A Beginner's Guide to the Internet/INTERNET.ISO/text/guides/intfaq/faq.txt

Text File | 1996-05-06 | 26.2 KB | 541 lines

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ON DELPHI'S INTERNET SIG        4/26/93

   1  I'M NEW! HOW DO I GET STARTED?
   2  HOW DO I USE FTP?
   3  HOW DO I USE TELNET?
   4  HOW DO I SEND INTERNET MAIL?
   5  HOW DOES SOMEONE SEND ME MAIL THROUGH THE INTERNET?
   6  HOW DO I SEND MAIL TO COMPUSERVE, GENIE, AOL, MCIMAIL, ETC.?
   7  HOW DO I SEND MAIL TO A FIDONET ADDRESS?
   8  HOW DO I AVOID WORKSPACE STORAGE COSTS?
   9  WHAT IS A LISTSERV? HOW DO I SUBSCRIBE?
  10  HOW DO I READ NEWSGROUPS
  11  HOW DO I USE ARCHIE TO SEARCH FOR SOFTWARE OR FILES?
  12  WHAT IS A GOPHER? HOW DO I USE IT?
  13  I'M HAVING TROUBLE WITH MENUS AND DISPLAYS. WHAT DO I DO?
  14  WHAT IS WAIS? HOW DO I USE IT TO SEARCH FOR THINGS?
  15  WHAT IS WWW? HOW DO I USE IT?
  16  WHAT IS IRC? HOW DO I USE IT?
  17. I DON'T SEE MY QUESTION HERE. HOW DO I GET IT ANSWERED?


   1  I'M NEW! HOW DO I GET STARTED?

If you are new to the Internet and just getting started exploring this gigantic,
exponentially growing network of networks, it may seem overwhelming. There are
many interesting things for everyone in the Internet. How do you find those
things that are waiting for you? Here are some things to try:

  1. To use any Internet services you must first register.  To do this,
     just select "REGISTER" from the Internet SIG menu.  Important
     guidelines and terms of use are provided during the registration.

  2. Read the HELP files at the main Internet SIG menu.

  3. Read the articles posted under "About the Internet" and "Using Internet
     Services".

  4. Browse the Database, particularly the Resource and Listserv Databases.

  5. Get started. Try GOPHER from the TELNET menu and explore whatever
     interests you from the menus. Try WWW, too.

 IMPORTANT NOTE: If you try GOPHER or ARCHIE or WAIS and the screen
 display does not look right or respond properly, you probably have
 some fine tuning to do. Read the HELP file on Troubleshooting (type
 HELP at the SIG main menu and SCAN the files for the Troubleshooting
 file).

  6. Read messages in the Forum to see what people are talking about. Ask
     questions in the Forum, where people are always ready to help. Or ask the
     managers WALTHOWE, JIMMONTY, or VIDGAMES by email (Forum questions will
     reach more people, of course).  If you want to read only recent messages,
     you can type HIGH NEW at the forum prompt.  This sets your high message
     counter to the 50 most recent postings.

  7. Come to a conference, and ask your questions.

  8. Try telneting to some interesting places. Use the Yanoff List in the
     Resources Database for some ideas or try some of the Auto Telnet menu
     selections.

  9. Get the Ed Krol book _The Whole INTERNET Users Guide & Catalog_.
     - or the LaQuey book _The Internet Companion_.

  10. Join a Freenet. See the Auto Telnet menu.

  11. Learn to search for special interest areas by keyword using GOPHER, WAIS,
      VERONICA, or for software, ARCHIE. Check these out in the Utilities menu.

  12. Find an old friend using White pages, phone books, who-is, KIS, GOPHER, or
      NETFIND.

  13. Another source of Internet search capabilities and procedures is the
      monthly Internet Hunt (found here in the General Database). Each month,
      the Internet Hunt is posted with a series of questions that require the
      "player" to do an Internet scavenger hunt for specific information. A
      couple of weeks after it is announced, the answers are posted.  Looking
      through these answers gives precise (and varied) methods to use the
      Internet for research.

These are just some of the things you can do. Your own interests may take you in
other directions. Don't try the things at the end of the list until you have
done some of the things at the beginning of the list. Enjoy yourself!


   2  HOW DO I USE FTP?

FTP is short for File Transfer Protocol. With FTP you can log onto remote
computer systems, explore their directories, and get files from them. Many
remote sites permit anonymous FTP, that is, you do not have to have an account
with them to get the files from them. When you are asked for a username, you
answer Anonymous. Then, if you are asked for a password, the traditional answer
is to give your username and address, for example, [e-mail]. Other
places allow you to logon to them only if you have an established account there.
Many, like DELPHI, are closed to incoming FTP.

When you have connected to an FTP site, you can see what files and
subdirectories are in it with either a dir or ls command. The dir command gives
more details. You can change from directory to directory with the cd command,
following it with the subdirectory name to go up a level or with .. to go down
one level. Directorynames may be case sensitive. If you see a directoryname with
one or more capital letters, enclose the name in quotes, for example, cd
"InternetDocs". You can also change more than one directory level at once by
using quotes, for example, cd "pub/info" will change to the /pub/info
subdirectory in one step.

When you see a file you want, you can GET the file. Since UNIX based systems are
case sensitive, any filename with capital letters must be enclosed in quotation
marks (for example, get "FILE.name"). Files you get are placed in your DELPHI
workspace. If a filename has more than one dot in it, (for example,
VERY.very.LONG.file.name), you must follow the file name you place in quotes
with another filename that it will keep in your workspace. This filename can
have no more than one dot in it. For example, your command could be:

    get "VERY.very.LONG.file.name" long.filename

In this example, you would then find the file in your workspace under the name
long.filename.

If the file is a binary file, such as programs, graphics, zipped or compressed
files, or any file that uses more than the basic ASCII character set, you must
type BIN or BINARY and enter before GETting the file. If after getting a binary
file, you want to get a text file, you should reset to text mode by typing ASCII
and entering. This also applies to .hqx, .ps, and .uu files, which are in 7-bit
ASCII mode, also.

If you see files with a .tar extension, they are unix archives. If you see files
with a .Z extension, they are unix compressed files. Some sites will let you get
a compressed .Z file in uncompressed form by leaving the .Z off the filename
when you GET it. Information on file compression, archivers, and various forms
of encoding messages are included in the Compression Chart in the Tools &
Utilities Database. Also in the the Database are many of the utilities you need
for various computers to uncompress, unpack, or decode files.

Don't keep files in your workspace for very long. Download them as soon as you
can to avoid workspace charges. See the question on avoiding workspace charges
for more information on this.

Finally, before you can use FTP, you must know what address to use. You may find
an address by searching for a particular file with the ARCHIE utility, for
example, or get information from the various guides or from files in the
database. Some good sources are:

   the book, _The Whole INTERNET User's Guide & Catalog_ by Ed Krol
   the book, _The Internet Companion_ by Tracy LaQuey
   the text file, The Yanoff List, in the Database
   the hypertext program, HYTELNET. Mac and PC versions are in the Database, and
versions are available for other computers through FTP.


   3  HOW DO I USE TELNET?

Telnet is the command used to log in to a remote computer. You can then use the
remote computer just as if you were a terminal on the computer. You can then use
the computer's utilities (such as GOPHER, ARCHIE, WAIS, or World Wide Web), read
its files, play games, consult databases or many more things that are available.
When you first use telnet, you may find that your computer and DELPHI are not
set up correctly to display some of the full screen menus that many sites use.
Make sure that your computer is using either VT100 or VT102 emulation. Most
telecommunications software includes one of these settings. Next, set DELPHI for
vt100 for your account by typing /TERM_TYPE=VT100. Follow that with /SAVE to
make the setting permanent. Finally, if you are calling DELPHI through
Sprintnet, Tymnet, or DATAPAC, you will have to type /ECHO HOST each session
when you first use telnet. You can cancel this after your session by typing
/ECHO. If you still run into problems, type HELP at the Internet SIG> prompt for
a few more things you can do.

When you select Utilities from the SIG menu, you get a secondary menu, which has
preset commands for a number of common utilities. ARCHIE, GOPHER, WAIS,
VERONICA, and World Wide Web (WWW) are all powerful searching utilities to help
you find information and files all over the world. GOPHERs are a particularly
interesting way to get around, and by following their menus, you can jump all
over the country and the world.

Try the Auto Telnet menu for a selection of some of the most interesting and
popular sites you can log onto. Library of Congress and CARL are just two sites
rich in information. Rutgers' Info will give you access to a dictionary,
thesaurus, book of quotations, and the CIA World Fact Book.

If you want to log into a different site than the preset ones, you type telnet
remote.address from the Internet SIG> prompt. You replace "remote.address" with
the actual address of the site you want to connect to. See comments under HOW DO
I USE FTP for some suggestions for finding addresses. Accessing GOPHER is a good
start for finding just about anything, and it can connect you with many other
resources all over the world.

If you get confused or stuck at any time after you've connected to another
service, you can use Control-\ (pressing the control key and the backslash key
at the same time) to get out.  There is a reminder about this in the banner each
time you connect: it says "use ^\ to escape".  The ^ sign is the symbol used to
represent the control key.

   4  HOW DO I SEND INTERNET MAIL

You can send mail to any user on the Internet using DELPHI's standard mail
system.  You'll need to use a special format for Internet addresses.

    At the first MAIL> prompt, type SEND
    Then, at the TO prompt, enter internet"username@hostname"
    Then, enter the subject and text as usual.

Note there is NO SPACE between the word internet and the first
quotation mark.

Here's an example of how you would send a message through the
Internet to user JOHNSMITH on America Online:

    MAIL> send
    To:   internet"[e-mail]"
    Subj: test message

See the other articles in this section for more details about Internet
addressing and services accessible through the Internet.

If you type EMAIL at the Internet SIG> prompt, you will be reminded of the
correct format to use for Internet mail. If you decide you don't need to see
that information any more, type MAIL instead of EMAIL.


   5  HOW DOES SOMEONE SEND ME MAIL THROUGH THE INTERNET?

If you would like to receive mail from someone who has access to Internet mail
on another system, tell them to send a message to:

   [e-mail]

So, for example, if your DELPHI membername is JOHNSMITH, you tell them to send
mail to [e-mail]. Don't tell them to put internet in front and
enclose it in quotes as you do for outgoing mail. Different systems can use
different forms of addressing.


   6  HOW DO I SEND MAIL TO COMPUSERVE, GENIE, AOL, MCIMAIL, ETC.?

Internet mail addresses are a combination of the name the person uses on the
service, followed by an "@" symbol and then the Internet domain name used to
identify the service itself.  For example, the Internet address for DELPHI
member services is [e-mail].

All Internet domain names (hosts) consist of two parts: the first part is
usually the name of the organization (or an abbreviation) and the suffix is the
type or organization it is.  Businesses use the suffix "com," educational
institutions use "edu," military sites use "mil," and government offices use
"gov."  Therefore, a person's address at Compuserve might be
[e-mail] and a person at Harvard University might be
[e-mail].

Here are some sample address formats for other commercial services

To send to America Online users:

   Domain name: aol.com
   Example:     [e-mail]

To send to AppleLink users:

   Domain name: applelink.apple.com
   Example:     [e-mail]

To send to AT&T mail users:

   Domain name: attmail.com
   Example:     [e-mail]

To send to Compuserve users:

   Domain name: compuserve.com
   Example:     [e-mail]

   Note:   Compuserve's usernames usually consist of several numbers, a
   comma, and then a few more numbers.  The comma within the user number
   needs to be replaced with a period when sending an Internet message.

To send to GEnie users:

   Domain name: genie.geis.com
   Example:     [e-mail]

   Note:  Not all GEnie users can receive Internet mail.  They
   must be registered.

To send to MCI Mail users:

   Domain name: mcimail.com or mci.com
   Example:    [e-mail]

What about Prodigy?

   Prodigy has announced that it will have Internet email service sometime
   in 1993. It is not yet available as of the date on this file. When details
   are announced, they will be posted here.

Note that Compuserve and the commercial mail services have charges associated
with receiving Internet mail.  America Online has Internet mail file size and
mailbox limits.  Be sure to check with the user directly prior to sending
messages.


   7  HOW DO I SEND MAIL TO A FIDONET ADDRESS?

To send file to a Fidonet system where you know the users name and Fidonet
address, you must send the mail in a special format. Suppose you know that John
Smith's Fidonet address is 1:23/456.7. These four represent, in order, the zone
(z), the net number (n), the node number (f), and the point (p). The last item,
the point number, is often omitted. To send email over the Internet to  John
Smith, a period replaces the space between his first and last names
conventionally. Then the numbers are reversed in order, prefixed with the letter
abbreviation shown above, and separated by periods,thus: p7.f456.n23.z1 begins
the address. Finally, the address is routed to fidonet.org and put into DELPHI's

internet email format. Therefore, the address for John Smith at 1:23/456.7 is:

     internet"[e-mail]"

If there was no point address, f456 would appear after the @ symbol instead.
This address will work in most cases, but sometimes it may be necessary to route
the mail through a gateway machine that knows fidonet addresses. Try this
address, if the first one fails:

    internet"[e-mail]"


   8  HOW DO I AVOID WORKSPACE STORAGE COSTS?

How to minimize disk storage fees:

Log in to check mail at least one time per week. When you read new mail
messages, you should delete them immediately by typing DELETE (D or DEL will
also work) after each message.

If you choose to save any message on your PC, most communications programs have
an option for "capturing" or "logging" the text as it's displayed on the screen.

Check your software manual for details about logging a session.  Once you have
captured or read the messages, you should then delete them.

Messages in DELPHI's Mail system are stored in Folders.  When a message is first
received it is automatically stored in the "NEWMAIL" folder.  If a message is
read and not immediately deleted, it is stored in the folder named "MAIL."  Most
members use only the NEWMAIL and and MAIL folders. Some users choose to create
other folders on their own for storing mail.

It is important that you check all folders periodically and either delete
unwanted mail or capture them.  Here's how:

    Type DIR/FOLDER for a listing of mail folders.  To see
    messages in any given folder, type DIR FOLDERNAME.  You can
    then re-read messages and type DELETE after the message
    appears on your screen.  You may also delete a range of
    messages, i.e., DELETE 1-10 will delete messages number 1
    through 10.

Members who are familiar with DELPHI's Workspace or file maintenance area can
use the "EXTRACT" command to move mail messages over for downloading.  To do
this, type EXTRACT FILENAME.EXT while reading a message.  (FILENAME.EXT is any
name and extension you want to give to the file -- for example:
SPRINGSTEEN.LYRICS.) You can also type EXTRACT/ALL FILENAME.EXT to gather all
the messages in a folder at once and move them over to workspace.  This makes
downloading a lot of messages faster and easier.  After you type EXTRACT/ALL you
could also type DEL/ALL to delete all of the messages from Mail.

Once messages are in Workspace, they can be downloaded using Xmodem, Ymodem,
Zmodem, or any of several other error correcting protocols. You do this by
simply typing DOWN at the workspace prompt.

After you've successfully downloaded all of the files (messages, programs, or
other information you've received by mail), you should immediately delete them.
Type CAT or CATALOG at the Workspace prompt for a listing of your files.  If you
have several versions of the same file, the PURGE command will delete all but
the most recent version.  To delete a file, type DEL FILENAME.EXT (make sure you
type the ; and version number, as they appear in the filename).


   9  WHAT IS A LISTSERV? HOW DO I SUBSCRIBE?

WHAT IS A LISTSERV? A listserv is a discussion group where people exchange
messages on a topic of common interest. There are many hundreds of different
listservs. You can subscribe to a listserv from DELPHI by sending Internet email
to the listserv at its Internet address with the text SUBSCRIBE Name_of_Listserv
YourFirstName YourLastName.

For example if your name is John Smith and you want to subscribe to the
fictitious listserv WOTZIT-L at bigu.edu, you would send to
INTERNET"[e-mail]" with the text:

     SUB WOTZIT-L John Smith

Notice that you do NOT send the message to INTERNET"[e-mail]" If
you do that, your subscription request will go to every subscriber
instead of the computer (or person) that processes subscriptions.

When you subscribe, you will receive return mail acknowledging your
subscription and in most cases telling you exactly how to sign off the listserv
if you don't want to receive it any more. KEEP THIS MESSAGE!

CAUTION: Some of the listservs produce hundreds of message a week. This can fill
up your mailbox and cause extra service charges. Message should be promptly
deleted. If you want to keep them, keep them offline. Check your workspace
regularly, and keep its total size under 50 blocks to prevent extra charges.
See the question on avoiding workspace charges.


  10  HOW DO I READ NEWSGROUPS


 Usenet news groups are at present accessible only through
 telnet to another site. See the Auto Usenet menu for several
 choices of Usenet newsgroup sites. All except UNC require
 registration by mail before you can get full use of them.




  11  HOW DO I USE ARCHIE?

ARCHIE is a powerful utility to search for specific software across the
Internet. To use it, select Utilities, then select archie and login as archie.
Filenames can be case sensitive. If a filename includes capital letters, enclose
it in quotes. Type help after logging into archie to get a description of the
searching options. Or you can conduct a straightforward search by typing PROG
NAME to search for NAME. There is a more detailed file on using archie in the
Resources Database. Note that archie searches for both filenames and directory
names. Often, a directory name will be more revealing than a filename will be.
It can often aid in finding files for a particular type of computer.



  12  WHAT IS A GOPHER? HOW DO I USE IT?

GOPHER allows you to browse for resources all over the world from a menu system.
DELPHI just added its own gopher system. To access it, type GOPHER (or just
the first few letters) from the Internet SIG> prompt. Follow the menus to areas
that interest you. The menus can lead you to places many layers deep in the
menu structure. A selection may lead you to another menu, a text file to read,
or a database to search. Eventually, we expect to add on the abilities to get
files and bring them to your workspace as ftp does and to be able to login to
non-gopher sites as telnet can do. Prompts at the bottom of the screen give
you several choices at each level.

One of the nicest features is the SAVE feature. If you discover a site that
you want to visit again, type SAVE and it will be added to your custom
Personal Favorites menu. This menu is kept in your workspace under the name
GOPHER.SAV. If you later want to take the item off your Personal menu, you
can edit the file. Be careful, since the file includes some embedded non-ASCII
characters. It is best to delete the whole line in the line editor or by using
F4 in the full-screen editor.

If you want to know what route you followed to get to a menu item, type ROUTE.
If you want to know what address you are currently at in the menu, type INFO.
Type HELP to see all the options available.

Other gophers are also available from the Utilities menu. In some cases, if
you start with the U of Minnesota gopher or the Infoslug gopher, you will be
able to do a few things that the DELPHI gopher cannot presently do, such as
transfer files or telnet to a non-gopher site. The commands that appear
onscreen look somewhat different if you enter gopherspace this way, but the
same functions are present. You cannot use the SAVE function, however. Note
that you can move from page to page using the > and < characters in this
gopher mode, whereas in the DELPHI gopher, you use MORE and PREV.


  13  I'M HAVING TROUBLE WITH MENUS AND DISPLAYS. WHAT DO I DO?

When you telnet to a remote site, 3 or 4 different computer systems are
involved, all of which have to be synchronized with each other. The systems
involved are: your own computer, your access to DELPHI (Sprintnet or Tymnet or
DATAPAC or telnet or direct dial), DELPHI itself, and the remote site (which may
also involve several different systems). Sometimes we find problems getting them
all to speak the same language and use the same protocols. Here are some tips to
try to get them all on the same sheet of music:

  1. Make sure your computer, DELPHI, and the remote site all are using VT102
(or VT100, which is essentially the same thing). Most terminal emulation
software, such as Procomm Plus or Crosstalk will let you select VT102. To set
DELPHI to VT100, exit HELP and type /TERM_TYPE=VT100. Then type /SAVE. Once
made, this change is permanent.

  2. If you are accessing through Sprintnet or Tymnet, you will have to type
 /ECHO HOST within DELPHI before you use telnet. You will need to do this each
time you log on before you use telnet. You can cancel the command by typing
/ECHO.

  3. You may have problems if your emulation software is set to send carriage
return/line feed at the end of every line. Just select carriage-return if you
can.

  4. A few sites require a special setting to prevent extra linefeeds which may
make it impossible to login or to use menus properly. The NASA Spacelink is one
of these. If you are encountering problems with extra linefeeds while telneting,
use the companion command TELNET_NOCRLF instead of TELNET. If you use the Auto
Telnet menus to access NASA Spacelink, the setting is done automatically for
you.


  14  WHAT IS WAIS? HOW DO I USE IT TO SEARCH FOR THINGS?

WAIS or Wide Area Information System lets you search for information by keyword
in sources that you select from a list of over 350 sources. A bit clunky, but
very powerful. Select WAIS from the Utilities menu, and login as "wais".
Use [e-mail] as the password. Select source(s) by moving
the highlighted bar or typing the number of the source and pressing spacebar
to select. Type w to enter keywords. You can also find a source by typing a
slash (/) and following it with the first few letters of the name of the
source. For example, to move directly to the List of lists, you can
type /lis.


  15  WHAT IS WWW? HOW DO I USE IT?

WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW) is a hypertext searching utility that can take you all over
the world. Select WWW from the Utilities menu and explore.

  16. WHAT IS IRC? HOW DO I USE IT?

IRC or Internet Relay Chat is an Internet protocol that lets users all
over the world "talk" to each other by keyboard one-to-one or in groups.
It is very similar in some ways to DELPHI's conferencing system. Commands
are entered with slashes, like DELPHI's system. You can type /list to see
all the various chats in session. A short help file is displayed when
you log in from the Auto-IRC menu and a longer help file is in the Tools
& Utilities Database. You can also type /help when you are on line, but
it takes a minute or two to scroll through the whole help list. Note that
for IRC, as for many telnet sites and utilities, you should be using
VT100 emulation, you should be using /ECHO HOST before connecting in many
cases, and you should have your screen length set to 24 rows.

  17. I DON'T SEE MY QUESTION HERE. HOW DO I GET IT ANSWERED?

Probably the best way to get a quick answer to a question is to post
your question in the Internet Forum. There are many helpful people on
DELPHI, and you will usually get an answer within minutes or hours. You
can also send email to the sysops (WALTHOWE, JIMMONTY, or VIDGAMES), but
then you have to wait for them to login and read their mail. You can also
send a question to one of them, if you see that they are online. If, for
example, you type /who and see that WALTHOWE is online, you can /SEND
WALTHOWE your question or you can page him from the conference area.
If he is free to answer your question, you will get a reply. Be patient,
since it sometimes takes a minute to break free and answer your question.
If you don't get a response in a minute or so, the person you sent to or
paged was probably too tied up to answer right away.