not as a system    |
   | command. You can also precede other problematic characters with  |
   | \ in case of problems.                                           |

Some email systems can use bang addresses directly. If your system is
unable to handle them, then you must send these messages through a gateway.
The American host UUNET is a frequently used gateway. If routing through
UUNET, you may write the address like this:

    pyramid!cdp![e-mail]

If your system refuses to accept exclamation points in addresses, try
converting the address into a standard Internet address. Write the address
elements in the Internet sequence (left to right). Replace the exclamation
points with %-s, like this:

    [e-mail]

This method works most of the time. If it works, use this addressing form.
Bang paths may fail if an intermediate site in the path happens to be down.
(Most UUCP sites are registering Internet domain names now. This helps
lessen the problem of path failures.)

Some messages must be routed through many gateways to reach their
destination. This is the longest address that I have used:

   hpda!hplabs!hpscdc!hp-lsd.cos.hp.com!oldcolo![e-mail]

It used to be the address of a user in Colorado, U.S.A.. Today, he can be
reached using a much shorter address.

If you are on UUCP/EUnet, you may use the following address to send
email to Odd de Presno:

   login.eunet.no!presno.

Addressing international electronic mail sometimes looks like black magic.
To learn more, read some of the books listed in Appendix 5.

Another source is the conference INFONETS (General network forum). Here,
the Internet postmasters discuss their addressing problems. Activity is
high, and you will learn a lot about the noble art of addressing. (This is
not the place to ask for Olav Janssen's Norwegian email address, though.
This question should be sent to a Norwegian postmaster.)

You can subscribe to Infonets by sending the following mail:

    To: [e-mail]
    Subject: (You can write anything here. It will be ignored.)
    TEXT:  SUB INFONETS Your-first-name Your-last-name

If your mailbox is on another network, alter the address to route your
subscription correctly to this LISTSERV.

  | Hint: You can search the database of old INFONETS messages by |
  | email to [e-mail]. See "Directories of services     |
  | and subscribers" below for information about how to search    |
  | LISTSERV databases.                                           |

cc:Mail gateways
----------------
Many Local Area Networks have been connected to the global Matrix of
networks. CompuServe offers a cc:Mail gateway. Lotus cc:Mail is a PC Lan
based email system used in corporate, government and other organizations.

When sending from CompuServe Mail to a cc:Mail user through this gateway, a
typical address may look like this:

    >mhs:pt-support@performa

To send to this user from the Internet through CompuServe's MHS gateway,
write the address like this:

    [e-mail]

Other vendors of LAN gateways use different addressing methods.

X.400 addressing
----------------
X.400 is a standard for electronic mail developed by ITU-TSS. It is used on
large networks like AT&T Mail, MCI Mail, Sprintnet, GE Information System,
Dialcom, and Western Union, and on public and private networks throughout
the world.

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) uses X.400 as a transport mechanism for
coordination of electronic part ordering, stock control and payment. X.400
is used to connect EDI systems between companies and suppliers.

The X.400 addressing syntax is very different from domain addressing. To
send a message from an X.400 mailbox to my address ([e-mail]),
you may have to write it like this:

   (C:NO,ADMD:uninett,PRMD:uninett,O:eunet,OU:login,S:presno)

Alas, it's not so standard as the domain addressing schemes. On other X.400
networks, the address must be written in one of the following formats - or
in yet other ways:

   (C:US,A:Telemail,P:Internet,"RFC-822":<presno(a)login.eunet.no>)

   ("RFC-822": <presno(a)login.eunet.no>, SITE:INTERNET)

   '(C:USA,A:TELEMAIL,P:INTERNET,"RFC-822":<presno<a>login.eunet.no>) DEL'

   (site: INTERNET,ID: <presno<a>login.eunet.no>)

   "RFC-822=presno(a)login.eunet.no @ GATEWAY]INTERNET/TELEMAIL/US"

   S=presno/OU=login/ORG=eunet/P=uninett/C=no

To send from the Internet to a mailbox I once had on a Norwegian X.400 host
(Telemax), I had to use this address:

   /I=D/G=ODD/S=PRESNO/O=KUD.DATASEKR/@PCMAX.telemax.no

To send from the Internet to Telemail in the US, I have used this:

   /PN=TELEMAIL.T.SUPPORT/O=TELENET.MAIL/ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/@sprint.com

If must route your message through gateways, then complexity increases. One
Norwegian UUCP user had to use the following address to get through to me:

  nuug!extern.uio.no!"pcmax.telemax.no!/I=D/G=ODD/S=PRESNO/O=KUD.DATASEKR/"

To send from an X.400 system to my CompuServe mailbox, I have used the
following address elements:

       Country = US
       ADMD = CompuServe
       PRMD = CSMail
       DDA = 75755.1327

The addressing methods used on X.400 systems vary. Example: Some use the
code C:USA rather than the ISO country code C:US. MCI Mail uses C:NORWAY,
C:USA, and C:SWEDEN.

Here are some important X.400 codes:

    C       the ISO country code (on most services)
    ADMD    domain code for public system (abbreviation A)
    PRMD    domain code for connected private system
            (abbreviation P)
    O       organization name
    OU      organization unit
    S       surname (last name)
    G       given name (first name)
    I       initials (in the name)
    DDA     domain-defined attributes, keywords defined and
            used by the individual systems to specify mailboxes
            (user name, list, station, user code, etc.), direct
            delivery devices (attention name, telex addresses,
            facsimile, etc.)
    PN      personal name
    (a)     the character @ cannot be used when routing messages
            from X.400 to Internet. Try (a) instead.
    (p)     the character % cannot be used when routing messages
            from X.400 to Internet. Try (p) instead.
    (b)     the character ! (used in "bang" addresses).
    (q)     the character " used in email addresses.
    RFC-822 this code tells X.400 that an Internet domain address
            follows. Does not work on all X.400 systems.

The space character (ascii 032) is a special challenge. Some services let
you replace it with an '_' character. If the X.400 gateway supports MIME,
you may be able to use the hexadecimal code (=20) as specified in RFC1341
(see "quoted-printable"). If you do, remember to replace the '=' character
with =3D, as in '/S=3DPRESNO' (instead of '/S=PRESNO').

Addressing mail from the Internet to/from X.400 is difficult, unless the
mailer header of a received message gives the senders address in the
proper addressing format.

To set up an email link between an Internet and an X.400 mailbox, start by
trying to send an email from either mailbox to the other. If one of them
succeeds, then the mailer header of the received message may explain how to
send a reply.

Example: This is a typical Internet mailer header on a message received
from an X.400 service:

  From [e-mail] Thu Oct 27 02:44:55 1994
  Return-Path: <[e-mail]>
  Received: from sprintf.merit.edu (sprint.com) by grida.no with SMTP
          id <AA02280>; Thu, 27 Oct 1994 02:44:52 +0100
  Received: from sprint.com by sprintf.merit.edu (8.6.5/merit-1.0)
          id VAA01624; Wed, 26 Oct 1994 21:45:12 -0400
  X400-Received:  by mta merit in /PRMD=internet/ADMD=telemail/C=US/;
          Relayed; Wed, 26 Oct 1994 21:44:54 -0400
  X400-Received:  by /ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/; Relayed; Wed, 26 Oct 1994
          21:41:29 -0400
  Date:  Wed, 26 Oct 1994 21:41:29 -0400
  X400-Originator:  [e-mail]
  X400-Recipients:  non-disclosure:;
  X400-Mts-Identifier:  [/ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/;UGJE-6721-7167/27]
  X400-Content-Type:  P2-1984 (2)
  Content-Identifier:  VL72373  27
  From: [e-mail]
  Message-Id:  <UGJE-6721-
          7167/27*/S=MSGSUPPORT/O=SMC.MSG.TM22/ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/@MHS>
  To: [e-mail]
  Subject:  RE: HELP

Here, it is simple. Both the Return-Path line and the From: line have the
correct Internet address.

If the mailer header does not contain such information, converting the
X.400 addresses into a RFC-822 addresses may well be regarded as a black
art. Also, note that you cannot send email from the Internet to all X.400
users on the globe. Some gateways are only accessible from commercial
services, like CompuServe and MCI Mail.

For example, continued attempts to send from an Internet mailbox in Norway
to an X.400 address in a Nigerian company failed, while mail to/from
CompuServe worked well.

Returned mail
-------------
Once you have learned the basics of Internet mail, it is relatively easy.
However, be ready for some glitches and hiccups based on incompatibilities
between different email systems and gateways, differences in protocols,
clients, etc.  While this is not an "Internet problem" by itself, it will
look like one.

Returned mail is one of the results. When an email address is incorrect in
some way (the system's name is wrong, the domain doesn't exist, whatever),
the mail system will bounce (route) the message back to the sender. This
will also happen if the receiver's mailbox is full.

The returned message will include the reason for the bounce.

The most common error is addressing mail to a non-existent account name or
network address. For example, I have seen many users trying to send mail to
[e-mail] using [e-mail]. When written in lower
case letters, it is easy to think that the number "1" in the address is the
letter "l". Alas, the result is an error message.

Let us construct an error when sending to [e-mail]. Send a
mail to "[e-mail]".

This address is wrong. Below, you will find the full text of the bounced
message. It contains much technical information, and most lines have no
interest. Also, the message is much larger than the original message, which
contained three lines only.

When browsing the bounced message, note that it has three distinct parts:
(1) The mailer header of the bounced message itself (here, the 13 first
lines), (2) The text of the error report (from line 14 until the line
"Original message follows:"), and (3) the mailer header and text of your
original message (as received by computer reporting the error):

  From [e-mail] Fri Dec 18 12:54:03 1992
  Return-Path: <[e-mail]>
  Received: from vm1.NoDak.edu by pat.uio.no with SMTP (PP)
    id <[e-mail]>; Fri, 18 Dec 1992 12:53:54 +0100
  Received: from NDSUVM1.BITNET by VM1.NoDak.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R2)
    with BSMTP id 9295; Fri, 18 Dec 92 05:53:27 CST
  Received: from NDSUVM1.BITNET by NDSUVM1.BITNET (Mailer R2.07)
    with BSMTP id 3309; Fri, 18 Dec 92 05:53:26 CST
  Date: Fri, 18 Dec 92 05:53:26 CST
  From: Network Mailer <[e-mail]>
  To: [e-mail]
  Subject: mail delivery error
  Status: R

  Batch SMTP transaction log follows:

  220 NDSUVM1.BITNET Columbia MAILER R2.07 BSMTP service ready.
  050 HELO NDSUVM1
  250 NDSUVM1.BITNET Hello NDSUVM1
  050 MAIL FROM:<[e-mail]>
  250 <[e-mail]>... sender OK.
  050 RCPT TO:<pistserv@NDSUVM1>
  250 <pistserv@NDSUVM1>... recipient OK.
  050 DATA
  354 Start mail input.  End with <crlf>.<crlf>
  554-Mail not delivered to some or all recipients:
  554 No such local user: PISTSERV
  050 QUIT
  221 NDSUVM1.BITNET Columbia MAILER BSMTP service done.

  Original message follows:

  Received: from NDSUVM1 by NDSUVM1.BITNET (Mailer R2.07) with BSMTP id 3308;
   Fri, 18 Dec 92 05:53:25 CST
  Received: from pat.uio.no by VM1.NoDak.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with TCP;
     Fri, 18 Dec 92 05:53:23 CST
  Received: from ulrik.uio.no by pat.uio.no with local-SMTP (PP)
            id <[e-mail]>; Fri, 18 Dec 1992 12:53:24 +0100
  Received: by ulrik.uio.no ; Fri, 18 Dec 1992 12:53:18 +0100
  Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 12:53:18 +0100
  From: [e-mail]
  Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
  To: [e-mail]
  Subject: test

  index kidlink

The first part of the bounced message is usually of no interest. Hidden in
the second part, you will find the following interesting line:

  554 No such local user: PISTSERV

Ah, a typo!

If your original message was long, you are likely to be pleased by having
the complete text returned in the third part of the bounced message. This
may allow you to get away with a quick cut and paste, before resending to
the corrected address.

The text and codes used in bounced messages vary depending on what type of
mailbox system you are using, and the type of system that is bouncing your
mail.

Above, [e-mail] returned the full text of my bounced mail. Some
systems just send the beginning of your original text, while others (in
particular some X.400 systems) just send a short note telling the reason
for the bounce.

  | Note: If you don't understand why a message bounces, contact |
  | your local postmaster for help. Send him a copy of the full  |
  | text of the bounced message up to - and including - the line |
  | "Subject:" at the bottom. (There is no need to send him the  |
  | TEXT of your original message! Just the header information.) |

Returned due to error in contents
---------------------------------
When you write a message to a real person, you are usually free to format
the text any way you want. However, not so when the recipient is a computer
program, like a LISTSERV, Gophermail, or a World Wide Web by email server.

Example: This book is being updated regularly. Information about where to
find the electronic version can be retrieved by sending an email to
[e-mail]. Put the command "GET TOW.WHERE" in the body
of your mail.

Type in this command starting in your mail's line 1, column 1, If the text
starts with something else, chances are that you will get an error message
rather than the requested information.

Many users access the Internet through gateways from a company's internal
mail system, and some of these mailers insist on adding extra information
to the text, like in this Swedish example:

  Microsoft Mail v3.0 IPM.Microsoft Mail.Note
  Fr}n: Johan Svensson
  Till: TOW
  Ang}ende:  Message headers
  Datum: 1994-07-23 19:39
  Prioritet:
  Brev-ID: FE0257B9
  Konversation-ID: FE0257B9

If the mail system's administrator is unable or unwilling to let you send
Internet mail without such extra headers, then you have problems. To get
around it, check if it is possible to send your message as a file.

Replying to an Internet message
-------------------------------
On the Internet, electronic messages have a common structure that is common
across the network. On some systems, you can reply by using a reply
command. If this feature is not available, use the sender's address as
given in the mail header.

The bounced message contained two mail headers: the header of my original
message (in part three), and the header of the bounced message (in part
one).

The 'good' reply address is laid out in the 'From:' header. Thus, this
message contains the following two 'good' addresses:

  From: Network Mailer <[e-mail]>
  From: [e-mail]

The Network Mailer located the second address line in my original message,
and used this address when sending the bounced message.

  | Note: there is no point in sending a message back to             |
  | [e-mail] since this is the address of an automatic   |
  | mail handling program. Write to [e-mail] to talk |
  | to a "real person" at this computer center.                      |

The exact order of a message's header may vary from system to system, but
it will always contain the vital 'From:' line.

  | Note: Exercise caution when replying to a message sent by a      |
  | mailing list. If you wish to respond to the author only, make    |
  | sure that the only address you are replying to is that person's. |
  | Do not send it to the entire list!                               |

How do I know that my message is received?
------------------------------------------
On some networks, it is outright impossible. On others, you can send your
mail so that an automatic acknowledgement will be returned, when your mail
has been received.

On the Internet, users can often have their mailer add the Return-Receipt-
To:<sender's email address> line to the mail headers.

   | Replace "sender's email address" with your real address.        |

Some mailers allow users to automate this. The final MTA (message transfer
agent) will then send a "received" receipt to the specified address.

Anonymous mail
---------------
Some day, you may want to send a message anonymously. Internet's Anonymous
re-mailers let you do that. For a list of servers and directions, send a
message to [e-mail].  This address automatically
responds with a copy of the list.

Check out the alt.privacy.anon-server and alt.anonymous newsgroups for
more on anonymous email.

Finding a friend's email address
--------------------------------
The best method of finding a friend's email address is usually to call
your friend and ask. Many people have several mailboxes. Only by asking
will you find out which mailbox to use.

So, you don't know the telephone number? On the Web, try find it by
following the links at http://www.c2.net/~buttle/tel/. This site offers
links to online telephone, fax, and business directories around the world.
There's another one at http://www.infobel.be/infobel/infobelworld.html.

Sometimes, the information given you by the recipient is not enough. Maybe
the address needs an extension for mail to be routed through gateways to
the destination.

Another typical problem is that the syntax of the address is wrong. Perhaps
you made a mistake, when you wrote it down (KIDCAFE-TOPICS became KIDSCAFE-
TOPICS).

The return address in the received messages' mailer headers may be wrong.
It may use a syntax that is illegal on your email system, or it may suggest
a routing that is unknown to your system. When trying to send mail to this
address, the Mailer-Daemon complains: "This is a non-existent address."

Again, the first person to contact for help is your local postmaster. On
most Internet hosts this is simple. If you have a mailbox on the ULRIK
computer at the University of Oslo, send a request for help to
[e-mail] . If you are on COLNET in Buenos Aires, send to
[e-mail] .

POSTMASTER is also the address to turn to on BITNET. Users of FidoNet or
RelayNet, should write to SYSOP.

It may not be that simple to locate the postmaster on UUCP. The postmaster
ID may exist on some systems, but often he's just a name or a user code.

The InterNIC WHOIS Web page lets you search for information about known
Internet networks, gateways, independent system numbers (ASN's), domains,
hosts, organizations or groups, at http://rs.internic.net/cgi-bin/whois.
To use WHOIS, simply type in your target string (example: kidlink.org).

You can also get the information by email to [e-mail]. In
the subject of the message, write the command WHOIS host-machine-name. Do
not write anything in the text (will be ignored). You will get a report of
the desired mailbox computer, and the address of the local postmaster.
Example:

    To:       [e-mail]
    Subject:  WHOIS AERO.ORG
    Text:

Sometimes, you just do not know the name of a recipient's mailbox computer.
When this is the case, start at the "top of the pyramid."

Say your desired recipient lives in Germany. The ISO country code for
Germany is DE (read in Appendix 6 about these codes). Send the message

    To:       [e-mail]
    Subject:  WHOIS DOMAIN DE
    Text:

This will give you the email addresses of the main postmasters for this
country. Most postmasters are willing to help, but most of them are very
busy people. It may take days before they get around to respond to your
inquiry.

There are over 100 other "whois-servers" in more than 15 countries. The
systems whois.nic.ad.jp and whois.ripe.net cover Japan and Europe. The rest
of them provide information about local users. (A list is available on
ftp://sipb.mit.edu/pub/whois/whois-servers.list.)

If your recipient is on UUCP, try [e-mail]. To locate the
postmaster of the mailbox system "amanpt1," use the following format (write
nothing in the text):

    To:       [e-mail]
    Subject:  amanpt1
    Text:

BITNET provides information about connected systems through many sources.
For example, North American users may use [e-mail], and
Japanese users may write to [e-mail].

When retrieving BITNET host information by mail, your search must be done
in two steps. Your commands are NOT to be entered on the Subject line.
Enter all commands in the TEXT field (text on the Subject line will be
ignored). Example:

    You want information about the BITNET computer SIUCVMB (called
    a "node in the network"). Your first message should have the
    following text:

      // job echo=no
      database search dd=rules
      //rules dd *
      search * in bitearn where node = SIUCVMB
      index

    LISTSERV sends you the following report:

      > search * in bitearn where node = SIUCVMB
      --> Database BITEARN, 1 hit.

      > index
      Ref# Conn  Nodeid   Site name
      ---- ----  ------   ---------
      1497 86/04 SIUCVMB  Southern Illinois University Carbondale

    Send a new search message to the LISTSERV containing the same
    commands as above. Add one line in which you ask for database
    record number 1497 (given in the column Ref#).
    Like this:

      // job echo=no
      database search dd=rules
      //rules dd *
      search * in bitearn where node = SIUCVMB
      index
      print 1497

    LISTSERV will return a report filled with information.
    Here is part of it:

      Node: SIUCVMB
      Country: US
      Machine: IBM 9201-500
      System: VM/ESA
      Net: BITNET
      Nodedesc: Southern Illinois University Carbondale
      P_cgibson: Charles Gibson;CA0007@SIUCVMB;+1 618 453.6244

For more information about searching BITNET databases, send this message to
your favorite LISTSERV, or use the address below:

    To:       [e-mail]
    Subject:  nothing
    TEXT:     GET LISTDB MEMO


Directories of subscribers and services
---------------------------------------
While many hosts let you search lists of local users, no complete global
directory of available electronic addresses exists.

Several services on the Internet offer help. My favorite is the Usenet
address database at http://usenet-addresses.mit.edu/. It is also
accessible by email to [e-mail]. To query, put the
following in the body of your text:

    send usenet-addresses/[name searching for]

The "name" should be one or more space-separated words for which you want
to search. Since the search is "fuzzy" (that is, all the words you specify
do not have to match), you should list all words you think might appear in
the address, including first and last name, possible username, and possible
parts of the host name. The case and order of the words you list are
ignored. (Send the command "send usenet-addresses/help" to this address for
more information.) Example:

    send usenet-addresses/odd de presno

Netfind (see Appendix 6) provides information about how to find users on
the Internet.

X.400 systems use an address directory according to ITU-TSS standard X.500
that connect several directories. The developers hoped that routing of
X.400 messages may eventually be done automatically without the user
needing to know the identity of the recipient's mailbox computer. However,
it never became a big success.

The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) has been introduced as
an alternative to X.500. Many hope that it will become the comprehensive
Internet wide e-mail address directories of the future. It is a subset of
the Directory Access Protocol (DAP) used to build X500-based directories.

The information contained in LDAP databases will include vital data such as
name and e-mail address, and can include supplemental data including
address, phone, fax, and even the person's public key which can be used to
encrypt messages the user is sending them. For more information, see the
LDAP home page at http://www.umich.edu/~rsug/ldap .

Dialcom
-------
is a commercial, global online service, which have many nodes in Africa and
Latin America. To send mail from one Dialcom system to another, use the
syntax 6007:EWP002. This address points to mailbox EWP002 on system number
6007.

FidoNet
-------
Users of this global network can send and receive mail to/from the
Internet. For example, a FidoNet user may use the following method to send
to my Internet address:

    Send the message to user UUCP at 1:105/42. The first line of
    the TEXT of the message should contain:

      To: [e-mail]

    Add a blank line after the address before entering the text
    of your message.

FidoNet addresses are composed by three or four numbers;

        zone:net/node
        or
        zone:net/node.point

The FidoNet address 1:105/42 has three elements. "1:" tells that the
recipient lives in Zone number 1 (North America). 105/42 refers to Node
number 42, which receives mail through Net number 105. This node has an
automatic gateway to the Internet.

Another example: Jan Stozek is sysop of "Home of PCQ" in Warsaw, Poland.
The Node number of his BBS is 10. He receives mail through Net number 480.
Poland is a country in Europe, Zone number 2. The address to his system is:
2:480/10. His user name is Jan Stozek.

You can send an Internet message to anyone in FidoNet by using the
following template:

 <firstname>.<lastname>@p<point>.f<node>.n<net>.z<zone>.fidonet.org

Where <firstname> is the person's first name
      <lastname>  is the person's last name

To send a message from the Internet to Jan, use this address:

    [e-mail]

One final example: Ola Garstad in Oslo has the FidoNet address 2:502/15.
Use the address [e-mail] , when sending mail to
him through the Internet.

An updated list of global FidoNet nodes can be retrieved from most
connected BBS systems. (More in Appendix 1.)

For more information
--------------------
get "The Inter-Network Mail Guide." It describes how to send mail between
electronic mail systems like AppleLink, BITNET, BIX, CompuServe, Connect-
USA, EasyNet, Envoy, FidoNet, GeoNet, Internet, MCI, MFENET, NasaMail,
PeaceNet, Sinet, Span, SprintMail, and more.

The guide is posted monthly to the Usenet newsgroups comp.mail.misc and
news.newusers.questions. You can search it at

  http://www.nova.edu/Inter-Links/cgi-bin/inmgq.pl.

It is also available by anonymous ftp as

  ftp://ftp.csd.uwm.edu/pub/internetwork-mail-guide.

The "Frequently Asked Questions: How to find people's E-mail addresses"
document is regularly posted to the Usenet group news.answers. (Read under
FAQ in Appendix 6 about how to retrieve it.)

The document "Accessing The Internet By E-Mail" is available from
[e-mail] . Put the following command in the body of
your text to retrieve:  GET INTERNET BY-EMAIL NETTRAIN F=MAIL



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 8: Free expert assistance
=================================

It may sound too good to be true, but many computer experts are prepared to
help YOU without expecting a cent in return. The same applies to experts in
many other areas.

You have an impossible decision to make. A lawyer has a dotted line that
requires your signature, or a surgeon has a dotted line in mind for your
upper abdomen. You're not comfortable with the fine print or the diagnosis
and wonder if a second opinion is in order. Just ask to get help.

If you have problems with a communications program, post a message in a
suitable Usenet newsgroup, or on a bulletin board. This is also the thing
to do if you want to sell equipment. Learn from other people's experiences
with the computers and software you plan to buy.

Chances are that you will get a reply - if your subject or query attract
attention. In the process, you'll meet new friends, and be able to follow
the development in a dynamic marketplace.

The following message from the alt.winsock newsgroup is typical:

    Wed, 14 Feb 96 14:57:18 EST
    From: Robert Donahue
    RE: FREQUENT DISCONNECTION OF PPP. NEED HELP!!!

    In article <4ft882$[e-mail]>,
    [e-mail] says...

     >problem. But recently I have got a very strange problem:
     >I was disconnected every time after I got PPP connection
     >for a while. The disconnection happens most likely when
     >I was downloading a big file using Netscape or CuteFTP
     >(I can only get about 200KB before the line drops),  but
     >it also happens sometimes when I click on regular web pages.
     >This problem didn't exist before with the same software

    Sounds a little like a problem I had a while back. My modem would hang
    up the phone at random (usually during a big transfer). It turned out
    to be the bios in my modem. The early US Robotics 28.8K Sportster had a
    bug that would cause them to hang up instead of down-shifting the baud
    rate when the phone line got cranky. I forgot the revision number of
    the bad bios. I had to get a new bios chip from US Robotics to fix the
    problem. I would never had known what the problem was if my service
    provider hadn't posted a warning.

    Bob D.

Many users prefer open conference messages to private email for their
technical discussions. This gives "the group" a chance to read, comment,
provide additional facts, and return with new questions.

One simple question may give an overwhelming number of responses, but most
contributions are likely to be useful and educational. Since the discussion
is public, consider it a feature of your personal online university. Offer
opinions when you have something to contribute, or keep silent.

Stop by a technical forum where beta testers and programmers hang out, and
you'll probably get a concise, three-sentence answer. Stop by a forum
dedicated to helping users fire up a new product, and you may find long,
chatty, but informative diatribes. Different forums. Different responses.

In most conferences, some members are critical to "lurkers." A "lurker" is
someone who read without ever contributing. Don't let them get to you. It
is legitimate to remain silent. Most others are also there to watch and
learn only.

If you consider buying a newly released computer program, tune in to the
section of your favorite online service that deals with products from this
manufacturer. Count complaints and error reports before buying.

When your new program has been installed on your system, return for other
users' experiences and practical advice. Pay back your dues by reporting
your own experiences in the process.

  | Focus on conferences and newsgroup where many competent users   |
  | hang out. There, you will usually get faster and better replies |
  | to your questions. Asking other users may be faster and better  |
  | than searching. Complement by searching Dejanews (Chapter 10).  |

If you have never visited a BBS, call one in your neighborhood to get a
feel for how they work. Most of them can be accessed free. Usually, their
only requirement is for a self-presentation before being granted full
access to their system.

Most bulletin boards have conferencing and archives filled with shareware
and public domain software. Many have files or bulletins listing telephone
numbers of other boards in your country or area.

The trick is to find know-how. The larger the online service or conference,
the more skilled people are likely to "meet" there regularly. If the local
bulletin boards fail to satisfy your needs, try the Internet or some large
commercial services. CompuServe and Exec-PC are two services in the top
league. BIX is another good source of information for professional
computer specialists.

One exception: When you need contact with ONE particular person, who knows
YOUR problem in detail, go where this person usually hangs out.

Examples: If you buy modems from Semafor A/S, the best place for expert
advice is Semaforum BBS (tel. [phone]). If you have a Novell local
area network, visit the Novell forums on CompuServe. For expert advice
about how to use the Eudora email program, check out the Eudora mailing
list at [e-mail].

This Web site provides links to the top 100 computer- and software-related
Web magazine: http://www.internetvalley.com/top100mag.html

For users of MS-DOS computers
-----------------------------
Usenet has newsgroups in the comp.os.ms-windows and comp.os.msdos
hierarchies. These include:

  comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc    Discussion about IBM personal computers.
  comp.sys.ibm.pc.digest  The IBM PC, PC-XT, and PC-AT. (Moderated)
  comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware        XT/AT/EISA hardware, any vendor.
  comp.sys.ibm.pc.rt      Topics related to IBM's RT computer.
  comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware       Microchannel hardware, any vendor.

There is also many great mailing lists: CLIPPER ([e-mail]),
the INFO-IBMPC abstract service ([e-mail]), I-IBMPC (at
[e-mail]), and EXCEL-G
([e-mail]).

For the Win/Windows95 Page of Links, try http://miso.wwa.com/~tyocum on
the World Wide Web. The URL http://www.whidbey.net/~mdixon/win40001.htm
also offers a lot of interesting information. Complement by visiting
http://cville-srv.wam.umd.edu/~dylan/windows95.html

The Microsoft Support Online Knowledge Base offers access to tens of
thousands of product-support documents previously available only to
Microsoft support staff. Articles tell about new developments in software
programs, and how to most effectively use a particular package. You can
search by product name, and by keywords. At: http://198.105.232.10/kb/

Regularly, I visit the following CompuServe forums:

     PC Communication - about communication software for MS-DOS
        computers.
     PC Hardware - about new IBM compatibles, expansion cards,
        displays, hard disks, IBM PS/2, software for performance
        evaluation, printers, etc.
     PC Utilities/Systems - about DOS, utilities, shells, file
        utilities, and much more. A large software library.
     PC Applications - about all kind of applications. The forum
        has a large file library full of shareware and public
        domain software.

Many CompuServe forums are operated or sponsored by software and hardware
vendors, like:

Adobe Systems Inc., Aldus Corp., Ashton-Tate Corp., Autodesk Inc., Borland
International, Broderbund Software Inc., Buttonware Inc., Cadkey Inc.,
Crosstalk Communications, Customs Technologies, Enable Software, Datastorm
Technologies Inc., Microsoft Systems, Nantucket Corp., Lotus Development
Corp., Novell Inc., Peter Norton Computing, Quarterdeck Office Systems,
Quicksoft, Sun Microsystems (TOPS Division), Symantec Corp., Toshiba,
Turbopower Software, and WordPerfect Corp.

CompuServe has hundreds of other forums with associated libraries of files
and programs. For help with Lotus 1-2-3, there are two CompuServe forums.
There is a LOTUS conference on RelayNet.  For Ami Pro support, visit
CompuServe's LDC Word Processing Forum.

WordPerfect Corp. has a support forum on CompuServe. WORDPERF is the
offering on RelayNet. On ILINK, visit WORDPERFECT. On the Internet, your
email questions to [e-mail]. They also have a BBS on the
Internet address http://www.wordperfect.com.

FidoNet has the PC_TECH and PCUG conferences, and a long list of product
specific echos like QUICKBBS, PCTOOLS, ZMODEM, DESQVIEW and WINDOWS.SHAREW.
On Exec-PC, look under MS-DOS systems.

For owners of Amiga computers
-----------------------------
Usenet's comp.sys.amiga hierarchy has entries like advocacy, announce
applications, audio, datacomm, emulations, games, graphics, hardware,
introduction, marketplace, multimedia, misc, programmer, reviews and more.

Abstracts of comp.sys.amiga conferences are available through several
mailing lists, like AMIGAHAR ([e-mail]), the AMIGA-D list
([e-mail]), and AMIGA-S ([e-mail]).

FidoNet has a long list of conferences for Amiga users:

   AMIGA              Amiga International Echo
   AMIGAGAMES         Amiga Gaming
   AMIGA_COMMS        Amiga Communications Software and Hardware
   AMIGA_DESKTOP      Amiga Desktop Publishing
   AMIGA_INFO         AMIGA_INFO
   AMIGA_LC           Amiga Lattice/SASC C Echo
   AMIGA_NET_DEV      Amiga Network Developers.
   AMIGA_PDREVIEW     Amiga PD Reviews & Requests
   AMIGA_PERFECT      Amiga Word Perfect & Word Processing
   AMIGA_PROG         Amiga Programmer's International Conference
   AMIGA_SYSOP        Amiga SysOp's Discussion/ADS Echo
   AMIGA_UG           Amiga User's Groups
   AMIGA_VIDEO        Amiga Video and Animation

Exec-PC has the Amiga Hardware and Amiga Software conferences, and a large
library with shareware and public domain files. ILINK has the AMIGA
conference.

Most online services have "Find this File" commands. The most powerful ones
are often found on free bulletin boards.

On CompuServe, type GO AMIGA to get to CBMNET and get the following welcome
menu:


   Amiga Forums
    1 Amiga Arts Forum
    2 Amiga Tech Forum
    3 Amiga User's Forum
    4 Amiga Vendor Forum
    5 Amiga File Finder

   Commodore Forums
    6 Commodore Arts and Games
    7 Commodore Applications Forum
    8 Commodore Service Forum
    9 Commodore Newsletter

A while ago, we visited CBMNET to find a communications program. From the
menu above, selection five took us to The Amiga File Finder service, and
this menu:

   File Finder AMIGA

    1 About File Finder
    2 Instructions For Searching
    3 How to Locate Keywords

    4 Access File Finder

    5 Your Comments About File Finder

Choice four lets us search for files using keywords, file creation dates,
forum names, file types, file name extension, file name or author. Our
choice was searching by keywords. The result was a long list of
alternatives:

   Enter Search Term: comm

   Amiga File Finder

    1 AMIGATECH/C Programming  COMSRC.ARC
    2 AMIGATECH/C Programming  PMDSRC.LZH
    3 AMIGATECH/C Programming  PNTSRC.LZH
    4 AMIGAUSER/Communications  BBSIND.LZH
    5 AMIGAUSER/Communications  INTOUC.ARC
    etc.

By entering numbers, we asked for short descriptions of file number 4
through 13. Here is one of them:

   Filename : INTOUC.ARC  Forum: AMIGAUSER
   Lib: Communications  Lib #: 5
   Submitter: [76702,337]   24-Mar-89
   Size: 51200   Accesses: 157

   This is a modified Comm1.34.  It supports both VT100 and ANSI.
   The VT100 emulation is based on Dave Wecker's VT100 program.
   There is automatic dialer, split screen that is configurable,
   phone book, and other nice features.

This is what we were looking for. First, enter GO AMIGAUSER to get to the
forum. Enter "DL 5" to get to Downloading Library number 5. INTOUCH.ARC was
retrieved using the CompuServe Quick B transfer protocol. This protocol is
usually the most efficient choice on this service.

  | CompuServe has several File Finder services. These include    |
  | PCFF (MS-DOS computers), MACFF (Macintosh), GRAPHFF (for      |
  | Graphics), ATARIFF (Atari computers), AMIGAFF.  Use the GO    |
  | command to access, as in GO PCFF .                            |

There are also active Amiga forums on BIX, GEnie, and CIX (England).
Also, check out gopher://sk2eu.eunet.sk/11/amiga.

Apple users
-----------
Macintosh users should take a look at these Internet sites:

    http://www.cidss.af.mil/html/tmacusers.html
    http://pubweb.nexor.co.uk/public/mac/archive/welcome.html
    http://www.gulf.net/~stone/mac/

For shareware, try http://www.fagg.uni-lj.si/cgi-bin/vsl-front (The
Virtual Software Library).

Apple's Web server, at http://www.apple.com, maintains interesting links
to the company's libraries, and to sites where freeware and shareware for
Apple products may be retrieved.

The Apple Technical Information Library is Apple's official technical-
support database. In late 1995, it contained over 12,000 articles on all
aspects of Apple products, old and new. The Apple Assistance Center uses
the same database to answer customer's questions.

Articles offer advice on trouble shooting, compatibility, workarounds, and
more. At http://support.info.apple.com/support/support.html.

There is the APPLE2-L mailing list. Usenet has several newsgroups,
including:

    alt.sources.mac         Source file newsgroup for the Apple
                              Macintosh computers
    comp.sys.apple2         Discussion about Apple II micros.
    comp.sys.apple2.comm    Apple II data communications.
    comp.sys.mac.digest     Apple Macintosh: info&uses, but no programs.

([e-mail]).

FidoNet has an APPLE conference. CompuServe has Apple II Programmers
Forum, Apple II Users Forum, Apple II Vendor Forum, Mac Community Clubhouse
Forum, Mac Developers Forum, Mac Fun/Entertainment Forum, Mac Hypertext
Forum, Mac New Users/Help Forum, Mac System 7.0 Forum, Mac System Software
Forum, MacUser Forum and MacWEEK Forum.

Similar services are found on many other online services. You will also
find conferences devoted to support of popular commercial software for
Apple computers.

Other computers
---------------
There are so many types of computers: Atari computers, the TRS-80 series
and others from Tandy, DEC computers, mainframes from IBM, Hewlett-Packard
computers, CP/M machines, users of LDOS/TRSDOS or OS9, Apricot, Z88,
Timex/Sinclair, Archimedes, Psion, and Armstrad.

Even so, there is a high chance that you can find online support for most
of them, even if the vendor went out of business years ago. For such
computers, CompuServe is a good place to start.

For journalists and authors
---------------------------
ProfNet is a cooperative of more than thousand international public
information officers giving journalists and authors quick and convenient
access to expert sources. Mostly, members represent colleges, universities,
and a wide range of government, corporate, and non-profit entities
oriented to scholarship and research.

There is no fee for conducting ProfNet searches, nor is there any limit to
the number or frequency of your queries. For information or to deliver
queries, write to [e-mail]. In submitting, specify your news
organization, the nature of the search project, the nature of the expertise
sought, and the time frame and how a response is wanted.

Marketing
---------
For a list of mailing lists of interest for advertising, public relations,
and marketing, try http://www.webcom.com/impulse/list.html.

Utilities
---------
Sure, you can use the Internet as a calculator! For links to converters and
calculators, try http://www-sci.lib.uci.edu/HSG/RefCalculators.html.

CALCULATORS ON-LINE has links to Unit Conversion (temperature, weight,
area, etc.), Agriculture & Horticulture, Automobile, Code Translators,
Distance (How Far is it?), Finance - Loans, Mathematics, Statistics,
Medical & Health Science, Navigation/GPS, Nutrition, Radiation & EHS
Safety, Science & Engineering, Aeronautics, Sunset & Tide, Weather, etc.

Here is more than any one could ever hope to use or fear to need in a
lifetime!

For currency exchange, try http://www.dna.lth.se/cgi-bin/kurt/rates.
Select a currency, like Norwegian Krone or Philippine Pesos, and the
other currency of choice from a list of 37 (June 96). The exchange rate
between the two currencies will then be displayed.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 9: Your electronic daily news
=====================================

   Read national and global news before they are announced by the
   traditional media. Get those interesting background facts. Read
   special interest news stories that seldom appear in print.

Sure, you read newspapers, watch TV, and listen to radio, but did you know
how limited their stories are? Are you content with the same old fires and
murders, terrible things that happen day in and day out?

Traditional news media just give you a small part of the news. Their
editors are not concerned about YOUR particular interests. They serve a
large group of readers, viewers or listeners with different interests in
mind.

Go online and discover the difference. Online news has an enormous width
and depth. Besides "popular" news, you will find stories that few editors
bother to print. This may give you better insight in current developments,
and in as much details as you can take.

Balance your news intake between traditional and digital offerings, letting
one complement the other. Get your news in whatever format and time frame
that suit your needs. Decide what stories are important based on your own
interest, and enjoy the feeling of freedom, diversity, and power.

Most commercial online services offer news, and free news is exploding on
the Internet. Most stories come from large news agencies and newspapers.
Often, you can read and search articles from magazines, newsletters and
other special publications.

Although not as convenient to carry as a real newspaper or as easy to watch
as the 6 o'clock news, online news is a valuable resource for those whose
jobs depend on up-to-date information. The ability to search today and
yesterday's news makes it particularly useful.

You can even take it one step further: Access raw news feeds from major
world wire services, automatic article-clipping folders, Internet mailing
lists, and paperless electronic newsletters. Interact with the digital
media as broadcast and print outlets bring their stories, staffers, and the
occasional name-in-the-news into the realm of the modem.

The cost of reading a given news item varies by online service. An article
that sets you back three cents on one service, may cost two dollars to read
on another, or be free on the Internet.

Note: Expect it to be many times more expensive (or cheap) to read the same
article from the same news provider on another online service. So, compare
prices.

National news
-------------
In Norway, we can read local language news from print media like Dagens
Naeringsliv, Aftenposten, Kapital, and news wires from NTB and other local
sources. Local language news is available online in most countries.

Reading local news on national online services used to be more expensive
than on major global online services. As competition among global news
providers escalates, this is changing. In addition, many newspapers now
offers articles for free on the World Wide Web. Here are some examples:

The Daily Record and Sunday Mail, a Scottish tabloid newspaper based in
Glasgow, is at http://www.record-mail.co.uk/rm/. The site offers News,
Sport, Features, a Magazine section, Tourism information, Historical
Information, Telephone Dating, Competitions, Cartoons, Crossword, Agony Aunt,
Picture Gallery and much more.

Aftonbladet (Sweden) is at http://www.aftonbladet.se/aftonbladet/start.html,
and Dagbladet (Norway) at http://www.telepost.no/[e-mail]/Welcome.html.

For a country by country listing of online newspapers throughout the World,
check http://www.intercom.com.au/intercom/newsprs/index.htm. There's a
World News Index at http://toad.stack.urc.tue.nl/~haroldkl/index.html with
links to daily news providers on the Internet, spanning the entire globe.
More links are given below.

International news
------------------
Once per week, my communications system sends off a message to the WWW by
email service at [e-mail] (ref. Chapter 12). The message
contains the command "send http://www.mecklerweb.com/netday/NATW.html".

After a while, a digest of articles about the Internet printed in media
around the world arrives in my mailbox. The "Net Across the World" report
is compiled by the Communications Director at the United Nations Inter
Press Service Bureau.

A while ago, a well-known Norwegian industrialist visited my office. I
showed off online searching in NewsNet newsletters, and stumbled over a
story about his company.

"Incredible!" he said. "We have not even announced this to our Norwegian
employees yet."

Sometimes, American online services give news from other countries earlier
than you can get it on online services from within these countries. Besides,
you may prefer the stories to be in English.

Most Norwegians prefer to read news in Norwegian. The Japanese want it in
their language, and the French in French. If they can get the news earlier
than their competitors, however, most are willing to read English.

Few master many languages. Unless you live in a country where they talk
Arabic, Chinese or French, chances are that you cannot read news in these
languages. English, however, is a popular second choice in many countries,
and it has become the unofficial Esperanto language of the online world.

Reading news translated from another language has its risks. Translators
often make mistakes. One common reason is time pressure, another inadequate
knowledge of the source language. Their cultural background may prevent
them from writing an unbiased shorter version of the source text.

The risk of inaccuracies increases when a story, for example initially
translated from Spanish into English, are being translated into a third
language.

Avoid news that has been translated more than once, or risk the following
type of experience:

    On September 19, 1991, Norwegian TV brought news from Moscow.
    They told that Russian president Boris Yeltsin had a heart
    attack.

    The online report from Associated Press, which arrived 7.5
    hours earlier, talked about "a minor heart attack" with the
    following additional explanation: "In Russian, the phrase
    'heart attack' has a broader meaning than in English. It is
    commonly used to refer to a range of ailments from chest pains
    to actual heart failure."

Still, expect your "personal online daily newspaper" capable of giving you
the news faster and more correctly than traditional print media. Some news
is only available in electronic form.

Seven minutes in 1991
---------------------
On September 19, I called CompuServe to read news and gather information
about online news sources.

According to my log, I connected through Infonet in Oslo (see Chapter 13).
The total cost for seven minutes was US$6.00, which included the cost of a
long distance call to Oslo. (Today, using CompuServe's Standard Pricing
Plan, the cost is much less!)

I read some stories, while they scrolled over the screen. All was captured
to a file on my hard disk for later study. The size of this file grew to
32.000 characters, or almost 15 single-spaced typewritten pages (A-4 size).
If I had spent less time reviewing the lists of available stories, seven
minutes would have given a larger file.

Right after having logged on, a menu of stories appeared on my screen. The
headline read "News from CompuServe."

The two first items caught my attention, and I requested the text. One had
20 lines about an easier method of finding files in the forum libraries,
the other ten lines about writing addresses for international fax messages.

The command GO APV gave me Associated Press News Wires. You will find many
similar short-cut tricks in the online services' user manuals. This command
produced the following menu:

    AP Online                  APV-1

     1 Latest News-Updated Hourly
     2 Weather
     3 Sports
     4 National
     5 Washington
     6 World
     7 Political
     8 Entertainment
     9 Business News
    10 Wall Street
    11 Dow Jones Average
    12 Feature News
    13 Today in History

I entered "9" for business news, and got this list of stories:

    AP Online

    1 Women, Minority Businesses Lag
    2 Child World Accuses Toys R Us
    3 UPI May Cancel Worker Benefits
    4 Drilling Plan Worries Florida
    5 UK Stocks Dip, Tokyo's Higher
    6 Dollar Higher, Gold Up
    7 Farm Exports Seen Declining
    8 Supermarket Coupons Big Bucks
    9 Cattlemen Tout Supply, Prices
    0 Tokyo Stocks, Dollar Higher

    MORE !

The screen stopped scrolling by "MORE !" Pressing ENTER gave a new list.
None of them were of any interest.

Pressing M (for previous menu) returned me to the "APV-1" menu. On
CompuServe, such videotext page numbers are given in the upper right corner
of each menu display. I selected "World" for global news, which gave:


    AP Online

    6 Two Killed In Nagorno Karabakh
    7 Yugoslavia Fighting Rages On
    8 Storm Kills Five In Japan
    9 Afghan Rebels Going To Moscow?
    0 19 Killed in Guatemala Quakes

    MORE !8

Oh, a storm in Japan! Interesting. I was due to leave for Japan soon, and
entered 8 at the MORE ! prompt to read. My screen was filled with text in a
few seconds.

"This is for later study," I thought, pressed M to return to the menu, and
then ENTER to get the next listing:


    AP Online

    1 Bomblets Kill American Troops?
    2 No Movement On Hostage Release
    3 Baker Plans Return To Syria
    4 Baker, King Hussein To Confer
    5 Madame Chiang Leaving Taiwan?
    6 Baker Leaves Syria for Jordan
    7 Klaus Barbie Hospitalized
    8 Iraq Denounces U.S. Threat
    9 Yelstin Said Resting At Home
    0 SS Auschwitz Guard Found Dead

    MORE !

Here, I used another trick gleaned from the user manual. Entering "5,6,9"
gave me three articles in one batch with no pauses between them. Five
screens filled with text. If I had read the menu more carefully, I might
also have selected story 0. It looked like an interesting item.

"This is enough the Associated Press," I thought,  and typed G NEWS for an
overview of all available news sources ("G NEWS" is an abbreviation for "GO
NEWS," or "GO to the main NEWS menu"):


    News/Weather/Sports         NEWS

     1 Executive News Service ($)
     2 NewsGrid
     3 Associated Press Online
     4 Weather
     5 Sports
     6 The Business Wire
     7 Newspaper Library
     8 UK News/Sports
     9 Entertainment News/Info
    10 Online Today Daily Edition
    11 Soviet Crisis

First, a quick glance at 6, which presented itself in these words:
"Throughout the day The Business Wire makes available press releases, news
stories, and other information from the world of business.  Information on
hundreds of different companies is sent daily to The Business Wire's
subscribers."

Then choice 7: "This database contains selected full-text stories from 48
newspapers from across the United States. Classified ads are NOT included
in the full-text of each paper."

Their list of newspapers included Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and San
Francisco Chronicle. The latter is known for its many inside stories from
Silicon Valley.

Choice 8 gave news from England. There, I selected UK News Clips, and
received the following menu of news reports:

  U.K. News Clips

   93 stories selected

   1 RTw  09/19 0818  YUGOSLAV AIR FORCE HITS CROATIAN COMMUNICATIONS
   2 RTw  09/19 0755  CROATIA BATTLES CONTINUE AS EC PONDERS PEACE FORCE
   3 RTw  09/19 0753  ARAB PAPERS SAY MOSCOW WANTS MIDEAST PARLEY DELAYED
   4 RTw  09/19 0749  DOLLAR STANDS STILL, SHARES DRIFT LOWER IN ...
   5 RTw  09/19 0729  EARNINGS GLOOM REVERSES LONDON STOCKS' EARLY GAINS
   6 RTw  09/19 0716  SOVIETS NEED 14.7 BILLION DOLLARS FOOD AID, EC SAYS
   7 RTw  09/19 0707  IRA SAYS IT KILLED TIMBER YARD WORKER IN BELFAST DOCKS
   8 RTw  09/19 0706  BRITISH CONSERVATIVE CHIEF PLAYS DOWN TALK OF ...
   9 RTw  09/19 0630  FINANCE RATES
  10 RTw  09/19 0603  REUTER WORLD NEWS SCHEDULE AT 1000 GMT THURSDAY ...

The numbers in column four signify the release times of the stories. The
articles are fed continuously from the news wires.

Next stop was the UK Newspaper Library. Here, you can search in full-text
stories from The Daily and Sunday Telegraph, Financial Times, The Guardian,
UK News. The latter offers selected articles from The Daily & Sunday
Telegraph, Financial Times, The Guardian, Today, The Independent, Lloyd's
List, The Observer, and The Times/Sunday Times. (The latter two are on the
Web at http://www.the-times.co.uk.)

In 1991, the rate for searching the UK Newspaper Library was US$6.00 for up
to ten hits. For another US$6.00, I could get a menu with an additional ten
stories. The rate was US$6.00 to read the full text of selected stories.
These rates were added to CompuServe's normal access rates.

  | For more about "clipping" of news, check out Chapter 11. This |
  | Chapter is also contains pointers to business related news.   |

The news service "Soviet Crisis" was my final destination. It was just a
few weeks after the attempted coup in Moscow, and I was eager for reports.

OTC NewsAlert had the following interesting story:

   OTC  09/19 0750  FIRST ENGLISH LANGUAGE SOVDATA DAILINE IS LAUNCHED

The selection gave three screens with information about a new online
service. Briefly, this is what it said:

   "The SovData DiaLine service includes an on-line library of more
   than 250 Soviet newspapers, business and economic periodicals,
   profiles of more than 2,500 Soviet firms and key executives that
   do business with the West, legislative reports and other
   information."

It also said that part of the database was available through LEXIS-NEXIS,
and that it would be made available through services like KR Data-Star,
FT Profile (http://www.ft.com), Reuters, Westlaw, and GBI. Undoubtedly,
the name has changed by now.

Finally, a fresh story about the fate of the KGB. I read another fifty
lines, entered OFF (for "goodbye CompuServe"), and received the following
verdict:

    Thank you for using CompuServe!

    Off at 09:03 EDT 19-Sep-91
    Connect time = 0:07

Seven minutes. Fifteen typed pages of text. US$6.00. Not bad!

An overwhelming choice
----------------------
I assume that your "daily online newspaper" will contain other stories. If
you are on the Internet, consider signing up with Clarinet, an electronic
publishing network service that provides commercial news and information,
including live UPI wire service news.

ClariNet provides general, international, sports, technology, entertainment
and professional financial news, as well as special features and columns.
It offers over 1,000 current articles per day, sorted into 250+ groups, in
their full length and original versions.

On Usenet, ClariNet gateways newsgroups like:

     clari.feature           Feature columns and products
     clari.biz.commodity     Commodity news and price reports.
     clari.biz.economy       Economic news and indicators
     clari.biz.industry      Groups for various industries
     clari.biz.market.report International market reports
     clari.biz.world_trade   GATT, Free Trade, Trade Disputes
     clari.books             Books & publishing.
     clari.briefs            Regular news summaries.
     clari.bulletin          Major breaking stories of the week.
     clari.consumer          Consumer news, car reviews etc.
     clari.demonstration     Demonstrations around the world.
     clari.disaster          Major problems, accidents & natural disasters.
     clari.entertain         Entertainment industry news & features.
     clari.fighting          Clashes around the world.
     clari.news.top.world    Top international news stories.
     clari.news.trends       Surveys and trends.
     clari.news.urgent       Major breaking stories of the day.
     clari.tw.top            Top Technical Stories

A feed of ClariNet news is available for a fee and execution of a license.
Write [e-mail] for information. URL: http://www.clarinet.com/)

At http://www.clari.net, their e.News Web page presents a menued
structure of ClariNet's 300 news categories via hypertext links. Capsulated
current news summaries are available free to visitors. These "tearsheets"
are excerpts from the top 10 news stories selected from the 1,000 or more
stories run daily in the e.News.

NewsPage provides commercial news at http://www.newspage.com. With more
than 25,000 pages refreshed daily, and over 2,300 topic areas, it covers
a lot of ground. They claim to receive up to 20,000 news stories each day
from over 600 English language sources - newspapers, magazines, trade
weeklies, newsletters, news, and press release wires. (February 1996)

NewsPage's sources include the following international titles: Newsbytes,
Advertising Age International, Euromarketing, Inter Press Service,
ITAR/TASS, Lloyd's List, Korea Economic Daily, Kyodo News International,
Network World, Nikkei English News, OPEC News Agency, Reuter Business
Report, Reuter E.C. Report, Reuter European Business Report, Reuters Asia
Pacific Business Report, Traffic World, Xinhua News Agency, Agence France
Presse, Asian Aviation News, BioWorld Today, BioWorld Weekly, Business
China, Business Eastern Europe, Business Europe, Business Latin America,
European Media Business & Finance, International Banking Regulator,
International Petroleum Finance, Japan Chemical Week, PHARMA Japan, Reuter
Corporate World News, Reuter Energy Report, Reuter Money News Service,
Reuter Transcript Report, Reuter World News Service, World Airline News,
World Airport Week, World Gas Intelligence.

Individual Inc., the people behind Newspage, offers a Japanese language
NewsWatch service in cooperation with Toshiba and Mitsui.

If you are into computers, you owe it to yourself to check out Newsbytes.
This service offers global headline news from bureaus around the world. The
stories are sorted in sections with names like IBM, UNIX, Government,
Telecom, Trends, Business, Apple, Personal Computers, DOS, Windows, Pen,
Networks, General, Education, Health, Online, Broadcast, Legal, Personal
Digital Assistant, Chips, Super Computers. A favorite!

Newsbytes is also available through GEnie, ZiffNet on CompuServe, BIX,
Prodigy, America Online, Applelink, NewsNet, KR Dialog, in the newsgroup
clari.nb on Usenet, and various BBS systems around the world. (Validation
required for access to Clarinet.)

On Compuserve, check out Online Today's short, informative news stories
about the computer industry.

NewsNet has a long list of newsletters that you can read or search online.
Back issues are also available. The offerings include Catholic News
Service, CD Computing News, Computer Reseller News, Electronic Materials
Technology News, Electronic Trade & Transport News, Electronic World News,
High Tech Ceramics News, Online Product News.

For general news, start with major newswires, like Associated Press, Agence
France-Presse, Xinhua, Reuters, and the like. They are available on many
commercial services including NewsNet, CompuServe, and KR Dialog.

You'll find pointers to broadcasting sources of news in many languages at

    http://www.algonet.se/~nikos/broad.html

Choices include BBS, Channel 4 (United Kingdom), Deutsche Welle (Germany),
Teletekst from NOS (Holland), Scandinavian broadcasters, Community
Broadcasting Association of Australia, CBS, Radio Japan, the Internet
Multicasting Service, US-based radio stations, CPB and NPR (USA), Radio
Canada, Radio France, Radio and TV schedules from Finland, and more.

News is more than news
----------------------
After some time, your definition of the notion "news" may change. Since so
many conferences are also interesting sources, they should also be a part
of your news gathering strategy. Check in regularly to read what members
say about what they have seen, done, heard, or discovered.

Professional news reporters have also discovered this. Online conferences
are popular hunting grounds for writers of the traditional press.

FidoNet has many conferences with specialized news contents, including:

      ANEWS                 News of the US and World
      BBNS                  BBS News Service
      BIONEWS               Environmental News

Many CompuServe forums have news sections. If you are into Hot News and
Rumors about Amiga Computers, read messages in section 3 of the Amiga Tech
Forum.

Consumer Electronics Forum has the section "New Products/News." The
Journalist Forum has "Fast Breaking News!" The Motor Sports Forum has
"Racing News/Notes." The Online Today Forum has "In the News."

Below, we have therefore combined the traditional news providers with
conferences to provide some interesting sources sorted by part of the
world:

Links to news spanning the globe
--------------------------------
The Web service at http://www.cs.vu.nl/~gerben/news.html works like a
switchboard of free global news and weather links. The links go to
providers of "daily news as you would find in a newspaper or radio or TV
news broadcast of reasonable quality." Focus is on news delivered through
the Web, Gopher, or similar interface, rather than on what is delivered by
telnet and mailing lists.

The home page lets you jump to categories like World, North Western Europe,
South Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania, U.S.A., The
rest of North and South America, Other lists of news sources.

The "World" category links to services like OneWorld daily news service,
United Nations press release highlights, United Nations radio (audio),
Amnesty International news releases, Ecumenical News International, World
Council of Churches press releases, Around-the-world news from Discipling a
Whole Nation, Reuters News in French, and Reuters News in German.

"Other lists of news sources" lists "Daily News - Free Internet Sources,"
by Sam Sternberg and Lauri Saarinen, The Omnivore, WWW Virtual Library:
Journalism, Pointers to news services from Yahoo, Global Journalism Links,
Journalistic resources page, News page of our local Public Service,
Newsboy, On-Line Newspapers by Elizabeth Shamblin, I giornali su Internet,
CRAYON, Local news sources, Finding news about China, La prensa latina,
News & Electronic Forums (mainly about Latin America), Electronic
magazines, and Network news and media (from Russia-On-Line, see also
http://www.online.ru/).

There's a competing service in the United States called HomeTown Free-Press
(at http://www.GoThere.com/hometown.htm). It offers over 1,500 links to
free local news and information sites in Africa, Antarctica, Asia,
Australia and New Zealand, Eastern and Western Europe, Middle East, North,
South and Central America, West Indies (March 1996). Sites include
newspapers, radio and television stations, schools, civic and civil
organizations.

Editor & Publisher Interactive collects data on just about every online
newspaper in the world. As of August 30, 1996, their database had 1521
online newspaper entries. The number of newspapers on the World Wide Web
was 1396. (http://www.mediainfo.com:4900/ephome/npaper/nphtm/online.htm)

On their Web page, you can list papers by continent by clicking on an
Interactive World Map. You can full text search to locate individual online
publications or list papers by country.

WRAL-TV5 (http://www.wral-tv.com/news/international/) delivers free
international news via continuous feeds from Reuters, Associated Press and
The Sports Network.

For free daily news about the Web, NewsLinx - Daily Web News - is a
favorite. Check http://newslinx.com/ to see why. The page for May 3,
1996, simply started like this:

     , Full Speed Ahead For The Internet (c|net)
     , Can't Sell Famous Web Names" (Boston Globe)
     , Gates Says Don't Worry About Web Jambs (News Tribune)
     , Pointcast Network Hot (Chicago Tribune)
     , Create Web Pages With "Liquid Motion" (Web Review)

     , Web Connects Siblings (Boston Globe)
     , Job Searching On The Web Becoming Standard (Detroit News)
     , Germany Plans Minor Net Regs (Reuters)
     , Computer Checkup Via Web (Interactive Age)
     , Strange Unibomber Site (Web Review)

Click on a title to get the full text.

NewsLinx features links to stories culled from the mainstream press, with
an update posted each business day. Although there are many business or
technology listings on the Web, this service provides links to the best
stories, a simple one page interface, and focus exclusively on the Web.

United Nations Daily Highlights: http://www.un.org/News/dh/latest.htm.

Africa
------
Usenet has

  clari.world.africa.south_africa
                          News from South Africa.
  clari.world.africa      News from other African countries.
  clari.world.mideast     Also covers news on Egypt.
  clari.news.hot.somalia  News from Somalia. (Validation required for
                          access to Clarinet.)

PeaceNet's World News Service offers six digests on Africa, covering
different regions of the continent, with coverage from the Inter Press
Service (IPS):

  Africa - General Overview of the Entire Continent
  Southern Africa - Kalahari, Cape and Islands
  West Africa - Niger Basin
  West Central Africa - Congo-Logone
  North Africa - Maghreb and Niles
  Eastern Africa News - Rift Valley and Red Sea

IPS' writers are all local people covering the areas in which they live,
and their articles appear three days after copyright. Other sources include
the Pacific News Service, the United Nation Information Centre, Third World
Network Features, PeaceNet and EcoNet.

For a list of digests (including other regions and worldwide coverage of
specific issues), prices and instructions about getting a free one month
trial subscription, write to [e-mail].

Somalia News Update is irregularly published out of Sweden. Email to:
[e-mail]: Somalia request. Body: Ask nicely.
TSSNEWS (on [e-mail]) brings news of the Tunisian
Scientific Society.

The Weekly Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg, South Africa) offers news by
email. Write [e-mail] for subscription information, or
look it up on the Web (http://www.is.co.za/services/wmail/). A one year
subscription costs $100.

The searchable Weekly Mail & Guardian news archive goes back to July of
1994. (At http://wn.apc.org/wmail/issues/. Registration required.)

Zambia's controversial newspaper, The Post in Lusaka, has a full online
service at http://www.zamnet.zm/zamnet/post/post.html.

The North Africa/Europe MeteoSat weather picture is updated half-hourly
(http://www.met.fu-berlin.de/wetter/D2.jpg).

ZAMNET provides links to the Africa Information Afrique News Archive. The
archive contains articles from Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique,
Malawi, Namibia, SADC, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and
Zimbabwe published over several years. gopher://lechwe.zamnet.zm/11/News

NewsNet has Africa News On-Line, about political, economic and cultural
developments.

Japan
-----
Japan Press Network (http://www.iac.co.jp/~jpn/) provides the latest
news covering Japan's high-tech industries as well as finance, economics
and the Japanese press.

Usenet has clari.world.asia.japan (News of Japan). Also, see PeaceNet's
World News Service above. (Validation required for access to Clarinet.)

Nikkei (on FP Profile) has an English language service with news articles
from Nikkei and other Japanese newspapers.

Middle East
-----------
The Middle East News Network publishes daily news, analysis and comments
from 19 countries in the Middle East produced by Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish
and Persian press. You can read these news through Reuters (for example, on
NewsGrid/CompuServe), Down Jones News/Retrieval, and Information Access.

Usenet has

  clari.world.mideast     News from the Middle East. Includes Lebanon,
                          Jordan, Syria, Cyprus, Kuwait, Afghanistan.
  clari.world.mideast.arabia  Saudi Arabia and the other nations of
                              the Arabian Peninsula (Qatar, the United
                              Arab Emirates, Yemen, Oman, and Bahrain).
  clari.world.mideast.iran    News of Iran
  clari.world.mideast.iraq    News of Iraq
  clari.world.mideast.israel  News of Israel
  clari.world.mideast.turkey  News of Turkey. (Validation required for
                              access to Clarinet.)


Arabnet (http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/gemland) brings up to
the minute Arabic news in Arabic characters.

Other countries in Asia and the Pacific
---------------------------------------
For interesting links to sources of political, social and economic news
about mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Tibet, check

   http://www.hk.super.net/~milesj/

The Ta Kung Pao Chinese Daily has daily coverage of news about China and
Hong Kong in Chinese (http://www.enmpc.org.hk/takungpao/). Requires Big5
or GuoBiao software to read.

PeaceNet's World News Service has a Southeast Asia digest. It includes
coverage from the Inter Press Service (IPS) on Vietnam, Thailand, Hong
Kong, Japan, Cambodia, Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, The People's Republic of
China, Malaysia and the region as a whole. (Email: [e-mail])

The Star, Malaysia's leading English-language daily newspaper, brings its
news at http://www.jaring.my/~star/. Singapore's Straits Times is at
http://www.asia1.com.sg/straitstimes/.

The BERITA-L list (on [e-mail]) carries news (only) about
Malaysia, Singapore, Islam, and of other ASEAN countries when of interest
to Malaysians or Singaporeans. Since the topics are somewhat unrelated, MY,
SG and IS topics have been set up so subscribers can avoid uninteresting
postings (selective reading).

Some mailing lists bring a steady flow of news from various sources.
SEASIA-L - The Southeast Asia Discussion List (at [e-mail]) -
is one example. it is "designed to facilitate communication between
researchers, scholars, students, teachers, and others interested in
Southeast Asian studies with an emphasis on current events."

SEASIA-L defines Southeast Asia loosely as Burma/Myanmar across to Hong
Kong and down through Australia and New Zealand. Regularly, it brings full-
text news stories from Inter Press Service, regional news agencies, and
newspapers/radio. Some examples:

On Jul. 30, 1992, a full-text story from IPS:  "PHILIPPINES: RAMOS URGES
REPEAL OF ANTI-COMMUNIST LAW." On Aug. 13, 1992, full-text story from The
New Straits Times (Singapore): "Schoolgirls involved in flesh trade, says
Farid." On Aug. 31, "ANTI-VIETNAMESE FORCE TURNS UP IN CAMBODIA" (Reuter).

SEASIA-L also brings "underground" reports like "The Burma Focus," a
bimonthly newsletter published by the All Burma Students' Democratic Front.

CND (China News Digest) is a voluntary non-profit organization aiming at
providing news and other information services about China-related affairs.
All CND services are free of charge. Back Issues of the China News Digest
are at http://www.cnd.org.

CND's English language publications include CND-Global (three issues per
week), CND-US (one issue per week), CND-Canada (one issue per week), CND-
Europe/Pacific (one issue per week), CND-China (two issues per month).

China News Service & Agency (http://www.chinanews.com/) offers subscribers
daily business news from China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

The INDIA-L mailing list (on [e-mail]) is The India News
Network, while PAKISTAN (on [e-mail]) is the Pakistan
News Service.

Usenet has

  clari.world.asia.india  News of India. (Validation required for access
                          to Clarinet.)
  alt.india.progressive   Progressive politics in the Indian sub-continent.
  soc.culture.bangladesh  Issues & discussion about Bangladesh.

  clari.world.asia.south  News of South Asia, including Pakistan,
                          Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bhutan,
                          Nepal, and Myanmar.
  misc.news.southasia     News from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, etc.
  bit.listserv.pakistan   Pakistan News Service.
  bit.listserv.pns-l      Pakistan News Service Discussions.

  clari.world.asia.china  News of China
  talk.politics.china     Discussion of political issues related to China.
  clari.world.asia.hong_kong   News of Hong Kong.

  clari.world.asia.koreas News of North and South Korea.

  alt.culture.indonesia   Indonesian culture, news, etc.
  bit.listserv.seasia-l   Southeast Asia Discussion List.
  clari.world.asia.southeast  News of Southeast Asia, including Vietnam,
                          Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia,
                          Indonesia, Brunei, and the Philippines.

  clari.world.asia.central   News of the Asian former Soviet republics:
                          Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia,
                          Kirghizistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Tadzhikistan.

  clari.world.oceania     News of the Pacific Islands and Papua New Guinea
  clari.world.oceania.australia      News of Australia
  clari.world.oceania.new_zealand    News of New Zealand

A list of Australian mailing lists is available at

  http://www.gu.edu.au/gint/ozlists/ozlists_home.html

Request subscription to a Bangladesh News Digest by sending an email to
[e-mail]. The Hindu, a national Indian newspaper, is
experimenting with an online edition at http://www.webpage.com/hindu.
IndoLink, an interesting source of Indian news, information, articles,
is at:

  http://www.genius.net/indolink/index.html

NewsNet has the Xinhua English Language News Service (China), Asian
Economic News, Asian Political News.

Central and South America
-------------------------
PeaceNet's World News Service has a Latin America and the Caribbean digest
with coverage from IPS. The America Latina digest is the Spanish language
equivalent. The digests feature regular news from sources like La Agencia
Latinoamericana de Informacio'n (ALAI), Third World Network's Revista del
Sur, and Tercer Mundo Econo'mico. (Email: [e-mail])

WorldNews OnLine offers commercial newspapers and news services like
Agencia Estado (Brazil), Excelsior (Mexico City), Global Information
Network/Latin America Wire, and the ITC Latin American Telecom Report. At
http://worldnews.net.

Usenet has

  clari.world.americas    News on the Americas, usually outside the USA
                          and Canada. (Validation required for access to
                          Clarinet.)
  clari.world.americas.caribbean  News of the island nations of the
                          Caribbean, including Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican
                          Republic, and Jamaica.
  clari.world.americas.mexico     News of Mexico.
  clari.world.americas.central    News of Central America: Panama,
                          Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador,
                          Guatemala, and Belize.
  clari.world.americas.south      News of South America.

For a one-stop Internet source for news on Mexico, including audio and
video, try http://eng.usf.edu/~palomare/newspapers.html.

A selection of current news articles about and concerning Peru from
foreign newspapers and magazines is distributed by [e-mail].
Subscribe by sending the command "add noticias you-email-address." Sample
news items are available at gopher://antara.rcp.net.pe/11/noticias.

News from Cuba, Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa is available daily
from Radio Havana, Cuba. Email: [e-mail]. El Tiempo (Colombia)
is at http://www.eltiempo.com/.

The ECUADOR mailing list brings news from Ecuador. Daily news bulletins
from "Diario Hoy" are posted to the list. Send [e-mail] your
subscription request.

Europe
------
Start by visiting http://www.cs.vu.nl/~gerben/news.html for European
daily news and weather. Here are links to Radio Amsterdam, Deutsche Welle,
Der Spiegel, L'Unione Sarda (Italy), RTI (Ireland), Baltic News Service,
The Vogon News Service (target is British ex-patriots) and The Electronic
Telegraph in United Kingdom, Bulgarian news, Croatian Radio News, Danske
nyheder (Denmark), Gazeta Wyborcza on-line (Poland), and much more.

You can search the Guardian OnLine Archives in England at the following Web
address: http://www.cityscape.co.uk/cgi-bin/kidofwais.pl, and the
Economist is at http://www.economist.com/.

For a peek at El Periódico de Catalunya (Spain), point your browser at
http://www.elperiodico.es.

The Austrian "Wiener Zeitung" claims to be the oldest existing daily
newspaper in the world (neary 300 years old). Its Web page covers domestic
and world news in German, general information about Austria's government,
the house of parliament, the president, articles from the weekly computer
page, and the Friday supplement, reviews of books, records and cultural
events, a chess page, and more. (http://www.oesd.co.at/wz/wz.htm)

A daily news bulletin from Radio Prague (Czech Republic) is available by
email from [e-mail]. Select language by sending the commands 'subscribe
English' or 'subscribe Czech'. A weekly review of the Czech press prepared
by journalism students at Charles university is at [e-mail].
Subscribe by mail using the command 'sub car-eng firstname lastname' (for
the English language version).

For more English language daily news covering the Baltic countries, check
http://www.cs.vu.nl/~gerben/news.html.

The Dutch language Internet newspaper InterNetKrant brings news from the
Netherlands at

   gopher://www.cca.vu.nl:70/00/VU/Nieuws/InterNetKrant/
   http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/staff/kgg/www/internetkrant#english

News about Flanders and Belgium Dutch is available from Rijksuniversiteit
Gent (in Dutch). For information about how to subscribe, send an empty mail
message to [e-mail], with the word HELP in the subject line.

You may also want to try the News, Magazines & Information Servers page at

    http://utwpue.wb.utwente.nl/~fjodor/news.html

Der Spiegel (Germany) is at: http://spiegel.nda.net/nda/spiegel

Usenet has

  clari.news.europe             News related to Europe. (Validation
                                required for access to Clarinet.)
  clari.world.europe.benelux    News of Belgium, the Netherlands, and
                                Luxembourg.
  clari.world.europe.alpine     News of Austria, Switzerland, and
                                Liechtenstein
  clari.world.europe.france     News of France and Monaco.
  clari.world.europe.germany    News of Germany.
  clari.world.europe.greece     News of Greece.
  clari.world.europe.iberia     News of Spain, Portugal, and Andorra.
  clari.world.europe.ireland    News of the Republic of Ireland.
  clari.world.europe.italy      News of Italy and San Marino.
  clari.world.europe.uk         News of the United Kingdom.
  clari.world.europe.northern   News of Norway, Sweden, Denmark,
                                Finland, and Iceland.
  clari.world.europe.union      News about the European Union: the European
                                bureaucracy, the European Parliament, and
                                other EU institutions.

The HELLENIC NEWS database brings daily news in audio format (in Greek).
URL: gopher://alpha.servicenet.ariadne-t.gr:70/1 For a page with Greek
newspapers, try http://www.spark.net.gr/perip_e.html.

On the IR-POL mailing list on [e-mail], members discuss
current Irish politics.

NewsNet has Agence France-Presse International news, and News From France.
KR Data-Star has Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany), Il Sole 24 Ore, and
L'Impresa (Italy), Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland), News From France,
Northern Ireland News Service.

Dow Jones News/Retrieval offers full text from Wall Street Journal Europe,
Agence France-Presse, the Paris-based International Herald Tribune, the
Guardian, and others from the United Kingdom.

Need newspapers in other languages than English? LEXIS-NEXIS carries Le
Monde (in French), Suddeutsche Zeitung (in German), and La Stampa (in
Italian). They have The Agence France-Presse wire service in French.

GBI (tel: [phone]) has an extensive full text coverage of the
German press. The offerings include the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and tageszeitung from Berlin.

The Radio Vaticana Kurznachrichten service (in German) is at
http://www.uni-passau.de/ktf/vatican.html, and The Vatican Radio at
http://www.wrn.org/vatican/.

The NORWAVES mailing list distributes digested news from Norway ( English).
Subscribe by email to [e-mail] using the command "SUBSCRIBE NORWAVES
Your Name". Web address: http://www.nki.no/~morten/norwaves.html

FROGNET - The French Way
------------------------
If you know French, check out FROGNET. This French language service brings
daily news from Agence France Press, and often has added excerpts from the
French dailies.

FROG is distributed by the services of the French embassy in Washington. It
covers world affairs, European and French items, assembled, naturally, from
a French point of view.

The service is free. To subscribe, send a message through the Internet to
[e-mail]. It should contain your answers to the following
electronic application form. Replace the %s with your inputs (This is
French, right?):

     NOM:   %
     PRENOM:  %
     NAISSANCE:../../..%
     ARRIVEE:../../..%
     DEPART:../../..%
     EMAIL:    %
     ECOLE D'ORIGINE:  %
     QUALITE:  %
     ADRESSE DE RECHERCHE:   %
     PAYS:   %
     STATE:     %
     UNIVERSITE:   %
     RECHERCHE:   %
     MOTSCLES:   %
     DOMAINE:  %

Complicated? OK, here is some instructions in "French ASCII":

   * Pour les dates veuillez utiliser le format Francais
     (DD/MM/YY). Arrivee: c'est la date d'arrivee dans le pays
     ou vous etes actuellement.
   * QUALITE: Etes vous VSN, PHD, MASTER, INGENIEUR, POST-DOC ...?
   * ECOLE D'ORIGINE: Diplome obtenu en France
   * PAYS: US, Australie ....
   * STATE: pour les US en 2 lettres (NY, TX, CA)
   * UNIVERSITE: actuelle ou societe
   * RECHERCHE: Soyez explicite !
   * MOTSCLES: (ex: Neuronaux, polymeres, TVHD...)
   * DOMAINE: En 3 lettres confere nomenclature ci-dessous


Nomenclature de la National Science Foundation.

   AGR   AGRICULTURE
   BIO   BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
   HES   HEALTH SCIENCES
   ENG   ENGINEERING
   CIS   COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SC.
   MAT   MATHEMATICS
   PHY   PHYSICAL SCIENCES
   AST   Astronomy
   ATM   Atmospheric & Meteorological Sciences
   CHE   Chemistry
   GEO   Geological Sciences
   PHS   Physics
   OPH   Other Physical Sciences
   PSY   PSYCHOLOGY
   SOS   SOCIAL SCIENCES
   HUM   HUMANITIES
   HIS   History
   LET   Letters
   FLL   Foreign Languages & Literature
   OHU   Other Humanities
   EDU   EDUCATION
   EDG   Education General
   TED   Teacher Education
   TEF   Teaching fields
   PRF   PROFESSIONAL FIELDS
   BUS   Business & Management
   COM   Communications
   PFO   Other Professional Fields
   OTH   OTHER FIELDS

For summary news from France, you can also gopher to

   gopher://burrow.cl.msu.edu/11/news/news/general/french_language

Most countries have several local language news services. In Norway,
Statens Datasentral lets you search stories from the NTB news agency.
Aftenposten, a major newspaper, offers full-text stories from their A-TEKST
database, from Dagens Naeringsliv (DNX), and the Kapital magazine.

North America
-------------
There's an abundance of online news sources covering North America. We are
therefor just including a few pointers here, like

    The Wall Street Journal  -  http://wsj.com
    The Washington Post      -  http://www.washingtonpost.com
    USA Today                -  http://www.usatoday.com
    Los Angeles Times        -  http://www.latimes.com

Usenet has

  clari.news.top          Top US news stories. (Validation required for
                          access to Clarinet.)
  clari.canada.general    Short items on Canadian News stories.
  clari.canada.gov        Government related news (all levels).
  clari.canada.law        Crimes, the courts and the law.
  clari.canada.newscast   Regular newscast for Canadians.
  clari.canada.politics   Political and election items.
  clari.canada.trouble    Mishaps, accidents and serious problems.
  clari.news.canada       News related to Canada.

Newslink offers links to many U.S. newspapers, broadcast networks and
affiliates, magazines and publishers, and sites of special journalistic
interest on the World Wide Web:

    http://www.newslink.org/newslink
    http://www.newslink.org/newslink/nongraphical.html

Automatic background information on this service is available by sending
any sort of email to [e-mail].

Check out the URL http://www.cs.vu.nl/~gerben/news.html for more.

xUSSR
-----
The Russian Media Web page has links to Russian newspapers and magazines
on the Internet, including Izvestia, Segodnia, Express Chronicle,
Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Commersant. News and highlights. Links to English
language databases. Lets you download Russian fonts. Web address:
http://www.hibo.no/stud/sh4/media.html.

PeaceNet's World News Service offers an Eastern Europe (including Russia
and the CIS) digest with coverage from the Inter Press Service (IPS). For
information, contact [e-mail].

The Jamestown Foundation (U.S.A.) publishes The Monitor, a daily digest of
news reports from Russia and other former Soviet republics. Subscribe by
email to [e-mail] using the command "subscribe jf-
monitor Firstname Lastname." You can also subscribe via its Web site at
http://www.jamestown.org. Back issues are available.

Latest news from the former Soviet Union, East-Central and South-Eastern
Europe is available as a Daily Digest from the Open Media Research
Institute (OMRI). Web address: http://www.omri.cz/OMRI.html. You can
subscribe by email to [e-mail] using the following
command:

      SUBSCRIBE OMRI-L Your_name Your_last_name

Several Russian newspapers, including Commersant Daily, Nega, and press
services like Postfactum and Interfax, have digests or complete editions
available for Relcom network subscribers, usually for a nominal fee.

A hypertext, English-language  version of the St. Petersburg Press weekly
is at http://www.spb.su/. This Web page also offers Severo-Zapad, a daily
news source for information about northwest Russia.

INCO (Moscow), in cooperation with the East-West Project, Institute of
Central/East European and Russian Area Studies, Carleton University
(Canada), publish the ANALYTICA MOSCOW: Politica Weekly Press Summary
newsletter. The January 7-13, 1995 was about 30 Kb, and had the following
contents:

     1.  Government of National Revival formed in Chechnya
     2.  Chechnya War
     3.  Political Institutions
     4.  Political Figures
     5.  Foreign Relations
     6.  Dossier:
          a) Background of newly-appointed Minister of Justice,
             Valentin Kovalev
          b) The State Committee on the Military-technical Policy of the
             Russian Federation

Contact: [e-mail] .

GlasNews (U.S.A.) is a quarterly publication on East-West contacts in all
aspects of communications - including journalism, telecommunications,
photography, opinion research, advertising and public relations. At:

    http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/~aboyle/glasnews/master.html

You can subscribe to receive it by email by writing [e-mail].
Use the command "subscribe cepmail".

For a fee, East View Publications (http://www.eastview.com/) offers
searchable databases of articles from the daily Russian newspapers
Nezavisimaya Gazeta and Sevodnya.

Usenet has

  clari.news.hot.east_europe      News from Eastern Europe. (Validation
                                  required for access to Clarinet.)
  clari.world.europe.balkans      News of the former Yugoslavia, Romania,
                                  and Bulgaria
  alt.current-events.bosnia       The strife of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
  soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna
  alt.news.macedonia              News of Macedonia in the Balkan Region.

  clari.world.europe.central      News of Poland, the Czech Republic,
                                  Slovakia, and Hungary.

  clari.world.europe.cis          News of Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia,
                                  Lithuania, and Estonia
  clari.local.georgia             Local news.
  clari.local.georgia.briefs      Local news Briefs.
  alt.current-events.ukraine      Current and fast paced Ukrainian events.

  clari.world.europe.russia       News of Russia.
  relcom.bbs.list                 Lists of Russian-language BBSes.
  talk.politics.soviet            Discussion of Soviet politics, domestic
                                  and foreign.

Daily English-language news from Croatia (ex-Yugoslavia), including
bulletins and flashes, is available from the Croatian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs at gopher://smile.srce.hr/11/eng/po-temama/news.

UUCP has a service which brings regular news bulletins from Poland (Contact:
[e-mail]).

BosNet distributes information relevant to the events in/about Republic of
Bosnia-Hercegovina. Daily posting typically consists of newsbriefs compiled
from reports by UPI, RFE/RL, NYT, Reuter, as well as other sources, such
as: LA, SF, Chicago dailies; WP, WSJ, The Economist, White House, New
Republic, Boston Globe, various Ministry Reports, FPB, etc. Send mail to
[e-mail]. In the body of the message type

       SUBSCRIBE BOSNEWS Your_name Your_last_name

CET-ONLINE is a free daily English language news service produced by
Central Europe Today. It features political, economic and business news as
well as feature stories that chronicle the living and working environment
in Central Europe. Subscribe by email to [e-mail] by
putting the command SUBSCRIBE in the body of your mail.

DJNR offers full text from Soviet Press Digest, Moscow News, and others.

Behind the news
---------------
To garner new subscribers and keep current readers, magazine publishers
turn to online services to create an ancillary electronic version of their
print product.

Their readers are being transformed from passive recipients of information
into active participants in publishing.

You can "talk" to BYTE's writers on BIX, and with PC Magazine's writers
through ZiffNet on CompuServe. Their forums function as expert sources.
Here, you will often learn about products and trends sometimes before the
magazines hit the newsstand.

Britain's two best-selling PC magazines share the PC Plus/PC Answers Online
forum on CompuServe (GO PCPLUS). The Australian PC WEEK is at the Web
address http://www.pcuser.com.au.

PC Magazine, another American magazine, has several forums on CompuServe.
They also operate a bulletin board. People from AI Expert Magazine can be
met in the AI Expert Forum. Dr. Dobb's Journal is in the Dr. Dobb's Journal
Forum.

The Entrepreneur's Small Business Forum (CompuServe) is managed by
representatives from the Live Sound! magazine (U.S.A.). The publication is
devoted to the MIDI sound field, occupies section and library 9 of the MIDI
B Vendor Forum.

Time magazine has a forum on America Online. There, readers can discuss
with magazine reporters and editors, and even read the text of entire
issues of Time electronically before it is available on newsstands. Time
Warner's book authors and editors are on CompuServe. On the Web, full text
articles from Time, Vibe, and Entertainment Weekly magazines are on URL:
http://www.timeinc.com.

Time Warner's Pathfinder (http://pathfinder.com) provides the full text
of Time magazine, including a feature called Time Daily, updated with the
latest stories each evening around 8 p.m. ET.

InfoWorld used to have forums on the net, but stopped because they did not
make any money off it. However, they still provide access to the full text
of their news, views, and reviews through various means, including Computer
Select, the Internet Shopping Network (http://shop.internet.net), InfoSeek,
LEXIS-NEXIS, Individual, NewsEdge, and DataTimes.

The Online World handbook, the one you are reading now, has a forum. For
information about how to join, send email to [e-mail].
In the text of your message, write the command GET TOW.MASTER .



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 10: Looking for a needle in a bottle of hay
===================================================

There is little doubt that the databases of the online world contain nearly
everything needed to complete a major research project, fuel an
information-needy business, or just help get the school homework done.

Online research is faster, provides more depth and is cross-referenced to
help researchers locate obscure resources. It makes you an "instant expert"
on a subject matter. The main problem is learning how to get a confident
grip on the searching process.

Prepare by clipping
-------------------
Experienced users regularly "clip" news from online services, and store
selected parts of what they get on their personal computers' hard disks.
They use powerful tools to search their data, and know how to use the
information in other applications. (More about clipping in Chapter 11.)

Regular clipping of news is highly recommended. It is often quicker and
easier to search your own databases, than to search online. Your data is a
subset of previous searches. Therefore, the stories on your disk are likely
to have a high degree of relevancy.

There are many good programs for personal computers that let you search
your personal data for information. See Chapter 14 for ideas.

While secondary research can never replace primary information gathering,
it often satisfies most information needs related to any task or project.
Besides, it points in the direction of primary sources from where more in-
depth information may be elicited.

When your personal database fails to deliver
--------------------------------------------
Regular "clipping" can help you build a powerful personal database, but it
will never satisfy all information needs. Occasionally, you must go online
for additional facts.

When this happens, you may feel like Don Quixote, as he was looking "for a
needle in a bottle of hay." The large number of offerings is bewildering.
To succeed, you'll need a sound search strategy.

Your first task is to locate useful sources of information. The next, to
decide how best to find that specific piece of information online. You must
plan your search.

Although one source of information, like an online database, is supposed to
cover your area of interest, it may still be unable to give you what you
want. Let me explain with an example:

    You're tracking a company called IBM (International Business
     Machines). Your first inclination is to visit forums and clubs
     concerned with products delivered by this company. There, you
     plan to search message bases and file libraries.

     The search term IBM will probably give so many hits that you
     almost drown. To find anything of interest in these forums,
     your search terms must be very specific.

     General news providers, like Associated Press, may be a better
     alternative. Usually, they just publish one or two stories on
     IBM per week. Don't expect to learn about details that are not
     of interest to the public.

     AP's stories may be too general for you. Maybe you'll be more
     content with industry insiders' expert views, as provided by
     the NewsNet newsletters OUTLOOK ON IBM, or THE REPORT ON IBM.

The level of details in a given story depends in part on the news
providers' readers, and the nature of the source. The amount of "noise"
(the level of irrelevancy) also varies. In most public forums, expect to
wade through many uninteresting messages before finding things of interest.

Try the following strategy:

  Step 1: Locate sources that provide relevant information,

          Selecting sources is half the battle in making a good
          search! You probably won't find what you need if you're
          not looking in the right place.

  Step 2: Check if the information from these sources is at a
          satisfactory level of details, and that the volume
          is acceptable (not too much, nor too little).

  Step 3: Study the service's search commands and procedures,
          PLAN, and then SEARCH.

Locating interesting sources
----------------------------
Step 1 is not an easy one. There is such an abundance of directory services
and pointers.

On the Internet, my favorite starting point is Digital Equipment Corp.'s
Alta Vista service. This free search service indexes millions of Web pages,
and maintains a full-text index of more than 13,000 Usenet newsgroups
updated in real-time. Its Advanced option lets you limit a search by giving
start and end dates, by combining words and phrases using AND, OR, NOT, and
NEAR operators. Check it out at http://www.altavista.digital.com/.

  | It's only worth using Alta Vista if you bear in mind the sort |
  | of material which might be posted in your subject area. Since |
  | anyone can publish almost anything on the Web, pages vary -   |
  | from personal pages set up by any student who has Internet    |
  | access, to those set up academic or research institutions,    |
  | those set up by not-for-profit organizations, and those from  |
  | commercial organizations.                                     |

If Alta Vista fails to deliver, I try HotBot (http://www.HotBot.com), or
Lycos (http://www.lycos.com/). In August 1996, HotBot claimed an index of
54 million full-text Web pages, plus Usenet newsgroups and selected
Internet mailing lists. Lycos claimed 51 million in early July. This is so
far more than Alta Vista has. However, I find Alta Vista easier to use, so
it will have to do as a first choice. Things may change fast, though.

HotBot supports Boolean AND/OR/NOT, and phrase searching. It provides
relevance feedback with retrieval. It also supports chronological, domain,
and geographic searches, as well as media type searches such as Java, VRML,
and Acrobat. Lycos is also very powerful.

    | Note that there are also search engines specializing in various |
    | languages. Example: http://www.ogilvy.com/spanish/hisplink.htm  |
    | has links to over 30 engines of the Spanish/Portuguese/Catalan  |
    | world.                                                          |

My next step is usually The Deja News Research Service, a large indexed
database of archived Usenet news from over 15,000 topic-specific groups. It
typically gives you access to Usenet ranging back to March, 1995. This
amounts to over 80 Gbytes of searchable data (August 1996). URL:

  http://www.dejanews.com/

You can use the service for research, or to locate interesting newsgroups
worth your subscription.

DejaNews' filter lets you limit what records will be searched by a query.
A search can be limited by date, author, and newsgroup name (using
wildcards, or range operators), OR and AND boolean operators, wildcards
(compan* matches companies, company, etc.). You can combine search elements
using parentheses, and more.

The order of the records in the hit list reflects how often the words you're
searching for appear, as well as the importance you have given the posting
date. This scoring gives you the records that best match your search at the
top of the list.

Once you have found an interesting message in a hitlist, you can retrieve
the thread by clicking on the subject line as it appears at the top of the
screen.

InfoSeek is a commercial service on the World Wide Web that allows you to
search many Internet newsgroups, news and business information from real-
time newswires, publications, broadcast programs, financial and government
databases, World Wide Web pages, mailing list archives, and technical
support information (including over a year of Computer Select database of
the full-text and abstracts of about 100 computer magazines).

Queries can be entered as plain English, or by just entering key words and
phrases. Point your browser at http://www.infoseek.com.

If you are looking for more specialized databases, try The Internet Sleuth
(http://www.isleuth.com/). It links to over 1,500 searchable databases
on the Internet on a wide variety of subjects.

Sleuth's categories include: Agriculture, Economics, Internet, Regional,
Education, Legal, Sciences, Astronomy, Employment, Literature, Shopping,
Aviation, Engineering, Mathematics, Social Sciences, Biology, Physics,
Entertainment, Medicine, Software, BioSciences, Environment, Arts, Music,
Sports, Business, Finance, News, Technology, Business Directories, Food &
Drink, People, Trade & Industry, Chemistry, Genealogy, Travel, Commercial
Databases, Government, Politics, Usenet News, Companies, Health, Computer
Related, Recreation, Veterinary, Humanities, Reference, Web Search Engines.

If your success is still meagre, consider asking others online for advice.
This is often a fast way to interesting sources, and in particular if you
need a commercial offering to get what you need.

When looking for information about agriculture and fisheries, visit forums
and conferences about related topics. Ask members what they are using.

If you want information about computers or electronics, ask in such
conferences.

  | When you do not know where to start your search, ask others! |
  | Their know-how is usually the quickest way to the sources.  |

DejaNews will help you locate relevant newsgroups for your questions. To
find interesting mailing lists, check out the Liszt Index of Electronic
Mailing Lists at http://www.liszt.com/. It can also be searched by email
to [e-mail]. Send a blank message for instructions.

The Liszt Index lets you enter any word or phrase to search their directory
of over 48,000 listserv, listproc, majordomo and independently managed
mailing lists from 1817 sites (Aug 24, 1996). It will not allow you to
search the message bases, but it sure will help you locate potentially
interesting discussions.

The Listserv home page (http://www.tile.net/tile/listserv/index.html)
lets you sort LISTSERV discussion groups by 1st letter of list name, by
country, by server name, and more. The description pages of the individual
discussion groups, however, is not to much help. Try Publicly Accessible
Mailing Lists at http://www.neosoft.com/internet/paml/index.html for an
alternative.

If you are still out of luck, check out GEnie's Home Office/Small
Business RoundTable, a hangout of online searchers. On CompuServe, visit
the Working From Home Forum' section for information professionals (#4),
and the section for new librarians in the Journalism Forum.

Patent searchers are a very specialized group. They discuss common problems
on KR Dialog's DialMail. Their bulletin board is named PIUG.

Note: There is much free information on the Internet, but be prepared to
pay for current and relevant information. Your payment is for filtering,
sorting, and emphasizing of what matters to you.

Read the user manuals
--------------------
Some online services let you retrieve their user information manuals by
modem for free. Others send them to all users, while some charge extra for
them. If they do, buy! They're worth their weight in gold.

The user manuals from KR Dialog, Dow Jones News/Retrieval and CompuServe
make good reading. The latter two also publish monthly magazines filled
with search tips, information about new sources, user experiences, and
more. KR Dialog distributes the monthly newsletter Chronolog.

NewsNet customers periodically receive a printed listing of available
newsletters by subject area, and a presentation of their information
providers. The NewsNet Action Letter (monthly) is also distributed by mail.

Whenever it is possible to retrieve these help texts in electronic form,
consider doing that. It is often faster to search a help file on your disk,
than to browse through a book.

Monitor the offerings
---------------------
Professional information searchers watch the activity in the online world.
They subscribe to announcements about new offerings, regularly search
databases for new sources of information, and read about new services.

On most online services, you can search databases of available offerings,
and a section with advertisements about their own 'superiorities'. Keep an
eye on what is being posted there.

InterNIC Information Service has an announcement-only service at
[e-mail] called net-happenings. It is a favorite for
monitoring Internet's offerings.

The service distributes announcements about tools, conferences, calls for
papers, news items, new mailing lists, electronic newsletters like EDUPAGE,
and more. Send a message with the word "help" in the body of the text for
subscription information. Note: Consider using the digest option (send the
command SET NET-HAPPENINGS DIGEST on a separate line after your SUBscribe
request).

Net-happenings is also distributed through comp.internet.net-happenings.
The full net-happenings archives can be searched and retrieved at

   http://www.gi.net/NET/

NEW-LIST regularly distribute notices about new discussion lists
(conferences). Subscribe by email to [e-mail]. Use the
following command:

  SUB NEW-LIST Your-first-name Your-last-name

"Seidman's Online Insider" at http://www.clark.net/pub/robert is an
informative newsletter. You can subscribe to have it delivered weekly to
your Internet mailbox. Send mail to [e-mail]. In the
BODY of your mail enter: SUBSCRIBE ONLINE-L [Your Full Name] .

Heriot-Watt University Library (England) publishes the free _INTERNET
RESOURCES_ Newsletter. Emphasis is on Engineering, Science, and Social
Science related sources in the United Kingdom. You can read it at

   http://www.hw.ac.uk/libWWW/irn/irn.html

You can subscribe to have an alerting message, plus the table of contents
sent via email, each time a new issue appears.

The Usenet newsgroup alt.internet.services focuses on information about
services available on the Internet. Services for discussion include:

  * things you can telnet to (weather, library catalogs,
    databases, and more),
  * things you can FTP (like pictures, sounds, programs, data)
  * clients/servers (like MUDs, IRC, Archie)

Every second week, a list of Internet services called the "Special Internet
Connections list" is posted to this newsgroup. It includes everything from
where to retrieve pictures from space by FTP, how to find agricultural
information, public UNIX, online directories and books, you name it.

NewsNet lets you read and search the following newsletters:  Worldwide
Videotex Update, Worldwide Databases (#PB44), Online Newsletter, The Online
Newsletter, the Information and Database Publishing Report, and The Online
Libraries and Microcomputers.

They can also be read and searched on KR Dialog and KR Data-Star, as part
of the Information Access PTS Newsletter Database. Information Access is a
full-text database with specialized newsletters for business and industry.
On CompuServe, you can get it through the IQuest gateway to NewsNet. It
is also on NEXIS.

On The Well, read the "News from Around Well Conferences" topic to learn
about developments.

The LINK-UP magazine is an interesting paper source. In North America,
contact Learned Information Inc., 143 Old Mariton Pike, Medford, NJ 08055-
8707, U.S.A. In Europe: Learned Information (Europe) Ltd., Woodside,
Hinskey Hill, Oxford OX1 5AU, England. An online version is available
through ZiffNet's Business Database Plus on CompuServe.

Two monthly magazines, Information World Review and  FULLTEXT SOURCES
ONLINE from BiblioData Inc. (U.S.A.), are also available through Learned
Information. (BiblioData, P.O. Box 61, Needham Heights, MA 02194, U.S.A.)
Learned Information's "Learned InfoNet" is at

  http://info.learned.co.uk/

NewsNet has the newsletter Information Today from Learned Information. It
covers online services, CD-ROM, multimedia, imaging, library automation,
electronic networking and publishing, document delivery, copyright issues,
and the hardware and software essential to the delivery of electronic
information.

More sources about sources
--------------------------
Scott Yanoff updates an interesting, selected list of Internet resources
twice per month. Get it by email from [e-mail], or from

   http://www.spectracom.com/islist/
   ftp://ftp.csd.uwm.edu/pub/inet.services.txt

John December's "Information Sources: the Internet and Computer-Mediated
Communication" has pointers to information describing the Internet,
computer networks, and issues related to computer-mediated communication.
It lists Internet texts for new users, comprehensive Internet guides, and
specialized and technical information. At
http://www.december.com/cmc/info/index.html

The Gale Directory of Databases contains detailed descriptions of over
10,000 publicly available databases accessible through an online vendor or
batch processor or for purchase on CD-ROM, diskette, or magnetic tape, or
as a handheld product (Feb, 1996). It is one of the most complete product
guides to the electronic database industry worldwide.

The directory is available in print, on CD-ROM, through KR Dialog and
other commercial services, and through Gale Research's subscription-based
Web service (at http://galenet.gale.com/). They also offer listings of
database producers and vendors, and a Gale Guide to Internet Databases.

For lists of electronic journals about the Internet ("E-zines" or
"Ejournals"), click at

   http://www.edoc.com/ejournal/
   http://www.northcoast.com/savetz/ipress.html

The Stupendous Ejournal and Newsletter List is at the Web address:

   http://www.spew.com/stupendous.html

Several electronic journals and newsletters are available through the
Internet, covering fields from literature to molecular biology. For a
large list, try http://www.meer.net/~johnl/e-zine-list/.

The NEWSLTR list distributes various network newsletters. Subscribe by
email to [e-mail]. Offerings include: Edupage, Hitek,
HPC, Infosys, IAT Inforbit, and many more. You can view and search the
newsletters by Title, Keywords, and Subject on:

   http://www.mid.net/NEWSLETTER

The Argus Clearinghouse offers over 1,000 topical guides to the Internet's
information resources.  The guides are created by librarians and other
information professionals, and cover a diverse range of topics, from
Theatre, Law, and Chemistry to Midwifery. Access on this Web address:
http://www.clearinghouse.net/

There is another interesting Web site offering many Internet guides at

   http://www.brandonu.ca/~ennsnr/Resources/guides.html

Interested in CD-ROM? Consider joining the CD-ROM Online mailing list
(subscribe to [e-mail]) for a free, monthly electronic
magazine.

Practical hints about online searching
--------------------------------------
We cannot give a simple, universal recipe valid for all online services.
The best approach on one service, may be useless on others.

On some services, searching starts by selecting databases or type of
source. This may help you get rid of some irrelevancies. On other services,
this selection is assumed.

The next step is to enter your search words (or text strings), and a valid
time frame (as in "between 1/1/90 and 1/1/91"), where such an option is
available.

Here are some search terms used on NewsNet:

   SONY AND VIDEO         The word SONY and the word VIDEO. Both
                          words must be present in the document
                          to give a match.

   VIDEO*                 search for all words starting with
                          VIDEO. "*" is a wild-card character
                          referring to any ending of the word.
                          VIDEO* matches words like VIDEOTEXT
                          and VIDEOCONFERENCE.

   SONY WITHIN/10 VIDEO   Both words must be present in the text,
                          but they must not be farther apart than
                          ten words. (Proximity operators)

   IBM OR APPLE           Either one word OR the other.

Some services have adjacency operators, and some automatic truncation.
Truncation allows searching on different word endings or plurals with the
use of a truncation wild card symbol. For example, if the truncation symbol
is *, then the search term econ* will return items that contain economics,
economy, economic, and econometric. Car* will return items that contain
cars and cartoon, so it is advisable to use truncation symbols carefully.

Many services let you reuse your search terms in new search commands. This
may save you time (and money), when you get too many hits. For example: if
IBM OR APPLE gives 1,000 hits, limit the search by adding "FROM JANUARY
1st.," or by adding the search word "NOTEBOOK*".

Most services offer full online documentation of their search commands. You
can read the help text on screen while connected, or retrieve it for later
study. Expect the quality of these texts to be variable, but browse them
all the same.

Make a note about the following general tricks:

The use of ANDs and ORs
-----------------------
is called Boolean searching. It allows search terms to be put into logical
groups by the use of connective terms.

Using the AND, OR, and NOT search operators may seem confusing at first,
unless you already understand the logic. Here are some hints that you may
find helpful:

Use the Boolean operator AND to retrieve smaller amounts of information.
Use AND when multiple words must be present in your search results
(MERCEDES AND VOLVO AND CITROEN AND PRICES).

Use OR to express related concepts or synonyms for your search term (FRUIT
OR APPLES OR PEARS OR BANANAS OR PEACHES).

The purpose of NOT is avoid listings of irrelevant records. Be careful when
using this operator. NOT gets rid of any record in a database that contains
the word that you've "notted" out. For example, searching for "IBM NOT
APPLE" drops records containing the sentence, "IBM and Apple are computer
giants." The record will be dropped, even if this is the only mention of
Apple in an article, and though it is solely about IBM.

Use NOT to drop sets of hits that you have already seen. Use NOT to exclude
records with multiple meanings, like "CHIPS Not POTATO" (if you are looking
for chips rather than snack foods).

Often, it pays to start with a "quick-and-dirty" search by throwing in
words you think will do the trick. Then, look at the first five or 10
records, but look only at the headline and the indexing. This will show you
what terms are used by indexers to describe your idea and the potential for
confusion with other ideas.

Use proximity operators to search multiword terms. If searching for "market
share," you want the two words within so many words of another. The order
of the words, however, doesn't matter. You can accept both "market share"
and "share of the market."

Relevance ranking, and more
---------------------------
Some claim that boolean searches only find between 20 - 25 percent of the
relevant information. The problem is that you must know the terms to search
on before you begin. Many people don't know these terms and cannot guess
them.

Several online services are busy trying to supply better "search engines"
using techniques like natural language searching, relevance ranking, and
concept searching.

Relevance ranking tries to measure how closely the retrieval matches the
query, usually in quantitative terms between 0 and 100 or 0 and 1,000. It
usually provides a ranked listing of search results, with a score for the
relevance of the result, based on the occurrences of the terms used and
also their position in the document. It provides somewhat the same results
as AND searching. Also, it offers the benefits of OR searching as all the
terms in a query need not be present in the result.

Alta Vista (http://www.altavista.digital.com/) offers both boolean and
enhanced relevance ranking searches. For example, you can require that
selected terms be found in the results. The query "+apples +bananas
oranges" will not find a document missing the words apples and bananas.
Those files that contain oranges will listed before those that do not
contain this word, but files without this word will also be listed.

Some services let you search specific types of information. For example,
Alta Vista allows searches for characters or words in an URL (a Web
address), or a hyperlink.

    Application: My Web pages are at http://login.eunet.no/~presno/. The
    query "+link:eunet.no/~presno/ -url:eunet.no/~presno/" will most likely
    find all links to my pages on other Web servers except my own. The "-"
    character in front of a word works as a NOT operator. The "link:"
    phrase is for searching in hyperlinks across the Internet. The "url:"
    code lets you search in the URL addresses of the found pages.

Key Word In Context (KWIC) searching will return the key word and N words
near the key word to give the user the context in which the key word was
found.

Phrase Searching allows searching of phrases when available. Note that some
systems can be confusing if you think "Online World" is searching the two
words together as a phrase, when in fact the engine is searching Online OR
World.

Fuzzy searching is another interesting concept. This option allows you to
search when you don't know the exact spelling of the word. Some systems
use the Soundex algorithm invented over 70 years ago to search name files.
Names that sound alike should have the same Soundex number. It uses these
basic rules:

    - Vowels are ignored.
    - Consonants that sound alike in a pronounced name have the
      same "number".
    - Successive consonants with the same number are counted as one
      (Willitt is equal to Wilith).

Note: The information available in English language may be just a small
part of that available in a country's national language. When English
language sources fail to meet the need at hand, consider the services of a
skilled bilingual searcher.

Spelling errors are the most common reasons for search failures. Make sure
you have that terminology term or person's name right. Also, names are not
spelled the same way in all countries, and those who produce texts also
make spelling errors. For example, the name of the composer Tchaikowsky is
supposedly spelled in 36 different ways on the nets. 'Ciaikovsky' is one of
them.

Searching file libraries
------------------------
The commands used to find files are similar to those used in traditional
databases. Often, you can limit the search by library, date, file name, or
file extension. You can search for text strings in the description of the
contents of a file, or use key words.

On the Internet, the Virtual Shareware Library is a favorite. The page at

   http://www.acs.oakland.edu/cgi-bin/vsl-front

links to a front end which catalogues about 120,000 software files
available from the 22 largest shareware and freeware archives on the
Internet (1996). Its search engine lets you search descriptions, locate,
retrieve, or order files.

Narrow your search by stating the desired hardware or software platform, as
in Commodore Amiga, Atari, MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh,
Novell Netware, IBM OS/2, Unix/Linux, etc.

Use Boolean operators (AND and NOT), specify case requirements, use
wildcards (like *, | and ?), delimit by file creation dates, demand matches
in paths and file names, and limit the size of the search report.

Using a program like Netscape, just click on the desired files to have them
transferred to your local disk. Easy.

On bulletin board systems, there are many different search methods.

   Example: You're visiting a bulletin board based on the BBS
   program RBBS-PC. You want a program that can show GIF graphics
   picture files.  Such files are typically described like this:

 VUIMG31.EXE     103105  07-15-91 GIF*/TIFF/PCX Picture Viewer/Printer

   From left to right: file name, size in bytes, date available,
   and a 40 character description.

   You can search the file descriptions for the string "gif". You
   do this by entering the term "s gif all". This will probably
   give you a list of files. Some will have the letters GIF in
   the file name. Others will have them in the description field.

CompuServe has several special "Find this File" services.

Searching conferences and forums
--------------------------------
On Usenet, it is easy. Simply connect to The Deja News Research Service
above. Many mailing lists maintain log files, and offer ways of searching
them. Often, you must be a subscriber to search, so it is more cumbersome.

Many services have commands for selective reading of messages. For example,
on CompuServe you can limit your search to given sections. You can also
select messages to be read based on text strings in the subject titles. The
command

   rs;s;CIS Access from Japan;62928

displays all messages with the text "CIS Access from Japan" in their subject
titles starting with message number 62928. Most users have their programs
do this automatically for them. For examples, OzWin and TAPCIS handles this
well.

Such message filtering is also common in Usenet newsreaders. For example,
the Free Agent program from Forte Advanced Management Software, Inc. lets
you go online to retrieve message headers, mark off those you want to read,
and then call back to retrieve the selected message bodies. (Free Agent is
at http://www.forteinc.com/forte/.)

Searching by email
------------------
When searching a database stored on another continent, then the speed of
response may be a problem. In such cases, note that several databases on
the Internet can be searched by email.

For information about how to search WAIS by email, send a message to
[e-mail] with the word 'help' in the body of your mail.

Reference.COM (Chapter 11) allows for searching of Usenet postings, while
the Agora-servers let you search many databases using World Wide Web by
email services (Chapter 12).

MCI Mail and MCI Fax have a program called Information Advantage, under
which online services and newsletters can deliver search results and other
information over the online services. KR Dialog, Dun & Bradstreet, NewsNet,
and Individual Inc. have signed up for the program.

You can request a search by direct email to say KR Dialog. The search
results will be returned to you via MCI Mail or MCI Fax.

Using discussion lists through the Internet
-------------------------------------------
To get a directory of LISTSERV based mailing lists, send the following
email message:

   To:  [e-mail]
   Subject: (keep this blank)
   Text:
   LIST GLOBAL

You will receive a LONG list of available sources of information. The list
dated March 8, 1996, had over twenty-three thousand lines. Each mailing
list is described with two lines. Here are some examples from the list:

 Network-wide ID  Full address and list description
 ---------------  ---------------------------------
 AARWA-L          [e-mail]
                  African & Africa Related Women's Assoc.  (AARWA)

 AAT-L            [e-mail]
                  Art & Architecture Thesaurus Discussion List

 ACADEMIA         [e-mail]
                  Academia  -  Forum on Higher Education in Israel

 BBS-TR           [e-mail]
                  BBS Listesi (Turkish)

 CAPES-L          [e-mail]
                  Grupo de discussao da CAPES

 EUROTRI_CV       [e-mail]
                  Foro de las OTRIs de la Comunidad Valenciana

 HIRIS-L          [e-mail]
                  HIgh Resolution Infrared Spectroscopy - List

 KURSBASE         [e-mail]
                  Aktienkurse

The column "Network-wide ID" contains the names of the mailing lists. "Full
address and list description" contains the email addresses that members
use when submitting discussion items, and a short textual description of
each conference.

Keep the list on your hard disk. This makes it easier to find sources of
information, when you need them.

Subscribing to mailing lists
----------------------------
These mailing list, also often called 'discussion list', work like online
conferences or message sections on bulletin boards, but technically they
are different. (Read about KIDLINK in Chapter 2 for background
information.)

All these lists are controlled by a program called LISTSERV on the host
given under "Full address" above.  Thus, to subscribe or signoff to the
AAT-L mailing list above, write to [e-mail].

Mailing lists offer "conferencing" with the following important functions:

   * All "discussion items" (that is, electronic messages sent to
     the lists' email address) are distributed to all subscribers.
   * Messages are usually automatically stored in notebook archives.
     You can search these log files, and you can have them sent
     to you as electronic mail.
   * Files can often be stored in the lists' associated file libraries
     for distribution to subscribers on demand.

The term "Network-wide ID" signifies that you do not need to subscribe by
email to the host running a mailing list's LISTSERV. If there is a LISTSERV
on a host in a country closer to where you live, then you can subscribe to
this rather than to the remote. This helps keep the total costs of the
international network down.

   Example:
   You live in Norway. There is a LISTSERV in nearby Finland at
   [e-mail]. You can send your AAT-L subscription
   request (SUBSCRIBE AAT-L FirstName LastName) to this address,
   rather than to [e-mail].

Use the addresses in column two when sending messages to the other members
of the discussion lists, but DO NOT send your subscription requests to this
address!! Your mail will be forwarded to all members. Chances are that
nothing will happen, while everybody will see how sloppy you are.

So, you subscribe by sending a command to a LISTSERV. The method is similar
to what we did when subscribing to Infonets in Chapter 7. If your name is
Jens Jensen, and you want to subscribe to CAPES-L, send this message to a
LISTSERV:

   To:  (enter a preferred LISTSERV address here)
   Subject: (You can write anything here. Will be ignored.)
   Text: SUB CAPES-L Jens Jensen

When your subscription has been registered, a confirmation text will be
returned to you. Note that some mailing lists will ask you to return a
subscription confirmation before accepting.

From now on, all messages sent to the list will be forwarded to your
mailbox. (Send "SIGNOFF CAPES-L" to this address to unsubscribe from the
mailing list.)

Some lists will forward each message to you upon receipt. Others will send
a periodic digest (weekly, monthly, etc.).

To send a message to HIRIS-L, send to the address in column two above.
Send to

   [e-mail]

Review the following example. Most mailing lists will accept these
commands.

Example: Subscription to the China list
---------------------------------------
CHINA-NN is listed as follows in the List of Lists:

   CHINA-NN   [e-mail] (Peered)
              China News Digest (Global News)

You can send your subscription request to [e-mail].
Scandinavians may subscribe by mail to [e-mail]. North
American users can also send their mail to [e-mail].

If your name is Winston Hansen, write the following command in the TEXT of
the message

   SUB CHINA-NN Winston Hansen

When you want to leave CHINA-NN, send a cancellation message like this to
the LISTSERV where you subscribed:

   To: [e-mail]
   Subject: (nothing here)
   SIGNOFF CHINA-NN

If you subscribed through [e-mail], sending the SIGNOFF
command to [e-mail] will get you nowhere. Send to
[e-mail].

Never send the SIGNOFF command to the discussion list itself! Always send
to the LISTSERV.

The Usenet resource
-------------------
Some Usenet information articles are being posted regularly. These texts
tend to be useful both for novice and experienced users, and usually fall
into one of these groups:

  1. How-to articles explaining the basics and fine points of network
     usage, standards, etc. Examples: "How to Read Chinese Text on
     Usenet," and "How to find more information about blues and jazz."

  2. Introductory notes about one or more newsgroups, covering policies
     for submissions to that group, usage, etc. Common questions and
     answers pertinent to a newsgroup(s).

  3. Indexes of archives, or pointers to archives for various groups.
     Periodic newsletters, calendars, pointers to publications.
     Examples: "PostScript interpreters and utilities index," "Index to
     the rec.radio.amateur.* Supplemental Archives," and "FidoNet
     Newsletter."

  4. Statistical information and reports about Usenet; tables of Usenet
     hosts, links, etc.

  5. Miscellany, including small useful sources, "fun" lists, and more.

For a list of periodic postings, check out this page

   http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/

It will provide an alphabetic list of all Usenet FAQs found in the
news.answers newsgroup.  Many of the FAQs in this list are presented in the
same format as they appear in the newsgroup, while others have been further
processed and split into additional documents. Click on individual FAQs to
read.

The list of newsgroups and mailing lists is available on hosts that run
Usenet News or NetNews servers and/or clients in the newsgroups
news.announce.newusers and news.lists.

The members of news.newusers.questions and alt.internet.access.wanted
will readily accept your help requests.

Other sources available through the Internet
--------------------------------------------
webNews is an archive of USENET News articles about the Web:

  gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/hwebNews.80

PROJECT DA-CLOD is yet another database of information on the World Wide
Web, a classified database of hyperlinks maintained in a hierarchic manner:

  http://schiller.wustl.edu/DCLDOC/daclod.html

The Galaxy service offers: Search Galaxy Pages, Find Galaxy Entries, Search
the World Wide Web, Search Gopher Space, Search Hytelnet Services (includes
traditional ``top-down'' interface), and has pointers to searchable indexes
and databases at many other sites. Point your WWW browser at

  http://galaxy.einet.net/search.html

A directory of scholarly electronic conferences is maintained by Diane K.
Kovacs ([e-mail]). instructions are available by sending
the message

   get acadlist readme

to [e-mail].

The Global Network Navigator (GNN) is a "news service" about the resources
and people on the Internet. URL: http://nearnet.gnn.com.  For information,
send email to [e-mail].

  | Free vs. commercial sources: On commercial online services,  |
  | the profit motive provides continuous pressure to keep data  |
  | plentiful and approachable. On the Internet, the information |
  | you'll find is there often because of someone's good will.   |
  | So, unless the resource is sponsored or commercial in another|
  | another way, beware of outdated information.                 |

The Library Corp. (U.S.A.) claims that their commercial NlightN Web service
has the world's largest index to online data. With one search, users can
hunt for data in more than public and private 500 databases in one go. Web
address: http://www.nlightn.com

Sources include ABI/INFORM, Merriam-Webster, Magazine Articles Summary, the
Library of Congress, the British Library, the Readers Guide to Periodical
Literature, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, the National Library of
Medicine, the Film Literature Index.

In addition, NlightN provides full-text indexing of 14 newswire services,
including Knight-Ridder, PR Newswire, Sports Wire, and Investment Wire, and
Carnegie-Mellon University's Lycos catalog of documents on the Web itself.

Searching the databases is free, but there is a modest fee for documents
actually retrieved. A typical item is said to cost a couple of dollars.

Andrigal Internet Library Service (ILS), Russia, brings commercial access
to English-language information about scientific and engineering
publications, research organizations and libraries in Russia. An article
delivery service is also available.

Their databases include: Bibliographic description of 1400 journals,
published in Russia and other countries of former USSR since 1986. Bi-
weekly English translations of tables of contents of 300 Russian-language
journals processed from 1991. Directory of former USSR institutions.
Directory of former USSR libraries. Info: [e-mail], or
check http://www.relis.ru/Relis/ANDRIGAL/ils.html. Free demo.

The Electric Library (http://www.elibrary.com) is an archive of over
1,000 publications (1996). Users can enter a plain English question to
search over 900 full-text magazines, over 150 full-text newspapers, over
2,000 complete works of literature (Shakespeare, Monarch Notes), 20,000
photographs, news wires, television and radio transcripts, book, movie and
software reviews, and Compton's Encyclopedia. They also have a dictionary,
thesaurus, almanac, fact books, and more.


How to get more out of your magazine subscriptions
--------------------------------------------------
PC Magazine (U.S.A.) is one of those magazines that arrives here by mail.
We butcher them, whenever we find something of interest. The "corpses" are
dumped in a high pile on the floor.

To retrieve a story in this pile is difficult and time consuming, unless
the title is printed on the cover. Luckily, there are shortcuts. Logon to
PC MagNet on CompuServe. Type GO PCMAG to get the following menu:


   PC MagNet

    1 Download a PC Magazine Utility
    2 PC Magazine Utilities/Tips Forum
    3 PC Magazine Editorial Forum
    4 PC Magazine Programming Forum
    5 PC Magazine After Hours Forum
    6 PC Magazine Product Reviews Index
    7 Free! - Take a Survey
    8 Submissions to PC Magazine
    9 Letters to the Editor
   10 Subscribe to PC Magazine

Choice six lets you search for stories. Once you have a list with
page/issue references, turning the pages gets much easier.

PC Magazine is owned by the media giant Ziff-Davis. On the World Wide Web,
they're at http://www.pcmag.com. PC MagNet is a part of ZiffNet on
CompuServe. So is Computer Database Plus, which lets you search through
more than 250,000 articles from over 200 popular newspapers and magazines.
The oldest articles are from early 1987. The database is also available on
CD-ROM, but the discs cover only one year at a time.

CDP contains full-text from around 50 magazines, like Personal Computing,
Electronic News, MacWeek and Electronic Business. Stories from the other
magazines are available in abstracted form only.

To search the database, CDP, you pay extra per hour. In addition, you pay a
fee per abstract and per full-text article. These fees are added to your
normal CompuServe access rates.

ZiffNet also offers Magazine Database Plus, a database with stories from
over 130 magazines (1994) covering science, business, sport, people,
personal finance, family, art and handicraft, cooking, education,
environment, travel, politics, consumer opinions, and reviews of books and
films.

The magazines include: Administrative Management, Aging, Changing Times,
The Atlantic, Canadian Business, Datamation, Cosmopolitan, Dun's Business
Month, The Economist, The Futurist, High Technology Business, Journal of
Small Business Management, Management Today, The Nation, The New Republic,
Online, Playboy, Inc., Popular Science, Research & Development, Sales &
Marketing Management, Scientific American, Technology Review, UN Chronicle,
UNESCO Courier, U.S. News & World Report, and World Press Review.

In Chapter 11, we present another ZiffNet magazine database: the Business
Database Plus.

Magazine Index (MI), from Information Access Company (U.S.A.), is worth
checking out. It covers over 500 consumer and general-interest periodicals
as diverse as Special Libraries and Sky & Telescope, Motor Trend and Modern
Maturity, Reader's Digest and Rolling Stone. Many titles go as far back as
1959.

Although most of the database consists of brief citations, MI also contains
the complete text of selected stories from a long list of periodicals. It
is available through KR Dialog, CompuServe, BRS, KR Data-Star, Nexis,
Dow Jones News/Retrieval, and others.

The Ei Compendex Plus database from Engineering Information in the U.S.
offers information on various disciplines of engineering, from marine to
chemical to electrical to nuclear. On CDP Online, Dialog, and Orbit.

What to do if you have so many references to a given magazine that you want
to check it out? Try the Electronic Newsstand. It is available at the Web
address http://www.enews.com/, and has links to over 2,000 magazine sites
(1996). If you like, you can subscribe (with discounts) to over 300 of
them.

For 'windows shopping', check out the Tables-Of-Contents service at
http://www.mag-browse.com. It offers the latest covers and tables of
contents of the top English language magazines for computers, sports,
electronic & computer games, and music & entertainment. The list of
magazines includes Internet World, Net Guide, Online Access.

Finding that book
-----------------
Many libraries are accessible through the Internet. For a list of links to
library WWW servers, look up Libweb: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb,
or webCATS (http://library.usask.ca/hywebcat/).

Some libraries can be searched by Internet mail. This is the case with
BIBSYS, a database operated by the Norwegian universities' libraries.

I am into transcendental meditation, and therefore constantly look for
books on narrow topics like "mantra." To search BIBSYS for titles of
interest, I sent a mail to [e-mail]. The search word was
entered in the subject title of the message. By return email, I got the
following report:

    Date:         Fri, 21 Jul 93 13:54:18 NOR
    From: [e-mail]
    Subject:      Searching BIBSYS

    Search request   : MANTRA
    Database-id      : BIBSYS
    Search result    : 5 hits.

The following is one of the references that I forwarded to my local library
for processing:

    Forfatter : Gonda, J.
    Tittel    : Mantra interpretation in the Satapatha-Brahmana
                / by J. Gonda.
    Trykt     : Leiden : E.J. Brill, 1988.
    Sidetall  : X, 285 s.
    I serie   : (Orientalia Rheno-traiectina ; 32)
    ISBN      : 90-04-08776-1
    1  - UHF  90ka03324 - UHF/INDO Rh III b Gon

The British Library is at http://www.bl.uk/. The Web site "Book Lovers:
Fine Books and Literature" has links to writers and poets, libraries,
publishers and booksellers, both of new and second hand/antiquarian books.
URL: http://www.xs4all.nl/~pwessel/

Search the Alex Catalog of full-text Electronic Texts on the Internet at

    http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/alex-index.html

The catalogue is divided into Search the catalog, Browse the catalog (by
author, date, host, language, subject, or title), and Information about
cataloging Internet resources.

CompuServe has a section for book collectors in the Coin/Stamp/Collectibles
Forum, and a Weekly Book Chat section in the ScienceFiction & Fantasy
Forum. In the Electronic Mall, you can buy books directly from Ballantine
Books, Penguin Books, Small Computer Book Club, The McGraw-Hill Book
Company, Time-Life Books and Walden Computer Books.

On the Internet, Roswell Computer Books Ltd.'s online book store (Canada)
has a large database of titles. Check it out at

    http://www.nstn.ns.ca/cybermall/roswell/roswell.html

Email requests can be sent to [e-mail] .

The Internet Book Shop in the United Kingdom offers over 750,000 (1995).
It's URL is: http://www.bookshop.co.uk/.

Book Stacks Unlimited offers around 400,000 titles. Search online, enter
your order and credit card information to have the books shipped. At

    http://www.books.com/

Quanta is the  electronically distributed journal of Science Fiction and
Fantasy.  Request to be added to the mailing list by email to
[e-mail].

For more on science fiction, retrieve a public copy of William Gibson's
self-destructing electronic book "Agrippa" from:

    ftp://bush.cs.tamu.edu//pub/misc/erich/agrippa

You may also want to browse a copy of a parody, at

    ftp://bush.cs.tamu.edu//pub/misc/erich/agr1ppa

The North American bibliographic reference database "Books in print" is
available on BRS and CompuServe.

The South African Bibliographic and Information Network is at

    http://www.sabinet.co.za/.

FidoNet has COMICS (The Comic Book Echo), NewsNet has the COMPUTER BOOK
REVIEW newsletter, and on The Well you'll find the "Computer Books"
conference.

OCLC's WorldCat is a reference database covering books and materials in
libraries worldwide. Their Online Union Catalog (OLUC) is the world's
largest and most comprehensive bibliographic database. Web address:
http://www.oclc.org.

Bookworms may appreciate the BITNET discussion list DOROTHYL
([e-mail]), and especially if they like Agatha Christie,
Josephine Tey and Dorothy L. Sayers. The Mark Twain forum (TWAIN-L) is at
[e-mail], and a mailing list for bizarre, disturbing, and
offensive short stories (WEIRD-L) is at [e-mail].

For Stephen King, check out http://wwwcsif.cs.ucdavis.edu/~pace/king.html.
Usenet has alt.fan.holmes, and there is a "Sherlockian Connection" Web
page with many links at http://www.bcpl.lib.md.us/~lmoskowi/holmes.html.

The Internet Poetry Archive is available through the World Wide Web. The
URL is http://sunsite.unc.edu/dykki/poetry/home.html. It brings selected
poems from several contemporary poets in different languages, including
text, photo of poet, voice of poet reading the poem, select bibliography,
and brief biographical note.

On Usenet, they have alt.books.reviews, k12.library, alt.books.technical,
rec.arts.books, and misc.books.technical, and more.

You will also find full electronic versions of books. The first issue of
this book is one example (version 1.0). Many texts are courtesy of Project
Gutenberg, whose goal is to develop a library of 10,000 public  domain
electronic texts by the year 2000.

Since books are often quite large, they are bulky for email transfer.  If
you have WWW access, check out:

  http://ftp.germany.eu.net/books/gutenberg/

Among the offerings, you'll find The Complete Sherlock Holmes Mysteries,
Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee, Tarzan, Frankenstein, The Unabridged
Works of Shakespeare, Aesop's Fables, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The
Holy Bible, The Love Teachings of Kama Sutra, The Holy Koran, The Oedipus
Trilogy (Sophocles), Peter Pan, Roget's Thesaurus (1911), and The World
Factbook (CIA).

If quite impossible to locate a given book, try EXLIBRIS, the Rare Books
and Special Collections Forum at [e-mail]. The
Bibliophile Mailing List is for collectors and sellers of old, rare,
scarce, and/or out-of-print books.  It is a forum for buying, selling, and
trading books. Subscribe by email to [e-mail] with
the word SUBSCRIBE in the body of your mail, or do it from their Web site:
http://www.auldbooks.com/biblio/index.html

If you are into Very Rare Books, visit the Vatican Library, one of the
world's oldest and most tightly restricted libraries. Founded in the mid-
1400s, the library houses over 150,000 manuscripts and a million printed
books, including 80,000 books published during the first fifty years of the
printing press.

Digital images of several full printed volumes, manuscripts, and artworks
are gradually being made available through the Internet. 200 of its most
precious manuscripts, books, and maps -- many of which played a key role in
the humanist recovery of the classical heritage of Greece and Rome, is
available at ftp://ftp.loc.gov/pub/exhibit.images/vatican.exhibit/.

Books in other languages
------------------------
On the Internet, there are a rapidly growing number of library online
public-access catalogs (OPACs) from all over the world. Some provide users
with access to additional resources, such as periodical indexes of
specialized databases. More than 270 library catalogs are online (1992).

An up-to-date directory of libraries that are interactively accessible
through Internet can be had at

     gopher://libgopher.cis.yale.edu:7000/11/Libraries

The CASLIN Czech and Slovak Library Information Network is at
telnet://beta.nkp.cz. Login: aluser . Use your Internet address as
password. It contains over 30.000 sample records of Czech books from
between 1983 and 1993 (1994). The code used for national characters is ISO
8859-2 (also called ISO Latin-2).

Non-Chinese speaking people will probably classify Chinese poems as 'rare'.
Many of them are impossible to read, unless your computer can handle the
special characters, and you know their meaning.

Still interested? Subscribe to CHPOEM-L ([e-mail]).
Be prepared to use your Big5 and GuoBiao utilities.

Searching dictionaries and encyclopedias
----------------------------------------
The Research Institute for the Humanities in Hong Kong offers extensive
links to reference works, dictionaries and thesauri in many languages:

    http://www.arts.cuhk.hk/Ref.html#dt

The offerings include Chinese, Dutch, English, Esperanto, French, German,
Greek, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Norwegian, Qur'anic Arabic, Russian,
Slovak, Spanish and Welch dictionaries; Dictionary of Acronyms; Quotations;
Abbreviations for International Organizations; History-related reference
works; Philosophy-related reference; Computer-related reference; White &
Yellow Pages; Maps; Encyclopaedias.

This Web page has a link to Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. I wanted quotes
to use in a speech for my wife's birthday, and entered "wife". Here are two
examples of what I found:

   Euripides. 484-406 B. C.
   ... Man's best possession is a sympathetic wife.

   Plutarch. 46 (?)-120 (?) A. D.
   ... Pittacus said, "Every one of you hath his particular plague, and
          my wife is mine; and he is very happy who hath this only."

Try http://math-www.uni-paderborn.de/HTML/Dictionaries.html for more
dictionaries.

Research-It! (http://www.iTools.com/research-it/research-it.html) has
free searching of dictionaries, thesauri, language translators, acronyms,
quotations, maps, phone numbers, postal information, package tracking,
financial info and more.

The real Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases can be found at
http://www.thesaurus.com/.

Searching and reading well-known encyclopedias like Grolier's Academic
American in full text costs money. Some services, like CompuServe and Dow
Jones News/Retrieval, give you access at discount prices.

Telnet to CompuServe (telnet://compuserve.com) to browse The American
Heritage Dictionary. This example is from one of my trips:

             THE AMERICAN HERITAGE
        DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
                Third Edition
                Copyright 1992
    Houghton Mifflin Company.  All rights reserved.

     1 Introduction
     2 Users Guide

     3 Search Dictionary

    !3

    Search term: grassroot

    grassroots
    ========================================
    grass*roots

    plural noun (used with a sing. or pl. verb)
    (1) People or society at a local level rather than at the center of major
    political activity. Often used with the. (2) The groundwork or source of
    something.

    noun attributive.
    (1) Often used to modify another noun: a grassroots movement; a grassroots
    constituency.

On the Internet, these works are often only available for closed groups, or
for those willing to pay. The Encyclopaedia Britannica is available for a
fee. The subscription form is available through WWW on http://www.eb.com.

You can search Webster by email to [e-mail] using the following
type of command in the subject line:

    #webster [word to search for]

Example: The subject line "#webster parenthood" gave the following response:

    par.ent.hood \'par-*nt-.hu.d, 'per-\ n : the position, function, or
        standing of a parent

For some time, though, the "information-for-free" enthusiasts have been
working on an alternative, the Internet Encyclopedia, or Interpedia. The
idea is for volunteers to write cooperatively the new encyclopedia, put it
in the public domain, and make it available on the Internet.

Unlike any printed encyclopedia, the Interpedia could be kept completely
up-to-date.  It could include hypertext links to discussions, and perhaps
evolve into a general interface to all resources and activities on the
Internet.

For more information, subscribe to the Interpedia mailing list by sending a
message to [e-mail]. The body of your message
must contain the word 'subscribe' and your e-mail address, as follows:
subscribe [e-mail]

The Encyclopedia Mystica is an exciting collection of mythology, folklore,
and legends that covers items such as Atlantis, Avalon, Beowolf, Theseus,
Odin, Valhalla, sprites and unicorns. At http://www.bart.nl/~micha/.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 11: Getting an edge over your competitors
=================================================


    We must be willing to risk change to keep apace with rapid
    change.

    The key is moderation and balance, supported by enough
    information to allow meaningful feedback.

    Going online requires adaption by management and staff in
    developing the necessary skills and vision.

This chapter starts with how to use the networks to manage projects. Next,
we will show you how to monitor competitors, prospects, suppliers, markets,
technologies, and trends. It winds down with marketing and sales by modem.

Project coordination
--------------------
Several services offer rental of private online conference areas to
businesses. Corporations are discovering that such conferencing is
efficient when coordinating a group of people geographically far apart
from each other.

Online conferences are also useful when team members are constantly on the
move and hard together face-to-face.

Some claim that people are more candid and meetings more efficient when
they communicate online. They favor online discussions for brainstorming
and productivity tasks, even when individuals and facilities are available
for face-to-face meetings.

Many international companies use such services regularly. The applications
range from tight coordination with suppliers and subcontractors, to
development of company strategies, and new organizational structures.

Renting an online conference room has advantages over doing it in-house:
The company does not have to buy software, hardware, expensive
communications equipment. It does not need to hire people to operate and
maintain the conferencing system. The more international the business, the
better is the external alternative.

Many Internet access providers offer email based distributed conferencing
for private groups. Some also offer interactive, live chats in private
virtual meeting rooms on the net. One example is Prospero Systems' Global
Stage service (http://www.prospero.com/globalstage/). CompuServe is
another international alternative.

For ideas about how to set up and operate a coordination conference, study
how volunteer organizations do it. One place to check out is KIDPLAN, one
of several coordination conferences used by KIDLINK (see Chapters 2 and 5).

KIDPLAN is usually most active during April and May each year. This is when
their annual projects are being closed down, and new projects are started.
Read the dialog between coordinators to get an idea of how the medium is
being used.

Old conference messages are stored in notebook files. You can have the full
coordination dialog for a given month sent you by email. Send all
requests for notebook files to

    [e-mail]

Getting notebook files is a two-step process. In your first message to the
LISTSERV, ask for a list of available files. Do this by using the following
command in your email:

    INDEX KIDPLAN

The LISTSERV will return a list. The following part is of particular
interest:

 101/2/  KIDPLAN  LOG9105B   ALL OWN V      80  2397 91/05/14
     23:40:22 Started on Wed, 8 May 91 00:11:09 CDT
 102/2/  KIDPLAN  LOG9105C   ALL OWN V      80  3141 91/05/21
     20:44:16 Started on Wed, 15 May 91 01:24:51 CDT
 104/2/  KIDPLAN  LOG9105D   ALL OWN V      80  2685 91/05/28
     22:34:31 Started on Wed, 22 May 91 17:01:21 +0200

Do not worry about the details. You are only interested in file names, and
dates. The file LOG9105B contains all messages from 8 May 1991 until 15
May.

If you want all these three files, send a message to the LISTSERV with the
following commands:

    GET KIDPLAN.LOG9105B
    GET KIDPLAN.LOG9105C
    GET KIDPLAN.LOG9105D

The notebook files will be forwarded to your mailbox.

Note: Some mailbox services have restrictions on the size of incoming mail.
This may prevent you from receiving large notebook files. If this happens,
contact your local postmaster for help.

Some email systems are unable to forward your return-address correctly to
LISTSERV. If you suspect that this is the reason for lack of success, try
the following commands:

    GIVE KIDPLAN.LOG9105B TO Your-Correct-Return-Address
    GIVE KIDPLAN.LOG9105C TO Your-Correct-Return-Address
    GIVE KIDPLAN.LOG9105D TO Your-Correct-Return-Address

Making it work
--------------
Making online conferences and task force meetings work, can be a challenge.
Most of the dialog is based on the written word. The flow of information
can be strong. This may cause an information overload for some members.

To overcome this, consider appointing a moderator-organizer for your online
conference. This person:

  Adds value by setting agendas; summarizing points; getting
  the discussion(s) back on track; moving on to the next
  point; mediating debate; maintaining address and member
  lists; acting as general sparkplug/motivator to keep things
  flowing by making sure that contributions are acknowledged,
  relevant points are noted, new members are welcomed, silent
  "Read-Only Members" are encouraged to participate, and the
  general atmosphere is kept appropriate to the goals of the
  conference/task force meeting.

Great online conferences do not just happen. Those set to get the meeting
fired up and keep the discussion rolling must work hard on it.

The meeting's organization may depend on the number of participants, where
they come from, the exclusivity of the forum, and the goal of the meeting.

In large meetings, with free access for outsiders, the best strategy may be
to appoint a Moderator-Editor. This person

  filters contributions, gathers new information, summarizes
  scattered contributions, does background research.

Filtering may be desirable when conferences are open to customers and
media. Its main purpose, however, is to help participants cope with the
absolute flow of information.

A conference can have an educational purpose. You can bring in someone who
can add value by bringing experience and expertise to the group.

You also need someone to do the dirty jobs everyone expects to be done -
but never notices until they are not. This person keeps the show running by
serving as a benevolent tyrant, sheriff, judge, mediator, general
scapegoat, and by playing a role in setting the general policy and
atmosphere of the meeting.

Now, back to the 'normal' applications of the online resource.

Monitoring what others do
-------------------------
Peter Drucker says (Forbes ASAP 8/29/94, p. 104):

  "Most CEOs still believe that it's the chief information officer's job
   to identify the information he requires. This is, of course, a
   fallacy. The information officer is a toolmaker; the CEO is the tool
   user.

   ... the information you need -- the really important information --
   you cannot truly get from your information system. Your information
   system gives you inside information. But there are no results inside
   a business."

At the heart of any profit-making company is sales. No matter how wonderful
the technology or how dedicated the manufacturing staff, without sales, the
company fails. To sell products and services, you need sources for
identifying potential buyers. With a little ingenuity, you can probably
create your own list of targeted sales leads, simply using your modem.

How would cosmetics sell in Japan? What about sneakers in Mexico? In the
age of the global business community, questions about expanding product
services beyond national borders abound.

It is safe to claim that the best business opportunities are outside your
company, in the external world.

Companies need to monitor customers and markets, find technologies to help
develop and build products, research new business actions, find new
subcontractors and suppliers, people to hire, and persons to influence to
boost sales.

In this marketing age, where sales calls cost hundreds of dollars and
business-to-business marketers use the telephone or the mails to reach
prospects, maintaining complete and accurate market lists is important.

There are many other questions: What are our most important customers and
their key people doing? What new products are they promoting? Who are their
partners? What else may influence their willingness to buy from us?

What prices are our major suppliers offering other buyers? Should we get
other sources for supplies? What major contracts have they received
recently? Will these influence their ability to serve our needs?

What new technologies are available now, and how are they being used by
others?

Threats are the reverse side of opportunities. What are our competitors
doing? What products and services have they launched recently? Are they
successful? What are our competitors' weaknesses and strengths? What
relationships do they maintain with our most important customers? How is
their customer support functioning, and what methods are they using in
their quality assurance?

Are new trade regulations being introduced in important foreign markets?

Each company has its own priorities when it comes to watching the external
environment. The information needs differ depending on what products and
services are being offered, the technological level of the company, the
markets that it addresses, and more.

Needs and priorities also differ by department and person, for example
depending on whether a user is the president, a marketing manager, product
manager, sales person, or has a position in finance or production.

Remember your priorities when online. You cannot possibly capture and
digest all information that is out there. Your basic problem is to find the
right information in the right form at the right time.

Consider appointing an online manager. Select and empower a central manager
to oversee the process of exploiting the online resource. A "make-things-
happen" person, who can also be a contact point for upper management.

Monitoring your own business
----------------------------
What kind of news about your company is being published? What do others
say about your products and services? What kind of exposure do your new
product announcements get in the media?

Build your own, local 'database'
--------------------------------
It does not take much effort to check one hundred different topics from
multiple online sources on a daily basis. The computer will do it for you.

You do not have to read all stories as carefully as you would with printed
material. Most experienced users just read what is important now, and save
selected parts of the retrieved texts on local disks for later reference.

We handle printed material differently. Most of us make notes in the
margins, underline, use colors, cut out pages and put into folders. These
tricks are important, as it is so hard to find information in a pile of
papers.

Not so with electronic information. With the right tools, you can locate
information on your computer's disk in seconds.

In seven seconds, I searched the equivalent of 2000 pages of printed text
for all occurrences of the combined search words 'SONY' and 'CD-ROM'! The
search tool was a shareware program called LOOKFOR (see Chapter 14). It
searched 4.2 megabytes on an 80486-based notebook computer. If you use an
indexing program, the search may be completed even faster.

During a typical work day, my personal "databases" usually give me more
direct value than what I have on paper, or can get online.

My disks contain megabytes of texts retrieved from various online services,
- but only what I have decided to keep. My personal databases contain more
relevant information per kilobyte than the online databases that I am
using. Searching the data on my disk often gives enough good hits to keep
me from going online for more.

  | You will often get better results when searching your own subset |
  | of selected online databases,  than  when you go  online to find |
  | information. It is usually easier and faster.                    |

On the other hand, your in-house database will never be fully up-to-date.
Too many things happen every day.

Also, the search terms used for your daily intake of news will never cover
all future needs. Occasionally, you have to go online to get additional
information for a project, a report, a plan.

Updating your database means going online regularly to find supplementary
information.

  | Regular monitoring gives the highest returns, and is required |
  | to get an edge over your competitors.                         |

For beginners, the best strategy is often to start with the general, and
gradually dig deeper into industry specific details. Let us review some
good hunting grounds for information, and explain how to use them.

Clipping the news
-----------------
Several online services offer 'clipping services'. They select the news
that you want - 24 hours a day - from a continuous stream of stories from
newspapers, magazines, news agencies and newsletters.

You select stories by giving the online service a set of search terms. The
hits are sent to your electronic mailbox, for you to read at will.

Many make the news available as soon as they have been received by
satellite. The delay before used to protect the interests of print media is
disappearing. Online services usually deliver news sooner than print media,
radio and television.

'Clipping' gives an enormous advantage. Few important details escape your
attention, even if you are unable to go online daily. The stories will stay
in your mailbox until you have read them.

'Clipping' on the Internet
--------------------------
Reference.COM is a personalized netnews delivery service (Usenet). You
subscribe by submitting keywords that describe your interests. Netnews
articles (from newsgroups available to REFERENCE.COM's news host) that
match your profiles (based on content, no matter which newsgroups they fall
into) will be sent you periodically via email.

You can access the service at http://www.reference.com. For instructions
on the email interface, send a message with the word "help" in the message
body to the address [e-mail].

The search profiles can include operators like AND, OR, AND NOT, WHERE
ORGANIZATION CONTAINS, WHERE SUBJECT CONTAINS, and WHERE date <=>. You can
adjust the frequency of delivery, the volume of articles, and the length of
subscription.

One interesting application of the netnews service is to find which
newsgroups may or may not be covering a subject area. When you have found
the names, subscribe to those for direct inquiries, postings of queries, to
converse with experts, etc.

PointCast Inc. (http://www.pointcast.com) provides free personalized news
from Reuters. S&P Comstock's stock ticker, SportsTicker, AccuWeather, and
Variety. Select to receive news on any of 35 industry topics.

For a modest fee, NewsPage (see Chapter 9) will send you a customized
daily news report right to your electronic doorstep. The report will
contain the day's headlines and news-briefs relevant to your needs. To get
the full text of a selected article, connect to the shown Web page and
read it.

Clarinet allows the use of software filters to display only messages
that include certain keywords, and can subscribe to subsets of the wire
service offerings. Users' newsreaders can do some individualized filtering
as well.

IBM infoSage (http://www.infosage.ibm.com) provides up to 30 stories
twice each business day on topics ranging from news and business
information to entertainment and sports. Over 2000 sources are covered,
including those provided by Reuters. Information Access Company, Dun &
Bradstreet, and Standard & Poor's (1996).

Items are tailored to individual needs. Delivery is either by email or a
personalized page on the infoSage Web server. Monthly subscription fee.

Knight-Ridder's News Alert (http://www.newsalert.com/) provides fee-based
filtered information from AFX (European business news), A.M. Best, Business
Wire, Comline Business News (Japanese business news), Federal News Service,
Futures World News, Global Information Network, Knight Ridder Financial, PR
Newswire, Sports Ticker, US Newswire, and other sources. Email and fax
delivery available.

World News Connection (WNC) is a foreign news alert service from the U.S.
Government. For a moderate fee, you get access to time sensitive news
gathered from thousands of foreign media sources, including political
speeches, television programs and radio broadcasts, and articles from
newspapers, periodicals, and books.

Contents include unclassified military, political, environmental and
sociological, scientific and technical data and reports from around the
world. All the material is translated into English. Regional categories
covered include: Central Eurasia, East Asia, Near East & South Asia, China,
East Europe, West Europe, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa. Note: U.S.
information is not included. URL: http://wnc.fedworld.gov/.

Some subscription plans include clipping. Define the type of information in
which you are interested. On a daily basis, WNC will review all articles
being added to the service, identify those meeting your profile, and email
them to your mailbox.

The San Jose Mercury News (California, USA) offers a low-cost news clipping
and screening service called NewsHound. The service is available on the
Internet and America Online. For a modest monthly fee, relevance ranked
articles are delivered to users' mailboxes filtered from sources like the
New York Times News Service (http://nytsyn.com/), the Knight-Ridder
Tribune News Service, the Knight-Ridder Tribune Business Wire, the
Associated Press, Scripps-Howard News Service, PR Newswire, Business Wire,
and the Kyodo News Service of Japan. Email: [e-mail].

CARL (Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries, U.S.A.) offers a table of
contents alert service. Users with an "UnCover profile" may create a list
of journal titles in which they are interested.  When the next issue of any
of those titles is entered into UnCover, the table of contents will
automatically be emailed to them.  Ordering an article is as easy as
replying to the email message. Information: [e-mail], and at
http://www.carl.org/uncover.

Clipping on NewsNet
-------------------
In January 1996, NewsNet welcomed me with these words:

                          -----------------
                          - N E W S N E T -
                          -----------------
                  W O R K I N G   K N O W L E D G E  (tm)

  ***E-Mail Express!  Now you can use standard Internet addresses with the
  e-mail on-demand feature to forward information retrieved from NewsNet.
  For more information, enter HELP EMS at any NewsNet prompt.

  ***New title! In-depth coverage of the emerging electricity sales
  industry is provided by Power Markets Week (EY101), from McGraw-Hill.
  Topics include news on market players and trends, regulation, market
  commentaries and more.

  New Services on NewsNet:

  Power Markets Week (EY101)
  Green Car Journal (AU16)
  Accounting Today (FI115)
  The Practical Accountant (FI112)
  Forecast (AD28)
  Health Data Management (HH73)
  Life Insurance International (IN19)
  Smart Card Bulletin (FI110)
  State & Local Communications Report (TE141)
  Human Resources Banking & Insurance (MT21)
  Retail Banker International (FI102)

NewsFlash, NewsNet's clipping service, automatically searches all new
editions of newsletters selected for monitoring. The hits are sent to your
mailbox. They are retained there for up to ten weeks besides the current
week.

Your selection of newsletters can be extended to include news stories from
United Press International (UPI), Reuters News Reports, Associated Press,
Business Wire, PR Newswire, and others.

For some time, I clipped newsletters in the telecommunications group using
the keywords  'Victoria' (an American communication project) and 'KDD' (the
Japanese telecom giant). When I called NewsFlash to check, it typically
reported:


                     NEWSFLASH NOTIFICATION
 ****************************************************************
    4 Total Newsflash hits. Use STOP to stop and delete all.
   New Hits =   4    Saved Items =   0

 TE01      7/17/89     ==     VICTORIA               ==       Headline #1
   COOKE SELLS CABLE HOLDINGS TO 6-MEMBER GROUP FOR NEARLY $1.6 BILLION
     Jack Cooke's cable systems will be sold to 6-member consortium

 TE11      7/17/89     ==     VICTORIA               ==       Headline #2
   BOCs' PROGRESS TOWARD INTELLIGENT NETWORK ARCHITECTURE INTERTWINED
   WITH DIFFICULT INTERNETWORKING NEGOTIATIONS, PENDING DECREE COURT

 EC89      7/18/89     ==     KDD                    ==       Headline #3
   KDD OPENS NY/LONDON OFFICES
   TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 JUL 14 (NB) -- Kokusai Denshin Denwa (KDD),

 EC89      8/22/89     ==     KDD                    ==       Headline #4
   FOREIGNERS CAN BUY INTO KDD
 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 AUG 17 -- The Japanese government is planning

 Enter Headline numbers or ALL to read, MORE, AGAIN, SAVE, STOP, or HELP
 -->

NewsNet's databases grow by more than 400 stories per day. Your search
profiles may contain an almost unlimited number of subjects. Delivery of
hits is concurrent. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

'Clipping' on CompuServe
------------------------
CompuServe's Executive News Service (ENS) monitors over 8,000 stories
daily from sources like Deutsche Press-Agentur (Germany), Kyodo News
Service (Japan), ITAR/TASS (Russia), Xinhua News Agency (China), Pacific
Rim News Service, The Washington Post, OTC News-Alert, Reuters Financial
News Wire, Associated Press, UPI, Reuters World Report, IDG PR Service,
Inter Press Service (IPS), Middle East News Network, European Community
Report, and Dow Jones News Service.

One of them, Reuters, has 1,200 journalists in 120 bureaus all over the
world. They write company news reports about revenues, profits, dividends,
purchases of other companies, changes in management, and other important
items for judging a company's results. They write regular opinions about
Industry, Governments, Economics, Leading indicators, and Commerce.

Reuters also offers full-text stories from Financial Times and other
leading European newspapers. Its Textline is a database with general and
business news from some 2,000 publications in Western and Eastern Europe,
North and South America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. It includes
Reuters' own news services, and translated abstracts of stories from some
17 languages. The database reaches back more than 10 years and is updated
at around one million articles per year. (Textline is also available on
Nexis, KR Data-Star, Clarinet, and KR Dialog.)

The IDG PR Service distributes high-tech related news gathered by the
staffs of IDG's magazines.  The InterPress Service covers Third World
countries. The Middle East News Network integrates the contents of 28
information sources covering this region of Asia.

The Executive News Service lets you define up to three 'clipping folders'.
Supply 'key phrases' that define your interests. These key phrases will be
used for searching stories as they are sent. Hits will be 'clipped' and
held in a folder for you to review at your convenience. When creating a
clipping folder, you set an expiration date and specify how many days a
clipped story is to be held.

To browse the contents of a folder, select it from the menu. Stories can be
listed by headlines or leads. Select those you want to read, forward to
others as email, or copy to another folder. Delete those that you do not
need.

Defining key phrases is simple. The important thing is not to get too much,
nor too little. General phrases will give many unwanted stories while too
narrow phrases will cause you to miss pertinent stories. Example:

    The phrase APPLE COMPUTERS will only clip stories that have the
    words APPLE and COMPUTERS next to each other. This may be too
    narrow. Specifying just APPLE or just COMPUTERS would be too
    broad. Entering APPLE + COMPUTERS is a better phrase since the
    words can appear anywhere in the story, and not necessarily
    next to each other.

ENS carries an hourly surcharge over base connect rates.

Other clipping services
-----------------------
Sprintmail's clipping service (U.S.A.) scans stories from more than 15
international newswires. FT Profile's E-mail Alert searches daily on that
particular day's issue of the Financial Times.

Dow Jones News/Retrieval has NewsScan (//CLIP). It can deliver by fax or
email to a mailbox on another online service.

Financial Times' thirty international business reports - grouped within
four primary industry segments - are available through //CLIP. So is
Intelligence Reports, which cover more than 100 countries. They monitor
news stories from these countries' own media.

GEnie's QuikNews Express is a personalized news clipping service that is
integrated with the Quik-Comm System email service.

Filtering may also be used when retrieving news through QMail gateways on
BBSes. For example, I use the 1stReader program for communications with a
Norwegian PCBoard BBS that carries hundreds of newsgroups and mailing lists
from Usenet, Internet, BITNET, and other networks. By having 1stReader
upload a list of  keywords through the BBS' QMail door, all new messages
containing these words or phrases from given conferences will be
selectively retrieved, compressed, and downloaded. A powerful feature!

There are clipping offerings on Prodigy, and a host of other services.

When clipping is impossible
---------------------------
Many services do not offer clipping. On these, you can use various methods
of regular, selective reading.

Many conferencing systems let you select messages to read by keywords.

BIX Keyword Indexer lets you search public conferences after a key word
or phrase and reports hits. Then it offers you to review (or retrieve)
messages of interest.

CompuServe's forums have efficient 'read selective' and 'quick scan'
commands. Another trick is to limit your reading to specific message
sections.

The high forum message volume is a special problem on this service. Old
messages are regularly deleted to make room for new ones. (Often called
"scroll rate.") Some popular forums do not keep messages for more than a
couple of days before letting them go. You must visit often to get all new
information.

Many bulletin boards can be told to store unread messages about given
topics in a compressed transportation file. This file can then be retrieved
at high speed. Special communication programs (often called offline
readers) and commands are available to automate this completely.

Powerful scripts and offline reader programs (see Chapter 12) can do
automatic selection of news stories based on the occurrence of keywords
(for example, a company name) in headlines or the messages' text.

Subscription services
---------------------
It is useful to dig, dig, and dig for occurrences of the same search words,
but digging is not enough. Unless you periodically scan "the horizon," you
risk missing new trends, viewpoints and other important information.

It can be difficult to find good sources of information that suits your
needs. One trick is to watch the reports from your clipping services. Over
time, you may discover that some sources bring more interesting stories
than others. Take a closer look at these. Consider browsing their full
index of stories regularly.

If your company plans exportation to countries in Asia, check out MARKET:
ASIA PACIFIC on NewsNet. The newsletter is published monthly by W-Two
Publications, Ltd., 202 The Commons, Suite 401, Ithaca, NY  14850, U.S.A.
(phone: [phone]). Annual print subscription rate: US$279.

The index itself may be a barometer of what goes on. Here is an example.
Note the number of Words/Lines. Do these numbers tell a story?

   July 1, 1993

   Head #  Headline                                             Words /Lines
   ------  ---------------------------------------------------- ------------
       1)  THE PHILIPPINES IS AT A TURG POINT                      616/78
       2)  CHINA AND KOREA WILL LEAD REGIONAL ECONOMIC BOOM        315/41
       3)  ASIAN COMPENSATION IS STILL LOW, BUT RISING QUICKLY     303/38
       4)  CONSUMER GOODS WON'T BE ALL THE CHINESE BUY             221/29
       5)  WOMEN BEAR THE BRUNT OF CAMBODIA'S TROUBLES             284/34
       6)  TAIWAN MAKES A MOVE TOWARD THE CASHLESS SOCIETY         243/29
       7)  TIPS ON MANAGING CULTURAL HARMONY IN ASIA               264/37
       8)  TAIWANESE BECOME MORE DISCERNING, HARDER TO REACH       217/27
       9)  DIRECT MARKETING HEADED FOR GROWTH IN SINGAPORE         205/27
      10)  TOURISM IN MALAYSIA WILL GROW                           610/76
      11)  CHONGQING: FUTURE POWERHOUSE                          2708/342

It is a good idea to visit NewsNet to gather intelligence. Review indexes of
potentially interesting newsletters. Save them on your hard disk for future
references. You never know when they may be of use.

The newsletters within computers and electronics bring forecasts of market
trends, evaluation of hardware and software, prices, information about IBM
and other leading companies. You will find stories about technological
developments of modems, robots, lasers, video players, graphics, and
communications software.

The Management section contains experts' evaluation of the economic climate
with forecasts, information about foreign producers for importers, tips and
experiences on personal efficiency, management of smaller companies, and
office automation.

Other sections are Advertising and Marketing, Aerospace and Aviation,
Automotive, Biotechnology, Building and Construction, Chemical, Corporate
Communications, Defense, Entertainment and Leisure, Education, Environment,
Energy, Finance and Accounting, Food and Beverage, General Business,
Insurance, Investment, Health and Hospitals, Law, Management,
Manufacturing, Medicine, Office, Publishing and Broadcasting, Real Estate,
Research and Development, Social Sciences, Telecommunications, Travel and
Tourism, Transport and Shipping.

Several newsletters focus on specific geographical areas, like:

   * THE EXPORTER (Published by Trade Data Reports.  Monthly
     reports on the business of exporting. Functionally divided
     into operations, markets, training resources, and world
     trade information.)

   * SALES PROSPECTOR (Monthly prospect research reports for sales
     representatives and business people interested in commercial,
     and institutional expansion and relocation activity. Grouped
     by geographic area in the United States and Canada.)

OPEC Daily Bulletin is a daily news report on oil prices, exploration, and
consumption.

Other newsletters focus on technology intelligence:

    Advanced Manufacturing Technology
    ---------------------------------
    Reports on desktop manufacturing, computer graphics, flexible
    automation, computer-integrated manufacturing, and other
    technological advances that help increase productivity.

    High Tech Materials Alert
    -------------------------
    Reports on significant developments in high-performance
    materials, including alloys, metallic whiskers, ceramic and
    graphite fibers, and more. Concentrates on their fabrication,
    industrial applications, and potential markets.

    Futuretech
    ----------
    Provides briefings on focused, strategic technologies that
    have been judged capable of making an impact on broad
    industrial fronts. Includes forecasts of marketable products
    and services resulting from the uncovered technology and its
    potential impact on industry segments.

Advanced Coating & Surface Technology, Electronic Materials Technology
News, Flame Retardancy News, High Tech Ceramics News, Innovator's Digest,
Inside R&D, Japan Science Scan, New Technology Week, Optical Materials &
Engineering News, Performance Materials, Surface Modification Technology
News, Genetic Technology News, Battery & Ev Technology, and much more.

Databases and forums with an international orientation
------------------------------------------------------
Internet users can access hundreds of sources of current government
information from around the world -- Census data, Supreme Court decisions,
world health statistics, company financial reports, weather forecasts,
United Nations information, daily U.S. White House press briefings and much
more. A list of sources is available on

    gopher://una.hh.lib.umich.edu/11/inetdirsstacks

For global demography and population information, check this Australian
resource http://coombs.anu.edu.au/ResFacilities/DemographyPage.html.

"Business Sources on the Net" (BSN) is an information guide organized by
subject. Each section is a separate file. It offers pointers to sources for
economics, national statistics, economic trends, corporate finance and
banking, human resources and personnel management, management science,
accounting, and more. Available via

    ftp://ksuvxa.kent.edu/library/
    gopher://refmac.kent.edu:70

International Business Practices is full text of a U.S. Department of
Commerce reference work that provides overviews of import regulations, free
trade zones, foreign investment policy, intellectual property rights, tax
laws and more in 117 countries. Check this resource out at

    http://WWW.UMSL.EDU/services/library/tjldoc.html

The Syndicate is filled with links to stock exchanges and financial
information around the world. Besides the usual United States links,
you'll find links to countries like Austria, Canada, Costa Rica, Finland,
France, Germany, Ghana, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea,
the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Singapore, South Africa,
Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and countries in Latin
America. At http://www.moneypages.com/syndicate/finance/foreign.html

The Italian FINANCE AREA page (http://www.tsi.it/finanza/index.html)
is another good source for global finance information. For the daily "Value
of Foreign Currencies" chart from the Federal Reserve Bank in New York City
(USA), check gopher://una.hh.lib.umich.edu/00/ebb/monetary/noonfx.frb.

The IPE mailing list is for the discussion of international political
economy. Topics include NAFTA, regional trading blocs, trade regimes,
international debt, long cycles, historical world systems, EEC, currency
and market crises, democracy and governance in Latin and South America,
Africa and Asia, commodity negotiations. To subscribe, send the command
"Sub IPE" to: [e-mail].

The AIntAcc-L mailing list (at [e-mail]) hosts discussions
about international accounting.

InterBEX (Business Exchange) provides Internet users with free, selective
business information related to various industries, products, professional
services, and financial markets. Access is free to all Internet users and
information consumers. Delivery by email. Information providers can have
product and informational e-text distributed through InterBEX on
individually negotiated terms. Email: [e-mail].

The Research Libraries Group, Inc. (U.S.A.) offers access to a large
bibliographic database with over 22 million titles. The special-interest
databases in this collection include the Avery Index to Architectural
Periodicals, Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals, History of Science and
Technology, and World Law Index: Index to Hispanic Legislation. For more
information, write Brian Keyes ([e-mail]).

The Company Corporation has an online incorporation service. Gopher to
gopher://server1.service.com, and Trade Show Central a large searchable
database of international trade shows (http://www.tscentral.com/).

On Usenet, check out the biz and clari.biz hierarchies of newsgroups for
leads (biz = business postings). Many ClariNews groups cover the business
and financial world, including these:

    clari.biz.earnings  Reports on businesses' earnings, profits, losses
                        and dividends (mainly North America). (Validation
                        required for access to Clarinet.)
    clari.biz.economy.world   Covers economic news, including inflation,
                        unemployment and other economic news.
    clari.biz.industry.agriculture   The agriculture, fishing and forestry
                        industries.
    clari.biz.market.report.asia   Daily reports from Asian stock markets.
    clari.biz.market.report.europe   Daily reports from European stock
                        markets.
    clari.biz.world_trade   News about international trade: GATT, free
                        trade and trade disputes.

The International Affairs Network offers a comprehensive hypertext guide to
the worldwide network-accessible resources available to scholars in the
study of International Affairs at http://www.pitt.edu/~ian/ianres.html.
The guide contains pointers within such areas as: International Political
Economy, Foreign Policy, Economic Development, Technology, Science, and
Environmental Policy, International Law, Area Studies Resources, and more.

There is another interesting international law resource on the World Wide
Web, at http://www.ecel.uwa.edu.au/law/links/fauburn/. "The Legal List"
is a combined list of all law-related resources available on the Internet
and elsewhere. (ftp://ftp.midnight.com/pub/LegalList/legallist.txt)

The Transport Web (http://www.transportweb.com) is an information service
for the international transportation industry.

United Nations (UN) is at http://www.undp.org. This site carries UN DPI
Press Releases, General Assembly, Security Council and ECOSOC resolutions,
and more.

United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) offers several
searchable databases at http://apps.fao.org/lim500/agri_db.pl. Their
FAOSTAT Database contains extensive agricultural data from many countries.
Data is provided for production, trade, commodity supply and demand
balances, population, land use, and fisheries.

For more, try the Official WEB Locator for the United Nations System of
Organizations (at: http://www.unsystem.org/) is needed. Categories on their
home page include: Alphabetical Index, Official Classification, What's New,
Frequently Requested Information, Related Information and Other
International Organizations.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is at http://www.who.ch, The United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) at http://www.unicef.org, and UNESCO at
http://www.unesco.org.

Usenet has clari.world.organizations with news of The United Nations, the
Organization of American States, the Council on Security and Cooperation in
Europe, and other major international organizations. (Validation required
for access to Clarinet.)

For more information on international organizations, point your gopher at
gopher://gopher.tc.umn.edu/11/Other%20Gopher%20and%20Information%20Servers
and select International Organizations.

Information Access Company (USA) provides several reference and full-text
databases targeted at businesses. Coverage includes news and information on
companies, industries, products, markets, and applied technologies, and on
subjects such as computers, marketing, management, health, law, aerospace,
popular culture, and scholarly research.

PROMPT (Overview of Markets and Technology) is IAC's largest database. It
provides international coverage of companies, markets and technologies in
all industries.

The IAC databases are available on commercial online services such as CDP
Online, DataTimes, KR Dialog, Data-Star, ESA (European Space Agency),
Financial Times Profile (England), CompuServe, and others. They are
regularly published on CD-ROM. (http://www.iacnet.com)

Users of KR Data-Star, LEXIS-NEXIS, and Reuters have access to
international political and economic coverage from the British Broadcasting
Corporation (BBC). Split into five regional parts across over 140
countries, Summary of World Broadcasts makes up a daily political document,
with coverage of legislation, policy, labor issues and foreign relations.
The Weekly Economic Report covers topics such as energy, agriculture, and
transportation. (BBC is also at http://www.bbc.co.uk.)

ZiffNet offers the Business Database Plus through CompuServe. You can
search in full-text stories from around 550 North American and
international publications for industry and commerce (1993).

The articles are about sales and marketing ideas, product news, industry
trends and analyses, and provide company profiles in areas such as
agriculture, manufacturing, retailing, telecommunications, and trade. This
is a partial list of the database's magazines:

    Agribusiness Worldwide, Air Cargo World, Beverage World, Beverage World
    Periscope Edition, Business Perspectives, CCI-Canmaking & Canning
    International, CD-ROM Librarian, Chain Store Age - General Merchandise
    Trends, Coal & Synfuels Technology, Communication World, Communications
    Daily, Communications International, Consultant, Cosmetic World News,
    Dairy Industries International, Direct Marketing, Financial Market
    Trends, Financial World, Food Engineering International, Forest
    Industries, Gas World, Graphic Arts Monthly, The Printing Industry,
    High Technology Business,  International Trade Forum, Investment
    International, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of
    Marketing Research, Medical World News, OECD Economic Outlook, The Oil
    and Gas Journal, Oilweek, Petroleum Economist, Plastics World,
    Purchasing World, Restaurant-Hotel Design International, Seafood
    International, Supermarket Business Magazine, Training: the Magazine of
    Human Resources Development, World Economic Outlook, World Oil.

The International Reports financial newsletter may be read and searched on
NewsNet, Information Access, and LEXIS-NEXIS.

NewsNet also has the Weekly International Market Alert.

Use CompuServe's Consumer Report to spot trends in the consumer markets for
appliances, automobiles, electronics/cameras, home. EventLine (IQuest,
CompuServe) monitors international conferences, exhibitions, and
congresses. The Boomer Report concentrates on the habits of the "the baby-
boom generation."

CompuServe's Global Crisis Forum has message sections covering the xUUSR,
The Balkans, Baltic Republics, The Old East Bloc, The Middle East, Bosnia,
Somalia, Iraq, and Worldwide Business.

CitiBank Global Report on CompuServe provides detailed information on
worldwide economic issues, real-time foreign-exchange, fixed-income rates,
country profiles, company profiles, and activity on the international bond
markets.

The Business Dateline contains news from more than 150 regional business
publications in the United States and Canada. If you have a niche market,
chances are that the Predicast newsletters cover it (Dow Jones).

The ABI/Inform business database (UMI/Data Courier) contains abstracts and
full-text articles from 1,000 business magazines and trade journals (1994).
Includes the World Bank Research Observer.

Market research reports from Frost & Sullivan are available through Data-
Star. It produces over 250 market reports each year, in 20 industrial
sectors. These reports cover results of face-to-face interviews with
manufacturers, buyers and trade association executives, supplemented by a
search and summary of secondary sources.

NewsNet has the Worldwide Business Practices Report. It offers monthly
detailed information on such country-specific topics as business customs
and protocol, negotiating tactics and bargaining tips, marketing strategies
travel recommendations, local government regulations, social interaction and
etiquette, safety and health issues.

  | You should also take a look at the continent related pointers |
  | listed in Chapter 4 and 9!                                    |

Locating country-specific information
-------------------------------------
Below, there are many pointers to country-specific information, sorted by
continent. To get more, try this trick:

Search the Internet using Alta Vista (http://www.altavista.digital.com/.
See Chapter 10). Compose a query that contains the international standard
top-level code for the country in question (click on link in Appendix 6
for a list of country codes). Insist that the code be present in the URLs
of found resources. Qualify further by adding other words or phrases if
your query gives too many hits.

Example: +url:.kr

"+url:" insists that the preceding string be found in the URL. "KR" is the
top-level code for Korea. This code is often found at the end of the
location part of URLs pointing to this country, unless the server uses a
non-country specific code (like .net or .com). This query is likely to
include http://www.kois.go.kr in your hit list. It is the Web address of
Korea's Information Ministry.

Expect the two character code to exist in URLs pointing to resources in
other countries also. However, the result is usually good. For example, MN
is the code for Mongolia. Using "+url:.mn" in your query will also find
URLs like http://www.an.cc.mn.us/depts/he/raynauds.html.

Africa
------
NewsNet has several interesting newsletters

   Africa Intelligence Report
   Africa News On-Line
    - political, economic and cultural developments
   Country Risk Guides: Sub-Saharan Africa
   Country Risk Guides: Mid-East & North Africa
   Investext: African Region
   Monthly Regional Bulletin - Southern Africa,
   PRS-Forecasts: Mid-East & North Africa
   PRS-Forecasts: Sub-Saharan Africa
   Southern Africa Business Intelligence

Usenet has bit.tech.africana (Information Technology and Africa). This
newsgroup is also on the AFRICANA mailing list. Subscribe by email to
[e-mail].

The SUDAN-L mailing list (on [e-mail]) is where you
will find information and sources of information about Sudan.

The Information Bank on African Development Studies (IBADS) is a mailing
service provided by the Africa Technical Department at the World Bank.  Its
aim is to send out information about development studies on Sub-Saharan
Africa.

IBADS offers an index and a list of abstracts of studies undertaken by the
Africa Technical Department at the World Bank.  It will eventually be
expanded to include full-text reports, and development studies undertaken
by other units in the World Bank and other development, academic, and
research organizations worldwide. Subscribe by sending the following
command

  Subscribe IBADS First-Name Last-Name

to [e-mail]. On separate lines, add information about
specialty, organization, address, and subject of interest. For more
information, write to [e-mail].

For leads in South Africa, start with ExiNet. This South African trade
information resource (http://www.aztec.co.za/exinet/) has information on
South African Exporters, South African Trade Fairs and Exhibitions, Travel
and Tourism, South African Publications, South African Property, and South
African Demographics: A Regional Summary.

ExiNet boasts a database of over 70,000 South African companies. Mail to
[e-mail] for information.

Other South African sources on the Web includes: The Africa Commercial home
page in Cape Town (http://www.africa.com/), and Compustat on the URL:
http://www.os2.iaccess.za/.

The Fourth World Documentation Project is at

    gopher://gopher.etext.org/11/Politics/Fourth.World

African Census data is at gopher://lexis.pop.upenn.edu/11/data/africa,
while South African politics are at gopher://gopher.ru.ac.za/11/politics.

CompuServe's International Trade Forum has the Africa/Middle East message
section.

If you want to check out gopher servers on the African continent, connect to
gopher://gopher.tc.umn.edu/11/Other%20Gopher%20and%20Information%20Servers
and select Africa.

Also, check out gopher://gopher.cnuce.cnr.it:1680. . The Internetworking
Company of Southern Africa (TICSA) is at gopher://gopher.ticsa.com/1.

Japan
-----
JETRO, the Japan External Trade Organization, provides Japanese government
procurement information from Kampo, the governments official journal,
alongside economic information about Japan, at

    http://www.jetro.go.jp/

One hyperlink points at "Japan Economic Trends, Industry, Markets, Business
Practices." This page contain such things as First Steps in Exporting to
Japan, Doing Business in Japan, and The Japanese Consumer.

The JAPAN mailing list (on [e-mail]) is a forum for
discussion of Japanese business, industry, and economic systems. The AJBS-L
mailing list (at the same LISTSERV) is for people interested in the
Japanese economy and business systems.

The QUALITY mailing list (on [e-mail]) is for Total
Quality Management (TQM) in Manufacturing & Service Industries. The topics
for discussion include JIT, ISO 9000, Deming and JIS (the latter two are
Japanese Quality Standards). Check out the mailing list's archive for files
of interest.

Usenet has comp.research.japan about The nature of research in Japan.
(Moderated).

Also, see the WWW Organization's Virtual Library, and check out

   gopher://gan1.ncc.go.jp/11/JAPAN/Economy

For free more sources on Japan, point your gopher client at the address
gopher://gopher.tc.umn.edu/11/Other%20Gopher%20and%20Information%20Servers.
Select Asia.

Orbit has an English language database of Japanese technology. It contains
abstracts of articles, patents and standards from more than 500 Japanese
magazines. Reuters offers the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's best-selling daily
newspaper. Tradstat (KR Data-Star/KR Dialog) offers Japanese import and
export statistics.

Dow Jones News/Retrieval brings full-text stories from the Japan Economic
Newswire (Kyodo News International), which covers Japanese company,
industry and financial markets; government, defence and science news. (On
KR Dialog as File 612.)

Dow Jones also brings full-text stories from over 70 other international
publications including New Era Japan, New Food Products in Japan, New
Materials Japan, and PDS's Japan Auto Industry Survey, Power Asia.

Business Database Plus (CompuServe) has IDC Japan Report, Inc., Japan
Economic Newswire, and Kyodo. CompuServe's Japan Forum has a Business &
Industry section, and more. You may also find information about Japan in
the International Forum.

NewsNet has the following newsletters and services:

   Comline Japan Daily: Biotechnology
   Comline Japan Daily: Computers
   Comline Japan Daily: Electronics
   Comline Japan Daily: Industry Automation
   Comline Japan Daily: Telecommunications
   Comline Japan Daily: Transportation
   Japan Digest (business briefings)
   Japan Computer Industry Scan
   Japan Consumer Electronics Scan
   Japan Economic Institute (JEI) Report
   Japan Energy Scan
   Japan Policy and Politics
   Japan Semiconductor Scan
   Japan Science Scan
   Japan Transportation Scan
   Japan Weekly Monitor
   Japanese Telecommunications Scan
   Jiji Press Ticker Service
   Kyodo News Service
   New Era: Japan
   Tokyo Financial Wire

Comline's industry news covers several hundred Japanese journals and
newspapers. It is also available in Predicast's Newsletter Database.

For science and technology, consider the JICST-E file on STN. JIST is
The Japan Information Center of Science and Technology. On the Internet
(http://www.jicst.go.jp/), they offer the Industry Technical Reports
(JITR) and the Institute directory databases.

The Investext database has English language profiles of thousands of
Japanese companies sourced from Teikou, Japan's largest business credit
agency.

Kompass Online has information about Japanese companies. LEXIS-NEXIS, KR
Dialog, NiftyServe, PC-VAN, NewsNet, and G-Search have the Teikoku
Databank, which contains directory and income information about over one
million Japanese firms (1994).

Middle East
-----------
The Jerusalem Institute for Western Defence provides a monthly newsletter
with research of the Arab press. It has unedited quotes from around the
Arab world. Write [e-mail] to subscribe (Command:
sub arab-press Firstname Lastname). Here is one example:

   SAUDI ARABIA

   Al-Sherook,  United Arab Emirates, 25 March 1993;
   Al-Iqtisa'adia, London, 16 March 1993.
   Summary of two reports on Saudi oil resources.

   Saudi Arabia's oil revenues grew from $24 billion in 1989 to $40
   billion in 1992. They are expected to rise further in 1993. Saudi
   economic growth appears to be assured for the next few years.
   Saudi authorities reported a discovery of oil in the area of Medin,
   west of Tabuk. The extent and quality of this oil field will be
   investigated.

       Note: This area is relatively close to the Red Sea and much closer
       to Israel than the main oil deposits of the Gulf. A major oil
       discovery here could lead to the transfer of additional military
       forces to this area.

The official Saudi Arabia page is at http://imedl.saudi.net/.

Business Database Plus (CompuServe) has Israel Business, MEED Middle East
Economic Digest, Middle East Agribusiness.

NewsNet has the Middle East Intelligence Report newsletter. Kompass
Online has information about companies in Israel. KR Data-Star has the
Jerusalem Post Electronic Edition, and Dun & Bradstreet Israel.

Write [e-mail] to subscribe to the MOP-flash mailing list.
It brings announcements from MOP - Israel Industry R&D Information System.
Announcements include updates on descriptions of R&D Projects (Advanced
Technologies from Israel); new bilateral projects being carried out by
MATIMOP (The Israeli Industry Center for Research and Development).

The Israeli Industry Center for Research and Development is at

    gopher://gopher.matimop.org.il/.

The Israel Information Service is at http://israel-info.gov.il/ (some
documents are in French and Spanish). Choices include Basic Statistics, The
Economy, Culture, Communications and Media, and Basic Laws and Legal
Issues. Information is also available by email to [e-mail]

CompuServe's International Trade Forum has an Africa/Middle East section.

For more sources on Middle East, point your gopher client at
gopher://gopher.tc.umn.edu/11/Other%20Gopher%20and%20Information%20Servers
and select Middle East.

Other countries in Asia and the Pacific
---------------------------------------
KR Dialog's ASIA-PACIFIC DATABASE covers business and economics in Asia and
the Pacific. It contains over 80,000 references from newspapers, magazines
and other sources in North America and international.

The Asia-Pacific Dun's Market Identifiers on KR Dialog is a directory
listing of about 250,000 business establishments in 40 Asian and Pacific
Rim countries.

Dow Jones/News Retrieval has the Asian Wall Street Journal. Reuters'
Textline on KR Dialog provides good business and general coverage of the
region.

NewsNet has the following newsletters and services:

   Asian Aviation News
   Asian Economic News
   Asian Infrastructure Monthly
   Asian Political News
   AsiaPacific Space Report
   Country Risk Guide: Asia & The Pacific
   Investext: Asian Region
   Market: Asia Pacific
   Power Asia
   PRS Forecasts: Asia & The Pacific
   Telenews Asia
   Vietnam Market Watch
   Xinhua English Language News Service
   Inter Press Service International (IPS) provides regular updates on
      the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and ASEAN.

The ASEAN Internet Search let you search for information located on ASEAN
web servers. ASEAN is The Association of South East Asian Nations (Brunei,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand). Web address:
http://sunsite.nus.sg/ais/.

The official APEC home page is maintained by the Japanese Ministry of
Foreign Affairs (http://apec.tokio.co.jp/).

The ELC file on LEXIS-NEXIS contains financial and marketing information on
some 9,000 Southeast Asian corporations (1993). Kompass Online has
information about companies in Australia, Hong Kong, Israel, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan.

To join CORMOSEA (Committee on Research Materials on Southeast Asia), send
a subscription request to Kent Mulliner <[e-mail]>.

Textile Asia and Bisnis Indonesia are in the Globalbase database. This
source offers around 350 trade journals, newspapers, and business magazines
spanning 40 countries (1993). On KR Data-Star (Label EBUS), KR Dialog (File
583), FT Profile (Label INF), and others. It has 87 Asian publications
(1994). The coverage includes The Australian, Japan Times, Asia Computer
Weekly, Asia Money & Finance, South China Morning Post, Korea Economic
Weekly.

Information about Asian Development Bank Business Opportunities is at

    gopher://sunny.stat-usa.gov:70/00/STAT-USA/NTDB/contents.txt

The bank's official site is http://www.asiandevbank.org/.

The ABI/Inform business database (UMI/Data Courier) contains abstracts and
full-text articles from the Asia Pacific Journal of Management, and
Business Korea.

CompuServe has the Australian/New Zealand Company Library, the Asia/OZ/NZ
and the Africa/Middle East sections of the International Trade Forum. Also,
check out the Australian Associated Press Online newswire service.

Nikkei (on FP Profile) has the Business Times, Straits Times (also on
http://www.asia1.com.sg/straitstimes/), the Far East Economic Review, the
Bangkok Post.

Dun & Bradstreet has hard-to-find company information on developing markets
such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia.

Tradstat has import and export statistics on Hong Kong and Taiwan. Asia,
Inc., the Hong Kong published business magazine, has an electronic version
at http://www.asia-inc.com. It contains articles of Asia's executives and
their enterprises, daily financial information, and more.

The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (at http://www.tdc.org.hk) offers
comprehensive trade and business information on Hong Kong and Mainland
China, online trade enquiry, trade fair registration, and more.

Asia Business Directories have a large searchable database on companies in
Singapore at http://www.asia-directory.com/~bruno, an Asian daily
business news headlines page, and pointers to other business resources on
Asia.

Data provided by the Singapore Department of Statistics can be found at
http://www.ncb.gov.sg/stats/index.html. Singapore Business Times is at
http://www.asia1.com.sg/biztimes.

China
NewsNet has the China Intelligence Report. Kompass Online has information
about companies in China.

China Import/Export News is a weekly newsletter of international business
information about import/export to/from China and the Pacific Rim. The
newsletter is distributed by the mailing list CHINA-LINK. Subscribe by
email to [e-mail].

For details about how to subscribe to the China News Digest, send the word
INFO to [e-mail]. On the Web, they're at http://www.cnd.org/

For business news from China, weekdays, check out Daily China Headline
News. Send the command SUB HEADLINE to [e-mail] to subscribe.
Here is a sample news item:

        * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

  Ref. No: 94061501
  Newsgroup: General News and news in other industries
 Category: Marketing, Investment
    Title: Automobile plastics mart bode well
     Date: Wednesday, June 15, 1994
 Keywords: Auto plastic;Market analysis

      It is estimated that one domestic made automobile use plastics about
    40-45kg. China will turn out 2 million automobiles by the year of 2000.
    This year, the automobile plastic requirement is 28,000 ton. Comparing
    the production, the auto plastic will be undersupplied.

        * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

For General Information about the service, mail to [e-mail].
KR Dialog has Chinese Patent Abstracts in English.

The China Business Journal (CBJ) is an online daily news published 7 days a
week. You can get it by email over the Internet. It brings updated economic
news to those into doing business with China. Subscription form, and sample
back issues with a searchable index is available at

    http://www.ncb.gov.sg:1080/news/cbj/

At http://www.business-china.com/news/index.htm, China Business News has
a competing offering.

Reports on World Bank Projects in China are at

    gopher://emailhost.ait.ac.th:80/hGET%20/Asia/wb-reps/wb-cn.html

Here, you will find a China Country Economic Memorandum and GNP per capita.
There are reports on Industrial crop marketing, Highway development, Power
sector, Urban environment services, Disease prevention, Financial sector
development, Railway development, Education, Gas development, Forest
resource development, Telecommunications, and more.

A WWW service for the Chinese community exists at http://www.edu.tw/.
Most of the local texts support Chinese BIG5 only. If you do not know how
to get BIG5, check the FAQ at http://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/readbig5.html.

The Asian Information Service at offers news monitoring, document
translation and delivery, and more.  They have a large database on China
offering China-related information in a variety of formats. Send email to
[e-mail] for information.

India
There is a comprehensive Web site about India, it's economy and industry,
called the Indian Economy Overview, at http://www.m-web.com/. The site
has complete coverage of the recent Indian Financial Budget, including full
text, live coverage, commentary, analysis and reactions.

For a report on Business Practices in India, check

    gopher://UMSLVMA.UMSL.EDU/00/LIBRARY/GOVDOCS//IBPA/IBPD/IBPD000

See gopher://UMSLVMA.UMSL.EDU/00/LIBRARY/GOVDOCS//CRPT/CRPT0039 for more
about India Economic Policy and Trade Practices.

IndiaWorld delivers business information at http://www.indiaworld.com.
The offering includes Indian news, business and entertainment information,
and even cartoons by India's famous cartoonist R.K. Laxman. The Web server
is based in the U.S., since India "still needs a clear policy on commercial
usage of the Internet." Access is restricted to subscribers. Subscription
costs USD 29 per year.

Sample links from IndiaWorld's home page:

   Business, Finance and Technology

   [Indian Budget for 1995-96] [Company Profiles] [Market Watch] [India
   Monitor] [Articles] [Express Investment Week] [Express Computer]
   [Dataquest] [Voice and Data] [India Business Directory]

The Economic Times, the largest selling business daily in India, is at
http://www.economictimes.com/.

NewsNet has the India Business Intelligence newsletter. Kompass Online has
information about Indian companies.

Other Asian pointers
The Asian Studies area of the WWW Organization's international directory of
networked research and educational resources (WWW Virtual Library) can be
reached at http://coombs.anu.edu.au/WWWVL-AsianStudies.html. It tracks
information and research resources (ftp, gopher, wais, www)  for Burma,
China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Papua New
Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Tibet, and Vietnam.

Check http://coombs.anu.edu.au/WWWVLPages/WhatsNewWWW/asian-www-news.html
regularly to follow the development in the area.

Eurasia Research Center offers links to news and other resources on Post-
Communist, Post Soviet Eurasia. Has subpages that deal with Central Asia,
the Middle East and South Asia. Web address:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/EurasiaRC.

The EXPORT-IMPORT-INVEST Vietnam - Business Directories pages on the Web
are at http://www.cgtd.com/global/vietnam.html. Texts in English, French,
Spanish, and German.

Links to Asia Pacific Information Servers is found at

    http://www.singnet.com.sg/APwww.html

If these do not fully satisfy your needs, try with a request for advice on
the PACS-L mailing list ([e-mail]).

Central and South America
-------------------------
Organizacion de los Estados Americanos (OEA) has an information server at
http://www.oas.org/shomepag.htm (in Spanish and English).

Latin America Related Information Service is at http://lanic.utexas.edu/.
You can also reach it by email to [e-mail], and by telnet
to telnet://lanic.utexas.edu (login: lanic).

Tradstat has import and export data on Brazil and Argentina. For South
American census data, try

    gopher://lexis.pop.upenn.edu/11/data/latin_america

The Latin American Data Base (LADB) has SourceMex (economic news and
analysis on Mexico), Chronicle of Latin American Economic Affairs (reports
on trade policy, privatization, monetary policy, and macro-economic
figures), and Central America Update. The database is available by
telnet://ladb.unm.edu (user name and password required), and through KR
Dialog, NewsNet, Dow Jones News/Retrieval, and BRS. For information,
write to [e-mail].

The Caribbean Economy mailing list is on CARECON ([e-mail]).

RNP - Rede Nacional de Pesquisa (National Research Network) in Brazil has
a WWW server at http://www.rnp.br/ with links to most ftp, gopher and WWW
servers in Brazil. Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial offers
Brazilian patents data on URL: http://www.ftpt.br/cgi-bin/bdtnet/inpi.

NewsNet has these newsletters

   Brazil Service
   Country Risk Guide: THE AMERICAS
   EcoCentral: Central American Economy & Sustainable Development
   Environment Watch: Latin America
   Investext: Latin American Region
   Latin America Intelligence Report
   Latin America Opportunity Report
   Latin American Telecom Report
   Market: Latin America
   Mexico Service.
   Mexico Trade and Law Reporter
   Notisur - Latin American Affairs
   PRS Forecasts: South America

Dow Jones has Mexico Service, InterAmerican Opportunities, and Latin
America Opportunity Report.

CompuServe's International Trade Forum has a South & Central America
message section.

For more sources on South America, point your gopher client at the address
gopher://gopher.tc.umn.edu/11/Other%20Gopher%20and%20Information%20Servers
and select South America.

The European Common Market and Central Europe
---------------------------------------------
Those exporting to the EEC need to master German, French, Italian, and
Spanish besides having a working knowledge of English. Conversation is the
easy part. The problem is writing, and especially when the task is to
translate technical expressions to the languages used within the Common
Market.

For help, check out ECHO's Eurodicautom multilingual online dictionary. It
contains translations of scientific and technical terms, contextual phrases
and abbreviations in all official languages of the European Union. You can
choose between Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian,
Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. URL:
http://www2.echo.lu/echo/databases/en/eu92.html.

Select a source language for simultaneous translation. The translation is
word-for-word, but may be put in the correct context if required.

The Common Market's free database service, I'M-Europe (Information Market
Europe), is at URL http://www.echo.lu/. Set up on the initiative of
Directorate-General XIII of the EC, this free service brings information
about the European Union, European Community Programmes related to the
Information Market, and the Information Market Policy ACTions (IMPACT)
Programme.

It has the Bangemann Report on Europe and the information society, the
Maastricht Treaty, and the White paper on growth, competitiveness and
employment.

There are links to the European Commission Host Organization (ECHO), which
offers free of charge access to over 20 online databases in all Community
languages. The Commission is at http://www.cec.lu/. You'll find Spanish
language information at http://www.uji.es/euroinfo.

The European Commission's CORDIS database (Community Research and
Development Information Service) is at http://www.cordis.lu/.

CORDIS contains all Community information related to Research and
Technological Development programmes: the European Strategic Programme for
Research and Development in Information Technology, Advanced Communications
Technologies and Services, Telematic Systems, Small and Medium-sized
Enterprises Action Programme, Commercial Electronic Data Interchange,
Statistical Information Framework Programme, Information Market Policy
Actions, Libraries, Advanced Informatics in Medicine, Research and
development in Advanced Communications technologies in Europe, European
Technologies Network, and more.

CONCISE (COsine Network's Central Information Service for Europe) is a pan-
European information service to the COSINE scientific and industrial
research community. COSINE (Cooperation for Open Systems Interconnection
Networking in Europe) is part of the European Common Market's Eureka
project.

CONCISE brings information about the COSINE project, networks, conferences,
networking products, special interest groups, projects databases,
directories, email services and other networked services in Europe. It is
intended for researchers in all fields, from astronomers through linguists
and market researchers to zoologists.

CONCISE is accessible by email through the Internet, by FTP, and
interactively (telnet) over the European academic and research networks,
over public data networks and over telephone links. (See ECHO in Appendix 1
for more information.)

The EC's DANTE project is on URL: http://www.dante.net/. The WISE
Information Board on R&D Activities in the European Union
(http://www.igd.fhg.de/wise/) is searchable through ICE's Web server
(http://icib.igd.fhg.de/~neuss/w4-main.html).

The Zagreb Stock Exchange is at http://ksaver208.zse.com.hr/. The Vienna
Stock market (Austria) is at http://www.wu-wien.ac.at/cgi-bin/boerse1.pl.
The language is German.

For economics, check out gopher://cs6400.mcc.ac.uk/11/NetEc for access to
BibEc (bibliography of working research papers), and WoPEc (a collection of
working papers).

The European Business Directory (http://www.europages.com/) offers
economic analyses and indicators on the main European markets, and
practical information for doing business in Europe. Information is
available in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

NewsNet, and others, offer Dun & Bradstreet European Marketing Online. It
contains company profiles of around two million European companies.

NewsNet also has the following newsletters and services

   Agence France-Presse International news
   Aviation Europe
   Coal UK
   Country Risk Guide: Europe
   EC Energy Monthly
   Environment Watch: Western Europe
   European Community: Business Forecast
   European Energy Report
   European Media Business & Finance
   European Savings Market
   European Venture Capital Journal
   Financial Times Full Text
   German Business Scope
   Market: Europe
   News From France
   North Sea Letter
   North Sea Rig Forecast
   Northern Ireland News Service
   Opportunities Briefing: Central Europe
   Power Europe
   PRS Forecasts: Western Europe
   Today's Financial Times
   The Week In Germany
   West Europe Intelligence Report

For up-to-the-minute news from England, try the Press Association Online's
wires at http://www.pa.press.net/. The British IEE (Institution of
Electrical Engineers) are at http://www.iee.org.uk/. Search their IEE
Library Online Catalog. In 1996, it held some 65,000 books and pamphlets
covering all aspects of electrical engineering, electronics, manufacturing
and control engineering, computing, IT, and telecommunications.

On CompuServe, enter GO PAO to get to the Press Association service. The UK
Company Library on CompuServe has financial information about more than
1.2 million British companies from sources like Extel Cards, ICC British
Co. Directory and Kompass UK.

ZiffNet's Business Database Plus on CompuServe has Market Research Europe.

The ELC file on LEXIS-NEXIS contains financial and marketing information
on some from 45,000 European corporations (1993). NEXIS-LEXIS also offers
La Vie Francaise, a French-language weekly magazine on business and
investments. La Stampa, the third largest newspaper in Italy, is available
in full text. While the language is Italian, indexing by subject and type
is provided in English as well.

Tradstat (on KR Data-Star/KR Dialog) has import and export trade statistics
on all major European countries collected by European national statistical
agencies and international bodies.

KR Data-Star is strong on information of Europe:

  European Community: Tenders Electronic Daily, a database of European
  Community contract offers. Its Textline is an excellent source of
  information about European companies. CELEX (European Community Law).
  European Chemical News. Dun & Bradstreet European Marketing File.
  DRT European Business Reports. Business Opportunities in Europe. ABC
  EUROPE: European Export Industry. Euromonitor Market Reports. Euromonitor
  Market Direction. Spicers Centre for Europe - European Community Law.
  Spearhead - UK Analysis of EC Law.

  Austria: Creditreform -  Austrian Companies. Hoppenstedt - Austria.
  KREDITSCHUTZVERBAND - Austrian Companies.

  Benelux: the Belgian newspaper De Financieel Ekonomische Tijd (in
  Flemish), INFOTRADE - Belgian Company Financial Data, Hoppenstedt -
  Benelux.

  France: The FRFF/FREFF files hold balance sheets of over 335,000 French
  companies (1994). Telefirm - French Companies Register. French Companies
  - Full Financial Data. Firmimport/Firmexport - French Importers/Exporters.
  Le Monde. SCRL French Companies Financial Profiles.

  Germany: German Business & Industry Directory, German Business
  Opportunities, Aerzte Zeitung Online, BDI German Industry, Biotechnology
  Information. Creditreform - German Companies. German Buyers' Guide.
  EcoRegister - German Company Registrations. EcoNovo - German Companies in
  Bundesanzeiger. German Business Statistics. German Company Financial
  Data. FINF-TEXT - German Company News. Hoppenstedt - Germany.
  ManagementInfo Wirtschaft. Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Wer Gehoert zu Wem - Who
  Belongs to Whom. Who Supplies What? (Germany & Austria). ZVEI
  Electro/Electronics Buyers' Guide.

  Italy: Il Sole 24 Ore, L'Impresa, and Il Mundo Economica in Italian.
  Italian Company Profiles - Financial. MAST - Market Structure and Trends
  in Italy. Sistema Ditte Operanti con l'Estero. La Stampa.

  Switzerland: In its Swiss News Agency wire service, you have a choice of
  French or German. Credit Suisse Information on the Swiss economy. Swiss
  Educational Documentation. Neue Zuercher Zeitung. Serials in Swiss
  Libraries. Swiss Newswire. Societe Generale de Banque - Banking.
  Schweizer Handelszeitung. ELSA Swiss Sportwire. Dun & Bradstreet Swiss
  Companies Dun & Bradstreet. Swiss Companies Full Financial Data.

  Scandinavia: Trademarks and applications for Denmark, Norway, Sweden and
  Finland.

  United Kingdom: Key British Enterprises Financial Performance. ICC Full-
  text UK Company Reports ICC Directory of UK Companies ICC UK Financial
  Datasheets. JordanWatch - UK Companies. Pharm-line - UK Pharmacy. British
  Trademarks. UK Importers.

On Dow Jones News/Retrieval, you can search full text articles from Wall
Street Journal Europe, Agence France-Presse, the Paris-based International
Herald Tribune, the Guardian, and others from the United Kingdom.

Country reports, Financial Focus, Political focus, and International
Economic Outlook from the Union Bank of Switzerland, and more can be found
in the Quest Economics Database (QED) on KR Data-Star, FT PROFILE, and
Genios.

Investext offers a series of stockbroker research reports on European
companies and sectors from around 400 contributors based on the continent.
Their reports offer detailed analysis, important financial data, and
forecasts on everything from the mayor players to the small manufacturing
firms. Investext is available through KR Data-Star, LEXIS-NEXIS, KR
Dialog, Dow Jones News/Retrieval, NewsNet, and others.

The German Company Library (on CompuServe) offers information about some
48,000 German companies from databases like Credit Reform and Hoppenstedt's
Directory of German Companies. Its European Company Library contains
information about over two million companies in the area.

LEXIS-NEXIS brings news and background information about companies and the
different countries in Europe. Their Worldwide Companies database contains
company profiles, balance sheets, income statements, and other financial
data on the largest companies in 40 countries.

LEXIS-NEXIS also has Hoppenstedt German Trade Associations directory,
four more newsletters from the Europe Information Service: Europe Energy,
Europe Environment, Transport Europe and European Insight, a weekly brief
on European Community-related happenings.

GBI offers more than 100 databases and two million documents on companies,
markets and business literature (1994).

LEXIS-NEXIS has databases with information about English and French law,
and other law material from Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland and
North America.

Their Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory has information on over 700,000
lawyers and law firms worldwide. The directory can be used for referrals,
selection of associate counsel, and evaluation of competitive counsel.

Check out KOMPASS EUROPE when planning exports to the EEC. Its database
contains details about companies in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, United
Kingdom, Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden and Norway. (On
KR Dialog) Try GENIOS for more on Germany. The German Federal Government
is at http://www.government.de.

ILINK has the EEC-I conference (Discussion about the European Common
Market). FT Profile offers full-text searches (and a clipping service) in
stories from Financial Times. The database is being updated daily at 00:01.

Ziffnet's Business Database Plus has Agra Europe, Belgium: Economic and
Commercial Information, British Plastics & Rubber, British Telecom World,
The Economist, Erdol und Kohle, Erdgas, Petrochemie: Hydrocarbon
Technology, EuroBusiness, Euromoney, Europe 2000, European Cosmetic
Markets, European Rubber Journal, Report on the Austrian Economy, Royal
Bank of Scotland Review, swissBusiness.

The International Trade Forum on CompuServe has a European Community
section. CompuServe also has the Associated Press France en Ligne wire
service.

Globalbase has Nouvel Economiste among its many offerings. Questel offers
access to 250,000 logos and images of French trademarks (1993), and
patent information from several European countries. Their URL is:

   http://www.questel.orbit.com/patents/

KR Dialog, Orbit, and STN are also great sources for patents data.

Users of cc:Mail throughout Europe can receive business news from First!
for cc:Mail (tel: [phone]) directly into their mail system. The
service scans some 12,000 stories daily before automatically providing
customers with those relevant to their needs. Agence Presse France is among
the sources.

For more sources on Europe, try

   gopher://gopher.sunet.se/11/Infoservers%20in%20European%20Countries

This link will get you directly connected to Austria, Belgium, France,
Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain,
Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

You can also select Europe at

gopher://gopher.tc.umn.edu/11/Other%20Gopher%20and%20Information%20Servers

Scandinavia
-----------
Before meeting with people from Norsk Hydro, go online to get recent news
about the company (Chapter 9). It will only take a couple of minutes. What
you find may be important for the success of your meeting.

If you know the names of your most important competitors, use their names
as keywords for information about recent contracts, joint venture
agreements, products (and their features), and other important information.

KOMPASS ONLINE offers information about over 180,000 companies and 34,000
products in Scandinavia, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, and Great Britain.
The information is presented in the local language of the different
countries.

KOMPASS is used by easy menus. You can search by

   * company name
   * product or service (optionally using an industry
     classification code for companies or products)
   * number of employees, type of business, postal number,
     telephone area code, export area, year of incorporation,
     bank affiliation.

The database is available through Affaersdata (Sweden). New users pay a one
time fee of around US$85. Searching costs around US$3.00 per minute.

Affaersdata in Sweden also offers the Swedish-language service "Export-
Nytt," which brings short news stories about export/import from all over
the world. Information providers are the Swedish Export Council, the
Norwegian Export Council, and the Suomen Ulkomaankauppaliitto in Finland.

The TYR database on the Finnish service VIEXPO (tel.: [phone])
offers information about 2,500 companies in the Vaasa and Oulu regions with
addresses, phone numbers, contact persons, main products, revenues, and SIC
industry classification codes.

CompuServe's International Trade Forum has the NonEEC Europe & CIS section.
Business Database Plus has The Finnish Trade Review.

For more on Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, tie into

   gopher://gopher.sunet.se/11/Infoservers%20in%20European%20Countries

North America
-------------
There are so many sources focusing on North America, and we have already
mentioned several. This section is therefore kept intentionally short.

NewsNet has a wealth of information, including noted publications such as
Standard & Poor's Daily News, Business Week and Knight-Ridder/Tribune
Business News.

Usenet has

  clari.canada.biz        Canadian Business Summaries. (Validation
                          required for access to Clarinet.)
  clari.world.americas.canada.business
  misc.invest.canada      Investing in Canadian financial markets.

  clari.biz.market.amex   American Stock Exchange reports & news.

As of February 1994, there were more than 100 selections in the listing of
publicly accessible  U.S. Government Gophers and U.S. Government supported
or related gophers. URL: gopher://peg.cwis.uci.edu:7000/11/GOPHERS/gov

The White House is at http://www.whitehouse.gov, the subject index of
online government information at http://www.fedworld.gov/#usgovt, and The
Government Information Locator Service at

    http://info.er.usgs.gov/gils/index.html

The National Technical Information Service provides access to more than 100
U.S. Government operated bulletin boards and online systems:

    http://www.fedworld.gov

The EDS Shadow Patent Office's email patent search service is on
[e-mail]. Send the word "help" in the body of your text for
instructions. SPO is also on http://www.spo.eds.com/patent.html.

Free listings of patents are available from [e-mail].

Statistics Canada is the country's national statistical agency. It is at
http://www.statcan.ca. Kompass Canada is also an interesting source.

The [e-mail] mailing list is for commercial real
estate professionals involved in sales, acquisitions, management and
development of commercial property.  Receive and send property for sale,
ask/answer questions, send Press Releases, receive editorial material and
do general "networking." To subscribe, send email and your Internet address
to [e-mail].

PRESSline is a database of press releases, pictures and logos that is
available free of charge. (http://www.pressline.com) Companies and
organizations are charged a small fee for storing their releases.

Information on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is available
from several sites, including gopher://wiretap.spies.com/11/Gov/NAFTA.

For more sources on North America, point your gopher client at the address
gopher://gopher.tc.umn.edu/11/Other%20Gopher%20and%20Information%20Servers
and select North America.

xUSSR and former Eastern Block countries
----------------------------------------
REESweb maintains many links to xUSSR Business, Economics, and Law at
the Web address: http://www.pitt.edu/~cjp/rsecon.html.

InfoMarket (at http://www.fe.msk.ru/lat/infomarket/ewelcome.html) brings
Russian Securities Market News in English, and is an invaluable source for
Russian commercial financial information.

LEXIS-NEXIS, KR Data-Star, FT Profile and Reuters have many
interesting sources.

DJNR offers full text from BizEkon News, and others. Through DATATIMES, you
can research  English-language versions of The Budapest Sun and the Prague
Post.

Subscribe to the Prague Financial Monitor newsletter by sending an email
to [e-mail]. Put the command SUBSCRIBE in the body of
your mail. You can also check it out at http://www.eunet.cz/.

The Central Europe Online Navigator (http://www.ceo.cz/) publishes daily
news an industry reports on Czech and Slovak Republics, Hungary, Poland,
and Russia. Includes political and economical analyses.

E-EUROPE is an electronic communications network for doing business in
Eastern Europe countries, including CIS. Its purpose is to help these
countries in their transition to market economies. It links business
persons in Western Europe-Asia-North America with those in Eastern Europe.

Subscription is free and for anyone. To subscribe to E-EUROPE, send email
[e-mail] with the body the message containing this line

    SUB E-EUROPE YourFirstName YourLastName

E-EUROPE has a service offering distribution of faxes by anonymous ftp. It
also offers International Marketing Insights (IMI) for several countries in
this region, including Russia, Hungary, Czech, Germany, Estonia, Poland,
Bulgaria, and Lithuania.

The IMI reports important developments that have implications for traders
and investors. Typically brief and to-the-point, they are prepared by
American Embassies and Consulates.

The reports cover a wide range of subjects, such as new laws, policies and
procedures, new trade regulations, changing dynamics in the marketplace,
recent statements by influential parties and emerging trade opportunities.

For a list of E-EUROPE IMI offerings, send the following commands to
[e-mail]:

    GET E-EUROPE IMI

IMI update notices are not posted to E-EUROPE, but you can subscribe to
updates to these files.

Click on telnet://ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu, and login as ex-ussr to access a
database of xUSSR-related files.

The European Information Network, a Prague-based Web publishing company,
posts daily Russian news reports at http://www.russiatoday.com/. The site
offers a databank of information about election laws, Russian government
addresses and the Russian constitution.

There is a Russia-American World Wide Web Server at the URL locator:
http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/friends/home.html. Send a subscription request
to [e-mail] to join a related moderated mailing list
called FRIENDS.

Maximov News - Information And Guide To The Russian Federation - offers
full-text news, contact and information sources from the former Soviet
Union. At http://www.maximov.com/. In English and Russian.

The St. Petersburg Business Journal (monthly) is at http://www.spb.su/.

The EKONOMIKA mailing list on [e-mail] is about Czech economy.
The language is primarily Czech, but English is accepted too.

The Financial Izvestia weekly, the joint publication of London Financial
Times and Moscow-based Izvestia, is available by email. The complete feed
includes the full text of all articles published in the Russian language
newspaper, and financial and statistical tables on the commodities and
financial markets. Write Legpromsyrie at [e-mail] for
information.

NewsNet has the following newsletters:

   Baltic Business Report
   Czech Republic Business & Investment News
   East Europe Intelligence Report
   East Europe & Former Soviet Telecom Report
   East European Business Law
   East European Energy Report
   East European Insurance
   East European Markets
   Eastern European Energy Report
   Eastern Europe Finance
   Federal News Service Kremlin Transcripts
   Finance East Europe
   Poland Business Report
   PRS Forecasts: Eastern Europe
   Russia Express Executive Briefing
   Russia Express Contracts
   Russia/CIS Intelligence Report

Ziffnet's Business Database Plus has Soviet Aerospace & Technology. KR
Data-Star has the Baltic News Service.

CompuServe's International Trade Forum has a NonEEC Europe & CIS message
section.

How to monitor your competitors
-------------------------------
Sales managers need to know what competitors are doing. Lacking this
knowledge, it is risky to maneuver in the market.

Start by making a strategy for online market intelligence. Here are some
practical hints:

 (1) Select online services that offer clipping of stories and
     information based on your search words or phrases. Examples:
     NewsFlash on NewsNet, //TRACK on Dow Jones News/Retrieval, The
     Executive News Service on CompuServe. Use these services for
     automatic monitoring of stock quotes and business news.

 (2) Read what investment analysts and advisors write about your
     competitors. Most markets are well covered by databases and
     other sources of information.

 (3) Read what competitors write about themselves. Their press
     releases are available from online databases in several
     countries.

 (4) Compare your competitors with your own company and industry.
     Items: stock prices, profits, revenue, etc.

 (5) Regularly monitor companies and their particular products.

 (6) Watch trend reports about your industry. Search for patterns and
     possible niches.

 (7) Save what you find on your hard disk for future references.

Can you get everything through the online media? Of course not!

Do not expect to find production data, production formulas, detailed
outlines of a company's pension plan, or the number of personal computers
in a company. Such information rarely finds its way to public databases.

Intelligence by fax
-------------------
Financial Times' Profile has Fax Alert. Predefine your interests using
search words. Stories will be cut and sent to your personal fax number
whenever they appear. Price depends on the number of characters sent.

Other online services offer similar services.

Using the modem as a marketing tool
----------------------------------
Many companies - large and small - use the networks as a marketing
instrument. For example, the San Francisco-based Compact Disk Exchange
(Tel.: [phone]) offers a database of used CD records. Members can
call in to buy at very low prices. They can sell old CDs through the board
or buy from other members. (1992)

Other companies set up bulletin board systems to provide technical support
to customers. McAfee Associates, Inc. in California is one example. They
offer technical information, help, upgrade software, list of agents,
technical bulletins with lists of products, and new products through
agents' support BBSes all over the world. For example, when in Port of
Spain, Trinidad & Tobago call the Opus Networx BBS at [phone].

Setting up a professional BBS is not very expensive. You can easily have 32
people online to the same conference simultaneously on a standard 80386-
based PC, running Xenix and Caucus conferencing software. This is what the
Washington Information Service Corp. in U.S.A. did. There is a large
choice of software.

To keep in touch with customers all over the world, Microsoft, Toshiba,
Quarterdeck, Digital Research, Tandy, Novell and hundreds of others rent
public support forum space on CompuServe. Others run their own BBSes or
rent space on regional bulletin boards, and many companies are also opening
shop on the Internet, and on the World Wide Web in particular.

The Internet provides an unparalleled way to present the image it wishes to
project, and to communicate all its messages to a diversity of self-
selecting, interested audiences.  Businesses can also use their Internet
presence as an intelligence-gathering device, a valuable feedback loop, and
an early warning system for itself - at an amazingly low cost.

Microsoft's Knowledge base is one example. Their database collection of
case-study examples, tips, updates and related articles about Microsoft
products is available on the Web as http://www.microsoft.com/.

Here are some other interesting examples to check out:

    http://www.pizzahut.com/
    http://www.cedar.buffalo.edu/~kapis-p/doom/DOOM.html
    http://login.eunet.no/~presno/index.html
    http://www.hk.linkage.net/~shuntat/
    http://sunsolve1.sun.com
    http://www.mastercard.com

A directory of commercial services on the Internet is at this Web site:

    http://www.directory.net/dir/submit.cgi

Mind you, having a Web page has no value if nobody visits it. Make sure
you send information about your site to the net's announcement services.
First, study the FAQ-document "How To Announce Your New Web Site" (at
http://ep.com/faq/webannounce.html).

Here are some other pointers:

    comp.infosystems.www.announce
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail] - The WWW Organization's general announcement
       list. About WWW, its progress, new data sources, new software
       releases, and more.
    http://gnn.com/gnn/wn/whats-new.html
    http://www.openmarket.com
    http://www.yahoo.com/
    http://galaxy.einet.net/
    [e-mail] -  Net-link

Try to get your offering announced through the print media. A list of
editorial addresses is maintained at

    http://cwis.usc.edu/dept/etc/media/mags.html

Marketeers planning a Web presence often meet in the mailing lists like
ONLINE-NEWS (Chapter 17) to discuss tricks of the trade. For a long list of
Marketing-related Discussion and Announcement Groups in the online world,
check http://www.bayne.com/wolfBayne/htmarcom/mktglist.html

You may also like to browse "The Executive Guide to Marketing on the New
Internet" at http://www.industry.net/guide.html.

Marketing and sales by modem
----------------------------
The Americans have a gift for this. You meet them in online forums all over
the world, in person or through agents, and especially in computer oriented
conferences and clubs.

Their main strategy is reference selling. Make key customers happy, and
make sure they tell others.

In Chapter 5, I told you what happened when a member wrote about his
upgrade to a 425 megabytes hard disk in CompuServe's Toshiba forum. It made
me place my order with his preferred seller.

One common sales strategy is to be constantly present in relevant
conferences, and spend a generous amount of time helping others. This takes
time. By proving competence and willingness to help, you build a positive
personal profile. This profile is the key to business, information about
competitors and other benefits.

To drop quickly into a conference to post an "advertisement," is a waste of
time. The message may be read by some, but chances are that you will be
criticized (in public) for having "polluted their environment" with a
commercial message. On the Internet, it is considered inappropriate to send
out unsolicited information.

A North American business person tried this approach. He posted a long
sales letter to all conferences and newsgroups that he could find. The
text started like this:

 Subject:      Court Ordered Liquidation - Computer Memory
               - CPU's & DSK Drives

 Choice Trading Company, Court Appointed Liquidators, have been
 assigned to liquidate the following Multi-Million Dollar inventory
 of computer Memory Chips, CPU's and Hard Disk Drives. All items are
 new and come with applicable manufactures warranty. Prices quoted
 include all state and local taxes plus shipping and handling.

 Order                                                 Cost
 Number   Mfg.       Description                      (EACH)

 Memory

 1524    Toshiba    30 Pin Simms 1x3     70ns  1 meg  $ 25.00
 1525    Toshiba    30 Pin Simms 1x9     70ns  1 meg    25.00

 etc.

Three days later, his mailbox was closed. Furious users had bombarded it
with everything from hate mail to megabytes of rubbish. His access provider
had to close down the account to avoid serious operational problems.

Another reason for not using the "advertisement" strategy is that the
volume of information in the best conferences for your marketing effort
probably is too high to make traditional advertisements worthwhile.

When you distribute commercial information, preface it with a concise
summary that can be followed-up with more detail if requested. Also, make
sure that the information provided is of significant value to readers.

Where to send press releases in a global economy? Subscribe to the media
list service to get updates to those sacred email addresses . Send email to
[e-mail] containing the text "subscribe medialist".

If you're an entrepreneur running a home business, visit the Usenet group
at misc.entrepreneurs.

International trade
-------------------
Check out the International Trade Forum on CompuServe. Message areas and
libraries are divided into geographical parts of the world, as well as
topic of general interest. Separate message sections are set up for traders
to network and make contacts that may lead to deals.

The International Trade Network is on the IntlTrade mailing list. It is for
advertisements of exports, imports, services, and direct investments. Trade
advertisements may be posted gratis by anyone, and are relayed worldwide by
email to subscribers in a daily digest. For information, send email to
[e-mail] with the following in the body of the text (leave
the subject blank):

     INFO INTLTRADE

Management
----------
The Management Archive is a free electronic forum for business management
ideas and information of all kinds. Complete details are available by e-
mail message to [e-mail] with "Subject: archive"
and a one-line message: GET MA-INFO

Electronic mail
---------------
Here is a list of other useful applications of electronic mail:

    * to distribute lists of important prospects quickly to your
      sales force,
    * to avoid lengthy telephone conversations,
    * to receive order information faster and more efficiently than
      by traditional mail or fax (and from a larger geographical area),
    * to distribute quickly reports and memos to key people all
      over the world,
    * to send new prices and product announcements to customers,
    * to exchange spread sheets and analyses between users of
      personal computers.

If this isn't enough, ask for information from the International Business
Network at [e-mail] (70724,311 on CompuServe).



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The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PART 3: WORKING SMARTER

In some countries, the costs of communication are outrageously high, in
others almost free. In some places, it is rare to experience noise on the
telephone line, while it may be almost impossible even to connect at 2400
bits/s in other countries.

Another problem is one of affluence. The Internet has given us all too many
powerful resources. How do I get the best out of Internet without drowning
in unneeded details? What is the recommended approach? What pitfalls to
avoid? How to get more done in less time without upgrading my connection to
the net?

Working smarter is the theme in this part of the book.


Chapter 12: Practical tips
==========================

This chapter is about: Favorite Internet tools. Speed and safety. Surfing
strategies. The World Wide Web and Usenet by email. Handling email
overload. Getting off that mailing list. Email: When everything fails.
Copyright and other legal matters. Unwritten laws about personal conduct.
Privacy. File transfers through the Internet. Fax services weigh less than
a portable printer.

Favorite Internet tools
-----------------------
Working smarter is a matter of having the right tools, and being able and
willing to use their features. The programs below are now my favorite tools
for tapping the Internet resource. They all work under Microsoft Windows. I
use version 3.11.

Winsock
The Trumpet Winsock shareware program. I have used it successfully on dial-
up SLIP, PPP, and TIA (The Internet Adapter) lines. If you need help when
setting it up, consult the alt.winsock newsgroup. See Chapter 15, and
Appendix 2. The program can be retrieved from libraries all over the
Internet.

Internet's "Swiss Army Knife"
Netscape is my favorite for World Wide Web, Gopher, finding files, and file
transfers. There are versions for Unix, Macintosh, and Windows platforms.

The creators say it was optimized for 14,400 bps usage, and it sure works
fast and reliably with my Internet providers (though old-fashioned text-
only Lynx works faster!).

Hint: Consider leaving the graphics behind when using Netscape to travel
the Web at much higher speeds. Click on Options, Autoload Image, and Save
Options to turn off. When you need to see the images, click Load Images.

Information:  http://home.mcom.com/home/welcome.html

Lynx
----
Most of my Web access are done using Lynx. I call my Internet provider, get
the Unix prompt, and just enter "lynx URL" to get it at lightening speed.
See Appendix 6 for details. It even allows you to enjoy the Web using DOS
and your old Procomm communications program. I run it off a batch file.

Electronic mail
Pegasus Mail is free, but you must pay for the documentation. I have tested
it on a TIA/SLIP connection, and a straight PPP line. Setting it up took
longer than expected. Main reason: Impatience. Read the instructions in the
WGUIDE.EXE program, or risk problems.

Pegasus has buttons for the "Prev" and "Next" message in your pile of
unread mail. You can search forwards and backwards for a string, a full
word, with or without case specified. Strong filtering features.

For information, try gopher://gopher.cuslm.ca/11/pegasus/. There is a
PMAIL mailing list at [e-mail] . Put the following command
in the body of your mail to subscribe: SUBSCRIBE PMAIL FirstName LastName.

Eudora (see Appendix 6) is allegedly the most used email program on the
Internet.

Usenet netnews
The Free Agent netnews program from Forte Advanced Management Software,
Inc. is particularly interesting for dialup modem users. It can be set
for online or offline operation to balance convenience and economy.

I have used my Microsoft Windows version successfully both over a PPP and
TIA/SLIP dialup connection. Having a color screen is important.

Free Agent lets you quickly sample threads and newsgroups. You can perform
many online tasks at once: You can browse articles in one newsgroup while
retrieving headers for another, or download long articles while continuing
to browse.

It does multi-level article threading, using both the subject and the
article ID. You always know exactly what posting an article is responding
to. It offers Watch and Ignore commands for threads, and rapid navigation
within and among threads.

You can post and receive articles with binary attachments, with automatic
splitting and combining to span multiple messages.  If the attachment is
viewable (for instance, images or sound) you can view it from within the
news reader.

For information, link to http://www.forteinc.com/forte/. To hear what
others think, check out alt.usenet.offline-readers, alt.winsock,
news.software.readers, and the CompuServe WINCON forum.

Speed and safety
----------------
Read about MNP, ITU-TSS V.42, and V.42bis in Appendix 2. These are popular
methods for automatic error correction and compression of data. Compression
gives faster transfers of data.

To use them, your modem must have these features built-in. They must also
be enabled in the modem of the service that you are calling.

Compression is particularly helpful when sending or receiving text, for
example news stories and messages in conferences. They ensure faster
transfers.

They are not of much help when transferring precompressed texts and
programs. They may even make file transfers with protocols like ZMODEM,
Kermit, and XMODEM impossible. If this happens, temporarily turn off the
MNP and V.24/V42bis settings in your modem (more about this in Appendix 2).

The more advanced your software is, the more time it may take to learn how
to use it efficiently. The rewards are lower telephone costs, faster
transfers, and less time spent doing technical online work.

Pegasus Mail and Eudora for Internet mail let you retrieve your full
mailbox in one batch, and reply to your mail offline. When finished, you
can shoot them back to your mailbox for distribution in one shot.

Some BBSes and online services let you retrieve conference messages using a
get or grab function. This function often comes in two versions:

    * Grab to display: New messages and conference items are
      received in an uninterrupted stream without stops between
      items. Retrieval of text can happen at maximum speed.

    * Grab to compressed file: New messages and conference items
      are selected, automatically compressed and stored in a file.
      The file is then transferred automatically using ZMODEM or
      some other protocol.

Read about 'offline readers' in chapter 16 for more about this.

Recommended.

Surfing strategies.
-------------------
Frank Burns of the American online service MetaNet is spokesperson for the
strategy Scan - Focus - Act.

On your first visits to a new online service, you SCAN to get an overview
of what is being offered and find out how to use it most efficiently. Notes
are made of interesting bulletins, databases, conferences, messages, news
services, public domain and shareware programs, games, and more.

Capture everything to disk. Don't study it until disconnected from the
service. Rate the material to prepare for your next moves: FOCUS and ACT.

    | New Netscape users may have problems doing this. However,  |
    | it is not as complex as it sounds, and in particular if    |
    | you take the trouble to retrieve shareware utilities like  |
    | Cache Master or Web Saver from the net. They let you read  |
    | and search the Web texts saved in Netscape's cache on your |
    | hard disk. Use http://www.shareware.com to locate them.    |

    | Another option is to have Netscape mail you the pages.     |

As you learn about offerings, users and applications, your use of the
services changes. What was interesting on your first visits, lose to new
discoveries. Some applications may stay as 'regular online functions', like
when you decide to read a given news report each Monday morning.

Here are some other hints:

    * Find out what you do NOT need to know and have enough
      self-confidence immediately to discard irrelevant material.
      Walk quickly through the information. Select what you need
      now, store other interesting items on your hard disk, clip
      references, and drop the remainder of your capture file.

    * Learn when and how to use people, computers, libraries and
      other resources. Prepare well before going online. Note that
      the online resource may not necessarily be the quickest way
      to the goal. If you want the name of Michael Jackson's latest
      album, you may get a faster answer by calling a local music
      shop. . . .

    * Make an outline of how to search the service before going
      online. If required, start by going online to collect help
      menus and lists of search commands (unless you already have
      the printed user information manual). Study the instructions
      carefully, plan your visit, and then call back.

Often, it may be useful to do trial searches in online data captured to
hard disk during previous trips. Do this to check if your use of search
words is sensible.

Who knows, you may even find what you are searching for right there.
Besides, you must use the correct search terms to find what you are looking
for.

Write your search strategy on a piece of paper. If you know how to write
macros for your communications program, consider writing some for your
planned search commands. - Few people can type 240 characters or more per
second. Using macros may save you time, frustration and money.

It may be wise to do your search in two steps. On your first visit: Get a
LIST of selected headlines or references, and then log off the service.

Study your finds, and plan the next step. Then call back to get full-text
of the most promising stories.

This strategy is often better than just 'hanging online' while thinking.
When you feel the pressure of the taximeter, it is easy to make costly
mistakes.

Novices should always go the easiest way. Don't be shy. Ask SOS Assistance
services for help, if available. When using commercial services, invest in
special communication programs with built in automatic online searching
features. They are designed to make your work easier.

Limit your search and avoid general and broad search terms. It is often
wise to start with a search word that is so 'narrow' that it is unlikely to
find articles outside your area of interest. Your goal is not to find many
stories. You want the right ones.

    | You should periodically go back to the SCAN phase, and not |
    | concentrate on FOCUS and ACT alone.                        |

Using email gateways to Internet resources
------------------------------------------
Things are so simple with Netscape. If you want a file, just click on the
link, and it gets transferred to your hard disk. Still, some people opt to
do it by email. One reason may be that it is the only way they can get
them. Another good reason is to save time.

For most users, time is an important consideration. There is connect time
(may cost you money), the number of minutes it will take to get a task
done (calendar time), and the number of minutes and hours you must "work"
to complete a desired task.

If you must complete a task by 11:55, then a direct connection to the
remote source may be the only answer. Interactive methods like the World
Wide Web, Gopher, anonymous ftp, and telnet are the probable choices.

However, as the number of people using the Internet grows, response time
periodically is slow. If you are out of luck, then that important file from
somewhere may snail toward you at a speed less than 300 bits per second. To
sign on to a remote telnet site can take minutes. You may have to wait what
feels like a small eternity for the next WWW page or gopher menu to show
up.

If getting more out of your hours online, then read on. Batch processing of
online work can save you much waiting time.

On the Internet, there are servers set up to give you Web pages by email.
There is FTPmail, the batch alternative to ftp transfers of files. Archie
can be used by email. GopherMail lets you browse Gopher menus by email (see
Appendix 6). Sure, it may take more time to get the desired information,
but you will not waste time waiting in front of your display.

You can even search many data bases on the Web by email!

Batch searches of what others say on specialized matters is another
exciting possibility. (See the discussion on how to search LISTSERV log
files, and archives of other mailing list systems, in Chapter 7 and 10).

The World Wide Web by email
---------------------------
Many services let you request Web pages by email. For a list, check
http://www.mlink.net/~jf/Personal/agora.htm. The method described below
works with my current favorite, a Web by email service in Japan.

Request WWW pages by sending email to [e-mail]. Put your
retrieval commands in the BODY of your mail, like this

   send <URL>

The term URL is explained in Appendix 6. The following sample command will
give you my personal WWW page:

   send http://www.eunet.no/~presno/presno.html

An interactive WWW user can "click" on marked hypertext words, or mark them
in other ways to view associated pages with information. The WWWmail user
must do this by resubmitting URL codes found appended to the received pages
to [e-mail].

You can also search databases by WWWmail. First, send an email mail to this
Agora server with the world HELP in the body of your text. Besides notes
about how to use the service, it has hints about how to search the net
using Lycos, Yahoo, the WAIS server at Oxford University, WebCrawler, Hyper
RFC, MetaCrawler (http://metacrawler.cs.washington.edu:8080/index.html),
Veronica, and Alta Vista.

Words of warning:

 * If the requested document is too large, this WWWmail service
   will only send you the first 5,000 lines.

 * If the service is unable to connect to the requested WWW server,
   you will receive an error message without much explanation. The
   reason may be a spelling error on your part, but also that the
   network connection between the LISTSERV and the requested server
   was "bad" at the moment. Therefore, check your spelling, and try
   again.

 * Only the first 5 lines of requests will be processed.

Searching Lycos
---------------
You can search Lycos (see Chapter 10) for information in WWW, Gopher, and
ftp files. The trick is to first locate the URL of the page where searches
are usually done. As for Lycos, a user will typically start with its home
page: http://www.lycos.com/

Using the hypertext references in the result, you probably can find the URL
of the WWW page from which a desired database is searched. The search
command can then be composed by this:

   send <URL>?<keyword>+<keyword>

Let me explain these codes with an example. I live in a small town called
Arendal in Norway. You can search for occurrences of this word by sending
the following command to the LISTSERV (note: Lycos' URL may have changed
since this test!):

   send http://http://lycos11.lycos.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/flpursuit?arendal

You can extend the search argument by adding my last name (write the
command on one line!). Like this:

   send http://http://lycos11.lycos.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-
   bin/flpursuit?arendal+presno

Searching Alta Vista
--------------------
Then, there's my favorite Alta Vista. If you want information about a
person named Bill Gates, try this command (on one line):

   SEND http://altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=q
   &what=web&fmt=.&q=bill+gates

For AltaVista searches you must separate words with a "+"sign. All searches
are exact, no trailing dot required. The codes have the following meanings:

   &q=search term(s)
   &what=news (for newsgroups) or web (for web searches)
   &fmt= blank (for standard search)

It also works with more complex commands. For example, I made a search for
all occurrences of the word "presno" in all Web documents except those
containing "presno" in the URL. In Alta Vista parlance, we do this with

   presno -url:presno

Using Agora, I did it with the query

   SEND http://altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=q
   &what=web&fmt=.&q=presno+-url:presno

A standard search in newsgroups (first 30 matches) is done with:

   SEND http://www.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=q&what=news
   &fmt=&q=bill+gates

Some options:

   Compact form searches: replace &fmt= with &fmt=c
   Detailed form searches: replace &fmt= with &fmt=s
   To get the next 25 matches: add start query value &stq=30 (start at 30)
   Add number of queries to return value &nbq=25 (get next 25)

   Example: SEND http://www.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=q
            &what=web&stq=30&nbq=30&fmt=&q=spam

For advanced queries, play around with the following parameters:

   Replace query?pg=q with query?pg=aq
   Replace &fmt= with &fmt=.
   Change &q= to &q&r=
   Add dates:
   start date &d0=20%2Fmmm%2Fyy
                where mmm = month abbreviation and yy = year
   end   date &d1=30%2Fmmm%2Fyy
                where mmm = month abbreviation and yy = year

Example: Advanced search on Web sites - first 25 matches between 20Feb95
and 30Mar96

   SEND http://www.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=aq&what=web
   &fmt=.&q&r=bill+gates&d0=20%2Ffeb%2F95&d1=30%2Fmar%2F96

Searching DejaNews
------------------
Searching this service is more complex as your query must be inserted into
the middle of a long SEND command. Search for "Bill Gates" by using this
command (on one single line):

   send http://search.dejanews.com/nph-dnquery.xp?query=bill+gates&default
   Op=AND&svcclass=dncurrent&maxhits=20

For DejaNews searches you must separate words with a "+"sign. For power
searches, alter the default values used above as follows:

   &defaultOP=AND or OR
   &svcclass=dncurrent or dnold
   &maxhits=30, 60, or 120
   &format=terse (concise) or verbose (detailed)
   &threaded=0 (listed) 1 (threaded)
   &showsort=score, newsgroup, date, author
   &agesign=1 (prefer new), -1 (prefer old)
   &ageweight=1 (some), 0 (great), 3 (none)

Send the word "help" to [e-mail] for more information
about using this Agora server.

For more details and tips about searching the Web by email, check out
http://www.wp.com/resch/esearch.txt, and extensive guides for many search
engines at ftp://ftp.netcom.com/~ftp/pub/gb/gboyd.

umail
Usenet by email
---------------
You can retrieve a list of recent postings to a given newsgroup by sending
email to a WWW by email service. Use use the following type of commands:

  send news:alt.winsock            (returns a list of recent postings)
  deep news:alt.winsock            (returns the list AND the postings)

The first command (send) will give you a list like this:

                          Newsgroup alt.winsock,  Articles 26012-26031

   (Earlier articles[1]...) Articles in alt.winsock
   "Program wanted" - Leslie Mark Styles[2]
   "[HELP] twinsock (makefile vs Makefile)" - Scott Ehrlich[3]

   *** References from this document ***
   [orig] news:alt.winsock
   [1] news:alt.winsock/25992-26011
   [2] news:[e-mail]
   [3] news:3d04qm$[e-mail]

Now, if you want article [3], just send a mail back to the WWW by email
service with the following command in the body of your mail

   send news:3d04qm$[e-mail]

Note: Some Agora servers may return the list of recent postings to you
in html format, presented something like this:

   <HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Newsgroup: alt.winsock</TITLE></HEAD><BODY><H1>
   Newsgroup: alt.winsock</H1>HERE WE CAN PUT INFORMATION AND EXTRA LINKS
   <LI><A HREF="32365905.2574992@newsvr">
       Re:Determining Winsock Version</A> David Beaver
   <LI><A HREF="[e-mail]">
       NEEDED - Someone who really knows KA9Q,DOS and PPP dialup</A> Steve
   <LI><A HREF="3236b2aa.45939574@192.249.1.30">
       Re:Eudora Mail Program for Win95</A> J. Wayne Waller

These lists are harder to read unless you use an offline Web browser. To
retrieve individual items, the trick is to isolate the address codes
between the two html code pairs'<A HREF="' and '">' in the list.

Example: The first article above is written by David Beaver, and the title
is "Re:Determining Winsock Version". The associated address code is given
as "32365905.2574992@newsvr". You can send this code to a WWW by email
service as given above using the format

   send news:32365905.2574992@newsvr

More Usenet by email tricks
---------------------------
Many newsgroups are connected to mailing lists that you can subscribe to
by email. Articles submitted to the newsgroup through these mailing lists
will often pass through a moderator, who reviews the submissions before
posting them.

In some cases, articles are stored in log files that may be searched. In
other cases, you can have selected newsgroup articles sent to you by email.

  | Some mailing lists will not let you search unless you are a |
  | subscriber to the given list. However, you may not have the |
  | capacity to, nor be interested in, reading all the postings.|
  | You just want those items containing your specific keywords.|
  |                                                             |
  | For example, I want to track references to this book.  The  |
  | search term "Online World" is likely to give too many false |
  | hits. Regular searches for the word "Presno" is a better    |
  | search strategy.                                            |
  |                                                             |
  | The trick is to adjust your subscription, so you will       |
  | receive no mail. You can achieve this by sending an email   |
  | to the LISTSERV in question containing this command:        |
  |                                                             |
  |     SET <list name> NOMAIL                                  |
  |                                                             |
  | Now, search whenever you like.                              |

For a list of newsgroups with associated mailing lists, send mail to
[e-mail] containing the line: GET NETGATE GATELIST

You can also write to [e-mail]. Send a message containing
the command "//NNHELP" for instructions. Add "//NEWSGROUPS" for a current
list of available newsgroups.

Many documents that appear periodically in newsgroups are available for
retrieval over the net. Read under FAQ in Appendix 6 about how to retrieve.

Reference.COM (see Chapter 11) lets you search for recent Usenet articles
that are already in the local database on this host. For example, to search
for articles related to "information filtering," send an email message to
[e-mail] containing the following command in the TEXT
of your mail:

     find 'information filtering'

Several News Mail Servers let users post to Usenet news by email. Note that
none of these support all existing newsgroups. Example: Send your mail to
[news-group-name]@cs.utexas.edu . Replace [news-group-name] with the name
of the desired newsgroup, as in mail [e-mail] .

Other News Mail Servers:

   [news.group.name][e-mail]
   [news.group.name]@pubnews.demon.co.uk
   [news.group.name]@dispatch.demon.co.uk
   [news.group.name]@paris.ics.uci.edu
   [news.group.name]@crs4gw.crs4.it
   [news.group.name]@berlioz.crs4.it

Send a messages to [e-mail] for a list or remailers
with detailed instructions. The Cypherpunk Remailers also support anonymous
postings. These include:

   [e-mail]
   [e-mail]
   [e-mail]
   [e-mail]

You can cross-post to several newsgroups by adding the header Newsgroups:
with the names of the groups you want to post to and sending it to one of
the following addresses.  When using a remailer, place ## at the beginning
of a line and then add the Newsgroups: header on the next line.

Example:

   From: [e-mail]
   To: [e-mail]
   Subject: ignore

   ::
   Anon-To: [e-mail]
   This is a test.

Note: All gateways will reject posts without Subject lines. Also, make you
read about the Unwritten Laws about Personal Conduct below before using
this feature!

Handling email overload
-----------------------
It is easy to get overwhelmed by the quantity of messages in mailing lists
and discussion groups. Luckily, there are things you can do.

Learn more about the software you use for reading mail. Some programs have
filtering features that permits automatic storage of incoming mail in
folders or files depending on sender, subject, or other characteristics.
This potentially makes it easier to follow discussions on mailing lists.

Many programs let you create a list of all incoming mail organized by
subject header. You may find this to be a big help as headers usually
reflect what is being discussed.

Do not feel that you must read every message. If the header does not
indicate anything interesting, just skip it. If curious, you can always
look at one of the messages to see what the general area of discussion is
about before deciding.

Learn about the capabilities of the LISTSERV, Majordomo, or LISTPROC that
distribute the conference messages. Using features like DIGEST or INDEX can
reduce your load (see Chapter 13).

A LISTSERV will also allow a subscriber to TURN OFF the mail during an
absence. Some LISTSERVs will even permit a command to save the mail and
send it later. There are many commands to explore.

Getting off that mailing list
-----------------------------
A while ago, you subscribed to that mailing list. Now you cannot get off
it. You have tried SIGNOFF, UNSUBSCRIBE, and other likely commands, only to
receive "Bad command" messages in return.

If it is a LISTSERV mailing list, and the list you want to get off is
called TOW (at [e-mail]), use the command SIGNOFF
<list name> as in "SIGNOFF TOW". Put the command in the body of your mail,
and send it to the LISTSERV.

    Never send signoff commands to the mailing list itself,
    unless you want all members to learn about your ignorance.

The SIGNOFF command is not a global command that works with all types of
mailing list. If it doesn't work, try UNSUBSCRIBE <list name>. If that also
fails, try the HELP or INFO. You may try putting the words both on the
subject line and in the body of the mail.

Sometimes signing off from a list fails because your email address has
changed since you subscribed.

Example: A while ago, I was trying to get off a list. When I subscribed, it
was made either from a mailbox with the address [e-mail], or
from [e-mail]. These addresses are now [e-mail]
and [e-mail]. When I tried to signoff, I was told that neither
address could be removed from the mailing list.

One solution is to write to the administrator of the list, or to the
postmaster of the host where the mailing list program is running.

    Hint for Netscape users: To get off a list that you subscribed to
    from another email address, set Netscape up with your old e-mail
    "from" address under menu Options/Preferences/Images, Network, and
    Mail. It's easy. Just put your old e-mail address into the box
    labeled "Your Email" and send a "SIGNOFF <list name>" to the
    LISTSERV.

Some LISTSERV mailing lists let you send the command "REVIEW <list name>"
for a list of subscribers (example: REVIEW TOW sent to the LISTSERV address
above). This list usually contains the address of the administrator.

In some cases, usage of the REVIEW command is blocked. Then inspect the
mailer header of messages from the mailing list. For example, if it says

  From: [e-mail]

then there you have the address of the host computer. Try "postmaster"
instead of "listserv" to reach a live person for help.

Email: When everything fails
----------------------------
Data communications is simple - when you master it. Occasionally, however,
you WILL lose data. You may even experience the worst of all: losing unread
mail on your hard disk.

A while ago, this happened to my sister. She logged on to her mailbox
service using the communications program Procomm.

After capturing all her mail, she tried to send a message. For some reason,
the computer froze. It was impossible to close the capture file. She had to
switch the power OFF/ON to continue. All retrieved mail was obviously lost.

One day, I had a similar experience. After having written a long and
difficult letter, something went wrong. The outfile was closed without
warning. The resulting file size was 0 bytes.

Both problems were solved by the MS-DOS program CHKDSK run with the /F
option. If you ever get this problem, and have an MS-DOS computer, try
CHKDSK or Scandisk. They may save your day.

Copyright notices and legal stuff
---------------------------------
Most commercial online services protect their offerings with copyright
notices. This is especially so for database information and news.

Some vendors make you accept in writing not to store captured data on a
local media (like diskettes or hard disks). Others force clients to use
communication software that makes it impossible to store incoming data to
disk.

The reason is simple. Information providers want to protect their income.

In most countries, you can quote from what others have written. You can cut
out parts of a whole and use in your own writing. What you can not do,
however, is to copy news raw to resell to others. If an online service
discovers that you're doing that, expect a law suit.

Read copyright notices to learn about the limitations on your usage of data
that you receive.

Unwritten laws about personal conduct
-------------------------------------
Some services let their users be anonymous. This is the case on many chat
services. If you want to pose as Donald Duck or Jack the Ripper, just do
that.

Many free BBS systems let you register for full access to the service
during your first visit. It is possible to use any name. Don't do that.
Use your true name, unless asked to do otherwise. It's impolite and
unrespectful of the other members to participate in online discussions
using a false identity.

Being helpful is an important aspect of the online world. The people you
meet use their time to help you and others. Often for free. The atmosphere
is therefore often one of gratitude, and a positive attitude toward all
members of the various groups.

If you use rude words in public, expect your mailbox to fill with angry
messages from others. Those who respond carefully to personal attacks, will
never regret it. Don't say things online that you would not have said in
person.

REMEMBER: Words written in a moment of anger or frustration may be stored
on at least one hard disk. Your 'sins' may stay there for a long time - to
resurface when you least want it to.

Here are some guidelines (often called 'online netiquette'):

    * If mail to a person doesn't make it through, avoid posting
      the message to a conference. Keep private messages private.

    * It is considered extremely bad taste to post private mail
      from someone else on public conferences, unless they give
      you explicit permission to redistribute it.

    * Many users end their messages with some lines about how
      to reach them  (their email address, phone number, address,
      etc.). Limit your personal "signature" to four lines.

      Hint: Do not include a signature when sending commands
      to email based services. It can confuse the servers.

    * Do not send test messages to a public conference, unless
      they are set up to serve this purpose.

    * If someone requests that readers reply by private email,
      do that. Do not send to the conference, where the request
      appeared.

    * When replying to a message in a public conference, many
      users 'quote' the original message prefixed by '>' or
      another special character, as in

         You wrote:
         >I strongly believe it was wrong to attack
         >Fidel Castro in this way!

     When you quote another person, edit out whatever isn't
     directly applicable to your reply. By including the entire
     message, you'll only annoy those reading it.

   * Note that if you USE ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, people will
     think you are shouting.

For more on "netiquette," join the mailing list of the same name. In the
owner's own word, it is

   devoted to network etiquette, the informal set of rules, civilities,
   and social graces that have evolved in cyberspace, the do's and
   don'ts of online behavior. What are the rules? How have they evolved?
   How can responsible net.citizens avoid breaches of Netiquette? How
   should we respond to the breaches of others? Is flaming an art and
   if so, how can it be mastered? What's being said about Netiquette
   on the net and in the media?

To subscribe, send email to [e-mail] with the
following command in the subject field:

   subscribe Firstname Lastname

For a copy of the "Core Rules of Netiquette" document, send an email to the
same address with the following text in the subject field:

    archive send core

Finally, smile with me about the following story: According to Time
Magazine (7/19/93, p. 58), three women who corresponded with Mr. X over the
network discovered his duplicity and went public on the network. The
incident sparked a lively debate over electronic etiquette (and ruined Mr.
Casanova's chances for further romance).

Privacy
-------
The level of online privacy differs by network, service, and application.
Whatever these services may claim, always expect that someone, somewhere,
can watch, even record.

All mailbox services have at least one person authorized to access your
personal mailbox in case of an emergency. Most of the time they do not
have a right to read it without your permission, but they can.

In some countries, mailbox services may let outsiders (like the police)
routinely read your private email to check for 'illegal' contents. In this
respect, email is not safer than ordinary mail.

The good news is that most 'inspectors' and 'sysops' are good, honest
people. On the other hand, it is useful to know your situation.

It is not safe to send sensitive information (like credit card details) by
private electronic mail. True, the chance of an outsider getting hold of
and take advantage of such information is very small, but it is not safe.

On the Internet, it is child's play for some people to intercept. Your
typical e-mail message travels through many computers. At each computer,
people can access your personal and business correspondence. With so much
mail traveling the network, it is highly unlikely that they will, but they
can.

    Encrypt your email to protect sensitive information. Encryption
    also guarantees the identity of the sender of a message, a most
    useful attribute when financial transactions are involved.

The PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) software has become the Internet standard
for encryption of email and files so snoops cannot read them. For more
information, check out the following URLs:

    http://draco.centerline.com:8080/~franl/crypto.html
    http://www.agora.stm.it/htbin/wwx?fi^N.Ferri

Sometimes, we need to be certain that a message was written by the sender
quoted in the mail's message header. As it is child's play to send an
Internet message carrying other people's return email address and name,
you may want to use PGP to make sure the correspondence is authentic.

For this reason, be very skeptical if you ever get a message purportedly
from your Internet access provider telling you to change your password to
"k00l/d00d!"

Privacy is also a concern when talking in the open. Always assume that
someone is recording all that is being said in online conferences, chats,
and other interactive social gatherings. In chats, anyone using a personal
computer as a terminal can log the conversation, or use screen dump to
capture 'interesting parts'.

Many PC users can scroll back the screen. They can wait and decide whether
to save the conversation in a file until after the conversation has taken
place. With these capabilities widely available, users of chats and talk
should always assume that their conversations are being recorded.

Do not say indiscreet things in small, informal discussions. Others may
record and repost it under embarrassing circumstances.

Some people routinely use anonymous remailers when sending email to Usenet
newsgroups or persons to make sure that the recipient (and snoops) cannot
tell their real name or email address. I never use these services, but note
that some do as you may be at the receiving end. For more on anonymous
mail, check out the alt.privacy.anon-server newsgroup.

For more on privacy, check out ETHICS-L ([e-mail]). The
files RFC 1113 through 1115 are about 'Privacy enhancements for Internet
electronic mail' (see Appendix 6 for how to get them).

Usenet has alt.privacy (Privacy issues in cyberspace), alt.security.pgp,
and comp.society.privacy (Effects of technology on privacy).

The mailing list [e-mail] is about RSA public-key cryptography
for use in Internet Privacy-Enhanced Mail (PEM). Subscribe by email to:

    [e-mail]

File transfers through the Internet
-----------------------------------
The Internet is a network interconnecting hundreds of thousands of computer
centers around the world. These centers use different types of hardware and
software, and different methods of file transfer.

What method to use for file transfers depends on the source host and the
type of connection and software that you are using. For those using
Netscape, it's simple. Just click on the file to transfer.

For those using the original method transferring files by FTP, the transfer
usually takes place in two steps:

    1. Transferring files from a remote data center to your local
       mailbox host.

    2. Transfer from your local mailbox host to your personal
       computer.

Transfer to your local mailbox host
-----------------------------------
Transferring plain text files is easy. Files with imbedded word processor
control codes will often have to be treated as binary files. More about
this later.

To transfer a text to another user, just send it as an ordinary electronic
message.

Getting text files from a library on a remote computer is a special case.
Often, they can be had by sending a retrieval command (like GET) by email
to the remote center. After a while, the file will be sent to your mailbox
by email. You can read it like you read other mail.

Example: The file MSDOS1 can be retrieved from the KIDART directory on a
computer center in North Dakota, U.S.A. It explains how to retrieve binary
art files from the KIDLINK project's file libraries.

To get the file, send a message to the center's mail forwarding 'agent' at
[e-mail]. Use the following command syntax in your text:

    GET <directory name>.<file name>

To get the MSDOS1 file, write the following command in the TEXT of your
message:

    GET KIDART.MSDOS1

Note that the command has to be put in the body of the mail and not in the
subject field. The file will arrive in your mailbox after a while.

Also, note that lists of available files are usually available by using an
"INDEX <directory name>" command. To get a list of files in the KIDART
directory, add the command "INDEX KIDART" in your message above.

On some LISTSERV servers, the period between list name and file name is not
being used.

Non-LISTSERV libraries may use other retrieval commands. Often, you can get
information of what commands to use by sending the word HELP to a mailing
service (in the Subject area or in the body of the text).

Transferring binary files
-------------------------
The easiest way of retrieving binary files across the Internet is by using
a World Wide Web browser like Netscape, Mosaic or others. You just give the
program a file location address (URL), like

    ftp://ftp.eunet.no/pub/text/online.txt.Z

This address will give you the most current version of this handbook in
Unix Z compress format. (Remove the trailing ".Z" to retrieve the ascii
text version.)

Users with a direct connection to the Internet usually also have access to
the FTP command (File Transfer Protocol). Some of them prefer FTP for
transfers of binary files like computer programs, pictures, sound, and
compressed text files.

The bad news is that the FTP command is not available to all users of
Internet mail. These must use "FTP by mail," or other tricks to transfer
files. More about this in a moment.

The FTP command gives access to a special file transfer service. It works
in the following way:

 Logon to your local email host and enter 'FTP remote-center-code', as
in this example: 'ftp 134.129.111.1'.

This command will connect you to the center in North Dakota mentioned
above. Here, you will be prompted for user name and password. Enter
'anonymous' as user name, and use your real name or email address as
password.

This way of logging on to retrieve files is called "transfers by anonymous
ftp." You can use this method on many hosts on the Internet.

 When connected to the remote center, you can request transfer of the
desired file to your mailbox. Before doing that, you may have to navigate
to a given file catalog (cd directory), and tell the host that the transfer
is to be binary (bin). Finally, start the transfer by entering a "GET file
name" command.

 The file will be transferred to your local mailbox computer at high
speed. When the transfer is done, you logoff from the remote center to "get
back" to your mailbox computer's prompt line.

Now, you can transfer the file to your personal computer using
communications protocols like Kermit, XMODEM, ZMODEM or whatever else is
available.

Note: I usually prefer Lynx for retrieval jobs using URLs like you would
use with Netscape, as in "Lynx ftp://ftp.eunet.no/pub/text/online.txt".

Binary files transferred as text codes
--------------------------------------
If you do not have access to FTP or Lynx, you must use ordinary email for
your binary transfers.

Usually, email through the Internet can only contain legal character codes
(ASCII characters between number 32 - 126). Most systems cannot transfer
graphics or program files directly, since these files normally contain
binary codes (which are outside this ASCII character range).

The solution is to convert binary files to text codes using a utility
program called UUENCODE. The encoded file can be sent by ordinary email, as
in this example:


  From [e-mail] Fri Aug 16 16:32:37 1991
  Date:     Fri, 16 Aug 1991 09:31:34 CDT
  To: [e-mail]
  Subject:  Part 1/1 SIMTEL20.INF PD:<MSDOS.STARTER>

  The file PD:<MSDOS.STARTER>SIMTEL20.INF  has been uuencoded before
  being sent. After combining the 1 parts with the mail headers
  removed, you must run the file through a decode program.
  ------------ Part 1 of 1 ------------
  begin 600 SIMTEL20.INF
  M6T9I;&4Z(%-)351%3#(P+DE.1B`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("!,87-T(')E
  M=FES960Z($IU;F4@,C@L(#$Y.3%=#0H-"B`@(%M.;W1E.B!$=64@=&\@9&ES
  M:6P-"AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:
  M&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:
  6&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&AH:&@(Z
  `
  end
  -------- End of part 1 of 1 ---------

When you receive a message with uuencoded text, download it to your
personal computer's hard disk. Use an editor to cut out the codes and paste
them to an empty work file. Using the example above, the first line in your
work file should contain:

  begin 600 SIMTEL20.INF

The last line should contain
  end

Now, use a utility program called UUDECODE to convert the file back to its
binary form (or whatever).

More information about uuencoding and uudecoding is given in the MSDOS1
file mentioned above (for MS-DOS computers). It has a detailed explanation,
BASIC source code for making the program UUDECODE.COM, and a DEBUG script
for those preferring that.

Versions of UUDECODE are also available for other types of computers.

Transfer of pictures
--------------------
In 1992, Denis Pchelkin (Protvino, Russia) was 11 years old, had two cats
and one dog, and was a famous contributor of beautiful computer graphics
art to the KIDLINK project.

The file ART019 in the KIDART catalog of the North Dakota center contains
one of his creations. It is a UUENCODEd picture in GIF graphics format.

Retrieve Denis' art by sending a command to [e-mail].
Put the following in the TEXT of your message:

    GET KIDART.ART019

The LISTSERVer will return a message filled with strange uu-codes. We
assume that you have already retrieved the MSDOS1 file, and that you have a
version of the conversion program. Your next step is UUdecoding:

Read the message into an editor or a viewing program. Cut and paste the
codes to a work file. Keep the original as backup. Use the UUDECODE.COM
program to convert ART019 into a GIF formatted file. Now, view the picture
with your favorite graphics program.

Sending binary files in uuencoded form has weaknesses. One is the lack of
automatic error correction when sending/receiving email. Noise on the line
can easily distort the picture.

File size is another problem. UUENCODEing typically increases file sizes by
almost one third. Some mailbox systems restrict the length of individual
messages that you can receive, and the file may just be too big.

If the uuencoded file gets too big, some services can (or will by default)
split it up in parts and then sent separately.

Tons of uuencoded public domain and shareware programs are available for
retrieval by ordinary email.

MIME encoding can also be used (see Appendix 6), but is less common.

FTP by email
-------------
While some services accept commands like GET KIDART ART019 by email, this
is not so with the many so-called FTP libraries. Many of them can only be
accessed by FTP.

Services exist that will do FTP transfers by email for those not having
access to the FTP command. The most popular is at DEC Corporate Research in
the U.S.

For more information, write a message to one of these addresses:

    [e-mail]                  (U.S.A.)
         ...!decwrl!ftpmail                 (for UUCP sites)
    [e-mail]                 (U.S.A.)
    BITFTP@PUCC                             (BITNET only)
    [e-mail]                   (Australia)
    [e-mail]              (European users only)
    [e-mail]                        (Germany)
    [e-mail]            (Germany)
    [e-mail]                (United Kingdom)
    [e-mail]                    (Poland)
    [e-mail]                 (Taiwan)

In the TEXT of your message, put the word "HELP" for information.

These services will fetch the desired file from the FTP library, uuencode it
for email transfer and possibly split large files into several messages,
thus helping you around local restrictions on the size of incoming mail
messages.

Using FTP by email can be nice even for those with full Internet access, as
some FTP servers are heavily loaded and interactive response can be very
sluggish.  It makes sense not to waste time and connect charges in these
cases.

Note that FTP mail servers tend to be quite busy. Your reply may not arrive
for several hours, or days, depending on when and where you send your
request.  Also, some large files may be split into smaller pieces and
returned to you as multiple messages, and binary files may be uuencoded by
the sender.

Fax services weigh less than a portable printer
-----------------------------------------------
Many online services let you send electronic mail as fax messages. This is
an interesting feature when in that far away place without a printer. Send
the draft contract or other texts to your hotel's fax machine or to your
client's office to get a printout on paper.

For more about how to send (and receive) faxes, check "How can I send a fax
from the Internet?" at http://www.northcoast.com/~savetz/fax-faq.html.

Free telephone calls
--------------------
Anyone can make free telephone calls through the Internet. All it takes is
a computer having the right phone software, a sound card, loudspeaker, and
microphone installed. If your Internet connection is good, then the sound
quality will be comparable to a regular phone call.

For instructions about how to get started, get a copy of the text "FAQ: How
can I use the Internet as a telephone?" from this World Wide Web address:
http://www.northcoast.com/~savetz/voice-faq.html.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 13: Cheaper and better communication
============================================

    Packet data services and data transportation services like
    Tymnet Outdial, Infonet, and PC Pursuit may help keep costs
    down. Using the Internet may be even cheaper.

    Hints about reducing the cost of using the World Wide Web
    and mailing lists.

Many users access online services by calling them directly. Some even do it
by long distance calls to other cities and countries. The result is often
inferior transmission quality. The longer the distance of your call, the
higher the chance that noise characters will degrade your data.

Long distance may still be preferred for some applications. One example: A
local Internet provider has a very lousy connection to the rest of the
Norwegian network. Anything but reading Web pages on their server goes far
too slowly for my taste. In contrast, I normally receive the Web pages two
to three times faster by calling long distance to an Internet provider in
Oslo. Therefore, this is my favorite choice when working under time-pressure.

Where long-distance communication is unreliable, the ability to link a
local call with an international online network may also be liberating.

Others investigate alternative routings for their data. One option is the
packet data networks. Most countries have Public Data Networks (PDNs)
operated by local telecommunications authorities. These services are
usually cheaper than direct calls for some applications, but often more
expensive than using the other options mentioned in this chapter.

Another option is to use networks having special deals with your online
service. For example, CompuServe has deals with networks like WORLD-
Connect, SprintNet, and VNZ-Connect, to name a few.

"CompuServe!" you protest. "I just want Internet." The interesting thing
is that CompuServe lets you connect to the Internet. You can even use your
Netscape and Eudora mail program through them. In some countries, it may
even be cheaper to use CompuServe as your Internet provider.

For retrieving Web pages from the United States, CompuServe's home country,
this service excels. So far, no local Norwegian Internet providers have
been able to provide me with http://www.simtel.net/simtel.net/presno/bok/
at the same blitzing speed. The situation may be the same in your country.

There are also other global networks worthy of investigation. Include The
IBM Global Network, The Microsoft Network (MSN), and America Online on
your list. (See Appendix 1 for links.)

Using Packet Data Networks
--------------------------
Before you can use a packet data network, you must get a "Network User
Identification" (NUI) from the PDN carrier. You must also know the Network
User Address (NUA) of the hosts you want to access.

In Scandinavia, the local PDNs are called Datapak. In China, it is called
CNPAC (or CHINAPAC). PDNs can be accessed by direct local calls or through
leased lines. To personal users, direct calls are least expensive. A leased
line may be cost efficient when the daily volume is high, like in a
company.

When you communicate with online services through a PDN, the latter will
split your data and bundle it in standard envelopes or 'packets'.

Each packet is marked with a code and sent out into the data stream. Based
on this code, the packet is routed from computer center to computer center
until it reaches its final destination. There, the information will be
reassembled into its original form before being handed over to a user or
online service.

It is almost like traveling by train. The price per packet or traveler is
lower than what it costs to rent the whole train for your trip.

National telecommunications monopolies were the first to offer packet data
services. Their rates were moderately lower than for long distance calls,
but it was hard to find the relationship between real costs and prices.
This is still the situation in several countries.

Throughout the world, efforts to privatize nationwide phone networks
continue. In many countries, this has given us some interesting competitors
offering attractive rates for similar services.

Rates differ considerably from country to country, as does the quality of
transmissions. The advantage of using packet data also varies considerably,
by application and by country. The best routing for retrieval of online
news may be impossibly expensive for chats or complex online jobs.

We can offer no hard rules of thumb, except this:

         Compare rates regularly!

What is cheapest?
-----------------
Some networks and access providers charge by the year, month or hour, while
others charge by volume (number of characters transferred per minute).

A reasonable fixed rate per year is always your best option, but you may
not be able to find such offerings in your area.

When your transmitted volume of data is low, as is the case with chats, your
best bet is to use services with a low price per minute and high prices for
volume. However, it usually makes a lot of sense to avoid services charging
for volume!

When volume is high, your best bet is to use services charging by the
minute.

To estimate costs reliably, you need statistics. Since your usage is likely
to differ from what others do, start gather experience data now. Like this:

    On services only charging for connect time
    ------------------------------------------
    Capture trip information to a log file. Register the following
    information:
    * number of minutes connected
    * modem speed
    * number of characters sent.
    Some communication programs can do this automatically for you.

    On services charging for time and volume
    ----------------------------------------
    Log the following information:
    * number of minutes connected
    * modem speed
    * number of segments or packets (measurements of volume)

You need these numbers to estimate the average volume of data transferred
by minute. Here are some general experiences and hints:

Long streams of data without stops are cheaper through services that only
charge by the minute. Retrieving software is a typical high volume
application.

Trips that include navigation from conference to conference, with a little
bit of up- and downloading here and there, make the average transfer speed
fall dramatically. Surfing the World Wide Web is usually in the same class.
It's like driving through a big city at 150 kilometers per hour. Red lights
will considerably reduce your average speed.

The actual transferred volume of text per minute will differ from place to
place (geographically), and often also from call to call. It depends on
factors like:

    * How fast you can enter commands and how much time you spend
      staring at the display before pressing keys,
    * How long it takes for an online service to react to your
      commands. For example, the response time on CompuServe at
      04:00 GMT on a Friday morning (it is evening in the U.S.)
      is much worse than at 10:30 GMT on a Sunday morning. At this
      time, most North American users are asleep.
    * The load on your packet data network while you use the
      service (or the amount of noise and retransmission, when
      calling direct),
    * The type of modem you are using (speed, compression level),
    * The number of commands you (or your scripts) have to enter
      during your online visit. An increase in the number of
      commands reduces the average transfer speed.
    * The amount of transfer overhead for color and screen handling
      (like, VT-100 or html codes) that is transferred with your text.
    * Your use of menus and help texts while online, or whether
      you come as "expert" with a minimum of prompts.
    * Whether your browser is set to capture all pictures and sound
      files that it comes across, or just the text.

It is impossible to calculate the practical effects of these items. You
will just have to bear them in mind when estimating typical jobs, measuring
speeds, calculating costs, and comparing networks.

Finding the optimal network for your needs will take time, but it is well
worth the effort. Expect the figures to surprise you.

The network services in this chapter will often give you better quality
transfers than a direct call. On the other hand, calling direct may give
more characters transferred per minute. The average speed may drop
dramatically when using packet data services.

The cost of using PDN services
------------------------------
Most commercial online services can be reached through national PDNs, but
you may have problems finding the correct NUA (Network User Address) to get
there. Your PDN may not have a directory of available "electronic telephone
numbers" for you to consult.

The Norwegian PDN, Datapak, used to be my only alternative for access to
foreign online services. At the time, I thought the cost was acceptable.
Not so any more.

My applications require that data be pumped back and forth at maximum
speed. On network services charging by a combination of volume and time,
80 percent of my costs are typically for volume, while 20 percent is for
connect time.

When I logged out after a successful visit to CompuServe through Datapak,
the two services gave similar reports:

  Thank you for using CompuServe!

  Off at 10:11 EST 24-Nov-87
  Connect time = 0:15

  CLR PAD  (00) 00:00:14:55 537 75

The last line were from Datapak. It tells that I had received 537 segments
and sent 75.

The "Segment" is Datapak's volume measure. Their segments contained up to
sixty-four characters and/or carriage returns. The price is calculated
accordingly.

At today's prices, Datapak is no longer my cheapest alternative even when
calling CompuServe for chats. It is much cheaper to use the Internet telnet
command through a local access provider. Then, the lack of speed matters
less as I do not have to pay for volume.

The slower your modem speed, the more attractive is Datapak compared with
direct calls.

To get access to a national PDN, you must have a user identification and a
password. Getting temporary access to PDN services while traveling abroad
is often hard and expensive. You're better off using some of the other
global networks as your "roaming" service.

  | Note: If you have access to a national PDN, but need        |
  | information about PDNs in other countries, try Hostess, the |
  | Global Network Service's information service from British   |
  | Telecom in England. The NUA is 02342 1920101013 (02342 is   |
  | the Data Network Identifier Code section of the address.)   |
  | User name or password is not required to use this service.  |

Outdial services
----------------
SprintNet lets American users call bulletin boards in North America at
lower rates through their PC Pursuit service. For a modest subscription
rate they can call a local access number. Once connected, they enter an
electronic phone-number to connect to a so-called 'outdial modem' in
another city.

Once connected to the outdial modem, they can enter dialing commands and
have it call any local number. They can use PC Pursuit to call an online
service in the area, or the private modem of a friend.

We call PC Pursuit an Outdial service. Such services normally offer lower
rates for access to remote bulletin boards than what it costs to call by
long distance. Besides, they reduce the chances for noise on the line.

i-Com offers outdial to North American online services by reselling
capacity from Tymnet's network. They market their services in Europe and
Japan and have local access in many large cities.

In the United States, Galaxy Telecomm Corp. offers a similar service under
the name Starlink.

Cheaper access to CompuServe
----------------------------
Wherever CompuServe has local access points, you will probably be better
off using these. No special agreement is required. Your CompuServe ID is
all you need. The cost of using these services will appear on your
CompuServe bill.

If you have access to Internet's telnet command, then this is an option
well worth checking out.

CompuServe has special deals with a list of network services, like
InfoNet, Istel, FALNET, FENICS, CompuPass, LATA Networks, Tymnet/Sprintnet.
Enter the command GO PHONES on CompuServe for access information, and GO
RATES for rates.

I have used CompuPass from Japan, CompuServe's own network in Brazil,
Europe and the United States, Istel, InfoNet, and PDN services throughout
Europe. Most of the time my application is Internet mail.

  | You can forward your Internet mail to CompuServe by entering  |
  | the following command at your access provider's Unix prompt:  |
  |                                                               |
  |       echo "[e-mail]" >~/.forward            |
  |                                                               |
  | Make sure you're in your home directory when entering the     |
  | command, and replace the fake CompuServe address above with   |
  | your own.                                                     |
  |                                                               |
  | When you return home, use this command to cancel the forward  |
  | instruction:                                                  |
  |                                                               |
  |       rm ~/.forward).                                         |
  |                                                               |
  | You can also use this trick to forward your mail to other     |
  | Internet hosts.                                               |

When at home, I usually use CompuServe's 28,800 bps node in Oslo, Norway.
Datapak is never considered. It is too expensive. CompuServe's nodes in
Stockholm and Copenhagen are my backups.

  | Whenever CompuServe opens a new node in your vicinity, or     |
  | upgrades the modem speed on one of their nodes, look at the   |
  | effects on your total costs.                                  |
  |                                                               |
  | Use software for automatic access and navigation (like TAPCIS,|
  | OzCIS, or ATO). They give higher volume per minute and make   |
  | your accesses even more cost efficient.                       |

Before leaving for a business trip, visit CompuServe to find local access
numbers in your destination cities. The list of countries includes
Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Holland, Peru, South Africa, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, England, and many more.

FidoNet - grassroots playground
-------------------------------
FidoNet is an amateur network consisting of tens of thousands of bulletin
boards all over the world. The network is "loosely coupled," meaning that
most of the participating boards are not always connected. They call each
others at regular intervals to exchange mail, often in the middle of the
night when the rates are low. (See Appendix 1)

Other grassroots networks
-------------------------
It doesn't take much to set up a bulletin board service, and it is as easy
to connect BBS systems to each other in a dial-up network for regular
exchanges of email, files and conferences.

All over the world, grassroots networks keep popping up with names like
ILINK, AmNet, Suedd MB-Verbund, Starmail, MagicNet, A-NET, MausNet,
Zerberus-Netz, SMBX-NET, BASA-NETZ, you name it.

Many boards offer access to more than one grassroots network, and also to
the Internet. Thus, the ability to send global email is extended to new
users every day.

RelayNet is one of these global network of bulletin boards. It offers
exchange of email between systems. Messages and conference items entered on
one system will automatically be copied to other participating boards. Your
costs for "talking" with others in other parts of the world are very small.

Reducing the cost of using the Web
----------------------------------
There are so many things that you can do to reduce your Web payments, and
pointers to them are given throughout the handbook:

  * Retrieve Web pages by electronic mail (see "The World Wide Web by
    email" in Chapter 12).

  * Leave the graphics behind and travel the Web at much higher speeds.
    To set it: In Netscape, click on Options, Autoload Image, and Save
    Options. In Mosaic, select Options, Display Inline, and Images. Then
    save your setup by clicking on File, and Save Preferences.

  * Use Lynx from your provider's Unix prompt to read Web pages where
    graphics don't matter. (See Appendix 6.)

Then there's the issue of offline preparation. What else would you expect
here than a plug for having the handbook on your hard disk? Registered
readers can retrieve the html version after each update as one compressed
file. Information at http://login.eunet.no/~presno/bok/mirrors.html.

Decompress the transportation file, and store it in a directory of choice on
your hard disk. Netscape users can click on File, and then Open File...
Open the location of the handbook's index file (index.html), and add it to
your browser's Bookmarks for easy access.

Retrieve a copy of the Lookfor shareware program from the page referenced
above, and use it to locate interesting Web pages.

Quick capture, read offline.
Netscape uses a special cache directory for temporary storage of files. It
is set by clicking on Options, Preferences, Cache and Network. I use a 600
KB Memory Cache, and a 1500 KB Disk cache.

Whatever files are received from the Internet are stored in this cache.
They will probably remain there until specifically removed (deleted), --
even after leaving Windows. Therefore, unless you use the "Clear Disk Cache
now" option on the Setup menu regularly, you can read them offline.

Everything is there. This means that you can go online, get the pages, log
out, and read the pages as local files off your cache directory.

The cumbersome method is to use your browser for the job. There are many
shareware programs out there that will help you do it better. Cache Master
is my current favorite. You may find it on Simtel.Net and it's mirrors. My
version was retrieved as cm213.zip from the /win3/inet directory, as in
http://www.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/win3/inet/. However, expect the file
to have a different file name now.

Cache Master will convert your cache files so you can use them easily
offline with browsers like Netscape. It even lets you string search the
contents of your files.

Reducing the cost of using mailing lists
----------------------------------------
The problem of subscribing to mailing lists is that all discussion items
come to you in individual messages. Each message comes with its own mailer
header, and this information is generally completely useless. (Read
"Returned mail" in Chapter 7 for details.)

Newer versions of the BITNET LISTSERV software provide commands that solve
this problem:

    SET <list name> DIGEST
    ----------------------
    This command is sent to a LISTSERV to make all daily messages
    come to you in one, single message. Example: Say you've joined
    [e-mail], which usually has many messages each
    day. Send the following command to the LISTSERV:

    SET KIDLEADER DIGEST

    It will typically reduce the number of lines received from this
    mailing list by around 50 percent.


    SET <list name> INDEX
    ---------------------
    This command is sent to a LISTSERV to get a daily list of
    messages, like in this example from KIDLEADER:

    Index Date  Size Poster and subject
    ----- ----  ---- ------------------
    22839 06/22   26 From:    David Chalmers
                              <[e-mail]>
                     Subject: Conor Dublin Ireland

    Based on this list, you can use the LISTSERV's search commands
    to retrieve individual messages of interest. These commands are
    similar to those used for searching in Chapter 7.

    For more about searching mailing lists' message bases, send a
    message to [e-mail] with the following
    command in the text of your mail:

    GET KIDLINK.TIPS

    Some LISTSERVs offers simplified search commands and macros
    to make retrieval of individual messages simpler.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 14: Keep what you find
==============================


    Little is gained by being skillful at
    locating and accumulating information,
    and then becoming drowned
                  in an avalanche of data
    that one cannot manage       - or use.

This chapter starts with how to handle retrieved information, and build a
personal database on your own hard disk. We continue by investigating
strategies for finding interesting information on own your disk, before
winding down with some words about what separates good information from
bad.

Search and throw away
---------------------
To novices, everything is difficult. During their first trips online, they
may feel as if they were moving to get established on the other side of the
globe. There, they would encounter other newspapers, magazines, information
sources, and services. It sure takes time to find your way around in a new
environment.

Trial and error are necessary to find online gold mines. However, as you
get more experience, focus tends to shift from getting information to
digesting.

Once retrieving the data has gotten 'into your fingers', it will not bother
much anymore. The bad news is that your reading speed remains at the same
old level, while the amount of retrieved data grows.

In our time, people tend to talk more than they listen, and you usually
find more information than knowledge. Therefore, say NO to irrelevant
information! It is rarely worth keeping.

There is no good reason to learn things that you really do not need to
know. Practice "selective ignorance."

Regularly rate your online sources critically, and discard those costing
you more than they are worth. Concentrate on those giving the best returns.

Adjust the frequency with which you visit selected services to match their
usefulness. What used to be daily visits, may have to be downgraded to once
per week or month. Consider replacing daily news monitoring by clipping
services.

Digging for 'overview'
----------------------
Plan 'overview' and 'digging for details' with different frequencies.
'Overview' refers to online trips made to get an impression of what
generally goes on. An example:

Using Agora World Wide Web by email servers, it is easy to request a list
of articles from Usenet newsgroups at preset intervals. For example, email
programs like Eudora Pro let you have the same message scheduled to be sent
at a certain time and date every month. The trick is explained in Chapter
12 under Usenet by email.

Say you want to monitor what goes on in the alt.winsock newsgroup on a
monthly basis. Prepare a monthly message containing the following:

  To: [e-mail]
  Cc:
  Subject:
  Text: send news:alt.winsock

Each 30 days, you should now receive a mail giving you a list of topics
discussed in the newsgroup. It would look something like this:

  Date: Mon, 16 Sep 1996 05:38:57 -0500 (CDT)
  From: UT-LANIC WWW Mail Service <[e-mail]>
  Subject: Document requested (was:  ) (URL: news:alt.winsock)

                          Newsgroup alt.winsock,  Articles 86509-86528
   (Earlier articles[1]...) Articles in alt.winsock

 "Re:Error Code 16"- Phil Joy[2]
 "Re: Netscape Mail"- Schaft[3]
 "Re: OFFLINE NEWSGROUP READER ??"- djl[4]
 "Re: OFFLINE NEWSGROUP READER ??"- Matthew McDonald[5]
 "Re: OFFLINE NEWSGROUP READER ??"- Derek Woodlands[6]
 "Re: OFFLINE NEWSGROUP READER ??"- Matthew McDonald[7]
 "Re: AOL coexistence, mcs.support"- Leonard Grossman[8]
 "Re: Netscape Mail"- David Woolley[9]
 "MAKE 50 K IN 1 MONTH"- The One[10]
 "Re: OFFLINE NEWSGROUP READER ??"- Melanie Ley[11]
 "Re: *** ANNOUNCE: new W95 FTP beta ***"- David Cougle[12]
 "Re: Win 95 FTP Server"- David Cougle[13]
 "selecting multiple items with mouse instead of ctrl"- David Cougle[14]
 "Re: Win 95 FTP Server"- Alun Jones[15]
 "free agent purge thinger"- David Cougle[16]
 "help"- [e-mail][17]
 "Re: Win 95 FTP Server"- David Cougle[18]
 "Re: AOL coexistence, mcs.support"- Randy Hubbard[19]
 "Upgrading win95 winsock"- boomer[20]
 "I have no idea what i'm doing"- [e-mail][21]

   ___________________________________
   Post to alt.winsock[22]

 *** References from this document ***
 [orig] news:alt.winsock
 [1] news:alt.winsock/86489-86508
 [2] news:51g25t$[e-mail]
 [3] news:51g24d$[e-mail]
 [4] news:[e-mail]
 [5] news:[e-mail]
 [6] news:[e-mail]
 [7] news:[e-mail]
 [8] news:51gtbh$[e-mail]
 [9] news:[e-mail]
 [10] news:[e-mail]
 [11] news:[e-mail]
 [12] news:51hltp$[e-mail]
 [13] news:51hls1$[e-mail]
 [14] news:51i3gi$[e-mail]
 [15] news:51i7iu$[e-mail]
 [16] news:51i6n2$[e-mail]
 [17] news:[e-mail]
 [18] news:51i8km$[e-mail]
 [19] news:[e-mail]
 [20] news:[e-mail]
 [21] news:51imni$[e-mail]
 [22] newspost:alt.winsock

Browsing the index will give you an idea about what's on the members minds
for the moment. If you like, you can also request individual articles from
the list.

Say you want to check out the topic "OFFLINE NEWSGROUP READER ??" To do
so, send a mail to the Agora server containing the following commands:

 send news:[e-mail]
 send news:[e-mail]
 send news:[e-mail]
 send news:[e-mail]

Note: Some Agora servers let you send for these articles by returning item
numbers rather than the full addresses.

One of these articles came back with the following text (abbreviated):

  Subject: (URL: news:[e-mail])

                     Reply to  [e-mail] (Matthew McDonald)[1]

                   RE: OFFLINE NEWSGROUP READER ??

                                         Sun, 15 Sep 1996 12:27:59 GMT

  [e-mail] (Derek Woodlands) wrote:

  >On Fri, 13 Sep 1996 22:11:37 GMT, [e-mail] (Jacob
  >Proffitt) wrote:
  >
  >>> I'm really pleased with Agent, the commercial version of Free Agent.
  >>>FA is also a good app, and it is free.  8-))
  >>
  >>I agree.  Free Agent is a good way to get a feel for it, too.
  >
  >Except that it doesn't handle MIME.  Nor does Agent .99  ;-(
  >
  The next release of Agent, due any time now will support MIME..

  Regards
  Matthew

The message also contained 14 references to the other articles in the topic
thread, to the author, and other newsgroups where the message had appeared.

  | Several communication programs and offline readers have built- |
  | in quick scan features. For example, TAPCIS does this in       |
  | CompuServe forums.                                             |
  |                                                                |
  | When retrieving conference messages from bulletin boards using |
  | 1stReader at high speed, then the cost of retrieving all new   |
  | items may be insignificant. You might just as well do it.      |
  |                                                                |
  | When reading captured mail, 1stReader lets you select messages |
  | to read from a list of subjects. You can save what you want to |
  | keep, and delete the rest.                                     |

By regular scanning subject headers, you reduce the risk of missing
important trends, for example because authors were using other terms on
the subject line than you expected.

Scanning also lets us discover if the discussion is heading off in other,
interesting directions.

After a while, you'll have a set of sources, persons, and tools that will
provide you with what you need. This is your personal infrastructure of
electronic information. Now, you must maintain and cultivate it.

Chapter 12 contains hints about how to search World Wide Web indexes like
Lycos and Alta Vista by email. Use this method to regularly check what is
being said about yourself, your company, a technology, a hobby, whatever.

Filtering incoming information
------------------------------
Chances are that you will retrieve more information than you can read.
Sometimes it takes weeks or even months for me to get up to date with all
my electronic readings.

Several email programs can automatically filter retrieved information in
folders, for example based on information found in the From or To-line of
incoming mail. This feature is very helpful!

Example: I get a lot of mail. Upon receipt, messages are automatically
filtered into the following groups (folders):

    Urgent mail  - All mail coming from a predefined list of
                   senders.
    General mail - All mail that was not captured by my filtering
                   commands.
    Kidlink      - Selected conference mail from a defined list of
                   Kidlink mailing lists.
    Errors       - Error messages received by mailing lists that
                   I manage (the TOW announcement list for readers of
                   the Online World handbook is one of these lists. At
                   [e-mail] ).
    Browse       - Information that is less time critical, and that it
                   is sufficient to browse for interesting information.
    Read         - Information that I want to read once I get the
                   time. (If I don't get the time, it still there on
                   my disk until deleted, and I can therefore search
                   it's contents.)
    Outgoing     - Archive of all sent mail.

Periodically, my life is so hectic that I just have time for my Urgent
mail. Whenever this happens, it is very useful to have them filtered out
and stored in one place.

Post-processing the data
-------------------------
Your data capture is completed, and the retrieved data is stored on the
hard disk in more or several files. Your next task is to

    * Read the received material.
    * Cut and paste selected parts to archives or work files.
    * Prepare responses to electronic mail.
    * When done, delete all temporary files.

Some people just delete all mail they don't want, and let the rest remain
intact in their original folders. Most mail folders are easy to search with
tools like Lookfor (see below), so this may be a good solution for them.

Personally, I get too much mail for that. When I read my it, my preferred
method is to cut out what I need, and store the texts without the lengthy
mailer headers in a more systematic way. I do this to reduce disk storage
requirements, and speed up searches.

My mail is stored in files and directories using names that show the source
of the information. This makes it quick to find where to search. A set of
macro commands make cutting and appending mail easy.

Often, I use the year, or a month/year code, in the file name extension.
For example, the file TOW.96 contains messages retrieved from the TOW
mailing list during 1996.

Some advanced email programs have these features built in. You may also use
your favorite word processor, or something else. There are several
alternatives. Personally, I use the LIST utility in my system.

LIST is my favorite MS-DOS shareware file viewer program. You can retrieve
it from the Internet, and most bulletin boards. Using LIST, it is difficult
to destroy your precious retrieved data while reading, cutting and pasting.

  | MORE ABOUT LIST:                                                |
  | Assume that you want to postprocess Eudora's IN.MBX file, and   |
  | that you are using the file name convention suggested above.    |
  | Type LIST and press ENTER. A list of file names in your Eudora  |
  | directory will appear on your screen.  Press S to sort the list,|
  | D to have them sorted by creation date. The newest files are    |
  | at the bottom of the list.                                      |
  |     Move the cursor (using the Arrow keys) to the input file    |
  | you want to read, and press ENTER. Scroll up and down in IN.MBX |
  | by pressing the PgUp/PgDn or the arrow keys.                    |
  |     On your screen is a piece of information that you want to   |
  | keep for future reference. Mark the text with ALT-M commands    |
  | (keep the ALT key pressed down, while pressing M), and then     |
  | ALT-D. LIST will ask you for a file name. If the information    |
  | is from the TOW mailing list, and the year is 1996, enter       |
  | TOW.96, and the text is appended to what is already there.      |
  |     This method allows you quickly to mark and append parts     |
  | of your input file to various archive files. Press ESC to       |
  | return to the file list when through. If you press D, LIST asks |
  | if you really want to delete the file. Press Y, and IN.MBX is   |
  | gone. - However, you'd better use Eudora for deleting mail!     |
  |     LIST lets you find information stored in your archives      |
  | (string search). What you find can be marked and copied to a    |
  | work file. It can also be set to invoke an editor or a word     |
  | processor for the selected file.                                |

Reuse of data on your hard disk
-------------------------------
Over time your personal archives will grow in size. You begin to experience
the benefits of having all this information on your hard disk. Yesterday's
news is today's history, and may be used in interesting ways.

One business executive regularly monitors key technologies, customers,
competitors, and suppliers. He does it by tapping sources like KOMPASS,
Associated Press, and Reuters. Interesting bits of information are
regularly stored on his disk.

Tomorrow, there is an important meeting with a major customer. First, a
quick search through the personal customer database to be reminded of
important events since the last meeting. An unfamiliar person is also going
to be present. Maybe there is some background information, for example
about a recent promotion.

Next, a quick check on major competitors. Maybe they are up to something
that he needs to know about.

With efficient tools for searching your hard disk, finding information
takes only a few seconds. If you are still left with questions, go online
to complement.

On MS-DOS/Windows computers, you can search your files with WordPerfect,
Word, LIST, the DOS utility FIND, and a long list of other programs. I
prefer programs that let me search for more than one word at the time, like
in HYDRO AND PETROCHEMICAL AND CONTRACT, or EXXON OR MOBIL.

  | MY FAVORITE search utility is the Lookfor shareware program.   |
  | This MS-DOS program is small, fast, and is superior for        |
  | searches in text files. You can store your finds in work files,|
  | or print them out on paper. LOOKFOR is not an indexing program.|
  | It is ready to search anywhere, anytime.                       |
  | Retrieve it at http://login.eunet.no/~presno/bok/lookfr50.zip  |

Discipline and organization is required to get the most out of your file
archives. You must decide what to do with each piece of information: Should
it be printed out and be read in front of the fireplace in the evening, or
should it be circulated? Should it be stored on your disk, or be refined
before storage?

Use standard file names that are easy to remember. If not, risk having to
view files to find out what they contain.

It may take longer to find a piece of information in a casual file on a
large disk, than look up a piece of information on paper in your inbox.
Therefore, finish handling your capture file while you read it on your
screen:

Send the pieces to their final destination. Make immediate transfers to
TO-DO files. Give the original file a name that makes it easier to move
later. Have a procedure that prevents duplication of effort.

Desinformation, deception and errors
------------------------------------
Always use several sources of information. Some people write to lead you
astray.  The online world exposed some interesting incidents that came out
of the former Soviet Union before the attempted coup in 1991.

Desinformation hurts everybody and comes from all sides. Even professional
news agencies, like Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse,
regularly stumble.

Most news is written by journalists reporting what they have seen, read or
heard. Their interpretation of the situation may be wrong. Supplement your
news with what knowledgeable people say (by email or in conferences), when
knowing the facts is important.

Another hint: Errors will occasionally be discovered and reported by the
news sources, but always after the fact. Always store these reports in
your archives, and make it a rule to search to the end when looking for
something. Otherwise, you may never discover the corrections.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 15: You pay little for a lot!
=====================================


Calculating costs
-----------------
Some years ago, those living in Norway could read up to twenty-six pages of
news from Associated Press (the US) and Financial Times (England) for
around US$0.38. Today, they can do it for much less.

In those days, the trick was to dial long distance to a 9600 bps node in
Sweden when the telephone company and CompuServe's non-prime time rates
were in effect. Today, it may be cheaper to use the Internet.

9600 bps lets you transfer text at up to 960 characters per second. One
page of text (size A-4) holds around 2200 characters. A typical news story
has one to two pages of text.

  | Users watching the 'taximeter' can use online services at a  |
  | very low cost. For many, global communication is almost free.|

At the time, reading exactly the same news through another network or
service, would cost up to 300 percent more. Through yet another online
service, the cost would double again. Today, large quantities of news can
be had for free.

A full issue of the Newsbytes newsletter was at around 150,000 characters,
or 68 pages of text. Retrieving it from a local BBS used to cost me around
29 cents. Retrieving it from CompuServe used to cost 500 percent more. On
NewsNet, at 2400 bps through Datapak, the cost increased by another
US$30.00.

The time of day was also important. Some services had different rates for
access during the day, the evening, and the weekend. In addition, it could
take much longer when network traffic was high.

This is still the situation for users in many countries, while others are
having an almost free ride through the Internet. If it's free, then this
chapter may not be for you. If it costs, use your calculator often.

When you pay by the minute
--------------------------
When using free bulletin boards, phone charges are often the only cost
items.

Some Internet providers and bulletin boards require a subscription fee for
full access. Still, it is easy to calculate the costs of your calls. Divide
the subscription fee by an estimated number of calls, and add to the cost
of using your phone.

The same applies to users of CompuServe when the Alternative Pricing plan
is in effect. Their total cost is simply the sum of all connect charges,
network charges (to CompuServe and others), part of the basic subscription
fee, and local phone rates (for direct dialing to the service, or to reach
the network's node).

Where a service uses a monthly subscription rate, add part of this to the
time charges. Distribute the rate using an estimated number of online hours
per month.

    Example:
    You pay US$30/hour to access a service during prime time. Your
    modem speed is 240 cps.

    Theoretically, if the data flows without pauses at system
    prompts, you can transfer 392 pages of text in one hour.
    Even when you deduct some characters due to stops in the
    transfer, the resulting transferred volume remains respectable.

    To transfer one page of text takes around nine seconds (2200
    characters divided by the speed, 2400 bps, or about 240
    characters per second). The cost is nine cents.

    A given binary file (a program) is 23552 bytes large. Using the
    XMODEM protocol, you can transfer it in about four minutes and
    thirteen seconds. The cost is US$2.10. To find the cost when
    paying by the minute is simple. Just calculate the cost per
    minute or second, and multiply by the estimated connect time.

    On many services, it will take a minute or two before you can
    start to receive text or files. Disconnecting also takes a few
    seconds. Add this to the connect time when calculating costs.

    The principle is the same for modem speeds at 28.800 bps or
    14.400 bps, only the cost may be considerably less.

Pauses and delays in the transfer can be caused by you or others, and may
have a dramatic impact. It is particularly important to take this into
account when comparing alternatives using different networks.

    Example: Transfers to TWICS via Datapak at 9600 bps rarely
    gave me higher effective speeds than 100 cps in the old days.
    The reason was that the connection between the Japanese telcom
    network and TWICS went through a 1200 bps gateway.

    A high speed connection to your data transporter's network does
    not guarantee a high speed connection to the remote computer.

    I used to go through Datapak at 9600 bps to a computer center
    in Oslo. There, I was connected through a local area network to
    the host computer. The effective speed was rarely higher than
    4800 bps. Calling direct gave twice the speed.

    Today, I connect to a local Internet provider at 28,800 bps,
    but still data from some remote Web servers crawl towards me
    at speeds as low as 250 bps. Using an ISDN line would not
    give me the data noticeably faster. Bottlenecks en route from
    the source determine the effective speed.

    If the remote Web server is in the United States, then Norwegians
    may even find it faster and cheaper to connect through a foreign
    network like CompuServe.

Try measure the effective transfer speed before selecting a routing for
your data. Transfer the same amount of text through various networks.

If future transfers are likely to take place at a given time of day, test
at that time. If your planned application is retrieval of programs,
retrieve programs. If you want to read news, then read news from the
services that you want to compare.

When a network service charging for volume (like Datapak) is part of a
comparison, measuring volume is particularly important. Do not assume to
know the answer in advance.

  | Always calculate the cost based on a fixed volume, like for|
  | transfer of 1000 characters. This is particularly important    |
  | when you must use different modem speeds to access competing|
  | services!  |

Network load varies considerably throughout the day depending on the number
of simultaneous users, and their applications. This also applies to online
services. The load is normally lowest, when most users are asleep, and
during weekends. When the load is low, you get more done per minute.

Planning and self-discipline pays off
-------------------------------------
The actual cost of using a given set of services depends much on your
self-discipline, the tools you use, and on how well prepared you are:

    * If accessing manually, use "quick" commands rather than menus
      to move at maximum speed to desired sources of information.

    * On the Web, let your browser's bookmark feature take you
      directly to the desired page rather than going down from a
      home page.

    * Do not set your services to be used with colors, sound, or
      special methods for displaying graphics, unless you have no
      choice, or are willing to pay the extra cost. They increase
      the volume of transferred text, and lower effective speed.

      Experienced Web users disable receipt of images to reduce
      the volume of data. Later, all it takes is to click at
      "Reload Images" to get images you absolutely want to see.

      If your primary interest in the Web is text, then test out
      Lynx, if available (see Appendix 6). No windows based
      graphical browser can match its speed.

    * Get the information and disconnect. It is often unnecessary
      to read while online. Log off to read. Call back for more to
      read, disconnect, and then call back again.

      Most popular Web browsers store received pages and images
      temporarily in a cache on your hard disk. For example,
      Netscape stores them in the \NETSCAPE\CACHE directory by
      default. Internet's shareware libraries have many tools
      designed to let you read and use these pages after your
      online visit. Look for programs with names like Cache
      Master and WebSaver.

    * Learn how to write your mail offline, and send the letters
      "in a batch" to your mailbox. Your messages will often have
      fewer typing errors, be better thought out, and the cost
      will be considerably lower.

    * Consider automating your communication (see Chapter 16).
      I use a local BBS this way. A while ago, it gave me the
      following progress report: "Time on: 17 hrs 43 min, today 0
      hrs 0 min, total 827 times." In average, I spend around 1.3
      minutes per call. The other day, I was connected for 2:48
      minutes. The result was 106 kilobytes' worth of conference
      mail.

Modem speed and cost
--------------------
2400 bps is a sensible modem speed for some applications, and used to be a
good starting point for new onliners. The benefits of using a faster modem
may be marginal when

    * your network does not offer higher speeds.
    * navigating your favorite service considerably reduces the
      effective speed, and you access the service manually.
    * you pay considerably more for access at higher speed.
    * the relative price of a faster modem in your country
      is prohibitive.

On the other hand, a modem doing 14400 bps or more, will give you six times
faster communication. If doing things faster is more important than keeping
costs down, then this is a wise investment. This is the case for me. Besides,
often it is cheaper.

  | If you plan to use the World Wide Web with a graphical browser,
  | then anything slower than 14.400 bits/s will be too slow. You can
  | technically do things with a slower speed, but it is frustrating.

Your applications have a considerable impact on your costs. If you mainly
use your modem for retrieval of programs and large data files from bulletin
boards - and do not have to pay extra for volume - then higher modem speeds
will immediately give reduced costs.

A slower speed modem may also stop you from getting what you want. For
example, there are several shareware programs on my board that users of
2400 bps modems are unable to download within their allotted 30 minutes per
day.

When you pay for volume
-----------------------
Some network services, like Datapak in Norway, have high rates for volume,
and very low rates for connect time. When using such services, automatic
communication becomes less useful. Rather than connecting, getting a piece
of information, disconnecting, and then going back for more, you may find
it cost efficient to review menus and results while online.

When paying for volume, or per minute connected, the online service's menus
become luxury items. Using quick commands for navigating is cheaper. The
best is to use a program for fully automatic access.

Your comparisons will never be accurate when comparing with services
charging for connect time. It is particularly difficult when the measure of
volume is 'packets' rather than 'number of characters transferred'.

Datapak and many other PDN services reports your sessions like this:

    CLR PAD  (00) 00:00:14:55 537 75

These numbers say that you have been connected to a service for 14 minutes
and 55 seconds, that 537 data 'packets' have been received, and that 75
have been sent. Use these figures to calculate the cost of the call.

  | One data 'packet' or segment contains up to 64 characters.     |
  | Think of it as a measure of the number of lines. Each line can |
  | have a maximum of 64 characters. If you send the character A   |
  | and a carriage return, then this also counts as a segment.     |
  |                                                                |
  | So, it is hard to use the Datapak record to estimate the real  |
  | number of characters transferred. All we know is that 537 + 75 |
  | segments were transferred, and that 612 segments may  contain  |
  | up to 39,168 characters.                                       |

When calculating the cost of a direct call, just the number of minutes
counts. Use the time reported by the online service, and not your stop
watch. CompuServe gives this type of report:

    Thank you for using CompuServe!

    Off at 10:11 EST 24-Nov-92
    Connect time = 0:15

If the size of your log file was 15 KB after the first test, and 11 KB
after the second, then just adjust the latter to compare (Actual
Cost/11*15). It is easy to compare services that only charge by the minute.

More practical hints
--------------------
It is more expensive to call a service daily "to check the news," than to
call it once per week to retrieve the same stories.

Navigating by menus is more expensive than going directly to a source, or
going there by stacking commands (that is, combining quick commands into
one).

Many services let you read selective items in conferences by entering a
search string. On my BBS, the following command

    r extended 100+ c

lets you read all messages containing the search string 'extended' in the
text starting with message number 100.

If you forget the "c" parameter, the flow will stop after each message.
This will reduce the average effective speed. Always use "nonstop" commands
when reading stories, conference items, and other texts.
    Now, read Chapter 16.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 16: Automatic communication
===================================

Automatic data communication as a development strategy.

    To get a lead on your competitors.
    To avoid duplication of effort.
    To reduce costs.
    To reduce boring and repetitive work.
    To avoid having to remember technical details.

Automatic communication is both for professionals and amateurs. First,
because it keeps the costs down. Second, because it lets you do the job
faster and safer. Sometimes, it is required to get a job done at all.

We all have different needs
---------------------------
Automation will never be the same for everybody. Our needs are too
different.

Some get excited when a program can dial a bulletin board, retrieve a
program, and then disconnect without them having to touch the keyboard.

Some want an "answering machine" that can respond to and forward email when
he or she is away from the office.

Others want a communications system that can tap selected news sources,
search databases, and do post-processing on the retrieved material.

For most professionals, doing things manually takes too much time. Time is
better spent reading, digesting, and using, rather than on stupid technical
retrieval work. Computers can do that.

To others again, automation is a question of being able to use the online
resource at all. If it takes 60 seconds to get a piece of information, it
may be possible to get before running for the next meeting.

If it takes 15 minutes, however, there may not be enough time. If you also
need to read a help text to find out how to do it, you may not even
consider it. The mind is full of other things right now.

  | When using a system for automatic communication, you do not |
  | have to learn and remember online commands. The system will |
  | do it for you.                                              |

The minimum solution
--------------------
Automatic data communication in its simplest form entails the following:

    * One keystroke to get the communications program to dial a
      number, and send user name/password when the online service
      requests this information.

    * Macro commands (like in a word processor) for navigating
      through an online service, searching, and to send complex
      commands by pressing one key.

Most communication programs have a macro language or a script language. You
will probably never regret time spent on learning how to use these
features. At a minimum, you should be able to have your system log on to a
service automatically.

Autologon spares you the task of remembering your user name and password.
Besides, most people are only able to use the keyboard at a low speed. They
easily get frustrated by having to correct typing errors.

Auto-logon to the Internet using Trumpet Winsock
------------------------------------------------
Trumpet Winsock is a popular program used to set up a TCP/IP protocol
connection with the Internet. It can dial up an Internet access provider,
logon, and set up a SLIP, PPP, or a pseudo-SLIP connection to the net using
The Internet Adapter (TIA).

You can use Trumpet by entering commands manually, but most users prefer to
let the program do it for them. This is achieved by having all commands in
a file called LOGIN.CMD. Trumpet reads this file when you click on Dialer,
Login, and then logon to your service as instructed.

We call LOGIN.CMD a script file. It is a text file that can contain a list
of commands for dialing and navigating on an online service. You can write
and edit it using Windows Notepad, DOS EDIT, or another utility that allows
you to save the file as DOS or ASCII text. (Most popular script languages
have the same requirement.)

Trumpet's scripts can contain commands that test for the occurrence of
small pieces of information sent by the access provider at given times
(like the prompt "Password?").

When this information is found, Trumpet can be set to send the proper
response or command (in this case, your secret password).

Let us look at a typical Trumpet LOGON.CMD file. Comments are written in
lines above the given commands preceded with a #.

  # The output command tells Trumpet to send text to the modem, in this
  # case "ATZ" to reset the modem. The "\13" refers to ascii character
  # number 13 (Return). The effect is the same as if you were typing
  # ATZ followed by a press on the Return key.

  output atz\13

  # The input command tells Trumpet to wait for the preceding string,
  # here for "OK" followed by "\n" (short hand for \10, the Line Feed
  # character).

  input 10 OK\n

  # The next 'output' command sends a modem setup string. Note that this
  # string is particular to my modem. You may well need other commands.
  # Also, note that the "\" character has a special function in Trumpet.
  # Therefore, AT commands like "AT\N5" must be written as "AT\\N5".

  output at&C1&d2\\V2\\N5W1S9=12S11=50\\K3\\Q2 &S1\13

  # Waiting for another "OK" from the modem.

  input 10 OK\n

  # Sending autodial command and phone number to the modem

  output atdt,22568862\13

  # Waiting for the "CONNECT" report from the modem when a connection
  # with the remote modem has been set up.

  input 50 CONNECT

  # Wait until it's safe to continue sending. Some modem's hang up if
  # you transmit characters during a connect set to monitor the carrier
  # signal detector (DCD).

  wait 30 dcd

  # Now, prod the remote terminal server by sending a Return

  output \13

  # Wait for the username prompt ('login:').

  input 30 login:

  # Enter your username. In this example the user name is 'Presno'.

  output Presno\13

  # Wait for the password prompt

  input 30 sword:

  # Enter the secret password. In this example the password is "secret"

  output secret\13

  # we are now logged in

I use this script to dial a PPP server. Now, Trumpet signals "PPP ENABLED"
and I can open Netscape for the World Wide Web, WinVN for reading news, or
Pegasus for mail.

Trumpet uses a variant of this script when calling in to a Unix host to use
The Internet Adapter. Here, it waits for the host's prompt (@gaia%) before
starting the TIA application to get SLIP. This is achieved by adding the
following commands after "# we are now logged in" above.

  # The @ character is rather unique, so instead of 'input 30 \64gaia\37',
  # I just use

  input 50 \64

  # Finally, the pseudo-SLIP startup command
  output tia\13

Trumpet signals "SLIP ENABLED," and I am ready to go.


Auto-logon with Procomm
-----------------------
Procomm is a general communications programs. Many other programs, like
Qmodem and Telix, have equivalent capabilities.

When writing a script for auto-logon to a new service, your first step is
to list the commands that you believe required. Enter them in a text file
(as DOS or ASCII text).

Procomm, Qmodem and Telix let you list your favorite online services in
a dialing directory, and tie these entries to your scripts. Press a key to
start the appropriate script file for automatic access to a service.

This simple PROCOMM script can be used to access my bulletin board in
Norway. It assumes that your name is Jens Mikkelsen, and that the secret
password is FOXCROOK4. You'll have to change this before testing.

   ;
   ;Script file for auto-logon to SHS
   ;
   WAITFOR "our FIRST Name? "
   PAUSE 1
   TRANSMIT "Jens^M"
   WAITFOR "our  LAST Name? "
   PAUSE 1
   TRANSMIT "Mikkelsen^M"
   WAITFOR "ots will echo)? "
   PAUSE 1
   TRANSMIT "foxcrook4^M"
   WAITFOR "^JMore (Y),N,NS? "
   PAUSE 1
   TRANSMIT "n^M"
   WAITFOR "^JMore (Y),N,NS? "
   PAUSE 1
   TRANSMIT "n^M"
   WAITFOR "R] to Continue? "
   PAUSE 1
   TRANSMIT "^M"

The commands are different from Trumpet, but easy to understand. Here is an
explanation:

   * the ";" character at the beginning of a line identifies it as
     a comment line. Procomm is to ignore it. We use such lines
     for notes.

   * WAITFOR "our FIRST Name? "
     has Procomm wait for the text string "our FIRST NAME?" from
     my BBS. It is a part of the question "What is your first
     name?"

   * PAUSE 1
     halts the execution of the script file for one second.

   * TRANSMIT "Jens^M"
     sends the name "Jens" followed by a RETURN (the code ^M in
     Procomm).

   * WAITFOR "our  LAST Name? "
     makes Procomm wait for the question "What is your LAST Name?"

The script continues like this. In WAITFOR commands, we use part of the
text that is displayed on our screen once the scrolling stops.

Make sure that the search term is unique. It must not appear elsewhere in
the text coming from the host computer. If it does, your name and password
may be sent too early.

You can call the script HORROR.CMD, and attach it to the entry for my board
in your Procomm phone directory. When you call it the next time, Procomm
will execute the commands in the file and "turn the keyboard over to you"
when done.

Macros
------
Above, we used a script to log on automatically to a service. When Procomm
gives us access to the keyboard again, we must continue manually.

What we want to do online varies. Sometimes, we want to read new messages
in conferences. In other cases, the purpose is to check new programs in the
file library. If we find programs of interest, we may want to download
them.

Shorthand macros can help you do this faster and safer. For example, one
macro can take you quickly to a conference for new messages. You can make
Procomm start this macro whenever you press ALT-0 (keep the ALT key down,
then press 0).

You can have the macro key ALT-1 send other commands when in the file
archives.

When I started using MS-DOS computers for data communications, PC-TALK
became my favorite program. It has many of the same macro capabilities that
Procomm has.

With PC-TALK, I did autologon to NewsNet. Macro number one sent commands
that gave me the contents of various newsletters. Macro #2 picked up the
contents in another group. Macro #3 picked up stories from my mailbox, and
macro #4 logged me off the service. My mission was completed by pressing
four or five keys.

Automating the full task
------------------------
It's a long way from automated logon scripts and the use of macros to
automating the whole task. The major difference is that with full
automation, you do not have to look at the screen while the script is
working. You can do other things. Sometimes, you may not even be present
when the job is being done.

On a typical morning, I go directly from bed to my office to switch my
communications computer on.

While I visit the bathroom, my communications program calls three online
services, retrieve and send information.

When the script has disconnected from the first service, my bulletin board,
it analyzes the received data. I want an alphabetic list of visitors since
my last visit, a sorted list of downloaded programs, and names of those
calling in at 9600 bps or higher.

Sometimes, the unexpected happen. There may be noise on the line, or a
sudden disconnect. Usually, my script can solve this without manual
intervention. It is therefore allowed to work unattended most of the time.

When I get to my office after breakfast, it is all done. My communications
program is set for reading and responding to today's email. I can sit down,
and immediately get to work.

After having written all my replies, I say "send" to my system. For me,
it's time for another cup of coffee. I am not needed by the keyboard while
my mail is being sent.

This is what an automatic communications system can do. My scripts also
help plan and prepare online visits, and ease my work by postprocessing
results.

  | When your communication is fully automated, you need not  |
  | read incoming data while it scrolls over your screen, and |
  | then again after logging off the service. You do it only  |
  | once.                                                     |

How to get it? Here are some alternatives:

Alternative 1: Write your own system
------------------------------------
You can write procedures for powerful script-driven programs like ProYam
(from Omen Technology) and Crosstalk MK IV.

I started writing scripts for ProYam (http://psg.com/~caf/) in 1985. The
system is constantly expanded to include new services, refined to include
more functions, and enhanced to become more robust.

The scripts make my system work like an autopilot. It calls online
services, navigates, retrieves and sends data.

Postprocessing includes automatic reformatting of retrieved data, transfers
to various internal databases, statistics, usage logs, and calculation of
transfer costs.

Such scripts can do quite complex operations online. For example, it can

    * Buy and sell stock when today's quotes are over/under
      given limits,
    * Select news stories and other types of information based
      on information found in menus or titles.

Script writing is not for everybody. It is complicated, and takes a lot of
time. Therefore, it is only for the specially interested.

On the other hand, those going for it seldom regret. Tailor-made
communication scripts give a wonderful flexibility. The software does not
cost much, but again, it takes a lot of time!

  | Do not use large and complex script files before you know the  |
  | online service well. The scripts let you do things quicker and |
  | safer, but there is always a possibility for unexpected        |
  | problems.                                                      |
  |                                                                |
  | Test your scripts for a long time to make them robust by       |
  | "training" them to handle the unexpected. Leave them to work   |
  | unattended when you are reasonably certain that they can do    |
  | the job. - It may take months to get to that point.            |
  |                                                                |
  | Build a timeout feature into your scripts, so they do not just |
  | hang there waiting for you after a meeting with fate.          |

Alternative 2: Use scripts made by others
-----------------------------------------
Some script authors generously let others use their creations. Earle
Robinson of CompuServe's European Forum, share his ProYam scripts for
automatic usage of CompuServe with others. They are available from the
PC Communications Forum library (GO PCCOM).

Enter GO XTALK on CompuServe to find advanced script files for Crosstalk
Mk.4.

ZCOMM and ProYam scripts for visiting my board automatically can be freely
downloaded there. They split access up into these three phases:

    Phase 1: Menu driven offline preparation.
    Phase 2: Automatic logon, navigation through the system, and
             automatic disconnection.
    Phase 3: Automatic offline postprocessing.

You will find scripts for other programs on many online services.

Alternative 3: Special software
-------------------------------
Several online services sell communication programs with built-in functions
that provides you with automation. They can have offline functions for
reading and responding to mail. The degree of automation varies.

There are also many programs written by third parties. Most programs assume
that you use 'expert' as your default operating mode on the online service.

TapCIS, NavCIS, Autosig (ATO), OzCIS, CISOP, CompuServe Navigator (for
Macintosh), CSNav/Win, AutoPilot (for Amiga), ARCTIC (for Acorn
Archimedes), and QuickCIS (for Atari) are popular choices on CompuServe.
The DOS program TapCIS is my personal favorite. (CIM does not offer much
automation!)

Journalist is an interesting program that creates a personalized newspaper
view of CompuServe for Windows users. It automatically logs on to retrieve
the information necessary to fill the frames in your document, and formats
it according to your specifications. (Email: [e-mail])

Aladdin is for GEnie. It automates your use of RoundTables (conferences),
file areas, and mail. KR Dialog users turn to Dialog-Link.

LEXIS-NEXIS News Plus has pull-down menus and detailed selection of
commands. This MS-DOS program helps users set up detailed search commands
before logging on to the LEXIS-NEXIS. Your search results will be
downloaded automatically.

Personal Bibliographics Software, Inc. (Ann Arbor, Mich, U.S.A. Tel.: +1-
313-996-1580) sells Pro-Search to KR Dialog and BRS users (for Macintosh
and MS-DOS).

Pro-Search will lead you through menus to find information on both
services. It translates your plain English search commands into the cryptic
search language used by the services. It logs on automatically, connects to
these services, finds your information, and shows you the hits.

Kwik Knowledge is an off-line navigator that unscrambles the complexities of
Knight-Ridder's Knowledge Index service available through CompuServe.
There are versions for Windows and Macintosh. Inquiries: [e-mail].

Alternative 4: Offline readers
------------------------------
The alternatives above have one important weakness. Noise on the line can
prevent the "robot" from doing the job. All it takes is for noise to give a
prompt another content than is expected by your program or script (as in
"En@er a number:" instead of "Enter a number:").

You can avoid noise problems by using grab or get commands (Chapter 12),
and by making the online service use its minimum prompts ('expert mode') .
Still, this does not give full protection.

The best is to let the online service do the navigation.  Think of it as
logging on to run a batch file on the remote computer. Combine this with
automatic transfers of your commands, sent in of one stream of data with
automatic error correction (in the software and in the modem), and you have
a very robust system.

The program logs on to the service. Then the service takes over. It
registers your user identity, checks your user profile for personal
interests, retrieves and packs all messages, news and files into one
compressed file, and sends it to you at high speed.

Your outgoing messages, search commands, commands to join or leave
conferences, and more, are transferred to the remote computer in a similar
packet (compressed file).

When received by the remote computer, it unpacks the transfer file and
distributes messages and commands to various services following your
instructions.

Your "physical" contact with the service is when your modem is
disconnected. The help menus that you read belong to your program, and not
the online service. You read and respond to mail in a reading module (ref.
the term "offline reader").

Some offline readers give the caller access to more tools than is available
on the online service itself. They may have spelling checkers, multimedia
support, let you use your favorite editor or word processor, and offer
various storage, search, and printing options.

They may let you sort incoming conference mail by "threads," and permit you
to place obnoxious writers on a "kill" list.

Using offline readers is probably the easiest, cheapest, and safest way of
using online services. You even risk writing more concise and thoughtful
messages. The "readers" are popular among bulletin board users, and some
commercial services are also starting to accommodate them.

There are many offline reader programs. The most advanced take over
completely upon logon, and manage transfers of commands and compressed
information files to and from the host. (Example: Binkley Term on FidoNet)

Global Link is an offline reader for EcoNet. Bergen By Byte offers the
BBS/CS Mail Grabber/Reader, a script system used with the communications
program Telix and the service's "auto-get" function.

NUPOP (MS-DOS), Eudora for Windows (Windows and Macintosh), and WinQVT/Net
(Windows) are offline readers for use when calling Unix hosts.

The most popular systems on the PCBoard based Thunderball Cave BBS are
Offline Express, Megareader, Session Manager, Rose Reader and EZReader.
Freddie is a reader for Macintosh.

These readers are used with scripts written for various communication
programs. Some of them have built in communications (and script) modules.

EZReader from Thumper Technologies (P.O. Box 471346, Tulsa, OK 74147-1346,
U.S.A.) lets users retrieve mail from several online systems using transfer
formats such as QWK, PCBoard capture files, ProDoor ZIPM files, XRS, MCI
Mail, and others.

1stReader from Sparkware (Post Office Box 386, Hendersonville, Tennessee
37077, U.S.A.) is my personal favorite for accessing Qmail based online
systems.

  | Note: Some offline readers contain all the features required    |
  | for fully automated communications. Some bulletin boards allow  |
  | up- and downloading to start right after CONNECT.               |
  |     Off-Line Xpress, an offline mail reader for QWK (Qwikmail)  |
  | packets, does not contain a communications module. It just does |
  | pre- and postprocessing of mail packets.                        |
  |     You can use the Off-Line Xpress as one element in a larger  |
  | automated system. For example, a system for access to PCBoard   |
  | bulletin boards may consist of Off-Line Xpress software, PKZIP  |
  | and PKUNZIP (popular shareware programs to compress/decompress  |
  | mail packets), the QMODEM communications program, and a script  |
  | to navigate to/from the QWK packet send and receive area on the |
  | BBS.                                                            |
  |     1stReader (version 1.11) contains a powerful script based   |
  | communications module. It lets you compose replies, set search  |
  | commands, subscriptions to services, add and drop conferences,  |
  | and enter download commands offline.                            |

Automatic automation
--------------------
We have explained how to write scripts with Procomm. However, there are
simpler and quicker ways. Many communications programs can make scripts
automatically using a learning function. It goes like this:

Start the learning function before calling the online service. Then log on,
navigate to the desired services, do what you want to automate, and
disconnect.

The learning feature analyzes the received data and builds a script file
for automatic communication.

If you call again with the new script, it will "drive the same route one
more time."

ZCOMM and ProYam have a learning feature. This is how I made a script for
accessing Semaforum BBS using ZCOMM:

    ZCOMM asked for a phone number. I entered [phone]. It
    asked for speed, and I entered 2400 bps. Next, I had to choose
    one of the following:

      (1) System uses IBM PC (ANSI) line drawing
      (2) 7 bits even parity
      (3) 8 bits no parity

    My choice was 1.
      ZCOMM dialed the number. When the connection was established,
    I entered my name and password, navigated to the message
    section, read new messages, browsed new files in the library,
    and entered G for Goodbye. This was the "tour" that I wanted to
    automate.
      When disconnected, I pressed the F1 key. This prompted the
    learning process based on a record of the online tour. The log
    described everything that had happened in detail, including my
    pauses to think. Now I was prompted by the following question:

      'newscr.t' exists. Append/replace/quit?

    I selected append. Then:

       Do you want this script file as a new entry in your
       telephone directory (y/n)?

    I entered "y," and named it "semaforum."  After a few seconds,
    my new script was ready:

       Your new script is in the file 'newscr.t' !!
       You can append the file to your current script file
       (for example PHODIR.T) or have the commands executed by
       entering:
          call semaforum.newscr.t

    It was time to test the new wonder. I entered

          call semaforum.newscr.t

    at the ZCOMM command line, hit the ENTER key, and off it went.
    ZCOMM called the BBS and repeated everything - at far higher
    speed than I had done it manually. It went on-hook as planned
    when done.

Limitations
-----------
Auto-learn programs can create a script file that let you "drive the same
route." For some applications this is enough. For others, it's just part of
the way. You have to refine the script manually to get what you want.

    Example:
    If you call my bulletin board with an auto-learned script made
    yesterday, chances are that everything works well. If you call
    twice on the same day, however, you are in for a surprise. The
    board greets you differently on your second visit. You will not
    get the menu of available bulletins. It will take you directly
    to the system's main menu. Your script must take this into
    account.

On most online services, many things can happen at each "junction of your
road." At one point in one of my scripts, up to twenty things may happen.
Each event needs its own "routing."

Twenty possible events are an extreme, but three to four options at each
system prompt is not unusual. All of them need to be handled by your
script, if you want it to visit online services unattended while asleep.

It is quicker and simpler to use other people's scripts and programs,
although this might force you to use a different program for each service.

Personally, I prefer offline readers on services where they can do the job.
On other services, I usually depend on my own tailor-made scripts.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 17: Gazing into the future
==================================

Thoughts about things to come.

Newspaper of the future
---------------------------
Years ago, Nicholas Negroponte of Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
said that today's newspapers are old-fashioned and soon to be replaced by
electronic "ultra personal" newspapers.

"If the purpose is to sell news," he said, then it must be completely wrong
to sell newspapers. Personally, I think that it is a dreadful way of
receiving the news."

MIT's Media Laboratory developed a new type of electronic newspaper. Daily,
it delivered personalized news to each researcher. The newspaper was
"written" by a computer that searched through the news services' cables and
other news sources according to each person's interest profile.

The system could present the stories on paper or on screen. It could
convert them to speech, so the "reader" could listen to the news in the car
or the shower.

In a tailor-made electronic newspaper, personal news makes big headlines.
If you are off for San Francisco tomorrow, the weather forecasts for this
city is front page news. Email from your son will also get a prominent
place.

"What counts in my newspaper is what I consider newsworthy," said
Negroponte.

He claimed that the personal newspaper is a way of getting a grip on the
information explosion. "We cannot do it the old way anymore. We need other
agents that can do prereading for us. In this case, the computer happens to
be our agent."

The technology is already here. Anyone can design similar papers using
powerful communication programs with extensive script features. I have
tried.

Testing the concept
-------------------
My test edition of The de Presno Daily News did not convert news to sound.
It did not look like a newspaper page on my screen. Not because it was
impossible at the time. I just did not feel the 'extras' worth the effort.

My personal interest profile was taken care of by scripts. If I wanted
news, the "news processor" went to work and "printed" a new edition. On
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, I got an "extended edition."

This is a section from my first edition:

  "Front page," Thursday, November 21.
  Under the headline News From Tokyo, items like these:

  TOSHIBA TO MARKET INEXPENSIVE PORTABLE WORD PROCESSOR
  TOHOKU UNIVERSITY CONSTRUCTING SEMICONDUCTOR RESEARCH LAB
  TOSHIBA TO SUPPLY OFFICE EQUIPMENT TO OLIVETTI
  NISSAN DEVELOPS PAINT INSPECTION ROBOT
  MADE-TO-ORDER POCKET COMPUTER FROM CASIO

  The articles were captured from Kyoto News Service through
  Down Jones/News Retrieval.

  The column with news from the United States had stories from
  NEWSBYTES' newsletters. Hot News From England came from several
  sources, including The Financial Times and Reuters (CompuServe's
  UK News). Headlines read:

     * THE CHRISTMAS SELLING WAR
     * BIG MACS GOING CHEAP TO UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

  "Page 2" was dedicated to technology intelligence. "Page 3"
  had stories about telecommunications, mainly from NewsNet's
  newsletters. "Page 4" covered personal computer applications.

As the cost of communicating and using online services continues to
decrease, many will be able to do the same.

On the World Wide Web, check out the CRAYON experiment at

  http://sun.bucknell.edu/~boulter/crayon/

Connect to this free "CReAting Your Own Newspaper" service, mark off your
selected batch of information sources, and have a customized newspaper
delivered to you. Neat?

Is this where we are heading?

Contrast this with the newspapers "self-defence" tactics. Some test WWW
or ISDN deliveries of full-page images combined with text in an attempt to
give their electronic paper the look and feel of print.

To get an idea of what they are up to, join the ONLINE-NEWS mailing list.
Write [e-mail]. Put the following command in your email:

  subscribe online-news

Others move to dynamic new formats (distinctive from their hard copy
counterparts), creating a new and unique interactive medium. Check out the
pointers under WWW in Appendix 6 for more on this.

Also, there surely is a renaissance under way in online news delivery. From
new technology to mega-deals, electronic news and business information is
being sliced and diced as never before. Services like Clarinet, and
Individual (http://www/newspage.com) offer access to large databases of
news for a fee.

Some complain that it is too difficult to read news on a computer screen.
Maybe so, but pay attention to what is happening in notebook computers.
This paragraph was written on a small PC by the fireplace in my living
room. The computer is hardly any larger or heavier than a book.

(Sources for monitoring notebook trends: Newsbytes' IBM and Apple reports,
CompuServe's Online Today, and PC Hardware Forum.)

Electronic news by radio
------------------------
If costs were of no concern, then your applications of the online world
would probably change considerably. Pay attention! We are moving fast in
that direction.

Radio is one of the supporting technologies. It is used to deliver Usenet
newsgroup to bulletin boards (example: PageSat Inc. of Palo Alto, U.S.A.)
Also, consider this:

Businesses need a constant flow of news to remain competitive. Desktop Data
Inc. (tel. [phone]) markets a real-time news service called
NewsEDGE in the United States and Europe. They call it "live news
processing." Annual subscriptions start at US$20,000 for ten users (1993).

NewsEDGE continuously collects news from more than 100 news wires,
including sources like PR Newswire, Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News,
Dow Jones News Service, Dow Jones Professional Investor Report and Reuters
Financial News.

The stories are "packaged" and immediately feed to customers' personal
computers and workstations by FM, satellite, or X.25 broadcast:

  * All news stories are integrated in a live news stream all day
    long,

  * The NewsEdge software manages the simultaneous receipt of
    news from multiple services, and alerts users to stories that
    match their individual interest profiles. It also maintains a
    full-text database of the most recent 250,000 stories on the
    user's server for quick searching.

Hughes Network Systems (USA) markets DirecPC, a small satellite dish that
picks up digital signals from the air on personal computers. Users can get
news, sports, and stock information as part of a "basic access" content
package. The basic service also includes a "turbo Internet" application so
subscribers can receive megabytes of Internet documents at high speed of
up to 400 Kbps. (http://www.DirecPC.com/home.html)

Packet radio
------------
A global amateur radio network allows users to modem around the world, and
even in outer space. Its users never get a telephone bill.

There are over 700 packet radio based bulletin boards (PBBS). They are
interconnected by short wave radio, VHF, UHF, and satellite links.
Technology aside, they look and feel just like standard bulletin boards.

Once you have the equipment, can afford the electricity to power it up, and
the time it takes to get a radio amateur license, communication itself is
free.

Packet radio equipment sells in the United States for less than US$ 750.
This will give you a radio (VHR tranceiver), antenna, cable for connecting
the antenna to the radio, and a controller (TNC - Terminal Node
Controller).

Most PBBS systems are connected to a network of packet radio based boards.
Many amateurs use 1200 bps, but speeds of up to 56,000 bps are being used
on higher frequencies (the 420-450 MHz band in the United States).

Hams are working on real-time digitized voice communications, still-frame
(and even moving) graphics, and live multiplayer games. In some countries,
there are also gateways available to terrestrial public and commercial
networks, such as CompuServe, Internet, and Usenet.

Packet radio is proved as a possible technology for wireless extension of
the Internet.

Radio and satellites are being used to help countries in the Third World.
Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA), a private, nonprofit
organization, is one of those concerned with technology transfers in
humanitarian aid to these countries.

VITA's portable packet radio system was used for global email after a
volcanic eruption in the Philippines in 1991. Today, the emphasis is on
Africa.

VITA's "space mailbox" passes over each single point of the earth twice
every 25 hours at an altitude of 800 kilometers. When the satellite is over
a ground station, the station sends files and messages for storage in the
satellite's computer memory and receives incoming mail. The cost of ground
station operation is based on solar energy batteries, and therefore
relatively cheap.

To learn more about VITA's projects, subscribe to their mailing list by
email to [e-mail]. Use the command SUB DEVEL-L <First-
name Last-name>.

For more general information about packet radio, check out HamNet on
CompuServe, and especially its library 9. Retrieve the file 'packet_radio'
(Packet radio in earth and space settings for relief and development) from
GNET's archive (see Chapter 7).

ILINK has an HAMRADIO conference. You can subscribe to the packet radio
mailing list by email to [e-mail].

Usenet has rec.radio.amateur.packet (Discussion about packet radio setups),
and various other rec.radio conferences. A "Common questions and answers
about Packet Radio" text is regularly posted to this newsgroup.

There is HAM_TECH on FidoNet, and Ham Radio under Science on Exec-PC.

The American Radio Relay League (AARL) operates an Internet information
service called the ARRL Information Server. To learn how to use it, send
email to [e-mail] with the word HELP in the body of the text. Also,
check out ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/hamradio/.

The WWW server for Amateur Radio on http://www.acs.ncsu.edu:80/HamRadio
will give you easy access to the Frequently Asked Questions and more.
There's another one at http://buarc.bradley.edu/. You will also find
interesting information at gopher://rain.psg.com/11/networks/radio.

Cable TV
--------
Cable TV networks grow in importance as electronic high-ways. They are
increasingly offering gateways into the Internet and other services. One
possible next step is for the cable TV networks to be interconnected not
unlike the Internet itself. We'll see.

Example: Continental Cablevision Inc. (U.S.A.) lets customers plug PCs and
a special modem directly into its cable lines to link up with the Internet.
The cable link bypasses local phone hookups and provides the capability to
download whole books and other information at speeds up to 10 million bits
per second.

For another example, check out: http://www.home.net. For more about Cable
TV communications, try http://www.teleport.com/~samc/cable1.html.

The next generation dial-up modem
---------------------------------
New technologies with names like ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line),
VDSL (Very High Digital Subscriber Line), and HDSL, have quietly been
sneaking up from behind. These modems can transmit data at speeds from 176
kbits/s to 52 Mbits/s, depending on line length.

ASDL modems are connected to ordinary copper phone lines (2-wired), and
will typically enable users to receive information at 6 mbits/s and up
depending on the distance from the telephone exchange. Usually, they can
only send at 176 to 640 kbits/s. This is enough for many applications,
including video on demand.

See http://www.sbexpos.com/sbexpos/associations/adsl/home_page.html for
background information, and supplement with a quick search using Alta Vista
in Chapter 10.

The Global Telephone
--------------------
Watch Motorola (U.S.A.) closely. Their Iridium project aims at covering the
world with telephone services provided from many satellites. Expect them to
compete aggressively with local telephone services.

The new system will allow people to communicate by telephone anywhere on
earth - whether on land, at sea or in the air - via portable cellular radio
telephones operating as part of a satellite-based system. Callers using the
new system will not need to know the location of the person (or online
service) being called. They will simply dial the number to be connected.

The Iridium system is scheduled to be working by 1998.

Microsoft is planning a network of 840 low-orbit satellites covering 95
percent of the earth's surface by the year 2001. The idea is that we will
have access to information from almost anywhere - provided we have software
and services from Microsoft, of course.

For more, check out SATNEWS on [e-mail], a bi-weekly news
digest of international satellite, television, radio and media news
produced by M2 Communications Ltd. M2 also provides PitchLink, a cuttings
and research service.

Business Database Plus on CompuServe has Satellite Communications and
Satellite News. NewsNet has the Mobile Satellite News, Satellite News,
Satellite Week, and Mobile Satellite Reports newsletters.

The Rime network has SATELLITE (Discussions of satellite equipment). The
biz.pagesat newsgroup on Usenet is "For discussion of the Pagesat Satellite
Usenet Newsfeed."

Electronic mail on the move
---------------------------
For some time, we have been witnessing a battle between giants. On one
side, the national telephone companies have been pushing X.400 backed by
ITU-TSS, and software companies like Lotus, Novell, and Microsoft.

On the other side, CompuServe, Dialcom, MCI Mail, GEIS, Sprint, and
others have been fighting their wars.

Nobody really thought much about the Internet, until suddenly, it was there
for everybody. The incident has changed the global email scene
fundamentally.

One thing seems reasonably certain: that the Internet will grow. In late
1992, the president of the Internet Society (Reston, Va., U.S.A.) made the
following prediction:

  ".. by the year 2000 the Internet will consist of some 100
  million hosts, 3 million networks, and 1 billion users (close
  to the current population of the People's Republic of China).
  Much of this growth will certainly come from commercial
  traffic."

We, the users, are the winners. Most online services now understand that
global exchange of email is a requirement, and that they must connect to
the Internet.

Meanwhile, wild things are taking place in the grassroots arena:

  * Thousands of new bulletin boards are being connected to
    grassroots networks like FidoNet (which in turn is connected
    to the Internet for exchange of mail).

  * Thousands of bulletin boards are being hooked directly into
    the Internet (and Usenet) offering such access to users at
    stunning rates.

  * The BBSes are bringing email up to a new level by letting
    us use offline readers, and other types of powerful mail
    handling software.

Email will never be the same.

Add to this new services under development at BellSouth (USA), which will
include the capability to retrieve email messages by telephone for
networkers who find themselves on the road without a laptop and modem. The
email will be electronically read to them by a computer. (1993)

The commercials go Internet
---------------------------
New databases and information services appear on the Internet every day.
Most are free. World Wide Web, hypertext, and distributed text-searching
systems (like WAIS) make it easier than ever to find information.

While this puts pressure on the old commercial services, it also creates
new opportunities. Some have already opened shop on the Internet itself.
Others focus on making it easier for users to connect directly from the
global matrix of networks.

Corporate EasyNet is offered by Telebase Systems, a known reseller of
KR Dialog and other professional and business database information to
individual consumers through services like I-QUEST on CompuServe.

The Telebase offering is a top-level subject-oriented menu system.
Subscribers use it interactively with a gopher client program pointing at
gopher://gopher.telebase.com, or World Wide Web browser pointing at
http://www.telebase.com/.

Pricing depends on the database being searched. It offers databases with
primarily business information from well known sources, such as Standard &
Poor's, Dun & Bradstreet, TRW Business Credit, magazines, newspapers, etc.

For information, email [e-mail], or connect to their gopher or
Web sites. Credit cards accepted.

Dun & Bradstreet is at the Web address http://www.dbisna.com/. You will find
Elsevier Science, the scientific communications branch of Reed Elsevier, at
http://www.elsevier.nl/. We have referred to the NewsHound news clipping and
screening service in Chapter 11.

Dow Jones in collaboration with WAIS Inc. offers DowVision on the Internet.
This news service filters full-text articles from sources, such as Dow
Jones International News Service, Dow Jones News Service, Japan Economic
Newswire, Canada Newswire, Business Wire, PR Newswire, Investext Abstracts,
Professional Investor Report, the Wall Street Journal, and The New York
Times News Service (current day only). URL:http://dowvision.wais.net/.

Cheaper and better communications
---------------------------------
During Christmas 1987, a guru said that once the 9600 bps V.32 modems fell
below the US$1,200 level, they would create a new standard. Today, such
modems can be bought at prices lower than US$200. In several countries,
28,800 bits/s modems are already the preferred choice.

Also, expect new developments within data compression to have a further
impact on the costs of global communications.

CD-ROM supported communications
-------------------------------
CompuServe lets users with CD-ROM-equipped computers receive regularly
updated online information enhanced by audio and video on disc.

Expect new and innovative ways of presenting offerings in the electronic
shopping area. CompuServe is also talking about an interactive magazine,
and multimedia extensions to some databases and forums.

Wild dreams get real
--------------------
In the future, we will be able to do several things simultaneously on the
same telephone line. This is what the promised land of ISDN (Integrated
Service Digital Networks) is supposed to give us.

Some users already have this capability. They write and talk on the same
line using pictures, music, video, fax, voice and data.

The most important factor, however, is increased transmission speed, and
here, ISDN is not alone. Fast 28,800 bits/modems with compression are
already giving us access to "a new world" of opportunities.

Here are some key words about what is waiting for us:

  * Chats, with the option of having pictures of the people we are
    talking to up on our local screen (for example in  a window, each
    time he or she is saying something).  Eventually, we may get the
    pictures in 3-D.

    A program called Internet VoiceChat was released in May 1994 allowing
    users to conduct live voice conversations over the Internet using
    their PC's. . . (Information: [e-mail])

    microWonders Inc. (Toronto, Canada) is promoting Internet Global
    Phone (IGP),a free Windows program that provides two-way voice
    communications over Internet connections. The program will run on any
    PC equipped with a SoundBlaster compatible sound card, speakers, and
    a microphone. The compression technology (GSM) makes real-time voice
    connections practical over any common modem-based Internet connection
    from 14.400 bits/s up. - The software can be retrieved by email at
    [e-mail], or from

        ftp://ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de//pub/local/kbs/tubmik/gsm/

    WIT (WWW Interactive Talk) was released in June 1994. Try this URL:

        http://http3.brunel.ac.uk:10000/wit.

    Fujitsu Cultural Technologies and CompuServe Information Service
    offer WorldsAway, a totally graphical 3-D chat environment where
    animated "avatars" interact in a virtual cocktail party.  Each
    participant can control his or her avatar, making it walk across the
    room, sit down, etc., Conversation is depicted cartoon-style in a
    balloon over the avatar's head.  Characters can move, examine,
    exchange and sell objects online using tokens, and can even invite
    other characters to their own private residences for some one-on-one
    chat time.  (Late 1995).

  * Database searches in text and pictures, with displays of both.

  * Electronic transfers of video/movies over a telephone line (fractal
    image compression technology may give us another  online revolution).
    Imagine dances filmed by ethnologists  at the Smithsonian Institution
    in Washington, D.C., or an  educational film about the laps in
    northern Norway from  an information provider called the Norwegian
    Broadcasting  Corp.

    The "Internet Talk Radio" have delivered radio programs by anonymous
    ftp for quite some time (http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/radio/radio.html
    and ftp://juggler.lanl.gov/pub/ITR/itr_archives.html)

    In the spring of 1994, CompuServe teamed up with film studios Walt
    Disney Pictures, Warner Bros., MCA/Universal, and others to deliver
    full-motion video clips (trailers) from new motion pictures to PC and
    Macintosh users.

    Paramount Pictures has a Web site dedicated to the motion picture
    Star Trek Generations. It offers a galaxy of unique Star Trek
    elements for retrieval, including pictures, sounds and a preview of
    the movie, in addition to behind-the-scenes information. On the URL:
    http://generations.viacom.com/

  * Online amusement parks with group plays, creative offerings (drawing,
    painting, building of 3-D electronic sculptures),  shopping (with
    "live" people presenting merchandise and  good pictures of the
    offerings, test drives, etc.), casino  (with real prizes), theater
    with live performance, online  "dressing rooms" (submit a 2-D picture
    of yourself, and  play with your looks), online car driving schools
    (drive a  car through Tokyo or New York, or go on safari).

    The ImagiNation Network has been playing around with these ideas  for
    quite some time. (http://www.inngames.com/).

  * Your favorite books, old as new, available for on-screen  reading or
    searching in full text. Remember, many libraries  have no room to
    store all the new books that they receive.  Also, wear and tear tend
    to destroy books after some time.

    Many books are already available online, including this one.

  * Instant access to hundreds of thousands of 'data cottages'.  These
    are computers in private homes of people around the  world set up for
    remote access. With the technical advances in the art of transferring
    pictures, some cottages may grow to become tiny online "television
    stations."

These wild ideas are already here, but it will take time before they are
generally available. New networks need to be in place. New and more
powerful communications equipment has to be provided.

Farther down the road, we can see the contours of speech-based electronic
conferences with automatic translation to and from the participants'
languages. Entries will be stored as text in a form that allows for
advanced online searching. We may have a choice between the following:

  * To use voice when entering messages, rather than entering
    them through the keyboard. The ability to mix speech, text,
    sound and pictures (single frames or live pictures).

  * Messages are delivered to you by voice, as text or as a
    combination of these (like in a lecture with visual aids).

  * Text and voice can be converted to a basic text, which then
    may be converted to other languages, and forwarded to its
    destination as text or voice.

Pointer: CompuServe's multilingual machine translation of its MacCIM Help
Forum and World Community Forum messages. Every three minutes, English
messages in the forums are translated into German, Spanish and French and
German. Spanish and French messages are translated into English.

Regardless of which language version of CompuServe a user has, the user may
choose whether translated messages in the forums are received in English,
German or French.

New players on the horizon
--------------------------
America Online (USA) and Bertelsmann AG (Germany) has teamed to launch
interactive online services in Western and Eastern Europe.  Their first
services are expected to launch later this year in Germany, France and the
United Kingdom. AOL will be the global name of the joint venture.

Olivetti (Italy) wants to build a leading position in the global
telecommunications and multimedia market in Europe. Italian Online is their
Italian venture. In the United Kingdom, they work with a partner calling
themselves UK Online.

Deutsche Telekom AG (http://www.dtag.de/), dominant German telephone
company, entered the German online market with "Telekom Online" (1995).

DataTimes Corp. has teamed with News International plc to develop and
market an online service for European businesses. The News EyeQ service
will be available in early 1996, first in the UK and then in other European
countries.

News EyeQ will include the more than 5,000 information sources - including
news wires, newspapers, publications, trade journals, broadcast transcripts,
government and financial databases, and company records, among others -
that DataTimes has available through its US online service, EyeQ.

News International publishes five national newspapers in the UK: The Times,
The Sunday Times, the Sun, the News of the World and Today -- and Times
Supplements. Other subsidiaries of News International include News
Multimedia, its mixed media division and Broadsystem, its automated
telemarketing division. The company's major investment is in BSKYB, owning
40% of the satellite television company.

One world
---------
Within the Internet, the idea of "the network as one, large computer" has
already given birth to many special services, like gopher and WAIS.
Potentially, we will be able to find and retrieve information from anywhere
on the global grid of connected systems.

Bulletin boards have started to offer grassroots features modeled after
telnet and ftp. These alternatives may even end up being better and more
productive than the interactive commands offered "inside" the Internet.

The global integration of online services will continue at full speed, and
in different ways.

Rates
-----
The Internet is putting pressure on the commercial service rates. There is
a trend away from charging by the minute or hour. Many services convert to
subscription prices, a fixed price by the month, quarter or year.

Example: In late 1994, Data Times decided to abolish both connect-time and
information unit pricing. Instead, users were to pay a fixed fee per month
plus fees for any information retrieved. There were no charges for browsing
headlines or sources.

Other services, among them some major database services, move toward a
scheme where users only pay for what they get (no cure, no pay). MCI Mail
was one of the first. There, you only pay when you send or read mail. On
CompuServe's IQuest, you pay a fixed price for a fixed set of search
results.

The Internet is a special case, as anyone who buys Internet can likewise
sell Internet. Many services are still writing goofy and unenforceable
contracts, making irrational pricing and service decisions. Expect this to
change, and the cost of getting an Internet connection to dive toward cost.

Cheaper transfers of data
-------------------------
Privatization of the national telephone monopolies has given us more
alternatives. This will continue. Possible scenarios:

  * Major companies selling extra capacity from their own
    internal networks,

  * Telecommunications companies exporting their services at
    extra low prices,

  * Other pricing schemes (like a fixed amount per month with
    unlimited usage),

  * New technology (direct transmitting satellites, FM, etc.)

So far, data transporters have been receiving a disproportionate share of
the total costs. For example, the rate for accessing CompuServe from Norway
through InfoNet is US$8.00, while using the service itself costs US$12.80
at 2400 bps (the Alternative Pricing Plan, 3/1994).

Increased global competition in data transportation is quickly changing
this picture, supported by general access to the Internet. Prices will most
likely continue their dramatic way toward zero.

Powerful new search tools
-------------------------
As the sheer quantity of information expands, the development of adequate
finding tools is gaining momentum. Our major problem is how to find and use
what we have access to. This is especially true on the Internet.

Expect future personal information agents, called "knowbots," which will
scan databases all over the online world for specific information at a
user's bidding. This will make personal knowledge of where you need to go
redundant.

Some "knowbots" will be built into your local communications software,
while others will be external service offerings. Some will exploit the
hypertext concept, universal data linking, massive cross-indexing of
information, dynamic customization of your interactions to the various
services, and more.

Artificial intelligence will increase the value of searches, as they can be
based on your personal searching history since your first day as a user.

Your personal information agents will make automatic decisions about what
is important and what is not in a query. When you get information back, it
will even be ranked by what seems to be closest to your query.

Sources for future studies
--------------------------
It seems appropriate to end this chapter with some online services and
sources focusing on the future:

Usenet has the newsgroup clari.news.trends about Surveys and trends
(validation required for access), and comp.society.futures about "Events
in technology affecting future computing."

The purpose of the info-futures mailing list is "to provide a speculative
forum for analyzing current and likely events in technology as they will
affect our near future in computing and related areas." (Send email to
[e-mail] to subscribe.)

Dataquest, a U.S. market research firm, often offers interesting free texts
on http://www.dataquest.com/press/main.html. George Gilder's interesting
views on the communications revolution and its implications for the future
are at http://www.forbes.com/asap/gilder/telecosm.htm.

Newsbytes has a section called Trends. The topic is computers and
communications. ECHO has the free database Trend, the online edition of the
Trend Monitor magazine. It contains short stories about the development
within electronics and computers (log on to ECHO using the password TREND).

CompuServe's Education Forum has the section Future Talk. What educators
think about the future of online services (and education) is always
interesting. The Well, based just outside Silicon Valley in the United
States, has The Future conference.

Why not complement what you find here by monitoring trends in associated
areas (like music), to follow the development from different perspectives?
The music forum RockNet on CompuServe has a section called Trends.

It is tempting to add a list of conferences dedicated to science fiction,
but I'll leave that pleasure to you.

  Have a nice trip!



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Appendix 1: Selected online services
====================================

To make a list of online services is difficult. Services come and go.
Addresses and access numbers are constantly changed. Only one thing is
certain. Some of the details below will be outdated, when you read this.

Affaersdata i Stockholm AB
-------------------------
P.O. Box 3188, S-103 63 Stockholm, Sweden. Tel.: + 46 8 736 59 19.

Agence France-Presse
--------------------
URL: http://w3src.afp.com:80/AFP_VF/afpaccueil.html

America Online
--------------
has the CNN Newsroom (Turner Educational Services), The Washington Post,
the National Geographic magazine, PC World and Macworld. AOL has tailor-
made graphical user interfaces for Apple, Macintosh, and PC compatible
computers. It had over 6 million subscribers in May 1996. Sending and
receiving Internet mail are possible. WWW access.

Contact: America Online, 8619 Westwood Center Dr., Vienna, VA 22182-2285,
USA. Phone: [phone].  Email: [e-mail]. World Wide Web address:
http://www.aol.com

APC
---
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is a worldwide
partnership of member networks for peace and environmental users with host
computers in several countries around the world. See Appendix 7 for more
information.

The APC nets have full Internet access (except FTP).

While all these services are fee based, they bring a wealth of information
on environmental preservation, peace (including Greenpeace Press Releases),
human rights, grant-making foundations, Third World Resources, United
Nations Information Service, Pesticide Information Service, and more.

For information about APC, write to [e-mail], or APC
International Secretariat, Rua Vincente de Souza, 29, 22251-070 Rio de
Janeiro, BRASIL. Fax: [phone]. gopher://gopher.igc.apc.org:70/11

for information about the PeaceNet World News Service, which delivers news
digests directly to your email box, send a request to [e-mail].


ASCII Net
---------
Japanese PC network for hobbyists. This online service had around 85,000
users in 1993. Phone: [phone]. Fax: [phone]. Full Internet
connectivity.

AT&T Mail
---------
AT&T Mail Customer Assistance Center, 5000 Hadley Road, South Plainsfield,
NJ 07080, U.S.A. Email: [e-mail].

AT&T Business Network
---------------------
URL: http://www.att.com/bnet/

Bergen By Byte
--------------
Norwegian online service with conferences and many files. Modem tel.: +47
55 324447. PDN (Datapak) address: 0 2422 450134. Telnet: oscar.bbb.no
(192.124.156.38).

English-language interface available. Annual subscription rates. Online
registration. Limited free usage.

Big Sky Telegraph
-----------------
Online community for educators, business people etc. living in rural areas
in North America. Address: 710 South Atlantic, Dillon, Montana 59725,
U.S.A. Email: [e-mail]

BITNET
------
"Because It's Time NETwork" started as a small network for IBM computers.
In October 1994, BITNET encompassed 1,481 host computers by academic and
research institutions all over the world. It had around 111,000 users
(source: Matrix News 1995)

All connected hosts form a worldwide network using the NJE (Network Job
Entry) protocols and with a single list of nodes. There is no single
worldwide BITNET administration. Several national or regional bodies
administer the network.

The European part of BITNET is called EARN (European Academic Research
Network), while the Canadian is called NetNorth. In Japan the name is
AsiaNet. BITNET also has connections to South America. Other parts of the
network have names like CAREN, ANSP, SCARNET, CEARN, GULFNET, HARNET,
ECUANET, and RUNCOL.

Normally, a BITNET email address looks like this:

         NOTRBCAT@INDYCMS

The part to the left of the @-character is the users' mailbox code. The
part to the right is the code of the mailbox computer. It is common for
Internet users to refer to BITNET addresses like this:
[e-mail].

To send email from the Internet to BITNET, it has to be sent through
special gateway computers. On many systems, this is taken care of
automatically. Type [e-mail], and your mailbox system does
the rest.

On some systems, the user must give routing information in the BITNET
address. For example, North American mail to BITNET can be sent through the
gateway center cunyvm.cuny.edu. To make mail to NOTRBCAT go through this
gateway, its mail address must be changed as follows:

         [e-mail]

Explanation: The @ in the initial address is replaced with % . Then add the
gateway routing: "[e-mail]".

If you must use a gateway in your address, always select one close to where
you live. Ask your local postmaster for the correct addressing in your
case.

BITNET has many conferences. We call them discussion lists or mailing
lists. The lists are usually controlled by a computer program called
LISTSERV. The dialog is based on redistribution of ordinary email by
mailing lists. So, it is simple for users of other networks to participate
in BITNET conferences.

BIX (Byte Information eXchange)
-------------------------------
is operated as a joint venture between General Videotex Corp. and the North
American computer magazine BYTE (McGraw-Hill). To some extent, it mirrors
what you can read on paper. BIX offers full Internet access. In 1992, the
service had about 50,000 members.

Send email to BIX members as [e-mail].

The NUA address is 0310600157878. On Internet, do telnet://x25.bix.com.
At the Username: prompt, enter BIX as a user name. At the second Username:
prompt, enter NEW if you do not already have an account on the service. You
can also telnet from its Web site:

    http://www.mcs.com/~jvwater/bix.html

You can sign up for the service, and play during your first visit to the
service. Email: [e-mail].

BRS
---
Bibliographic Retrieval Services is owned by CD Plus. BRS/After Dark is a
service for PC users. Available during evenings and weekends at attractive
rates.

BRS has about 120 databases within research, business, news, and science.
The service's strengths are medicine and health. Membership BRS requires
paying an annual fee, plus hourly database usage charges. It is also
available through CompuServe (at a different price).

Contact in Europe: BRS Information Technologies, Achilles House, Western
Avenue, London W3 OUA, England. Tel. [phone].

CDP Plus
--------
owns BRS Online, which in turn owns BRS Online, BRS Colleague, BRS After
Dark, and BRS Morning Search. The latter focuses on medical information.
CDP offers about 160 databases, of which about 70 relate to biomedical
fields. These services were earlier owned by InfoPro. They have been
renamed to CDP Online and CDP Colleague. Voice: [phone].

CGNET
-----
is a network interconnecting a group of international research
organizations. Besides email, CGNET provides news clipping services,
airline reservation information, and database search. (See Dialcom)

Contact: CGNET Services International, 1024 Hamilton Court, Menlo Park,
California  94025,  USA. Telephone: [phone]. Fax:  [phone]
Telex: 4900005788 (CGN UI) .

CIX (England)
-------------
Compulink Information eXchange Ltd. (England) claims to be Europe's largest
conferencing system. British online-service available by telnet, PDN
services and direct dial. Full Internet access, and email exchange with
CompuServe and Dialcom. Web: http://www.compulink.co.uk/cix/. Access for
subscribers: telnet://cix.compulink.co.uk. For information, write to
[e-mail].

CIX (USA)
---------
The Commercial Internet eXchange is a North American association of
commercial Internet providers in which they agree to carry each others'
packets of mail, and more.

Clarinet
--------
A supplier of wire services to Internet users. A commercial network
publishing service providing information and news in some 300 newsgroups
(1994) by subject matter through Usenet. The Newsgroups for Clarinet begin
with clari..

See Chapter 9 for more information. Single-user (individual) prices
available. Associated Press, Reuters, Newsbytes, and other sources.

Clarinet Communications Corp., 124 King St. North, Waterloo, Ontario N2J
2X8, Canada. Email: [e-mail]. URL: http://www.clarinet.com

CompuServe
----------
has over 5 million subscribers all over the world (May, 1996), over 1,500
databases, 600 forums, 500 newspapers, online shopping from more than 170
stores and entertainment. It's like a large electronic supermarket.

An updated list of available forums can be retrieved from Library 1 of the
free Practice Forum (GO PRACTICE). Participation in forums is normally free
(no extra charge).

The IQuest database service gives access to more than 800 publications,
databases, and indexes within business, public affairs, research, news,
etc. Bibliographic and full-text searches.

Some IQuest databases are physically residing on other online services,
like NewsNet, KR Dialog, BRS, and Vu/Text (owned by KR Dialog), DataSolve
(England. It has TASS in the World Reporter database), KR Data-Star
(Switzerland), and Questel (France). Sometimes, it is cheaper to use these
services on CompuServe, than by a call to these services directly.

Knowledge Index offers over 120 of KR Dialog's more popular full-text and
bibliographic databases, the full text of 33 major newspapers, scientific
abstracts, reference sources, and more within 27 subject sections (1993).

The service also offers Usenet newsgroups (GO USENET), outbound FTP (GO
INTERNET), telnet (GO TELNET), and World Wide Web access.

CompuServe can be accessed though local access numbers in over 100
countries, Packet Switching, and outdial services. The international NUA
address is 0313299999997. Also accessible by: telnet://compuserve.com.

CompuServe Information Services Inc., POB 20212, 5000 Arlington Centre
Blvd., Columbus, Ohio 43220, U.S.A. Voice: [phone]. Email:
[e-mail]. URL: http://www.compuserve.com.

SPRY, CompuServe Internet Division, provides worldwide Internet access,
services and software for the home and business markets. Information:
http://www.sprynet.com/.

DATEX-J
-------
A service of Deutsche Telekom (Germany) having around 800.000 subscribers
(1995).

KR Data-Star
------------
is a leading European-based online service that is owned by Knight-Ridder
Information, Inc.

It offers over 400 databases (1996) from a broad scope of disciplines. In
addition to a global coverage of automotive industry data, detailed
import/export trade statistics, and specialized pharmaceutical, biomedical,
and health care information, KR Data-Star's strength is its collection of
European information, newspapers and newswires.

SciSearch is a database with references to over nine million stories from
4500 newspapers and magazines. KR Data-Star is strong on pharmaceutical,
chemical, biotechnology, and automotive industries.

Other databases: Current Patents Fast Alert, Flightline (with stories about
air transport), The Turing Institute Database on artificial intelligence,
Information Access (international market data), parts of SovData, Who Owns
Whom, Telefirm - Directory of French Companies, etc..

Subscribers can access through Internet: telnet://rserve.rs.ch
[192.82.124.4]. Contact: Knight-Ridder Information, Inc. at their Web
site: http://www.rs.ch/www/rs/datastar.htm.

Delphi
------
http://www.delphi.com

Dialcom
-------
is owned by British Telecom and is a network of data centers in many
countries. Dialcom is selling its services through many agents (like
EsiStreet for the music industry, and CGNet for agricultural research).

Some selected services: The Official Airline Guide, news (Financial Times
Profile, Newsbytes, AP, UPI, and Reuters), mail (Dialcom400), fax services
and several conference type offerings (like Campus 2000 for the education
market).

Most Dialcom users are unable to exchange mail with the Internet, but mail
can be sent to users of SprintMail, IBM Mail, AT&Ts Easylink, MCI Mail,
Compania Telefonica Nacional de Espana, and some other X.400 systems.

Contact: Dialcom, 6120 Executive Blvd., Rockville, MD 20852, U.S.A. The
British service Telecom-Gold is a subsidiary of Dialcom UK. In North
America, contact BT North America at tel.: [phone]. In Europe,
contact British Telecom.

CGNET can be reached through the Internet. Write [e-mail] for
more information.

KR Dialog Information Services
------------------------------
is a commercial service owned by Knight-Ridder Information, Inc., and has
more than 450 databases online (1995), covering almost every discipline.
Besides offering significant science and technology databases, KR Dialog
boasts a large online collection of full-text sources, including 3,000
journals, newsletters, reports, newspapers, plus a large collection of
intellectual property files covering patents, trademarks, and copyrights.

Their list of sources includes the San Francisco Chronicle in full-text,
Newsbytes, Information Access, the Japan Technology database, most major
global news wires, Trademarkscan, USA Today, Teikoku Databank from Japan.

KR Dialog has gateways to other services, like CompuServe and iNet, making
the databases available to a larger market. Many databases are also
available on CD-ROM. The service had 155,000 users at the end of 1993
according to SIMBA Information.

Contact: Kight-Ridder Information, Inc., 2440 El Camino Real, Mountain
View, CA 94040, U.S.A.

On the World Wide Web, connect to http://www.dialog.com. Access is
also possible by telnet://dialog.com (192.132.3.254).


DIMDI
-----
Postfach 42 05 80, D-5000 Koeln 41, Germany. Tel: [phone].
URL: http://unix01.dimdi.de/entwurf5_1.html

Dow Jones News/Retrieval
------------------------
DJN/R covers around 3,000 key business and financial information sources
(1996). This includes a mix of newspapers, newswires, market reports, and
company financials.

It offers the Wall Street Journal (with articles from the international
editions), Barron's, PR Newswire, Dow Jones and Telerate's newswires in
full-text, other newspapers in full-text, clipping service, online charting
for investors, and gateways to services like MCI Mail, Info Globe (Globe
and Mail in Canada).

Their Dow Jones Text Library is a vast searchable database that includes
all of Dow Jones's publications plus 1,400 general and trade publications,
major newspapers (like Washington Post), and magazines (such as Fortune and
U.S. News & World Report).

Use //GUIDE for names of all publications and newswires, description of
databases and general services.

DJN/R had 205,000 users at the end of 1993, up 3.5% from the previous year.
In July 1995, they had 225,000 registered users (source: SIMBA Information).

You can access by telnet://djnr.dowjones.com . At the WHAT SERVICE PLEASE
prompt, enter DJNR and press ENTER. An ENTER PASSWORD prompt will appear.
Here, enter your normal DJNS account password. It is also accessible
through a gateway from MCI Mail.

DowVision (at http://dowvision.wais.net/) includes the full text of key
sources, such as Dow Jones International News Service, and Canada Newswire.

World Wide Web: http://bis.dowjones.com/online-lib/index.html

Dun & Bradstreet Information Services
-------------------------------------
Web address: http://www.dbisna.com. Email: [e-mail].

ECHO
----
European Commission Host Organization. On the Web: http://www.echo.lu/

ECHO's I'M GUIDE provides information about online services within the
European Common Market. These includes CD-ROMs, databases and databanks,
database producers, gateways, host organizations, PTT contact points, and
information brokers in Europe.

For information contact: ECHO Customer Service, BP 2373, L-1023 Luxembourg.
Tel.: [phone]. Fax: [phone].

eWorld
------
Closed during March 1996.

Europe Online S.A.
------------------
Declared bankrupt on Aug 2, 1996 (Luxembourg). Closed.

Exec-PC Network BBS
-------------------
is based in Milwaukee (U.S.A.). In January, 1995, it had over 300 incoming
phone lines, and more than 650,000 files available for downloading
(including the complete selection from PC-SIG California). Large
conferencing board.

The service focuses on owners of IBM compatible computers (MS/PC-DOS,
Windows, OS/2, Windows, Unix), Apple Macintosh, Amiga and Atari ST through
over 200 conferences.

You can access EXEC-PC through telnet://execpc.com, i-Com's outdial
service, Global Access, PC-Pursuit, Connect-USA, and by direct dialing.
Annual subscription fee. You can sign on while online. Unregistered users
get some free minutes per day.

Web address: http://www.execpc.com/.

FidoNet
-------
is an amateur electronic mail network founded in 1984 for automatic
transfers of files from one place to the other at night, when the telephone
rates are low. FidoNet is one of the most widespread networks in the world.
It consists mainly of personal computers (IBM/Amiga/Macintosh...).

FidoNet systems exchange documents by using a modem and calling another
FidoNet system.  Communication can be either direct to the destination
system (calling long distance) or by routing a message to a local system.

Each computer connected to FidoNet is called a node. There are nodes in
around 96 countries. In November 1995, the net had over 35,000 nodes
throughout the world (source: FidoNet host table). The number of nodes
used to be growing at about 40 percent per year, but is now levelling off
in several countries.

Most nodes are operated by volunteers, and access is free. FidoNet is
believed to have over 2.56 million users (1994/Matrix News).

Conferences (called ECHOs or Echomail) are broadcasted between interested
nodes, and may thus have thousands of readers. The selection of echomail
conferences on a given FidoNet board can be as unique as the rest of the
system. A typical FidoNet Echomail conference gets 50 to 100 messages each
day. Any connected BBS may carry 50, 100, or more echomail conferences.

In addition to, electronic mail, Fidonet distributes programs, pictures, and
text files. NetMail is Fidonet's simple, person to person, electronic mail
message system. FidoNet users can also send and receive mail through the
Internet.

The list of member bulletin boards is called the Nodelist. It can be
retrieved from most boards. Each node has one line on this list, like in
this example:

   ,10,Home_of_PCQ,Warszawa,Jan_Stozek,48-22-410374,9600,V32,MNP,XA

The commas are field separators. The first field (empty in this example)
starts a zone, region, local net, Host, or shows a private space (with the
keyword Pvt).

The second field (10) is the node number, and the third field (Home_of_PCQ)
is the name for the node.

The fourth field (Warszawa) is a geographical notation, and the fifth field
(Jan_Stozek) is the name of the owner. The sixth field is a telephone
contact number, and the other fields contain various technical information
used in making connections.

FidoNet has six major geographical zones: (1) North America, (2) Europe,
including Russian Asia, (3) Australasia, (4) America Latina, (5) Africa,
(6) the Asian Pacific.

For information, contact the International FidoNet Association (IFNA), P.O.
Box 41143, St. Louis, MO 63141, U.S.A., or [e-mail].
Web address: http://www.fidonet.org/.

For a copy of THE BIG DUMMY'S GUIDE TO FIDONET, select it from this menu:

    gopher://digital.cosn.org/11/Networking%20Information/Reference

You will also find interesting information about FidoNet at

    http://owls.com/~jerrys/fidonet.html

FT Profile
----------
has full-text articles from Financial Times in London, from several
European databases (like the Hoppenstedt database with more than 46,000
German companies), and the Japanese database Nikkei.

Profile is available through Telecom-Gold, and can also be accessed through
other online services. Clipping service. CD-ROM. Contact: FT Profile at
tel.: [phone]. Web address: http://www.ft.com.

GEnie
-----
General Electric Network for Information Exchange was initially set up as a
joint venture between GE and Ameritech. It is now owned by IDT Corp., USA.

GEnie gives access to many databases and other information services. It has
gateways to KR Dialog, Dow Jones, and claimed around 400,000 users in
1993. Reuters estimated around 100,000 users in mid-1994. The figure in
July 1995 was just 75,000 users, and in January 96: 55.000 (source: IISR).

Access to Internet email is available as a surcharged add-on service.
(Addressing format: [e-mail])

"Phase I" of GEnie's Internet Access Service plan is to offer file transfer
protocol (FTP), UseNet newsgroups, outbound Telnet service, Gopher service,
and Wide Area Information Server (WAIS) in December, 1994.

For information call [phone]. Fax: [phone]. Mail: GE
Information Services, 401 N. Washington St., Rockville, MD 20850, U.S.A.
On the Web: http://www.genie.com. Usenet has an alt.online-service.genie
newsgroup.

GE Information Service Co. (GEIS)
---------------------------------
Online service operated by General Electric. Available in over 32
countries. GEIS' QUIK-COMM service integrates multinational business
communications for public and private mail systems. Its services include
Telex Access; and QUIK-COMM to FAX, which allows users to send messages
from their workstations to fax machines throughout the world. Contact: tel.
[phone] . Internet interconnection planned available late 1995.
URL: http://www.ge.com/geis

GENIOS
------
German online service (tel.: [phone]). Offers information from
Novosti (Moscow), data about companies in the former DDR, the Hoppenstedt
business directories, and more.

GlasNet
-------
International computer network providing low-cost telecommunications to
nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations throughout the countries of the
former Soviet Union. Email, fax, telex, public conferences.

Write to: GlasNet, Ulitsa Sadovaya-Chernograizskaya, dom 4, Komnata 16,
Third Floor, 107078 Moscow, Russia. Email: [e-mail]. Web:
http://www.glasnet.ru/.

Global Access
-------------
is a North American outdial service (see Chapter 13) owned by G-A
Technologies, Inc. It has an information BBS at [phone].

IASNET
------
The Institute for Automated Systems Network was the first public switched
network in the xUSSR. Its main goal is to provide a wide range of network
services to the scientific community in the xUSSR, including access to
online databases, a catalog of foreign databases, and conferencing
(ADONIS).

IBM Global Network
------------------
was announced in July 1994 as a worldwide value-added network (VAN). It
incorporates the Advantis network, offers network access in nearly 100
countries around the globe, connects to 5,500 customer networks, and
has 1.9 million individual users worldwide (1994).

Its IBM Internet Connection gives users access to the full range of
Internet services (World Wide Web, Gopher, FTP, Newsgroups, Telnet and E-
mail), and OS/2 Warp provides an easy-to-use graphical interface for the
user.

For information:

Asia Pacific: IBM Japan, Ltd., IBM Global Network, 19-21, Nihonbashi
Hakozaki-cho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103, Japan.

Europe/Middle East/Africa: IBM Global Network, IBM Eurocoordination SA,
Dept 8625, Tour Descartes, 92066 Paris La Defense, France.

United States/Latin America: Advantis, P. O. Box 30021, Tampa, FL 33630,
USA. (Voice: 1-800-455-5056). Email: [e-mail]

On the World Wide Web, connect to http://www.ibm.net/ibmnet.html. You can
also try from "the top" at http://www.ibm.com.

i-Com
-----
offers outdial services to North America (ref. Chapter 13). Contact: i-Com,
4 Rue de Geneve B33, 1140 Brussels, Belgium. Tel.: [phone]. Fax: +32
2215 8999. Modem: [phone].

ILINK (Interlink)
-----------------
is a network for exchange of conferences between bulletin boards in U.S.A.,
Canada, Scotland, England, Norway, France, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden,
and other countries.

Infonet
-------
is a privately owned vendor of packet data services with local operations
in over 50 countries, and access from more than 135 countries. Contact:
Infonet Services Corp., 2100 East Grand Ave., El Segundo, CA 90245, U.S.A.

Internet
--------
The name comes from "inter-networking," which is the process of connecting
multiple host computers and their associated networks together to create a
larger network.

It started as ARPANET, but was by July 1996 a large group of more than
134,000 interconnected independent networks in 175 countries supporting
mail, news, remote login, file transfer, and many other services (Source:
http://www.nw.com). All participating hosts use the TCP/IP protocol.

There are other major wide area networks, such as the BITNET and DECnet
networks that are not based on the TCP/IP protocols and are thus not part
of the Internet.  However, it is possible to communicate between them and
the Internet via electronic mail because of mail gateways that act as
"translators" between the different network protocols involved.

The Internet offers email and other gateways to a large number of other
networks and countries. See The Matrix below.

There are over 12.8 million host machines (July 1996). 2,569,000 of these
were reachable (replied to Ping). In January 1993, the number of hosts was
1.3 million, and in July that year, 464,000 were reachable (For details:
http://www.nw.com).

The number of users was estimated to 20 - 30 million users in July 1994
(Source: The Internet Society). In January 1994, The Internet Number FAQ
estimated over 16 million people (gopher://gopher.tic.com/00/matrix/).
This number about doubles each year. Over one million people are said to
exchange email messages daily.

Matrix News estimated that 19 million users of computers could provide
information by interactive TCP/IP services like WWW, and FTP as of January
1996. ("Core Internet users")

They estimated that 32 million users could use information by interactive
TCP/IP services such as WWW or FTP (using tools like Lynx and Netscape),
versus 22.6 million as of July 1995. ("Consumer Internet users") For details:
http://www.mids.org/mids/howbig.html

As of August, 1991, more than half the registered networks on Internet were
commercial.

In addition, private enterprise networks have an estimated 1,410,000 hosts
using TCP/IP (Source: The Internet Demographic Survey, January 1994.) These
offer mail exchange with the Internet, but not services such as Telnet or
FTP to most parts of the Internet, and are estimated to have some 7.5
million users. For more Internet statistics links, check this page
http://www.fas.org/pub/gen/fas/cp/netstats.htm.

Many commercial companies now offer full Internet services. Among these are
Alternet (operated by UUNET. Email: [e-mail]) and PCI
(operated by Performance Systems, Inc.). The UK Internet Consortium offers
similar services in Great Britain.

Internet gives users access to the ftp and telnet commands. Ftp gives them
interactive access to remote computers for transferring files. Telnet gives
access to a remote service for interactive dialog. (Read in Appendix 6
about important Internet tools etc.) You can telnet several bulletin boards
through Internet, like the one at telnet://conrad.appstate.edu (Login as
"info").

One important feature of the Internet is that no one is in charge. Much of
its direction comes from a group of volunteers called the Internet Society,
run more like a council of elders than a business. (Email: [e-mail].
URL: http://info.isoc.org/ )

The Internet is essentially a voluntary association. Somehow it all works.

Similarly, no one organization collects fees from Internet users or
networks. Each user and service pays its own way. There are rarely any
additional charges for sending and receiving electronic mail (even when
sending to other networks), retrieving files, or reading Usenet Newsgroups.

For more on the Internet, check out the sources listed at the end of
Appendix 6. For more statistics, try http://www.cyberatlas.com. For
history, try http://info.isoc.org/guest/zakon/Internet/History/HIT.html,
and http://www.ccit.arizona.edu/internet/inthist.html.

Internet and The Matrix
-----------------------
The Matrix is also called "WorldNet." It includes all the networks in
Internet, and in addition a long list of networks that can send electronic
mail to each other (though they may not be based on the TCP/IP protocol).
Think of it as a larger network using the Internet as a telephone exchange.

The Matrix includes Internet, BITNET, DECnet, Minitel (France), Usenet,
UUCP, PeaceNet, IGC, EARN, Uninett, FidoNet, CompuServe, Alternex (Brazil),
ATT Mail, FredsNaetet (Sweden), AppleLink, GeoNet (hosts in Germany,
England, U.S.A.), GreenNet, MCI Mail, MetaNet, Nicarao (Nicaragua), OTC
PeaceNet/EcoNet, Pegasus (Australia), BIX, Portal, PsychNet, Telemail,
TWICS (Japan), Web (Canada), The Well, CARINET, DASnet, Janet (England),
X.400, SprintMail, and many more.

These peripheral networks create a larger Matrix Internet that reaches 155
countries (January 1995), and provide many millions of people with lowest
common denominator email connectivity.

Matrix News estimated that 27.5 million users were able to exchange email
with other users on the Matrix as of October 1994 (for details, link to
http://www.mids.org/mids/howbig.html). As of January 1996, the estimate
was increased to 42 million users.

Istel
-----
A privately owned vendor of packet data services, who has operator-owned
nodes in Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Holland, Spain,
Sweden, England. Contact: AT&T Istel. Tel.: [phone] (in England).

Kompass Online
--------------
A British-based publisher of corporate directories with affiliates all over
the world. The directories are available on KR Dialog, LEXIS-NEXIS, and
others. More details in Chapter 11. Web: http://www.kompass-intl.com/.

MCI Mail
--------
Email: [e-mail]. Web addresses: http://www.mci.com/, and
http://www.internetmci.com. To sign up as a customer, or for additional
information, send an email to:

    [e-mail]

Put the word "help" as the message text. Internet users have full access to
MCI Mail services, including: electronic message transfer to letterhead and
use of signature graphics; image transmission via fax; alternate addressing
when sending a fax; and automatic retry for fax and telex.

Microsoft Network
-----------------
MSN started in September 1995. They claimed 250,000 members by mid October,
and 1,000,000 members in March, 1996. The service has relationships with
long distance carriers to provide local access numbers in 50 countries.
It's access software is localized in 26 languages. Web address:
http://www.msn.com/.

LEXIS-NEXIS
-----------------
Owned by Reed Elsevier plc. (London, United Kingdom). Lexis is a full-text
legal information service offering more than 45 specialized law libraries,
covering all areas of law practice. Nexis focuses on full-text news and
business information. Over 744.000 active users (May 1996). Over 5,600
databases.

Web: http://www.lexis-nexis.com/. Access: telnet://lexis.meaddata.com.
Terminal type = vt100a. (If characters do not echo back, set your terminal
to "local" echo.)

MetaNet
-------
Contact: Metasystems Design Group, 2000 North 15th Street, Suite 103,
Arlington, VA 22201, U.S.A. Tel.: [phone]. Telnet access at
telnet://tmn.com. WWW: http://www.tmn.com/

Minitel
-------
French videotex service marketed in several countries by France Telecom. It
is based on a special videotex graphics display format (Teletel), has over
26,000 services, and appears like a large French online hypermarche. In
January 1996, it claimed over 20 million users.

Internet mail and full TCP/IP. Access requires software for emulating
Minitel menus and function keys (free), or any VT100 compatible terminal.
Connect to telnet://minitel.fr. Payment required.

Access to the French Minitel network is also available via the Infonet
international packet data network on a host-paid and chargeable account
basis. Information: http://www.minitel.fr, or by email to
[e-mail].

NEC PC-VAN
----------
Japan's next largest online service. It had around 1,6 million users by the
end of 1996 (up from 660,000 in February 1994). Your communications system
must be able to display Japanese characters to use the service. PC-VAN has
gateways to GEnie, KR Dialog and the Internet.

Netnews
-------
See Usenet.

Newsbytes News Network
----------------------
Information: [e-mail] and http://www.nbnn.com.

NewsNet
-------
The world's leading online vendor of full-text business and professional
newsletters. Offers access to over 800 industry-specific newsletters and
trade publications within 30 industry classification groups (1995). It has
over 20 worldwide newswires, and live gateway access to Dun & Bradstreet
business reports, TRW Business Profiles, and more.

You can read individual newsletter issues, and search back issues of
individual newsletters or publications within an industry classification.
NewsNet's clipping service is called NewsFlash. Enter PRICES at the main
command prompt for an alphabetic listing of all available services.

Contact: NewsNet, 945 Haverford Rd., Bryn Mawr, PA 19010, U.S.A. Access
in 97 countries is possible through CompuServe's network. Internet access:
telnet://newsnet.com. Email: [e-mail]. World Wide Web address:
http://newsnet.com.

NIFTY-Serve
-----------
had 1,63 million subscribers by the end of 1995, and is Japan's largest
online service. To use it, your communications system must be able to
display Japanese characters. Offers Newsbytes in Japanese.

Nifty-Serve is jointly operated by Fujitsu and Nissho Iwai Trading in a
licensing agreement with CompuServe. Mail: NIFTY Corporation, Omori
Bellport A, Minami Oi 6-26-1, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 140 Japan.

OCLC
----
Online Computer Library Center, Inc. is a nonprofit computer library
service and research organization whose computer network and products link
more than 21,000 libraries in 63 countries and territories (1996). It
serves all types of libraries, including public, academic, special,
corporate, law, and medical libraries. Web address: http://www.oclc.org.

Pergamon Financial Data Services
--------------------------------
See Orbit.

Prodigy
-------
is a North American videotex service. It had 1.4 million subscribers in
June 1996. Email from the Internet to Prodigy users: Send to
"[e-mail]," where "XXXX" is the user's Prodigy service ID. Email
for information: [e-mail]. Web: http://www.prodigy.com

Questel/Orbit
-------------
A member of the France Telecom Group. Address: Le Capitole 55, avenue des
Champs Pierreux, F-92029 Nanterre, France. Offices in Washington, Paris,
London and Sydney.

Specialized in patent, trademark, scientific, chemical, business and news
information. Over 100 databases. Telnet to telnet://orbit.com. Web
address: http://www.questel.orbit.com

RelayNet
--------
Also called PcRelay-Net. An international network for exchange of email and
conferences between more than 8,500 bulletin boards. The Relaynet
International Message Exchange (RIME) consists of some 1,000 systems
(1992).

Relcom
------
means 'Russian Electronic Communications.'  This company provides email,
other network services, a gateway to Internet, and access to Usenet.

In early 1992, RELCOM had regional nodes in 25 cities of the xUSSR
connecting over 1,000 organizations or 30,000 users.  It now has 200,000
users (2/1994). RELCOM has a gateway to IASNET.

Reuters Information Systems
---------------------------
Financial online service. Over 309,000 subscribers (July 1995). For some
free world news from Reuters NewMedia, check out http://www.yahoo.com/.
Main Web site: http://www.reuters.com.

Russia On-Line
Operated by Sovam Teleport, a joint venture of Global TeleSystems Group,
Inc. (formerly SFMT), USA, and the Institute for Automated Systems
(Russia). Web: http://www.online.ru/. Contact: [e-mail].

Saltrod Horror Show
-------------------
Odd de Presno's BBS. Tel.: [phone].

The ImagiNation Network
-----------------------
(formerly The Sierra Network, or TSN) is one of the best things out there
for online games. Estimated number of subscribers: 509,000 (1994). Web:
http://www.inngames.com.

SprintMail
----------
A large, commercial vendor of email services with local nodes serving
customers in 108 countries through its SprintNet network (1991). Sprint
offers extensive Internet interconnection service worldwide. It extends the
TCP/IP service to commercial customers under the name SprintLink.

Internet mail to the SprintMail user 'T.Germain' can be sent to
[e-mail], or [e-mail].

For information, contact SprintMail, 12490 Sunrise Valley Dr., Reston, VA
22096, U.S.A. WWW: http://www.sprintlink.net/

STN International
-----------------
The Scientific & Technical Information Network is operated cooperatively
by Fachinformationszentrum (FIZ) in Germany, Chemical Abstracts Service
(CAS) of the American Chemical Society (ACS), and the Japan Information
Center of Science and Technology (JICST). Databases in Science, Technology,
Patents, and Business.

Web address: http://www.fiz-karlsruhe.de/stn.html. Telnet access at:
telnet://stnk.fiz-karlsruhe.de/ and telnet://stnc.cas.org/.

SuperNET
--------
An international network for exchange of conferences and mail between
SuperBBS bulletin board systems. Contact: SuperNet World Host through
FidoNet at 2:203/310 ([phone]) Lennart Odeberg.

TCN
---
is a Dialcom network. Internet email to TCN is only possible if either the
sender or recipient has registered with DASnet. The  email address would
be: [e-mail] (where xxx is the TCN number).

Tocolo BBS
----------
Bulletin board for people with disabilities in Japan, or with
"shintaishougaisha," which is the Japanese term. Call: [phone]. 1200
bps, 8,N,1. Your communications system must be able to display Japanese
characters to use the service.

TRI-P
-----
International outdial service. Contact: INTEC America, Inc., 1270 Avenue of
the Americas, Suite 2315, New York, NY 10020, U.S.A. In Japan, contact
Intec at 2-6-10 Sarugaku-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101.  Fax: [phone].

TWICS BeeLINE
-------------
English-language Japanese online service with PARTIcipate, Caucus and
Usenet netnews. Half the users are Japanese. Others connect from U.S.A.,
England, Canada, Germany, France, South Africa, and Scandinavia.

The NUA address is: 4406 20000524. Telnet to telnet://twics.com.

New users can sign on as GUEST for information. You can also write
[e-mail], or send mail to TWICS/IEC, 1-21 Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku,
Tokyo 160, JAPAN. Web address: http://www.twics.com. Foreign users have
free access (1992).

UK Online
---------
opened on September 1, 1995. Phone: [phone], Internet e-mail
[e-mail].

UMI/Data Courier
----------------
620 South Street, Louisville, KY 40202, U.S.A.

Unison
------
North American conferencing service using PARTIcipate software. NUA
address: 031105130023000. Enter SIGNUP when online the first time and
follow the prompts. (1991)

UUCP
----
UUCP (UNIX to UNIX Copy) is a protocol, a set of files and a set of
commands to copy files from one UNIX computer to another. This copying
procedure is the core of the UUCP network, a loose association of systems
all communicating with the UUCP protocol.

UNIX computers can participate in the UUCP network (using leased line or
dial-up) through any other UNIX host. The network now also has many MS-DOS
and other hosts, and consisted of 18,800 hosts in October 1994 (source:
UUCP map) serving more than 564,000 users (source: Matrix News).

The UUCP network is based on two systems connecting to each other at
specific intervals, and executing any work scheduled for either of them.
For example, the system Oregano calls the system Basil once every two
hours. If there's mail waiting for Oregano, Basil will send it at that
time. Likewise, Oregano will at that time send any mail waiting for Basil.

There are databases with connectivity information (UUCP maps), and programs
(pathalias) that will help you decide the correct routing of messages.
However, many UUCP hosts are not registered in the UUCP map.

EUNET is a UUCP based network in Europe. JUNET is an equivalent network in
Japan.  There are many gateway machines that exchange mail between UUCP and
the Internet. Among these, UUNET.UU.NET is among the most frequently used
(Email: [e-mail]).

Usenet (User Network)
---------------------
Usenet, Netnews, or just "News" are common terms for a large many-to-many
conferencing (only) system distributed through UUCP, Internet, FidoNet, and
BITNET. The European portion of Usenet is called EUNET (European Unix NET).

This grassroots driven "network" has grown out of the global university and
research domains. It is a service rather than a real network. It is not an
organization, and has no central authority.

In 1993, Usenet's newsgroups were carried by over 69,000 host computers
(sites) in five continents, and had over 1,991,000 users (source: Brian
Reid). In January 1995, Reid estimated 16.5 million users. In February, the
number of sites were estimated at 260,000 (source: The Internet Index).
Many of these sites also have access to the Internet. Check here for more:
http://www.tlsoft.com/arbitron/.

The local administrator of each node in the network decides what newsgroups
to receive and make available to its users. Few systems offer access to all
of them.

NetNews is organized in groups of 'conferences'.  Each of these
classifications is organized into groups and subgroups according to topic.
As of June 1, 1993, there were 4500 newsgroups and 2500 regional
newsgroups. Several sites are carrying over 2600 topics. On a typical day
in December 1993, 43,000 Usenet articles were posted. In July 1995, there
were over 15,000 newsgroups.

The groups distributed worldwide are divided into seven broad
classifications:

 "comp"  Topics of interest to both computer professionals and
         hobbyists, including topics in computer science, software
         source, and information on hardware and software systems.

 "sci"   Discussions marked by special and usually practical
         knowledge, about research in or application of the
         established sciences.

 "misc"  Groups addressing themes not easily classified under any
         of the other headings or which incorporate themes from
         multiple categories.

 "soc"   Groups primarily addressing social issues and
         socializing.

 "talk"  Groups largely debate-oriented and tending to feature
         long discussions without resolution and without much
         useful information.

 "news"  Groups concerned with the news network and software
         themselves.

 "rec"   Groups oriented toward hobbies and recreational
         activities.

Also available are many "alternative" hierarchies, like:

 "alt"   True anarchy; anything and everything can and does
         appear. Subjects include sex, and privacy.

 "biz"   Business-related groups

 "clari" Newsgroups gatewayed from commercial news services and
         other 'official' sources. (Requires payment of a fee and
         execution of a licence. More information by email to
         [e-mail]).

Most Netnews hosts offer both global and local conferences. Many newsgroups
can be read through bulletin boards, commercial online services, or through
gateways from connected hosts (like from some BITNET hosts).

A full list of available groups and conferences is normally available from
hosts offering Netnews, and on NETNEWS servers. There is a Master List of
Newsgroup Hierarchies (not the names of the newsgroups themselves) at
http://www.magmacom.com/~leisen/master_list.html. Each hierarchy is
accompanied by a brief explanation of its affiliation, purpose or topic
areas.

All Usenet users should subscribe to news.announce.important.

The FAQ "What is Usenet?" is regularly posted to news.announce.newusers,
news.admin.misc, and news.answers. A FAQ called "How to get access to
NetNews (UseNet), or more access" is available from these sources:

   ftp://pip.SHSU.Edu/pub/MaasInfo//HowNN
   ftp://NCTUCCCA.edu.tw/documents/Internet/MaasInfo/HowNN

Also, make sure you check out the Usenet Info Center Launch Pad:

    http://sunsite.unc.edu/usenet-b/home.html

An online book titled "Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the
Internet" is available from http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/.

Vu/Text
-------
Owned by KR Dialog in the U.S.

The Well
--------
The Whole Earth Lectronic Link is a commercial online service (U.S.A.). It
has its own conferencing culture, and is an interesting starting point for
those wanting to "study" what makes the Silicon Valley area so dynamic.

The Well has over 200 hosted conferences, public and private, about 8,000
members (January 1994). The service can be reached by telnet://well.com.
Web address: http://www.well.com/. You can subscribe online. Email:
[e-mail]

ZiffNet
-------
Ziffnet markets its services through CompuServe (ZiffNet and ZiffNet/Mac),
Prodigy, and its own online service in the U.S.A. Their offerings include
the Ziff Buyer's Market, the ZiffNet/Mac Buyer's Guide, Computer Database
Plus, Magazine Database Plus, Newsbytes, and the Cobb Group Online.
Estimated number of users: 230,000 (1994).

Contact: Ziff Communications Company, 25 First Street, Cambridge, MA 02141,
U.S.A. Tel.: [phone].



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Appendix 2: Getting started
===========================

 * a computer
 * modem and a communications program

You must have a computer
------------------------
It is not important what kind of computer you have, though you may find out
that it is an advantage to have a popular one. The most common type of
microcomputer today is called MS-DOS computers (or IBM PC compatibles or
IBM clones).

Your computer should have enough memory for communication. This is rarely a
problem.

Your computer does not have to be very powerful and super fast, unless you
want ultra fast transfers, use a slow communications program, or a complex
system of script files. If this is the case, you'll know to appreciate
speed and power.

You do not need a hard disk. Many do without. Not having one, however,
means more work, and less room for storage of all the nice things that you
may want to retrieve by modem.

Personally, I want as much hard disk space as I can possibly get. When you
have read the book, I guess you'll understand why.

Others may want to delay the purchase of a hard disk until they can spare
the money. If you can afford it, however, do it! It is a decision that
you'll never regret.

You must have a modem
---------------------
Some computers are always connected to a network. If this is your
situation, then you probably have what you need already. The rest of us
need a modem.

A modem is a small piece of equipment that is translating the internal,
electrical signals of the computer to sound codes. These codes can be sent
over an ordinary telephone line. You may think of it as a type of Morse
alphabet.

The recipient of data also needs a modem. In his case, the sound codes will
have to be translated back into their original form as digital codes. When
this is done, he can view text and pictures on the screen, and use the
received data in other applications.

You can buy modems on an expansion card for installation in your computer,
or in a separate box. Often, a modem has already been built into the
computer, when you buy it.

Whether to buy an internal or an external modem is a question of needs:

A portable computer with an internal modem is easier to bring on travels
than an external modem with a modem cable and a power adapter.

An external modem can serve several computers. Some of them are so compact
that they fit besides your toothbrush in the toilet bag.

An internal modem blocks one of your serial ports.

External modems
---------------
The options are many. The modems differ on speed, features, prices - and
whether they are approved for usage in your country.

Some of them are connected to the phone line by cable. Others are connected
to the handset (to the talk and listen part) by two rubber cups. We call
such modems acoustic modems (or acoustic couplers).

Acoustic modems are useful where connecting other modems to the telephone
is difficult. The bad news is that you'll get more noise on the line.
Acoustic modems can therefore not be recommended for use in other cases.

Asynchronous or synchronous modems?
-----------------------------------
Formerly, data communication was done by sending job commands to a
mainframe computer, and having the result returned in one batch. The modems
were called synchronous. Such modems (and computers) are still in use in
some large corporations.

Most of today's online services are based on an interactive dialog between
the user and the remote computer. The user enters a command, for example a
letter or a number in a menu, and the result is returned almost
immediately. The modems used for such work are called asynchronous (See
"Explanation of some words and terms" in Appendix 4).

Unless you know that you must have a synchronous modem, buy an asynchronous
one.

Choice of speed
---------------
Speed is measured in many ways. One method is to use baud. Another is to
use characters per second (cps) or bits per second (bps).

Bps is a measure of how many data bits that can be transferred over a data
channel in one second. (Each byte is split up into bits before transfer
during serial communication.)

The relationship between baud and bits per second is complex, and often
misused. Bits per second is unambiguous. In this book, we will use it as
bps.

We can estimate the number of characters per second by dividing the number
of bps by ten. For example. 1200 bps is roughly 120 cps.

In 1987, 300, 1200 and 2400 bps asynchronous modems were the standard in
many countries. Around 1990, the growth in 9600 bps modems and modem with
faster speeds gained momentum. Today, 28000 bps modems are very popular.

Modem user manuals often give transfer speed by referring to some
international classification codes. Here are some ITU-TSS codes with
explanation:

 V.21       0-300 bps        Still used by a small group. Cannot
            full duplex      communicate with the American Bell
                             103 standard.

 V.22       1200 bps         Partly compatible with the American
            full duplex      Bell 212a standard. Sometimes it
                             works, sometimes it fails.

 V.22bis    2400 bps         Used all over the world. Very
            full duplex      common.

 V.23       600 &  1200      Rare protocol. Used mainly in Europe.
            bps w/75         Half duplex.
            bps return ch.

 V.26ter    2400 bps         Used mainly in France
            full duplex

 V.27ter    2400/4800 bps    Used in Group III fax
            half duplex

 V.29       4800, 7200 and   Used in gr. III fax and in some (Ame-
            9600 bps         rican) modems. Do not buy V.29 if you
            half duplex      want a 9600 bps modem.

 V.32       4800/9600 bps    Current standard for 9600 bps modems
            full duplex

 V.32bis    4800/7200/9600,  Full duplex with faster interrogation.
            12000/14400 bps

 V.Fast                      Proprietary protocols supporting speeds
 also known as               to 28,800 bps for uncompressed (raw) data
 V.32terbo 28800 bps         transmission rates over regular dial-
 V.FC                        up, voice-grade lines. Using V.42bis
                             data compression, up to 86,400 bps
                             may be achievable. Some claim throughput
                             of up to 115.2 kbps with V.42bis compression.
                             Incompatibility between brands.

 V.34       28800 bps        A standard high speed protocol approved by
                             ITU-TSS (1994).

 V.34bis    32 Kbit/sec      Possible future standard.

 V.42                        Error correction protocol (an appendix
                             yields compatibility w/MNP gr. 2,3 and
                             4. See MNP below). For V.22, V.22bis,
                             V.26ter and V.32.

 V.42bis                     Data compression for V.42 modems.
                             Meant to replace MNP and LAP. Text can
                             be transferred three times faster than
                             with MNP, that is, in up to 38400 bps
                             using a 9600 bps modem. Very common.

When you consider buying a modem with higher speed, remember that going
from 1200 bps to 2400 is a 50 percent increase, while going from 1200 to
9600 bps gives 800 percent!

If you now have 9600 bits/s, going to 28.800 will potentially triple the
speed.

MNP error correction and compression
------------------------------------
The Microcom Networking Protocol (MNP) is a U.S. industry standard for
modem-to-modem communication with automatic error correction and
compression.

Automatic error correction is useful when there is noise on the telephone
line. MNP splits the stream of data up into blocks before transmission.
They are checked by the other modem upon receipt. If the contents are
correct, an acknowledge message is sent back to the sending modem. If there
has been an error in the transmission, the sending modem is asked to
retransmit.

When using compression, files are being preprocessed before transmission to
decrease their size. The result is that the modem has to send fewer bytes,
and the effect is higher speed.

MNP Level 3 and up send data between two modems synchronously rather than
asynchronously. Since sending a start and stop bit with each transferred
byte is no longer required, the effect is higher speed.

MNP-4 or higher have automatic adjustment of block length when there is
noise on the line. If the line is good, longer blocks are sent. The block
size is decreased if the line is bad causing many retransmissions.

MNP-5 has data compression. This gives a further increase in transfer speed
by from 10 to 80 percent depending on the type of data sent. MNP-7 is
capable of a three-to-one compression ratio.

Both users must have their modems set for MNP to use it.

The speed of the computer's COMM port
-------------------------------------
Installing a super fast modem does not guarantee an increase in the
effective transfer speed. The serial port of your computer may be a
limiting factor.

Owners of older MS-DOS computers often have UARTs (serial port processors)
in the Intel 8250 or National 16450 series. With these in the computer, it
is difficult to achieve speeds above 9600 bps without losing data.

Take this into account when investing in a modem.

MNP and efficiency
------------------
I call my bulletin board daily. My personal computer is set to communicate
with a V.32 modem at 19,000 bps. The modem sends data to the telephone line
at 9600 bps, this modem's maximum line speed.

Data is received by the remote computer's V.32 modem at 9600 bps, and
forwarded to bulletin board at 19200 bps.

Why these differences in speed?

MNP level 5 compresses data in the modem before transfer, and gives error-
free transfer to and from the bulletin board at higher speed than by using
9600 bps all the way through.

The compression effectiveness differs by the type of data. When sending
text, the effective transfer speed may double. Speed will increase further
if the text contains long sequences of similar characters.

Text is typically compressed by up to 63 percent. This means that a 2400
bps modem using MNP-5 may get an effective speed of around the double when
transferring such data.

File transfers using MNP and V.42bis
------------------------------------
Files are often compressed and stored in libraries before transfer. Online
services do this because compressed files take less space on their hard
disks. Also, it is easier for users to keep track of files sent in a
library file.

You rarely get speed advantages when transferring precompressed files using
MNP or V.42bis. With some modems, you must turn MNP and V.42bis compression
off before retrieval of compressed files.

Dumb or intelligent modem?
--------------------------
Some modems are operated with switches or buttons on a panel. They do not
react to commands from your computer. We call them dumb.

You must dial numbers manually, and press a key on the modem, when you hear
the tone from a remote modem. Only when the modem is connected to the
remote modem, can you ask your communications program to take over.

We call those modems 'intelligent' that can react to commands from your
computer. Most of them react to commands according to the Hayes standard.

Buy intelligent, Hayes-compatible modems - even when other standards may
seem better. Most of today's communication programs are designed to be used
by such modems.

    Note: Buy modems that use the Hayes extended command set.

When a communications program, like Windows built-in Terminal, tells the
modem to "dial a number" or "go on hook," then the Hayes-compatible modem
will do just that.

When you click on Dialer and Login in the Trumpet Winsock program, it will
dial your Internet access provider automatically. When you click on Dialer
and Bye, it will ask the modem will disconnect from the remote modem.

If you press ALT-D in the communications program Telix followed by the
number "2," then it will locate the number to an online service in your
telephone directory, and dial that number.

When the connection with the remote modem has been set up, your modem will
report back to you with a message like CONNECT 14400. This tells that a
connection has been set up at 14400 bps.

If I select "k" from a menu provided by my communications program's command
scripts, then my system will retrieve today's business news from Tokyo and
put them up on my screen.

In the process, my system tells the modem to do several things, including
"call a number," "speed 28800 bps," "redial if busy," "go on-hook when
done." The only thing that I have to do, is press "k". The communications
program and the modem will do the rest.

Automatic communication is impossible without an intelligent modem.

The Hayes standard
------------------
The U.S. company Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. pioneered command-
driven modems. Their Smartmodem became a success, and "Hayes compatibility"
a standard for intelligent modems.

Today, it is as unimportant to buy a Hayes modem to get access to Hayes
commands, as to buy an IBM PC to run PC software.

Automatic dialing (autodial) was one of Smartmodem's important features.
The modem could call a number and prepare for data communication, once a
connection had been set up. If the line was busy, it could wait a while and
then redial. The operator could work with other things while waiting for
the equipment to be ready for communication.

The modem had automatic answer (autoanswer), that is, when someone called
in, the modem could take the phone off hook and set up a connection with a
remote modem. The modem enabled a connected PC to act as an electronic
answering machine.

Hayes-compatible modems can report call progress to the local screen using
short numeric codes or words like CONNECT, CONNECT 1200, CONNECT 2400, NO
CARRIER, NO DIALTONE, BUSY, NO ANSWER, RING etc.

There can be small differences between such modems. The message DIALTONE on
one modem may be DIAL TONE on another. Most of the main progress messages,
however, are the same across brands.

The old Smartmodem had switches used to configure the modem. Most modern
Hayes-compatible modems come without switches and have more commands than
their ancestor.

Today's Hayes-compatible modems have a core of common commands, the "real"
Hayes-commands, and several unstandardized additional commands. Here is an
example:

A standard on the move
----------------------
On the Quattro SB2422 modem, 2400 bps speed without automatic speed
detection is set by the command "AT&I1". The equivalent command on
Semafor's UniMod 4161 is "AT+C0".

Automatic detection of speed is a feature that lets the modem discover the
speed of the remote modem to set its own speed at the same level. (Other
modems may use different commands to set this.)

When I want Windows Terminal to call a bulletin board, it first sends a
sequence of Hayes commands to the Semafor modem. These commands are stored
in Terminal's settings (Click Settings, Modem Commands. Originate to update
or change them.)

The purpose of these commands is to "configure" the modem before calling.
It sends the following:

      AT S0=0 +C0 S7=40 S9=4 &D2

The cryptic codes have the following meaning:

   AT              "Attention modem. Commands following.."
   S0=0            No automatic answer
   +C0             No automatic speed detection (fixed speed)
   S7=40           Wait 40 seconds for an answer tone from the
                   remote modem.
   S9=4            Wait 4/10 seconds for detection of carrier
   &D2             Go on-hook if the DTR signal is being changed.

If this command is sent to the Quattro modem, it will reply with "ERROR."
The code "+C0" must be replaced with an "&I1". The rest of the commands are
the same. (Note: when a modem responds with "ERROR," it has usually
rejected all commands sent to it!)

This setup is held in the modem's memory when Terminal sends its dialing
command: ATDT4737031378. AT stands for ATtention, as above. DT stands for
Dial Tone. Here, it is used to dial the number 4737031378 using tone
signaling (rather than pulse dialing).

The modem cable
---------------
If you have an external modem, you must connect your computer to the modem
with a cable. Some modems are sold without a cable.

This cable may be called a serial cable, a modem cable, a RS232C cable, or
something else. Make sure that you buy the correct cable for your system.

Make sure that the connectors at each end of the cable are correct. If a
male connector (with pins) is required in one end and a female (with holes)
in the other, do not buy a cable with two male connectors.

Some connectors have 9 pins/holes, while others have 25 or 8-pin round
plugs (Apple computers). Use a shielded cable to make sure there is minimal
interference with radio and television reception.

At this point, some discover that there is no place on the PC to attach the
cable. Look for a serial port at the rear of your machine, labeled MODEM,
COMMUNICATIONS, SERIAL, or with a phone symbol.

If you find no suitable connector, you may have to install an asynchronous
communication port in the box.

Connecting your equipment to earth
----------------------------------
Secure your computer and modem against thunderstorms and other electrical
problems. Securing the electric outlet in the wall is not enough. Problems
can also enter through the telephone line.

Thunderstorms have sent electrical pulses through the telephone line
destroying four modems, three PC-fax cards, one mother board, and at least
one asynchronous communication port.

To prevent this from happening to you, disconnect electrical and telephone
cables from your equipment during thunderstorms.

The communications program
--------------------------
A powerful communications program is half the job. In my case it's the
whole job. Most of my work is done automatically.

The communications program will help you with the mechanical transportation
of data in both directions. It lets you store incoming information for
later use and reduces the risks of errors.

There are several basically different types of communications programs:

[1] Programs that connect you to an Internet access provider using the
TCP/IP protocol. Example: Trumpet Winsock. In some cases, this is all they
do. Sending email, looking up the World Wide Web, and transferring files
are done using various client programs, like Netscape or Mosaic. Other
programs, like SlipKnot, can connect and perform client functions.

[2] General purpose asynchronous communications programs, like Windows
Terminal. These let you call a large range of BBSes, commercial online
services, and Internet hosts. Your dialog with the host can be manual, or
governed by automatic scripts. Connecting to the Internet using TCP/IP is
rarely included.

[3] Special purpose communications programs. These are canned programs
designed to do specific tasks on defined services. They are rarely useful
on other services, and for other applications. Examples: OzCIS and OzWIN
are made to be used exclusively with CompuServe.

Some items to consider when shopping general purpose programs:

* Seriously consider buying automatic programs ('robots') for access to
individual online services, even if that means having to use several
programs for different applications. (Read Chapter 16 for more.)

* Menus and help texts are important for novices, and in environments with
"less motivated personnel." Advanced users may find it boring.

* Ability to transfer data without errors. The program should have transfer
protocols like XMODEM, Kermit, XMODEM/CRC, YMODEM and ZMODEM. The XMODEM
protocol is the most commonly used. You need these protocols if you want to
transfer compiled computer programs (for example, .COM and .EXE files).
They are also used when transferring compressed files, graphics and music
files. ZMODEM is considered the best protocol by many.

* Does it let you tailor it to your taste/needs? Some programs let you
attach batches of commands to function keys and keystroke combinations. For
example, by having your computer call your favorite online service by
pressing the F1 key.

* Does it let you "scroll back" information having disappeared out of your
screen? This may be useful when you want to respond while online to an
electronic mail message. The sender's address and name, which you need to
respond, have scrolled off the screen. If you cannot review the "lost"
information, you may have to disconnect and call back later to send your
mail.

Connecting to the online service
--------------------------------
The first couple of times, most people think that it is very difficult.
Soon it becomes a simple routine.

On some computers, you just press a key, and that's it. On others, you have
to call and press, and watch, while things are happening. Cheap is often a
synonym for more work.

If you have a dumb modem connected to your personal computer, these are the
typical steps that you must take:

    (1) Start your communications program and set it up, for example,
        with 2400 bps, 8 bits word length, 1 stop bit, no parity. (This
        is the most common setup.) Then set the program to "online."
    (2) Call the number (for example, [phone])
    (3) When you hear the tone from the remote modem in the phone,
        press DATA to get the modems to connect to each other
        (that is, to start to "handshake").
    (4) A front panel indicator may tell you when the connection
        has been set up. You can start transferring data.

With an MS-DOS computer, an automatic modem and a powerful program preset
for the job, the steps may be as follows:

    (1) Start the program and display the telephone directory.
        Select a service from the list by pressing a number.
    (2) The modem will call automatically to the service. When
        CONNECT has been established, your user identification and
        password are sent at the prompts for such information. When
        this is done, you are free to take control.

With an MS-DOS computer, TAPCIS, and an intelligent modem, you start by
selecting forums and services to access on CompuServe. Enter 'o' to upload
and download programs, or 'n' to have it fetch new message headers and
messages.

TAPCIS will dial the number, do the job, and tell you when it's done.
Meanwhile, you can go out to look at the moon, or sing a song.

Getting started with Procomm
----------------------------
Procomm is cheap and a popular communications program for MS-DOS computers.
We will use it here, though there are many better and cheaper alternatives.

The program is simple for novices, can automate the work for advanced users
and be run on almost any MS-DOS computer. Here are some of its features:

Press ALT-F10 for a pull-down window text listing features and commands.
Press ALT+D to call a number, update the telephone directory, or select a
script file for autologon to a service.

Procomm can emulate (pretend to be) different terminal types, like IBM 3101
and DEC VT-100/VT-52. Most services covered in this book may be well served
with the setting ANSI.BBS.

It let you use both dumb and intelligent Hayes-compatible modems. If you
have the latter, select numbers from the telephone directory for autologon.
If the number is busy, Procomm can call back until you can get through.

You can define macros to automate your work. You can have one keystroke
send your user identification, another for your password, and a third key
to send a sequence of commands. Macros make your communication faster and
safer.

You can write script files to automate the online work further. You can
transfer text files and binary files using automatic error
detection/correction protocols, like XMODEM, YMODEM, Telink and Kermit, at
speeds from 300 to 19200 bps. Adding external protocols like ZMODEM is
relatively simple.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Appendix 3: Online with the world
=================================

 - Practical data communication
 - Your first trip online
 - Typical pitfalls and simple solutions
 - Receiving (downloading) letters, text and programs
 - Sending (uploading) letters, text and programs

Practical data communication
----------------------------
The first thing novices want to know is how to set up the modem and
computer for communication. This may take more time than expected and often
seems complex for the uninitiated. You can save yourself much sweat and
frustration by asking others for help.

To set up your equipment for communication is a one time job. Once done, you
can almost forget what you did and why.

There are so many different modems, computers and programs out there. We
just cannot give practical advice on the use of all of them in one short
appendix. Instead, we will use one example. Your job is to "translate" the
text into a terminology that fits your tools.

Once your system is set up for communication, your first job will be to
find what keys to press to get the job done. How you use your
communications program may vary considerably from our example. In general,
however, it will be the same for most people doing manual communication.
Once online, the environment is the same for all users.

If you plan to use automatic communications as explained in Chapter 16,
this chapter may not be that important. Your program will do the job for
you. Still, take a few minutes and browse through the text. It may enable
you to handle unexpected problems better.

Our example assumes that you have an MS-DOS computer. Not because this is
the best microcomputer in the world, but because there are more of them
than anything else. We assume that you have an external, intelligent Hayes-
compatible modem and the communications program Procomm (version 2.4.2).

In this example, your modem is tested by calling my bulletin board at +47
370 31378. Not because this is the best board in the world, but because I
have full control over how it looks and feels for those using it.

Assembling the equipment
------------------------
You have the modem, the cable (to connect your modem with the computer), a
phone cable (to connect your modem with the phone or the wall jack), and a
communications program.

Check that the modem's power switch is off. Place the modem by the
computer, and plug the power supply cord (or the power adapter cord) into
the AC wall socket. Switch on the modem.

    Do NOT use 115-volt equipment in 250-volt sockets!

Connect modem and computer using the modem cable. There may be several
optional sockets on the computer. These are usually marked RS-232, COMMS,
MODEM, or just nothing. The connector may be of a flat 25-pins, 9 pins, or
a round 8-pins type. Use communication port number 1, 2, or whatever else
is available for this purpose.

If you have several options, and the socket for communication port number 1
seems free, use this. If not, try one of the others.

Next, connect the modem to the telephone line. If in luck, the modem came
with a phone cable that works with your setup. If so, it is simple:

    1. Disconnect the phone cable from the telephone. Insert the
       modular plug into the right jack on the modem. This jack
       is often marked with the word LINE, with a drawing of a
       modular wall jack, or another understandable icon.

    2. You may be able to connect the phone to the modem using
       the phone cord that came with the modem. This may allow
       you to use the phone for voice, when the line is not busy
       with communication. (You may have to make changes in this
       cord to make it work with the connected phone.)

This concludes the technical assembly of your equipment. Next step is to
install the communications program. When this is done, we will check it
out.

Installing the program
----------------------
Let us assume that you have received Procomm on a diskette, and that it is
set up with its default configuration. PROCOMM.EXE is the program. The
other files have no importance here.

Enter Procomm and press ENTER. Our first task is to prepare it for
communication:

If you are using a monochrome display, use the command

    PROCOMM /B

The program will greet you by a welcome text. At the bottom of the screen,
the message "CREATING SYSTEM FILES" may appear (if these have not been
created yet), followed by a message from the creators of the program.

Press ENTER when you have read the text. The screen will be blanked, and a
text line will appear at the bottom.

Now is the time to test if the technical installation has been successful.

The dial tone
-------------
Lift the receiver from the phone and check if you can hear the dial tone.
If you can, turn the pages to "Does the computer have contact with the
modem?"

If you hear nothing, there are several possible causes:

* The phone is not working. This is easily checked. Disconnect it from the
modem, and connect it to the wall (using the original cable!). If you get a
dial tone now, then the phone is in order.

* The cable between the modem and the wall jack may be broken, or wrongly
configured. To check this, we must first check the connection between the
modem and the computer.

Once we know that the connection between the modem and the computer is in
order, we can use the modem to check our phone cable.

* The cable between the modem and the phone may be in disorder. For
example, the modular phone connector may have a cabling that differs from
what is assumed in your country. If there is no dial tone, then the cable
between the modem and the telephone must be repaired, or replaced.

Does your computer have contact with the modem?
-----------------------------------------------
When you first use Procomm, it is preset for communication at 300 bps, use
of port 1 and ANSI-BBS. (The control line at the bottom of your screen
should read: ALT-F10 HELP, ANSI-BBS, HDX, 300 N81, LOG CLOSED, PRT OFF, CR
and CR.)

* If your modem is unable to communicate at 300 bps, you must change the
setup. Press ALT-P (keep the ALT key down while pressing P) to get the menu
LINE SETTINGS. Choice 9 gives 2400 bps with 8 bits word length, no parity
and one stop bit. This is a common setting. Select 24 "Save changes" to
make the setting permanent.

* If you know that your modem is not connected to the computer's port
number 1, then change this from the same menu. Choice 21 gives COM2, and
choice 22 gives COM3.

If you do not know what communication port the modem has been connected to,
you have to find out by testing. Do this by entering (that is, sending to
the modem) the characters AT. Now, the modem is supposed to respond with an
OK (or with the number "0," if the modem is set to reply with numeric
codes).

If you get an "OK" or a "0" on your display, continue reading from "Does
the modem have contact with the phone line?"

If you can see "AT" on your screen while you enter it, you have contact
with the modem. This is true even if it does not send any confirmation. The
modem may have been instructed not to confirm. If you see the AT
characters, read from "Does the modem have contact with the phone line?"

If there is no contact between the modem and the computer, the screen will
always remain blank. Your problem may be the cable, your choice of modem
port, or the modem setup.

First, check if the modem is switched on (the power switch), and that the
plugs are firmly in the jacks.

Then let's check the modem. It may have been set not to respond to your
commands. Let's try to change that. Enter the following command, and press
ENTER:

    ATQ0E1V1

This should make your modem: give result codes on your screen (Q0), show
the characters that you enter (E1), and use OK instead of the numerical
result code 0 (V1).

If you still get no OK, the reason may still be in the modem. I have seen
modems get "indigestion problems" when too many commands are given to them.

Try give a command to return it to its factory setting. This command is not
the same on all Hayes-compatible modems. On most of them, you can use one
of the following: AT&F, ATF or ATZ (on some modems ATZ is used to reset to
the stored configuration). Locate the correct command to use in the modem's
user manual. Then, try ATQ0E1V1 again.

If you are still without success, check your choice of modem port. If there
are several communication connectors at the back of your computer, test
these. If this doesn't help, connect the modem cable to the most probable
jack.

Now, test the communication port for a response from the modem using
another communications program setting. Press ALT-P, select another port
(choice 20 - 23), press ESC and try "AT" again (or ATQ0E1V1). If there is
still no reaction, test the computer's other communications connectors.


    If you have a mouse connected to your computers, make sure
    that it is not using the same port as your communications
    program.

    Problems with the communications port are often caused by other
    equipment. Remove all extra equipment (like a PC-fax card or a
    mouse), and all associated software (often represented by a
    line starting with "DRIVER=" in CONFIG.SYS, or a resident
    program driving a mouse). Remove all resident programs from
    memory before testing.

If you are still at the same unfortunate stage, chances are that the
problem is either in the cable or the modem. If you know others who are
into data communication, visit them for help. Bring your cable and your
modem to have them tested in an environment where things work. It is easier
to isolate a problem by testing your units in sequence on your helper's
system.

First, the cable. Connect it between his computer and his modem. Test the
connection to his modem with your cable as the only foreign element. If the
test is successful, your cable is OK.

Next, the modem. If the test is successful, your modem is in order. The
most probable cause of your problems is your computer's communications
port.

    In communications, many parts have to work together. You may
    have problems with more than one of them. Therefore, the rule
    is to test step by step to eliminate possible problems.

If you get no reply from your modem, when it is connected to your friend's
computer, chances are that it needs to be repaired. Call the seller for
help.

A last refuge is to buy an extra communications card for your computer . .


Does your modem have contact with the phone line?
-------------------------------------------------
You have contact between your computer and modem. The modem answers "OK" as
assumed. We now have to test if there is contact with the phone line. That
is easy.

Enter the following command and press ENTER:

    ATQ0E1V1

When the modem answers OK, enter the dialing command:

    ATDT37031378

The modem will try to call 37031378, the number to my BBS. (You may have to
prefix the number with an international code, and the country code for
Norway. If international calls require the prefix 009, enter ATDT009-47-
37031378).

Your modem will wait for CONNECT a preset number of seconds (rarely longer
than 60 seconds).

If your modem does not detect the dial tone (within the preset waiting
time), it will give you the following error message

    NO DIALTONE

All other messages (except ERROR) declare that the modem did detect the
dial tone. If it did, continue reading from "Configuring your program."

NO DIALTONE
-----------
The most probable causes of NO DIALTONE are that your phone cable is not
connected, that it has been damaged, or that it is the wrong cable for the
job.

The latter cause is common in many countries. For example, a cable made for
a telephone network in the United States, may not work in Norway. A cable
made for connection to a switchboard, may not work when connected to a
domestic phone line.

A standard, domestic American phone cable contains four lines. Two of these
(line number 1 and 4) carry sounds. The others are not being used. A
standard Norwegian domestic cable is set up in the same way, but here line
number 1 and 3 carry sound.

Changing the configuration of such cables is often simple. Just cut the
cable in two, and put the lines together correctly. This is typically
required when your modem assumes that you use it in North America, while
you are in a country with different cabling.

One other possible reason for the NO DIALTONE message: Your modem may be
unable to recognize the tone. The solution is to tell your modem to ignore
it (ATX3), and just go ahead dialing.

Some years ago, I had this problem in Hotel Watson, Mekuro, Japan. My
solution was: [1] Add the following string to the modem AT setup command:
"X3", [2] Use this dial command: "ATDP0W3739-9968."

The "ATDP0" portion dialed 0 to provide an external line. Thanks to the X3
setting it ignored the perceived absence of a dial tone. The "W" command
portion made it wait for an external dialtone. Upon detection of the tone,
the number was dialed (3739-9968).

Configuring your general purpose communications program
-------------------------------------------------------
The modem answers. The dial tone is being detected. Procomm is installed on
your hard disk. Now, check if the program has been correctly configured.

Press ALT-S to get the Setup Menu. Select 1, Modem setup, from this menu.

Choice 1, Modem init string, is a general setup command. This command will
be sent to the modem each time you start Procomm. You are free to make is
as long and powerful as you want. Our purpose now, however, is to check if
it works.

    Most modems do not react if one element in your setup command
    is wrong. They respond with ERROR (or the numeric code), and
    disregard the rest.

Procomm's standard Modem init string has the following commands:

    ATE0 S7=60 S11=55 V1 X1 S0=0!

These work well with most modems, provided the speed is legal.

Go back to the blank screen (using ESC). Test the init command by entering
it manually. (Do not enter the "!" character. This is Procomm's code for
ENTER.)

If the modem reacts with ERROR, check with the modem manual to find out
what is wrong. (Check if the values S7=60 and S11=55 are not too high.)

If you have to change the init command, go back to the Modem init string
menu choice. Enter the correct commands. Remember to add the "!" at the
end.

Press ESC to get to the main configuration menu and select 2, TERMINAL
SETUP.  Check if Terminal emulation is ANSI-BBS. Change choice 2, Duplex,
to FULL. The other factory settings are NONE, CR, CR, DEST, BS, OFF, ON,
350, OFF.

Return to the SETUP MENU (press ESC). Press "s" to save the setup to disk.
Your setting has now been stored, and Procomm is ready to be used.

Configuring Trumpet Winsock
---------------------------
The easiest is to ask your Internet access provider to do it for you. To do
it yourself, click on File, Setup and fill out the form based on the data
that your access provider has given.

Pay attention to Slip Port. This is where you enter the number of your
communications port. Make sure you select the correct one, and not the one
used by your system's mouse. Baud rate may be set to higher than your
modem's dial-up rate if it is supported. If your computer has an old UART,
then this figure should not be higher than 9600.

Dialing
-------
Now, test your setup by calling your favorite online service. We will show
how to log on to my bulletin board in Norway using Procomm.

You can call manually by entering ATDT followed by the phone number. The
most practical method, however, is to use the built-in phone directory.

Press ALT-D to get to the phone directory. Press "R" to revise the list,
and enter Saltrod Horror Show somewhere on the list. I have it as number 2.
Answer the questions like this:


    Name: Saltrod Horror Show
    Number: 009-47-370-31378
    Baud: 9600
    Parity: N
    Databits: 8
    Stop Bits: 1
    Echo On? N
    Command file: (press ENTER, meaning that you do not want to
                   use a script file at this point)

Baud can be anything from 300 bps to 9600 bps. It's up to you, and depends
on your modem's capabilities.

When done, enter "2" and press ENTER. The modem will dial the number (that
you have as item 2 on the list), and try to connect.

If the number is busy, you will get a warning. You can now leave Procomm
(ALT+X), or set it for redialing (ALT+R). When set for redialing, Procomm
will call back until a connection has been made. When CONNECT is received
from your modem, Procomm announces the fact with a beep in the computer's
loudspeaker.

Text will start scrolling over your screen. First, a short welcome text
pops up. Your interactive dialog with the bulletin board can start.

The first question is "What is your First Name?" Enter your first name.
Then, "What is your Last Name?"  Enter your last name.

Your dialog with the remote computer will continue like this. The board
will ask you questions, and you will enter your answers.

What may go wrong?
------------------
A setting that works beautifully when calling one bulletin board, may be a
disaster when calling another service. Here are some typical problems:

When dialing through a switchboard (PBX)
-----------------------------------------
Remember to add 9 or 0 for a city line, when dialing out from a PBX. If you
forget, you'll get nowhere.

Use the following command (assuming that you must enter 0 to get a city
line, and use tone signaling):

    ATDT0W4737031378

If you must use 9 for a city line and pulse dialing, use the following
command

    ATDP9W4737031378

Register your standard dialing command in Procomm's MODEM SETUP. Enter
ALT+S and then select 1, Modem Setup. Choice 2, Dialing command. The
default entry is ATDT. Replace this with ATDT0W, ATDP9W or whatever makes
dialing work for you.

No answer from the remote computer
----------------------------------
Your computer has to "talk the same language" as the remote host. If the
parameters of your communications program have been set incorrectly, it may
be impossible to set up a connection with the service.

Sometimes, you get CONNECT, but your screen only gives you strange,
unintelligible 'noise' characters. The reason may be CONNECT at an
incompatible speed, a service's use of special codes for displaying text
(including special language characters), or that the service requires use
of a special communications program or method (as when a service starts by
interrogating for the use of an offline reader).

Many online services require that you use certain settings. Most services,
however, may be reached when using the following:

    Speed: 2400 bps
    8 bits word length, no parity, one stop bit

Some services (notably some Unix hosts) demand 7 bits, even parity, one
stop bit.

Sorry, no luck!
---------------
Try again, just in case. The remote computer may have had a temporary
problem, when you called. The PTT may have given you a particularly noisy
telephone line on this attempt.

If this doesn't help, recheck each point in the communications process. It
is so easy to do something wrong.

If nothing helps, read the service's user information manuals. You will
only rarely be able to blame the communications program (unless you have
made it yourself), or the equipment. Most errors are caused by finger
trouble and misunderstandings.

Testing the Saltrod Horror Show
-------------------------------
First time visitors often experience problems, and in particular if this is
their first time online using a Hayes-compatible modem.

Here are some typical problems with suggested solutions:

* Disable Guard Tones from the modem when dialing. If it has this feature,
you can often turn it off. Put the required command in your Modem init
string.

* Don't press ENTER to "wake" my system. The software will automatically
detect your speed and adjust accordingly. The same applies for many
services. On some, you are just asking for problems by not waiting
patiently (often the case when the remote software starts by checking if
you use an offline reader).

* My BBS accepts 300 to 9600 bps asynchronous, full duplex communication.
You may not succeed with 1200 bps half duplex, Bell 300 bps or 1200 bps.

* Start with your communications program set for 8 bits word length, no
parity and one stop bit. Try 7 bits, even parity if there is too much noise
on the line (you cannot retrieve programs using this setting, though).

* When your modem is set at a low transfer speed, it may not wait long
enough for carrier from my modem. Most modems let you set this waiting time
longer by giving a value to a S-register. (Read in your modem's manual
about how to do this).

Partial success
---------------
Some bulletin boards offer colors and music. If your equipment is set up
correctly, you can receive the welcome text in full color graphics
accompanied by a melody in your computer's speaker.

If it is not, chances are that you will get many strange codes on your
screen, and an ugly feeling that something is wrong.

There are two ways out of this problem:

1. Ask the bulletin board to send text only (select U for Utilities, and
then G for Graphics to change setting),

2. Set your computer for colors and graphics. This feature is only
available for callers with an MS-DOS computers. You may need to add the
line DEVICE=ANSI.SYS in your CONFIG.SYS.

Finally, you must have a communications program that allows you to display
colors on your screen. Procomm set with ANSI-BBS does that.

Downloading programs
--------------------
We call the transfer of programs and files from a remote computer for
downloading. It means "transfer of data to your computer AND storage of the
data (down) on YOUR local disk."

You are downloading, when you call my board to retrieve a program.

When you, overwhelmed by gratitude, send one of your favorite programs TO
my bulletin board, then we call it uploading.

Data can be many things. It may be news from the Washington Post, a digital
picture, an executable program, a pile of invoices, a piece of music, a
voice file, an animated sequence of pictures and music, or compressed
library files.

Downloading "plain text" (also called "plain ASCII" or "DOS text" on MS-DOS
machines) is relatively easy. Such text usually only contains characters
between number 32 (space character) and 126 (the ~ character) in the ASCII
table.

Characters with lower numbers have special functions (like the control
characters ESCape and CTRL+C). These may not even be displayed on your
screen. Characters with higher numbers are used for graphics, special
national characters, and other applications.

Special transfer methods are often required, when your data contains text
with characters outside ASCII number 32 through 126. Read under "Protocol
transfers" below for more information about how to do this.

Downloading text
----------------
Most communication programs require that you begin by opening a file. They
ask you to enter a file name. From this point and onwards all incoming text
will be stored in this file until you say stop.

Communication programs do this in different ways. Some let incoming data
flow through a temporary storage area using the principle first in, first
out. When you open a file, it starts storing data from the beginning of the
temporary storage area, though this text may have scrolled off your screen
some time ago.

Most communication programs start storing data from NOW. Procomm works this
way. You start downloading of text by pressing the PgDn key. A window will
appear on your screen giving you a choice between various methods. Select
ASCII.

In another window, you are asked to enter a file name. When done, storage
of incoming data starts. You stop the process by pressing the ESC key.

Procomm has another method called "file logging." You start this by
pressing ALT-F1. Procomm requests the file name, and the storage process
starts. (Read under "Strip" about the difference between these methods.)

    If you forget to tell Procomm to store incoming data, then
    you will most probably lose this data for ever.

    Do not waste time and money by forgetting to store what you
    receive!

The term "append"
-----------------
When downloading text - or anything - it is important to know whether you
are appending information to an existing file, or overwriting it (that is,
destroying the old text).

Most communication programs complain with an audible signal, when you try
to overwrite an existing file. They will ask you if you really want to
delete it, or append the current data.

The term "strip"
----------------
The purpose of 'strip' is to remove something from incoming data or to
change it on the fly.

When you use ASCII downloading with Procomm, ALL incoming data are being
stored. This includes so-called ESCape sequences. If you use File Logging,
all control characters (except the line feed and new page characters) are
being removed (filtered).

If you download text from a computer that uses other ASCII characters for
linefeed and return, save time by having the communications program convert
them on the fly to their correct form for your computer.

You define strip procedures through Procomm's SetUp menu (ALT-S). You can
also request automatic conversion of characters to graphics values, or
local language variants.

National characters
-------------------
Special national characters cause problems in many countries. One reason is
that they are represented by different internal codes on various hardware
platforms, and that some networks are unable to transmit 8-bits data.

Some systems represent these special characters by a 7-bit code, others by
an 8-bit code. Some depend on the computer having an internal national
language ROM, or that it uses a special (resident) conversion program.

What gives good results on an MS-DOS computer, may give rubbish on a
Macintosh, Amiga, Atari, or a PC using MS Windows.

Many communication programs have features that can help you solve at least
some these problems. They let you make translation tables for automatic
conversion of special incoming and outgoing characters.

If you call a Scandinavian online service using 7 bits even parity, many
transfer the national special characters using the ASCII code equivalents
of number 91, 92, 93, 123, 124, and 125. Similar, more or less formal
standards are in place in other countries.

Protocol transfers
------------------
If your purpose is to transfer digitized pictures, a computer program, a
batch of invoices, a piece of music or an animated sequence of pictures,
it's important that each character (bit) arrives correctly. We achieve this
by using protocol transfers.

These files often contain control or binary characters. You cannot transfer
binary files without the use of special methods.

It is easy to understand why we need protocol transfers when retrieving
plain text as tables of numbers, statistics, and financial reports.
Transfer errors may have fatal results.

Protocol transfers are also required when transferring word processor text
files having imbedded control codes (like text made with WordPerfect), and
compressed files.

Here is an example:

Downloading public domain software
----------------------------------
First, you need the names and features of the programs that can be
downloaded from a service. On most bulletin boards, you must enter a
command to navigate to the File Library. Here, they normally greet you with
a menu listing available commands.

    Try H (for Help!) or ? when you are stuck.

Public domain and shareware programs are stored in subdirectories on my
bulletin board. The directories have numerical names. Utility programs for
MS-DOS computers are stored in directory 10. Games are stored in directory
17.

Enter L for a list of available directories (other bulletin boards may use
different commands). Enter "L 17" to list the files in directory 17. This
will give file names, lengths in characters (to help you estimate download
time), creation dates, and a short description of each file.

You can search for files of interest. When looking for programs that can
help you get more out of a printer, you may search using keywords like
"printer."

Some programs are made available in text form. This is the case with older
BASIC programs. (The file name extensions .BAS, .ASC or .TXT suggest that
the files contain plain text.)  You can download these files using ASCII.

Most programs are stored in their executable form, or as one executable
file among several in a compressed transfer file (a library of files). On
my board, most of these files have the file name extension .EXE or .COM.

What transfer protocol to use, depends on what is available in your
communications program.

The protocol transfer method explained
--------------------------------------
The protocol transfer algorithms use methods to check the transfer with
automatic error correction. In principle, they work like this:

The sending program calculates a check sum based on the contents of the
file. The receiving program does the same calculation and compares the
result with the senders' check sum. If the figures match, the transfer was
successful. If not, all or part of the file will be retransmitted.

These are some popular protocols:

XMODEM
------
has automatic error detection and correction. Most modern programs have
this feature. XMODEM exists in programs for MS-DOS computers, CP/M
computers, Apple, TRS-80 Model 100, etc. It is the most commonly used
transfer protocol.

XMODEM assumes 8-bit settings in your communications program. The file to
be sent is split up into 128 bit sized blocks (or "packets") before
transfer. The sender calculates the check sum and adds a check sum bit at
the end of each packet. (Packing, sending and checking is done
automatically by the software.)

The receiving program calculates its own check sum and compares with the
sender's. If an error is detected, XMODEM will request retransmission of
the last block.

XMODEM is reasonably good when there is little noise on the telephone line
is low. When the line is bad, however, there is always a chance that the
transfer will stop. You cannot use XMODEM on computer networks that use
ASCII flow control or ESCape codes.

The transfer commands must be given to both computers. You can only
transfer one file per command.

XMODEM's "packet size" (block length) is short. This has an impact on
transfer speed, and especially when downloading from timesharing systems,
packet switched networks, via satellites, and when using buffered (error
correcting) modems.

The control method (8-bit check sum) and unprotected transactions give a
low level of safety against errors in the transmission. The transferred
file may contain 127 bytes with noise characters (at the end). The creation
date of the file is lost in the transfer.

These weaknesses have given us better methods. Here are some of them:

XMODEM/CRC
----------
CRC is an abbreviation for Cyclical Redundancy Check. The method guarantees
99.9969 percent free transfer. It still has the other weaknesses of
ordinary XMODEM transfers.

YMODEM Batch
------------
is faster than XMODEM and gives a high level of safety in the transfers.
When used with some programs, YMODEM can transfer the files' creation
time/date. You can transfer updated documents. This will replace documents
with an older creation date. Only one party must enter the file name.
YMODEM takes care of the rest.

Kermit
------
is used on many computer platforms, and especially where they use a
terminal emulation mode (like VT-100) which makes the use of XMODEM
impossible. Kermit is one of the few asynchronous error correction
protocols that functions well exchanging files with half duplex IBM
front-end machines.

Kermit can transfer more than one file at the time.

Super-Kermit
------------
is also called Kermit with Sliding Windows. It can transfer many packets
before stopping to check the transfer. The protocol is much faster than
XMODEM.

ZMODEM
------
is the fastest known transfer protocol for many applications. All
transactions are protected with a 16-bit or 32-bit CRC. ZMODEM is immune
against most error conditions that prevent traditional protocols to achieve
correct transfer.

ZMODEM transfers the creation date of the file and its exact contents. The
file name is read once, and all transfer commands may be given by the
sending program.

Decompression of files
----------------------
If a file has name extensions like ZIP, LZH, ARC, PAK, LQR, LBR, ZOO, ARJ,
or QQQ, you are facing a compressed file. We use such files to achieve
faster transfers.

Files having the extension .EXE or .COM may be compressed files that have
been converted into a self-extract format. To retrieve the files from a
self-extract compressed file, just enter the file's name.

To decompress files that have not been made self-extract, you need a
utility program. These programs have many names and are available through
most bulletin boards, and widely through the Internet. Most, if not all,
decompression files may be found at ftp://ftp.cso.uiuc.edu/pc/.

Transfer problems
-----------------
Most transfer problems are caused by the communication programs and their
(lack of) features.

Some Procomm users have problems with the Kermit protocol. Tip: use 8 bit
world length and no parity in your program setup. 7 bits and even parity
does not always work (on version 2.4.2).

Uploading
---------
The transfer of data "the other way," that is, from your disk to a remote
computer, requires that you start by making some decisions. Is the file to
be sent as plain ASCII? Should I compress it in a distribution file to
reduce transfer time, and make it easier to handle for the recipient?

If you are transferring a text file containing special national characters,
then these may have to be converted to another format.

If your text contains blank lines (like blank lines between paragraphs),
you may have to insert a space character at the start of all such lines.
Some systems interpret a blank line as a signal telling that transmission
is done. The invisible space character prevents this.

Some hosts have limitations on line length. They may require that lines be
shorter than 80 characters. If you send lines that are too long, the result
may be fatal.

Sending electronic mail
-----------------------
If you send your mail too fast, some online services tend to get digestion
problems. You must be very accurate with the format of your message. It has
to agree with the host machine's rules about line length, and maximum
number of lines per message.

Let's assume that you want to send the following message to an electronic
mailbox:

    To: Datatid
    cc: Anne-Tove Vestfossen
    Sj: Merry Christmas!
    Text: Thanks for the box with herring. The taste was
    formidable. etc .. etc... etc...
    Greetings, Odd

If this is all you have to say, doing it manually may be as fast as doing
it automatically. However, if the line containing "etc .. etc .." is two
full pages of text, you may feel differently. Then, the best may be to
upload a prewritten letter.

Many Procomm users prefer to split the job in two. They enter the first
four lines manually, and upload the body of the text (when the remote
computer is ready to receive).

Press PgUp to get a menu of various uploading protocols. Select ASCII for
transfer of plain text. Procomm will ask for the name of the file, which
contains your letter. Enter the name, and the file will be sent.

Slow down with "pacing"
-----------------------
Sometimes, the PgUp method is just what you need. On other days, strange
things may stop you in the middle of your transfer. One typical reason is
that Procomm is sending it too fast for the recipient.

"Pacing" is a method used to slow the speed of the transfer to a level that
the recipient can handle.

Procomm lets you set a tiny pause after each line sent. Another technique
is to ask the program to wait for a given character (a "Go-character"),
before allowing it to send the next line. For example: the character ":" is
often used in the prompts for the next line on bulletin boards.

Protocol transfers may be easier
--------------------------------
You may find it easier to use a transfer protocol. With Procomm, press the
PgUp key, and the program will ask for a protocol. Select Kermit or
something else. The program will ask for a file name, you enter it, and off
it goes. You will have no problems with blank lines, or lines that are too
long.

At times, even this will fail. The most common reasons are:

* The recipient requires that Procomm be set for 8-bits word length, no
parity, 1 stop bit, when using this protocol, but you have it set
differently.

* You think that the recipient's version of YMODEM is the same that you
have. Wrong! Total failure.

Do the following to upload the file TEST.TXT to my bulletin board using
XMODEM:

    1. Navigate to the file area. Tell SHS what you want by using
       the following command:
              u;test.txt;x
    2. Press PgUp, select XMODEM, enter a file name (TEST.TXT), and
       the transfer will start. (If you are too slow, SHS may be
       tired of waiting for your commands . . .)
    3. When the transfer is completed, my board will ask for a
       short description of the file. Enter it, and you are done.

Enter G (for Goodbye), and disconnect.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Appendix 4: Some frequently used terms
======================================

We have included some terms that are commonly used in the online world.

Access number
------------
Telephone number dialed to access an online service or Internet provider.

Acronym
------
A worded formed from the initial letters of each of the successive parts or
major parts of a compound term. Examples: BTW (by the way), FYI (for your
information), IMHO (in my humble opinion).

Address
-------
The string of characters that you must give an electronic mail program to
direct a message to a particular person.

The term "Internet address" often refers to an assigned number, which
identifies a host on this network.

aftp
----
Abbreviation for Anonymous FTP. See Appendix 6.

ANON-FTP
--------
See Anonymous FTP in Appendix 6.

ANSI
----
(1) ANSI is an organization that sets standards.

(2) 'ANSI graphics' (ref. the term ANSI-BBS) is a set of cursor control
codes that originated on the VT100 terminal. Many online services use these
codes to help improve the sending of characters to communication programs.
It uses the escape character, followed by other characters, to move the
cursor on the screen, change color, and more.

ASCII
-----
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A standard seven-
bit code created to achieve compatibility between various types of data
processing equipment.  ASCII, pronounced "ask-key," is the common code for
microcomputer equipment.

The Standard ASCII Character Set consists of 128 decimal numbers ranging
from zero through 127 assigned to letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and
the most common special characters. Each code can be represented by a 7
digit binary number: 0000000 through 1111111.

The Extended ASCII Character Set also consists of 128 decimal numbers and
ranges from 128 through 255 representing additional special, mathematical,
graphic, and foreign characters.

ASCII download
--------------
Retrieval of plain ASCII text (without special codes). Normally, it takes
place without automatic error correction, but it is typically managed by
XON/XOFF flow control.

Asynchronous transfer
---------------------
Serial communication between two computers. When signals are sent to a
computer at irregular intervals, they are described as asynchronous. Data
is sent at irregular intervals by preceding each character with a start bit
and following it with a stop bit.

Asynchronous transmission allows a character to be sent at random after the
preceding character has been sent, without regard to any timing device.
So, in case of line noise, the modem can find out right away where the next
byte should start.

Autodial
--------
When a modem dials a telephone number automatically. Autodial may be
started by the user entering the number manually, or the number may be sent
automatically by the communications program (for example after having been
selected from a phone register).

Bandwidth
---------
How much you can send through a connection. Usually measured in bits-per-
second.

Baud
----
A unit of measurement that shows the number of discrete signal elements,
such as bits that can be sent per second.

Bits per second (bps) is the number of binary digits sent in one second.
There is a difference between bps and baud rate, and the two are often
confused.  For example, a device such as a modem said to send at 2400 baud
is not correct. It actually sends 2400 bits per second.

Both baud rate and bps refer to the rate at which the bits within a single
frame are sent. The gaps between the frames can be of variable length.
Accordingly, neither baud rate nor bps refer accurately to the rate at
which information is actually being transferred.

BBS
---
Bulletin Board or Bulletin Board System. See Bulletin Board.

Bell
----
Standard frequencies used in older modems made in the United States. The
standard for 300 bps is called Bell 103. The standard for 1200 bps full
duplex is called Bell 212A. Modems using these standards are normally
unable to communicate with ITU-TSS standard modems at these speeds.

Big5
----
Coding scheme developed in Taiwan for using Chinese on computers. There are
varieties of Big5 codes, the most common being ET Big5 (the code used by
the Taiwanese program ETen, pronounced Yi3tian1) and HKU Big5 (the code
used for programs developed at Hong Kong University).

ET Big5 files must be read with the ETen operating system. Check out the
Archie server at telnet://archie.TWNIC.NET (login: archie) to locate
software and get more information. Also, browse the information at
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/chinese-text-faq/faq.html

Binary
------
The base 2 number system in which only the digits 1 and 0 are used is
called the binary system. The binary system lets us express any number, if
we have enough bits, as a combination of 1's and 0's. Also used to express
conditions like on/off, true/false, yes/no.

Binhex
------
Macintosh software and documents (other than text files) are often
"encoded" into text files for transmission over the network.  A common
standard for such encoding is referred to as BinHex. You can usually tell
that a file contains a BinHex encoded Mac file as the file name ends in
".hqx".

BinHex5.0 format is a MacBinary format, while BinHex 4.0 files are
Macintosh ASCII format.

To keep transmission times short, the BinHexed files are often "compressed"
using a utility like StuffIt. To reconstitute the Mac application or
document you may need to "un-StuffIt."  The freeware program, StuffIt
Expander, will BinHex and unstuff most Mac files.

Uncompression programs are available from archives on the Internet.
Examples: xbin23.zip (DOS), mcvert (Unix), and binhex (VM/CMS).

Bits
----
Bit is an abbreviation for Binary digIT. Computer words and data are made-
up of bits, the smallest unit of information.

A bit can be either zero or one, represented in a circuit by an off or on
state, respectively.  The bits are set on or off to store data, or to form
a code that in turn sends instructions to the computer's central processing
unit.

Bits per second (bps)
---------------------
Bits per second (bps) is the number of binary digits sent in one second. It
refers to the rate at which the bits within a single frame are sent
('frame' is another term for 'packet'). The gaps between frames can be of
variable length.  Accordingly, bps does not refer to the rate at which
information is actually being transferred.

We usually estimate the number of characters transferred per second (cps)
by dividing the number of bps by 10. Example: 2400 bps transfers around 240
characters per second.

Boolean
-------
Search algorithm built on the algebraic theories of the English
mathematician George Booles. Boolean algorithms are used in online
databases to help narrow down the number of hits using the words AND, OR,
NOT, NEAR, etc.

Bounce
------
The return of a piece of mail because of an error in its delivery.

Bps
---
Abbreviation for bits per second. See above.

Browse
------
To view and possibly edit a file of data on screen similar to handling text
in a word processing document.

BTW
---
(By The Way) -- A shorthand appended to a comment written in an online
forum.

Bulletin board
--------------
A computer, often a microcomputer, set up to receive calls and work as an
online service. The BBSes let users communicate with each other through
message bases, and exchange files. They may also offer other services (like
news, database searches, and online shopping).

Carrier
-------
The tone that the modem sends over a phone line before any data is sent on
it. This tone has a fixed frequency and a fixed amplitude. It is then
changed to indicate data.

Character
---------
Here used about a letter, a number or another typographical symbol or code.

CCITT
-----
The Consultative Committee for International Telephony and Telegraphy. Was
an international consultative committee, organized by the United Nations.
Now replaced by ITU-TSS. See ITU (below).

COM port
--------
A COM port (or communication port) is a communications channel or pathway
over which data is transferred between remote computing devices.

MS-DOS computers may have as many as four COM ports, COM1, COM2, COM3, and
COM4.  These are serial ports most often used with a modem to set up a
communications channel over telephone lines. They can also be used to send
data to a serial printer, or to connect a serial mouse.

Compress
--------
(1) To compact data to save space.

(2) Common compression function on the Internet. Depending on the
distribution of data in a file it can be reduced in size by 25% to 70% by
compressing it.

COMPRESS files are often, but not always, noted with the file extension .Z.
Data archive and compression processes can be combined to form files like
filename.tar.z (see TAR below).

If you download a file with a file type showing that it is compressed, you
will need a program to expand it before you can use it. Check out the
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/compress library. Look for files
starting with 'comp' (as in COMP430D.EXE) to find programs that can expand
.Z-files.

For more about ARC, ARJ, LZH, ZIP, ZOO, LBR-compressed and archived files,
retrieve ftp://ftp.coast.net/SimTel/msdos/starter/00-files.doc.

Compression
-----------
See decompression.

Conference
----------
Also called SIG (Special Interest Group), Forum, RoundTable, Echo. A
conference is an area on a bulletin board or online service set up as a
mini board. Most conferences have separate message bases and often also
file libraries and bulletins. Conferences are focused on topics, like
politics, games, multimedia and product support.

Connect time
------------
A term used for the hours, minutes, and seconds that a user is connected to
an online service. On several commercial services, users have to pay for
connect time.

cps
---
Characters per second. See Bits per second.

Data
----
Information of any kind, including binary, decimal or hexadecimal numbers,
integer numbers, text strings, etc.

Database
--------
A database is a highly structured file (or set of files) that tries to
provide all the information assigned to a particular subject and to allow
programs to access only items they need.

Online services offer databases that users can search to find full-text or
bibliographic references to desired topics.

DCE/DTE
-------
Data Communications Equipment/Data Terminal Equipment. Equipment connected
to an RS232 connector must be either a DCE (like a modem or a printer) or a
DTE (computer or terminal). The term defines the types of equipment that
will "talk" and "listen."

DECnet
------
Digital Equipment Corporation network. A networking protocol for DEC
computers and network devices.

Decompression
-------------
Files available from online archives are often compressed to save space,
and reduce retrieval time.

A FAQ about how to decompress 'anything' is regularly posted to the
comp.compression newsgroup.

Default
-------
When a value, parameter, attribute, or option is assigned by a
communications program, modem, or online system unless something else is
specified, it is called the default.

For example, communication programs often have prespecified values for baud
rate, bit size and parity that are used unless alternative values are
given.  These prespecified values are called the defaults.

Some services give users a choice between two or more options. If a
selection is not made by the user, then a selection is automatically
assigned, by default.

Dial-up access
--------------
An indirect connection to the Internet or an online service through a modem
or a digital phone network adapter.


Doors
-----
A service offered by many bulletin boards to allow the user to leave the
(remote) main software system to use one or several independent programs,
like games and databases.

Downloading
-----------
The transfer of data from an online service and "down" to your computers'
disk.

DTR
---
Data Terminal Ready is a circuit which, when ON, tells the modem that your
computer is ready to communicate. Most modems are unable to tell your
computer that a connection has been set up with a remote computer before
this circuit has been switched off. If your computer turns this signal OFF,
while it is in a dialog with a remote computer, the modem will normally
disconnect.

Duplex
------
Describes how you see text entered by the keyboard. When the setting is
HALF DUPLEX, all characters entered on your computer for transfer to an
online service (or your modem) will be displayed. In addition, you will
normally receive an echo from the online service (or modem). The result
will often 'bbee lliikkee tthhiiss'.

When using the setting FULL DUPLEX, typed characters will not be shown.
What you see, are characters echoed back to you from the online service
and/or your modem.

ECHO
----
(1) When data is being sent, the receiving device often resends the
information back so the sending device can be sure it was received
correctly.

(2) Term used on FidoNet for this network's system of exchanging
conferences (parallel conferencing).

Email
-----
Abbreviation for Electronic Mail.

Ethernet
--------
A very common method of networking computers in a LAN. Ethernet will handle
about 10,000,000 bits-per-second and can be used with almost any kind of
computer.

File server
-----------
A file server is a device that "serves" files to everyone on a network. It
allows everyone on the network to get files in a single place, on one
computer. Typically, it is a combination computer, data management
software, and large capacity hard disk drive.

File transfer
-------------
The copying of a file from one computer to another over a computer network.

Flame
-----
A "flame" is a conference message sent by someone who disagrees so
violently that they are willing to sink to personal attacks. Flames can be
extremely annoying, and can get the writer banished from several conference
networks.

Fractal
--------
A mathematical algorithm from which an image can be created. A fractal
formula generates a fractal picture composed of an image based on a basic
pattern. An outgrowth of chaos mathematics, it is being used for
compressing and decompressing high quality images. Usually, a fractally
compressed image has an extremely small file size.

Freeware
--------
A program, text, or file in which the author still holds the copyright but
allows the item to be used and distributed free of charge.

Full duplex
-----------
The term full-duplex means the transmission of data in two directions
simultaneously as from a terminal to a computer or from the computer to the
terminal. Full-duplex is simultaneous two-way communication.

Full-text database
------------------
A database containing the full text of an article, a chapter in a book, or
a book. The contents are not limited to abstracted information (indexes,
bibliographic information).

Gateway
-------
Here, we use the term gateway about an interconnection between two (or
more) online services, set up to let a user of one service use the other
service's offerings through the first service's user interface.

The term also has other meanings:

A gateway provides an interconnection between two networks with different
communications protocols. Gateways operate at the 4th through 7th layer of
the OSI model. For example, a PAD (a packet assembler/disassembler) is a
device used to interface non-X.25 devices to an X.25 network.  The PAD
serves as a gateway. Protocol converters are gateways between networks.

The gateway, provided by an adapter card in a workstation, enables the
network to perform as if it were a mainframe terminal connected directly to
the mainframe.

GUI
---
Graphical User Interface. Front end software based on the use of pictures
(icons) to represent commands and files.

GNU
---
"Gnu's Not UNIX."  A UNIX-compatible operating system developed by the Free
Software Foundation.

GuoBiao
-------
Coding scheme for using Chinese on computers developed in mainland China.
For more information, check out this Web site:
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/chinese-text-faq/faq.html

Half duplex
-----------
The term half-duplex means the transmission of data in either direction but
only one direction at a time.

Ham
---
Amateur radio.

Handle
------
An alias used on a bulletin board or online service instead of your real
name. Often used in chats.

Header
------
(1) In an email message, the part that precedes the body of a message and
contains, among other things, the message originator, date and time.

(2) On a packet switched network, the portion of a package, preceding the
actual data, containing source and destination addresses, and error
checking and other fields.

Host
----
A term for host computer, remote computer or online service. Here, we use
it about a timesharing computer, a BBS system, or a central computer that
controls a network and delivers online services.

Hypermedia
----------
is a medium with pointers to other media (a superset of hypertext). Often
used in connection with the World Wide Web on Internet. Here, the term
means that browsers might not display a text file, but might display images
or sound or animations.

Information utility
-------------------
A term often used about online services (not unlike the term power
utility).

Intranet
--------
An internal (corporate) network using Internet technology. Usually it
involves the use of the TCP/IP protocols. (For more information, see
http://www.lochnet.com/client/smart/intranet.htm)

ISDN
----
An emerging technology being offered by many telephone carriers of the
world. ISDN combines voice and digital network services in a single medium,
making it possible to offer customers digital data services as well as
voice connections through a single "wire." The standards that define ISDN
are specified by ITU-TSS. For more information, link to this Web page:
http://www.itu.ch/special/search.html, and input "isdn" as a search
term.

ISO
---
The International Organization for Standardization. A voluntary, nontreaty
organization responsible for creating international standards in many
areas, including computers and communications. Its members are the national
standards organizations of the 89 member countries, including ANSI for the
U.S.

ISO is coordinator of the main Internet networking standards that are in
use today.

[e-mail] is a mailing list focusing on the ISO protocol stack.

ITU
---
The International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations treaty
organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. Membership includes Telephone,
governmental Post, and Telegraph Authorities, scientific and trade
associations, and private companies.

ITU consists of three "sectors:" the Radiocommunication Sector, the
Telecommunication Standardization Sector (TSS), and the Development Sector.
(The CCITT Plenary Assembly is now the World Telecommunication
Standardization Conference.)

ITU-TSS sets international communications recommendations. These are often
adopted as standards. It also develops interface, modem, and data network
recommendations.

The X.25 protocol for access to packet-switched networks was originally a
recommendation of CCITT. The CCITT recommendations are now formally known
with an ITU designator; for example, CCITT Rec. Q.931 will now be ITU-T-
Q.931.

A wide range of ITU documents is available through The Teledoc database of
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU):

   * ITU documents
   * lists of contributions (substantive input/proposals)
     to ITU study groups
   * lists of ITU reports and Recommendations (that is, standards)
   * summaries of ITU new or revised Recommendations
   * ITU meeting schedules and other information concerning Study
     Groups structures and activities.

For information, write to [e-mail]. Their database is at
[e-mail], and their Web site at http://info.itu.ch. You can
also write to ITU Information Services Dept., Place des Nations. CH-1211
Geneva 20, Switzerland.

ITU-TSS
-------
The Standards Sector of The International Telecommunication Union (see ITU
above).

JIS
---
A Japanese industry standard code for presenting the Japanese character set
Kanji on computers. JIS defines special ranges of user-defined characters.
Only the most popular ones are included.

The newer Shift JIS standard sets aside certain character codes to signal
the start of a two-character sequence. Together, these define a single
Kanji metacharacter.

There are many oddities to be found in handling Kanji over the network.
Sending JIS-encoded messages through the Internet is done using a 7-bit
code, called "OLD JIS" (standardized on JUNET). Unfortunately, it
incorporates the ESC character, which some systems will filter out. This
problem can be overcome by using UUENCODing.

Some services, like APICNET in Tokyo, converts outgoing Kanji messages
automatically to 7-bit format.

KIDLINK, the global project for children 10 - 15 years of age, operates
two Japanese language mailing lists: KIDLEADER-JAPANESE is for teachers and
coordinators, and KIDCAFE-JAPANESE for children only. For a copy of their
"How to send and receive Kanji text" help file, send a message to
[e-mail] with the following command in the body of the
mail: GET KIDLINK.KANJI

Also, check out "Electronic handling of Japanese text," by Ken Lunde
([e-mail]) in ftp://ftp.monash.edu.au/pub/nihongo/japan.inf.
You will find the nihongo directory interesting.

JPEG
----
Standardized compression method for full-color and gray-scale images that
often reduces the size of bitmapped images by a factor of 10 or more with
little or no discernible image degradation. Designed to handle "real-world"
scenes, for example scanned photographs.  Cartoons, line drawings, and
other non-realistic images are not JPEG's strong suit. On that sort of
material you may get poor image quality and/or little compression.

JVArcServ
---------
Archive server for FidoNet modelled after Archie for the Internet. It
maintains file lists from FidoNet systems throughout its area and will do
searches on these file lists based on netmail requests made to it by remote
systems.

JVArcServ lets you search through file listings for the program you are
looking for. It will send you an email message back telling you the BBS
name, phone number, and file section of all the systems in the network that
match the given criteria.

KB
--
Kilobyte. A unit of data storage size that represents 1024 characters of
information.

Kbits
-----
1,000 bits.

Kermit
------
Protocol designed for transferring files between microcomputers and
mainframe computers developed by Catchings at Columbia University.

There are both public domain, and copyrighted Kermit programs. Some of
these programs are complete programs in themselves offering the
communication functions needed for the particular machine on which they are
running.

The complete Kermit protocol manual and the source code for various
versions are available from:

     Kermit Distribution, [phone]
     Columbia University Center for Computing Activities
     612 West 115 Street,  New York, NY 10025

KOI-8
-----
Coding scheme for Russian (Cyrillic). Cyrillic fonts and keyboard maps are
available from [e-mail] and several other sources. Check out

    gopher://infomeister.osc.edu:74/11/russian/doc
    http://www.pitt.edu/~cjp/rssoft.html
    http://www.free.net/Docs/cyrillic/notes.en.html

To learn more about KOI-8, Russian TeX and Cyrillic text processors, you
can also join the RUSTEX-L mailing list on [e-mail]

RFC 1489 is about "Registration of a Cyrillic Character Set."

LAN
---
Local Area Network. A data network intended to serve an area of only a few
square kilometers or less.

LAP-M
-----
Link Access Procedure for Modems is an ITU-TSS standard for modem
modulation and error control. It is the primary basis for the ITU-TSS V.42
protocol.

LDAP
-----
The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. Email address directory. See the
LDAP home page at http://www.umich.edu/~rsug/ldap. The LDAP protocol is
described in RFC-1777, available from online RFC libraries, and is a
proposed open standard for directory services on the Internet.

Leased-line
-----------
Refers to a phone line that is rented for exclusive 24-hour, 7-days-a-week
use from your location to another location.

Library
-------
is used on online services about a collection of related databases (that
you may search in) or files (that may be retrieved).

List
----
File-viewing program for MS-DOS computers (see Chapter 14). Registration:
US$37 to Buerg Software, 139 White Oak Circle, Petaluma, CA  94952, U.S.A.
(1993). Check http://www.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/txtutl/ for a
copy of a recent version.

Login
-----
Noun: The account name used to gain access to a computer system. Not a
secret (contrast with Password).

Verb: The act of entering into a computer system, for example, "Login to
the WELL and then go to the GBN conference."

LOOKFOR
-------
Fast and flexible shareware program for boolean searches in text files.
Registration: US$15 plus postage to David L. Trafton, 6309 Stoneham Rd.,
Bethesda, Md. 20817, U.S.A.

Lurking
-------
No active participation by a subscriber to a mailing list, a conference, or
Usenet newsgroup. A person who is lurking is just listening to the
discussion.

Mail Gateway
------------
A machine that connects to two or more electronic mail systems (including
dissimilar mail systems) and transfers messages among them.

Mail path
---------
A series of machine names used to direct electronic mail from one user to
the other.

Mail server
-----------
A software program that distributes files or information in response to
requests sent by email.

Megabit (Mb)
------------
2^2 bits of information. Usually used to express a data transfer rate, as
in, 1 megabit/second (= 1Mbps).

MHS
---
(1) Message handling Service. Electronic mail software from Action
Technologies licensed by Novell for its Netware operating systems. Provides
message routing and store and forward capabilities. MHS has gateways into
PROFS, and X.400 message systems. It also has a directory naming service
and binary attachments.

(2) Message Handling System. The standard defined by ITU-TSS as X.400 and
by ISO as Message-Oriented Text Interchange Standard (MOTIS). MHS is the
X.400 family of services and protocols that provides the functions for
global email transfer among local mail systems.

MIDI
----
Musical Instrument Digital Interface. A specification that standardizes the
interface between computers and digital devices that simulate musical
instruments. Rather than transmit bulky digitized sound samples, a computer
generates music on a MIDI synthesizer by sending commands just a few bytes
in length characterizing the pitch and duration of sounds (and the
instruments that produce them). Each channel of a MIDI synthesizer
corresponds to a different instrument, or "voice," and you can program
several channels simultaneously to produce symphonic sound.

MNP
---
Microcom Networking Protocol. A proprietary standard of error control and
data compression.

Modem
-----
An acronym for MOdulator-DEModulator.  It is a device that converts digital
data from a computer or terminal into analog data that can be sent over
telephone lines.  On the receiving end, it converts the analog data back to
digital data.

Most modern modems can handle the dialing and answering of a telephone call
and generate the speed of the data transmission, measured in bits per
second, or baud rates. The telephone industry sometimes refers to a modem
as a dataset.

Moderator
---------
A person, or a small group of people, who manage moderated mailing lists
and newsgroups. Moderators are responsible for deciding which email
submissions are passed on to list.

MPEG
----
Motion Picture Experts Group. A multimedia video playback standard that
allows digital video to be compressed using a combination of JPEG image
compression and differencing (encoding a video sequence by recording
differences between frames rather than entire images of each frame).

There are two MPEG standards: MPEG-1, which supports a playback quality
roughly equal to that of a VCR, and MPEG-2, which supports high-quality
digital video.

MUD
---
Multiple User Dimension, Multiple User Dungeon, or Multiple User Dialogue.
A computer program which users can log into and explore. Each user takes
control of a computerized persona/avatar/incarnation/character. You can
walk around, chat with other characters, explore dangerous monster-infested
areas, solve puzzles, and even create your very own rooms, descriptions and
items.

For information, retrieve the various MUD FAQs from these directories

    ftp://ftp.math.okstate.edu/pub/muds/misc/mud-faq/
    http://tecfa.unige.ch/pub/documentation/MUD/

No>m
----
The No>m Standard Code for Information Interchange (NSCII) is a 16-bit
character encoding standard used in Vietnam. No>m has been the writing
system, based on ideographic (Chinese) characters, in use since the tenth
century for the spoken Vietnamese language.

A version of the NSCII code table in the form of a Macintosh HyperCard Stack
is available as ftp://unicode.org/pub/Mapping_Tables/EastAsia_maps/.


NAPLPS
------
North American Presentation-Level Protocol Syntax.  A text and graphics
data transmission format for sending large amounts of information between
computers.

It was designed for the encoding of alphanumeric, alpha-mosaic, alpha-
geometric and alpha-photographic constructs. The standard is resolution
independent and device independent, and can easily accommodate
international character sets, bit-mapped images in color, animation and
sound.

NAPLPS was originally developed for videotext and teletext systems through
the Canadian Standards Association (CSA-T500-1983).  It was later enhanced
by AT&T, and in 1983 became an ANSI standard (ANSI-X3.110-1983).

Some videotext systems, including Prodigy (U.S.A.), are based on NAPLPS. On
CompuServe, NAPLPS has been replaced with a newer protocol called GIF,
Graphics Interchange Format.

Netiquette
----------
A pun on "etiquette" referring to proper behavior on a network.

Network
-------
A data communications system that interconnects computer systems at various
sites.

NREN
----
The National Research and Education Network. A proposed computer network to
be built in the U.S.A.

NUA
---
Network User Address. The network address in a packet data network. The
electronic number that is sent to the network to connect to an online
service. Also, called X.121 address.

NUI
---
Network User Identification. The user name/password that you use to get
access to (and use) a commercial packet switched network.

Offline
-------
has the opposite meaning of "Online" (see below). It signifies that your
computer is not in direct communication with a remote online service.

Offline Reader
--------------
A computer program making the handling of mail and files from online
services easier (and cheaper). Some also provides automatic mail and file
transfers.

Typically, you first connect to an online service (often a BBS) to capture
new mail in a compressed file (typically through a "QMail door program.")
Many offline mail reader programs are idle while this goes on, while others
can do communications as well.

When disconnected from the service, the offline reader works as a
combination message database and message editor. It gives you the feeling
of still being connected to the online service, while actually being
completely disconnected.

When you have read and replied to all messages offline, the offline reader
creates a compressed "packet" containing any replies entered. Some also let
you prepare packets containing commands to join or leave conferences,
subscribe to or signoff from special services, and download files.

Then, you dial back to the BBS to upload (send) the packet, either using
the offline reader's communications module, or another communications
program.

Readers are available for MS-DOS, MS-Windows, Macintosh, Amiga, Atari ST,
Unix, and CP/M computers. The programs may be downloaded from many BBSes,
and commercial services.

Online
------
Being connected via modem or a digital phone adapter to a computer service.

Online database
---------------
A file of information that can be directly accessed by the user.

OSI
---
Open System Interconnection. A set of protocols designed to be an
international standard method for connecting unlike computers and networks.

A FAQ, Introductory information about OSI, is posted each month to the
comp.protocols.iso, comp.answers, and news.answers newsgroups.

Outernet
--------
Term used about a network that is not directly connected to the Internet,
but can exchange email with networks directly linked to the Internet.
Examples: CompuServe, Prodigy.

OZCIS
-----
DOS-based program that automates access to CompuServe using an elaborate
array of menus. Free for personal use. Contact: Ozarks West Software, 14150
Gleneagle Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80921, U.S.A.

Packet
------
(1) A group of bits sent by a modem that make up a byte of information.

(2) A group of bytes sent by a file transfer protocol.

Packet data networks
--------------------
Also called Packet Switching Networks (PDN). Value added networks offering
long distance computer communications. They let users access a remote
computer, by dialing a local node, or access point.

The packet data networks use high speed digital links, which can be land
lines or satellite communications, to send data from one computer to
another using packets of data.  They use synchronous communications,
usually with the X.25 protocol.  The routes are continually optimized, and
successive packets of the same message need not necessarily follow the same
path.

Packet radio
------------
is a method of communications by radio in which digital information
prepared on a computer is converted to short, swift audio bursts
("packets") by a "terminal node controller" or "packet controller," and
sent through a radio to another location where a similar station delivers
it error-free to the receiving computer. It can send text as well as binary
files.

Packet switching
----------------
Sending data in packets through a network to some remote location. The data
to be sent is subdivided into individual packets of data, each having a
unique identification and carrying its destination address. This allows
each packet to go by a different route. The packet ID lets the data be
reassembled in proper sequence. Check out the following link for more
information: gopher://rain.psg.com/11/networks/radio.

Password
--------
A code used to gain access to a locked system. Good passwords contain
letters and non-letters and are not simple combinations such as "virtue7".
A good password might be: Ho/t$1-6.

PC
--
Personal computer.

PDN
---
See Packet data networks.

Petabit
----
A million billion bits.

Port
----
Three meanings. First, a place where information goes into or out of a
computer, or both. For example, the "serial port" on a person computer is
where a modem would be connected. (See COM Port above.)

On the Internet, "port" often refers to a number that is part of a URL,
appearing after a colon (:) right after the domain name. Every service on
an Internet server "listens" on a particular port number on that server.
Most services have standard port numbers. For example, Web servers normally
listen on port 80. Services can also listen on non-standard ports, in which
case the port number must be specified in a URL when accessing the server,
so you might see a URL of the form:

  gopher://peg.cwis.uci.edu:7000/

This shows a gopher server running on a non-standard port (the standard
gopher port is 70).

Finally, "port" also refers to translating a piece of software to bring it
from one type of computer system to another, for example to translate a
Windows program to make it run on a Macintosh.

Prompt
------
Several times during interactive dialogs with online services, the flow of
data stops while the host computer waits for commands from the user. At
this point, the service often presents the user with a reminder, a cue, a
prompt. These are some typical prompts:

    ?
    !
    WHAT NOW?
    (Read) next letter -
    ulrik 1>
    System News - 5000>
    Enter #, <H>elp, or <CR> to continue?
    Action ==> (Inbox)
    Command:
    Enter command or <RETURN>
    -->

Protocol
--------
A formal description of message formats and the rules two computers must
follow to exchange messages. Protocols can describe low-level details of
machine-to-machine interface (for example, the order in which bits and
bytes are sent across the wire), or high-level exchanges between allocation
programs (for example, the way in which two programs transfer a file across
the Internet).

PSS
---
British Telecom's Packet Switch Stream, an X.25 packet data network.

PTT
---
Postal Telegraph and Telephone. A telephone service provider, often a
monopoly, in a particular country.

Public domain
-------------
Free from copyrights or patents, these programs, texts or files may be used
by the public without any payments to the creators.

Qalam
-----
is an Arabic-Latin-Arabic transliteration system between Arabic script
languages and the Latin script embodied in the ASCII character set.  The
Qalam system is designed to transliterate Arabic script languages for
computer mediated communication by individuals literate in those languages.

Check out the file

   ftp://cs-ftp.bu.edu/amass/Arabic/qalam.text


QWK
---
Qwikmail. A common offline message file format for bulletin boards offering
mail through a QMail Door. The .QWK door and file format has been used to
develop entire BBS networks (example: ILINK.)

There are QWK-format mail readers for Apple, Amiga, Atari, C64/C128,
CoCo/OS9, CP/M, Macintosh, MS-DOS, OS/2, Unix, Windows and Windows NT. A
list of QWK-related products is available at

     ftp://ftp.coast.net/SimTel/msdos/offline

See "offline reader."

Real-time
---------
Having the appearance of immediate action. For example, typing messages
that appear on another's monitor apparently instantly.

RIP
---
Remote Imaging Protocol. Also called RIPscrip. A graphics protocol for
bulletin boards designed as an efficient way of delivering graphics to
online services.

Router
------
A special-purpose computer (or software package) that handles the connection
between two or more networks. Routers spend all their time looking at the
destination addresses of the packets passing through them, and deciding
which route to send them on.

Script files
------------
A set of commands that enable a communications program to execute a given
set of tasks automatically (macro commands).

Server
------
A computer or a software package that provides a specific kind of service
to client software running on other computers. The term can refer to a
particular piece of software, such as a WWW server, or to the machine on
which the software is running. (Example: mail server is down today, that's
why email isn't getting out.")

A single server machine could have several different server software
packages running on it, thus providing many different servers to clients on
the network.

Shareware
---------
Copyrighted programs, texts, or other types of application files sold on a
try-before-you-buy basis. If you continue using the item past a certain
evaluation period, you must pay the author a given "registration fee." Also
often referred to as "user-supported."

SIG
---
Special Interest Group.

SNA
---
System Network Architecture. An IBM product.

Snail mail
----------
A pejorative term referring to the national postal service in different
countries.

Spam (or Spamming)
------------------
An inappropriate attempt to use a mailing list, a conference, or another
networked communications facility as if it was a broadcast medium by
sending the same message to many people who didn't ask for it. See
http://www.ip.net/BL/blacklist.html for more information.

Stuffit
-------
The most popular compression/decompression program for Macintosh computers.

String search
-------------
A method for searching a database. Works like the search function in a
common word processor program.

On online services, your commands will often search the full document
(including the title, subtitles, keywords, and the full text). Sometimes,
string searches just return a line or a few lines around the hit. In other
cases, they return the full screen or the full document.

CWIS
----
Campus Wide Information Services.

Sysop
-----
Common name used on bulletin boards for System Operator. This is the person
in charge of maintenance and helping users.

System
------
Generic name for a computer with connected equipment or for an online
service or bulletin board.

T1
--
A term for a digital carrier facility used to send a DS-1 formatted digital
signal at 1.544 megabits per second.

T3
--
A term for a digital carrier facility used to send a DS-3 formatted digital
signal at 44.746 megabits per second.

TAR
------------
.TAR or .tar is a file name extension used by a Unix utility for archiving
files, often used with "compress."  The resulting files can contain both
files and directories, and may include the subdirectory structure needed to
restore the files.

The way in which a "tarred" file is "untarred" depends on the operating
system you are using.  For a collection of utilities to extract on DOS
machines, check out

    ftp://ftp.uu.net/systems/ibmpc/msdos/simtel20/filutl

TAPCIS
------
A program for automatic access to CompuServe. It lets callers read and
respond to personal email and forum message threads offline, and download
files. Contact: Support Group, Inc., Lake Technology Park, McHenry, MD
21541, U.S.A.  Also: TAPCIS Forum. Email: [e-mail].
(On CompuServe: 74020,10). Registration: US$ 79.00.

Terminal emulator
-----------------
A program that allows a computer to emulate a terminal. The workstation
appears as a given type of terminal to the remote host.

TTY
---
Abbreviation for TELETYPE, a special type of writing terminal
(electrical/mechanical). Also, known as 'dumb terminal'.

TTY mode
--------
This is when a communications program emulates a TTY machine, which only
involves printing characters and recognizing the linefeed, carriage return
and backspace characters.

Unicode
-------
A 16 bit standard system for encoding characters of all the world's
languages. The first 128 codes of Unicode are identical to ASCII. The
system uses two bytes for each character rather than one, and can handle
65,536 character combinations rather than ASCII's just 256.

Unicode can house the alphabets of most of the world's languages, including
a complete complement of Chinese, Korean and Japanese specific characters.
ISO defines a four-byte character set for world alphabets, but uses Unicode
as a subset.

For information, browse ftp://unicode.org/pub/Mapping_Tables/, or check
out http://unicode.org.

Unix
----
An operating system that supports multi-user and multitasking operations.
A list of recommended books and documents on UNIX and related areas is
regularly posted to the misc.books.technical newsgroup.

Uploading
---------
The act of transferring data from your computer's disk (up) to an online
service and storage there.

Virus
-----
A computer virus is a small computer program created by a computer-literate
vandal with the purpose of destroying data or even applications programs in
other people's computers.

VRML
----
The Virtual Reality  Markup Language aims at extending the World Wide Web
into the domain of three-dimensional graphics. VRML "worlds" can depict
realistic or otherworldly places, which can contain objects that link to
other documents or VRML worlds on the Web. For information, check out The
Virtual Reality Entertainment Resource Guide http://vr-atlantis.com/.

WAN
---
Wide Area Network.

WYSIWYG
-------
What You See is What You Get.

X.25
----
A ITU-TSS standard communications protocol used internationally in packet
data networks. It provides error-checked communication between packet data
networks and their users or other networks.

Rather than sending a stream of bits like a modem, an X.25 router sends
packets of data.  There are different packet sizes and types. Each packet
contains data to be sent, information about the packet's origin,
destination, size, and its place in the order of the packets sent.  There
are clear packets that perform the equivalent of hanging-up the phone.
There are reset, restart, and diagnostic packets.  On the receiving end,
the packet assembler/ disassembler (PAD) in the router translates the
packets back into a readable format.

X.400
-----
The ITU-TSS and ISO standard for electronic mail.

X.500
-----
The ITU-TSS and ISO standard for electronic directory services.

.Z
--
See Compress.


More information
----------------
Irving Kind's Glossary of Computer Oriented Abbreviations and Acronyms is
available at http://www.access.digex.net/~ikind/babel.html. Babel is
updated three times a year.





------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Appendix 5: Books, newsletters, etc.
====================================

Internet
--------
Books are published almost daily covering everything there is to know about
the Internet. Use the World Wide Web to locate things of interest. Here are
some bookstores to visit:

    http://mail.coop-bookshop.com.au/coop.html             (Australia)
    http://www.homeshopping.com.br/web-lojas/livros/home.html (Brazil)
    http://www.nstn.ns.ca/cybermall/roswell/roswell.html      (Canada)
    http://www.Germany.EU.net/shop/JFL/                      (Germany)
    http://www.paraweb.com/pcbook/intbook.htm              (Singapore)
    http://www.bookshop.co.uk/                        (United Kingdom)
    http://mkn.co.uk/books                            (United Kingdom)
    http://www.books.com/                                     (U.S.A.)

The "Un-official Internet Book List" by Kevin Savetz is a large list of
books on the Internet, its users, software, hardware, use, and abuse. Top
level categories include Internet introductions and guides, Site indices
and guides, Intermediate/advanced books, and Servers and system
administration. You can search the book descriptions by keyword. At
http://www.northcoast.com/savetz/booklist/.

An abridged text edition is regularly posted to alt.internet.services and
news.answers. Send mail to [e-mail] to receive a
copy by email. Put "archive" in the subject line, and "send booklist" in
the body of the message.

Internet - newsletters/magazines
--------------------------------
Links to some of the most popular English language magazines can be found
at the Web address: http://www.internetvalley.com/top100mag.html.

"3W - A global networking newsletter." Bi-monthly. For prices and
information, contact [e-mail].

"Journal of Information Networking" (Great Britain). For info, send email
to [e-mail].

"Matrix News," a newsletter about cross-network issues. Networks frequently
mentioned include USENET, UUCP, FidoNet, BITNET, the Internet, and
conferencing systems like the WELL and CompuServe. Matrix News is about all
computer networks worldwide that exchange electronic mail. Online
subscription: US$25 for twelve monthly issues, or US$15 for students.
Paper subscriptions: US$30 for twelve monthly issues, or US$20 for
students; for overseas postage, add US$10 (1992).  Contact: Matrix News,
Building 2 Suite 300, 1120 South Capitol of Texas Highway, Austin, TX
78746, U.S.A.  Email: [e-mail]. WWW: http://www.tic.com/mids

"Information Highways." Magazine. Annual subscription: $98.00CDN.
Information Highways, 162 Joicey Blvd., Toronto, Ontario, M5M 2V2, Canada.
Fax: [phone].

"Internet World magazine," Meckler Corporation, 11 Ferry Lane West,
Westport, CT 06880, U.S.A. ([e-mail])

"The Internet Business Journal," 1-60 Springfield Road, Ottawa, CANADA, K1M
1C7. Fax: [phone]. Publisher: Michael Strangelove
<[e-mail]>.

"The Internet Magazine," 60 Springfield Road, Suite 1, Ottawa, Ontario,
CANADA, K1M 1C7. Tel: [phone]. Publisher: Michael Strangelove
<[e-mail]>.

"Online Access," magazine, Chicago Fine Print. Subscription is US$19.80 for
8 issues. E-mail: 70324,[e-mail].

Internet Business Report. CMP Publications (Network Computing,
Communications Week, etc.). Newsletter for corporate strategists interested
in the Internet as a channel for information products and services, or to
extend support for current operations. Monthly in an 8-page hardcopy
format. For a complimentary sample issue, send email to [e-mail].
Specify "free copy" in the subject line. They have a free technology
information service at http://techweb.cmp.com/techweb.

Wired. ISSN 1058-1028. 544 2nd Street, San Francisco, CA 94107, U.S.A.
A trendy, glossy magazine frequently highlighting electronic networking.

Bulletin Board systems and networks
-----------------------------------
BoardWatch Magazine, 8500 West Bowles Ave. Suite 210 Littleton, CO 80123,
USA. Fax: [phone]. Email: [e-mail]. WWW:
http://www.boardwatch.com/.

"Using Computer Bulletin Boards," by John V. Hedtke. 1990. MIS Press.

"BMUG Guide to Bulletin Boards and Beyond," by Bernard Aboba (1992).
Quantum Books, 4 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, U.S.A. Email:
[e-mail]. (BMUG = Berkeley Macintosh User's Group)

"The BBS Construction Kit," by David Wolfe. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1994.
US$27.95. 373 pages.

America Online
--------------
"The Official America Online for Windows Membership Kit & Tour Guide," by
Tom Lichty, Ventana Press, 1994, US$34.95. 382 pages.

"America Online for Dummies," by John Kaufeld, IDG Books Worldwide Inc.,
1995. US$19.99. 356 pages.

CompuServe
----------
"CompuServe Companion: Finding Newspapers and Magazines Online" by Glenn S.
Orenstein and Ruth M. Orenstein, BiblioData, 1994, 198 pages. US$ 29.95.

"CompuServe from A to Z," by Charles Bowen, Bantam Computer Books, 1991.
US$24.95. Paperback, 520 pages.

GEnie
-----
"Glossbrenner's Master Guide to GEnie," Alfred Glossbrenner,
Osborne/McGraw-Hill, 1991, US$39.95, paperback, 616 pages.

General
-------
"Get On-Line!: The Communications Software Companion," by Lamont Wood. John
Wiley & Sons, 1993. 336 p, US$24.95.

"Modem USA," by Lynne Motley, Alium Press, 1994. US$24.95. 401 pages.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Appendix 6: Web/Internet tools & pointers
=========================================

Anonymous FTP
-------------
The procedure of connecting to a remote computer, as an anonymous or guest
user, to transfer files back to your computer. Usually, you are asked to
logon using the identity "anonymous," and to use your email address as a
password. (See FTP below for more information.)

Archie
------
Directory service for locating information throughout the Internet. Used to
locate files on anonymous ftp archive sites, other online directories and
resource listings.

Offers access to the "whatis" database of descriptions that include the
name and a brief synopsis of the large number of public domain software,
datasets and informational documents located on the Internet.

You can access Archie by email, and also by telnet to one of the following
addresses:

  telnet://archie.au                  Australian server
  telnet://archie.mcgill.ca           Canada
  telnet://archie.doc.ic.ac.uk        England
  telnet://archie.funet.fi            Finland
  telnet://archie.th-darmstadt.de     Germany
  telnet://archie.kuis.kyoto-u.ac.jp  Japan
  telnet://archie.sogang.ac.kr        Korea
  telnet://archie.nz                  New Zealand
  telnet://archie.luth.se             Sweden
  telnet://archie.ncu.edu.tw          Taiwan
  telnet://archie.rutgers.edu         U.S.A.

Archie is also available by gopher. Example:

  gopher://gopher.tamu.edu:70/11/.dir/archie.dir

Archie Mail Servers
-------------------
Email-based file transfer facility offered by some systems connected to the
Internet. Try send mail to archie@<insert one of the addresses above here>
with the word "help" in the subject. Examples: [e-mail], and
[e-mail].

Backbone
--------
Internet's data flows on high-speed lines called backbone lines. A high-
speed line or series of connections that forms a major pathway within a
network. The term is relative as a backbone in a small network will likely
be much smaller than many non-backbone lines in a large network.

Bandwidth
---------
The amount of frequencies a device can handle. The amount of bandwidth a
channel is capable of carrying tells you what kinds of communications can
be carried on it. In computer-mediated communications, bandwidth is often
used when talking about conference users' capacity for reading, digesting
and responding to conference items.

Browser
-------
A program that lets you view various Internet resources. Netscape and
Mosaic are popular browsers. Most Internet browsers let you follow World
Wide Web hyperlinks.

For links to sites where you can retrieve most popular browser programs,
click here: http://www.browserwatch.com/browsers.html.

CGI
---
Common Gateway Interface. Used by html writers to let a page communicate
with other programs running on the server. See tutorial at
http://www.takungpao.com.hk/~ringo/tutorial/.

CU-SeeMe
--------
Video Conferencing over the Internet. Macintosh and Windows software plus
extensive readme files are available at:

  ftp://gated.cornell.edu/pub/CU-SeeMe
  http://CU-seeMe.cornell.edu/

Demos
-----
Entertaining data versions of music videos. Short graphic animations set to
music that typically run for five or six minutes. Also known as Intros.
See the Usenet newsgroup comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos, and these pointers:

    http://www.mofile.fi/demog/demo2.html
    http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/~smiley/nirvana/demos.html
    http://www.cs.msu.su/~gong/demoscene/demolinks.html

Discussion list
---------------
See Mailing list.

Domain Name System (DNS)
------------------------
Email addressing system used in networks such as Internet and BITNET. The
Internet DNS consists of a hierarchical sequence of names, from the most
specific to the most general (left to right), separated by dots, for
example nic.ddn.mil.

Eudora
------
Popular email system for MS-DOS and Macintosh computers that requires a
WinSock v1.1 compliant TCP/IP stack. Free versions are widely available
throughout the net. Write [e-mail] for information about
a commercial version. There is an open discussion list about Eudora on
[e-mail]. (Command: subscribe Eudora Your_Email_address)
Archive for updates: ftp://ftp.qualcomm.com/quest/eudora/. Information:
http://www.eudora.com/

FAQ
---
"Frequently Asked Questions" are information files about services on the
Internet, and a wide range of other topics. Useful pointers to resources,
and a fairly reliable source of answers that have been tested by real
users.

FAQs can be found all over the Internet.  Several Usenet newsgroups have
one specific to their subjects. Some have several FAQs on different,
pertinent subjects.

A list of FAQ documents is posted every four to six weeks to the Usenet
newsgroup news.announce.newusers. Browse the FAQs at:

  http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/
  http://mailserv.cc.kuleuven.ac.be/faq/faq.html

or retrieve them by email (see "WWW by email" in Chapter 12). You can search
(and read) Usenet FAQS at gopher://sjuvm.stjohns.edu:70/11/network Many
FAQs are also available via a Veronica search of gopher space.

All FAQs are available by email from [e-mail]. For an
index of available FAQs, put the command GET NETFAQS FILELIST in the body
of your mail.

Reference.COM (see Chapter 11) is an efficient way of keeping track of
changes in important Usenet FAQs. For example, try the search term
"australia/oz-net-faq" to keep track of the "Network Access in Australia
FAQ."

Finger
------
A program that returns information about registered users on a host that is
directly connected to the Internet via TCP/IP. You cannot use finger to
find user addresses on BITNET or UUCP, or any other networks gatewayed to
the TCP/IP Internet.

Useful before starting chats (known on the Internet as "talk"), to check
your assumption of a person's email address, to learn more about a person,
or to get other kinds of information.

For finger by email, write [e-mail] with Subject: #finger
[e-mail] . My address, [e-mail], is at a site.domain
called login.eunet.no. In this case, use #finger [e-mail].

Finger is also being used as a general information system. For example,
finger [e-mail] for information about how to search some databases
using finger. Databases include Archie, Internet, Newsgroups, and Postcodes
(Australian Postcodes).

Finger to [e-mail] for weekly U.S. TV ratings according to
the Nielsen rating system, and to [e-mail] for 24-hour solar x-ray
flare activity reports.

The Finger FAQ is available by email from [e-mail]. Send
the command: send usenet/news.answers/signature_finger_faq . On the WWW:
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/signature_finger_faq/faq.html

Firewall
--------
Method used by several organizations to protect users from the "unsecure"
network, and disallow unwanted logins or file transfers from the Internet.
An Internet site will be denied a connection if an attempt is made to login
to the firewall server.

Users behind a firewall can get to servers on the Internet. They can use
WWW, Gopher, FTP, and TELNET, but cannot supply resources through these
protocols to people outside the company.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
----------------------------
A program for sending and receiving files to and from a remote computer to
your local host. Lets you connect to many remote computers, as an anonymous
or guest user, to transfer files back to your computer. Lets you list file
directories on foreign systems, get or retrieve files. You cannot browse
menus, send email, or search databases using FTP.

The easiest is to use ftp with a Web browser like Netscape. Just feed the
browser the file's location, in a format like this:

  ftp://ftp.digex.net/pub/access/hecker/internet/slip-ppp.txt

The codes after the "//" show first the host name, then the directory, and
finally the file name of the desired file.

Some users type ftp at their system prompt, login on the remote system, and
ask for the file they want to receive. It transfers to their local host
machine. (For more on this, read under "Internet" in Appendix 1.) Finally,
unless their computer is directly connected to the Internet, the retrieved
file must be transferred from their host machine to their PC.

Where ftp or WWW is not available, you may also use FTPMAIL (chapter 12).

For ftp via Gopher, try

Type=1
Name=Popular FTP Sites via Gopher
Path=1/FTP Searches/Popular FTP Sites via Gopher
Host=gopher.tc.umn.edu
Port=70
URL: gopher://gopher.tc.umn.edu:70/11/FTP Searches/Popular FTP Sites via Gopher

A "FTP Frequently Asked Questions" exists (see FAQ above).

FSP
---
File Service Protocol.

FYI
---
"For Your Information." A subseries of RFCs that are not technical
standards or descriptions of protocols that are available from the
ftp://nic.ddn.mil/fyi directory.

FYIs may also be requested by email to [e-mail] with a subject
line of "FYI ##" for text versions or a subject line of "FYI ##.PS" for
PostScript versions. For a list of available documents (the FYI index), the
subject line of your message should read "FYI index." Also, check the sites
carrying RFCs (see below).

Gopher
------
A global information service working from a top-level subject-oriented
menu system that accesses other information services across the Internet.
Combines a finding and fetching capability in one tool.

Gets information from certain locations on the Internet to which it is
connected, and brings the information to your computer. It can get
information via other Gophers at other locations connected to yet other
hosts. The Telneting or file transfer protocols are transparent to the
user.

To access gopher services, run a browser program. The browser reads
documents, and can fetch documents and files from other sources. Some
services let you fetch gopher information by electronic mail (see
Gophermail below).

"Common Questions and Answers about the Internet Gopher" are posted to the
Usenet newsgroups comp.infosystems.gopher, comp.answers, and news.answers
every two weeks. (See FAQ above.)

The Online World handbook's support forum files are on the gopher address
login.eunet.no (URL: gopher://login.eunet.no/11/1, or telnet to
telnet://login.eunet.no, login: gopher).

Pointers to Gopher sources may be given in this form:

  Type=1
  Name=  United States GOVERNMENT Gophers
  Path=1/gopher.welcome/peg/GOPHERS/gov
  Host=peg.cwis.uci.edu
  Port=7000
  URL: gopher://peg.cwis.uci.edu:7000/11/gopher.welcome/peg/GOPHERS/gov

If your browser cannot use this information directly, try to deduct the
information from the URL line. In this example, it translates into 'gopher
peg.cwis.uci.edu 7000' , select peg / gophers/ gov.

If the gopher command is not available on your system, then you may telnet
to the gopher site, and login as 'gopher' or 'info'.

Connect to gopher://boombox.micro.umn.edu for more information. To follow
gopher developments, subscribe by mail (SUB Your-Full-Name) to

  [e-mail]

If in an exploratory mood, point your Internet browser at

  gopher://cwis.usc.edu/11/Other_Gophers_and_Information_Resources

The choices include: How to use Gopher (free course), Guides to Internet
Resources, Gophers by Subject, Gophers by Location, Gophers by Keyword
Search (Veronica), Wide Area Information Server (WAIS) databases, and more.

To search Popular FTP Sites via Gopher, connect to

  gopher://gopher.tc.umn.edu/11/FTP%20Searches/

The gophers of the world, sorted by country, are at

  URL: gopher://liberty.uc.wlu.edu/11/gophers/other

See Veronica below.

Gophermail
----------
To use Gopher by electronic mail. Messages containing menus and gopher link
information are mailed you in response to your requests. You reply to these
messages and show which menu items you want.  Lets you use the Gopher
without having a direct "live" Internet network connection.

Send a message to one of the following addresses for more information:

  [e-mail]       (Brazil)
  [e-mail]              (Japan)
  [e-mail]              (Japan)
  [e-mail]  (USA)
  [e-mail]              (Sweden)

If you send a blank message, a help screen will be returned to you.

GopherMail's options include:

  * Requesting the Gopher menu for a specific host name,
  * Message splitting after a certain file size (for those with a size
    limit on email messages),
  * Re-using links to selected gopher menus by saving them in a local
    "Bookmarks" file.

Binary and Sound Files are sent as uuencoded files.

To perform a search, select that menu item with an "x" and supply your
search words in the Subject: of your next reply.  Note that your search
criteria can be a single word or a boolean expression such as:

  computers and (macintosh or ms-dos)

Home page
---------
An Internet document created with HTML (the HyperText Markup Language)
often containing graphics, text, and hypertext links to other "pages."

HotJava
-------
A modular, applet-aware, extensible World-Wide Web browser written in the
Java programming language.

HTML
----
The HyperText Markup Language is used to compose WWW pages.

The HTML FAQ is at URL: http://www.umcc.umich.edu/~ec/www/html_faq.html.
The Compendium of HTML Elements Page provides explanations by tag type. See
http://www.synapse.net/~woodall/html.htm.  (Also, see "WWW" below.)

HTTP
----
Hypertext Transfer Protocol. Hypertext is text with pointers to other
text. Thus, hypertext is a term used of linking related information.

Some information providers on the Internet run programs that will let you
access hypertext. Examples: Lynx, Mosaic.

You use a special HTTP browser program to access the information. Examples:
Netscape, Xmosaic.

Hytelnet
--------
(1) An Internet service offering access to many other services, including
university and library catalogues around the world. Prefers VT-100
emulation. (telnet://herald.usask.ca. Login: hytelnet)

  Read: ftp://ftp.usask.ca/pub/hytelnet/README
  WWW version: http://www.usask.ca/cgi-bin/hytelnet

(2) A memory resident utility for MS-DOS that provides instant access to
all telnet-accessible library catalogs, Free-Nets, BBSs, Campus Wide
Information Servers, Gophers, WAIS, and much more. You can retrieve it from
this Web address: http://www.lights.com/hytelnet/. Also, there are
versions for Unix, VMS, Macintosh, and MS Windows.

HYTEL-L (on [e-mail]) is a mailing list for
announcements of new versions.

IMAP
----
Internet Mail Access Protocol. The up-and-coming Internet email server
protocol, offer easier administration and more power than the old POP (Post
Office Protocol).

International Standard Top-level Country codes
-----=-----------------------------------------
Top-level country codes derived from the International Standards
Organization's international standard ISO 3166. For a current list,
retrieve the International E-mail FAQ. It is regularly posted to the
comp.mail.misc, comp.mail.uucp, news.newusers.questions
alt.internet.services, alt.answers, comp.answers, and news.answers
newsgroups, or check it out on the Web:

    http://www.ee.ic.ac.uk/misc/country-codes.html

Internet number
---------------
See IP Address

IP (Internet Protocol)
----------------------
The Internet standard protocol that provides a common layer over dissimilar
networks, used to move packets between host computers and through gateways
if necessary.

TCP/IP packets are the basic units of communication across the Internet.
The information they carry includes your system's IP address, the IP
address of the server you're trying to contact, and data communicated
(like the contents of a World Wide Web document). Routing information is
added to the packets along the way.

For more information, send a message to [e-mail] with the
following text in the subject title: RFC 791 .

IP Address
----------
Every machine on the Internet has a unique address, called its Internet
number or IP address. Usually, this address is represented by four numbers
joined by periods ('.'), like 129.133.10.10.

The first two or three pieces represent the network that the system is on,
called its subnet. For example, all the computers for Wesleyan University
in the U.S.A. are in the subnet 129.133, while the number in the previous
paragraph represents a full address to one of the university's computers.

If you are at a site with a deficient nameserver, you may need to know the
IP address of a host, for example to FTP files from it.  You can get this
by sending email to [e-mail] or [e-mail]. In
the TEXT of your mail write 'help' for usage information. You can also use
it to get a UUCP node's map entry.

Internet provider
-----------------
An organization that gives customers access to the Internet via the
provider's computers and connections. (See Appendix 7.)

IRC
---
Internet Relay Chat is a multi-user, multi-channel chatting network. It
allows people all over the world to talk to one another in real-time.

Each IRC user has a nickname they use.  All communication with another user
is either by nickname or by the channel that they or you are on.  It
requires that you use a service that has a direct connection to Internet.

A FAQ file, "IRC Frequently Asked Questions," is regularly posted to the
alt.irc newsgroup. On the World Wide Web, you can retrieve it as
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/irc-faq/faq.html.

ITR
---
Internet Talk Radio. For general information (a FAQ) about the Internet
Multicasting Service radio programs, send email to [e-mail]. For a
listing of some distribution sites, send mail to [e-mail].

A list of archive sites that make the Internet Talk Radio sound files
accessible via anonymous FTP is irregularly posted to the following
newsgroups: alt.internet.talk-radio, alt.radio.internet, alt.answers,
news.answers. They may also be retrieved from

  ftp://juggler.lanl.gov/pub/ITR/itr_archives.html

To access Internet Talk Radio in World Wide Web (WWW):

  http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/radio/radio.html

Jughead
-------
An interactive Internet service that gets menu information from various
gopher servers. A database of Gopher links, and an acronym for Jonzy's
Universal Gopher Hierarchy Excavation And Display.

Accepts word searches and the search result can be used to access menus on
many remote Gophers. More information in

  ftp://ftp.cc.utah.edu/pub/gopher/GopherTools/jughead/jughead.ReadMe

Knowbot
-------
Experimental directory services using intelligent computer programs that
automate the search and gathering of data from distributed databases. The
concept behind the Knowbot is that it is supposed to be a Knowledge Robot -
- something that goes hunting for information on the Internet. Telnet to
telnet://info.cnri.reston.va.us:185.

Linux
-----
Free Unix operation system clone for 80386/80486 computers. The "Linux
Documents Explained for Newbies" document is regularly posted to the
comp.os.linux newsgroup. Check this file library for more:

  ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/

Start with the current version of the Linux FAQ.

LISTPROC
--------
An automated mailing list distribution system similar to the LISTSERV
program (see below). To subscribe to a LISTPROC list, send an email
containing the following type of command in the body of your mail

   SUBSCRIBE <list name> Your name

LISTSERV
--------
An automated mailing list distribution system enabling online discussions of
technical and nontechnical issues conducted by electronic mail throughout
the Internet. The LISTSERV program was originally designed for the
BITNET/EARN networks.

All BITNET mailing lists can be used by email through the Internet. Several
BITNET hosts also have Internet addresses. Whenever dual addresses are
given, Internet users should use the Internet address, while BITNET users
should use the BITNET address.

Usually, you subscribe to a LISTSERV mailing list by using the command

    SUBSCRIBE <list name> <your name>

Example: If your name is Oleg Moskwa, and the list name is KIDLINK, send an
email to the LISTSERV address above with the following command in the body
of your text:

    SUBSCRIBE KIDLINK Oleg Moskwa

Note: Some LISTSERVs will reply by sending you a request to confirm the
subscription by replying with an OK and a unique number. After 48 hours
(this can vary) the request is dropped, and the user will have to start
over. While this may seem like a hassle, it is really in your interest.
The confirmation system prevents others from subscribing you onto lists
pretending to be you.

Usually, you can get off a LISTSERV mailing list by using the command
SIGNOFF <list name>, as in

    SIGNOFF KIDLINK

Important: All subscription commands must be sent to the LISTSERV address,
and not to the mailing list itself. If you send it to the mailing list, it
will be forwarded to all subscribers, and nothing may happen.

To temporarily turn off mail, use the command

    SET <LISTNAME> NOMAIL

Other mailing list programs exist. Some are using the Unix readnews or rn
facility. Others are called MajorDomo and LISTPROC. Commands differ. On
some lists, you must use "UNSUBSCRIBE <LISTNAME>" rather than SIGNOFF.

Some may require that you ask for permission to join. A central moderator
may review your contributions before mailing, or use them to compile a
periodic "digest" for subscribers.

Example: To subscribe to non LISTSERV mailing lists you may have to send an
email message to LIST-REQUEST@ADDRESS, where "list" is the name of the
mailing list and "address" is the  moderator's e-mail address, asking to be
added to the list.

List of Lists
-------------
The Interest Groups List of Lists is a directory of conferences available
at ftp://sri.com/netinfo/interest-groups. As of March 1994, the file was
around 1,4 megabytes big.

You can also get it by email from [e-mail]. Write the following
command in the TEXT of the message:

  Send netinfo/interest-groups

Lynx
----
If you don't have a TCP/IP connection to an Internet provider, the easiest
way to access the World Wide Web is through Lynx.  This text-only based
browser works on any VT100 (ASCII) emulating terminal program using full
screen, arrow keys, highlighting, etc., and can be found on almost any
Internet host.

Set your communications software to vt-100, dial up, logon, and type "lynx"
to see if it is available. If not, try telnet to ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
(telnet://ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu). At the login prompt, enter www and press
return to access a Lynx browser. Online help is available. Note: You can
not use this service to access a random Web address!

If Lynx is available on your local computer, just type "g" for go, and then
type the URL of the document you want. Type "h" for help.

Even if you have a TCP/IP connection, you may find Lynx faster than most
Windows-based browsers for some applications. It provides fast navigation
of cross-linked hypertext documents (minus multimedia) over a low-speed
dial-up connection. You can even use it with a 2,400 bits/s modem.

A copy of the program, including a release for MS-DOS computers, can be
retrieved from

  ftp://FTP2.cc.ukans.edu/pub/lynx/

MAILBASE
--------
A program functioning like a LISTSERV. For more information about the
Mailbase at Newcastle University (England), send email to
[e-mail] containing the following commands:

  help                     (for a general help file)
  send mailbase user-guide (for a User Guide)
  lists                    (for a list of available forums)

This mailbase managed 403 mailing lists in July 1993.

Mailing list
------------
A possibly moderated discussion group on the Internet, distributed via
email from a central computer maintaining the list of people involved in
the discussion. Anyone can send a message to a single mailing list address.
The message is "reflected" to everyone on the list of addresses. The
members of that list can respond, and the responses are reflected, forming
a discussion group.
    (See LISTSERVers)

Think of mailing lists as magazines - you subscribe and unsubscribe as your
needs and interests change. For more information, including basic commands
for subscriptions, and common software used to support the mailing lists,
try http://www.webcom.com/impulse/list.html.

Majordomo
---------
is another program that organizes mailing lists. Commands for subscribing
and unsubscribing are similar to those used with a LISTSERV except that the
name is not given at the end of the subscription line. Further, rather than
sending e-mail to LISTSERV at the site that houses the list, send to
[e-mail].

For a list of mailing lists served by this Majordomo server, send the
command 'lists' in the body of your email message. Add the command 'help'
on the next line for a short help file.

MIME
----
The Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions is a specification that offers a
way to interchange text in languages with different character sets, and
multi-media email among many different computer systems that use Internet
mail standards.

MIME lets you create and read email messages containing these things:

  - character sets other than ASCII
  - enriched text (text with markup commands like <bold> to make
      it more readable)
  - images
  - sounds
  - other messages (reliably encapsulated)
  - tar files
  - PostScript
  - FTPable file pointers
  - other stuff

MIME supports several pre-defined types of non-textual message contents,
such as 8-bit 8000Hz-sampled mu-LAW audio, GIF image files, and PostScript
programs. It also permits you to define your own types of message parts.

For details, check out FAQ 475, the newsgroup comp.mail.mime, and a RFC-
1341 and 1523.

Note: A MIME message received by someone on a host without MIME installed,
may be encoded in a binary format (BASE64) and be impossible to read. If
you have this problem, try the small free utility that is available through
the TOW archive. Send GET TOW.MASTER (as explained in the preface of the
book) for retrieval instructions and file name.

Mirror
------
Term used about one or several hosts on the Internet that maintain a
complete copy ("mirror") of selected contents from another host on the net.

NCSA Mosaic
-----------
gives point-and-click access to the World Wide Web over a SLIP or TCP/IP
connection to the Internet. Mosaic will not work through simple Internet
gateways unless you are using pseudo-SLIP software. A direct Internet
connection, or a dedicated high-speed phone line is required.

The system runs on X Windows, the Macintosh, and Microsoft Windows, and has
integrated transparent access to other Internet services, ranging from FTP
to WAIS to Gopher.

Mosaic can display hypertext and hypermedia documents in a variety of fonts
and styles. It has support for sounds, movies, international characters,

Mosaic can be retrieved from ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/. The MS Windows
version is in the /PC/Mosaic directory. The Macintosh version is in the
/Mac/Mosaic directory.

Netfind
-------
Internet directory services that allow users to get information about
individuals. Search by name and organization/location. For more
information, send email to [e-mail] with the following
text in the body of your mail "GET NETFIND HELP".

Here are some Netfind user lookup hosts (login as user netfind):

  telnet://netfind.if.usp.br                Brazil
  telnet://malloco.ing.puc.cl               Chile
  telnet://nic.nm.kr                        Korea
  telnet://mudhoney.micro.umn.edu           U.S.A.
  telnet://netfind.icm.edu.pl               Poland

Netnews
-------
See: Usenet.

Newsgroup
---------
Term used for online conferences on Usenet. See Appendix 1 for more.

NIC
---
Network Information Center. An organization that provides users with
information about services provided by the Internet network.

NNTP server
-----------
Usenet netnews are being distributed globally through local servers, called
NNTP servers. You should use a local server. if available, for higher
speed. Reading programs, like WinVN and Netscape, require that you put the
address of a NNTP server in the configuration file. Netscape example:

NNTP_Server=nntp-oslo.uninett.no

NNTP (Network News Transport Protocol) is an extension of the TCP/IP
protocol that describes how newsgroup messages are transported between
compatible servers.

Ping (Packet Internet Groper)
-----------------------------
A program to test a network connection on the Internet. Used to check if a
connection to another host is available, when your email seems not to reach
a receiver.

Ping sends a message (an ICMP echo request packet) to a specified host, and
waits for a response. It reports success or failure and statistics about
its operation. It gives you the time taken for your packets to travel
across the network too.

To use ping by email, write <[e-mail]> with Subject: #ping
<machine> . This command will ping the machine 10 times and send you the
result.

Postmaster
----------
On the Internet, the person responsible for handling electronic mail
problems, answering queries about users, and other related work at a site.

POP3
----
Internet's Post Office Protocol version 3.0. In the setup of your Internet
mail client application, the IP address of the POP3 server is pointing at
the host receiving our email.

PPP
---
Point-to-Point Protocol. A serial communications protocol for connecting to
the Internet by direct or dial-up lines. PPP systems can receive and
transfer files without having to use the intermediate host as a transfer
and rest stop. It is generally considered to be superior to SLIP, because
it features error detection, data compression, and other elements of
communications protocols not included in SLIP.

A FAQ is posted to the comp.protocols.ppp, news.answers, and comp.answers
on a weekly basis. A must for those interested in connecting to Internet
via serial lines.

Pseudo-Slip
-----------
enables individual dial-up users of Unix "shell" accounts to use programs
that ordinarily require a direct SLIP connection to the Internet. You can
use applications like Mosaic and Eudora if your shell account is set up
with pseudo-SLIP software.

Oslonett A/S (Norway) distributes the Remsock pseudo-SLIP system. Send mail
to [e-mail] with "info remsock" on the subject line for
information. Shareware. Registration US$15.00 (1994).

Cyberspace Development, Inc. (USA) sells The Internet Adapter (TIA). Send
email to [e-mail] for information, or via the Web to
http://marketplace.com/. - Price (1994): US$25.00.

RealAudio
---------
Software tool that supports transmissions of real-time, live or prerecorded
audio. You can get satisfactory performance using a 14.400 bits/s modem.
(Internet Talk Radio: http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/radio/radio.html. RealAudio:
http://www.realaudio.com.) The client software is free.

You can hook up to the net, link to an Internet rock-n-roll station (like
http://www.netradio.net/), set it to play, and then switch to your word
processor for some real work while you listen.

RFC
---
The Internet's Request for Comments document series. Working notes of the
Internet research and development community. A document in this series may
be on essentially any topic related to computer communication, and may be
anything from a meeting report to the specification of a standard.

Information about new RFCs is regularly sent to the RFC-DIST notification
mailing list. Requests to be added to this list should be sent to

  [e-mail]

Note: Once a document is assigned an RFC number and published that RFC is
never revised or re-issued with the same number.  There is never a question
of having the most recent version of a particular RFC. It is therefore
important to make sure you have the most recent RFC on a given topic!

You can get details on how to get RFCs via FTP or EMAIL by sending an EMAIL
message to [e-mail] with the message body help: ways_to_get_rfcs.
For example:

  To: [e-mail]
  Subject: getting rfcs

  help: ways_to_get_rfcs

You can search RFC documents at http://www.csl.sony.co.jp/rfc/index.html.

SimTel.Net
----------
maintains a large collection of shareware, freeware and public domain
programs for MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, and Windows 95. Simtel.Net can be
accessed by the following URLs:

   http://www.simtel.net/simtel.net/
   ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet

The collection is mirrored (regularly copied) to hosts around the world.
Retrieving files from a mirror host may be faster than taking them from
the host. For a current list of ftp mirror sites, retrieve this file
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/00_info/mirrors.txt.

Simtel.Net files are available by email from [e-mail].
To receive instructions send mail to the server with  help  in the body of
your message.

Consider subscribing to the MS-News (one-way) information service, used to
announce new additions to the Simtel.Net collections at Walnut Creek CD-
ROM. To subscribe, send an email to [e-mail] with this command
in the body of the message:

  add ms-news

SLIP
----
Serial Line Internet Protocol. A method for connecting to the Internet.
SLIP systems can receive and transfer IP packets over a serial link, such
as a dial-up or private telephone line.

IP (the Internet Protocol) is the most important of the protocols on which
the Internet is based. It allows a packet to traverse multiple networks on
the way to its final destination.

The help file "Personal Internet Access Using SLIP or PPP: How You Use It,
How It Works" is available at

  URL: ftp://ftp.digex.net/pub/access/hecker/internet/slip-ppp.txt

See "Pseudo-SLIP" above.

SMTP
----
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. The Internet standard protocol for
transferring electronic mail messages from one computer to another. SMTP
specifies how two mail systems interact and the format of control messages
they exchange to transfer mail.

SMTP mail servers do not authenticate the users when sending mail.
Therefore, you can use any SMTP relay host to have your mail sent.

Talk
----
A command on the Internet, which may remind of IRC, but is a single link
between two parties only.

TCP/IP
------
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. Communications protocols
that internetwork dissimilar systems connected to the Internet. TCP/IP
supports services such as remote login (telnet), file transfer (FTP),
mail (SMTP and POP).

A FAQ is available:

  http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/ibmpc-tcp-ip/faq.html

Telnet
------
A program on the Internet that allows you to execute commands on remote
computers as though you were logged in locally. You can browse menus, read
text files, use gopher services, and search online databases. Sometimes,
you can join live, interactive games and chat with other callers. Usually,
you cannot download files or list file directories.

To set up a telnet connection, you need to know the name of the computer
site you want to access and have a valid user name and password for that
site.

The site's name can be in words, like "VM1.NODAK.EDU," or a numeric
address, like "134.129.111.1". Some services require that you connect to a
specific "port" on the remote system. Enter the port number, if there is
one, after the Internet address.

Some telnet sites allow for guest logins.  Guest accounts typically are
restricted to the types of actions they can perform during a session.
Although your telnet session is actually running software directly on the
site's telnet computer, you will be running a program that prevents you
from accessing the general capabilities of that computer.  Once you are
connected to a telnet site, you will often see a menu-driven system which
is under the control of the telnet site, and guides you through the actions
you may perform at that site.

A list of SPECIAL INTERNET CONNECTIONS, with public user names and
passwords, is available by email to [e-mail]. You can
also get it as ftp://ftp.csd.uwm.edu/pub/inet.services.txt, and via
alt.internet.services on Usenet.

Note: If you get a return message saying that the host was unknown or
unavailable, first check if your address syntax was correct. If it is, try
later. Also, your telnet address may have changed.

Another common use of telnet is for users to be able to log into their
computers from remote locations.  In this case, users enter their own user
names and passwords and, therefore, have the same user privileges they
would have when logged in without using telnet.

Accessing commercial services like CompuServe via telnet gives you the
convenience and time savings of not having to log off and on as you move
from one host system to another. There is normally no real time cost
advantage, unless your location is closer to an Internet node than any of
these services' regular access point.

Telnet is not available to users who have email only access to the
Internet.

URL (Universal Resource Locator)
--------------------------------
A Universal Resource Locator is the address of any multimedia resource on
the Internet. A sort of standardized description of the location of a given
network resource, and the protocol used to access the resource.

A URL may point to a WWW page file (an HTML file), a GIF image, an MPEG
movie, an AU sound file, a ftp file or directory of files, a gopher menu,
a Usenet news group, a telnet port, and so on. URLs identify the type and
location of network and local resources.

Many users with interactive connection to the Internet, use remote network
resources through local programs. These programs are called local clients,
and there are such programs for anonymous ftp, irc, Mosaic, WWW, and more.

The local clients programs often require a terse, machine readable resource
addressing format, called "Universal Resource Locater" (URL). It is a draft
standard for specifying an object on the Internet, such as a file or
newsgroup.

Example using WWW: The URL format resource address is

  http://web2.xerox.com/digitrad

This tells us:

  the tool: http (see above)
  the host: web2.xerox.com
  the path: digitrad

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).

A Gopher example: URL uses the following

  gopher://nutmeg.ukc.ac.uk/archive/uunet/archive/doc/obi
        /USG/Health.Care.Security.Plan/report/forward.txt

The URL tells us:

  the tool: gopher
  the host: nutmeg.ukc.ac.uk
  the path: archive/uunet/archive/doc/obi/USG
            /Health.Care.Security.Plan/report
  the file: forward.txt

A ftp example, showing site, directory, and file name:

  ftp://ftp.rpi.edu/pub/communications/internet-cmc.html

A telnet example:

  telnet://database.carl.org/

  The general format is: telnet://[<user>@]<host>[:port]

A newsgroup example:

  news:alt.bbs

A file example, showing site, directory, and file name:

  file://localhost/mysub/mypage.html

Usenet
------
A global bulletin board, of sorts, in which millions of people exchange
public information on every conceivable topic. For more information, see
Appendix 1.

UUCP
----
See Appendix 1.

VDOLive
-------
What RealAudio is for sound, VDOLive is for video with sound. The client
software is free (http://www.vdolive.com/).

Veronica
--------
A service on the Internet. Maintains an index of titles of gopher items,
and provides keyword searches of those titles. The result of a search is a
set of gopher-type data items, returned to the user as a gopher menu. The
user can access any of these data items by selecting from the returned
menu.

Example: gopher://nysernet.org/11/Search%20the%20Internet. Select
Veronica alternatives from the list.

A FAQ is available at gopher://futique.scs.unr.edu/11/veronica, as well
as the choice "Search ALL of Gopherspace (5000+ gophers) using Veronica."

Veronica is also available by email (using GopherMail. See above).

VMS
---
Virtual Memory System. A multiuser, multitasking, virtual memory operating
system for the VAX series from Digital Equipment.

VoiceChat
---------
Internet VoiceChat is a program which allows live, two-way voice
communication between two users over the Internet.  Features such as caller
screening, an answering machine, and caller history are all included in the
software.

WAIS (Wide Area Information Servers)
------------------------------------
is a distributed text-searching system. It is a kind of indexed online
search tool to locate items based on content - usually keyword text
searches. It is a powerful tool for concurrent searches of large databases
and/or newsgroups on the Internet. First, WAIS lets you search for relevant
databases, and then for information within them.

If Gopher is like looking in the contents of a book to determine what
chapters to read, then WAIS may be said to be like looking at a book's
index to find a particular subject or topic to read about.

The information that you retrieve can be practically anything, from text to
sound to images to whatever you can think up.  The information can exist
anywhere and on many different computer systems.  The WAIS protocol is an
extension of the ANSI Z39.50 information retrieval protocol.  (WAIS is
pronounced "ways")

Example: gopher://gopher.ub2.lu.se/11/allWAIS/experiment/udc/general This
gopher allows you to search several General, Bibliography, and Library
science databases.

Examples: telnet://quake.think.com, and telnet://info.funet.fi. Another
option is telnet://sunsite.unc.edu. Login as "swais."

WAIS can also be searched by mail. For instructions, send email to
[e-mail] with the word 'help' in the body of your mail.

There is a WWW content router for WAIS at

  URL: http://www-psrg.lcs.mit.edu/content-router.html

The content router provides query routing to over 500 WAIS servers (1994).
It is based on content labels which are constructed from WAIS source and
catalog files. The router also provides query refinement that helps a user
formulate meaningful queries. When the user specifies a query term, the
content router suggests other terms that are related to the query.  When
the relevant WAIS servers are chosen, the router searches them in parallel.

A FAQ about WAIS is posted monthly to the comp.infosystems.wais newsgroup.

FreeWAIS
--------
allows uncapitalized Boolean searching with any combination of and/or/not,
but no parenthesis.  With freeWAIS, you _can_ search for "dogs and cats."
It also adds truncation, using "*". This lets you easily search for plurals
and root words, like "advertis*".

For information on free WAIS software contact [e-mail]. To
subscribe to the wais-discussion mailing list send a mail to

  [e-mail]

Usenet newsgroup: comp.infosystems.wais

Routers
-------
Routers are the pathfinders of the Internet. Your stream of packets may
pass through large numbers of routers before they reach their destination.

The 'whatis' database
---------------------
See Archie.

Whois
-----
An Internet program that lets users query a database of people and other
Internet entities, such as domains, networks, and hosts, kept at the NIC
(see above).

For example, Whois lets you scan through a registry of researchers in the
network field to find an Internet address, if you have only the last name
or part of it. It will give you the person's company name, address, phone
number, and email address. It had around 70,000 listings in December 1992.

You can access Whois by email to [e-mail]. Put the word
HELP in the subject field of your mail for instruction. You can also access
it by telnet://rs.internic.net, and at

  gopher://ds1.internic.net/11/.ds/.whitepages
  gopher://ds.internic.net:4320/1whois

Winsock
-------
The Windows Socket standard. An application programming interface (API)
designed to let Windows applications (such as a Web browser) run over a
TCP/IP network.

Requires a direct connection to the Internet, or access to a SLIP, pseudo-
SLIP, or PPP server. With Winsock, you can simultaneously run several
applications that make use of the Internet.

There is a fine introduction to Winsock in the alt.winsock FAQ, available
at http://www.well.com/user/nac/alt-winsock-faq.html. The Winsock
Application FAQ can be retrieved by email to [e-mail], Subject: FAQ.
It is also on URL: http://www.lcs.com/faqhtml.html.

For more information, check out the newsgroup comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc
and alt.winsock. There is a well-established Windows Sockets discussion
list on [e-mail]. To subscribe, leave the subject
blank, and include the following command in the body: subscribe winsock.

WWW (World Wide Web)
--------------------
A global information service, much like Gopher, that provides top level
access down to various documents, lists, databases, and services. This
includes resources such as WAIS, FTP, and Gopher.

Instead of menus, WWW uses a hypertext interface with cross links between
subjects. You "click on" highlighted words to jump off onto another track.
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 and files from other sources. For a comparative
list of Web browsers, go to WWW Servers Comparison Chart page at
http://www.proper.com/www/servers-chart.html.

The Scout Toolkit page (http://rs.internic.net/scout/toolkit) is designed
to help new users identify the network tools most appropriate for their
needs.

Web pages can also be retrieved by electronic mail as explained in Chapter
12. These services are mostly for retrieval of text. They cannot deliver
pages containing graphics, sound, etc. reliably.

The most comprehensive source of information about WWW is at the URL:
http://www.w3.org.

A Frequently Asked Questions file about WWW is available by sending the
command GET WWW FAQ to [e-mail]. Updates are regularly
posted to the Usenet newsgroups news.answers, comp.infosystems.www,
comp.infosystems.gopher, comp.infosystems.wais and alt.hypertext. You can
also get it at

  URL: http://sunsite.unc.edu/boutell/faq/wwwfaq.txt

Examples: telnet://www.njit.edu, login "www" (U.S.A.), and
telnet://telnet.w3.org (Switzerland).

To search for WWW information pages in the WebCrawler database, point your
browser at http://www.webcrawler.com/

WWW to http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/mkgray/comprehensive.html for a long
HTTP site list sorted by domain (geographical area of the world). A list of
all registered HTTP servers by country is on

  URL: http://www.w3.org/hypertext/DataSources/WWW/Servers.html

The Digital Tradition folk song database is available through a WWW server
that allows users to search for and display songs interactively using any
of several freely available WWW clients. The server can even provide audio
of the song tunes for some systems.

This WWW server is located at: http://web2.xerox.com/digitrad. To find out
about more, access the above WWW server or email [e-mail]
(Dick Greenhaus).

The Australian National University's WWW server at http://rubens.anu.edu.au
offers Art-History-related images. In January 1994, it held 2,800 images
with associated short records dealing with the history of printmaking from
the 15th century to the end of the 19th century, and a few on the classical
architecture of the Mediterranean.

For information on WWW browsers, telnet://telnet.w3.org.

We have seen references to World Wide Web services written like this:

  Mosaic (WWW): http://lanic.utexas.edu/

Note that Mosaic is not the only browser program that will let you use WWW.
Lynx is an attractive alternative for dial-up users (see above).

Netcraft's July 1995 survey counted 18,957 hosts. By June 1996, the number
had grown to 252,685 Web servers. In August 1996, was 342,081 sites.
Details at http://www.netcraft.com/Survey/. For some history, point your
browser at http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/mkgray/wow-its-big.html.

There is a list of mailing lists and Usenet News groups related to WWW on
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ucs/WWW/WWW_mailing_lists.html.

The unofficial newspaper of the World Wide Web is at

  URL: http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/whats-new.html

It carries announcements of new servers on the Web and also of new Web-
related tools.

A WWW Development page is available through The WWW Virtual Library.
Topics ranges from how to develop WWW pages, to setting up servers, to the
evolution of the WWW. URL: http://www.charm.net/~web/Vlib.html. For a
competitor, check out http://www.stars.com/.

A collection pointers to tools, technical documentation, and standards,
both current and under development, for World Wide Web and the Internet in
general:

  http://www.mcs.com/~lunde/web/aboutwww.html

For more
--------
Begin with "Answers to Commonly Asked New Internet User Questions,"
available by email from [e-mail]. Put the following command in
your message's SUBJECT heading:

  RFC 1325

The "FYI: Internet User's Glossary" can be retrieved by electronic mail
from [e-mail]. Put "RFC 1392" in the Subject of your mail,
or get ftp://nic.merit.edu/documents/fyi/fyi_18.txt. There is also a
"Internet Services Frequently Asked Questions and Answers" (see FAQ above).

"FYI: What is the Internet?" is available by anonymous FTP as

  ftp://nic.merit.edu/documents/fyi/fyi_20.txt

John December's Internet-tools list contains information about network
tools and information resources like Archie, Gopher, Netfind, and WWW.
At ftp://ftp.rpi.edu/pub/communications/internet-tools.html

Check http://www.hip.com/franklin/franklin.html for a collection of
Internet tools and resources. The page combines comprehensive tools
documents, and links to software collections for Mac, PC, and UNIX.

"Where to Start" for New Internet Users is a commented listing of Internet
guidebooks and other materials. Retrieve by sending the following one-line
command in an email to [e-mail]:

GET NEWUSERS FAQ NETTRAIN F=MAIL

The Multilingual Internet Glossary Project (NETGLOS) have terminology
definitions in Bahasa Indonesia, Brazilian, German, Spanish, French,
Hrvatski, Hebrew, Portuguese, Norwegian, Zhongwen, English. At
http://wwli.com/translation/netglos/netglos.html.

"Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia" is a large technical reference to the
protocols that run the net. (http://www.FreeSoft.org/Connected/)



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Online World handbook by Odd de Presno <[e-mail]> * Shareware
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Appendix 7: SERVICES OFFERING ACCESS TO INTERNET
============================================

Ordinary users cannot normally connect directly to the Internet. They must
hook their computers to "host" computers on corporate or institutional
networks which are part of the Internet, or to a commercial company which
has bought an expensive Internet connection, and re-sells access to the
Internet through that connection.

The key question is to locate access providers that serve your area and
supply the required services, and support at the right price.

Information about access providers is available in this file directory:

    ftp://ftp.isoc.org//isoc/faq/

Start with the file ftp://ftp.isoc.org//isoc/faq/how-do-I-connect.txt.

On the WWW, try the following URLs for other catalogs of Internet Access
Providers around the world:

    http://www.vni.net/thedirectory/
    http://www.best.be/iap
    http://ultralist.upx.net/
    http://www.netusa.net/ISP
    http://thelist.iworld.com/

If you want it cheap, check out if there's a Free-Net offering in your
area. Try: http://duke.usask.ca/~scottp/free.html on the Web for more.

The following is a list of some providers by country offering general
access to the Internet. These services provide access to any person,
if he or she is willing to pay an (often) modest subscription fee.

In many countries, there are organizations selling Internet access to the
business community at high prices. The added value provided by these seldom
justifies their higher price. They will therefore not be listed at all, if
I can help it.

The organizations listed deliver one of the following three levels of access:

  [1] Full interactive access. You can use all Internet commands including
      ftp, telnet, and gopher.

  [2] Exchange of electronic mail. Local access to selected Newsgroups,
      BITNET and Internet mailing lists. Limited or no access to
      interactive commands.

  [3] Exchange of electronic mail only. No access to interactive commands.

Important: Several key Internet commands are available by email. Examples:
ftp, archie, gopher, veronica. Level 2 and 3 access may therefore be good
enough for many users. You may even find such access to be more productive
for your applications, because of the waiting times often experienced when
using the Internet interactively.

Many countries are missing from this list. The aim is to expand it
gradually with a handful services in all countries of the world. It is not
intended to be complete. A few inexpensive, efficient and reliable
offerings in each country will do.

If you know of a service that should be listed, please send information to
for consideration to: [e-mail]

The offerings are sorted by part of world:

  Africa
  Asia-Pacific Rim
  Former Soviet Republics
  Latin America
  North America
  Western and Central Europe

Note: Unless "full access to the Internet" is given, a service will most
likely only offer access level 2 or 3.

Note also that some access providers cover many countries. Information about
these are listed under:

  CompuServe
  Association for Progressive Communications Member Networks


AFRICA
******

A directory of Internet access in Africa is regularly posted to the
alt.internet.access.wanted, and alt.internet.services newsgroups. URL:
http://www.tagsys.com/Providers/index.html

South Africa
------------
Durban: Dataverters BBS - 3 lines [phone]. Full Internet access.
Email: [e-mail]

Johannesburg: Digitec Online BBS - 10 lines [phone]. Full Internet
access. Email: [e-mail]

Johannesburg: Netline Flagship BBS - 6 lines [phone]. Full Internet
access. Email: [e-mail]

There is a list of South African BBSes on [e-mail]. For
monthly updates, send an email with the following command in the body of
your mail:  SUB ROBLIST Your-Name


ASIA - PACIFIC RIM
******************

The following Web page offers information about Internet access in Asia:

    http://www.earth.org/~lips/Asia.html


Australia
---------
A Network Access in Australia FAQ is regularly posted to the following
newsgroups: aus.net.access, alt.internet.access.wanted, aus.net.mail,
aus.net.aarnet, aus.comms, soc.culture.australian, aus.computers,
alt.answers, soc.answers, news.answers. You can also find it on many
FTP sites that archive FAQs. Example:
  Host:      archie.au.
  File name: Network_Access_in_Australia_FAQ
  Directory: /usenet/FAQs/alt.internet.access.wanted

China
-----
Guangdong: CHINANET - http://info.gz.gdpta.net.cn/Eng/

Hong Kong
---------
Hong Kong Supernet. Full Internet access. Email: [e-mail].
gopher to: gopher://gopher.Hk.Super.Net.

Hong Kong Internet and Gateway Services. Full Internet access. Email:
[e-mail].

India
-----
See http://www.earth.org/~lips/Providers/India.html for a list of
Internet access providers in India.

Indonesia
---------
PT. Rahajasa Media Internet, PLAZA 89, 6th Floor, Suite 601,
Jalan H.R. Rasuna Said Kav. X-7 No. 6, Jakarta 12950, Indonesia.
Tel. [phone] (hunting), Fax. [phone]
Email: [e-mail]. URL: http://www.rad.net.id

Japan
-----
Tokyo: APICNET.  Voice: 03-5423-0571. Fax: [phone] . Email
access to the Internet. Contact: [e-mail] (Yoko Kaneko)

Tokyo: TWICS. Modem: 03-3351-8244 (8N1). Log in as guest for more
information. Voice: 03-3351-5977. Email: [e-mail]

Jordan
Amman: National Equipment & Technical Services. Voice: 962 6 629870.
Email only (April 1995). Email: [e-mail].

FORMER SOVIET REPUBLICS
***********************

A directory of Internet access in ex-USSR is regularly posted to the
alt.internet.access.wanted, and alt.internet.services newsgroups. URL:
http://www.tagsys.com/Providers/index.html.

LATIN AMERICA
*************
Argentina
---------
Buenos Aires: SatLink Uucp/Internet Gateway offers V.32bis and Turbo-PEP
access. Email: [e-mail], or call [phone]. Offline reader:
Waffle.

Brasil
------
Rio de Janeiro: Hot-Line BBS. 8 lines. For information, write Charles Miranda
at [e-mail]. Voice [phone].

Sao Paulo: Mandic BBS. Modem phone: [phone]. Speeds from 300 to 16800
bits/s. 10 lines. Write to [e-mail] ( Aleksandar
Mandic) for information. PCBoard BBS. Various offline readers. US$10/month.

NORTH AMERICA
*************
United States
-------------
Netcom (http://www.netcom.com/) offers reasonable rates for unlimited
usage with local access numbers in many states and a toll-free 800 number
for users who are not located near a Netcom PoP (Point of Presence).

Delphi. Full access. Write to: General Videotex Corp., 1030 Massachusetts
Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.

WESTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE
**************************

A Directory of Internet access in Western Europe is available on URL:
http://www.tagsys.com/Providers/index.html. The list is also posted to
the alt.internet.access.wanted, and alt.internet.services newsgroups.

Finland
-------
A list of Finnish BBSes is regularly uploaded to the following directory

    ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/bbs/

File name: fiyymmdd.zip (yy=year, mm=month,dd=day number).


France
------
FranceNet. Voice: [phone]. Email: [e-mail]
Oleane Network. Voice: [phone]. Email: [e-mail]. WWW:
http://www.oleane.net/.

Germany
-------
Berlin: Grossraum Berlin. Voice: 030/834 68 90. Full Internet access.
Email: [e-mail]

Hamburg: Grossraum Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein. Voice: 040/2790975, Email:
[e-mail].  UUCP access (email only).

Frankfurt am Main: Region Rhein/Main. Voice: 069/39048413, Email:
[e-mail]. Full Internet access.

Munich: Grossraum M"unchen. Voice: 089/298934. Email: [e-mail].

Note: A list is available by email from [e-mail] using
the command GET TOW.GERMANY .

Ireland
-------
Dublin: IEunet Ltd.  Voice: [phone]. Email: [e-mail]

Dublin: Connect-Ireland Internet. Voice: [phone]. Email:
[e-mail]. Web: http://www.connect.ie.

Galway: Ireland On-Line. Tel: [phone]. Email: [e-mail].

Cork: Access Technology Ireland. Voice: [phone]. Email:
[e-mail]

The Netherlands
---------------
Amsterdam: XS4ALL, Email: [e-mail] voice: [phone]
modem: [phone]. Full Internet access.

Amsterdam: Simplex. Modem: [phone]. Email: [e-mail]

Utrecht: KnoWare. Macintosh oriented, provides full internet access via
Appletalk Remote Access. Tel. [phone], Email: [e-mail].

Nijmegen: Antenna. Tel: [phone]. Email: [e-mail].

Norway
------
Oslo: Oslonett A/S. Voice: ([phone]. Email: [e-mail].
Full access to Internet.

Oslo: Thunderball Cave BBS. Modem: ([phone]. News. Email:
[e-mail].

Oslo: PowerTech Information Systems A/S. Voice: ([phone]. Email:
[e-mail].  Full interactive access to Internet.

Bergen: Bergen By Byte. Voice: (+047) 55 57 01 57. Email: [e-mail].

Haugesund: Euronet. Voice: ([phone]. Modem: ([phone] . News
and various mailing lists. Email: [e-mail].

Trondheim: Interlink as. Voice: ([phone]. Email:
[e-mail]

Spain
-----
Spanish Internet resources are at http://www.uji.es/spain_www.html.

United Kingdom
--------------
Compulink Information eXchange Ltd. full Internet access. Contact: The
Compulink Information Exchange Ltd., The Sanctuary Oakhill Grove, Surbiton,
Surrey KT6 6DU, England. Voice: [phone]. Fax: [phone]. NUA:
2342 1330 0310. Data: [phone]/[phone]. Email:
[e-mail].

Demon Internet Ltd. Email: [e-mail] (voice: 081 349-0063). Full
internet connection. You'll get a permanent Internet node number assigned
to you, and can make your PC an actual Internet node while dialed in, using
Point to Point Protocol (PPP) and low-cost shareware TCP/IP software. This
allows you to FTP directly to/from your hard disk, and run various types of
GUI clients, etc. (1993) URL: http://www.demon.net

EUnet GB. Email: [e-mail]. Fax [phone].
Voice: [phone].

Others working in several European countries: Pipex ([e-mail]).

A list of Internet access providers in the UK is posted monthly to the
uk.net, uk.telecom, and uk.misc newsgroups.

Travelling in Europe
--------------------
EUnet Traveller is for people travelling in European countries, who need to
telnet their home computers. Offers access through local dial-up nodes in
several countries, including Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Denmark,
Germany, Finland, France, England, Hungary, Ireland, Norway, Italy, and
Holland.

For information, access http://traveller.EU.net/ via the World Wide Web.

You can sign up for the service by telnet://Traveller.EU.net. Log in as
'new' after having browsed the information. Keep the number of your credit
card handy.

EUnet Limited, Kruislaan 409, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, Holland. Voice: +31 20 592
5109 . Fax: [phone] . E-mail [e-mail].

CompuServe
**********
CompuServe has local nodes in a very large number of countries around the
world. Type GO PHONES to get phone numbers in your destination cities.

The service is a great resource for the global traveller. If your mail
normally goes to a Unix mailbox, use the .forward file to redirect it to
CompuServe before leaving home.

If you are in a country with no local access, or in a place where you have
to make an expensive long distance call to a slow node, consider calling
direct to CompuServe's own nodes in the United States at high speed.

Example: In Lagos, Nigeria, I connected successfully at 14,400 bits/s with
compression to a CompuServe node in the United States. This was much
cheaper and better than calling nearby South Africa at 2400 bits/s through
an Infonet network node (1994).

Association for Progressive Communications Member Networks (APC)
***************************************************************

System    Email Support Address          Areas Served
------    ---------------------          ------------
Angonet   <[e-mail]>    Angola
Wamani    <[e-mail]>         Argentina
Pegasus   <[e-mail]>          Australia/Pacific Islands/SE Asia
Alpin     <[e-mail]>     Austria
ZamirNet  <[e-mail]>      Bosnia/Croatia/Yugoslavia
AlterNex  <[e-mail]>           Brasil/South America
Web       <[e-mail]>          Canada/Cuba
Nicarao   <[e-mail]>      Central America/Nicaragua/Panama
ColNodo   <[e-mail]>      Colombia
Ecuanex   <[e-mail]>     Ecuador
ComLink   <[e-mail]>  Germany/Austria/Zagreb/Turkey/N.Italy
Laneta    <[e-mail]>       Mexico
Antenna   <[e-mail]>           Netherlands
PlaNet    <[e-mail]>       New Zealand
GlasNet   <[e-mail]>         Russia/CIS
Histria   <[e-mail]>      Slovenija
SANGOnet  <[e-mail]>           Southern Africa
NordNet   <[e-mail]>           The Nordic/Baltic
GreenNet  <[e-mail]>           UK/Europe/Africa/Asia/Middle East
Gluk      <[e-mail]>         Ukraine
IGC       <[e-mail]>          United States/China/Japan
Chasque   <[e-mail]>        Uruguay/Paraguay

For more information on the APC, send an email message to:

  APC Automated Information <[e-mail]>

or check out
  Gopher: <gopher://gopher.igc.apc.org:70/1>
  WWW: <http://www.igc.apc.org/>


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more information:

[1] Several lists of international BBSes are available through the
Internet. Use Lycos to locate.

[2] The FYI document "Network Service Providers Around the World" is a huge
lists of Internet, email, and X.400 service providers around the world. The
list is designed to help people and organizations FIND the providers. Each
entry is confirmed by the service provider.  Queries for updates are sent
to each service provider quarterly.

To get on an email distribution list, mail [e-mail].

You may also find PSGnet's Network Startup Resource Center an interesting
source. Try: http://www.psg.com/. However, you may find it easier to
browse gopher://gopher.psg.com/1/networks/connect/countries for a
connectivity index by country. International E-mail Accessibility is at
gopher://rip.psg.com/1m/networks/connect/oclb.

The NSRC also provides redistribution of, and pointers to, freely available
software toolkits for TCP/IP and other low-cost networking technologies.

[3] "Redes de America Latina y el Caribe" (Network Service Providers in
Latin America and Caribe) is a Spanish language text available at
gopher://cahuide.rcp.net.pe:71/11/.



Appendix 8: The author
======================

                   WHO IS ODD DE PRESNO?

Odd de Presno (born 1944) lives in Arendal, a small town in southern
Norway, with his computers and modems. He has written twelve books, and
has participated in several book projects with other authors in various
countries.

Half of his books focus on various aspects of the Online World. The rest
are about practical applications of MS-DOS based personal computers.
Published in Norway and England. His book "The Online World" is distributed
globally as shareware, and on print in various languages.

Over 700 of his articles have been published in management and technical
magazines in Scandinavia, England, Italy, Japan, and the United States.
Publisher of The Online World Monitor newsletter (on the Internet). See
http://login.eunet.no/~presno/articles.html.

International public speaker. Consultant. Operates an English-language BBS
online service in Norway (since 1985).

Specialities: Applications of the global sources of online information.
Computer conferencing. Global electronic mail. Automation of information
retrieval. Personal computer applications.

Founder and Project Director of KIDLINK, an international non-profit
organization promoting a global dialog among the youth of the world. Since
its start in 1990, KIDLINK has involved around 60,000 kids between 10 - 15
years of age living in 85 countries. (URL: http://www.kidlink.org)

Educational background includes a Diploma Degree in Business from
Bedriftsoekonomisk Institutt (Norway, 1968).

He founded the software company Data Logic A/S (Norway) in 1967 and was
president for five years. Sales manager Control Data Corp. seven years (in
charge of CYBERNET/Norway, an international online service). Marketing
manager IKO Software Service A/S, two years. Now running his own business.

Member of the Computer Press Association (U.S.A.) since 1983, and NFF
(Norway). Listed in Marquis' "Who's Who in the World" from 1991.

If you want to see his looks, check it out through the World Wide Web
on URL: http://login.eunet.no/~presno/presno.html

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Information about KIDLINK can be retrieved by sending an electronic mail
to [e-mail] The text of your mail should contain the
command "GET KIDLINK.GENERAL".
---------------------------------------------------------------------------



Appendix 9:

        Registering Your Copy of The Online World Handbook
        ==================================================

Your registration will give you FREE optional copies of The Online World
Monitor newsletter  (ISSN: 0805-6315),  so you  can  monitor changes. It
supports further research, and production of updates.

For more information about the  newsletter, send an electronic mail to
[e-mail]. Put the command GET TOW.MONITOR in the text
of your mail.

You can register your current copy of the book, or sign up for six updates
of the book during one year. The latter will give you free optional copies
of all the newsletters published during your registration period.

Registration details are given below.

==============================================================================

    Send to:

    Odd de Presno
    4815 Saltrod
    Norway (Europe)                         Fax: [phone]


    Please add me as a supporter of the Online World book:

    Name    ______________________________________________________________

    Company ______________________________________________________________

    Address ______________________________________________________________

            ______________________________________________________________

    City    ________________________________State _______ Zip ____________

    Country ________________________________

    Email address  ______________________________________________________


    Please mark off your selections with (x) below:


    Basic Registration for individuals
    ----------------------------------
    Covers one version of the book, and includes one optional copy of
    The Online World Monitor newsletter (see below).


    (  ) NOK 105.00   For payment by credit card.
                      (around US$15.00)

    (  ) NOK 140.00   For all other methods of payment.
                      (or, in US currency: $20.00)

    Optional shipping (for Basic Registration)
    ------------------------------------------
    (  ) NOK  21.00   Add to have a copy of the most recent version of the
                      book sent you on diskette. Only with registration!
                      (Around US$3.00)

    (  ) NOK  15.00   Add to ship to an address in Norway.

    Registration of Six Updates - for individuals
    ---------------------------------------------
    The reader retrieves all new updates by modem. Six updates during
    12 months. Includes one year's subscription to The Online World Monitor
    newsletter (see below).

    (  ) NOK 485.00   For payment by credit card. (Around US$69.00)
    (  ) NOK 532.00   For all other methods of payment. (Around US$76.00)
    (  ) NOK 450.00   Norwegian residents: For payment in NOK (all
                      methods of payment).

    Optional Shipping of Six Updates - for individuals
    --------------------------------------------------
    Six updates of the book to be sent by mail during the next 12 months.
    Includes one year's subscription to The Online World Monitor newsletter.


    (  ) NOK 560.00   For all methods of payment. Includes shipping and
                      handling. (Around US$80.00)


    The Online World Monitor newsletter
    -----------------------------------
    (  ) As a registered reader, I want the optional newsletter to be sent
         to my electronic mailbox as specified above. Please send it in the
         following format:

         (  )  Ascii text format
         (  )  Html format (text with hypertext codes)
         (  )  Both formats.

    Registration for businesses
    ---------------------------
    Includes six updates during the next 12 months, and gives the right to
    unlimited redistribution within the corporation or agency.

    (  ) Non Profit, Small Government Agency, or Corporation (revenues
         less than $10 million a year).
         NOK 1.200 (around US$170.00)

    (  ) Corporate Site License, or Cabinet Level Agency.
         NOK 3.500 (around US$ 500)

    (  ) Add to receive the updates on MS-DOS/Macintosh diskettes.
         NOK 84.00 (around US$ 12.00)


    Discounts for schools and public libraries
    ------------------------------------------
    Special rates available for schools and public libraries. For details,
    send a message to [e-mail]. In the text of the
    message, use the command:

    GET TOW.SCHOOLS
    GET TOW.LIBRARY

    (  ) Please identify what type of discount you are taking advantage of:

         Ref: ______________

         Description: ____________________________________________________

                      ____________________________________________________


    Shipping Options
    ----------------
    If you have marked shipping by diskettes above, please mark off your
    choice of media and file types:

     Media
     -----
     (  ) 3.5" disk 1.44MB MS-DOS
     (  ) 3.5" disk 1.44MB Macintosh

     File type
     ---------
     (  ) Ascii text
     (  ) Html (hypertext)
     (  ) Both formats.


    Payment
    -------
    Amount  ____________________ Date   _______________

    (  )  Check or money order payable to Odd de Presno in U.S. funds enclosed
    (  )  Bank transfer to 6311.05.27189, Kredittkassen, 4800 Arendal, Norway
    (  )  SWIFT to 6311.05.27189 at XIANNOKK (Christiania Bank, Norway).
    (  )  VISA    (  )  MasterCard    ( ) American Express


    Credit card number __________________________________ Exp date _______

    Note: You should not send your credit card number by email, unless
          the data is sent in PGP encrypted form. For information about
          how to do this, read the instruction at the end of this
          appendix. If PGP is not available, use fax, or ordinary mail.

    Note: All credit card orders given in US$ will be converted to NOK
          using the current exchange rate. My local card companies require
          charges to be made in Norwegian currency. Then, the amount will
          be converted to your local currency by your card operator at
          their exchange rate prevailing at the time of transaction.


  Feedback
  --------
  If you already have an evaluation copy of the book, where did you get it?

  ________________________________________________  Version number: ____



  Comments or suggestions for improvement of The Online World __________

  ______________________________________________________________________

  ______________________________________________________________________

  ______________________________________________________________________



    Date ___________________

    Signature _________________________________


  ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
  │  T H A N K   Y O U   F O R   S U P P O R T I N G   S H A R E W A R E  │
  └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘


How to send your registration using PGP encryption
--------------------------------------------------

To use this method, you must have a copy of the freeware program PGP
(Pretty Good Privacy) by Philip Zimmermann. It is available for MS-DOS,
VAX/VMS, Unix, and other computers.

Various versions of this program can be retrieved from online services all
over the world. If you have access to the Internet, use Archie to locate a
recent version. I use version 2.6. You can get a copy from the following Web
address:

   http://login.eunet.no/~presno/sw/pgp26.zip

Follow these steps to encrypt your registration form (you may be able
to do this _without_ reading the documentation):

Step 1
------
Store your completed registration form on your disk using the file name
ORDER.FRM.

Cut out the text below, and store it using the file name ONLINE.ASC.

*-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: 2.3a

mQBNAi0jCjcAAAECAKBK1u0JZHZSEh50P3TdgSApuZCEWQh2Nsxw1pYrC4bgy/md
bAN3UFrkgwShtnpPIjm+GcXFBiKpZ5kDuT9T9x0ABRG0FW9wcmVzbm9AZXh0ZXJu
LnVpby5ubw==
=AXgT
*-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

Remove the asterisk ()* character at the beginning of the first and last
lines of the PGP Public Key before adding it to your keyring. For example,
the line

   *-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

should be changed to

   -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

Do the same with the last line.

Step 2
------
Add ONLINE.ASC to your public keyring using the command:

  pgp -ka online.asc

Step 3
------
Encrypt ORDER.FRM using the command

  pgp -ea order.frm [e-mail]

The resulting file will be called ORDER.ASC.

Step 4
------
Send ORDER.ASC by email to [e-mail] , or [e-mail] .


960916op